"We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, tallented, and famous?
Actually who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest
the Glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us;
it's in all of us.
And when we let our own light shine,
we unconciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others."

--Maryanne Williamson

The Thankful List

The top things I'm thankful for from the past week:

* When I was home alone and sick, I was so thankful that there are stores just a minute or two away, walking distance, where I could by juice, vitamin C, and pain relievers.

* Because I was alone for a few days I could rest in peace and quite and there wasn't too much pressing work to get up and take care of.

* That this nasty cold is nearly cleared up now.

* The sun finally came out for long enough to dry the laundry that's been on the roof for almost a week -- normally I love the rain, but after four straight days of it, it's so nice to see the sun again.

* Sharmila has made a very rapid recovery, even the doctors are surprised, and she will probably be out of the hospital soon.

* I'm thankful for everyone who prayed for her healing.

Football Fun

Here's some pictures from the Argentina vs Germany game on a big projector screen. It was a blast.

Binod scores a goal -- he posed like that
just as one of the last goals was being scored

Prayers Needed

I've had all sorts of stuff going on in the past two weeks that's kept me from posting. The internet conection has taken to turning it self off and on at random intervals. I presume it's because of monsoon and the cloudy weather. And with five computers on line when it is on it's almost impossible to load any pages.

But the house is quiet now, everyone is out, and I'm getting to use a relatively fast connection for once.
There are pleny of updates in store that I'll work on putting up over the next few days, but the most important is a prayer request.

Sharmila is one of the girls at our childrens' home. She's about 13 years old, and right now she's in the hosptial with severe sepsis. This is a very serious, life threatening infection, so she really needs all the prayers she can get.

She's on antibiotics and an IV drip, and the doctors are running tests to find out where the infection is coming from so they can find the best course of treatment for her. We're all taking shifts with her in the hospital, Lily, Indira (the girls' house mother), Kirti (a friend who helps look after the girls), and myself, as she'll have to be there for at least a week.

Please pray that the doctors find out what is causing this, get her on the most effective course of treatment possible, and she will make a quick and complete recovery.

Thank you.

New Feature – Book Reviews

Starting with The Power of Positive Living


I really enjoy reading, and it’s probably one of my main free time activities. So, starting now I will regularly review books, either ones I’ve just read or that I read a while back and found worth while. I’m starting with The Power of Positive Living as it was one of the books that inspired me to start this blog. A lot of the books I’ll review, though, will be fiction, as it’s probably what I read the most of since it’s in my free time and for entertainment. If you’ve got any comments on something I put up a review for then please feel free to post them. It’s always interesting to me to discuss books, and hear other people’s opinions.

The Power of Positive Living by Norman Vincent Peale

*****

“Basically I am a happy man, not dissatisfied or empty and certainly not turned of. In fact I’m very turned on. Because I am so happy is one of the main reasons I’m so concerned about people who are not. So in the pages that follow I shall simply describe what I discovered that helped me, turned my life around. If you find new meaning, enhanced fullness of life, deeper happiness as a result of reading this book, my purpose in writing it shall be fulfilled.” – Norman Vincent Peale in the preface

Drawing from years of counselling experience, Dr. Peale’s book offers guidance in eliminating defeatist attitudes and finding joy and purpose in life.

What I liked about this book:

I give this book five stars out of five, because I like the way it’s written – both the content and its presentation.

A few years I go I’d been chronically sick for some time, when a friend suggested I read a chapter on health from The Power of Positive Thinking by the same author. The book had been in our house for a while, but I’d never been very interested. I read the chapter and was hooked on the simple presentation of the ideas. I read through the whole book, did most of the exercises, and it was one of the steps that helped me recover.

So I was very happy to find this book in a used book store in Pokhara (a little lake-side tourist town). Each chapter presents a concept, gives tips for practical implementation backed up by true examples of others who’ve been helped by it, and lists the main principles to remember.

I also like the way it brings faith into the picture. Even though Norman Vincent Peale is a pastor he doesn’t use the book to “preach at you”. In fact, he makes a point of putting the faith factor on a very personal level, setting aside denominations and even religions, and simply stating that wherever you are in life God wants to help you, and that building a relationship with Him is an important key to happiness and satisfaction.

Coming next N. or M. by Agatha Christie

Project Update -- Humla House

The Humla House is a small children's home we started about five years ago for conflict displaced girls from Humla. Humla is the furthest northwest district of Nepal and is inaccessable by road. Only one percent of the land can be cultivated, causing regular food shortages. During the conflict many children were brought to Kathmandu, where they were often placed in overcrowded orphanages that could not even afford to feed all the children much less send them to school.

In 2005 we opened a home for eight of these girls. They attend school regularly and are making good progress. This year some of them were able to skip a grade as they are catching up quickly. Later on I will try to find some pictures from when the girls first came, so you can see the difference. In the beginning they were malnourished and suffered from health problems, but as you can see from the pictures below they've grown so much in the last five years and are much happier and more confident as well.

Two of the original eight girls went back to their families, so last year we took in two more underpriviledged girls from different districts.

Lily with the girls, their house mother, and her daughter

enjoying new story books

 

Pink Elephants, Coffee, and Positive Imaging

At the beginning of last week I heard from my parents that a friend from South Africa is here in Nepal attending a week long conference with Room to Read. (As a side note I invite you to check out their website and read the book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. They’re doing some pretty great stuff, and John Wood’s book is enjoyable, easy reading with a lot of great principles for getting things done and making a difference.)

I tried my best to get in touch with Chris but between internet and email trouble, and missed phone connections wasn’t able to arrange a meeting. After a couple of days I figured it wasn’t going to work to meet up, and emailed my parents to tell them so.

I got this message in reply:

Ok great -- now is a perfect time to use our positive focussed thought power, our prayers, and the beautiful and powerful law of attraction!

Now you focus on what you DO want....you and Chris meeting, shaking hands, then having a big hug, exciting conversation....or whatever you want! Now make your little picture or movie you are seeing in your mind in brighter colour, more clear, bigger, give it some great sound, even some smells (maybe you'll have a coffee?), bring it closer!

Don't think one more minute about what is not working or what you don't want to happen -- otherwise you attract what you don't want! Ha!

(your mind doesn't process negatives! For example, if I tell you, "Anita, Don't think about a pink elephant!" tell me what you are thinking about?

What picture do you have in your mind??! In other words, then what are you focussing on? What you don't want to think about?? Ha ha! You get what you focus on!

I burst out laughing and spent the rest of the morning thinking about pink elephants talking on the phone, meeting, and drinking coffee. Sure, I was using positive imaging, but the pink elephants kept creeping in too. At least it made me smile. And sure enough later in the day I made the connection and we had a great meeting.

I’ve never been super big on the whole “ask the universe for what you want” deal. But I have to say that positive imaging when combined with prayer and God’s will is a pretty powerful force.
And don’t forget the pink elephants :)