Savvy Raj

Live Life Lovingly!


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Illusions in the Reflections

Reflections in the stillness

On a patch of water

Reflections of sunlight

On a passing cloud

Reflecting colours

We humans have named…

The truth of clarity

Is the freedom in the uncertain

What seems to be, may not be

What is, may be not

What is apparent, may be invisible

What is assumption, may become a contradiction

Or simply delusions of our own imagination.

Or simply a clarity of illusions in the reflections.

Savvy

Was watching the reflections of sunlight dancing on this patch of water on the window sill of my terrace one evening. I was mesmerized by the fleeting cloud it had captured and its amazing colours that held my fancy for a long while…

Savvy Raj


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Effortless grace

Effortless grace is visible in a dancer,

Who even in the dynamics of great extensions in flexibility

Can manifest great ease and subtlety.

Savvy


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Love : A gift of grace


What is life if not sensed with the tenderness of the heart

What is life if not sacrificed at the altar of love,

What is life if not moved from the depth of the soul.

What is life if not loved beyond the shackles of time.

What is life if not consumed sublime by the arrow of the heart

What is love if not coached into nature of life by the nurture of love …

What is life if not cleansed through tears of yearning.

What is love if not set aglow through the embers of passion

What is life if not basked in the warmth of love

What is life if not pining in the patience awaiting

As love conquers you it blesses you in the knowing.

Make not a mockery of love

Serenade love and allow it to speak truth

Love surfaces from the depth of emotions

To mend you and this world to a better place.

As true love is eternal

Free as bird in flights of oblivion

Travelling in the abandon

Of the wilderness of the spirit

Yet bonded in the boundless infinity

Endless love a gift of grace

Acknowledge this treasure

Blending two souls in one.

As a life loved is well lived… such a rare sight!

What a blessing it truly is….A love like that!

Savvy


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Life and living

Yesterday evening as I went out walking I couldnt help notice the stark reality that stares at us . In people around us!

Often find there are more grim faces out in the world with tension written all over in their body language.

A serious disposition, drooping shoulders downward or vacant gaze, clenched teeth or fist , tight jaw. People think twice before smiling or making eye contact.

Or on the other extreme… every one these days seems more connected to their mobiles than ever. And when they are asked to come back to reality there is a gap in awareness. People are overwhelmed by this divide that is happening all around us.

Life need not be overwhelming all the time. Perhaps a few personal perspectives need a shift.

Life and living

Life is easier when

  • You make friends with your past.
  • You realize you create happiness.
  • You stop your overthinking.
  • You realize time heals it all.
  • You live and let live.
  • Your avoid passing judgements.
  • You begin to start smiling more.

Would be happy to hear more of what makes life easier for you…Do feel free to share of what you think can make life easy!

Savvy


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The Gruen Transfer

The Gruen Transfer
The Gruen transfer is a psychological phenomenon in which an idealized hyper-reality is realized by deliberate reconstruction, providing a sense of safety and calm through exceptional familiarity.

In shopping mall designing…the Gruen transfer (also known as the Gruen effect) is the moment when consumers enter a shopping mall or store and, surrounded by an intentionally confusing layout, lose track of their original intentions, making consumers more susceptible to make impulse buys. It is named for Austrian architect Victor Gruen, who disavowed such manipulative techniques.
The Gruen Transfer is the few minutes after you walk into a store where the stimulus confuses your brain and hypnotizes you into buying more.

There is always a dark side to marketing advertising and sales … with the intention of luring customers to buy!

Have you experienced this feeling when you buy or go shopping at a mall?

Do share your experiences if any!


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Every woman…

In 1997, Pamela Redmond Satran wrote a list for Glamour Magazine. Having already passed her thirtieth birthday, her goal was to tell younger women about “the things I really wished I’d had and known by that important milestone.” It not only resonated, it became a phenomenon. To this day, the now bestselling author’s list continues to make its way across the web, via sites, inboxes, and social feeds, experiencing recurring surges of viral popularity. Yet, up until very recently, in typical not-giving-credit-where-credit-is-due internet form, it was most often shared with either no attribution to Pamela or tagged as someone else’s work, including “Maya Angelou’s Best Poem Ever.”

Here are 15 interesting points from that list …

1)”A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …
enough money within her control to move out
and rent a place of her own, even if she never wants to or needs to…
……..
2)A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ..
a youth she’s content to leave behind….

3)A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …
a past juicy enough that she’s looking forward to
retelling it in her old age….
………..

4)A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….
one friend who always makes her laugh… and one who lets her cry…
………..
5)A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …
a feeling of control over her destiny…

6)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to fall in love without losing herself..

7)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to quit a job, break up with a lover, and confront a friend without; ruining the friendship…

8)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
when to try harder… and WHEN TO WALK AWAY…

9)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
that she can’t change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..

10)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
that her childhood may not have been perfect..but its over…

11)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more…

12)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
how to live alone… even if she doesn’t like it…

13)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. .
whom she can trust,
whom she can’t,
and why she shouldn’t take it personally…

14)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
where to go…
be it to her best friend’s kitchen table…
or a charming inn in the woods…
when her soul needs soothing…

15)EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW…
what she can and can’t accomplish in a day…
a month…and a year…

So much for the creativity passed on without credit.

And here is a dedication to Every Woman out there…Enjoy 💖👍💖


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Nature’s wisdom

Verses & Photography by Savvy Raj

Nature…

Is full of wisdom for those who seek…

Teaching lessons in living well.

Here are …

Five valuable lessons from nature

  • Equanimity

Find the Balance and you will thrive.

  • Harmony

Sense the synchrony in life and living.

  • Flow with this now

There is always a Purpose of being

  • Love

Love makes the world go around and life worth living.

  • Change

Change is the order of nature and the only constant.

Relate to the the wisdom of nature!

It has all the answers.

Savvy

Every day I love you

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To dance ‘the love of my life’....

‘To dance is to converse with your soul in oneness’

Savvy

Well I have just sat down to write supercharged after dancing an improvised version of Rumba to one of my favourite songs ‘Every day I love you by Boyzone. Yes I love to dance and I willing and wholeheartedly share my love and passion for it with the world.

Well who ever told you about dancing by numbers has perhaps never learned to dance from the heart!😉 Beyond the number game … yes we may begin with counting steps though I find a lot of people like me who prefered to learn with rhythms of quicks and slows. I prefer to associate dancing with the heart beats and the breath of life itself . I also find that when taught this way the dance gets closely connected with the authenticity of you and your movements as you are.

After all dancing is being you!

The art of dance can introduce you to yourself and beckons you to know your limitless potential.

Savvy


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Staying at the centre of the circle…

You are a tiny speck in the multitude of multiverses around. Your life circle is what you are bound to create in your lifetime.

As life happens you will be drawn from your roots in various ways. New people and experiences will in time add new thoughts and dimensions of behaviour and you may perhaps feel a little or a lot away from your centre. In fact you may find yourself lost in your way . Rest assured that it can happen to one and all.

The patterns you draw are unique to you. You are your own choicemaker.
And as for the challenges in the paths that open…they are your life’s way of testing your faith in your path and providence. As you move forth to spread your wings to take the flight and experience time, be sure to keep a track of your center of being. Let it be your internal guide to bring yourself into balance.

The so called paths are open to all explore. The truth is out there and within you at the same time in the same moment. All is found is striking the balance.

The circle of life bears the wisdom of balance. The centre is the core and as you strive to balance the self towards your centre, your circle is strengthened by the interconnects of one’s own circle of being. And yet as you strive to reach out to others circle’s of being in the grids of connection, the circle of connections gets stronger in between while new dimensions are interpolated.

A few reflections…

Your life is not your own. Thinking so is an illusion.
You are meant to be all that you can be.
You have a purpose that is larger than your self .
You are meant to live and reach out and expand the self
You are meant to to merge and emerge in the new circles of connection.
The choice of being in true to yourself is yours to make
The patterns you create help expand the universe .
The connections you make in your lifetime leave a pattern in the grid for another to sense and evolve in time .
No two patterns are alike as the patterns are unique to your being.
Your purpose then is to live your life to the best of yourself.

Reach out to make connections and experience the realms while staying true to your centre.
As you learn your way back home, more will to find their way back home in time and space continumn.

Savvy

To be Continued.


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On Creativity

Life & Creativity


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Breaking point of saturation : A new dawn.

From the point of saturation
Emerges a point of co relation
To ponder afresh on a point of connection.
The saturation plays a role
In the game of life and living

In breaking dawn and dusk
The twilight fills the day and night
With a hope and bliss of something new
Just as day breaks from
Evening dusks into a blissful night
The breaking point signifies a new start

The twilight confuses and confounds
The wisest of beings, as it is meant to do
For in that point of no return
There is the chaos of completion.
Only to begin afresh and anew.

In the passage of painful times into pleasurable moments
In the eras of darkness to deliverance
In the moments of night to day!
Lights seeps in and saturation sublimes
The dark clouds shifting perspectives.
Birthing a new breaking point
Of a brand new dawn!

Savvy


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And the woman labours on!

A balloon seller now she is

Her name does not matter

Married for she was considered a burden

By her very own parents.

A poor girl from the city of Rajasthan India

Surviving, living by and around

Cafes in the city of Pune

Just 19 solar cycles old

Her malnourished body has no signs of youth

She works all day selling balloons in hope

For one square meal to come her way

Often she says she eats only once in the day

If she is lucky she gets a bite-sized meal.

She wanders around till late evening

and sells her wares outside the hip street cafes

Often times to children and some for grown-ups too

My daughter is all of 19 too

Was visiting the cafe with friends

She chanced upon her last evening.

Begging her to buy some balloons

She took a bit of time and listened to her woes

She was deeply moved and she fed her dinner

In return, she was gifted a balloon from the heart

And this story above is the truth of this balloon seller’s

Life and existence

That she heard first hand and narrated to me last night

I reflect on how she said…

‘The balloon seller is stoic and yet hopeful’

Her life is a tragic story and pitiful

An account of a woman’s day!

Another day dawns …

They call it Woman’s Day!

The woman labours on

With the same fervour and faith

Like every other day

It makes no difference to such countless women really

If there is a day marked in her favour

Using her name politics is played

Institutions have events and clubs have parties

Felicitating and celebrating in the name of womanhood

When will lives of every female child truly change

As a mother or the daughter or the sister

Maybe there is a recognition and sweet words

from your family and friends for a day or so …

Her life is a mere existence in making through each day and night…

What a day like this going to matter to her.

Really not much.

She is out in the open vulnerable and bare.

Bounded by duty imposed without a right

Carried on in the throes of life and living.

Praying a day will dawn when every life matters.

Where every child is born and raised with love

For the future of this world belongs to them.

Savvy Raj

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On Nurturing :4  


After writing a series of posts on the topic of Nurturing I found a lot of ideas floating out on Parenting and thus I am drawn to deciphder and draw the parellels in the the two… 

 I tossed the topic out to my mother who is currently  visiting my brother and his family Besides the members of the family , it is home to two cats and a dog as pets. Life is certainly different there for her than with me here . My brother, a passionate animal lover is also an actively involved with Blue Cross of India. Rescue operations happen just about anytime and often at the middle of the night. And some hurt and disabled animals and birds eventually have known to have landed up at home as pets.

 Nurturing comes naturally to him especially so for those hapless animals and birds . I have personally seen the amount of care and concern  he and the volunteers at Blue Cross give without any expectation in return . Just a  week back there was an adoption drive for more than a 100 puppies and by the end of the day all the puppies found a home .The contentment  in those volunteers hearts must have been uncontained for sure.

In lieu with our topic nurturing  I took the liberty of envisioning and including  the perspectives of nurturing a pet as much as  parenting a child by my sharing of the backstory of my brothers home which is always more like a zoo or a sanctuary to me. Just kidding bro😊

I am going to share my mothers perspective  from such a backdrop…  on Parenting and Nurturing . 

Parenting and Nurturing.

Parenting and nurturing go hand in hand. Parenting needs more sternness while nurturing needs compassion and kindness.

Parent is a nature given blessed title and parenting is bliss and pain with growing responsibilities.

Whereas nurturing is the quality any one can develop on any living being. A plant well nurtured grows well. With kindness , compassion and love flowing from the heart one can nurture a plant to blossom into fruits, an animal in a healthy surrounding, helpless children and seniors to thrive in a dignified way .

Parenting is our duty towards our children . Nurturing them comes naturally. Parenting involves providing, caring, shaping their future with lot of disciplining. Parenting has a natural tendency to forgive their follies and wrong doings , will find an excuse for their wrong behavior and justify them.

Parenting cannot be done without nurturing whereas nurturing doesn’t need to be parenting. The reciprocation of parenting can be seen in the nurturing of parents by the children in their old age.

By nurturing one can increase other’s self worth, self value and increase their confidence level. It can bring joy to a miserable person . Nurturing is a divine quality any one can develop. It is the extension n expansion of parenting beyond self. It can best be  selfless

Nurturing can be done in many levels. Physical nurturing is one thing, emotional n psychological nurturing also help a long way in sculpting better human beings.

Sometimes mere words of encouragement n appreciation of their deeds become vocal nurturing to perform better. Weaning away the weeds is also a part of good nurturing.

Nurturing can be time and place limited without possessiveness. Let going becomes easier whereas the feeling of parenting crosses these lines as the bond is life long till death do them part.

The name and nature may vary. But without parenting and nurturing qualities the world will not survive. They help the future generation to grow into better persons. The legacy will continue by all sometime, somewhere. They are the two sides of the same divine coin. Good parenting makes better human beings, good nurturing creates a better society and a better world.

Both will make the world smile.

What you nurture is important especially in your own nature.             

Just remember in nurturing, what you choose to nurture, develops…

Choose wisely!

Savvy

 


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Springwell of Creativity

Immense is the power of creative movements to balance the body mind and spirit.  

 We are all creative beings.We need to honour our creativity we need to find avenues to let go express and share what comes natural to us. In that is a healing and restoring beyond compare…

Savvy 


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On Giving & Receiving : 2

In the giving, we find our self
In the receiving, we understand our self.

In learning to give and receive well we learn about our own nature.  How we feel in accepting a gift or compliment or reward or title… For many, it is a task that is confusing, to say the least, especially how to accept a gift in a graceful dignified way.
Even more so, however, is how we learn to reciprocate what we receive and how to do so.
It truly is about reflecting gratitude. A gift well received is a gift in the truest sense or else it can be perceived in many other ways. How do you receive the gift you are given and how you care to express it back can make all the difference. Although subjective to the giver and the occasion the way you acknowledge it is very important to the giver.

I remember this incident from my childhood…
Many years ago as a young kid at school,  I used to carefully collect and save my pocket money so as to be able to buy small gifts for my family and friends on their birthdays. I would forgo my little sweet treats at lunch break and put it all in a little purse.

Once it was one of my dear relatives birthdays and I managed to joyfully search and buy a beautiful bracelet, a trinket actually from the saved money and happily gifted it to her. But to my dismay …in a few days she went and exchanged my gift for something else and I felt a little disappointed for a while when she told me casually about it only much later.  But then gradually I let it go and accepted it as every person is entitled to their own taste of things. And I also felt,  what may appeal to one may not suit the other. To each his or her own!

All is a matter of a shift in perspectives.

As soon as you adjust the way you see things the so-called issues that irk disappear on their own… but the question is are we ready to see beyond the niggling bits.

Lessons in life and living indeed!
A few more reflections on Giving and Receiving


Give with all of your heart 

 whenever and wherever you can 

Because you truly can.

Receive by expressing the value 

In  heartfelt appreciation

 of what you have got 

Because it truly matters.

 For then in the giving and receiving 

 Is established a full circle 

of a contented connection.

And that will pave the path of grace

For more to follow along.


Give generously without any expectation 

Receive generously in true appreciation.

Both are the core of human nature in action.

And all is well in the circle of interconnection.


When you give heartfully forget about it.

When you receive gratefully, remember it 

Savvy 

Tell me have you ever had a similar experience
What do you think about it?  How would you feel if your gift was exchanged… or have you exchanged a gift for another?

Would love to hear from you, do share your thoughts…

Savvy