I could blame the weather. This winter has been very un-Canadian. For the first time in meteorological history, southern Manitoba (the province from which I hail, no, it hasn’t been hailing – pun intentional, but not very funny…sorry…) anyway…southern Manitoba did not have a white Christmas. I used to wonder about that song, White Christmas, because I had never experienced any other kind of Christmas. I didn’t know about people in the southern hemisphere having the opposite seasons as the north. I’m sure that I learned this in school at some point, and I may have even taught this phenomena (I recall setting up an overhead projector as the sun and having fifth grade students hold up a volleyball to represent the earth) but I had forgotten all of that until my dear cyber friend Val from New Zealand reminded me that for them, Christmas is in summer. But as I have been trying to say, we have had an extraordinarily warm winter – we had a barbecue on Christmas Day, so perhaps my muse tried to go sledding and got stuck because there was no snow.

In any event (which is an odd phrase, but it seemed to fit here, so I googled the phrase “in any event” and it is a real English idiom) I have not been able to concentrate long enough to finish any of the articles that I start, and I haven’t been able to start the ones I have been planning to start once I have finished the ones I have started.

It feels a bit like spring fever, but it is only February, which is usually much colder than this – although they are predicting colder, more normal Manitoba temperatures soon, and I haven’t had a fever – but I have been restless, ‘springing’ back and forth from one unfinished project to another.

But whatever the cause, and whether or not you believe in muses (I actually don’t, especially not ones that look like Olivia Newton John on roller skates in the movie Xanadu)…

Pause here, my pill alarm just reminded me that it is 4:00 already so I need to take some meds…talk amongst yourselves…

OK, I’m back now…did you miss me? This whole ramble was supposed to explain why I haven’t posted anything on Triond for awhile, so I was going to ask if you have missed me…or if you noticed the absence of my presence…but if you didn’t… that’s OK because I wasn’t posting anything for you to read.

This rambling stream of consciousness babble is starting to make me wonder what the pharmacist has been putting in my pills lately. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been able to pay attention long enough to finish any articles lately.

I was thinking about doing another Momma Cat advice column, but the five articles that I did post for that series, although the comments were encouraging, made 12 cents for the whole series. That would make me feel depressed if I wasn’t feeling so restless that I can’t focus on anything negative for long enough to feel depressed about it.

I should go take a shower. It is 4:15 now and I am still in jammies. I haven’t brushed my teeth yet today either. Being at home full time has been hard on my personal hygiene…

If anyone is still reading this, I applaud you! If not, hopefully this restlessness will pass soon and I will have something more coherent for my readers next week. Now I had better go shower. Cheers!

I weep tears of pain whenever the heart comes to terms with shackles around human lives, from regions to regions and from continents to continents. It is once asked that shall a man dwell in his home and get injured? The answer that readily comes to mind is in clear contrast with the obtainable in reality, which situations have made so, yes a man can actually sustain first degree injury in his home.

The constant and continuous battle we engage in today starting from the birth process through to the rigours of being educated and finally to the grounds of career are all towards that prestigious items which seems so unattainable and lost for ages, nothing else but freedom.

Freedom is the name given to earning one peace and keeping it, freedom is the name given to walking on the street at any point or time of the day without fears whatsoever, freedom is the title given to having your voice heard and reckoned with by the very leaders, freedom is the subject in heart when race or the colours of our skin no longer trigger any ill-feeling across entry points, boarders, nations and continents, freedom is when the lowly and mighty would sit together over the same meal without prejudice.

But believe me, human freedom seems so big a prize to win, so much a journey to embark yet the better part of the world populace crave same. Many lives have been consumed by the raging heat of the freedom battle, many hopes have been chartered by the piercing arrow of the matter but a thorough and sincere search within would reveal that though this may seem an attempt to touch the sky, freedom soldiers abound across cities and countries and would continue to rise and move on the pathway to human freedom.

Today, the United Nation functions, World Youth Alliance beams, AIESEC is making efforts, Junior Chamber remain tireless and so together a movement is on parade so it is without doubts but much wits and grits against the avalanching challenges that humans would be free in the end.

It is tough to mention, weird to imagine and characteristically hazy to expect and describe but yet there is something called human freedom and it would come to be.

The answer is- Happiness. It is a mirage that makes you keep running towards it and never surrenders itself. All human beings keep trying to attain happiness. They may get glimpses of it but never removes that thirst that says-‘yes, I am satisfied!’

Happiness also tends to deviate you from your path. Seeking artificial happiness is like dew drops that evaporates with sun shine. True happiness is like sun shine that removes all the shadows of doubts. Being dependent for happiness on artificial things like alcohol, drugs and short lived enjoyments etc. takes you no where. It just gives you a hallucination of being happy which they name it to be REAL but is NOT.

The question is then what is happiness?

Happiness is ‘to be’ and not to seek. Then the next question emerges – how to be? Its simple- INTROSPECT! Yes, introspect your life and your emotions. Dig deep into yourself and you will discover the source of your happiness. The reason of your being. It is very true that you are born for a purpose! And that purpose itself is to be. I must say that real happiness does not lie in the goal but the path that reaches to the goal you keep. I name it ‘PASSION’!

Passion is your fountain of happiness which never dries. It does not make you dependent but rather free you from all the bondages. Passion is what you love to do and keep doing it forever and ever. You never get bored of it or loose interest in it. I will make it clear by quoting some examples of the people who pursued their passion. They were the people like Einstein, Michaelengelo, Mother Teresa and many other passionate people like them whom you might be aware of. They never worked but loved their work. For them their best creation just happened. The fire called passion burnt in all of them. They had one purpose which no one demanded but only their hearts craved. Passion is directed by intuition and emotions following which one leads to only one goal- the goal to be happy and satisfied. Following your heart does not lead you to fame, money, luxuries but alone to happiness. Yes happiness is the only goal that you work towards nevertheless- fame, money, luxuries and all that you desire or can desire fall into your lap as byproducts of following your happiness. This is also what Maslow named ‘self actualization’. You actualize yourself in the process. You discover a new ‘you’. The day you find the purpose of coming into this world- you are born again and that too happily!J