Birthday Wish: Begin and End Everyday on my Knees in Gratitude

to start and end everyday like this … in Gratitude

To begin and end every day on my knees

In gratitude for all that has been, is and will be

For the gift of friendship and family

In times of sorrow and in times of joy

In times of plenty and times of need

In times of pleasure and in times of pain

For the glory of God’s name,

For the enligntenment of the earth and the common good of man

Guide me ask neither for riches nor fame for myself

But peace for my enemies and friends

But a spirit of service towards my neighbour

That I may walk in humility and courage and love

On the straight path of truth, dignity and hard work

That’s what I ask of you today lord

To remind me, and help me see in every moment and everyone

Even when it is hidden by the thorns of life’s circumstances

That, “that which causes the rose to bloom, is also within me and them

Amen/So-Say-We-All

The NEW has GONE, the OLD has COME – The Transformation

I stand at a threshold in my life, one I know so many other people have stood at – looking back at 3 decades of life (thanks to all that have been there, even the obnoxious ones) and looking forward with my physical eyes to at least another 5  decades (Insha Allah) and with my spirit, to an eternity.

The cracks of degradation of my physical body are beginning to show (I can no longer work for 48 hours without sleep) and rather than cling to the vanishing sands of my past and youth, I must now make the decision to either embrace the winds of the future, or languish in fires of regrets of what could have been in the house of yesterday. A transformation is going on …whether I choose to accept it or not. I make the choice to accept it and intentionally make what ever adaptations I must make in other that this transformation be one that will bring me and those around me more peace, more love and more fulfillment.

Part of that transformation will be to give up the ‘glory’ of youth for that of old men, and to do this I must transform or let be transformed :

• Youthful strength into strength of character.
• Reliance on my intellect into knowing by intuition and awareness.
• Desires to make myself better into a yearning to serve others and make another life better.
• The need to take into a desire to share and give.
• Independence in for interdependence.

I know it is a journey and it won’t be easy, but it is a journey I must make – one I have chosen to make because I KNOW that it is one filled with reward … I cannot lose and there is ultimately only happiness and peace on that path.

Thus, as I thread this path of light, I pray that a life of discipline, of learning, of service, and of contribution will bear the fruits some of which I have always desired but never had: Patience | Selflessness | Spontaneity | Presence | Silence | Oneness with God.

This I wish myself, every moment …and I wish it to you too.