WORDS are all we have......

WORDS

I have always had a special love for words. Words have such power in them.
The right words can uplift, inspire, heal, and create endless joy and love
in our lives. The wrong words can depress, discourage, hurt, and bring us
endless misery and pain. It is so very important then to try and choose the
right words in our lives. By choosing the right words I don't just mean
saying the right words or writing the right words either. I also mean
thinking the right words. It is amazing the garbage that so many of us allow
ourselves to think each and every day of our lives.

In order to live a truly blessed life we must haul away the garbage and
start to plant words that will grow into a garden of joy and light in our
minds. Start today then to make the words in your life work for you and not
against you. Do away with "can't" and "no". Try "can" and "yes" instead.
Say, " I can be happy, I can choose joy, and I can share love." Say, "Yes"
to life, to learning, and to growth. Begin to use words like: Wonderful,
Beautiful, and Delightful when you speak to others. Find a word of praise
for everyone you know and then share it with them. Look the people you love
straight in the eye and tell them, "I love you." Seek our every fantastic,
fabulous, and glorious word that you can and start to use them in your life.

Words are such simple things and yet they have the power to change our lives
forever if we use them right. Make the choice everyday of your life to use
all of the good, positive, and loving words you can every second that you
can. If you do this you will find that your life will become a paradise of
love and joy, that other people will become your brothers and sisters in
happiness, and that God's goodness will shine through every word you use....

-- Author Unknown

Interesting FACTS.

FOUND THIS VERY INTERESTING.!!!!! 
       

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times! Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it is buried in the ground for thousands of years . Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end . If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off. Each year 2,000,000 smokers either quit smoking or die of tobacco-related diseases. Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals. Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers. The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year. Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent. Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above 450F. The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear. Nine out of every 10 living things live in the ocean. The banana cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man. Airports at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density. The University of Alaska spans four time zones. The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself. In ancient Greece , tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted. Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. A comet's tail always points away from the sun. The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent. Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines. The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity. If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of the day. When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight. In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed. Strawberries are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside. Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams. The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year. The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust. Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters. Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy. Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down. Everything weighs one percent less at the equator. For every extra kilogram carried on a space flight, 530 kg of excess fuel are needed at lift-off.

A Mahatma for our times.

What an exit, sudden but significant! So sudden, bereft of a formal farewell. But significantly, a departure of a great Teacher in the midst of his students. However, teachers we know never die. They live on in the lives of the students they have mentored. Mr. Abdul Kalam will live on in our memories and hopefully inspire every Indian to tread the path of intellectual excellence, moral integrity and social harmony.

The Nation promptly reacted to the shocking news with immense, spontaneous grief over the demise of India's most brilliant Nuclear Scientist,  an unmatched People's President and a loyal citizen, human to the core. Government News channels, private news agencies and socialnetworks, have since, opened the floodgates of 
profuse praise and admiration for Mr. Abdul Kalam. May it not remain mere lipservice which will fade as fast as it appeared.

Professor Kalam was an Indian, head and shoulders above the rest, be it in the field of Science, Public life and Social dealings. We may rightly consider him the Mahatma for our times and tainted India's solitary boast.  

Coping with 'old age'.

We spoke a lot about formation of the young when I myself was young. I thought the Youth phase of life was the challenging. Judging now from my own difficulties of coping with the problems of a 70 plus, I realize "old age'  brings us to an even more difficult phase of life and calls for formation of the whole self in order to arrive at a mature and graceful life of peace and contentment. Formation or no formation, I have certainly encountered and admired quite a few men and women, priests and religious in their advanced years who live the 'old age phase' so gracefully. But I have also come across cranky and bitter elders who are very difficult to please and live with. 
Now that I am already in this phase of 'old age', I realise the need for some spiritual and mental formation to understand that there is something new to learn in this phase which is far beyond the experiences of youth and middle age. I mean, I need to attend a course of "formation to Old age". Any such course being offered?

Servants or Friends.

The GC27 has offered us a theme or better an identity card of every Salesian called to be 'mystic, prophet and servant'. Serious efforts to delve into the "union with God" relation of Don Bosco, leads to a conviction that there is a mystical dimension to our Salesian Family spirituality which needs to be cultivated in our communities and in our personal lives, as a priority value, given the pressure of secularism and its worldly values. GC27's  choice of the term 'prophet' to witness to a fraternal life of communion is also relevant and apt, to offset the growing individualism and egoism that is creeping into our personal and community dealings.

While I subscribe enthusiastically to the call to be mystics and prophets, I wonder whether the salesian identity should include  the icon or paradigm of a 'servant of the young''. The word servant brings to mind a menial position, a mostly hired not voluntary service remunerated by a salary. To me, the term servant smacks more of a colonial or outdated image, perhaps not palatable to the younger generation of Salesians. We are certainly not 'hired shepherd' of the young. Besides, in actual life, as educators, we need to have an ascendency over our students, for the 'disciple is not greater than the Master. How then may we describe our relationship with the young? I suggest 'friend'.

Talking to the community of Apostles, Jesus says, I will not call you servants any longer, I will call you friends, because I have revealed to you all that the Father has told me. We note here, that the relationship of Jesus with his first community evolved from servanthood to friendship. Jesus gave a new meaning to the servant ministry. Even when He washes the feet of his apostles at the last supper, Jesus does so spontaneously as a gesture of love and concern rather than as an act of ritual purification performed by dutybound servants. Service for Jesus is not hired or paid servant ministry but a ministry of spontaneous, selfless and sacrificial love,

The choice of the term 'servant of the young' is new in salesian vocabulary. Don Bosoc was always considered the 'friend of the young'. We are familiar with some other terms, too, like 'shepherd of the young' or 'missionary of the young'. Since we talk today so much about the educator's role as 'accompaniment', a friend and not a servant describes better the quality of the relationship, Salesians ought to have with the young. Let's be friends with the young!

Formation to Transformation

The current concern in the Formation of priests and religious is about the very understanding of Formation and the actual role of Formators.
Formation is no more a set period of time, a package of courses or a terminal destination or point of arrival. Formation rather, is a 'process' that begins at birth and grows with the individual. More than talk about 'initial and ongoing formation, as distinct compartments, we speak today of lifelong formation process. Hence, even in the case of Religious formation, the process does not start at the phases of Prenovitiate and Novitiate but rather continues as a maturing process, accompanied by professional guidance of Formators. Today, insistence on personal responsibility obliges every Formee to be responsible for his/her religious formation, advisedly with the assistance of competent guides.  

God's Will versus Human expectations!

The tensions we face in life ultimately are the struggle between trustingly submitting to the Will of God and stubbornly striving to realise our human expectations.  The more we grow in our faith that God's Will is always wishing us peace and happiness, the less we will enforce our expectations that stir up ambition and anxiety in our lives. Let God happen in our lives for His Will is always more blessed than our expectations.