How do you mend a broken heart ?

I once got this in a mail. I just want to share it with you here. May be it will help you if you are in need ;)

We get a lot of prayer requests asking to simply pray for their broken heart.So what do you do when you've got a broken heart?Here are four steps that will help you up that mountain.
1. Occupy 2. Gratify 3. Sanctify 4. Glorify.

Occupy:Occupy your time, don't sit around moping. Do something. Idleness is the soil of self-pity and depression. Get busy. The best thing that you can do is to do something that helps others. It's a universal principle that when you start focusing on helping others, your own problems are diminished.Don't just stand there, DO SOMETHING!

Gratify:Write a list of the things you like, then pick three of those things and put those things in your life - now. Make sure you can afford them and that they aren't harmful. When our hearts are broken, we often deprive ourselves of the things we enjoy. Make an effort to put enjoyment in your life.

Sanctify:Do good. Don't return evil for evil, hurt for hurt, pain for pain. Don't wish something horrible would happen to the other person. Hope for their good fortune in your spirit, and it just may release your good fortune in your world.The easiest way to forget someone, is to truly wish them well.

Glorify:Life is not over. You can live without them. Not only can you live without them, you can live even happier without them. It is a matter of perspective. Even with the negative in your world at the moment, there is something to be thankful for.There is plenty to be thankful for actually. Give God the glory for what you have.You can't be sad and thankful at the same time. Tell heartbreak to move over.

A famous comedian said, "A man isn't a man until he's had his heart broken." It's not really broken, it's just tenderized.

Excerpts from "The Notebook" by NICHOLAS SPARKS

My life? It isn't easy to explain. It has not been the rip-roaring spectacular I fancied it would be, but neither have I burrowed around with the gophers. I suppose it has most resembled a blue-chip stock: fairly stable, more ups than downs, and gradually trending upward over time. A good buy, a lucky buy, and I've learned that not everyone can say this about his life. But do not be misled. I am nothing special; of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.

The romantics would call this a love story, the cynics would call it a tragedy. In my mind it's a little bit of both, and no matter how you choose to view it in the end, it does not change the fact that it involves a great deal of my life and the path I've chosen to follow. I have no complaints about my path and the places it has taken me; enough complaints to fill a circus tent about other things, maybe, but the path I've chosen has always been the right one, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Time, unfortunately, doesn't make it easy to stay on course. The path is straight as ever, but now it is strewn with the rocks and gravel that accumulate over a lifetime. Until three years ago it would have been easy to ignore, but it's impossible now. There is a sickness rolling through my body; I'm neither strong nor healthy, and my days are spent like an old party balloon: listless, spongy, and growing softer over time...

I realize the odds, and science, are against me. But science is not the total answer; this I know, this I have learned in my lifetime. And that leaves me with the belief that miracles, no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can occur without regard to the natural order of things. So once again, just as I do every day, I begin to read the notebook aloud, so that she can hear it, in the hope that the miracle that has come to dominate my life will once again prevail.
And maybe, just maybe, it will.

The Prologue from the book, The Alchemist...

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus. The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus. But this was not how the author of the book ended the story. He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.
"Why do you weep?" the Goddesses asked.
"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.
"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."
"But..... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.
"Who better than you to know that?" the Goddesses said in wonder, "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!!"
The lake was silent for some time.
Finally it said:
"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."
"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought.

Bye Bye 2006 - A New Day Has Come

Today is 01 January 2007 and the time showing on my pc is 10:03 am. It’s the first day of New Year and also there is another special occasion too. Today is Eid-ul-Azha. I just have finished texting messages to all the people in my contact list and now finally I found some ample time to spend on my pc. I could feel that today will be quite a busy day. I am going to meet all the relatives and friends. Also soon qurbani will be started. But still I guess I have time to write something from my heart again.

Since yesterday was the last day of the previous year, in night on my way to sleep I was thinking about the previous year. Recounting all the memorable events of 2006, which were either good or bad and had affected me in any way. I was thinking how much of my life was changed in that year. 2006 year started on a good node. I had many hopes and dreams for the New Year. Professionally it was a kick back start and I was shifted to a new project, quite challenging and exciting. During summer, I visited Murree and Abbotabad with my brother and cousin. Everything in life was going smooth. There was work, fun and laughter. However gradually it soon began to fade away. The hope was replaced with despair. The fun was replaced with sickness and laughter was replaced with troubles. It all started when I couldn’t make into admission in MBA at LUMS for third time at row and this made me to re-think, what I really want in life? Also there were tensions growing on between me and my friends. In the third quarter of that year I started feeling dejected. One by one the incidents in life made me more and more depressed and I lost interest in everything. Another reason was that I was surrounded by very much negativity around myself. Since I absorb from my environment, therefore the negativity affected me deeply inside. I just wanted to run away from everything. I became very lazy and weird. And then the last month came.

I took 10 days leave from work in the last days of the year and those 10 days were quite memorable. In these days, I realized that my life was actually back on track again. I came to know about lies which a person was telling me from quite a long time and I actually believed them. It hurt me to an extent and first time I realized probably people can be fake. In spite of it, I was content and feeling positive. One of my best friends got married and I was very happy for him. Another of my best friend shifted back to Lahore. The misunderstandings between the friends were resolved; bought a new car. A whole new professional direction was in front of me. Had fun with some old friends and I was becoming more and more ready to face my fears once again ;)

In short, if I could sum up the year 2006 for myself then it would be “Just few days can change the whole course of your life. However always take them in right spirit and never lose hope”.

May God Bless You All.

Tour 2006

As promise, here are some of the beautiful pictures of the tour. Hope you like them. To publish them i have re-sized these pictures. However if you like any of these pictures and want to have them in their original size you can ask me.

A Walk in Clouds

Four of US

River Neelum

Breathless

Rise of Morning

Snakey Curves

3 Days in 8 Places

I am writing this blog while sitting in my office. Even tough I don’t have anything in particular in my mind at this time to write about, but still I would continue with something. Umm..mmm.. I love traveling. I like to see new places, experience new cultures and meet with people from different environments. In Pakistan, you can find many beautiful landscapes where culture, environment, language all are different. Once a year at least, I do travel outside of my city to explore different places within my country. Last year August, I went with my brother, cousin and cousin’s friend on a tour. We all went to Murree and its surrounding areas. We started our journey at 9 pm and headed to Islamabad via Daewoo bus. The bus entertained us with “Matrix Revolutions”. I haven’t seen the movie before, neither I intend to see it that time :P Meanwhile I passed my time while listening to the songs and by sleeping. We reached at Islamabad past mid-night. We took a taxi and reached Murree around 4 am. We took a room in a hotel, whose name is not in mind right nowL. After resting for couple of hours and having a brief tour of the Murree’s famous Mall Road, we again booked a taxi and began our tour. Our first destination was Patriata. It was not a new place for me. I have been there earlier twice. The only attraction at Patriata is the chair lifts and the cable cars. We traveled in them as the part of the holy ritual of our tour. After that we went to River Neelam base. It was the best part, since we have came across a different landscape this time. And lastly, we went to Bhurban, where the only attraction is PC Hotel. Again, as a sacred custom, we entertained ourselves with its food. That’s how the first day ended. For second day, we headed for Ayubia and Nathiya Gali. Nathiya Gali has beautiful landscape and is quite clean with respect to other areas. It was 13th August night that day. Around midnight the whole crowd at Murree accumulated near GPO and they celebrated their independence in their unique style by shooting fireworks, dancing and beating all the cars that passed through that area. On the third day, we went for Thandiyani, another tourist attraction near Abbotabad city. This place holds the national record for having the maximum rainfall, and we have experienced it ourselves too :P we were there, when it rained heavily. Abottabad is a calm and beautiful city. It’s the best city to live your retired life. It’s a proper big city having all the facilities that other cities like Lahore, Karachi etc have. After visiting the famous Ilyassi Masjid of Abbotabad and seeing little bit of the city itself, the taxi dropped us at Abbotabad Daewoo terminal. We want to travel back to Lahore on the same day. However we couldn’t get the tickets. We tried other bus services and luckily, we got the tickets for 8 pm and early next morning we were back to Lahore. That was the end of our exact 3 days journey. Overall it was a nice trip and nothing unfortunate or bad happened during its entire course. The healthy feeling of trip has lessened all the stress which gathered in my mind due to the work pressure. And one thing I learnt was that every person in the northern area is not a Pathan :P they are Pothohari and Kashmiris mostly ;)

The lunch break is over and I am back to work now ;) I will post the pictures of this tour later. So bye and take care ;)

Great Expectations

It’s one of my favorite movies. Though I have read the novel but I like the movie better than the novel. The whole execution of the movie is awesome. From actors to dialogues to music to visuals, the movie do touches the heart.

Synopsis
It’s a story of Finn; a modest guy falling in love with a rich girl. Throughout his childhood he loved Estella, but he was never sure whether she loves him or not. One day a secret benefactor helps him to achieve his dream of pursuing a career as a painter in New York. Finn believed, it had to be Estella and her aunt Miss Dinsmoor who has been guardian of Estella throughout.; since Finn poorness was the only reason why he can’t marry Estella; therefore they have been helping him. But on the day of his success, Estella marries another guy leaving Finn heart broken. And Finn realized all this expectations were false. He was seeing the life the way he wants to see, not what actually it was. And the secret benefactor was a criminal whom he helped once in his childhood. All of Finn’s expectations failed. But still it didn’t ended here.

Visuals
The whole movie is green. In the visuals the green color is shown in abundance. Green is life. Abundant in nature, green signifies growth, renewal, health, and environment. On the flip side, green is jealousy or envy and a dark and cold side of a person. The girl's character in the movie is she's a cautious person and not inclined to trust others easily. She’s an observer in life, but not wished to get involved more than she wants. She’s cold, classy and needs a person to release her from her past. But she's struggling from within.... and doesn’t know what to choose. So I feel...the color GREEN is a sign of nature, inexperience, beauty and most importantly HOPE.... which the movie tries to convey.


Dialogues

Finn:

I'm not going to tell the story the way it happened. I'm going to tell it the
way I remember it.

Ms. Nora Digger Dinsmoor:

She'll only break your heart, it's a fact. And even though I warn you, even
though I guarantee you that the girl will only hurt you terribly, you'll still
pursue her. Ain't love grand?

Finn: What's it like not to feel anything?


Estella: Let's say there was a little girl, and from the time she could understand, she was taught to fear... let's say she was taught to fear daylight. She was taught that it was her enemy, that it would hurt her. And then one sunny day, you ask her to go outside and play and she won't. You can't be angry at her can you?


Finn: I knew that little girl and I saw the light in her eyes, and no matter what you say or do, that's still what I see.


Estella: We are who we are. People don't change.



Finn:

The night all of my dreams came true, and like all happy endings,It was a
tragedy, Of my device, for I succeeded. I had cut myself loose from Joe, from
the past, from the gulf, from poverty I had invented myself. I'd done it
cruelly, but I had done it. I was free!

Finn:

It's my heart, and it’s broken.

Finn:

I did it! I did it! I am a wild success! I sold 'em all, all my paintings. You
don't have to be embarrassed by me anymore, I'm rich! Isn't that what you
wanted, aren't we happy now. Don't you understand, that everything I do, I do it
for you. Anything, that might be special in me, is you.