Finding Purposeful Balance

Image Credits: Medical Newstoday.com

Nature retaliated one year ago,

With a pandemic that dealt a severe blow

Men and women, Rich and poor, 

Black and white, and those in power,

All affected in some way, for better or worse,

Wondering how to make life flow,

The materialistic impact was in most of our mind,

health, economy, jobs, livelihood, and the kind,

This was real and we all respond at different levels,

World bodies, Governments, Businesses, NGO’s and individuals.

Masks, hand sanitisers, social distancing and lockdown,

Tests and vaccines for the virus to be knocked down,

Some helped us to take a step back from the dramatic, 

And reflect on the bigger purposes of the pandemic 

A reminder that this planet belongs to all forms of life, 

not just human beings, there are other beings with life,

 reminding us that our purpose is not to just enrich ourselves,

 but learn to co-exist and help others make a life for themselves. 

All’s not been rosy with abuse in families, 

People being discriminated and losing jobs in companies,  

Yet, people helping each other responding to needs of communities, 

The rich helping those are having financial difficulties, 

The poorer harvesting the crops and serving daily necessities,  

health care workers working to encourage recoveries, 

We are one eco-system, one life process that needs good balance. 

When we try to violate the principles of nature and upset the balance, 

the universal energy system will act to bring about the balance. 

Families have found togetherness, love and balance,

Teams have found trust, synergy and balance,

Society has found respect, compassion and balance,   

Love and compassion visibly growing, 

Much needed human values liberating,

Reigniting the consciousness of the need to coexist, 

Less pollution to ensure that life can exist,

The eco-system is gradually regaining its balance. 

Let’s take the learning and live a life of purposeful balance.

Slowing Down – Living life (a poem by Ranjan)

A photos taken at the Udawattakele rain forest in Kandy Sri Lanka – reminding us to let the sunshine through the clutter of life.

Frenzy of activity when the world went into pandemic mode,

Figuring out ways to be safe, sustain income, reduce cost, and stay afloat.

New ways of working from home, office or hybrid mode,

Going online to communicate, learn, teach, shop, work and stay aboard 

Months flew through birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, funerals and more,

Spiritual celebrations, special days and public holidays galore.

Learning a new way to be, sharing home space and more,

Balancing time between family and work, finding ways to be.

Governments, hospitals, law enforcement and all,

Had their plates full trying to keep us safe and well. 

Quarantine, testing, tracing, lockdowns enforced,

Masks, glows, sanitizers were used when forced.

While lockdowns and vaccines were invented for avoiding death,

We realised the need to choose life instead of avoiding death. 

As the new way of being became endemic,

As we learnt to live with the pandemic.

Back to work, travel, and celebrate cautiously,

Urgency and the frenzy slowing down progressively.

Pandemic had a purpose to help us live,

Life is for living so let’s happily live.

(an original poem by Ranjan De Silva)

The Moral Foundation of Value

The importance of value for organisational and personal purpose came into my radar about 25 years ago when I was in the mid thirties in age. I have incorporated this notion in my leadership development practice in developing leaders and helping them transform organisations. As I started inquiring in to this notion as a part of my doctoral studies a few years ago, having learnt to look at things critically from different paradigms, I realised the complexity of the notion of ‘values’.

Values being propagated and used by organisations and people, may be gimmicks in disguise if they are not supported by a moral base. For example the value ‘caring’ can result in disempowering the person being cared for, resulting in that person becoming dependent and vulnerable to the person who espoused the value, ‘caring’. ‘Caring’ can become a noble value when it is based on moral laws and noble intention. This may require finding empowering ways of caring. Telling the truth, even if it hurts. Allowing to struggle with the intention of making them strong. All of these may look uncaring, but the moral intention makes it ‘caring.

Reflecting on the value we endeavour to live by in a critical manner, therefore can help us understand its dark side. If we can then attache the value to a noble intention and moral law and articulate required behaviours, then perhaps we can use the to shape our life to be in service of the process of life and purposeful living.

Wish you purposeful living.

Values – The Compass of Morality

Think of the last time you had to make a difficult decision. A time where options were difficult to pick from. A time where the more materialistically profitable option did feel right. I have faced many such situation. I would like to share my personal experiences to help shed some light on this dilemma.

When I have such a dilemma I reflect on my aspired values to find direction as per the quote by Idowu Koyenikan in the visual above. The five values I attempt to live by are summarised I the following statement.

Continue reading “Values – The Compass of Morality”

Decluttering My Life this Pandemic

My Decluttered Home Work Space

Many things have been written about the impact of the pandemic, positive and negative. I have reflected on the pandemic from various view points in my blog posts over the past 10 months. I choose to share one aspect of the pandemic, decluttering my life.

I had developed the habit of filling all documents such as bank statements, a habit I learnt from my father. This was way before personal computers entered our life. Once computers arrived I was used to storing all files I created and received as well as emails that I thought would be required I the future. This habit started when I started working in 1982 and has been going on for the past 38 years.

Continue reading “Decluttering My Life this Pandemic”

Just Be Open to Receive Love & Abundance this New Year

As my little New Year present to you, I am delighted to share with love and respect a beautiful reflection with reference to many beautiful insights from my guru Omar S Khan.

One of them from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens about the gratitude we show for the conditionality and vulnerability of our happiness. Another from the Pastor of St Bart’s New York who shows that it is not that we are looking for God, but God is looking for us and we need to be JUST be open to receive the grace. As you let this message speak to you in a unique way based on what you are open to, let it nourish your soul.

For me the conditionality of happiness, being grateful for everything and the profound meaning of ‘JUST’ were soul nourishing.

Continue reading “Just Be Open to Receive Love & Abundance this New Year”

If you want God to laugh, tell her your plans.

This years Christmas present from my eldest daughter – a symbol of abundance & purpose

My new year’s message last year was ‘I wish you a new year and new decade overflowing with abundance & purposefulness’. Having gone through perhaps the most ‘interesting’ year of our life, I wonder if this wish had an impact or not. I suppose it depends on how we look at 2020. While many of us had challenges in our jobs, businesses, finances, relationships and health, it is important to reflect on and find the hidden gifts. 

Continue reading “If you want God to laugh, tell her your plans.”

Xmas Insights from St. Bart’s New York

This is the Christmas 2020 Audio message from Omar S Khan and his wife Leslie. This was shared with us last Christmas for the first time and they felt it was even more needed this Xmas. I am sharing this with those I love and respect with their generosity. In awe of those Herald Angels and with all our love.

Continue reading “Xmas Insights from St. Bart’s New York”

Developing Values

We inculcate values during our formative ages, influenced by family, teachers, religion and the society we live in. I always found it is difficult to ‘train’ people to live values as they are already part of each person. I also agree with the above quote by Jennifer Cruise; values do not take us get anywhere, they define us. Therefore what is the point of having values in an organisation and developing team members to live by organisational values.

Continue reading “Developing Values”

Letting Life Flow

Image Credits: Inhabitat.com

How time flies. We are upon the final month of 2020.  

This year we learnt that plans are nice to have but our plans are so insignificant when compared to the plans of the higher powers; be it God, Universal energy system or nature. 

We learn that we need to deeply understand and respond to the plans of the higher power so that we synchronise, rather than fight those plans, causing anxiety, stress and a multitude of negative behaviours. 

Continue reading “Letting Life Flow”