Turn, Turn, Turn

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time for every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear its not too late

--The Byrds

You Learn

I've been doing a lot of reading lately during the time when I'm not involved in making life changing decisions about housing, passport work, visa booking etc. To say the least, I've been occupied :P

Here's an excerpt from the book "All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum:

"All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

• Share everything
• Play fair
• Don't hit people
• Put things back where you found them
• Clean up your own mess
• Don't take things that aren't yours
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody
• Wash your hands before you eat
• Flush
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you
• Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
• Take a nap every afternoon
• When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why. But we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup- they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK. "

I just had to share this with all of the 3 people who check my blog from time to time. It's amazing when you think about it. Take any one of those thoughts, convert it into 'adult-talk', apply it to any situation (be it in your family, your work, your government) and it'll probably hold true. Think of what a better world it would be if we all had a basic policy to put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. There would be no Hitler, no Iraq war, no insurgency by totally psychotic terrorists..you name it.

And I think it all comes down to this - now matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Random thoughts

It is the small things that bring home the fact that I am growing older. Like when a small kid looks up at you (after you've given him what seems like a gazzilion piggy-back rides) and asks you "Are you a kid or an adult?" It almost felt like I had a truck ramming against my head and my mind went completely blank for a few seconds. When I asked him what he thought I was..the answer was "I don't know..you tell me!" Kids, I tell you. Trust them to ask you just the right questions.

Anyhoo (I've always wanted to use that word :P)..I've had quite a lot of free time during the nights lately. And I chanced upon a couple of poems by Vikram Seth..I think I now have a new favourite author. Here are two which just seemed to make sense.

All Those who Sleep Tonight

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above -

Know that you aren't alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.

- Vikram Seth

Time Zones

I willed my love to dream of me last night
That we might lie
At peace, if not beneath a single sheet,
Under one sky.

I dreamed of her but she could not alas
Humour my will;
It struck me suddenly that where she was
Was daylight still.

- Vikram Seth