“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”
― John Lennon


“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.”
― John Lennon


“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, fear, life, love 4,033 people liked it like


“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”
― John Lennon
tags: happiness, timelessness, wisdom 3,728 people liked it like


“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, dragons, dreamers, dreaming, dreams, fairies, faith, mythology, nightmares, reality, truth 3,464 people liked it like

“As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, men, women 3,367 people liked it like


“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
― John Lennon
tags: inspirational, life 2,338 people liked it like


“The more I see, the less I know for sure.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, life, perception, truth 2,167 people liked it like


“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, connection, dreamers, dreaming, dreams 1,811 people liked it like


“There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be...”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, destiny, fate, life 1,408 people liked it like


“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.”
― John Lennon
tags: activism, beatles, materialism, peace, society, television 1,318 people liked it like
“One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, emotions, hypocrisy, pain, suffering 1,070 people liked it like
“Living is Easy with Eyes Closed.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, blindness, ignorance, life 1,069 people liked it like
“If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that's a problem. Peace and love are eternal.”
― John Lennon
tags: 1960s, beatles, love, peace, sixties 889 people liked it like
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, imagination, reality 813 people liked it like
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.”
― John Lennon
tags: god, organized-religion, religion, spirituality 711 people liked it like
“When you're drowning you don't think, I would be incredibly pleased if someone would notice I'm drowning and come and rescue me. You just scream.”
― John Lennon
tags: humour, power-of-words 657 people liked it like
“I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people.”
― John Lennon
633 people liked it like
“For those of you in the cheap seats I'd like ya to clap your hands to this one; the rest of you can just rattle your jewelry!”
― John Lennon
tags: applause, beatles, concerts, jewelry, music, stage-patter 559 people liked it like
“Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns it calls me on and on across the universe.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, love, sun, universe 482 people liked it like
“If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.”
― John Lennon
tags: art, beatles, confidence, ego, music, self-confidence 470 people liked it like
“War is over ... If you want it.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, fighting, peace, war 398 people liked it like
“God is a concept by which we measure our pain.”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, god, religion 379 people liked it like
“Nothing is real.”
― John Lennon, Beatles Lyrics
tags: beatles, reality, truth 376 people liked it like
“It's weird not to be weird.”
― John Lennon
tags: conformity, individualism, paradox 375 people liked it like
“Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.”
― John Lennon
tags: love 363 people liked it like
“Love is like a flower-you've got to let it grow.”
― John Lennon
tags: love-flower 362 people liked it like
“How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?”
― John Lennon
tags: life 346 people liked it like
“I get by with a little help from my friends.”
― John Lennon
tags: friends, song-lyrics 323 people liked it like
“Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my open mind,
Possessing and caressing me.
Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe,
Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box
They tumble blindly as they make their way
Across the universe
Sounds of laughter shades of love are
Ringing through my open ears inciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which shines around me like a
Million suns, and calls me on and on
Across the universe”
― John Lennon
309 people liked it like
“Whatever gets you through the night”
― John Lennon
tags: acceptance, beatles, perseverance 283 people liked it like
“I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it.
It's just getting out of one car, and into another”
― John Lennon
tags: death-of-a-loved-one 262 people liked it like
“We all shine on...like the moon and the stars and the sun...we all shine on...come on and on and on...”
― John Lennon
tags: beatles, immortality, moon, song-lyrics, stars, sun 240 people liked it like
“Music is everybody's business. It's only the publishers who think people own it”
― John Lennon
tags: john-lennon, music 239 people liked it like
“Everything is clearer when you're in love.”
― John Lennon
tags: love 238 people liked it like
“Make your own dream.

That's the Beatles' story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story, that's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.

That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be.

There's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you.”
― John Lennon
230 people liked it like
“There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all”
― John Lennon, Real Love: The Drawings for Sean
224 people liked it like
“Imagine all of us living in peace, it's too beautiful to just be a dream.”
― John Lennon, Imagine
222 people liked it like
“Remember to let her into your heart.”
― John Lennon
tags: song-lyrics 190 people liked it like
“My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”
― John Lennon
189 people liked it like
“The more real you get the more unreal the world gets. ”
― John Lennon
tags: reality 185 people liked it like
“Part of me suspects that I'm a loser, and the other part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.”
― John Lennon
tags: ego, god, life, loser 181 people liked it like
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”
― John Lennon
176 people liked it like
“The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”
― John Lennon
tags: 1960s, beatles, hope, possibility, responsibility 162 people liked it like
“there's nothing you can do that can't be done.....”
― John Lennon
tags: song-lyrics 151 people liked it like
“Love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep on watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.”
― John Lennon
tags: john-lennon 149 people liked it like
“Time wounds all heels.”
― John Lennon



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

"The beautiful night is lit by stars and only the loved ones who are awake can see." - Guru Arjan



Here is a poem by one of my favorite teachers, Emily Dickinson:

The spider as an artist
Has never been employed
Though his surpassing merit
Is freely certified

By every broom and Bridget
Throughout a Christian land.
Neglected son of genius,
I take thee by the hand.

The spider is an artist, a creator. He makes this intricate web. The web is symmetrical and beautiful. Often we don't even see what he is doing. We do not notice. It is when we have to clean the web with our brooms that we get to know he has weaved his web. It is the exalted design, the bridget, he leaves behind that he is known by.

No one pays the spider. He is not employed. The spider works on his own will. It is a creation of love.

The spider is often neglected. Not liked. No one is grateful for his work even in Emily's Christian land. His genius is not realized. But he is the son of genius -- akin to the son of God. Loving, weaving, creating.

Emily not only accepts the spider's genius, she wants to take his exalted being by the hand. There is a marriage of the creator and the lover of creation, a coming together of the genius and the grateful.

Emily notices. Emily is awake.

Thats what they are
they are colors

I and you might
look at one and agree
upon the name
but we both have a
different sense of
liking and wanting
each of them

They define me
to you and I
they communicate
invisibly.

I like different hues
in different times of the day
in different seasons of the year
in varied emotions of the heart
in sadness, love and hope.

Raags of my songs
are the colors of my life.

Somewhere you are the thief, somewhere the priest 

Somewhere you are sitting on a pedestal pontificating

Somewhere you are being martyred as Tegh Bahadur

You make your own army

Now who are you trying to hide yourself from?

किते चोर बने किते काज़ी हो,
किते मिम्बर ते बेह वाज़ी हो।
किते तेग बहादुर ग़ाज़ी हो
आपे अपना कटक बनाई दा,
हुण किस तों आप लुकाई दा।
कहीं आप चोर हैं, कहीं क़ाज़ी हैं,
कहीं मंच पर चढ़े प्रचारक हैं,
और कहीं शहीद गुरु तेगबहादुर हैं,
आप अपनी सेना स्वयं बनाते हैं,
अब आप स्वयं को किससे छुपा रहे हैं।

Here is an inspirational story I read today about a mompreneur called Stacy Stevens. I am sure you will be as inspired with this story and will want to sing as beautifully as Stacy does after you read this and visit her website: askstacystevens.com

Stacy Stevens, in her own words:

A little about me…
I grew up in a happy family home in Temperance, Michigan. My father worked for the railroad and my mother as a Purchasing Manager for a factory. When I was four years old, my mother noticed that when I looked at her, one of my eyes wandered. I was taken in to St Vincents for some testing. The news was not good. I had a tumor on my optic never, and they wouldn’t touch it. I was sent to Mott’s Children’s Hospital on the University of Michigan campus (GO BLUE!) in Ann Arbor, Mi.

It was there that I met the team of doctors that would save my life for the first time! The second time my life was saved was in 2005. I was involved in a very serious motorcycle accident. At 65 MPH a head on collision was not the way I planned on ending my evening! I’ll never forget the thoughts that ran through my head when I saw those headlights. I thought for sure, “This is where it ends…”

One month later, despite begin told otherwise, I was back at home with a wheel chair, a walker, and a healthy dose of determination. Within a few weeks I ditched the “tools” for a cane, and decided I’d just walk! I’m now in the best shape I’ve ever been in! Lucky for me I did not posses the understanding of things like, “No, you can’t do that” or “That will never work”.

I had it all figured out, until I changed my mind, again…
I graduated High School in 1995, and was on a mission to “grow up” as fast as I could! At 34 now, I think I’m almost there. By 1996 I was married and in Cosmetology School, 1997 gave birth to Christian, 1998 we added Davey to the family, and by 2000 I was raising them on my own.

After 5 years standing behind a chair in a salon, I looked around and realized, there’s more to life than this for me. I walked out the door and signed up for nursing school. I completed that degree and landed a great job, yet I still wasn’t completely satisfied. Being a great mom and a great nurse meant that I would work midnights so that I could be home for my kids during the day while they were awake. I sacrificed sleep to be the mom my kids needed me to be. I was exhausted, and still could barely afford to offer my children the life that I had envisioned for them. No matter what I did, there was still more month left at the end of the money! Being in their preteen years, I was worried that time was running out! I was even more worried that leaving them home alone after dark was not in all of our best interest if you know what I mean…

I needed to make a change and I needed to do it NOW! I wasn’t willing to take on another job and sacrifice more of my precious time away from them, I was already gone more than I should be! So, what’s a good momma to do?

Discovering the power of relationships and Networking…
You know those moments of desperation where you are beging for a sign, or a bone or something to come your way? I hopped on Facebook and was a little freaked out and doing some mindless clicking to clear my head! It was then I was introduced to It Works! Global, which I was pretty sure was one of those “pyramid things” I did my due diligence. The little voice in my head said JUMP! The little demon in my head said, “Thats not stable, bad move!” Good thing I don’t pay attention to demons! I began my endeavor as a Mompreneur and quickly left my career. I now have both personal freedom and the financial freedom I desired for my small family! I am Living the Dream, and loving every minute! I love to help others, I want to leave an impact on every life I encounter on my path to greatness! I hope you enjoy my sharing of my success, my struggles, and the joys I experience with you!

Last month I had the pleasure of singing this evergreen shabad at my parent's anniversary celebration kirtan.  I first sang the shabad in the old Pahadi raag tune and then a dhanasri tune. Dhanasri is the Raag of thanksgiving (see earlier post: The Meaning Behind Raag Dhanasri)

Here is a recording of the live program:


http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/14728379

I also made a piano-only composition of the Pahadi tune.  Leah Senibaldi, a young pianist and composer did this arrangement.


http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/14695571