I Salute You My Flag

I Salute You My Flag
Oh precious dear Old Glory,
my beloved tri-colour flag of

orange, @ the top

white in the middle

with a blue wheel of 24 spokes

and

green, in the bottom,

I salute you in words and sentiments sincerely, deep and true.
You exude a special grandeur,
that fills my heart with deep patriotic pride,
Because you are the banner of our beloved nation,
where liberty, freedom and justice for all regally resides.
You are the symbol of honor, respect and dignity,
flying high over a golden land, where all dwell freely.
You are the ensign of our native land,

so brave and bold enthralling history with several heroic stories

and

sacrifices triumphantly told.
For throughout times of war and physical blight,
You have stood tall and proud,
a pleasure gem and gift of God's hallowed,

precious light.

No matter, how many times I salute thee,

I still feel it's not enough

I bow to thee

With all the humility I can summon,

To me there is nothing more greater sight than thee

Oh precious dear Old Glory,
my beloved tri-colour flag

To me you are just about everything..

PEA and YOU

You must be wondering what's this PEA and YOU. Just read on.

PERFECTION
Imagine a perfect world. Imagine all your dreams coming true. Imagine everyone doing just what you want them to do. Imagine a perfect world.
Well, it won't happen. Perfection is not possible, if for no other reason that whatever people have, we want more.
So if our perfect world is not possible, what should we do?
Start working on it. Yes, aim for that impossible perfect world. The goal is not perfection...it's how close to perfection you can get.

ENTHUSIASM
A fire always burns brightest when it starts. Enthusiasm always is strongest at the beginning - when the job is new, when the relationship is young, when your boxes are still unpacked.
Any fire can restart - just throw fresh wood on it. Any job can be new, any relationship young, any house revived - just throw something fresh and new into it.
No job or relationship is too old to be new. Fire up your enthusiasm today!

ATTITUDE
Without the right attitude, you will fail. With the wrong attitude, life will suck. With the wrong attitude, you will always look to an outside source for the answers to success. With the right attitude, you will know and understand the fact that success doesn't lie within an opinion (except your own opinion). It doesn't lie within a governing body (except your own body and the way you govern it). It doesn't lie in anything or anyone (except you and how you handle your life).
YOU
Be close to you. The most important relationship you have is with yourself. You alone share identical values, aspirations, fears and questions with yourself. In this hectic world, many of us just don't take the time to explore ourselves to understand how our values, aspirations, fears and questions are evolving.
How can you understand someone else - your spouse, your boss, your children - if you don't understand yourself? Schedule some time every day to explore how you feel about the things you have been experience, so that you can be close to you.

Let me elaborate a little more on attitude.
It has been my experience that attitude takes on one of four phases at any particular time in our life - EXCITEMENT, FRUSTRATION, SEARCHING/FINDING SOMETHING NEW , RECOMMITMENT
Keep in mind you can take these different phases and apply them to any area of your life. It can be your marriage; your career; your finances; your self esteem; your entire outlook on life.

Check these out and find out where you are right now.

PHASE 1 : EXCITEMENT
This phase will take you higher and farther than you could possibly dream. If you can maintain the level of excitement that abolishes fear and zones in the focus necessary to win, winning is all you'll know - even through the tough times. Excitement is usually sparked in the beginning of an endeavor, mission or commission. Don't lose the fever of excitement.

PHASE 2 : FRUSTRATION
It's easy to get frustrated from the excitement mountain. Know this. Just as you are about to conquer the world (or feel like you are), you will be confronted by an obstacle. That obstacle may or may not set you back. And if the first one doesn't, you can count on another obstacle to try. These obstacles can be looked at as progress or they will be used to cause frustration. Just so you know, most people allow themselves to become frustrated. Don't be like most people.

PHASE 3 : SEARCHING/FINDING SOMETHING NEW
This is a place of new beginnings - or so we hope. Many people use this phase to resolve past problems. This phase can be a new beginning or an endless cycle.

PHASE 4 : RECOMMITMENT
Using phase 3 as a new beginning will allow you to fully accomplish phase 4. By recommitting, yourself to a worthwhile goal, you can build more momentum in the long run. You can use recommitment to not only renew your focus, but it can renew your mind. Your mindset is the one key to explode a successful living. Live your life with an excitement. Develop an excitement for your goal and/or goals. Commit to your passion and don't become frustrated to the point of giving up. When you give up, you have lost. Even if you search for a new beginning, find it, work and move toward it.
Check your attitude and stay committed to your cause.

<em>Punch Lines for the day : ">The great tragedy of life is not death, but what dies inside of us while we live." -- Norman Cousins
"And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful then the risk it took to blossom." -- Anais Nin

BREAK FREE

NEXT TIME YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR LIFE IS COLLAPSING AROUND YOU, TAKE A STEP BACK AND WELCOME THE CHANGES...

Whenever you think you are going through the most difficult time of your life, stop and think. This may be just the experience you need to snap you out of your complacency and breathe life back into your soulless existence, break an ongoing cycle of failure or somehow be the catalyst which pushes you towards a brighter future.

In hindsight the worst situations either make or break us as individuals. However, in the long run it always seems to lean towards the former of the two - it not only makes us stronger people but also makes us far more compassionate. Next time you feel like your life is collapsing around you, ask yourself why and then take a step back and welcome the changes that have been put in place to save your sorry excuse for a life. And you will then understand that only real insight is born out of trauma.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb - "May you live in interesting times." This is supposedly seen as an extremely wicked curse, when actually it represents the complete opposite. The idea is that as humans we all naturally resonate to a humdrum life of routine habits, which pacify our soul or sole existence. Deep within us all, there is a desire to feel alive again, buzzing with premature anticipation that one day we will be able to touch the part of us that has somehow been pushed to the background. Unfortunately although at first these magnificent temptations seem too good to be true and almost impossible to resist, most times they are tests sent to us in disguise to wake us up from our pointless, monotonous and unpurposeful slumber. As we walk through life with our eyes wide shut.

Whilst the experiences in themselves reveal the true value of the test at hand fairly quickly, the side effects can send our stress levels soaring higher than a bird in flight; thrusting us into a rude awakening, as our feathers are scorched by the suns beautiful yet hypnotic rays of warmth and colour.

Opening up a new chapter can often mean closing a previous one, and sometimes this feels as if we have just opened up Pandora's box. It hurts, it always does and it always will. Most times during these periods it is found that we are completely unequipped to cope. Due to this we dig deep down to the core of our being in which to bring forth some of our rawest instinct and courage, in order to adapt, if we are not to be ripped apart.

Life has a peculiar way of making people shed their skin, even when all appears to seem quite contented. By continually living a life that is always warm and fuzzy, we become dull, lifeless and unsympathetic to the sorrows of others and certainly detached from them. It is in this state of unconsciousness that we dissolve our purpose for living; to the point that we simply end up not caring anymore - after all life is good to us and when was it exactly when we just stopped caring?

My attitude towards change, whether bad, but more specifically when it is good, is that it disturbs our present comfort zone. This then creates anxiety because it represents having to face up to times of complete uncertainty. I often wonder where the thoughts originally come from when we have them and as to the real reason why. These are self-motivated desires that urge us strongly to follow these feelings through because they are too strong to ignore. The other type of situations that are out of our control are such things as health issues and family problems. All examples have probably been set in place to make us ask ourselves if we are really happy with our lives, or just clinging onto a delusional safety net.

So with all this in mind it is usually through those things that seem to be negative by comparison, where we are really able to find true contentment, inspirations, hidden talents and new found skills and abilities - even if it means having to start all over again from scratch. By breaking free from the chains we have wrapped around us so tightly, we indeed experience far more interesting times for which, in turn makes us far more interesting people. It is during these supposedly absolute dire catastrophe's that we not only learn to survive our trips to hell and back, but find out who we really are in the process. And that we never really needed to reach out to the warmth of the sun's rays for it was locked up inside us all along.

OK, so we need a little friction to upset the apple cart occasionally, if we are going to question anything at all in life. If you can see past all the blood, sweat and tears you will realize that you have changed in some way, sometimes for the worse but most times for the better. Every time you learn the hard way you really move one step forward towards evolution.

It will make you too"Wonder" " Stevie"

You must be wondering what this must be. Ok lets get down to business. When you receive call these days mostly its for a favour and your welfare is only incidental. Most times when you make a call out, it's the same. No harm, it's a fast paced competitive world today and we can't get lost unduly with emotions, so we say its Ok, we are practical. No question about that and it's true too.

Having said that I must add that there are a few who'd call you up every once in a "way" just to say "Hello! How are You?"

That reminds me of the beautiful song composed and sung by Stevie Wonder

"I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU
No new year's day to celebrate
no choc'late covered candy hearts to give away
No first of spring, no song to sing
in fact here's just another ordinary day

No April rain, no flowers bloom no wedding Saturday within the month of June.
But what it is, is something true made up of these three words that I must say to you:
I just called to say I love you
I just called to say how much I care I just called to say I love you and I mean it from the bottom of my heart

No summers high, no warm July no harvest moon to light one tender August night.
No autumn breeze, no falling leaves not even time for birds to fly to southern skies.


No Libra sun, no Halloween no giving thanks to all the Christmas joy you bring.
But what it is, though old so new to fill your heart like no three words could ever do.

I just called to say I love you
I just called to say how much I care I just called to say I love you and I mean it from the bottom of my heart of my heart, of my heart"

This is one of the most soulful and honest songs I've ever heard all my life, and this keeps echoing in my heart very often.

"Stevie .." was visually challenged, yet known all over the world for the "Wonder"ful songs he gave the world.

Being on the same page of "visually challenged, I'm reminded of a story..

"The Blind Boy"
A blind boy sat on the steps of a subway with a hat at his feet, with a sign borad in his hand "I'm blind, please help.."There were just a few coins that fell into that hat after hours.

A man waking by took a few coins from his pocket, dropped them into the blind boys hat.

He then took the sign board from the boy's hand, turned it around and wrote a few words to a line. He put the sign board back into the boy's hands and walked away saying wait for at least an hour before you pack up.

Soon the hat began to overflow with coins, as a lot more people dropped coins and very generously too.

Later in the afternoon that man who changed the sign board walked up to the blind boy again.

The boy recognized the man by his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed the signboard and what did you write that the whole thing changed dramatically?"

The man said, "I only wrote the same truth you wrote, but I said it in a slightly different way.

What I wrote was 'Today, is a beautiful day, and I can't see it'"The first sign and the second one were the same as the crux was the same that the "boy was blind."

The first one pleaded for help were as the second one made them think. The first was simple in saying the boy was blind the second told them that they were lucky but this boy wasn't.

Is there any surprise if the second made an impact?

There are two lessons though in this story :

The first : Be thankful for what you have. Someone else has lesser than you, so help when you can.

The second : Be creative, innovative, think differently, think laterally. There is always a different way.

To sum up this message
We need to be human beings and we need to make an impact with whatever we do. We need to develop the art of making our communications just as effective.

Punch Line for the day : Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." - John Wooden

It's all in your hands...

Days start as if a clean slates stares at you to make a fresh starts. Some see it clean some see it as messy as they left it the previous day. We make mistakes of hanging on to the past.

Making mistakes is a part of life, and is also a part of growth. Let there be no mistake in getting this truth into your mind. Looking back at my own life when growing up, I have made many mistakes over and over again. They say there is a lesson to learn in each mistake, and there is no need to make the same mistake twice. For a long time some of my mistakes just kept repeating themselves. It seemed a common and recurring theme, and I had no idea how to get a handle on it. It took me many years to finally get out of this jungle of repeating mistakes and to find the answers. When you finally get them, the answers seem to be ridiculously easy to follow.

You can tear up the old script and start a new one if you need to. You have permission to look at your life from the perspective of new and better possibilities and unlimited thinking.

But let me give you the bad news/good news up front. Bad news - it takes some time and effort to sit down and contemplate, to reflect and day dream about the life you want. To plan and set goals takes an intentional decision. Now, the good news - budgeting the time and energy to plan and set goals will create insights, excitement and ultimately great results that will have a positive impact on your life in a permanent way.

Mistake 1: You ask any one, and this is the response.. I Don't Have Enough Time For It ...

Being on this planet as human beings, we all live have to live by the same rules and almost similar physical resources the almighty has given us; however, the same set of rules seems to appear differently to each of us.

Most often we have told someone (or yourself) that you don't have time for something?

We all only have 24 hours in a day-and it is only you alone who decides how to spend these hours. It seems to be more convenient to say "I don't have the time," rather than saying "I don't want to spend my time on it."

Can you feel the difference?

In the first place you have not taken ownership of your time. You put yourself in the role of being a slave to time itself, and, if you are honest with yourself, it does not feel at all empowering.

In the second phrase we take full responsibility for our time. Know that this may upset some people when you say it. You tell them that whatever they want from you is not necessarily as important for you as for them. In reality, you are just being honest and this will, in the end, make you feel humble.

The interesting thing is that when you start doing this, you will attract more honest people in your life. You will get more comfortable over time with expressing this kind of yourself in this way to others and people will start appreciating your honesty. You will soon see the rewards.

Whatever you set as a goal for yourself will come true if only you make the time available to manifest them.

Set your mental blueprint. This is the beginning of all your journey of making things coming true. Most people fail with business intentions in particular and life intentions in general because they never create the blueprint in the first place that makes them happen. They are too busy with putting their valuable attention on daily clusters. Ensure you are not one of them.

Mistake 2: You change things because You Don't Like How It Is.. therefore you change it

You cannot simply change what you don't like! Too much of your attention is focused on the problem rather than on the solution.

Start with accepting your current situation. Take full ownership of it. Understand that it is somehow a result of your thoughts and actions, even if you don't comprehend why. Let go of any sadness or anger you hold towards yourself and others. Forgive yourself and others. We all make mistakes, and mistakes are not necessarily the bad things as you have come to believe. Making mistakes (and understanding them) is how each of us learn to move on through life. Simply understand that your past and current actions did not lead to the results that you have expected. That's it--don't take it too seriously.

Mistake 3: When You Are Discouraged, You Give Up... and you do it very often


You had the best intentions. You put in all your efforts and you certainly believed in your goals and dreams. However, nothing really ever changed--you are frustrated and discouraged. You start to believe that it is not meant to be... "Maybe God does not want me to experience achieving my goals." You start finding all kinds of excuses why your dreams did not manifest. Finally you give up--you admit to yourself that you obviously don't have the power to pull this off. This is the place where dreams vaporize, where evaporating goals become a part of history that nobody will ever see. Besides having no dreams and goals at all, this is the second most prevalent reason why people never fulfill their dreams.

Discouragement is not failure, it simply means that your expectations have gotten ahead of you. Pay attention to the coincidences in your life, as they will show you the way. They may seem insignificant, but they are real. Acknowledge them, be grateful to what you have and then act on whatever opportunities come up. There are no unrealistic dreams, there are only unrealistic time frames.

Punch Line for the day : People begin to become successful the minute they decide to be. - Harvey MacKay

story of a young boy and performace

This is a beautiful story of a young boy... who is trying to check his own performance...

A little boy went into a drug store, reached for a soda carton and pulled it over to the telephone. He climbed onto the carton so that he could reach the buttons on the phone and proceeded to punch in seven digits.

The store-owner observed and listened to the conversation: The boy asked, "Lady, Can you give me the job of cutting your lawn? The woman replied, "I already have someone to cut my lawn.

Lady, I will cut your lawn for half the price of the person who cuts your lawn now." replied boy. The woman responded that she was very satisfied with the person who was presently cutting her lawn.

The little boy found more perseverance and offered, "Lady, I'll even sweep your curb and your sidewalk, so on Sunday you will have the prettiest lawn in all of Palm beach, Florida. Again the woman answered in the negative.

With a smile on his face, the little boy replaced the receiver. The store-owner, who was listening to all, walked over to the boy and said, "Son... I like your attitude; I like that positive spirit and would like to offer you a job.

The little boy replied, "No thanks, I was just checking my performance with the job I already have. I am the one who is working for that lady, I was talking to!"

Of Nuts, Bolts, Switches and Rail Tracks

Many times we compare our life to things around us, and sadly many people compare themselves with the others around them.

Comparing ourselves with other human beings is deplorable, but, looking for some concurrence philosophically about things around us, is not bad at all.

However, one of those comparisons that I often think about is how much our life is like a rail road track.

A rail track is a path to get somewhere but is filled with nuts, bolts and switches. While the nuts and bolts hold lengths of tracks together firmly, it is the switches that take the train in a different direction. It has a "controller" who views the "big" picture of all the trains moving in the network in the area that he is responsible for and then "decides" and communicates his orders to "switchers." When the switches are made, the direction of the train to the destination it has to go gets underway.

Much like the rail system our life too, like a rail road track, is a path that we follow made up of decisions. Each decision can take us to an entirely different destination. When we make a decision it can very well affect other things in our lives. When we come to a switch in the track of life, which way the switch is turned will determine the outcome. They are so like the decisions in our life. It is made from the "control panel of our central nervous system - the brain."

The nuts and bolts are the binders of the several relationships we have @ work and outside, and the switches are the "transactions" we have with the various groups, and the decisions that evolve out of these transactions.

How many times have you made a decision in your life that changed everything?
We can of course make good decisions and we can make bad decisions, and there in lies the real comparison to the rail road track. Many times the decision we make can take our life in a totally different direction that sometimes can never be changed back. Some people who have taken drugs or become bank robbers have found that out from hard experience.

The obvious point of this discussion is that good decisions have that same power to change our lives forever. If we make right decisions, good decisions, then our path of life will take us where we want to go. We can become what ever we want to be, if we want to be. All we have to do is make the right decision and then start down the track of life to achieve it.

How do we learn to make good decisions?

It starts early in our childhood. We develop attributes that are often called "wisdom" or "common sense" as a child. Those things within us that help us make good decisions are also called "good judgment".

The question of course is, how do we develop those attributes of good decision making in our lives?

What do we do if we had a childhood that did not lend it's self to making good decisions?

There are many answers.
Here are just a few:

1. MENTORS: A famous saying of old is, "When the student is ready, the teacher will come". Find people that you admire or who have attributes you would like to mimic. Study their lives. Read about them. If it is possible, arrange to meet them and get to know them. Most people who have become highly successful have mentors that help them. The mentor does not always have to be world famous. They may be someone as great and wonderful as one of your parents or a close friend. Mentors often just come into your life when you need them. Listening to the great minds of the world has had a profound effect on my life. Above all it has given me the desire to be like those I have listened to or read about. When I have a decision to make, I often think of one of my mentors and then ask myself, "Would they do that?"

2. IMPROVE YOUR MIND. Your feelings of self worth have as much to do with making correct decisions as anything else in your life. I know from personal experience that reading good books and listening to educational and motivational tapes can change your life. I seldom ever go from one day to the other without filling my mind with some reading that can spark a thinking inside me. Sometimes even the radio in my car does this work, but I listen to it, mostly to break the boredom of thick traffic. When your mind is filled with these "power thoughts" making correct decisions seems to come almost as a second nature. When your mind is filled with good thoughts, you will have the desire to do the right things, and knowing how to make correct decisions will flow into your mind like a shaft of light.

3. BELIEF: One of the key elements in decision making is belief. Believe that you can do things right. Believe that within you is the power to choose correctly the things that are best for your over all well being and happiness. With that power of belief, you can change for the good. You can make correct decisions most of the time.

4. CHARACTER: You have to stand for something. You have to believe in something. Your character is one of the primary fundamentals within you that help you make correct decisions. If you have no values, then it will be hard to make decisions. If you know what you believe in and what you stand for, then making correct decisions becomes almost a thoughtless process.

5. CONSEQUENCES: This is one of the power principles of life. When we were children we did things that caused us to get hurt or be sad because we did not know the consequences when we did it. As adults, one of the powerful things that can help us make correct decisions is to consider the consequences before we start. Stephen Covey said it so well when he said, "Begin with the end in mind".

1. MENTORS
2. IMPROVE YOUR MIND
3. BELIEF
4. CHARACTER
5. CONSEQUENCES

With these five elements, you can build your power to make correct decisions. If you are having troubles and find that you have made a lot of bad decisions that are now causing you a great deal of sorrow or grief, try applying these five principles in your life. Just start over. You can not change the past. You can only hope for the future. But you have the power to change today.

Rail Road Switches. They are so much like the decisions in our lives. They always lead to consequences and those consequences will either be good or bad depending on the decision we made.

May we always choose the best switch in our doing, as we move along the track of life.

The last aspect is the way the rail track move is parallel to each other from one place to the other covering the length and breadth of geography of any country (at least most). That helps the train maintain a balance and only during bends and curves the tracks are banked (either to the left or the right) one being higher than the other mainly to keep the train on track at any speed. And yes, the speed depends on the solidity of the track. Most hi-speed tracks have a concrete base.

In life too we need to let our "life train" balance on the two track that should run parallel to each other (work or professional life and the personal or family life). We have ups and down, bends and turns in our life too, so, either one of the track will be high or low, to maintain the balance. Lastly, the speed at which you can move your life depends on the solidity based on being fundamentally strong, high on ethics and character etc.

Punch Line for the day: "Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation."