Right time is when you get it right

In this time where we're planning for the future all the time. Our future. Our kid's future. Future after us (insurance). Maybe we should start early on our new year resolutions as well. You know... making advanced resolutions. More like preface to our actual new year resolutions. Outlines to what we want to achieve in the new year, but not exactly. For the month of november and december we'll try to become that person who can achieve the things we want to achieve in the coming year. After all, its never too late, so its never too early either. And really, now is always a great time to start. :)

Memories and things that remind us of them

There are certain things that remind us of certain other things that may or may not be directly related. Some painting painted by some painter is some other time with some other thought in mind may remind us of some altogether different idea or place or person or event in our own life. Such are memories. Our life that comes to us through things that may not belong to it as much. We all miss people. We all miss times. Those people, those times may never come back. But new ones would. New people. New times. Clinging to the past is never a good idea. Welcoming a change always is. But thinking of past never hurt anybody....

After all, what is life is we keep moving and never look back to realize how far we've come.

Beliefs and illusions

Some philosophies ask us to believe that what we want is what we already have. That idea may be interpreted in two ways. Believe we already have it. Which may imply that you stop working towards it, because you believe you already have it. That only leads to illusions.
Or believe we will definitely have it. Which only removes your fear and uncertainty. Interpretations may vary, the idea remains the same. Chase what shall make you happy.
What works for us may not work for someone else. The world is the same for everybody. We just interpret it differently...

(Image : Coversations with God Book 1 - Neale Donald Walsch)

Before we die

While we're alive we generally don't think about death more than as a final moment to bid goodbye to this world. But what would we do if we knew we were dying in a certain time. Who are the people we wish we had spent more time with? People we want to see before we die. Words we want to say before its too long. Love we want to express. Hate we want to end. Regret we want to dispel.
But if we know the things we are dying to do. Why do we miss them while we still have time for it?
Maybe we should. Maybe now is right time to filter our lives. Keep the best of it. Reach out for those loved ones. Forgive those who upset us. Now. So we can take that forward and not just end there.

This too is what we are.

Sometimes we behave in ways we never thought possible. We manage to be polite to somebody we really hate. We are rude to somebody we respect. We fight with people we love. We do things we didn't think we could or things we wish we hadn't. But is all us. Single entity. One.
Do we hate ourselves for the wrong we do? Is regret a solution to anything? We need to accept our mistakes, as a part of our person. My mistake. My fault. I'm sorry. It won't happen again. And if you really do regret, it wouldn't happen again.
But sometimes we repeat mistakes. And we never forgive ourselves for it. Forgiveness is not something that comes from outside. We are forgiven, when we forgive. Others. Ourselves.

Like Salman Rushdie said in his novel The Moor's Last Sigh:
"When a mistake of the heart is revealed as folly, we think of ourselves as fools, and ask our near-and-dear why they failed to save us from ourslves. But that is an enemy against whom no-one can defend us."

"I'm loneliest, when I'm happiest"

What is it that tells us when we end and others begin? Consciousness? Well, it is pretty freaky to think about it. Sometimes we want to be one with others, or some person. We want friends who know us inside out. Someone who knows exactly what we're feeling. People who love us like ourselves. That feeling of wholeness and belonging. And we do achieve it ever so often. But it keeps leaving us...
Why does it have to get lonely when we're so happy?
Maybe its better to reject that desire and not delve into its possibilities. Sometimes we just have to accept the things as they are. Because even if we do live forever, in which case we'll have to see dear ones die. Not so attractive. Life's good. Now. It is.

Meditation - Just a state of mind

Do we need to sit a certain way or achieve some unknown silence in order to meditate? Think something in particular? Or nothing at all? What is meditation exactly?
Meditation is the state of mind when the mind is at absolute peace. When the mind is at peace, it is not involved in love, regret, obsession and the like. Is only is. When you try to attain something, your mind starts to wander about somewhere else. When you do not try to attain anything, you have your own body and mind right here. That state, is meditation.
A Zen master would say, "Kill the Buddha!" Kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else. Kill the Buddha, because you should resume your own Buddha nature."

Thinking of The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand wrote a book called The Fountainhead. Its so appealing and so readily applicable. Some people hate it, some hate it. But everybody who knows of it, reacts to it. Its very important for any product to be worth discussing. Worth hating. Worth loving. The Fountainhead is one of those.
Perfection is an idea which means different things to different people and keeping it as individualistic it is, Fountainhead presents a view of perfection that is very interesting. The person who loves himself. We all do. That is why we don't want ourselves to die, right? We love ourselves. We protect ourselves from others. We choose ourselves over others. Its only human. And that is all Ayn Rand is really talking about. First and last love - self love.
Some people think that the philosophy of Ayn Rand (Objectivism) is too selfish and thus, unreasonable. But being selfish only about being happy. Not in the sense of hating/hurting others. In fact in many cases she has portrayed that the alternative to hate, ignorance. Ignore what you can hate, its so much better, focus on the good. Is that mutually exclusive form of self love really bad?
"I care about myself. I'll do anything to be happy. Though I wouldn't kill for it. Coz I'm just not crazy."
Sounds perfectly normal to me. And actually, doesn't seem like anything too profound. Its really natural instinct.
Talking of the book, most people find it difficult to read in one go. But anybody who is through with the first 100 or 150 pages, would finish it. Somebody who drops it before those 100-150 pages, is really making a big mistake.
Do read it. And you don't have to be Howard Roark. That's exactly what Ms. Rand is asking you not to do. Be yourself. Enjoy.