Journey On...

"It is better to travel well than to arrive." ~ Buddha

It's 45 minutes to midnight here and as I packed the last item of clothing, this line hit home. I have a flight to board in six hours and as I make my way towards Delhi, Jaipur and Jodhpur (for the latest book), I am quite sure Buddha's reference to travel is metaphorical. Even then, I can't help but draw similarities between the metaphor and literal sense.

'Life is a journey' may be one of the most overused phrases, however how many of us understand that the journey refers to a spiritual one. Our spiritual journey here on Earth determines the well-being of our soul. When Buddha stated the above, he meant that it is always better to travel well because having arrived means the ceasing of the journey; in effect the end of our spiritual path. As long as we're on Earth, it's imperative to travel metaphorically and literally. Our spiritual journeys and physical ones introduce us to people, cultures and different ways of lives. 

It's spiritually enhancing to see and experience how different regions, call for different ways of life. And amidst all these dissimilarities, we discover a common thread - the bond of love; the lifeline that connects us all. As I ready for my travel, I am excited about research and interviews for the book, but also about discovering the people and the place. While Delhi is a buzzing city quite like any other, I can't wait to get to Jaipur and Jodhpur, run my fingers through the desert sand, watch every individual grain glisten and make their way back to the desert. Our spiritual life is quite like the desert sand; we are all tiny grains in the larger scheme of God's plan. When life holds out its fist and grasps us, eventually the beautiful wind comes and frees us as we make our way back to the desert... to fit into the larger scheme of God's plan.

Yes, life is a journey and we may face bends, sharp turns, smooth highways and pot-holed roads along the way, however, our spiritual learning is priceless. Remember, when God presents us with one problem, he also presents us with several solutions; our real problems lie with us focusing on the problem instead of the solution.

Whenever we feel the desert sun beating down on us, look around and we will see a family that makes up the whole world who are right there with us. We have a long way to travel and our journey has only begun, let's accept God's plan for us and allow him to lead us on.

As I get ready to catch some shut-eye before my flight, I leave you all with lots of love, prayers, blessings and peace. I may not be able to write daily over the next week, but I promise to do so when I can. In the meanwhile, know this; I am praying for you and with you every day. And as I send out my prayers and blessings to you, I believe that the good Lord is showering you all with his choicest blessings always and forever.

Have a fabulously blessed day everyone and an even better week. :) I may not be writing for the next week on account of my travels, but please know that each of you are in my heart and prayers always. God bless you all eternally.

P.S: I can't wait to write back. I know our good Lord has a beautiful adventure planned and I will have so much more to share in a week. :)   

Blessings, Dear Blessings

Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what Lord hath done, count your blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done...

Good morning everyone, I hope that everyone's cheery at the beginning of a new work week. As I hum this lovely tune to myself, I can't help but smile (to myself). :) God, Yahweh, Bhagwan, Allah - we may give him different names, sing different songs of worship and praise, have different ceremonies, but in essence, all of us pray to one God, on creator, one master of the universe, one master of our souls.

I found it particularly difficult to leave my bed this morning, however, the moment my heart started humming this tune, I was up in a jiffy. My heart gave me a little admonishing and said, "No morning blues at all. Don't you realise that the morning is the best part of one's day." As if on cue, it then started humming this lovely hymn. :) You know, sometimes, we really do need to count our blessings to realise how gracious the good Lord has been.

So, before we begin our work-week, let's all count our blessings shall we? We've been blessed with a heart that's capable of selfless, unconditional love - what a beautiful gift feeling love is, isn't it. Love for our parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, partners, children, pets, nature and all of human-kind and animal-kind; what a wonderful feeling to love everyone ever so much. We've been blessed with souls that feel - joy and happiness, pain and sorrow, excitement, amusement, crazy abandonment are just a few feelings out of countless that we feel and experience. And all these feeling and emotions contribute to our spiritual growth. We've been blessed with an intuition and an imagination - sometimes we don't need eyes to see and experience some of the most beautiful sights and feelings; sometimes we don't need ears to hear some of the most beautiful sounds. A person with no sight can paint the most beautiful picture of life and a person who can't hear can sing the most amazing tunes. (This is one of those times, when we experience life at a different level and learn to love and appreciate her for all she is) We've been blessed with a will - a will to fulfill our dreams and the dreams of others too. The will to be able to initiate and change this wold for the better, to conserve what's left of mankind, nature and animal-kind and preserve them for generations to come. We've been blessed with a brain - we stand up against injustice and have the ability and power to right a wrong. We've been blessed with strength - to deal with and go past difficult situations in life. No matter what the outcome, the experience and ability to go through a touch situation sanctifies our spirits. More importantly, we've all been blessed with feelings - feelings to feel for oneself and the rest of humanity. Now this indeed is really something; something so pure, so deep, so beautiful that words fail to do it justice.

Indeed, when I count my blessings today, I am happy that the good Lord has blessed everyone and myself with these spiritual gifts. Our blessings are all these and so much more. Everything in this physical world is transitional, but these blessings from are creator will nurture our spirits eternally.

We've been blessed because we have another day to love, feel, make a difference for the better, experience life at her spiritual best and live, really live. I've counted my precious blessings for today, and I will make sure that I continue counting them. Have you started counting already?

Have a fabulously blessed day everyone. :)