Gerald D'Cunha

  “It takes an earthquake to remind us, that we walk on the crust of an unfinished planet.” Charles Kuralt   L ast evening , while watching the disturbing images of devastation in Turkey, I remembered one of my dear friends. His sister’s entire family has been living in Turkey for nearly ten years, now. I was quite tensed as I messaged him… “Hope sister’s family is safe in Turkey.” “Mercifully, yes. The tremors haven’t touched Istanbul, yet,” my friend replied. That’s when I realized, that my friend’s statement carried a great irony of our existence… When natural disasters, like earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones etc., strike, you and I are either caught in them, or spared. “God has been kind,” was my instant conclusion on reading my friend’s reply. But, at hindsight, a question kept haunting me – “Why has not God been kind to the ones caught in the disasters?”… “Why has He been so selective?” But, then, who am I to question God? N ot very far from the epicenter...

“The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.”  ―  Hannah Whitall Smith M y problems and my suffering are always mine… They are ‘big’… till I see someone else’s problems and suffering and realize how ‘small’ mine are. When I am stuck in my own ‘selfish’ world of self-pity and blame, I can never see how small my problems and suffering are… It is all about I, me and myself. Acceptance, I know, is the key to end my suffering. But, acceptance doesn’t come to me easily. When it does, it, invariably, comes via the long route called – ‘resistance’… Yes, when I am grief-stricken, I cry and keep asking ‘Why me?’... I throw resistance… I remain a victim. I have come to realize, that the state of acceptance is a state of grace…  Only prayerful and grateful hearts are blessed with this state. Life has problems and I am not alone in this… There are mill...