Taruns Thoughts

The Serenity prayer

2006-01-31T05:21:00.000-08:00

God grant me the serenity,
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as you did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that you will make all things right
If I surrender to your will;
That I may be reasonably happy with in this life,
And supremely happy with you
Forever in the next.

Why all the Cheer?

2006-01-25T15:40:00.000-08:00

God is there as well as here,
We need never feel alone,
He is always with his own;
And his star shines brightest when
'Tis darkest on the paths of Men
Therefore journey without fear,
Greet the unseen with a cheer.
Robert Browning

Our Desire - your Path!

2006-01-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

O lord, This is our Desire
to walk along the path of life you have appointed us
In steadfastness of faith,
in lowliness of heart,
In gentleness of love.
Let not the cares of this world press on us too heavily,
But lighten our burdens,
that we may follow your way in quietness,
filled with thankfulness for your mercy,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Maria Hare (1798 - 8170)

Begone unbelief.

2006-01-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

Begone unbelief; my Saviour is near,
And for my relief will surely appear;
By prayer let me wrestle, and he will perform;
With Christ in the vessel, I'm safe in the storm.

Though dark be the way, since he is my guide,
'Tis mine to obey, 'tis his to provide;
Though cisterns be broken and creatures all fail,
The word he has spoken shall surely prevail.

His love in time past forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each Ebenezer I have in review,
Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through.

How bitter that cup, no heart can conceive,
Which he drank right up that sinners can live;
His way was much rougher and darker than mine;
Did Jesus thus suffer, and shall I repine?

Since all that I meet shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, the medicine is food;
Though painful at present, 'twill cease before long;
And then, O how pleasent the conqueror's song!
* John Newton (1725 -80)

Faith

2006-01-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

When you come to the edge of all light you have known
And are about to step off into darkness,
Faith, is knowing there will be something to stand on,
Or you will be taught how to fly.
Faith is not a leap into the dark but a step into the light
A snap of my sister Tripti and me on the morning of my wedding (6 Sept 2003)

MY CANDLE!

2005-12-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

( A Poinsetia flower from our garden)
I read this from the Missions India - "Revival & Missions" newsletter Nov/Dec 2005.

I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded wih light" John keith Falconer. Scottish missionary

Thats real food for thought. This was taken from an article about the great work Missions India does in Rajesthan. It really depends on where we decide our candle of life needs to be placed!

(another of our garden flowers)

My strength

2005-12-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

"As thy day thy strength shall be!"
This should be enough for thee;
He who knows thy frame will spare
burdens more than thou canst bear. - Havergal
This was from this mornings Daily bread reading

(Picture of " TOAD HILL", from the campus)

What matters!

2005-12-17T20:22:00.000-08:00

Only one life will soon be past,
Only what's done for Christ will last!

This is a passage that inspired Anne's parents early in their lives.
They left a comfortable job to start an organization that now supports missionaries all over the country - Missions India.

(A lilly from the pond in front of our college chapel)

Faith

2005-12-17T01:53:00.000-08:00

Anne has been reading the Red sea rules over this week and shared a beautiful passage with me last night from there.
To quote " Faith, then, is simply finding and claiming the promises of God in every situation, and, based on assumptions, being fully persuaded that God has the power to do what he has promised."
Red Sea Rules - Robert J. Morgan

Faith is really something that I have come to understand a lot through this Illness, If I believe in God and his many promises then I can claim healing - what ever the percentages I'm give by the Doctors. If I didn't have my faith I can't Imagine how I would get through!

Peace.

2005-12-11T21:11:00.000-08:00

A poem by Kate Compston from 'Leaves from the Tree of Peace' edited by John Reardon.

Passed on by MC uncle and Anna aunty - a modified version.

Peace is like gossamer
vulnerable, yet indestructible;
tear it and it will not be rewoven.
Peace does not despair.
start in the centre
begin to weave a web of peace;
and make peace with yourself and your God.
Take the thread outwards and build peace within your family,
your community-and in the circle of those you find it hard to like.
Then stretch your concern into all the world.
Weave a web of peace and do not despair.
Love is the warp in the fabric of life;
truth is the weft;
care and integrity together vulnerable,
but ultimately indestructible.
Together, they spell Peace.

Lance Armstrong

2005-12-08T19:46:00.000-08:00

Mr R Santhanam (Hindustan Motors), Appa's friend sent me a copy of Lance Armstrongs book "It's not about the bike." The book was a great inspiration to me and there is a excerpt I found so good, it's worth a share. The following conversation is by his chemo nurse Latrice, and I wish I could be such a doctor - or everyone have an attitude of their roles in life.
"Lance" she said softly " I hope someday I'll be just a figment of your imagination. I'm not here to be in your life as a part of your life. After you leave, I hope, I never see you again. Hey when you are cured let me see you in the papers, on TV, but not back here. I hope to help you at a time you need me, and then I hope I'll be gone. You'll say "who was that nurse back in Indiana? Did I dream her?' "

The Joy of the Lord

2005-12-06T20:10:00.000-08:00

From What Dr. MC and Anna aunty gave us dt. 6th Dec.

can anything beat our chapel

2005-12-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

CMC chapel, sitting within the sunken gardens.

from my searching at another blog..

2005-12-06T01:26:00.000-08:00

http://survivingeveryday.blogspot.com/

The above is a link from a girl named teri, I've found her writing interesting and worth sharing, she has a fairly similar disease - and interesting thoughts....

"The past two years have proven to be quite a battle. On the fronts that I haven’t even really expected. When we all see movies about cancer, it’s the chemo and the radiation that do the character in. Or what they triumph over. I don’t know—to me that was the easy part. There were medications to combat the nausea. Creams to help the dry skin. It was finite—six rounds, here’s what you’re getting and on this day it would be over. Scan shows your clear, we’re done treating you. It’s the after. It’s the “what now?” part that I struggle with. I bridge two worlds—I feel like I carry the pain and the fear of having gone through the cancer with the reality that I’m not in a chemo chair but a work chair and the only radiation I’m getting is from my cell phone or computer. I don’t have cancer. The only vestiges of it that I have to deal with are the scars on my chest and my neck and the six month CT Scans. My doctor told me that getting through cancer is like experiencing a loss, as real as losing a sibling. And I thought of the way that we often handle the death of a loved one. We hold on to them and bring them to the forefront as much as possible because we simply can’t, or won’t, forget. You know that life has to go on, but how can you honor and remember while still moving forward? How do you get to the next step when you’re still stuck in some of the pain? I don’t know if there are any answers. I think we first have to acknowledge that any grieving process takes months, years, to heal through. There are some things we get good at, some things we find ourselves always working on, and some stuff we’ve decided we simply can’t change. I have spent the past year thinking I’m somehow damaged in ways that can’t be repaired. I’ve been so critical on myself—I should look like this, I should feel like this, I should be doing this—because of this unrealistic notion that there is no room for imperfection. That in order to erase the cancer, I have to prove that I’m more than what I was. But I’m not. I’m no more damaged than anyone else. I’ve been playing into the very things that I’ve asked people not to do. So, I think that it’s time that I stop this phase of my life. The past few weeks have been so much upheaval for me and in a lot of good ways. I’ve been forced to look at the person I’ve become and why do I keep trying to get back to something that probably wasn’t even there in the first place. And stop focusing on all that I’ve lost and look at what I’ve been able to gain. I’m not going to be making any more entries for now. I’m not cured. I’m not 100% fixed. I’m not anywhere near where I hope that someday I will be. But I think in dwelling so much on what is wrong with me, I’m damaging a relationship that I really treasure. And if anything, I need to mend my heart and move on, before I lose something else. And the only way to do that is focus on the now and who I am today, and be positive about all that I’ve gotten through and all that there is out there. The possibility of more. Thanks for reading. I hope that you find something useful in the other entries, for other young cancer survivors or someone experiencing the illness, or friends, or just life in general."

The Brick

2005-12-06T01:23:00.000-08:00

THEBRICK
A young and successful executive was traveling down aneighborhoodstreet, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watchingfor kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick hadbeen thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't knowwhat else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else wouldstop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said."He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lumpin his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay."Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy! pushhis wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage wasvery noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door.He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to getyour attention!"
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It'sour choice to listen or not.
Thought for the Day:God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow,sun withoutrain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.Read this line very slowly and let it sink in... If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.