Pongal - The harvest festival

Pongal is one of the most popular harvest festival of South India, mainly Tamil Nadu. Pongal falls in the mid-January every year and marks the auspicious beginning of Uttarayan - sun's journey northwards. Pongal festival lasts for four days. Celebrations include drawing of Kolam, swinging & cooking of delicious Pongal.

Pongal is a harvest festival - the Tamil equivalent of Thanksgiving. In an agriculture based civilization the harvest plays an important part. The farmer cultivating his land depends on cattle, timely rain and the Sun. Once a year, he expresses his gratitude to these during the harvest festival. With the end of the wet month of Margazhi (mid December to mid January) the new Tamil month of Thai heralds a series of festivals. The first day of this month is a festival day known as "Pongal Day". Pongal means the "boiling over" of milk and rice during the month of Thai.

life is beautiful...

Everyone says, "How the time flies." The days go by and they are years, and the years finally become our whole life. Each daily portion can be wasted, or it can be a pleasure, before it is gone forever. If a bedtime review of the day concludes that we were too stressed, too busy, didn't accomplish anything, didn't have any fun, then it has been another lost piece of precious life.

Perhaps we are putting off our enjoyment until we have more time, or money, or some other improved condition. The trouble with that is that it might never happen, or it may be too long in coming. It's so important to accept this time, this very minute, as something of tremendous value that will very soon be gone forever. There are many ways to ensure that we make the best of our time here on earth.

In our daily routine let's include time to enjoy others and thus ourselves. Look and wonder at the trees, fields and mountains, smell the flowers, hear the birds, and watch the clouds in the sky.

Don't worry be happy...

Storms come our way. People let us down. Life sometimes becomes difficult, especially when our health is compromised. Too many times bills come due, yet our money runs short. All of these things try to steal away our joy.
There are some things we can do, however, that will help us keep our joy even in the most difficult circumstances. Do you want to become a joy-finder? Following are a dozen things that will bring joy to your life.

1. Smile, even when you want to frown.
2. Sing a happy song.
3. Hug someone.
4. Say “I love you” to those who have hurt
you.
5. Open the windows and let the sunshine in.
6. Count your many blessings.
7. Understand that it’s not having what we
want that makes us happy, but wanting
what we have.
8. Focus on the positive.
9. Tell yourself that you feel good.
10. Concentrate on what doesn’t hurt.
11. Enjoy the “priceless” treasures in life.
12. Be grateful for everything, even the trials
we are facing.