Nugget # 125 Life lessons from the Disney Movie SOUL

Hi friends,

 This week I’d like to share a few life lessons from the Disney movie SOUL. The movie has got layers and layers of meaning that we could draw from, however I would like to share a few soul touching parts for me! 😊

The story begins with a music teacher Joe Gardner teaching his bored students’ music. He himself is not very thrilled with his job. His dream has always been to play Jazz for a living. As the movie proceeds, we see how he finally gets an opportunity for a gig with a jazz musician Dorothea Williams at the Half-note Club. He is extremely excited at finally being able to live his dream…. Unfortunately, he slips into a manhole and thus falls into a coma. His disembodied soul finds himself in a queue to the ‘Great Beyond.’ Terrified of dying, he runs in the opposite direction exclaiming that he absolutely couldn’t die without playing jazz with Dorothea and tries desperately to reach back to earth so that he could audition for his part and thus land the job he has been waiting for his whole life.

He then reaches the ‘Great Before’ where he becomes part of a mentorship program where mentors help mentees find their spark to enable them to be ready for earth. Joe is assigned Number 22; an impossible candidate who is so cynical after having been rejected by great mentors such as Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali, Carl Jung and the like. Together Joe & 22 try different passions like art, photography, cooking, music, archery etc in the Hall of Everything but nothing appeals to 22. Finally, they reach earth via “the ZONE” with the help of Moonwind (a spiritual sign twirler) who helps locate Joe’s body and helps in sending Joe back to earth. The only problem being that Joe accidentally enters the therapy cat’s body and 22 into Joe’s body. Thus begins an interesting journey during which 22 finds her spark enjoying the little things in life. Having discovered the real joy of living, 22 really doesn’t want to leave Joe’s body. Angrily Joe tells 22 that the reason 22 got her badge complete was not because she had found her purpose but because she was living through Joe’s body. A broken 22 throws him her completed badge and leaves. Using her badge Joe returns to the earth. Despite his jazz show becoming a success, Joe still feels a deep vacuum in his heart. Inspired by the items that 22 had collected while on earth, Joe plays the piano and enters the Zone with the intent of returning 22’s badge. He finds her but discovers she has become a lost soul, obsessed with the idea that she has no purpose. Joe chases her down and shows her a helicopter seed she had collected to remind her of her time on Earth. Joe’s actions restore 22 to normal; he returns her badge and accompanies her for as long as he can on her journey down to Earth. As Joe prepares to enter the Great Beyond, he is offered another chance at life in return for finally inspiring 22 to live. The next morning, Joe returns to his body on Earth, committed to living life fully.

Life lessons:

1)Our spark- (that which brightens us and gives us the joy or thrill in life) need not really be our soul’s purpose– We see that all his life Joe lived an unsatisfied life not realizing how blessed he really was as he was always chasing his unfulfilled dream of becoming a professional jazz player. Music may be what brought him excitement in his life but that was not the sole point of his existence. Similarly, in our life too there may be many things that excite us- our passions that bring us to life, but we must realize that just chasing those moments will never bring us real joy in life. A truly happy person is one who enjoys the realities of life with its ups and downs and considers it a bonus when they get opportunities to do what they really love to do. In other words “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans!”- John Lennon

2) It is the many small moments altogether that make up our life – The little objects that 22 had collected during her short time on the earth- a half-eaten bagel, a lollipop from the barber shop, a spool of thread from Joe’s mother, a stub of a subway ticket and a helicopter seed brings back to mind Joe’s mind the beautiful moments that they had together and the importance of just living in the moment and savoring every bit of it. 22 , while occupying Joe’s body simply loved the wind brushing against his clothes and hair, relished every bit of the pizza, appreciated Connie trying her best not to give up playing the trombone, enjoyed listening to the life story of Dez the barber. 22 got her spark from enjoying the tiniest things around her – which was the opposite of Joe who was so busy chasing his jazz dream that he was ignorant of his many everyday reasons to smile. “Every moment in our lives is a miracle we should enjoy instead of ignoring.”- Yoko Ono

Let me conclude this week’s post with this quote reminding us to savor every moment of our life because that’s what life really is all about!

Nugget of Life – “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”- Omar Khayyam

Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Sparky laurie

 

Nugget # 123 Life Lessons from ‘THE LIFT BOY’!

Hi friends,

This week I would like to share with you some Life Lessons I got from ‘The Lift Boy’ ; a  heart-warming Indian family movie.

The story is about the life of a lazy 24 year old engineering student Raju who is forced to take up his father’s job as a Lift Operator in a posh residential complex when his father faces a heart failure and is advised rest. What starts as an irritating and temporary arrangement for Raju happens to change his life altogether!

Life lessons-

1)Dignity of Labour- On their first meeting itself, we see the snobbish Raju laughing condescendingly when Mrs Dsouza, the owner of the building asks him whether he has any relevant experience to fill in for his father’s job. We see many other instances when he feels its below his dignity to be a lift boy , one being when he tells his mother that being a lift boy is just pressing buttons and asks her whether he has studied engineering to do just that? There’s also an instance when his father asks him to iron his uniform and Raju just straightens it with his hands and reminds his father that he is not a doctor but just a liftman and so that’s all what’s needed.

“Show respect for everyone who works for a living , regardless of how trivial their job.”- H Jackson Brown Jr.

2) Not everything that seems insignificant is really so- During the course of the movie, we see a painting on the wall inside the lift. There’s hardly anything noticeable about it. Its just a painting of a yellow lollipop ,seemingly insignificant ….but only towards the end we realize how important that small painting actually was!

“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”- Camille Pissaro

3) Never be afraid to try something new- When ‘Princess’, a pretty young resident of the building shares a lunch box with Raju- he at first refuses it but later tries and actually enjoys it.

“If you’ll never try, you’ll never know!”

4) Cherish opportunities to make memories- Its really heartwarming to hear Mrs Dsouza narrate to Raju her love story and later take him to church to meet her late husband, Colin. These few moments she shares with Raju gives him the necessary information about her ; later on in the story. As they say , Life is fragile. Take nothing and no one for granted.

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”- Dr Seuss

5) Never push your unfulfilled dreams onto your children- In the lift, we hear Princess & Raju exchange childhood stories. Princess shares about how from the time she was born, her mother has been pushing her to become an actress because of her unfulfilled dream of becoming an actress and how all that Princess wanted was to be an ordinary 18 year old girl. Raju shares how he had to accompany his mother to different houses as she worked as a maid.

 It is a turning point in the story when his father reveals to Raju that Mrs Dsouza has been the sponsor of his education all this while and how his dad was indebted to her because of that. So his dad asks him to focus on his studies and become an engineer. It is with sadness in his voice that Raju reveals to Mrs Dsouza about how his father had forced him to take engineering when his real love was Art- reading and writing.

“Children are born persons superior to us by virtue of their innocence & sovereign to fulfil their own destiny.”

6) Do your best and leave the rest – When Mrs Dsouza ( an artist from Cambridge University) hears about Raju’s repeated failure in his engineering Drawing exam, she decides to take him under her wing and help him in his preparation. During this time, on one occasion, Raju asks her a question that crosses any exam student- He asks her what if after all this preparation, I do not pass? She answers, “We shall reprepare & give it another shot. Just focus on being as prepared as you can & give it your best. Don’t think about the outcome.”

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”

7) Life is Abstract! – Raju asks Mrs Dsouza whether she has had a dream or something she wanted to achieve in her life. She replies that she had wanted to have children but it never happened. The brokenness in her had made her such a beautiful person. She then adds that she wanted to paint a Masterpiece …something that she would be remembered for. The curious and eager Raju asks her what it is about it and she replied that it was about Hope and was a work in progress. He replies that that was such an abstract concept and she replied that Life too was Abstract ! ( there’s nothing concrete about it!)

“My strength did not come from Lifting Weights but lifting myself up when I was down.”

Towards the end of the movie, we catch a glimpse of her Masterpiece. It’s indeed a painting that she would forever be remembered for!

8) One Act of Kindness Can Change the World! – While having supper, one day Raju asks Mrs Dsouza why she had been so selfless and kind to him, after all he was just the “Lift Man’s Son.” She replied that “he was more than that to her.” She then begins to narrate how on one day about 20 years ago, while she was with her husband Colin in the lift, she was crying as they had realized that she could never have children. The little Raju seeing her so sad hands over his yellow lollipop to her! A gesture that had changed all  of their lives and brought them all together that day. She then reminds him that she could spend so much time with him because of his failure in his exam and thanks him for their relationship. He too thanks her and touches her feet for her blessing. She hugs him and blesses him.

“No act of kindness, however small is ever wasted.”- Aesop

9) Don’t let today go by, tomorrow may not come–  Raju performs the exam well and is in a hurry to meet his teacher but it is then that his dad gives him the sad news that Mrs Dsouza passed away in her sleep early that morning. He adds that they would have to take care of her last rites as they were the only family she had. As she had earlier taken him to see her husbands grave they know where she needed to be buried. All the inmates attend her funeral.

“…Act ,act in the living Present. Heart within and God Overhead.”- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Sparkylaurie

 

Nugget # 100 Life lessons from a Sun flower!

Hi friends,

This week I’d like to share  life lessons from the sunflower. We all know how a sunflower looks, it’s a bright yellow flower resembling the sun. It has pretty yellow petals and a brown center which is actually composed of little florets. The sunflower belongs to the genus Helianthus annus. “Helios” meaning sun in Greek and “annus” meaning annual. The name is believed to have originated from the flower’s connection to the sun both in looks and behavior!

The part that intrigues me is that the sunflower always faces the sun. The sunflower is called a mystical flower which follows the sun from the east to the west from its rising to its setting. This phenomenon of solar tracking by the immature sunflowers is called heliotropism. The real reason for it being its narrow neck where most of the cell expansion occurs. This takes place at different rates on different sides of the stem. So, in the morning, most of this growth is on the West side of the stem so the flower tilts to the East; later on in the day we find stronger & faster growth on the north side, so the flower becomes tilted and so on until the evening when it ends up facing West. At night, the growth is on the West side so at the beginning of the day it is facing East again.

Life lessons:

1) The narrow neck of the flower is the actual reason for the sun-ward tilt – In life too we may have to go through narrow/hard areas or have weaknesses that cause us to turn towards God for strength.

2) It is the immature flowers that actually do solar tracking, once matured, the sunflowers no longer exhibit heliotropic behavior as the stem is generally frozen in an eastward facing position.-Similarly as we progress in life, our inconsistencies slowly begin to reduce & we begin to develop steady & consistent patterns of behavior which keep us stable in our faith. Like the old sunflower, no matter whether we can see the light or not, we remain steadfast in our Eastward location. We no longer vacillate from our position in uncertainty as we have now come to know the heart of God so intimately that we know for sure that He will come through for us no matter what we face. So dear friend, let me encourage you today, no matter how hard your present moment is, hang in there, don’t lose hope. Things always get worse before they get better. It’s always darkest before the dawn! Face the sun and stay immovable, the sun will undoubtedly come around the next morning and you will be glad that you stood your ground. 🙂

Nugget of Life : “Hope is like the sun which as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”-Samuel Smiles

Have a hope- filled weekend! See you next week,

Cheers,

Sparky laurie

Ref : http://www.sunflowerguide.com/facts-about-sunflowers.html

 

Nugget # 99 Life lesson from a pair of 3D glasses!

Hi friends,

With the summer vacation here, my elder son and I were watching the adventure movie Spy Kids.  Having finished Part 1& 2, we were eager to see Part 3. I repeatedly tried different movie links to find the 3^rd part online but was disappointed for the movie kept appearing blurred. Wondering why this was the case with all the links, I checked again. It is then that I noticed the title which said Spy Kids 3D. The movie was intended to be watched with 3D glasses, only then would it appear clear. That set me thinking & thus was born this week’s nugget! 🙂

The technology behind how the 3 D glasses work is simply to recreate the way humans see normally. In other words, since our eyes are about 2 inches apart, they see the same picture from slightly different angles. Our brain then correlates the images it sees in the 2 eyes; this is called binocular vision. 3 D glasses work on this principle. A 3D film viewed without the glasses is a strange sight as it appears fuzzy or out of focus. With the help of the 3D glasses, the same scene is now projected simultaneously from red and blue colored filters which separate the 2 different images so that each image enters only 1 eye. Our brain puts the 2 pictures back together and thus we see the image in a third dimension making us feel part of the action instead of being a mere spectator ! Hence we dodge the flying meteor or scream in excitement as objects fly off the screen.
As we apply this same principle to our life, we can see that just as in the matter of the 3D movie, the different angles was the real cause of the blurry images which could be corrected by using the 3D glasses. Similarly our outlook on life depends greatly on the perspective we choose to view it from.

There are many problems in life that we could easily overcome if we would just see things from a fresher perspective. For instance, a person we know rushes past us and we presume it was just because they wanted to avoid us but in reality the person may not even have noticed us or even could’ve been rushing to use the washroom 🙂  I’ve learnt that the best thing to do in any situation is to always believe the best of everybody. If something may still be troubling us, we could try to clear the air by initiating a friendly chat with them. Sometimes people may just require some time alone to process things and cool off. But most often,when we choose to speak openly rather than make assumptions/ jump to conclusions,  we would be surprised as to how complicated our minds may unnecessarily make things.  Often this feedback would give us input to improve our communication skills.At best, the bond may be strengthened as qualities like genuine concern, honesty and authenticity are the best ingredients for a good friendship.

Often a closed door may be God’s way of redirecting us to something better. Instead of banging on that door till it breaks down or till our fists bleed, we could trust Him for He sees the bigger picture. He knows what’s best for us and will ensure that everything will work out for our benefit & open the right door at the right time. I am reminded of the time when my hubby as a teenager had to cancel a much awaited hiking trip planned with his friends as he was suddenly diagnosed with chicken pox. All his friends were going and there he was stuck at home itching all over! It may not have made sense to him at that time. In fact, it may even have seemed unfair at that time , however it made sense to him the following day when he heard the heart-wrenching news of how all his four friends who had gone for the trip had been sucked in by a sudden water spiral current and had drowned in the river they were swimming that evening. Had my hubby not fallen sick,he would’ve  gone with them & may have been the 5th victim of that unfortunate tragedy.Talking about perspective, what had appeared to him as an irritating, untimely obstacle was actually a perfectly timed blessing by the protecting hand of the All Knowing God. We can thus be comforted on our worst day that the very thing we may grumbling about, may actually be our biggest blessing in disguise. The best approach in life for us is : 1) to always be thankful for everything; whether or not it makes sense & 2) to live in the moment.“Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.”-Soren Kierkegaard .

     

 

Nugget of Life: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”- Marcel Proust

Have an awesome week!

Cheers,

Sparky Laurie

 

Nugget # 98 Life lesson from a bunch of keys!

Hi friends,

This week I’d like to share a nugget that came to me a few days ago as I was locking our front door. After fiddling for some time with the key turning it over and over again in the lock, I said, “I wonder why this key just won’t turn.” That’s when my hubby called out to me, “are you sure you have the right key in?” That made me quickly check and I realized that I had the wrong key in. I then inserted the other similar key in the bunch. This time all it took was just one turn and voila! … Effortlessly the deed was done…door locked, we were ready to go!

That’s when this nugget dawned on me. Though the two keys in the bunch I used looked almost identical, they were not the same. Each was made for a different lock and only when the right key was put in, would it work.

Let me apply this key principle to different aspects of our everyday life:

1)Finding our Life purpose: We are all like the keys; having a special & specific purpose to accomplish. Only when we are rightly placed will we flourish or else we will always be dissatisfied or at the most we will try to put in our bare minimum. However, when we find out what we really enjoy and try our hand at that, no matter how small or insignificant it may start out, we will work with a spirit of excellence and that will lead to success.

HARD WORK + PASSION =SUCCESS. 

I’m reminded of the quote by Confucius: “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Meaning that when we try something we love, we would enjoy it so much, we wouldn’t even call it work!

2) Relationships: All of us know people who we just meet and instantly connect without much effort. They usually with time, become our closest friends, maybe even our spouses. Such people are God-sent, one in a million! These are the ones the very thought of whom brings a smile to our face. The ones we click perfectly with just like the right key in the right lock!

3)Timing: Another area we could apply the key principle is in timing.When things don’t happen at the time when we want it to and we are forced to wait, we get impatient/ frustrated. We may even try hard to make things happen in our strength just as I had been struggling trying to fit the wrong key in the lock. Instead of messing things up, we need to learn to trust in Gods perfect timing. Eccl 3:1, 11-12“….there’s a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven….God has made everything beautiful for its own time. …. So I concluded that there’s nothing better for Gods people than to be happy and enjoy themselves for as long as they can.”-Bible

Thus we see that just as the right key in the right lock can open and shut things, similarly when we are in the right place,with the right people at the right time, miracles happen! Life becomes beautiful! 🙂

Nugget of Life: “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein.

 Have a awesome week!

Cheers,

Sparky laurie

 

Nugget# 97 Life lessons from Baby N!

Hi friends,

As I was pondering on what to write this week, my one year old said forcefully “Sha”…I had heard baby N  say that word before and was wondering from where he had learnt it. I said “No Shaa baby… don’t say Shaa..”  But he continued to repeat it over and over again. There were many words that I had been repeating and reciting to him and he was learning; but here was this expression …that he had effortlessly picked up….and was repeating.

Later that afternoon as I was clearing up after lunch, I noticed baby quickly crawl into the kitchen and pick up something from the kitchen floor and put it into his mouth… “Sha”… escaped my lips as I ran to take that particle from baby’s mouth and quickly dispose it off. That’s when I realized to my utter amazement the source from where baby N had picked up his new fav phrase! 

That set me thinking…

1)How often when we act mindlessly or sometimes due to preoccupation with many things, we may  respond in a way that may not even be aware of.

2)People who look up to us often catch the things we least expect them to and so we have to make a deliberate effort to be intentional (as much as possible) with our words as they do influence others.

To continue the story,  I couldn’t help laughing out aloud as I watched my lil one’s mischievous grin & sparkling  eyes as he was enjoy repeating “Sha” every time I tried to make him stop.

Let me apply this nugget to our life. Whenever we find imbalance in any area of our life, we usually think of change. To facilitate this,(full of good intentions) we make resolutions as we decide to strengthen our will to say “NO” to the addiction (be it food, TV, sports, work, people, shopping, drugs etc) Ironically, though we may succeed initially, it is only a matter of time that we will soon get tired of resistance & throw in the towel.

By doing this, we repeat the mistake that I made when correcting my baby. While correcting him, I had tried to make him stop by focusing fully ONLY on what needed to be changed. Unknowingly I had drawn both of our attention to that which we actually needed to forget. Was it any surprise that he remembered that word perfectly? The right way to correct baby was to teach him another word or to distract him or to entertain him with something more interesting that would make him forget what he was repeating. The same thing applies to us. Sharing  below some practical tips to help us overcome old habits /learn new ones.

Sparky Laurie’s 10 Rs to either learn /unlearn something: 

1. Reason – Prepare a Declaration of Freedom for ourselves by listing the reasons why we choose to break free from that habit or learn a new way of life.
2. Remind – Keep a print out of the Declaration (mentioned above) in front of us to empower us as we realize that we have chosen to break the power of the bad habit over us and be its slave no more/ Or work intentionally towards the goals we plan to achieve.
3. Replenish – When we are tempted (to give in or give up),we could think of an appealing alternative action that we could engage in rather than use that time and energy in combat.
4. Relate –  Seek a support system, for instance call up a favorite friend/parent/ relative  and converse about anything else except our struggle. No matter how many times it tries to creep into the conversation, switch gears. Give it neither our attention nor our time.
5. Repeat- Say aloud, “I am made for better things than this. I will live my life to its fullest.”
6. Review – Make a bucket list of the impossible things we would like to try in our life time. Even updating it when we hit our lowest point would uplift us and bring us back on track.
7. Relax-Take a break, go out for a walk, breathe slowly. Get some sunshine. Feel the breeze. Smell the flowers. Thank God for life.
8. Refresh –Do something for brightening up someone else’s day. Give someone a lift, smile at a passerby.
9. Rejoice- Watch a Madea movie and laugh out loud… its wisdom and humor all in one!
10. Recreate –Everyone is made in the image of God and He has deposited a part of Him in every one of us. Our gift is that which we could naturally do, that which brings us joy, that which excites & invigorates us. “That which honors God, blesses others and delights your heart, that is your calling, that’s your gift!” Discover and cherish your gift.

Coming back , I distracted baby N to see and enjoy a few other things and finally he stopped what he was initially saying. And just when I thought I had nailed it , ….guess what?  …..Baby N says out aloud…. “Sha…” LOL…. 🙂 ….well, I guess that’s going to take a little more time!

The same may be the case with many of us as we try to overcome or learn new things. Always remember that No matter how many times we fail, each time we emerge stronger if we determine to learn and persist.

Nugget of Life : “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”- Socrates

Have a fun filled week,

Cheers,

Sparky laurie

 

 

 

Nugget # 94 Life lesson from a Spider!

Hi friends,

Hope you are all doing fine. Today, I’d like to share with you a nugget that came to mind recently. A few days ago as I stepped out to the terrace to hang a few wet clothes on the clothesline, I noticed an awfully attractive spider sitting in the centre of an amazing artistically spun web. It was a black spider with long thin legs stretched out royally and a fluorescent yellow ring around its centre. Rather than bother with the spider, I spread the clothes at the two ends of the rope far away from it. It having rained that night, the spread clothes were still damp when I went with my load of freshly washed laundry the next morning. This time I couldn’t ignore the spider due to lack of space and so I braced myself and watched the elegant spider shrink into a tiny ball as I hit it with my slipper. As I spread my clothes, two life lessons hit me. Let me share them with you.

1. All of us face our own spiders that come into our lives uninvited making us uncomfortable. These may come in the form of negative mindsets,unwanted interferences or maybe even our own inner fears that loom before us and obstruct our progress. Very often, just as I had ignored the spider the first time( since I had enough space to spread my clothes), we too ignore these inconveniences until we finally come to the point where we have no other choice but to deal with them. How much better it is to deal with them constructively at the first instance itself than to wait for things to get worse!
2. Watching the fearless spider majestically seated in its ornate web, I hesitated to disturb it. The same thing applies to those looming giants in our life that we are often intimidated by. Trying to avoid confrontation, we end up accommodating stuff even when we know we shouldn’t. However, when I realized I had no other way but to deal with the spider, all it took was one hit with my slipper for its grandeur to be reduced to nothing. The same thing applies to those confrontations that we have been postponing. No matter how alarming the giant before us may seem, it is that moment when we muster up the courage to face our fears and do what we can to make things work that we experience real freedom.                         

Nugget of Life: “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage.”- Dale Carnegie

 Have an adventurous week!

Cheers,

Sparkylaurie

 

 

 

Nugget # 92 Life lesson from a Pair of Jeans!

Hi friends,

First things first…Wishing you all a wonderfully happy New Year! This week I’d like to share a random thought that came to mind as I was ironing a pair of jeans. I just started wondering….when, where and how did jeans ever originate? With a little help from Google, I got the story which inspires me to write today’s nugget.

In 1853, the California gold rush was in full swing, and everyday items were in short supply. Levi Strauss, a 24-year-old German immigrant, left New York for San Francisco with a small supply of dry goods with the intention of opening a branch of his brother’s New York dry goods business. Shortly after his arrival, a prospector wanted to know what Mr. Levi Strauss was selling. When Strauss told him he had rough canvas to use for tents and wagon covers, the prospector said, “You should have brought pants!,” saying he couldn’t find a pair of pants strong enough to last. Levi Strauss had the canvas made into waist overalls. Miners liked the pants, but complained that they tended to chafe. Levi Strauss substituted a twilled cotton cloth from France called “serge de Nimes.” The fabric later became known as denim and the pants were nicknamed blue jeans after the sailors from Genoa in Italy who first wore them.

One of Levi’s customers was a Reno Nevada- based Latvian tailor by the name of Jacob Davis. He regularly purchased bolts of cloth from the wholesale house of Levi Strauss & Co. Among Jacob’s customers was a difficult man who kept ripping the pockets of the pants that Jacob made for him. Jacob tried to think of a way to strengthen the man’s trousers, and one day hit upon the idea of putting metal rivets at the points of strain. These riveted pants were an instant hit with Jacob’s customers and he along with Levi Strauss co patented the process of putting rivets in pants for strength. On May 20, 1873, they received  US patent no.139,121. That day is now considered to be the official “birthday” of blue jeans.

We can see that what started out as “unwanted” canvas was transformed little by little into “much in demand” pants that is today a staple of everybody’s wardrobe and even a key element in seasonal trends and fashion around the world.

The same thing is applicable to our lives. Very few of us get things on golden platters. For the majority of us, as we surge ahead and face obstacles in life, it is going to be our ability to see the hidden opportunity instead of the glaring impossibility that will actually determine our success. In other words, the trick is not to avoid all mistakes but to see how we can make our mistakes work for us.

Nugget of Life : Bertolt Brecht :”Intelligence is not to make no mistakes But quicky to see how to make them good.”

Have an awesome week!

Cheers,

Sparky Laurie

 

Nugget # 91 Life lesson from a Christmas Carol!

Hi friends,
With Christmas right round the corner, this week, I’d like to share with you a nugget inspired by a Christmas Carol. You must be familiar with the song ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’. Click here to watch the RUDOLPH THE RED NOSED REINDEER MOVIE.

Well, as I listened to the lyrics, it talked about how due to his shiny red nose, all the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names and never let him play in their reindeer games. Until one foggy Xmas eve Santa Claus comes along and asks Rudolph the Reindeer if he could with his shiny red nose guide the sleigh that night! Rudolph’s is overjoyed that his long awaited dream has finally come true!

How very like Rudolph many of us are! There may be certain quirks in us that make us feel odd or out of place with others. Try as we may, we may not be able get rid of them and the truth is that those very quirks are there in every one of us. They are what makes us “us”! Instead of despising them, if we continue to believe in the best of ourselves and dream big, one day that very thing that we felt was our disadvantage/limitation can be turned around into our biggest advantage. Then we will realize thankfully why we had been given that so called “weakness” in our life. Just like it is Rudolph’s shiny red nose (that had initially made him the brunt of many a joke and made him feel so left out in life) which actually helps him to light the way for Santa to ride through the fog, similarly God can take the burden of our life and turn it into a blessing if instead of despising it, we would just surrender it into His All knowing hands.

Nugget of Life:  “Turn your scars into stars”- Robert H Schuller

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year 2014 ahead!

Have an awesome week!

Cheers,

Sparky Laurie

 

Nugget # 89 Life lesson from a Snake Story!

Hi friends,

This week I’d like to share a nugget from a story of a snake I came across through email.

Once upon a time there was a snake who was vicious, snarling, and dangerous. He terrified the villagers, bit the children and scared everyone. But the truth was that the snake sometimes felt lonely and craved companionship.

One day, a wise man wandered into the village. He clearly saw the chaos the snake’s actions had brought. He said to the snake, “ Listen up, snake. You’re not only making the people here unhappy, but you yourself are clearly miserable, so practice some kindness and gentleness to improve the lot of everyone here, including you.” And so the wise man went on his way.

Years later, the wise one happened to pass through that same village again. To his surprise, he saw an inert, passive plaything being kicked about by the children. He realized that this was, in fact, none other than the formally aggressive serpent he’d had words with years before. The snake managed to free himself from his tormentors and slide up to the man.

“Your advice was disastrous!” he hissed faintly. “Practicing gentleness has brought me complete misery! Now I’m used as a toy, laughed at, and taken for granted. I was better off before!”

The old man replied, “You took my advice too literally and without reflection. I said that you shouldn’t bite… but I didn’t say you should never hiss!”

In our life too, in order to be happy and fulfilled, we may have to maintain a balance between being too aggressive and being a door mat. And the right word for that is to be Assertive! It helps to remember that ‘there is strength in our diferences and there is comfort where we overlap!’

Nugget of Life: “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”- Dita Von Teese.  So, go ahead and  just be you! 🙂

Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Sparky Laurie