Friends of Words

Category: Quotes

A collection of things that my mind thinks, or has ever thought of

  • Dogs Have Boundless Enthusiasm But No Sense of Shame. I Should Have a Dog as a Life Coach: Richard Melville Halle

    Dogs Have Boundless Enthusiasm But No Sense of Shame. I Should Have a Dog as a Life Coach: Richard Melville Halle

    I am yet to find someone my age or older that says they love doing grocery. There is something about doing grocery that has chore written all over it.

    And I would be safe in assuming that chores is not something anyone would particularly look forward to doing.

    So here I am on the grocery day, the day when all the gravity of the world is concentrated on my bed and the strongest electromagnetic force of the world is keeping a book glued to my hands.

    Stepping out of bed is particularly difficult considering the forces I am facing. An image of an empty fridge flashes before my eyes.

    Me says to meself : Come on, can’t be that lazy!

    So I step out for my grocery shopping. These days, I do not see many people on the road, but like a charm or a curse, I always see at least one person that will choose that precise time to go for a run.

    Incidentally this person will always have a great body and after apparently running for such a long time , didn’t break a sweat. If I was not feeling guilty until that point, I did now.

    Head down, I keep walking until I see a couple in a distance walking their dog. I wasn’t able to see it clearly but what was unmistakable in that dog was its enthusiasm, and the pride of having two humans dote on him.

    The dog seemed blissfully happy, full of energy like he was seeing the world for the first time.Happiness, as they say, is contagious. I suddenly felt the urge to walk faster to see the dog closely.

    The strangest thing happened. As soon as I was within 5 meter distance from the dog, our eyes met and facing my direction and looking at me, the happy dog sat down.

    Oh! My heart just melted.

    The humans with him were trying to pull on his leash but he didn’t budge. Now, I have never had dogs, so I didn’t know what was to be done next. So I gave him one flying kiss in my head and walked on.

    That one chance encounter with that lovely creature taught me a lot of things. I now believe all the great things they say about having dogs.

    I have since watched Airbud, Hachiko and A Dog’s purpose, absolutely loved them and discovered that I cry more in dog movies than human ones.

    So when Moby says:

    “Dogs have boundless enthusiasm but no sense of shame. I should have a dog as a life coach”

    .. I have no doubts that it is a 100% true and if I was as eloquent as him, I would say the same.

    adult white and brown shih tzu dog
    Photo by Goochie Poochie Grooming on Pexels.com

    If I really like something about a stranger walking on the road, I would think a thousand times before I complimented them, if I did. And here is the little creature, not knowing who I was, treating me as well as a long lost friend. Imagine, the humans he was with, and I didn’t exchange any words.

    The dog and I did conversed more than that.

    Dogs have a way of knowing us in a way that no human can. It’s not for nothing that they are called a man’s best friend.

    I wish for a lot of good things for you, and after shamelessly tweaking the epic line from Star Wars, I will say:

    May a dog be with you!

  • I Don’t Know Why It Should Be, I Am Sure; But The Sight Of Another Man Asleep In Bed When I Am Up, Maddens Me: Jerome K. Jerome

    I Don’t Know Why It Should Be, I Am Sure; But The Sight Of Another Man Asleep In Bed When I Am Up, Maddens Me: Jerome K. Jerome

    I came across this quote during a re-read of the famous comic classic and my personal favorite Three Men in A Boat by Jerome k. Jerome.

    In addition to making me smile, it took me on a trip down the memory lane. I don’t know about you but I cannot bear the thought of having to wake up when everyone around me is still asleep.

    I dread my high school exam days to this date, when this was a fairly common occurrence to me.

    ‘Three Men in a Boat’ is my Agony Aunt – not the one that would listen to my woes
    and suggest alleviation mechanisms, but the one that would make me laugh so hard that I forget about everything else.

    But right after that bout would come a phase of reflection, but more on that later..

    Straight back to school days, living with my siblings. I was (and will be, for the foreseeable future) a late riser.

    I would sleep in until noon on weekends. I used to have just two meals – the one you have after lunch (they call it ‘brunch’, right) and dinner – this way, I would load up on all movies and TV shows I could pack in my weekend waking hours.

    I was the most amiable person you could find on the planet if I could sleep a minimum of 10 hours a day.

    That would, however, not be the case if my siblings slept for 10 hours and 5 minutes. No!

    No one could sleep more than me. No one!

    And over the years, I have realized I am as unique in having this trait as 2 billion others on the planet. There is something very disturbing about someone having more privileges – for me it was sleep back then.

    I value my sleep as much as I did back then, but there are quite a few other items that have been added to the list over the last few years.

    I might be happily getting by with my 1-bed apartment until someone my own age, someone I know, has recently paid off the mortgage on a 3-bed. The same apartment that was a haven for me before, suddenly, feels too cramped.

    It’s not even like we are the only ones that resort to comparison; perhaps all of our parents did that too.

    For instance, imagine a boy who’s jubilant that he got an A in his exams, when his parents were expecting him to get just a B+. Obviously, he ‘exceeded expectations’ of his parents.

    But when he breaks the news to his parents, they hardly seem excited about it. Why?

    Because their neighbor’s kid got an A+.

    The scene changes from enthusiastic congratulations to his parents complaining about he ‘failed’ compared to his classmate. ‘After all’ the parents say, ‘don’t you get the same privileges as that boy who lives next door?’

    The Comparison Monster can creep in all spheres of our life and wreak havoc if we are not watchful. We need to guard our happiness and sanity as fiercely as Joey from Friends guards his food.

    joey doesnt share his food meme

    So, how do we ensure that we are not a permanent resident of Compareville aka Miserytown?

    The answer is pretty simple. Read the following quote once, twice, thrice. Hell, put it up in your living room for good measure:

    “Someone else’s beauty is not the absence of your own.”

     

  • Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are: Theodore Roosevelt

    Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are: Theodore Roosevelt

    As simple as these words sound, the impact that they have when you let them sink in is
    profound.

    Have you seen one of those people that are constantly in their future, either imagining it in all its glory or dreading it?

    I have.

    I am one of those people.

    This is what my day would look like usually –

    meme about how i spend my day

    It’s amazing to think how little I accomplished considering how much I planned.

    Come 1st Jan, and I would stock up on all sorts of planners, agendas, diaries – to plan my days- the professional-looking grey leather-bound, the colorful pink dreamer planners and the ultra chic weekly tear-off To-do list.

    My study would probably look like the stationery aisle of a Staples store. I would be super-pumped and ready to take on the world with all sorts of planners in my arsenal.

    My yearly planner would be more ambitious than a conventional 10-year plan:

    ● Learn French
    ● Learn Spanish
    ● Learn Python
    ● Sleep less
    ● Exercise more
    ● Volunteer more
    ● Get another degree
    ● Enrol in certification programs
    ● Save more

    …. and on and on.

    You might have seen a list like that. There is a good chance you probably tried creating one for yourself. We have all been there at that spot at some point in their lives.

    What would help ensure that we do not end up at the same spot in the future?

    The answer to that puzzle lies in Roosevelt`s quote:

    “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

    We can wait forever for the opportune time to come. That time may never come.

    I totally second Sidney Sheldon when he says “Tomorrow never comes” through the title of one of his most popular novels.

    But one thing we all have and will always is the time NOW.

    Your situation now, however limited it may feel to you, is still something that can get you started.

    Yes, I want to finish that 300-page book in a week, but simply planning and never reading it is not going to help me get there.

    I need to pick it up and start reading even if for just 5 minutes a day.

    Agreed, that I may not be able to finish it in one week; it might take me 3 months instead. But that is still a huge improvement, considering the fact that I wasn’t even going to start at all.

    The skill could be anything – playing music, learning a new language, polishing your photography skills, working on your social skills, practising public speaking… the same rule applies, regardless of your goal: having byte-sized goals for everyday and having a portion of your day dedicated to achieving them.

    Never forget that slow and steady wins the race.

    Alright, alright, alright! Don’t listen to me.

    But you’ll listen to Shia Labeouf – the star of Transformers, right?

    just do it meme

  • A Man Who Carries a Cat by the Tail Learns Something He Can Learn in No Other Way: Mark Twain

    A Man Who Carries a Cat by the Tail Learns Something He Can Learn in No Other Way: Mark Twain

    When I first came across this quote, a short film started playing in my head:

    Someone (not me, I promise!) is carrying a cat by its tail; the cat, seeing that its upside down, is understandably confused and angry, violently lunging to attain a normal posture. After several attempts, it finally manages to strike the person with its paw. Tables have turned and now the man is angry and confused.

    And the cat, well, it’s beaming with pride. It has had vengeance.

    A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

    I couldn’t help but draw parallels with our lives and the challenges that they entail.
    Challenges, problems, opportunities- whatever you might want to call them.

    Should we or should we not carry a cat by its tail?

    There is no one-size-fits-all answer here.

    What does this quote mean?

    Learning cannot be complete without making mistakes.

    Agreed, it is much wiser to learn from mistakes that others make and avoid making them. But that is not always going to be the case.

    Individuals are unique, and so are their environments and their learning mechanisms.

    Your mom tells you to stay away from the kitchen. You, thinking that you know better, march right in and have boiling water fall on your feet.

    You were warned about the cat, weren’t you?

    But, you still wanted to hold it upside down by its tail – you wanted to make your own mistake.

    When I was a kid, I used to come home with all sorts of cuts and scrapes from all the running and playing around. I would come home crying. My mother would tend to the wounds and tell me that wounds make children grow faster and stronger.

    I would believe it and feel proud of the imaginary centimeter that I would add to my height after every scrape.

    We all have to carry the cat by its tail at some point to understand that persistence in the face of adversity is what eventually makes us stronger.

    Braving difficult circumstances prepares us for ups and downs that life subjects us to. We know we can do it in the future, because we have done it in the past.

    And history, as they say, repeats itself.

  • Many People Die at 25 and Aren’t Buried Until They are 75: Benjamin Franklin

    Many People Die at 25 and Aren’t Buried Until They are 75: Benjamin Franklin

    Did you understand the meaning of this quote when you first read it in the title?

    To be honest, I didn’t.

    In fact, when I first read this famous quote by Benjamin Franklin (an American scientist, inventor, politician and the man whose face is printed on the US dollar), I thought I read it wrong.

    So, as a reflex, my eyes quickly glanced over the sentence again to understand what exactly did it mean:

    “Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.”

    My immediate response to understanding its meaning was wondering if I died at 25 or if I am dead now. I thought about it as long as my impatient soul would permit and I quickly rang my best friend to ask her opinion on the matter.

    After failing to get a convincing answer from them, I turned to a few other friends, but strangely enough, no one seemed to understand this at the first glance.

    Why would people die at twenty-five and be buried at seventy-five?

    Does it mean that people die at 25, but live on like zombies and then finally die when they’re 75?

    Living like a zombie for such a significant period of life does not seem very intuitive. Or anyone’s preferred method to live, for that matter. Plus, you and I both know that Mr Franklin was most assuredly not referring to zombies in this quote.

    The more I thought, the clearer it became to me: death is the absence of life. And this ‘life’ could mean different things for different people.

    It could be professional success, loving relationships, being able to give back to society or a sense of purpose in life. The society is made up of people that aim for some or all of those things.

    We all have some ‘drivers’ that motivate us – and the time when we lose them is when the decay begins.

    It’s not just the bodily decay that defines death; it is losing the drive to live.

    Of all the reading that I have done over the years, wisdom all around the world prescribes life with a purpose as the best antidote to stagnation.

    A life lived savoring every moment- happy or sad.
    A life full of meaning and love.
    A life full of childlike excitement for life.

    Kane Tanaka, the oldest living person on the planet recently celebrated her 117th birthday in January this year (2020). After having a piece of her birthday cake, she is said to have remarked – ‘Tasty! I want some more.’

    That is saying ‘Yes’ to life.