Something to Ponder.
           

I read this piece in a church's centennial celebration magazine. Since I found the statements valuable,  I thought of sharing it through my blog post.

1.Only God can turn a Mess into a Message; A Test into a Testimony, a Trial into a Triumph, and a        Victim into a Victory.

2. Don't ask God to guide your steps, if you are not willing to move your feet.

3. When you are tempted to lose patience with someone, think how patient God has been with you all      the time.

4. Life is an echo. What you send out comes back. What you sow, you reap. What you give, you get.
    What you see in others -exists in you.

5. Sometimes God lets you hit rock bottom so that you will discover that He is the rock at the bottom.

6.The Bible is meant to be the bread for daily use, not a cake for special occasion.

7. When you feel like you are drowning in life, take comfort that your Lifeguard walked on water.

8  Jesus died for you in public, so don't live for him in private.

9. If you kneel before God, you can stand before anyone or anything.

10. Be yourself. No matter what other people think of you, God made you this way for a reason.
      Besides, an original is always worth more than a copy.

11. Faith is like the W-Fi. It is invisible, but it has the power to connect you to what you need.

12. Don't be a part-time Christian when God is not a part-time Savior.

A Little Child shall Lead Them- Sulochana Vinayagamoorthy

This morning, I was reading the Classic Writings of Billy Graham, where Mr.Graham had tried to explain how we may be sincere in our desires to serve Christ, but that does not make us perfect or fault-free. To simplify his point, he chose a letter written by a five-year-old to her dad, a Scottish preacher, who was away in New Zealand on a mission tour.

'Dear father, I wrote all this myself. I send you a kiss from Elsie.' the child wrote. The father did see the crooked strokes, his child's struggle to print large capitals, and the absence of a single properly formed letter. Yet, he showed no displeasure nor blamed the child for her poor writing. Instead, he treasured the letter like an art piece. He knew for sure, it was the best his darling five-year-old could do to convey her love to him. The child had put her whole heart into the letter, sealed it with a kiss and sent it to him from faraway. How could anything be more precious to him than that ?

As I was reading the story, my thoughts reeled back to the time when I wrote somewhat a similar letter to my father, whom I lovingly called,Pappa. Probably, I too would have been around her age at that time. That summer, my mother, two older sisters and I were holidaying at our aunt's house in a hilly country side, skirted by cocoa and pepper plantation. My father couldn't join us on this trip due to work and that made me, the youngest of the five to miss him the most.


 So, whenever I saw my mom write  to my father, I scribbled something on a piece of paper and sent it along. And when the postman brought my father's letters, I eagerly awaited on my mom's lap to hear her read the part where my father had inquired about me. Then, one day, my mom came and handed me an envelope addressed to me. A letter for me? I couldn't believe my eyes.  My chubby cheeks beamed when I saw the handwriting of my dear father. The fact that he had written specially to me made me  squeal and run around the house showing the letter to everyone.

 Today, I cannot recall what my father had written in that letter, but I do remember of carrying the letter all day long  in my frock pocket (yes, we did have cute pockets in our dresses) and reading it again and again.  In a day or two, I could easily recite the letter by heart. Soon, it became a past time for my sisters and cousins to call upon me to recite the letter in front of others. Shy, I might have been by nature, but when it came to recite my father's letter, I didn't shy away at all. My curly hair pinned up in two colorful barretts, I stood there with my chin up and my squint eyes gleaming, and recited my father's entire letter for my onlookers amusement.


I wish I could say that I read my heavenly Father's letter (God's Word) too with the same fervor and devotion. Maybe at times. Other days, I do it because I ought to, rather than I love to. But, that doesn't mean that my Heavenly Father loves me less, nor His grace towards me is going to be shortened.   However, it's my sincere desire that I will regain my childlike trust and devotion, and  bring much delight to Him in the coming days, months and years.***

Count Yourself Blessed
                      by Sulo Moorthy

O Daugters of mine and others out there
Bright, bold and beautiful
Whatever color, shape or place you're in
Count yourself blessed for the time 
You're living in, when
Your voice does matter 
And your work and ideas get recognized.

Do take a bow to the women in the past
Who braved the winds to give you the life
they could only dream of.
Take not this life for granted
and waste no more time to please the world
which try to dictate how you should look, weigh or buy.

Choices lay many before you today
You could run to become Madame President, if you want to
Or stay at home and raise a future president, scientist or writer if you wish to.
Choose whatever is right, noble and proper
So that your children and their children
would take a bow for you one day
for what you've done to better and beautify their world.***
             

                                  What Does Reading Offer?

This Sunday morning, as usual I read through Ann Voskamp's (Author of One Thousand Gifts and The Broken Way) blog posting for this week. 

I've been a voracious reader all my life. Reading books have definitely strengthened my writing life as well as my spiritual and mental growth. Surely the enjoyment I get reading good and well written
books is something like biting into a soft and sweet peach or the drip of honey on my tongue. I could almost taste the goodness of the words in my mouth. 

But I never went to the extent to which Ann Voskamp went to understand the value of reading as Ann had done.
As such, I couldn't help but share what I've read  this morning. As always, Ann has a unique way of conveying her thoughts in words that glitter and pulsates with beauty and content. 
Following is an  excerpt from her posting for this week on Reading Good Books.

Pages can be preparation, the smell of old books can be comfort, and a way to prepare for anything is to read the best things, the way to live a good story, is to read the wisest stories, the way to prepare for what’s up ahead, is to read the hearts of those who have gone ahead.
” ‘We read to know we are not alone,'” says C.S. Lewis’ Shadowlands. Every crisis we’ve ever battled through, I can remember exactly what book stayed by my side, the scent of ink on paper like the scent of home, like a welcoming.
I hadn’t known: When we abandon ourselves to stories — we know we aren’t abandoned in our own stories.   
I have long felt that tall stacks of books on end tables are ebenezers, guideposts, trail markers to reach for, a kind of hands to hold on to, and gird us with a brave strength for the hard roads, the steep inclines, the days when we feel forgotten and left behind.
I have held pages and felt held. “Literary experience heals the wound….” C.S. Lewis reaches out with steadying words.
A book can be your feelings pulsing through the veins of another. 
A book can be courage for the obstacle course that is your life.
A book can be a saw that breaks you out of the box — that breaks you free. 
Reading words can rewrite your life. Hope can come as gentle as turning pages.
We could read toge(s)ther. One year. 12 Books. For such a time as now.

Prepare for whatever’s coming and grab hope off the end table, off the shelf, off the nightstand, and do more than wield good books like a sword.

Eat good books and The Best Book.

Hunger every day for strengthening words, have a voracious appetite for them, digest them, swallow them, get them in your veins and let them become you and you become them, let them become your spine, your beating heart, your mind, let them become what you breathe and speak and think and the air you move in, because you aren’t taken aback by what you’ve taken time to prepare for, and books can prepare you for the test that is your every day, your new year.

               Book Review: Orange is The New Black- A Memoir 
                                                                       by Piper Kerman.

A good read and an eye opener to those of us who have no clue or don't even care what goes behind prison walls. Piper Kerman cracks open the prison doors to reveal what goes behind bars through this memoir of hers. In her twenties, wanting some adventure Piper got involved with a woman who was in the business of drug smuggling. Little did Piper realized that the small part she played in the business would land her in the the prison ten years later. Even though she had severed all connection with the drug dealer friend for ten years and leading a professional life as a creative director for a web service, she got convicted and served thirteen months in the minimum security correctional facility for women in Danbury,Connecticut.

Blue eyed , blond haired and educated, Piper encountered stares and raised eyebrows questioning "what the hell are you doing here" when she first walked down the long main hall of the prison trying to make no eye contact. Soon, she learned that when a new prisoner arrived, their tribe-white, black,Latinos or the few and far between 'others' would immediately assess the situation, get them settled and steer them through the prison rules and rituals.

Piper takes us through her good, bad and challenging experiences in this thought provoking, well written, but slow moving memoir.  Surprised to find kindness and comradeship inside the prison camp made her to realize she had more in common with these women  dressed in khaki uniforms and heavy black work shoes

Many of the inmates were serving long term sentences for non-violent offences.Most of them were poor, poorly educated and came from neighborhoods where narcotic trade provided the most job opportunities. Some of them were serving eight to twelve years for low level offences like allowing their apartment for drug deals, passing messages and serving as couriers for low wages. Limited resource for defence and staggering caseload of Legal Aid Lawyers ended up putting these women for unjustified long term imprisonment.

Piper couldn't understand how long timers like her friend Natalie who served eight years kept her dignity and interact with grace in such a rotten place. The advice she received from many quarters was, "Do your time. Don't let the time do you." How could anyone be funny and mellow with an easy laugh under such dire condition? Piper writes that she needed to see things with a new perspective and learn survival techniques like some of her fellow inmates to make her prison life tolerable.

Skill wise too, Piper learned things which she wouldn't have bothered to learn in the free world outside. Since the prison facility is mainly run by inmates,everyone there is required to work and thus assigned to a job. She ended up working in the electric shop in Construction and Maintenance service. After being confined to the prison camp for a month,the bus ride to her work site made Piper happy.  If the women didn't have GED, they couldn't earn over fourteen cents an hour, which could barely pay for toothpaste and soap. It's out of their earned prison account they have to pay for phone calls, toiletry,fines etc. It saddened Piper to find her  bunk buddy Natalie who worked in the prison kitchen as a skilled baker for many years was never paid more than $ 5.60 for forty hours of work.

In Danbury, however Piper had the pleasure of participating in events like Halloween, Christmas, birthdays and send off parties for the fellow mates. With the minimum resources available, the women somehow creatively made cards, banners and posters and decorated the place and gifted hand made gifts like knitted or crocheted socks, slippers or  caps.
However when she was moved to the large Federal prison camp in Chicago before she was released,she found out that such events and send off parties were non-existent. She missed Danbury, specially her fellow inmates who would have given her a send off party and given her hugs amidst tears..
Piper knew that she had a loving family, a home to go back and an opportunity to land in a job when she got released. But it was not so with many of the prisioners. Though none of them wanted to comeback to prison again, several of them returned because the outside world barred them in so many ways from  integrating into the society. Because they had to put a check mark in the square marked for 'convicted' on job and rental apartment application forms, they ended up getting denied for a job or apartment. As such, many of the inmates  dreaded the approaching date of their release. Such scenario saddened Piper, who had come to know and admire the entrepreneurial spirit and strength of some of the women at Danbury.
I haven't yet seen the Netflix series of  Orange is The New Black. But I would recommend the book to be read first to get the true story.

 A New Year Has Dawned  !

2016 had whizzed by

With memories of good

and bad to take away.

2017 has just stepped in

with a fresh blank sheet 

to record its events for history.

Yes, a New Year has dawned

to list a few new resolutions

to start a fresh journal

to hang a new calendar on the wall.

And to have a new President in the White House.

What is in store for us this year

As a family, country or the world as a whole

No one knows and none could predict.

We could only hope and pray 
this year would bring  smiles, not pain

More solutions than problems

So that all could live in peace and with no fear.

O God, You have given us a beautiful world to live in

It's a pity we spend no time to see its beauty or enjoy it.

Help us to see, help, forgive and love more this year

So that 2017 become a great year to remember.

Book Review:  An Unquenchable Thirst –Following Mother Theresa in Search of Love, service and an Authentic Life-by Mary Johnson

Mother Theresa stands atop of my list of people I admire the most. In a world that worships celebrities, she is of another kind of celebrity. Draped simply in a whilte sari with a blue border, Mother had acquainted princesses to paupers with the same genuine smile and humble meaner.

So, when I spotted the book-An Unquenchable Thirst –Following Mother Theresa in Search of Love, Service and an Authentic Life, on the shelf on my local library, I grabbed it at once. It is a memoir of an ex-nun at Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity.

As Sister Donata, the author Mary Johnson had been a nun for twenty years at the mission until she left it in 1997. Drawn by the picture of Mother Theresa on the cover of Times magazine in 1975 and reading about the poor dying on the streets of Calcutta, the high school student from Texas decided to follow her heart and join the Missionaries of Charity.

 In her memoir, the author vividly shares an honest picture of her ups and down experiences within the walls of her community. By writing about her meetings with Mother Theresa and her travel with Mother as her personal aid to Sweden, she gives a glimpse of the saint in close shot. Also, the author takes us inside the Vatican to give us a rare view of the interior and her audience with Pope Paul VI. She also give us peek of Princess Diana’s visit with Mother. 

In her unique way, the author had weaved her twenty year vocation period in this well written, humor sprinkled book. It was such a page turner that I was able to finish the 500 paged book in  just five days.

Donata found her working with the poor, even with the gypsy community rewarding. Yet, independent spirit and questioning mind got her into trouble with her superiors. Obedience to authority at any cost seemed senseless and became her biggest challenge. Restriction to build any friendship with fellow sisters further grated on her. Unable to share her inner turmoil with a friend drove her seek comfort in a relationship with the priest to whom she went for confession.

 With courage and honesty, the author reveals her struggle with sexuality, obedience, her inability to be creative and productive in her service, and the physical and mental strain brought by over work, guilt and lack of understanding from some of her superiors. Though privileged to study at Regina Mundi, the Ivy League of ecclesiastical schools, a prestige assignment offered to fewer than on in a hundred missionaries of Charity and even found her eligible to revise The  Constitutions -the new Code of Canon Law, Donata was denied the promotion to become the Superior post she deserved until the very last. How painful and degraded she would have felt to serve under the novices she had once trained.

On page 222, we could read her conversation with God, just before she asked permission from Mother to take her final vows.

 “Lord, I think we both know I’m not going to be perfect. I can only promise to do

my best as a Missionary of Charity according to my understanding. I won’t try to live someone else’s model again. Are You okay with that?

Such an openness to God reveals Donata’s trust and reliance in Him, despite the expectation of those above her.

In no way does the author intends to stain the image of the Missionaries of Charity or their service. Instead, through this book she brings out the overlooked human need of the sisters like friendship, physical discomfort due to overwork, sickness etc. The book could be an eye opener for those who dive into a vocation with over enthusiasm and too little awareness of themselves for such a commitment.

Along with the satisfaction of reading a well written, humor sprinkled memoir, I’ve some take away as given below to help me in my own spiritual quest.

              1.   “ Silence  gives us a new outlook on life. 

                      In it we are filled with the energy of God   Himself that makes us do all things                           with joy.”

               2     The less we think of ourselves, the more God thinks of us.

               3.    Let Jesus use you without consulting you.

              4.       Be faithful and persevering.

              5.      To forgive means to be willing to suffer from someone until your loving                                   kindness  heals  them.