Dec
17

OBSTACLES: Stumbling Blocks or stepping stones?

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I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. - Christopher Reeve

Restlessness of mind, grumbling thoughts and monstrous fears begin to tickle a sense of frustration  inside me.  I am facing a brick wall! Frozen stiff, I let my mind wander back in time, searching for each particular  moments in my life when I decided to change  my journey or road trips. Scanning every event, all turns and curbs, an obstacle never failed to greet me along my path.

There and then, obstacle became my faithful companion. Initially, I started to complain of its insistence to follow my road and attention. Obstacle has a way of meddling with my time, with money, my health, my beliefs, my commitment and responsibilities, my relationships, my fears and goals etc. I cried at its presence, complaining of its persistent way to block and humiliate me.

Slowly in time, I discovered obstacle’s other side, a positive one. My attitude and paradigm towards it changed and its harsh ways taught me lessons in life :

Keep Learning

  1. In danger, I achieved courage.
  2. Between inspiration and desperation, I have a choice.
  3. In suffering, I learned patience.
  4. With illness, I found out the value my health, my senses, my body, my mind.
  5. With sadness, I appreciated happiness.
  6. After a bitter experience, I cherished its sweetest taste.
  7. With my limitations, I am exposed to go beyond my capabilities.
  8. After a defeat, I gained self-confidence.
  9. My lack of knowledge, focus and clarity confused me into making a mountain out of a mole hill. I discovered humour.
  10. With my gift of dream, I acquired knowledge of never giving up on it. “Remember and act on it”, I promised myself.
  11. In humiliation, I discovered that failure is learning, creativity, and innovation.
  12. In self-pity and solitude, I uncovered that conviction and love is movement.
  13. With failures, it harnessed my determination to form habits of success and not of failure.
  14. The only person responsible to see obstacles as a necessity, not a burden, is ME.
  15. In poverty, I realized what is essential in my life and enjoyed its simplicity like a child.
  16. Without obstacles, life would be boring and what a bland personality, with little character would  I have.
  17. With obstacles, my life became rooted in Faith. I need to believe in God because it uplifts my heart and gladdens my soul.

Now, I remember that trace when I accepted obstacle as my teacher. I thought I have learned its lessons. I guess, my life’s lesson is not enough, for obstacle is nodding at me again. It is dancing time again with obstacle. I have to practice my rhythm in various life’s music. Let’s leap and skip with obstacle even with a tear in our eye.

Now, close your eyes and imagine: a huge boulder on your way. What will you do?
You have three options: run into the boulder repeatedly, complain about the boulder being in the way, or find a way around the boulder.

Will you accept the boulder for what it is: an obstacle? I suggest that you accept that you cannot go through it. Do not panic, and waste time and energy worrying about the obstacle. Instead, make your own path around the obstacle, either over the boulder, around the boulder, or under the boulder.

T-shirt of Obstacle

I am challenging you to to be a hero as how I quoted Christopher Reeve  about obstacle.

Turn obstacles to your advantage, and move forward where others are afraid to go.

P.S.
The birth of Jesus   is not a fable but a story of overcoming endless obstacles like fear, rejection, politics, humiliation, murder, poverty of the manger, etc to give us hope and faith that in spite of everything,  LIFE is still beautiful!

Merry Christmas to each one of you!


OBSTACLE QUOTES

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” - John Quincy Adams

“The greatest obstacle to progress is prejudice.” - Bavee

The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant: a man should not be ruled by them; they are obstacles in his path.” - Bhagavad Gita

Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along too.” - Lawrence Bixby

The obstacles you face are… mental barriers which can be broken by adopting a more positive approach.” - Clarence Blasier

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge.” - Daniel J. Boorstin

You are the only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life.” - Les Brown

“The world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming it.” “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” -Hellen Keller

It’s the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance, sweeps away all obstacles.” - Claude M. Bristol

The lover thinks more often of reaching his mistress than the husband of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of escaping than the gaoler of shutting his door; and so, whatever the obstacles may be, the lover and the prisoner ought to succeed.” -Stendhal

A barrier is of ideas, not of things.” - Mark Caine

It is not necessary to hope in order to undertake, nor to succeed in order to persevere.” - Charles The Bold

The mere fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor…” - Robert Collier

The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a Wilderness.” - Havelock Ellis

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

A desire can overcome all objections and obstacles.” - Gunderson

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” - Sir Edmund Hillary

For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin, but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.” - Bette Howland

In each age men of genius undertake the ascent. From below, the world follows them with their eyes. These men go up the mountain, enter the clouds, disappear, reappear, People watch them, mark them. They walk by the side of precipices. They daringly pursue their road. See them aloft, see them in the distance; they are but black specks. On they go. The road is uneven, its difficulties constant. At each step a wall, at each step a trap. As they rise the cold increases. They must make their ladder, cut the ice and walk on it., hewing the steps in haste. A storm is raging. Nevertheless they go forward in their madness. The air becomes difficult to breath. The abyss yawns below them. Some fall. Others stop and retrace their steps; there is a sad weariness. The bold ones continue. They are eyed by the eagles; the lightning plays about them: the hurricane is furious. No matter, they persevere.” - Victor Hugo

When man meets an obstacle he can’t destroy, he destroys himself.” - Ryszard Kapuscinski

(more…)

Nov
21

Content theft

Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower. - Lady Marguerite Blessington, Countess of Blessington

Have you ever discovered your post in another site without being duly recognized as the original source of its contents? Or someone else has plagiarized your work as their own and you get wrongly accused of plagiarism?

Sad to say, I discovered some of my posts in various blogsites, in its entirety without any due credits. Intellectual thieves I do not know if I will be flattered that they liked my posts so much they took it as their own or should I show pity for these bloggers for their intellectual poverty?

According to this site which specializes in plagiarism:

“Changing the words of an original source is not sufficient to prevent plagiarism. If you have retained the essential idea of an original source, and have not cited it, then no matter how drastically you may have altered its context or presentation, you have still plagiarized.”

Plagiarism is an ancient craft. Famous personalities from literature, entertainment, history, academia, politics, journalism, science, etc were/are involved. The blogoshpere is half-filled with bloggers who paraphrase  or worse, lazy copycats who did not even mind of editing but just copied and pasted on their own site without giving proper linking to the author.

Should I call them textual vampire? Content or intellectual thief? Well, they are just devoid of any imaginations, experiences, style and grey matters.

However, my appreciation goes to  Mhaya , Tyriel , Bien Zoleta, Joiei  and many others for linking back to my posts.

PLAGIARISM QUOTES

They had their lean books with the fat of others’ works. - Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy–Democritus to the Reader

The incorrigible plagiarist

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein

About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment. - Josh Billings

Art is either plagiarism or revolution. - Paul Gauguin

Take the whole range of imaginative literature, and we are all wholesale borrowers. In every matter that relates to invention, to use, or beauty or form, we are borrowers. - Wendell Phillips

Their writings are thoughts stolen from us by anticipation. - Alexis Piron

Taking something from one man and making it worse is plagiarism. - George A. Moore

When Shakespeare is charges with debts to his authors, Landor replies, “Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims–Quotation and Originality

My books need no one to accuse or judge you: the page which is yours stands up against you and says, “You are a thief.” - Marcus Valerius Martial, Epigrams (bk. I, ep. 53)

Copy from one, it’s plagiarism; copy from two, it’s research. - John Milton, Iconoclastes (XXIII)

If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition. - Charles Caleb Colton

Originality is undetected plagiarism. - William Ralph Inge

I could tell you which writer’s rhythms I am imitating. It’s not exactly plagiarism, it’s falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it. - Charles Kuralt

No, generally I think influence is used as a nice word for plagiarism. - Gilbert Gottfried

Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service. -Michael Eyquen de Montaigne

There is nothing original; all is reflected light. - Honore de Balzac

We can say nothing but what hath been said . . . Our poets steal from Homer . . . . Our storydressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best. - Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy–Democritus to the Reader

Plagiarists are purloiners who filch the fruit that others have gathered, and then throw away the basket. - Paul Chatfield (a/k/a Horace Smith)

If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition. But in this respect every author is a Spartan, being more ashamed of the discovery than of the depredation. - Charles Caleb Colton

Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats. -Howard Aiken

I don’t like composers who think. It gets in the way of their plagiarism. -Howard Dietz

About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment. -Josh Billings

Art is either plagiarism or revolution. - Paul Gauguin

Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal. - Lionel Trilling

Plagiarism is intellectual fraud. - Barry R. Gross in his review of Theodore Pappas’ The Martin Luther King, Jr., Plagiarism Story.

Goethe said there would be little left of him if he were to discard what he owed to others. - Charlotte Cushman

Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation. - Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield

The Plagiarism of orators is the art, or an ingenious and easy mode, which some adroitly employ to change, or disguise, all sorts of speeches or their own composition, or that of other authors, for their pleasure, or their utility; in such a manner that it becomes impossible even for the author himself to recognize his own work, his own genius, and his own style, so skillfully shall the whole be disguised.- Isaac D’Israeli, Curiosities of Literature–Professors of Plagiarism and Obscurity

The high-tech industry has . . . put the youngsters into such a rip-burn-share frenzy that they have no inkling that intellectual property matters. The scary part? These are the same values that we’re seeing in the adult workplace. - Robin Raskin,former editor of PC Magazine and FamilyPC in a letter to the New York Times (April 7, 2005).

Our best thought comes from others. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oct
08

PURR MORE, HISS LESS

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never  saying a word too much” - Mark Twain

Birman cat“Never saying a word too much”, is one wisdom I discovered from my birman cat. I have come to understand its purring which means happiness or is in a traumatic or painful situation.

How do we, humans react in such conditions? We tend to complicate our emotions! Our relationship is often mixed with lack of trust, fear of loss of control, hesitancy to expose our vulnerability, doubt, and a resistance to relinquishing our own self-interest. What do we do then? We talk a lot! We want to be the center of attention. We want to inflict pain on someone else…verbal pain, especially when we are angry or hurt. We want to control the conversation or situation.

It is like the cat’s way of hissing. Unfiltered words can destroy a relationship. We should learn to put a lid on our lips and practice self-control.

We should know that the world around us has an intense charm to reap what we sow See, hear, speak no evil.
When we hiss, the world tends to hiss back. When we criticise, condemn, attack, act self-righteously, etc. we tend to see that strongly coming back at us like an enormous mirror.

Conversely, when we begin to purr, when we begin to show some understanding and even appreciation of the other, that is the energy that tends to come back at us. Then the situation can spiral upward.

This fundamental concept  applies to anything whatsoever—to any dispute, to any situation, to any relationship of whatever nature, to any feeling or thought that shows up inside of us—to anything at all.

This fable reminded me again the value of talking less. As Kathrine Palmer Peterson said: “Our words should be purrs instead of hisses. ”

“Lord, grant me the help of your Spirit to think about my words before they leave my mouth forever. Give me such love for You and others that I speak with THEM in mind, and not just myself. When I would speak angrily, grant me grace to put a lid on it! May I be seen and HEARD as wise because of both the QUALITY and QUANTITY of my words. Amen.”

Cat walking

CAT QUOTE

A cat’s got her own opinion of human beings. She don’t say much, but you can tell enough to make you anxious not to hear the whole of it. -Jerome K. Jerome

The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” - Leonardo da Vinci

In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.” - English Proverb

Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement and love without penalties.”
- W. L. George

The cat seldom interferes with other people’s rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life.” - Carl Van Vechten

Beware of people who dislike cats.” - Irish Proverb

You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats.” - Colonial American Proverb

With the qualities of cleanliness, affection, patience, dignity, and courage that cats have, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats?” - Fernand Mery

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” - Winston Churchill

If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then a cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.” - Doris Lessing

I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” - Hippolyte Taine

A meow massages the heart.” - Stuart McMillan

If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor, a cat will find it and soak it up. -J.A. McIntosh

If the pull of the outside world is strong, there is also a pull towards the human. The cat may disappear on its own errands, but sooner or later, it returns once again for a little while, to greet us with its own type of love. -Lloyd Alexander

A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather. -Judith Merkle Riley

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat. -Edgar Allan Poe

The cat seldom interferes with other people’s rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life. -Carl Van Vechten

Of all God’s creatures, there is only one that cannot be made slave of the leash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve the man, but it would deteriorate the cat.” - Mark Twain

With their qualities of cleanliness, discretion, affection, patience, dignity, and courage, how many of us, I ask you, would be capable of becoming cats?” - Fernand Mery Her Majesty the Cat

I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.” - Hippolyte Taine

Actually, cats do this to protect you from gnomes who come and steal your breath while you sleep. - John Dobbin

Don’t think that I’m silly for liking it, I just happen to like the simple little things, and I love cats! - Michelle Gardner

Everything I know I learned from my cat: When you’re hungry, eat. When you’re tired, nap in a sunbeam. When you go to the vet’s, pee on your owner. - Gary Smith

Cats come and go without ever leaving. -Martha Curtis

God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things. - Pablo Picasso

A dog will flatter you but you have to flatter the cat.”- George Mikes

You can keep a dog; but it is the cat who keeps people, because cats find humans useful domestic animals.”- George Mikes

You own a dog but you feed a cat.”- Jenny de Vries

Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia. -Joseph Wood Krutch

After scolding one’s cat one looks into its face and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word. And has filed it for reference. -Charlotte Gray

Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.” - Anonymous

A cat sees no good reason why it should obey another animal, even if it does stand on two legs.”- Sarah Thompson

Cats are kindly masters, just so long as you remember your place.”- Paul Gray

One must love a cat on its own terms.”- Paul Gray

For a man to truly understand rejection, he must first be ignored by a cat.” - Anon

When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me? -Michel de Montaigne, Essays, 1580

“I love cats because I love my home and after a while they become its visible soul.”- Jean Cocteau

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.” - Abraham Lincoln

There are two means of refuge from the misery of life - music and cats.” - Albert Schweitzer

There are few things in life more heartwarming than to be welcomed by a cat.”- Tay Hohoff

God made the cat in order that humankind might have the pleasure of caressing the tiger.”- Fernand Mery

Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them.”
- Jim Davis

Kittens are born with their eyes shut. They open them in about six days, take a look around, then close them again for the better part of their lives. -Stephen Baker

I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It’s not. Mine had me trained in two days. -Bill Dana

Your cat will never threaten your popularity by barking at three in the morning. He won’t attack the mailman or eat the drapes, although he may climb the drapes to see how the room looks from the ceiling. -Helen Powers

A dog, I have always said, is prose; a cat is a poem. -Jean Burden

The cat is the only animal without visible means of support who still manages to find a living in the city. -Carl van Vechten

• “Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”- Unknown

• “Dogs have owners, cats have staff.” - Unknown

One reason we admire cats is for their proficiency in one-upmanship. They always seem to come out on top, no matter what they are doing, or pretend they do.”- Barbara Webster