Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran has captured my attention not once but twice. The poems written by him were introduced to me by Amma, she spoke about him and his poems at lengths and finished it with
"How rotten it would be to follow his words and bring up a child" :D
On the other hand, I can feel him urging us to give the "space" a relationship needs.


On bringing-up a child..

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

On Marriage...
Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.

Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Happy Women's day.

8th March, 2009.

I keep three women close to my heart.
The ones who inspire me,
whom I look upon at,
and whom I look upon to.

Amma
Ah, so I can hear you saying another stereotype. I'd love to stay clichéd here. I CAN NEVER be as patient as her, as giving, forgiving, unconditionally loving, diplomatic, fun-filled, lovable, intelligent, up-to-date and totally adorable.
Everytime she gives us (my family) an emotional OR technical suggestion, she makes me awe! I strongly feel that she donned the homemaker cap and the country lost another scientist/psychoanalyst.
If there's something that I wanna be, that would be the impossible - "Being my mom!"

Ammai (Maternal Grandma)
Absolutely adorable lady with strong roots in tradition, who marveled at the art of story-telling and cooking. With 7 children, she managed to resolve all the conflicts within them SO well and that dazzled me.
(On the other hand, my P-Granny managed to split up ALL her 7 children.. later the children realized the role of their mother and tried patching up).
Relationships are like a vase, once broken they can be patched up. But they are never as good as before.

Mrs. Vasumathy.
My Chemistry teacher and the lady who taught me to own my mistakes. In a class of 40 students, we had to read out the answers to the assignment that had 40 questions. Those who did not complete it lied that they did not bring the book (say abt 10 students) and she sent them out. I walked up and told her I haven't completed. She asked me to sit in the first bench. then, my classmate had to answer a question, unfortunately she hadn't written that ONE question. She reprimanded her for not telling it beforehand (like me!)
That day, I learnt to be straight forward!
Love ya ol'lady! :)
I owe it to her, all my education and frankness.

P/s I was writing this out as a post, and thought these women should be a part of my blog!

coincidence..

Moments ago, as I was skimming through my blog, I found that I had had written a post on the 17th of October. Coincidentally 17th of October was one of the best days in my life.

I don't know how many times I'll watch "Khaka Khaka" and how many times I would manage to watch the movie without smiling.

Nostalgia! *smiles coyly*
Life can be awfully sweet at times!
So sweet that you let go every ounce of hatred!
And keep celebrating your happiness over and over again!