Naseeb Khan

There are no winners in wars. There are only those who lose less. Wars force humans to use their best minds to do their worst deeds. Killing one of our own debases us as a species and changes us in a permanent and dark manner. Only very few species kill their own kind. The Preying Mantis, the Black Widow spider, lions and tiger sharks are some examples. Monkeys willkill rival troupes of monkeys. These animals at least do so from their own will and instinct. Humans kill their fellow humans for reasons that can range from the trivial (I just feel like it) or to the serious (I hate you) or to the ultimate (I want your stuff). Wars gives permission to one set of us to mutilate, maim, murder, rape, gore, shoot, smother and hack at other fellow humans. Wars allow us to pillage and burn and destroy. It truly represents the ultimate in human debasement. There are only two seemingly justifiable reasons for war. The first is self defense. The other is to free others who cannot defend themselves against a tyrant or oppressor. That’s it. Even in this case, only the minimum killing should be done to right these wrongs. I hope for a day when we humans with all our technology and our intelligence can really create a world where wars will be a thing of the past. Peace!

We erect our own prisons when we choose to define ourselves by our circumstances and our condition. We are always distinct and greater than these things. We must first recognize that we may not always have the power to significantly change our condition, such as a chronic illness. We may not be able to easily change our circumstance such as a poor person in a third world village. What we have all been given though is the power of perception and thought. We can look at our situation and become depressed and negative by asking such useless questions as “why me?”, “why now?”, and feel that our life is now useless and over. So many of us cuff ourselves with these self-made shackles by feeling and thinking we are helpless and useless. We begin to feel that we are unimportant and that life has given us a bad deal. If only we can rise above this perceived misery and realize how fortunate we are. The world is full of so many that will always be ten times worse than us. It is also full of many of those who found a way to cope and triumph past their difficulties and calamities. Helen Keller despite being blind and deaf was able to get a Bachelors Degree and wrote many books. She made the decision that she was bigger than her condition and was not defined by it. She inspires all of us to seek our best life regardless of what our present condition may be. Break those shackles today!

The key to a life of accomplishment is to find out what it is that you are passionate about and then give it your all. Each of us shows up in this world with some unique gifts and talents. When we fail to become passionate and connected to this gift or talent, we rob humanity of this benefit. Seek to discover your gift and then make it your life’s work to deliver this to humanity no matter what the obstacle or difficulty. In doing so you will find a joy that cannot be described. You will have lived a life of fulfillment.

Every morning upon waking up, do not just jump out of your bed in a mad rush to take on the day. Rather take a few brief moments and reflect on the fact that you did wake up. So much could have taken place in the night when you were unconscious and helpless. You were given the privilege to see another day; a chance to make this new day the best one that you have lived so far; an opportunity to make the world a better place by your actions today; a realization that you are special and that your condition or circumstance does not define you. So as you rise each day it must be with excitement and gratitude. It is truly the most precious gift that you can have. A chance to live another day! Smile and go make it the best day yet.

No matter what you do, you cannot bring the past back to life. It is gone. The game of “what if” that we play with ourselves is useless activity. What if I had not smoked when I was pregnant, my child would not have been born with a hearing defect? What if I had invested that money instead of gambling it away, I would not be so poor today? What if I had gone back to school and completed my studies… and so on. This negative and useless game allows us to become immobilized in our present and makes our future an even bleaker one. The past is for us to have memories and to draw lessons. It is never for blame or regret. Do not become so attached to the past that we ignore the present. The present is all we have. Even though we can never change the past, we can always change the present. It is really all we have. As for the future, we hope for the best but we will have a chance to fix it when it shows up as the next present moment.

Changes are of two kinds. Some we make and some are made for us.

Those that we cannot control are: our teeth falling out in our youth and our teeth falling off in our old age.

Changes we can control are: to eat healthy, to exercise, to change course, to give up bad habits, to sever connections with toxic relationships, to be kind, to worship God and to avoid waste of all kind.

Obstacles to change are: fear of the unknown, fear of risk, fear of being ridiculed, fear of moving away from our comfort zone, being unable to see the new benefit.

There can be no growth without change, so embrace it as a friend. Your best life will only be lived when you are willing to change at each step of the way.

Remember the old saying, “the ship that is scared to leave the shore, will never experience the thrill of discovering new lands.”

Whenever I look at a banana, I realize that there is some intelligence in the world that is beyond our human understanding. This amazing fruit which is so tender gets wrapped in its own soft blanket. This blanket is waterproof, bug-proof and dust-proof. Yet it can be torn so easily to reveal the delicacy inside. Order and precision seems to be paramount in the production of this fruit. As to who did this, the debate between us humans continues. God or no God is our question and our search. I look at the coconut, the caterpillar, the pineapple and the turtle and know that my mind is not equipped to handle the supposition that these are random events unconnected to order and intelligence. I would prefer to err on the side of assuming that they are rather than deny their reality before me as being random events of nature. You can make your own decision the next time you eat a strawberry or crunch a potato chip.

There’s a French proverb: “Beauty unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume”.

Beauty has a power that draws the human psyche to it. It intoxicates us to the extent that we become blind to look beyond its dazzling exterior. In its embrace, we forget that function is more important than form and substance more important than appearance. The reality only hits us when that beauty fades as all beauty will, eventually. We are then left with nothing. Choose beauty but only as choice number two, for even greater than beauty itself is the number one choice: virtue.

Babies are masters of crying.

Adults hate to cry.

Some animals such as apes, camels and elephants have been known to shed tears.

We cry in anger, in fear, in grief, happiness, in frustration, in remorse, in pain and in laughter.

The religious devotees cry and shed tears in worship to their God.

It is the universal, human way of relieving the body of momentary discomfort whether this is due to sadness or happiness.

Tears matter only when we can wipe them away quickly and take on the world again.

Let the tears flow. Let the eyes be cleaned to see our challenges from a new perspective.

Say thanks to the babies who have discovered this wonderful gift of communication and healing.

Each day they teach us how to cry!