Shveitta Sethi Sharma

Anything that is not love
is only a visitor to your body.
You are not anxious,
stress is simply flowing through you.
You are not permanently depressed,
sadness is simply visiting you.
You are not lost,
confusion is simply wandering within you.
And you are not broken,
pain is simply passing through you.

Words by Tahlia Hunter

Inspired by the poem by Rumi "This being human
is a guesthouse"

Take in the good! Illustrated by Loffyllama

A wonderful reminder of what love is :

Shared as recieved

👇🏼

My husband is an Engineer by profession, I love him for his steady nature, and I love the warm feeling when I lean against his broad shoulders.

Three years of courtship and now, two years into marriage, I would have to admit, that I am getting tired of it. The reasons of me loving him before, has now transformed into the cause of all my restlessness.

I am a sentimental woman and extremely sensitive when it comes to a relationship and my feelings, I yearn for the romantic moments, like a little girl yearning for candy. My husband, is my complete opposite, his lack of sensitivity, and the inability of bringing romantic moments into our marriage has disheartened me about love.

One day, I finally decided to tell him my decision, that I wanted a divorce.

“Why?” he asked, shocked. “I am tired, there are no reasons for everything in the world!” I answered. He kept silent the whole night, seems to be in deep thought with a lighted cigarette at all times. My feeling of disappointment only increased, here was a man who can’t even express his predicament, what else can I hope from him? And finally he asked me:” What can I do to change your mind?”

Somebody said it right, it’s hard to change a person’s personality, and I guess, I have started losing faith in him. Looking deep into his eyes I slowly answered : “Here is the question, if you can answer and convince my heart, I will change my mind, Let’s say, I want a flower located on the face of a mountain cliff, and we both are sure that picking the flower will cause your death, will you do it for me?” He said :” I will give you your answer tomorrow….” My hopes just sank by listening to his response.

I woke up the next morning to find him gone, and saw a piece of paper with his scratchy handwriting, underneath a milk glass, on the dining table near the front door, that goes…. My dear, “I would not pick that flower for you, but please allow me to explain the reasons further..” This first line was already breaking my heart. I continued reading.

“When you use the computer you always mess up the Software programs, and you cry in front of the screen, I have to save my fingers so that I can help to restore the programs. You always leave the house keys behind, thus I have to save my legs to rush home to open the door for you. You love traveling but always lose your way in a new city, I have to save my eyes to show you the way. You always have the cramps whenever your “good friend” approaches every month, I have to save my palms so that I can calm the cramps in your tummy.

You like to stay indoors, and I worry that you will be infected by infantile autism. I have to save my mouth to tell you jokes and stories to cure your boredom. You always stare at the computer, and that will do nothing good for your eyes, I have to save my eyes so that when we grow old, I can help to clip your nails, and help to remove those annoying white hairs. So I can also hold your hand while strolling down the beach, as you enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful sand… and tell you the color of flowers, just like the color of the glow on your young face… Thus, my dear, unless I am sure that there is someone who loves you more than I do… I could not pick that flower yet, and die.. ”

My tears fell on the letter, and blurred the ink of his handwriting… and as I continue on reading… “Now, that you have finished reading my answer, if you are satisfied, please open the front door for I am standing outside bringing your favorite bread and fresh milk… I rush to pull open the door, and saw his anxious face, clutching tightly with his hands, the milk bottle and loaf of bread….

Now I am very sure that no one will ever love me as much as he does, and I have decided to leave the flower alone…

That’s life, and love. When one is surrounded by love, the feeling of excitement fades away, and one tends to ignore the true love that lies in between the peace and dullness.

Love shows up in all forms, even very small and cheeky forms, it has never been a model, it could be the most dull and boring form.. . flowers, and romantic moments are only used and appear on the surface of the relationship. Under all this, the pillar of true love stands… and that’s our life… Love, not words win arguments…

Jacktone

I must have been about 5 when my parents took me to a circus in the outskirts of Delhi. We are talking a few decades ago when circus’s were still a thing. I remember hearing the the phrase Abracadabra and a pair of white pigeons flew out of a red handkerchief The 5 year old me was awe struck and kept pestering my parents to explain how the cloth square had turned into pigeons.

My parents told me to say Abracadabra and I would be able to do magic too. Sadly it didn’t work.
No amount of Abracadabra made me fly or turned my younger brother into a rat …

Today I rediscovered the phrase and thanks to my interest in etymology I got to understand the meaning of the word Abracadabra.

It's from the Aramaic phrase avra kehdabra, meaning “I will create as I speak”. The source is three Hebrew words, ab (father), ben (son), and ruach acadosch (holy spirit).

This inspired me to create the following prayer for those of us who want to be of service to each other.

‘
“May I be of service in the world.
May I find the help I need.
May my path get clearer and my vision stronger.
May I build strong connections and follow my true calling in service to myself and to others”

Just repeat this prayer a few times and say Abracadabra - it just might be the magic you need 🙂

A few days ago I learnt the term Amor Fati - translated from Latin as 'a love of one's fate', a resolute, enthusiastic acceptance of everything that has happened in one life. This got me thinking …. Do we really accept our life in it’s entirety?

A week ago a few friends took me out for an extended birthday dinner. It was a rainy night and somehow rain and Hongkong traffic have an interesting romance. The cars don’t let up the opportunity to kiss and eventually hold up the entire traffic.

One of our friends got stuck in the traffic and arrived almost an hour late. We were on whatsapp with her and all she was sending were rather interesting expletives. As soon as she arrived we all got on her case and asked her why she took a taxi instead of the MTR ( metro) specially on a day like this. She was in a bad mood and our questioning did not help. But the glass of wine helped and she came back to her usual good mood. As the evening progressed we started reminiscing about old times and wondering how our decisions had led us to where we were today.

There were aha moments and moments of regret and various ‘If only’ moments.. it was a wonderful and therapeutic girls time.

As we were reminiscing about our life we came to the conclusion that although we had a few regrets, we were completely at peace with where we were today.

It was an amor fati moment !

How often do we think ‘ If only’ thoughts? If only I took that subject or that job. If only I married that person, if only I went on that trip, if only I said yes. If only I said no… and so on..

The concept of amor fati reminds us that everything that happens in our life is exactly the way it’s meant to be.
The person of amor fati doesn’t seek to erase anything of their past, but rather accepts what has occurred, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Our lives are a roller coaster of events and full of achievements and mistakes, but we often look back in regret and focus on our mistakes. We do not accept life in it’s entirety and wish that we could undo our mistakes.
Amor fati, reminds us that joy of life lies in the acceptance of ‘what is as is’ but not in a fatalist way that we don’t do anything to change or improve our lot. Once we accept that our past has brought us where we are we can go full throttle to create the future we desire.

Going back to our rather therapeutic girls night, we laughed, we cried, we reminisced and complained about our fast diminishing youth but over all we all were content and happy to be alive and in circumstances that we were in.

Try as we might we cannot change our past, all we can do is look back and learn from our past and live every day with acceptance and enthusiasm.

Live in Amor Fati

Studs and S***s

A man sleeps with 10 women and he is a stud, a women sleeps with 10 men and she is a slut. Numbers can vary but the terms remain. This is not a hypothetical discussion, it’s what we believe.

A couple days ago we were at a dinner and conversations veered towards two single people. Both have been married in the past and are now divorced. The man’s multiple female partners became a subject of much admiration and envy by the guys. His conquests were a notch on his belt and the discussion of the female having multiple sexual partners relegated her to being a slt or a ny**ho.

We were all laughing and chuckling and deriving vicarious pleasure at inane conversations. I was as much a part of the discussion as anyone else.

Under the banner of light harmless banter we were all guilty of perpetuating unconscious
gender bias. Unconscious biases stem from traditions, norms, values, culture or experience. For centuries, women have been suppressed, institutionalized, admonished and burnt at the stake for speaking their mind or following their hearts desire.

It so happened that I just read an article by Kate Moore in the Time magazine. Here is an excerpt from that.

On a hot summer’s night in June 1860, the heavy door of the insane asylum clanged shut behind Elizabeth Packard and she felt all hope desert her. Because she was not mad. She was merely independent. Yet according to 19th century psychiatry, female independence was madness.
As she would record in a defense of her sanity that she wrote while in the asylum, she’d insisted, “I, though a woman, have just as good a right to my opinion as my husband has to his”—but assertive women in those days were swiftly dispatched to asylums, institutionalized for causing “the greatest annoyances to the family” and for defying “all domestic control.”

Historically, women have been subordinated and subjugated, glorified for their sacrifices, and vilified for being assertive. Even today in certain cultures the birth of a female child is still looked down upon and her husband can choose to leave her for another who can sire male children.

These subtle and insidious practices have made us pawns to mass brainwashing where we subconsciously believe that women are inferior to men. Even in educated upper class circles I have personally seen women kowtowing at the altar of male supremacy.

Who is responsible?
We all are!

Few months ago this riddle made the rounds on Whataspp

A father is about to bring his son to a job interview… applying for a position at a large stockbrokers company in the city.
Just as they arrive at the company’s parking lot, the son’s phone rings.
He looks at his father who says… ‘Go ahead, answer it’.
The caller is the trading company’s CEO who says… ‘Good luck son, you’ve got this.’
The son ends the call and once again looks at his father who is still next to him in their car.
How is this possible?

Many including myself were confused and did not automatically presume that the CEO of the company was his mother. There were many answers like ‘ maybe he has two fathers’ maybe it’s the fathers friend calling him son and a few other options. The fact that it could be his mother calling was not the first option on anyone’s mind.
Sadly we were not the only ones having unconscious bias. The experiment showed that it’s pretty pervasive
https://youtu.be/4kFC7669quE

Thousands of years of insidious brainwashing surreptitiously has led us to the point where even in the 21 th century women face gender-based discrimination.

Today we look back in awe and admiration at women who broke the mould and paved the way for many of us, but what role are we all playing?

Innocuous banter at parties where we call a woman a cougar if she is older and has a younger man, a slt if she has slept with multiple partners, a ny**homaniac if she indulges in her sexual desire, a bitch if she is assertive and a doormat if she is submissive. We have so many derogatory terms for women and we women are as much a part of this charade as are the men.

Let’s make a pledge and teach our sons and daughters that men and women are two sides of a coin. One cannot exist without another and no one is superior or inferior than the other.

The tide is surely turning and women are coming Into their own, but each one of us has a role to play and ensure that these subconscious biases are erased permanently.

International Women's Day- Can You Solve the Riddle? (Mindspace) Is gender equality in the workplace still an issue? We ran an experiment with 22 people, all trying to solve the same riddle, and recorded their surprised re...

Sharing two stories - courtesy Whatsapp

*Story One*
A certain company had a tradition of holding a party and a lottery every Christmas Eve.

The rules of the lottery draw were as follows: each employee pays ten dollars as a fund. There were three hundred people in the company. In other words, a total of three thousand dollars can be raised. The winner takes all the money home.

On the day of the lottery draw, the office was filled with a lively atmosphere. Everyone wrote their names on the slips of paper and put them in the lottery box.

However, a young man hesitated when he wrote. Because he thought that the company's Cleaning lady's frail and sickly son was going to have an operation soon after the dawn of New Year but she did not have the required money to pay for the operation, which made her quite troubled.

So, even though he knew that the chance of winning was slim, with only a three percent chance, the man wrote the name of the Cleaner lady on the note.

The tense moment came. The boss doubled in the lottery box, and finally drew out a note. The man also kept praying in his heart: hoping against hope that the Cleaning lady can win the prize...Then the boss carefully announced the winner’s Name, a miracle happened!

The winner turned out to be the Cleaning lady. Cheers broke out in the office, and the Cleaning lady hurriedly rushed to the stage to accept the award. She almost burst into tears and said, " I am so fortunate and blessed! With this money, my son now has hope!"

At the beginning of the party, while thinking about this *"Christmas miracle",* the man paced to the lottery box.
He took out a piece of paper and opened it casually.
The name on it was also the name of the Cleaning lady!
The man was very surprised.
He took out several pieces of paper one after another.
Although the handwriting on them was different, the names were all the same, all of them were the names of the Cleaning lady The man's eyes were filled with tears and he clearly understood that there was a Christmas miracle in the world, but *the miracle will not fall from the sky, the people were required to create it by themselves!*

*"Story Two"*
One afternoon, I went for a walk with a friend in the suburbs. Suddenly, an old man in tattered clothes approached us with a bag of green vegetables in his hand.
The sales of those vegetables on that day were very poor, the leaves seemed dehydrated and yellowish and there were holes in them as if bitten by insects.
But my friend bought three bags without saying a word.
The old man also embarrassedly explained: "I grew these vegetables myself. It rained a while ago, and the vegetables were soaked. They look ugly. I'm sorry."

After the old man left, I asked my friend: "Will you really cook these when you go home?"

He didn't want to say No to me. " These vegetables can no longer be eaten."

"Then why did you take the trouble of buying them?" I asked.

He replied, "Because it is impossible for anyone to buy those vegetables.
If I don't buy it, the old man will probably have no income for today."

I admired my friend's thoughtfulness and concern, so I caught up with the old man and bought some vegetables from him.
The old man said very happily, "I tried to sell them the whole day , but no one was ready to buy them.
I am so happy that you both were willing to buy from me...
Thank you so much."

Several handfuls of green vegetables that I can't eat at all taught me a valuable lesson.

*. . . . . . . . . . . . . .*
*When we are in a low ebb, we all hope that miracles will happen to us; but when we are capable, are we willing to be the one who creates miracles?!!!*

*After reading these two stories you have two choices:* 

*1) You can spread it, spread the positive message, and make the world love more.*

*2) You can also ignore it fully as if you never saw it.*

*However, your little sharing action may illuminate the destiny of countless unfortunate people.*
*People become successful not only because their dreams get fulfilled, but also even more successful because of their compassionate deeds.*

On hope and resilience ..

In a series of ‘experiments’ in the 1950s, Dr. Curt Richter placed rats in a pool of water to test how long they could tread water.

He took a few rats and put them in water. On average they'd give up and sink after 15 minutes.
He then took another set of rats and put them back in the water but in this case he modified his strategy.
Just as he saw them struggling and about to give up he would pick them up and dry them off, let them rest for a few minutes - and put them back in for a second round.
In the second try the rats swam for 60 straight hours.

Why do you think that happened? It was the same type of rats .... so no they weren’t stronger or bigger....

The researchers believed that since the rats believed that they would eventually be rescued, they could push their bodies way past what they previously thought was possible.

We humans are smarter than rats but unlike the rats we overvthink. Instead of thinking worst case scenarios let’s believe in ourselves and in each other and know that we will survive ..

As long as we have hope and resilience we will overcome any adversity ..

Was the moon afraid that it won’t shine anymore ? No! It just went through the eclipse and was back in all its glory as soon as the eclipse ended.

It was just a matter of time.

Let’s all take que from the moon and know in our heart that it’s a momentary eclipse that we are going through. Very soon we will all shine again .. 🥰

How to get along with your mother-in-law.
Inspirations by Sudhir Krishnan

A long time ago in China, a girl named Li-Li got married and went to live with her husband and mother-in-law. In a very short time, Li-Li found that she couldn't get along with her mother-in-law at all.

Their personalities were very different, and Li-Li was angered by many of her mother-in-law's habits. In addition, she criticized Li-Li constantly.



Days passed days, and weeks passed weeks. Li-Li and her mother-in-law never stopped arguing and fighting. But what made the situation even worse was that, according to ancient Chinese tradition, Li-Li had to bow to her mother-in-law and obey her every wish.



All the anger and unhappiness in the house was causing Li-Li's poor husband great distress.



Finally, Li-Li could not stand her mother-in-law's bad temper and dictatorship any longer, and she decided to do something about it.



Li-Li went to see her father's good friend, Mr. Huang, who sold herbs. She told him the situation and asked if he would give her some poison so that she could solve the problem once and for all. Mr. Huang thought for a while, and finally said, Li-Li, I will help you solve your problem, but you must listen to me and obey what I tell you. Li-Li said, "Yes, Mr. Huang, I will do whatever you tell me to do."



Mr. Huang went into the back room, and returned in a few minutes with a package of herbs.



He told Li-Li, "You can't use a quick acting poison to get rid of your mother-in-law, because that would cause people to become suspicious. Therefore, I have given you a number of herbs that will slowly build up poison in her body. Every other day prepare some delicious meal and put a little of these herbs in her serving. Now, in order to make sure that nobody suspects you when she dies, you must be very careful to act very friendly towards her. Don't argue with her, obey her every wish, and treat her like a queen."



Li-Li was so happy. She thanked Mr. Huang and hurried home to start her plot of murdering her mother-in-law.



Weeks went by, and months went by, and every other day, Li-Li served the specially treated food to her mother-in-law. She remembered what Mr. Huang had said about avoiding suspicion, so she controlled her temper, obeyed her mother-in-law, and treated her like her own mother. After six months had passed, the whole household had changed.



Li-Li had practiced controlling her temper so much that she found that she almost never got mad or upset. She hadn't had an argument with her mother-in-law in six months because she now seemed much kinder and easier to get along with.



The mother-in-law's attitude toward Li-Li changed, and she began to love Li-Li like her own daughter. She kept telling friends and relatives that Li-Li was the best daughter-in- law one could ever find. Li-Li and her mother-in-law were now treating each other like a real mother and daughter. Li-Li's husband was very happy to see what was happening.



One day, Li-Li came to see Mr. Huang and asked for his help again. She said, "Dear Mr. Huang, please help me to keep the poison from killing my mother-in-law! She's changed into such a nice woman, and I love her like my own mother. I do not want her to die because of the poison I gave her."



Mr. Huang smiled and nodded his head. "Li-Li, there's nothing to worry about. I never gave you any poison. The herbs I gave you were vitamins to improve her health. The only poison was in your mind and your attitude toward her, but that has been all washed away by the love which you gave to her."



-Taken from the discussion posted by Suneeta Nathani

Despite knowing the truth we continue to partake in the rat race -
Even if we win the race -let’s not forget that we will still be rats 👯‍♀️



https://youtu.be/e9dZQelULDk

Happiness The story of a rodent's unrelenting quest for happiness and fulfillment. Music: 'Habanera' by Bizet 'Morning Mood' by Edvard Grieg www.stevecutts.com https:/...

For any young girl, her father is her first love. Her knight in shining armor, her first dance partner, the one who takes her into the world of fantasy through the stories he tells. He helps her take her first steps. He carries her on his shoulders and makes her feel larger than life. He introduces her to the world of sports and teaches her mathematics. He refuses to acknowledge her boy friends as in his eyes she will always be his little girl.

Today, I feel sad that this bond did not last long for me. My father would have turned 78 today but he left this planet before his 36th birthday.

For many years I cried and suffered.
I asked the inevitable question, “ why me?” Today I am grateful for the few years I did get to be his little girl.

I have very few memories as I was still very young when he died but I do remember begging my mother to feed me before he got back home as he was a strict Military man who believed that eating meat was necessary for a growing child. I never liked meat so I would insist on eating before he got home. My mother would comply but then tell my dad that I did not eat meat and he would then insist I eat dinner again. My tears and charm would somehow work and he would let it pass.

I remember going for early morning walks with him to a park near our house which used to be full of big red Gulmohar trees during the spring and summer. My dad and I would pick up these flowers that had fallen off the trees and then make up a game by breaking the pollen heads off. We would take out the pollen stems and make them duel with each other with our fingers. My dad always let me win and I felt invincible - the undisputed winner of the pollen head game.

Another memory I have of him is he testing me on the times tables. I was never good at mathematics and I absolutely detested times tables. One day he decided to test me and I panicked. I don’t think I could recite anything beyond the table of 5. He asked me to recite the 8 times table.
I think this time I cheated ..
When he went into the bathroom I very quickly took out the times table book and very quickly blabbered off the 7, 8 and 9 table.
He then told my mom I knew my times table and deserved a treat. My mom knew better but kept it a secret as she knew my dad would not have taken kindly to my lack of knowledge of the times table or the cheating.

I wish I had more memories of him...
wish I had more time with him, I wish he was there to scare off the boys and I wish he was there to give me away at my wedding. I wish he was there to play with his granddaughter and I wish he was there for me to run to him when I felt lost and scared. Alas I can only wish!!!

His physical departure turned my world upside down. My last memory of him is me sitting on his lap and he promising me a big 9th birthday but he passed away exactly one week before my 9th birthday. As a 9 year old I think I clammed up. It took me years to accept the inevitability of life and accept my karmic journey.

Now I understand better.

We are all here to learn our individual lessons. Many of them are painful. Each one of us experiences our fair share of pain and pleasure and then we dwell on those.

Spiritual teachers tell us to live in the present and not think of the past or the future. I preach the same but I am wondering can we really live fully in the present? Isn’t my present a product of my past and won’t my future be a product of my present?

As everyday, this day too shall pass, but for today I want to bask in the memory of my dads love and his lap.

I miss you lots papa 😘😘