General provisions:

A – Whereas the saying “all is fair in love and war” is absolutely correct;

B – Whereas for war we have the Geneva Convention, approved on 22 August 1864, which provides for those wounded in the battle field, but until now no convention has been signed concerning those wounded in love, who are far greater in number;

It is hereby decreed that:

Article 1 – All lovers, of any sex, are alerted that love, besides being a blessing, is also something extremely dangerous, unpredictable and capable of causing serious damage. Consequently, anyone planning to love should be aware that they are exposing their body and soul to various types of wounds, and that they shall not be able to blame their partner at any moment, since the risk is the same for both.

Article 2 – Once struck by a stray arrow fired from Cupid’s bow, they should immediately ask the archer to shoot the same arrow in the opposite direction, so as not to be afflicted by the wound known as “unrequited love”. Should Cupid refuse to perform such a gesture, the Convention now being promulgated demands that the wounded partner remove the arrow from his/her heart and throw it in the garbage. In order to guarantee this, those concerned should avoid telephone calls, messages over the Internet, sending flowers that are always returned, or each and every means of seduction, since these may yield results in the short run but always end up wrong after a while. The Convention decrees that the wounded person should immediately seek the company of other people and try to control the obsessive thought: “this person is worth fighting for”.

Article 3 – If the wound is caused by third parties, in other words if the loved one has become interested in someone not in the script previously drafted, vengeance is expressly forbidden. In this case, it is allowed to use tears until the eyes dry up, to punch walls or pillows, to insult the ex-partner in conversations with friends, to allege his/her complete lack of taste, but without offending their honor. The Convention determines that the rule contained in Article 2 be applied: seek the company of other persons, preferably in places different from those frequented by the other party.

Article 4 – In the case of light wounds, herein classified as small treacheries, fulminating passions that are short-lived, passing sexual disinterest, the medicine called Pardon should be applied generously and quickly. Once this medicine has been applied, one should never reconsider one’s decision, not even once, and the theme must be completely forgotten and never used as an argument in a fight or in a moment of hatred.

Article 5 – In all definitive wounds, also known as “breaking up”, the only medicine capable of having an effect is called Time. It is no use seeking consolation from fortune-tellers (who always say that the lost lover will return), romantic books (which always have a happy ending), soap-operas on the television or other such things. One should suffer intensely, completely avoiding drugs, tranquilizers and praying to saints. Alcohol is only tolerated if kept to a maximum of two glasses of wine a day.

Final determination:
Those wounded in love, unlike those wounded in armed conflict, are neither victims nor torturers. They chose something that is part of life, and so they have to accept both the agony and the ecstasy of their choice.
And those who have never been wounded in love will never be able to say: “I have lived”. Because they haven’t.

- Paulo Coelho

One Flaw In Women

Women have strengths that amaze men.
They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
But they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.

They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
And laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.

They don’t take “no” for an answer
When they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.

They love unconditionally.

They cry when their children excel
And cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about
A birth or a wedding.

Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
Yet they are strong when they

Think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
Can heal a broken heart.

They’ll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you
To show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what
Makes the world keep turning.

They bring joy, hope and love.
They have compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their
Family and friends.

Women have vital things to say
And everything to give.

HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,
IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

- Author Unknown

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

Rejoice in the way things are.When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.
Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful.
Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu ( also Lao Tse) was a mystic philosopher of ancient China, and best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching.

“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

“But my heart is agitated,” the boy said. “It has its dreams, it gets emotional, and it’s become passionate over a woman of the desert. It asks things of me, and it keeps me from sleeping many nights, when I’m thinking about her.”

“Well, that’s good. Your heart is alive. Keep listening to what it has to say.”

“My heart is a traitor,” the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. “It doesn’t want me to go on.”

“That makes sense. Naturally it’s afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you’ve won.”

“Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?”

“Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you’re thinking about life and about the world.”

“You mean I should listen, even if it’s treasonous?”

“Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you’ll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them.

“My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer,” the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”

“Every second of the search is an encounter with God,” the boy told his heart.

“Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him,” his heart said. “We, people’s hearts, seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. We speak of them only to children. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them—the path to their destinies, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out indeed, to be threatening place.

“So, we, their hearts, speak more and more softly. We never stop speaking out, but we begin to hope that our words won’t be heard: we don’t want people to suffer because they don’t follow their hearts.” – Paulo Coelho

Cheers

Anj

The Only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.

Desperate love is always the toughest way to do it..

In desperate love, we always invent the characters of our partners, demanding that they be what we need of them, and then feeling devastated when they refuse to perform the role we created in the first place.

Because how could two people who were so in love not end up happily ever after? It had to work.

But why must everything always have a practical application?

“To find the balance you want.”

You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it’s like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart,instead. That way, you will know God.”

Opinion about prayer: “Will you change this or that thing in my life that’s difficult for me?” Because who knows? God might want me to be facing that particular challenge for a reason. Instead, i feel more comfortable praying for the courage to face whatever occurs in my life with equanimity, no matter how things turn out.

When i don’t know what i am doing, i look like don’t know what i am doing. My face is a transparent transmitter of my every thought.

Eat Pray Love

Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right….

When you are lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost….

Because when you cannot sleep, you cannot get yourself out of the ditch- there is not a chance.

That’s the thing about human life - there’s no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would turned out if any variables had been changed.

Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.

You must be very polite with yourself when you are learning something new.

The art of making something out of nothing.

The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life’s achievement.

If i love you, you can have everything. You can have my time, my devotion, my money, my family, my ass – everything. If i love you, i will carry all your pains, i will assume for you all your debts, i will protect you from your own insecurity….

Dear God, i could use a little break from this cycle, to give myself some space to discover what i look like and talk like when i’m not trying to merge with someone.

Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope.

There is a constant level of closeness that i really need from the person I love. But it just destroys me to bot be able to count on that affection when I need it.

But we are not what the other one needs.

I am making the space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.

You will look at me but i will refuse to look at you.

This is perfect, that is perfect, if you take the perfect from the perfect, the perfect remains.

You are after all what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts and you are the slave to your emotions.

You have no idea how strong my love is……

“Felipe: Listen, balance, my darling, is not letting anybody love you less than you love yourself. “

“I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism.”

“I’m here. I love you. I don’t care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you. There’s nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.”

There’s a crack (or cracks) in everyone…that’s how the light of God gets in.

I think I deserve something beautiful.

I met an old lady once, almost a hundred years old, and she told me, ‘There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. How much do you love me? And Who’s in charge?

You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That’s the only thing you should be trying to control.

There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.

Some days are meant to be counted, others are meant to be weighed.

As smoking is to the lungs, so is resentment to the soul; even one puff is bad for you.

Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots.

So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly.

You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.

but if you can plant yourself in stillness long enough, you will, in time, experience the truth that everything (both uncomfortable and lovely) does eventually pass.

“Gilbert: I’m sick of people telling me that I need a man.
Felipe: You don’t need a man, Liz. You need a champion. “

At some point, you gotta let go, and sit still, and allow contentment to come to you.

When the karma of a relationship is done, only love remains. It’s safe. Let go.

Cheers

Anjali