SWEET IS THE FACE OF ADVERSITY</ti= tle>  <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=3DEN-US style=3D'tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=3DSection1> SWEET IS THE FACE OF ADV= ERSITY<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> = </o:p> Adversity = is faceless. Yet I have encountered it time and again. Som= etimes in my own little shelter but more often in the world of others. What= is always amazing is the fact that whenever adversity waltzes into our lives, = most of the times it is accompanied with its partner Hope. And since hope is awakened only if there is a divine power to expect it from, whatever the th= eory of evolution, old fashioned people like me will often choose to believe in = the marvel of creation. And in miracles! </span= > <o:p></o:p> When my nephew was just six = weeks old he had to undergo two major operations. Both his kidneys were enlarged = and both his ureters blocked. The doctors did not e= xpect any miracles and had forewarned my sister of the risk involved. But although children come into this world with their own agenda (mostly to test the love and patience of their creators), parents are absolutely amazing creatures. = They are not only designed to be loving, forgiving and sacrificing but are also = optimistic to the core. So even with danger at stake for the tiny baby, the go ahead signal was given and the operation took place. Miraculously it was a succes= s. That was sixteen years ago.<o:p></o:p> A few days back I witnessed yet ano= ther visage of adversity. It appeared sweet and sanguine. Even afte= r the calm atmosphere was confined to the perimeters of a single bed. Even afte= r a pair of beautiful legs were fastened onto a bunch of cruel metal clasps. <s= pan class=3DGramE>Even after patience was being relentlessly probed with the pa= ngs of pain. Propped among th= e pillows, it sat there with a fifteen year old in her luxurious little shell, as smug= as a hermit crab. The parents were made of the same stern stuff that parents a= re usually made of. They were patiently enduring the pain with that same old expectation of wanting to see their child recover to take her first step. Y= et again! The fifteen year old’s race had no= t yet run. In fact it had just begun. But from the determined look on her face I = was definite she was going to win. For such treatments need not always be follo= wed by just a period of recovery. It can also be a time for discovery- of count= ing the blessings, of appreciating simplicity in life, of assessing the transformin= g behaviourial patterns in people and of trying to unde= rstand the spiritual phenomena. <o:p></o:p> &n= bsp; I have often wondered = what it is that ‘gets the tough going when the going gets tough.’ The answer is simple. It is faith. Probably courage too.</s= pan> If we never decided to change our directions, we would usually end up in the same way. So once in a way one needs to stop analyzing stuff and just push = on through. And hope everything works out fine. At such times, I guess, to tak= e a hesitant step backward is actually like taking a gutsy step forward. Sometimes one’s whole purpose in life is merely to serve as an example to other= s.<o:p></o:p> Nargis Natarajan= <o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>

MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Location: file:///C:/515B32F9/Sweet_is_the_face_of_adversity.htm Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" SWEET IS THE FACE OF ADVERSITY</ti= tle>  <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=3DEN-US style=3D'tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=3DSection1> SWEET IS THE FACE OF ADV= ERSITY<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> = </o:p> Adversity = is faceless. Yet I have encountered it time and again. Som= etimes in my own little shelter but more often in the world of others. What= is always amazing is the fact that whenever adversity waltzes into our lives, = most of the times it is accompanied with its partner Hope. And since hope is awakened only if there is a divine power to expect it from, whatever the th= eory of evolution, old fashioned people like me will often choose to believe in = the marvel of creation. And in miracles! </span= > <o:p></o:p> When my nephew was just six = weeks old he had to undergo two major operations. Both his kidneys were enlarged = and both his ureters blocked. The doctors did not e= xpect any miracles and had forewarned my sister of the risk involved. But although children come into this world with their own agenda (mostly to test the love and patience of their creators), parents are absolutely amazing creatures. = They are not only designed to be loving, forgiving and sacrificing but are also = optimistic to the core. So even with danger at stake for the tiny baby, the go ahead signal was given and the operation took place. Miraculously it was a succes= s. That was sixteen years ago.<o:p></o:p> A few days back I witnessed yet ano= ther visage of adversity. It appeared sweet and sanguine. Even afte= r the calm atmosphere was confined to the perimeters of a single bed. Even afte= r a pair of beautiful legs were fastened onto a bunch of cruel metal clasps. <s= pan class=3DGramE>Even after patience was being relentlessly probed with the pa= ngs of pain. Propped among th= e pillows, it sat there with a fifteen year old in her luxurious little shell, as smug= as a hermit crab. The parents were made of the same stern stuff that parents a= re usually made of. They were patiently enduring the pain with that same old expectation of wanting to see their child recover to take her first step. Y= et again! The fifteen year old’s race had no= t yet run. In fact it had just begun. But from the determined look on her face I = was definite she was going to win. For such treatments need not always be follo= wed by just a period of recovery. It can also be a time for discovery- of count= ing the blessings, of appreciating simplicity in life, of assessing the transformin= g behaviourial patterns in people and of trying to unde= rstand the spiritual phenomena. <o:p></o:p> &n= bsp; I have often wondered = what it is that ‘gets the tough going when the going gets tough.’ The answer is simple. It is faith. Probably courage too.</s= pan> If we never decided to change our directions, we would usually end up in the same way. So once in a way one needs to stop analyzing stuff and just push = on through. And hope everything works out fine. At such times, I guess, to tak= e a hesitant step backward is actually like taking a gutsy step forward. Sometimes one’s whole purpose in life is merely to serve as an example to other= s.<o:p></o:p> Nargis Natarajan= <o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>