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My father had his own way of imparting wisdom. He handed down stylish phrases when I least expected it. They burst forth suddenly and always came as a surprise.
One hot July Saturday morning, when I was a little girl, my dad asked me to join him for lunch. This particular day, it was just the two of us. My mother, also invited, declined the offer for nobler pursuits: a manicure and wash and set at the beauty parlor, where her standing appointment would never be sacrificed for anything as mundane as lunch.
"It looks like it's just you and me, Missy," Dad said with a twinkle in his eye, followed by one of his pat remarks. "So, let's go and raise some hell."
The restaurant was bustling with people, providing enough background noise to add an air of merriment to our meal. My dad and I parked ourselves in a booth and were handed menus so large they reached over the top of my head and offered a dizzying array of choices.
Over grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries for me and a fat hamburger, charcoal-burned and blood-red for him, my father revealed a most alluring confession: "You see that woman over there?" he pointed to a table a few feet away. I surreptitiously snuck a look. "That's Marion, the gal who had a crush on me all through high school and into my law school years."
With that came a wink of an eye to Marion, whom I could hear giggling all the way across the room. I, the budding adolescent, sat on the edge of my seat as he regaled me with this top-secret piece of news.
"But," my father said, moving his head so close it was practically touching mine, "she couldn't hold a candle to your mother."
And so began our luncheon rituals, where we broke rules, recounted anecdotes and shared secrets. Months later, I perused the menu at a different restaurant, this time in Manhattan, twenty minutes from our home. On this particular Saturday, I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat. My father, realizing my dilemma, summoned the waitress. "Bring us the dessert menu," he said.
Obligingly, she returned with a small, leather-bound book, edged in gold leaf with a list of desserts that had my mouth watering. Profiteroles, chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and chocolate soufflé were mine for the asking. I felt as though I had entered chocolate heaven.
"But, Daddy, we haven't even had lunch."
"Even better," he winked, that same Marion wink. "When in doubt, eat dessert first!"
"What will Mommy say?"
"It will be our little secret," he said.
And there we sat on that chilly autumn afternoon in a cozy French restaurant. He, dipping a long silver spoon into a parfait, and I, gorging on layers of chocolate cake oozing raspberry and covered in a white chocolate sauce. I remember wondering if life could get any better than that.
There were to be many more lunches and dinners in our future. I accumulated a wealth of knowledge from our talks, and I was privy to personal insights and private thoughts he loved sharing with only me, mainly because my reactions were always so spontaneous and sincere. I was genuinely interested in everything he had to say, which made me, his audience of one, a perfect dinner companion. Sometimes Mother asked half-teasingly, "Whatever do you two have to talk about?"
My dad also had a reflective side that felt protective and nurturing. He took me seriously, too, by paying credence to my individuality and giving me room for self-expression. As a lawyer, he was accustomed to problem solving. Our meals provided a venue into which I could retreat and unload my worst trepidations or, conversely, share my happiest moments. Without judging, he gently guided me through childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, and served as my one-man support system and guardian of my soul.
Even after I was married and living in Manhattan, Dad and I had a standing weekly dinner date that I came to rely on and treasure. He never once canceled out, despite his busy schedule, teaching me to honor commitment and value the importance of keeping appointments. The only Tuesday we didn't meet at a restaurant was when I delivered my daughter. That night, Mom, Dad, my husband and I dined together in my hospital room. My father brought the champagne that he had been saving for this occasion.
"Even my new granddaughter can't get in the way of our Tuesdays." And there was that wink as we clicked glasses and toasted the birth of Elizabeth.
My father was in his sixties when it abruptly ended. His death brought with it a sense of longing I have never yet been able to relinquish--longing for something that would never be the same again.
Dad died too young and had a lot more tasting left to do, but I revel in the fact that we savored much of life together. We went on for years enjoying each other's company. After his parting, despite my sadness, I was energized, knowing how lucky I was to have shared the Tuesdays of my life with him and the great life lessons he passed on to me.
I now take my two grandchildren, Andrew and Caroline, out to dinner weekly. They can choose any restaurant they want, as I was privileged to do so many years before them. Recently Andrew sighed, perusing a menu too big for a seven-year-old's eyes. "I don't know what I want to eat."
Caroline chimed in, "I can't make up my mind, either, Grandma."
My father's voice came echoing back. "Then, I guess we'll have to eat dessert first!" I told them.
And they, sitting back in wide-eyed disbelief, broke out in smiles, and "eating dessert first" was exactly what we did!!
By Judith Marks-White
As humans we have a tendency to blame our luck for our failures and inabilities. I was also no different until I stumbled upon this article. So I take great pleasure in sharing this much required knowledge on why some people always make it through while others keep struggling to catch a break all their life. I hope it instils in us the much needed positivity that we all need to have within us.
Why Some People are Lucky & Others Aren’t??
Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve?
Ten years ago, I set out to examine luck. I wanted to know why some people are always in the right place at the right time, while others consistently experience ill fortune. I placed advertisements in national newspapers asking for people who felt consistently lucky or unlucky to contact me.
Hundreds of extraordinary men and women volunteered for my research and over the years, I have interviewed them, monitored their lives and had them take part in experiments.
The results reveal that although these people have almost no insight into the causes of their luck, their thoughts and behaviour are responsible for much of their good and bad fortune. Take the case of seemingly chance opportunities. Lucky people consistently encounter such opportunities, whereas unlucky people do not.
I carried out a simple experiment to discover whether this was due to differences in their ability to spot such opportunities. I gave both lucky and unlucky people a newspaper, and asked them to look through it and tell me how many photographs were inside. I had secretly placed a large message halfway through the newspaper saying: 'Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win $50.'
This message took up half of the page and was written in type that was more than two inches high. It was staring everyone straight in the face, but the unlucky people tended to miss it and the lucky people tended to spot it.
Unlucky people are generally tenser than lucky people, and this anxiety disrupts their ability to notice the unexpected.
As a result, they miss opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties' intent on finding their perfect partner and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through newspapers determined to find certain types of job advertisements and miss other types of jobs. The lucky ones make the best of what they have and find ways to make it better. Unlucky ones tend to find an easy way out and fail in life.
Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there rather than just what they are looking for.
My research eventually revealed that lucky people generate good fortune via four principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. Towards the end of the work, I wondered whether these principles could be used to create good luck. I asked a group of volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. Dramatic results! These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck. One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80% of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier. The lucky people had become even luckier and the unlucky had become lucky. Finally, I had found the elusive ‘luck factor’. Here are Professor Wiseman’s four top tips for becoming lucky: 1) Listen to your gut instincts - they are normally right 2) Be open to new experiences and find ways to make things work better. Family and loved ones for a start. 3) Spend a few moments each day remembering things that went well 4) Visualize yourself being lucky before an important meeting or telephone call. Have a Lucky day and work for it. The happiest people in the world are not those who have no problems, but those who learn to live with things that are less than perfect.
Study by Professor Richard Wiseman, University of Hertfordshire.
(Article courtesy: Website: http://spiritualarts.bravehost.com
Blog: http://spiritual-arts.blogspot.com/)
Good DaY People!!
Be Blessed!!
Warm Regards,
Aarti!!!
LEADERS!!!
Are
BY the People, OF the People, FOR the people,
Its time now to - SHOW the people!!!
Quit these mindless elections,
And for a year campaign for UNANIMOUS actions...
Show the world your competence,
Use your funds to secure Indian Citizens...
For just this ONCE, Feel for YOUR Country;
As if, it was your PARTY!!!
No, I can’t erase the wrong I’ve done but I hope you can give me another chance. Because if you were me, you would want the same and I’d give that chance to you.
Good-byes make you think. They make you realize what you’ve had, what you’ve lost and what you’ve taken for granted.
I learned to laugh, I learned to cry, but will I ever learn to say goodbye? Maybe some people just aren’t meant to be in our lives forever. Maybe some people are just passing through. It’s like some people just come through our lives to bring us something: a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn, and that’s why they’re here... you’ll have that gift forever. –
In your life you meet people. Some you never think about again. Some you wonder what happened to them. There are some that you wonder if they ever think about you. And then there are some you wish you never had to think about again; but you do.
The one you love is the one you cannot have. All you want is to be with them....you said as you ripped my heart out slowly with each tear I cried when I heard you say it.
Fog flows through my brain
I can't move, think, or feel
I'm lost without you
I won't ever find my way
without you.
I think I feel
Then I fall
I run and run
And never move
I think I've won
only to find
I've lost the only thing
to ever really matter
&& I just wish we could go back to the beginning from where it all started, back when we were together far from broken
"I had a dream and it was about you ...
I smiled and recalled the memories we had ...
then I noticed a tear fell from my eyes ... you know why?
Coz in my dream you kissed me and said goodbye ..."
“I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.”
It's hard to go on loving when the one you love can never be yours. No
matter how hard you try, and how much you do, you just have to accept that the
person you love is not meant for you. . . .
Good DaY People!!
Be Blessed!!
Warm Regards,
Aarti!!!
This poem is very close to my heart.. I dedicate this to my Lord above and my Late Grandfather who is sitting right beside my Lord.. My Papaji (grandfather) was, is and will always remain the inspiration behind all that I have ever written.. Even when I was little, some of the poems I wrote were ridiculously outrageous, yet he heard each one as religiously.. Everyone teased me and poke fun at me all the time and when couldn’t handle it I just gave up the idea.. Papaji came and asked me whether I was angry or upset at him since I would write something everyday and it had been two weeks now. When I told him the reason he got very upset and he told me that poetry, music, singing etc is not everyone’s cup of tea because it is gifted by God and by giving up I was throwing it back in his face instead of trying harder..
Oops!!!! I just kept rambling on there without realizing.. Anyway my Granddad is also an epitome of godliness and now that he too is an IMMORTAL being I am referring to both of them in the poem.. I hope you all like it.. Please do feel free to comment I would love to hear what you’ll have to say good or bad..
I’ve Seen
For all the times that; I let myself be led by desire,
I've only seen my heart on fire.
I’ve seen hearts that hate & Souls that only want to conquer.
For each time that; I’ve dared to love all over again,
I only found hurt, I’ve only seen pain.
In each I’ve seen days so lonely;
I thought would never end.
I've seen myself shatter in pieces so small;
I felt I would never mend.
For each minute that: I waited for loved ones to return,
I’ve seen every minute pass like a million hours,
With unknown faces glaring back through the dark.
I’ve seen stares so cold, it chilled my h heart.
But throughout all these times, moments and days,
I’ve never seen GOD run away from me;
I’ve never seen his LOVE drift away from me.
I've never seen him lift his Hand from off my head,
I never felt my nerves go numb nor my hopes dead.
I've seen His-
Halo, Shining his UNDYING light
Through my darkest ways
I've seen dreams come true,
I've seen the miracles Faith can do.
I've seen his grace and I’ve felt his embrace.
I've seen my Tears in his eyes;
& HIS SMILE on my FACE
Good People!!!
Be Blessed!!!
Warm Regards,
Aarti Kapoor!!!
Hello People!!!
How are we today?? Today the story I will be sharing with you'll is from "Chicken Soup for the Soul".. It centers on the undying love a father feels for a child and vice-versa. Even though not related by blood, the instinct to be a good father is inborn..I particularly feel like I am emotional attached to this write-up, and could relate to it on a more personal level than aesthetic.. Since my dad and I share the most awesome relationship.. He is my best friend.. I hope you guys enjoy reading it as well..
A Fathers Love; Christian Teen Talk
His name was Brian, and he was a student at the small high school I attended. Brian was a special education student who was constantly searching for attention, but usually got it for the wrong reasons. Students who wanted to have some “fun” would ask, “Brian, are you the Incredible Hulk?” He would then run down the halls roaring and flexing. He was the joke of the school and was “entertainment” for those who watched. Brian, who was looking for acceptance, didn’t realize they were laughing at him and not with him.
One day I couldn’t take it anymore. I told the other students I had had enough of their game and to knock it off. “Aw, come on, Mike! We’re just having fun. Who do you think you are, anyway?” The teasing didn’t stop for long, but Brian latched onto me that day. I had stuck up for him, and now he was my buddy. Thoughts of, “What will people think of you if you are friends with Brian?” swirled in my head, but I forced them out as I realized God wanted me to treat Brian as I would want to be treated.
Later that week, I invited Brian over to my house to play video games. We sat there playing video games and drinking Tang. Pretty soon, he started asking me questions like,“Hey, Mike. Where do you go to church?” I politely answered his questions, then turned my concentration back to the video games. He kept asking me questions about God, and why I was different from some of the kids at school. Finally, my girlfriend, Kristi, pulled me aside and said, “Michael, he needs to talk. How about you go down to your room where you can talk privately?” My perceptive girlfriend had picked up on the cues better than I had.
As soon as we got to my room, Brian asked again, “Hey, Mike. How come you’re not like some of the other kids at school?” I wanted to tell him about the difference God had made in my life. I got out my Bible and shared John 3:16 and some verses in Romans with him. I explained that God loved him just the way he was, and that He had sent Jesus down to Earth to die on a cross, rise from the dead and make it possible for everyone, especially Brian, to spend eternity in heaven if they believed. I didn’t know if he comprehended what I was telling him, but when I finished explaining, I asked him if he wanted to pray with me. He said he would like that.
We prayed together: “God, I know I’m a sinner, and that even if I were the only person on Earth, You still would have sent Your Son down to die on the cross for me and take my place. I accept the gift of salvation that you offer, and I ask that you come into my heart and take control. Thank you, Lord. Amen.”
I looked at Brian and said, “Brian, if you meant those words you just prayed, where is Jesus right now?”
He pointed to his heart and said, “He’s in here now.”
Then he did something I will never forget as long as I live. Brian hugged the Bible to his chest, lay down on the bed and let the tears flow down the side of his cheeks. When I cry, my sobbing is very loud, but Brian’s was unearthly silent as the emotions he’d held inside let loose. Finally, he said, “Mike, do you know that the love God has for me must be like the love a husband has for his wife?”
I was floored.
Here was someone who had trouble comprehending things in school, but had now understood one of eternity’s great truths. He lay there for another five minutes or so as the tears continued to flow.
I still remember the incredible feeling I had at that moment: a high higher than anything a substance could ever give, the high of knowing that God works miracles in everyday life. John 10:10 immediately came to mind: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
About a week later, everything came into perspective for me. Brian really opened up to me. He explained that his dad had left him and his mom when he was five years old. As Brian stood on the porch that day, his dad told him he was leaving because he couldn’t deal with having a son like him anymore. Then he walked out of Brian’s life and was never seen again. Brian told me he had been looking for his dad ever since. Now I knew why the tears kept flowing that day in my bedroom. His search was over. He found what he had been looking for since he was five years old: a Father’s love.
(Story taken from: http://www.beliefnet.com)
Good People!!!
Be Blessed!!!
Warm Regards,
Aarti Kapoor!!!
Hello People, Here is another one of my favourites. It brings back fond memories of the carefree days when skinned knees and bruised elbows and undone hair didn’t matter. Looking good, zits and pimples, putting on weight, etc came as a part of nature. Whenever I feel down or I feel like I am getting older (ahem, ahem) this beautiful poem which has been penned by “Ms KAY”, brings to life once again, the little child in me. I hope it rekindles your fire too…
Where is The "Good" in"Good-Bye"
As I sit here in class,
I observe my friends
And look forward to the year
Coming to an end.
It's gonna be sad
To say good- bye.
I'll miss everyone.
I know I will cry.
I remember the day
When I came back
To be with my friends
And get on the right track.
We had so many moments;
Some bad, most great.
I'll always remember the love
And erase the hate.
I don't wanna say good- bye
To all my friends.
I don't want this year
To come to an end.
Good Day People!!
Be Blessed !!!
Warm Regards,
Aarti Kapoor!!
Hello People!!!
This poem that I am just about to post is indeed very dear to me. It forever changed not only the way I handled my relationships but it also taught me how important it is to make near and dear ones feel loved and cared for. I realized what I had taken for granted and how ignorant I was that I ran after something that never mattered while what mattered was actually running behind me all the while...This is one of the most beautiful poems i have ever read... And I am ever so grateful to the author who unknowingly helped me compose my dull, dreary life into this beautiful "SYMPHONY" that it is now!!!!
If Tomorrow Never Comes!!!
If I knew it would be the last time I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly and pray the lord your soul to keep.
If I knew it would be the last time I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and a kiss and call you back for one more.
If I knew it would be the last time I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word, so I could play them back day by day.
If I knew it would be the last time, I could spare a minute or two,
To stop and say, "I love you." instead of assuming you would know I do.
If I knew it would be the last time I would be there to share your day,
Well I'm sure you'll have so many more, so I can let just this one slip away.
For surely there's always tomorrow to make up for an oversight.
And we always get a second chance to make everything right.
There will always be another day, to say our "I love you's."
And certainly there's another chance to say our "Anything I can do's?"
but just in case I might be wrong and today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you and I hope we never forget.
Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old alike.
And today may be the last chance you get to hold your loved one tight.
So if you are waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes, you will surely regret the day.
That you didn't take that extra time for a smile, a hug, or a kiss.
And you were too busy to grant someone what turned out to be their one last wish.
So, hold your loved one close today; whisper in their ear.
Tell them how much you love them and that you will always hold them dear.
Take time to say "I'm sorry," "please forgive me," "thank you," or "it's ok."
And if tomorrow never comes, you will have no regrets about today.
(By- Norma Burnette)
Good Day People!!
Be Blessed!!!
Warm Regards,
Aarti Kapoor!!!
Ever since I was at a conscious age I have believed in the paranormal and the supernatural. Today though I am 24, there are times when I still get scared to be alone in my room at night. During my early childhood years until I was in my 10th grade I was even sacred to go to the washroom alone. I made my mother stand out and till the time I was in she had to keep speaking with me. In this post I will be talking about the reality behind Life after Death, Near Death Experiences (NDE), Out of Body Experiences (OBE) and even Pre-birth experiences. This however, is my personal opinion and by no means an imposition on anyone reading this article.
PARANORMAL PHENOMENA- What Lies Beyond
A Glimpse of the Afterlife
The notion that there is a life after this one on Earth is a widely held belief that predates recorded history. While cultures like that of the ancient Egyptians believed existence continued in "the Land of the Dead," the more modern Christian beliefs offer an afterlife in Heaven as a reward or in Hell as a punishment. Even more recent ideas suggest that life might continue in another dimension or plane of existence - perhaps even on another planet.
Whatever the ideas, it's clear that humans want to believe - perhaps even need to believe in life after death. There is no definitive proof, of course, that a life after death exists. But there are some rather compelling anecdotes that suggest there might be: remarkable cases of claimed reincarnation or past-life recall, for instance. There are also countless cases in which the recently deceased have appeared briefly to family members and friends to tell them that they are well and happy in another world.
Perhaps the most intriguing "evidence" is the stories related by people who have gone through the "near-death experience." It's estimated that 9 to 18 percent of people who are near death have a near-death experience. Although mainstream science suggests that these experiences are nothing more than the result of certain brain activity under extreme stress or hallucinations brought on by drugs or medication, perhaps these accounts shouldn't be so readily dismissed. If they are real, after all, they hold the only clues we have as to what life in the hereafter might be like.
A few cases of near-death experience (NDE), here is a glimpse of life after death:
The Tunnel and the Light
[A Near Death Experience in 1964 - Anonymous] - "In front of me I saw a small light in the vast distance. The light started to get larger. It became more brilliant and it stopped in front of me. I felt an intense love, which came from the Light. I know without a doubt that this beautiful intense loving Light was God. The Light started to communicate with me; but the communication was telepathic, it was not verbal. The Light asked me if I wanted to come with it. At this point I completely understood the nature of the question and the consequences of my answer. If I choose to continue with the Light I knew that I would die and never return to earth. I thought about this and replied that I thought that I still had important things to do back there (on earth). At that point the Light began to recede. I found myself waking up on the bed of my dorm room."
[Tom Sawyer: What I Learned by Dying]- "I saw nothing but absolute, total blackness. In this capacity, though, I was looking at absolute nothingness or darkness, but my eyes were not straining. I had the desire to look around inquisitively. What is this place? Where am I? Instantaneously, this darkness took the shape of a tunnel. It was perfectly level; however slightly ambiguous in that it was straight before me and it was cloud-like. It was very vast, as opposed to small and confining, and was anywhere from a thousand feet to a thousand miles wide. I was very comfortable and inquisitive. It was cylindrical. If you took a tornado and stretched it out straight, it would be similar to that..."
[Near-Death Experiences - Rob]- "All was panic. The water was very cold. My heavy winter clothes were making it difficult to stay afloat. I continued to struggle mightily, thinking "I'm only nine. That's too young to die." The longer I was under the ice, the less significant time became. It was as if time had no meaning. Everything happened sequentially but simultaneously. I became very tired. I noticed that I could no longer feel the cold. My hearing was heightened. I could hear the movement of the water. I could hear the traffic on the bridge overhead and behind me. I could see clearly, even though it was dark and I was under the ice and moving downstream. Then, a complete calm and serenity overtook me. I was at total peace. I began to come into awareness that all was not over. I could sense a light. It was brilliant, but caused no discomfort when looking at it. In fact, I gained strength by looking into the light. I then sensed a presence. I had the knowledge that this was Jesus, and he was assuring me that everything was fine. I felt total love from this presence. I was home. More so than I was ever home before. I was presented with a sense that all questions were to be answered if I stayed."
(‘Above mentioned research conclusions by Kevin Williams’)
The NDE and Pre-Birth Connection –
It is not unusual for people in near-death experiences (NDE) returning from the clinical death, to report having received information concerning their pre-existence before they were conceived in the world. Some report of learning how they chose various aspects of their lives even before they were born. Some of the choices people have reported having chosen before birth include the selection of their birth parents, choosing their mission in life, and even choosing how they will die. This knowledge regarding near-death experiences of the past and future shows how some things in life are pre-destined while other things are not. This information is based on the first hand accounts revealed by people who have had a brush with NDEs. It shows how free will and pre-destination both exist and work hand in hand. It means we choose our destiny in life before our birth into the world to live it.
Since reincarnation is a concept found in many cultures and religions, the metaphor of life as a river which we chose before our birth, shows up in many of these cultures and religions. There are many aspects to a river which make it an excellent analogy to help us understand where we came from, where we're going, who we are, why we're here, and what life is all about.
Someone once asked Deepak Chopra, the famous endocrinologist and spiritual guru, "Does this mean that we are born into a pre-determined destiny and if so, why even bother cultivating free will or striving to be faithful?" He said:
"This connection isn't fixed or automatic, it merely represents numerical probability. Our conscious choices help determine our destiny. The deterministic world is ignorance. When we navigate from awareness, we exercise free will. It's the difference between ignorance and enlightenment. To surrender to divine intelligence, know that everything both comes from God and belongs to God. If life is a river between the banks of hope and despair, our ultimate destiny is to become independent of both, unmoved by either.”
So the future is not fixed in stone but consists of probabilities based on current choices. This answer from Deepak Chopra is another way of saying we choose our destinies.
Out of Body Experiences
The following is a true account excerpted from of Dr. George Ritchie’s book Return from tomorrow. In 1943, he died of pneumonia and nine minutes later returned to life to tell about it:
The men let go of my arms ... I heard a click and a whirr. The whirr went on and on. It was getting louder. The whirr was inside my head and my knees were made of rubber. They were bending and I was falling and all the time the whirr grew louder. I sat up with a start. What time was it? I looked at the bedside table but they'd taken the clock away. In fact, where was any of my stuff?
I jumped out of bed in alarm, looking for my clothes. My uniform wasn't on the chair. I turned around, and then froze. Someone was lying in that bed. I took a step closer. He was quite a young man, with short brown hair, lying very still. But, the thing was impossible! I myself had just gotten out of that bed! For a moment I wrestled with the mystery of it. It was too strange to think about - and anyway I didn't have the time.
I went back past the offices and stepped out into the corridor. A sergeant was coming along it carrying an instrument tray covered with a cloth. Probably he didn't know anything, but I was so glad to find someone awake that I started toward him.
"Excuse me, Sergeant," I said. "You haven't seen the ward boy for this unit, have you?"
He didn't answer. Didn't even glance at me. He just kept coming, straight at me, not slowing down.
"Look out!" I yelled, jumping out of his way.
The next minute he was past me, walking away down the corridor as if he had never seen me, though how we had kept from colliding I didn't know. And then I saw something that gave me a new idea. Farther down the corridor was one of the heavy metal doors that led to the outside. I hurried toward it. Even if I had missed that train, I'd find some way of getting to Richmond!
Almost without knowing it I found myself outside, racing swiftly along, traveling faster in fact than I'd ever moved in my life. Looking down I was astonished to see not the ground, but the tops of mesquite bushes beneath me. Already Camp Barkeley seemed to be far behind me as I sped over the dark frozen desert. My mind kept telling me that what I was doing was impossible, and yet ... it was happening. I was going to Richmond; somehow I had known that from the moment I burst through that hospital door. Going to Richmond a hundred times faster than any train on Earth could take me.
Almost immediately I noticed myself slowing down. Just below me now, where two streets came together, I caught a flickering blue glow. It came from a neon sign over the door of a red-roofed one-story building with a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer sign propped in the front window. Cafe, the jittering letters over the door read and from the windows light streamed onto the pavement. Staring down at it, I realized I had stopped moving altogether. Finding myself somehow suspended fifty feet in the air was an even stranger feeling than the whirlwind flight had been. But I had no time to puzzle over it, for down the sidewalk toward the all-night cafe a man came briskly walking. At least, I thought, I could find out from him what town this was and in what direction I was heading.
Even as the idea occurred to me - as though thought and motion had become the same thing - I found myself down on the sidewalk, hurrying along at the stranger's side. He was a civilian, maybe forty or forty-five, wearing a topcoat but no hat. He was obviously thinking hard about something because he never glanced my way as I fell into step beside him.
"Can you tell me please," I said, "What city this is?"
He kept right on walking.
"Please sir!" I said, speaking louder, "I'm a stranger here and I'd appreciate it if ..."
We reached the cafe and he turned, reaching for the door handle. Was the fellow deaf? I put out my left hand to tap his shoulder. There was nothing there.
I stood there in front of the door, gaping after him as he opened it and disappeared inside. It had been like touching thin air. Like no one had been there at all. And yet I had distinctly seen him, even to the beginnings of black stubble on his chin where he needed a shave.
I backed away from the mystery of the substance-less man and leaned up against the guy wire of a telephone pole to think things through. My body went through that guy wire as though it too had not been there.
There on the sidewalk of that unknown city, I did some incredulous thinking. The strangest, most difficult thinking I had ever done. The man in the cafe, this telephone pole ... supposes they were perfectly normal. Suppose I was the one who was - changed, somehow. What if in some impossible, unimaginable way, I lost my ... hardness. My ability to grasp things, to make contact with the world. Even to be seen! The fellow just now. It was obvious he never saw or heard me.
And suddenly I remembered the young man I had seen in the bed in that little hospital room. What if that had been ... me? Or anyhow, the material, concrete part of myself that in some unexplainable way I'd gotten separated from. What if the form which I had left lying in the hospital room in Texas was my own?
And if it were, how could I get back to it again? Why had I ever rushed off so unthinkingly?
I was moving again, speeding away from the city. Below me was the broad river. I appeared to be going back, back in the direction I had come from, and it seemed to me I was flashing across space even faster than before. Hills, lakes, farms slipped away beneath me as I sped in an unswerving straight line over the dark nighttime land. I was standing in front of the base hospital, and so began one of the strangest searches that can ever have taken place: the search for myself. From one ward to another of that enormous complex I rushed, pausing in each small room, stooping over the occupant of the bed, hurrying on. I backed toward the doorway. The man in that bed was dead! I felt the same reluctance I had the previous time at being in a room with a dead person. But ... if that was my ring, then - then it was me, the separated part of me, lying under that sheet. Did that mean that I was ...
It was the first time in this entire experience that the word death occurred to me in connection with what was happening. But I wasn't dead! How could I be dead and still be awake? Thinking. Experiencing. Death was different. Death was ... I didn't know. Blanking out. Nothingness. I was me, wide awake, only without a physical body to function in. Frantically I clawed at the sheet, trying to draw it back, trying to uncover the figure on the bed. All my efforts did not even stir a breeze in the silent little room.
Suddenly I was aware that it was brighter, a lot brighter, than it had been. I stared in astonishment as the brightness increased, coming from nowhere, seeming to shine everywhere at once. All the light bulbs in the ward couldn't give off that much light. All the bulbs in the world couldn't! It was impossibly bright. It was like a million welders' lamps all blazing at once.
"I'm glad I don't have physical eyes at this moment," I thought. "This light would destroy the retina in a tenth of a second."
"No, I corrected myself, not the light. He. He would be too bright to look at."
For now I saw that it was not light but a man who had entered the room, or rather, a man made out of light, though this seemed no more possible to my mind than the incredible intensity of the brightness that made up his form.
Kevin Williams: Without a doubt, the most important lesson NDEs teach us is the supreme importance of unconditional love. Love is where we all came from and love is where we will all eventually return. Love is what life is really all about. Learning and growing in unconditional love is why we are all here on this blue marble called Earth. Life itself is God. Love itself is God. Everyone and everything is a part of God.
All things are held together by the power of love. Love is the way to eternal bliss and the way to overcome the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. There is no greater force in the universe than unconditional love because it is universal and divine. The more love we cultivate within ourselves and the more love we give to others and the more we evolve towards embodying unconditional love, then the closer we come to our goal - liberation from death. True love can never die. Love and knowledge are the only things we can really take with us when we die. Death doesn't change much of anything.
I like how one particular experiencer, Chuck Griswold, put it. “He said death is merely a body problem. This is so true. We are also continually born into this world and subjected to death until we have evolved and embodied unconditional love as Buddha and Jesus did. We don't go to heaven. We grow to heaven to become permanent citizens of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is within us. When it becomes fully manifested within ourselves and the world through unconditional love, then we are no longer the prodigal children away from God. To manifest our higher spirit of love within us into conscious reality is the way we return to our origins - to the Source of All Things. Then wherever we find ourselves, heaven will always be manifested within us and we will always be in heaven - never to die again. This is the evolutionary goal of humanity”.
(Article courtesy - http://www.near-death.com/
http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa082800a.htm)
Good Day People!!!!
God Bless!!
Love and Regards,
Aarti Kapoor!!!!
This something I wrote recently. My diary has been misplaced actually since I have come back to Bombay. So out of my old stuff what ever I will keep coming across I'll keep updating it here. Simultaneously, I will be adding whatever new excerpts I write. This write-up is basically the struggle of a broken heart trying to deny still being in love with the person who has broken it. It is a blend of confused emotions, broken promises and a longing to find love again.
I'll Never Know
I often sit and wonder how real is love and the conclusion is always? Err? It’s funny how we all talk about love and yet don’t know for sure how true it is. In some cases love is the basis of everything in life, those I guess are the? “Lucky few”. For love I say has never been true to me. Is it my bad luck or maybe I am just not lovable enough?
Time and again I ask myself, will I ever find love or worse still will love ever find me? Has my heart surpassed the need for love; after all the pain it caused, for all the nights that I cried myself to sleep or for all the times that it hurt so bad within I thought I’d never survive? Can that be a possibility? My mind repeatedly brings back those past memories of ache and upset. Frequently forcing me to ask myself- was it just that I was with the wrong person or did it just seem so real because it never actually was?
I guess I'll never know the answers to these questions but I always mange to come above them. I manage to smile and feel good about myself and about love, however ironic that may sound. Because in my heart I will always know that through all the tears, even if just for a moment, the both of us --- had it all..................
Good Day People!!!!
Be Blessed!!
Warm Regards,
Aarti!!
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