Archive for August 2011

An Old Sufi Tale

"One afternoon, Nasruddin and his friend were sitting in a cafe, drinking tea and talking about life and love.  His friend asked: 'How come you never married?'

'Well,' said Nasruddin, 'to tell you the truth, I spend my youth looking for the perfect woman. In Cairo I met a beautiful and intelligent woman, but she was unkind. Then in Baghdad, I met a woman who was a wonderful and generous soul, but we had no common interests. One woman after another would seem just right, but there would always be something missing. Then one day, I met her; beautiful, intelligent, generous and kind. We had very much in common. In fact, she was perfect!'

'So, what happened?' asked Nasruddin's friend, 'Why didn't you marry her?'

Nasruddin sipped his tea reflectively. 'Well,' he replied, 'it's really the sad story of my life.... It seemed that she was looking for the perfect man...' "

***********

I’ve always loved this tale.  I feel like a lot of people nowadays are always looking for the next best thing and they hold out waiting for it, or once they’ve gotten something they are never totally satisfied.

They have an ipad, but they want the ipad 2, they don’t even bother getting the iphone 4 because they’re waiting for the iphone 5.  You get the picture.

I hope this tale above won’t be mine :|  In some ways I am very, very loyal – I had the same mp3 player for over 5 years, I’ve had the same dinky camera since 2006 (even though I work at one of the leading electronics retailers)… So I’m pretty loyal, but yeah it’s def a big problem in today’s society where we’re so used to instant gratification and always getting the newer model.  I guess that’s why there’s so much cheating (adultery) in this world - - - it’s for the same reason that we’re all in so much debt  - Instant gratification/never thinking about the future.

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

stressed
I don’t want to say that I constantly think of death but I think about it more often than an average person would.  That might sound terrible but it’s really not.
It’s led me to appreciate things in life a lot more. 
I also don’t waste time on people, things or events that I really don’t care about.  I never feel obligated to do something.  I have a lot of friends who feel like “arrey, they called me to come somewhere so I should go even if for a little bit na just to show my face?” (ok they don’t talk in that Mumbai accent but I couldn’t resist I love talking like that in my head teehee).  I NEVER feel like I “HAVE” to go somewhere.  If I want to go, I’ll go, if I don’t want to go then I won’t, I don’t feel obligated. 
I don’t like to waste time on petty things.  On my time off which is rare – I really want to
a.) accomplish the things I didn’t get to do because I was working which could be errands/blogging/watching movies/side jobs etc.
b.) spend time with family
c.) spend time with close friends that I see all the time
d.) spend time with the friends that don’t hang out with daily in the same circle of friends
e.)  chill.
I guess I’ve just aged prematurely or something, I imagine myself thinking like an old person – that death could happen at any moment to anyone and so you really do have to live life now and most importantly you shouldn’t  sweat the small stuff.
When people piss me off or do things that they shouldn’t I do get mad but I just think to myself – if they died tomorrow would this really matter?  99.999999 percent of the time it doesn’t freaking matter and so I move on.  The problem though is that the other person doesn’t have that morbid way of thinking so for them they just did something terrible and then I just continued on as per normal so they were never really “punished”.  That’s kind of a bad thing but I guess I just think that it’s fine as long as it doesn’t happen again.  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.  So if you piss me off once about something – say you forgot my birthday – it’s not a big deal.  I won’t sweat the small stuff and you won’t have to bend over backwards to make it up to me, but if you EVER forget again ….woman_yelling_at_guy_051909_m lol poor guy.
I think of death and it helps keep things in perspective.  It helps let me know what is important and what isn’t but one shouldn’t think of death all the time.  There is a lot of life to live in this world, and sometimes people sweat the small stuff because they think that time is running out.  RELAX!  Life is a lot longer than we make out to be (it’s our memories that are short).  Martha Stewart was like 40+ when she published her first book, then finally came on TV in 1990 I believe (she was born in 1941) which was when she really became a home making expert so she was almost 50.  So…there’s plenty of time in life to do everything you want to do (but that’s no reason to delay – I’m just saying don’t sweat the small stuff).
Alrighty!  Remember – think of death, and at the same time, think that you have plenty of time to live.  It’s typical oxymoronic Sharin way of thinking and I think it works.  Don’t sweat the small stuff because you or people could die any second, and don’t freak out that life is running out because there’s tons of time to accomplish your dreams.

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