I LIVE ALONE

I live alone, dear Lord,
Stay by my side,
In all my daily needs
Be Thou my guide.
Grant me good health,
For that indeed, I pray,
To carry on my work
From day to day.
Keep pure my mind,
My thoughts, my every deed,
Let me be kind, unselfish
In my neighbour's need,
Spare me from fire, from flood
Malicious tongues,
From thieves, from fear,
And evil ones.
If sickness or an accident befall,
Then humbly, Lord, I pray,
Hear, Thou my call,
And when I'm feeling low,
Or in despair,
Lift up my heart
And help me in my prayer.
I live alone, dear Lord,
Yet have no fear,
Because I feel Your Presence
Ever near.


Published by Tim Tiley Ltd, 157 Cheltenham Rd, Bristol B56 5RR

"what a game"

I guess it has become very rare to be supporting our cricket team and then have the adrenaline pumping as high as it did whatching them playing against aussies.. i honestly did not give them much of a chance to come thru the game... i was kinda predciting a demolishing job from the aussie front... but the way indians played...simply mindblowing.... even after the 17th over australia had to get 30 odd runs from 3 overs which was very much possible... but the way harbhajan bowled that over and backed up by R.P. Singh in the next.. i simply could not believe the way the team was playing... absolutely amazing... having witnessed many a games slipping away when winning was a more likely result..coming back from difficult situations to win the game..1st against the pakis and then against the aussies it was simply superb to watch..hats off to the boys for playing and making me proud

P.S.---- inspite of all his eccentricites i just love sreesanth.. it takes some nerve to do what he did when he got hayden out..staring down that bear of a guy... man that was awesome...


good job MATES!!!!!!

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master
,If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,A
nd stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
,And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Vincent Lombardi

Most of you -- most everyone in this room, I dare say, have the qualities -- or possess the qualities -- to be successful. But, unfortunately, gentlemen, it rests not upon ability, not upon capacity, but upon our willingness to use those qualities. It also must be based upon truth and upon character, because there must be truth in its purpose and will power in its character.

Success rests not upon ability but upon commitment, upon loyalty, and upon pride. Not all educated men are successful. Going to college helps. But a man really can receive his inspiration from any place -- he can receive his inspiration from the Fulton Fish Market if he so desires. And if a man studies his past, and if he studies his country, and if he studies his ancestors, and if he studies the lessons of history, he is educated.

None of us is born equal, in spite of everything they say about it -- we are born only in certain inalienable rights. But we are born rather unequal. However, I want to say that the talented are no more responsible for their birthright than the underprivileged are and the measurement of each man should be what each does and I want to say that it is becoming increasingly difficult to be tolerant of a society who has sympathy only for the misfit, only for the maladjusted, only for the criminal, and only for the loser..

But the most important element in the character make-up of a man who is successful is that of mental toughness, and I might say the most difficult one to explain. Because mental toughness is so many things. For example, it is humility. Simplicity is a form of humility and simplicity is the sign of true greatness. Meekness is a sign of humility, and meekness is a sign of true strength.

Mental toughness is spartanism with its qualities of sacrifice and self-denial, also the qualities of dedication and fearlessness and love. Not the love that you have for your wife or your wife may have for you. The love I am speaking of is loyalty, which is the greatest of loves. Teamwork, which is a form of love, and the love that one man has for another is respecting the dignity of another man. The love I speak of is not detraction. You show me a man who speaks ill of another and I'll show you a man who is only temporarily successful. Or one who is not charitable. Or one who is not loyal.

Mental toughness is also the perfectly disciplined will and the will, gentleman, is the character in action. The great hope of society has to be the character in action and we are never going to create a good society, much less a great one, until we once more recognize and respect individual excellence. Because if we would create something, we must be something, because character is the direct result of mental attitude and you cannot copy someone else's particular character qualifications but must develop your own according to your own particular personality.

The difference between a successful man and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in lack of will because the character rather than the education is man's greatest need and man's greatest safeguard because the character is higher than the intellect. The difference between men is in energy, in the strong will, in a singleness of purpose and an invincible determination.

But the great difference is in sacrifice, in self-denial, in love and loyalty, in fearlessness and in humility, in the pursuit of excellence and in the perfectly disciplined will, because this is not only the difference between men, this is the difference between great men and little men.

Jim Valvano

Jim Valvano was a well known and respected college basketball coach. He was most known for leading NC State to the national title in 1983. After his retirement from coaching, he became an incredible sportscaster. He, teamed with Dick Vitale, made for some of the best color commentary during a basketball game

As Jim battled cancer, he attended the 1993 ESPY show to accept a lifetime acheivement award for his coaching and broadcasting career. This is where he made the famous “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up” speech. It’s truly one of the most touching speeches ever. Not only because he was so loved, but because he was losing his battle with cancer, and everyone in the room knew it. He passed away at the age of 47.

"Time is very precious to me. I don’t know how much I have left. And I have some things that I would like to say…
How do you get through life?

Each day it’s the same thing…

#1 is laugh. You should laugh every day.

#2 is think. You should spend some time in thought.

#3 you should have your emotions moved to tears….But think about it, if you laugh, you think, you cry - that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day…

Enjoy your life - the precious moments you have…

(Quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson) - “Nothing great can be accomplished without enthusiasm”…

Keep your dreams alive in spite of problems, whatever you have. Now, I look at where I am now and I know what I want to do. What I would like to be able to do is spend whatever time I have left, and to give maybe some hope to others.

the idea of hope - don’t ever quit. Don’t EVER give up!

…Never stop believing and loving in each other, and you can accomplish miracles.

Cancer has taken away a lot of my physical abilities…What cancer cannot touch is my mind, my heart, and my soul.
I have hope in God that things might get better for me.

…With hope, and faith, and belief, and what hard work and coaching can do"

GIBRAN

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing,
but to free the breath from its restless tides,
that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?


Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top,
then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs,
then shall you truly dance.

GOD BLESS

Life brings upon oneself stuff that we cannot fathom... i knew i shuld have gone back to kerala when i could and visit my grandmother..before it was too late...then i did not..only to realize now what a mistake it was.. that the hand that straddled me young..wont be around anymore...it is only when somebody goes away from ur life that the memories come back flooding...i wasn't the best of the grandsons... but i loved u. .. even worse is the fact that i am not there now..sitting some 1000 odd kms... molesting a keyboard

guess these lines from shantaram round it up for the day

"For this is what we do.Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequences to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for a truth other than our own. With love: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps us waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on"

god bless your soul...

mazzy star- into the dust

Still falling
Breathless and on againI
nside today
Beside me today
Around broken in two
till you eyes shed


Into dust
Like two strangers
Turning into dust
till my hand shook with the way I fear


I could possibly be fading
Or have something more to gain
I could feel myself growing colder
I could feel myself under your fate
Under your fate


It was you breathless and tall
I could feel my eyes turning into dust
And two strangers turning into dust
Turning into dust