Dr. Seuss/Tao/Vedanta – Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

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Oh, The Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss

The boys and I have a routine every morning during breakfast.  We read books at the kitchen table while we have our breakfast.

This morning, ‘A’ brought me ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go!’ by Dr. Seuss.

I have to admit to being quite impressed with the message.  Very deep to a spiritual level, lessons we learn today through Vedanta and New Age Philosophy.

 

The first page:

‘Congratulations! Today is your day.  You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!

This is one recommended way to motivate ourselves, as adults, every morning.

‘You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.  And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go’.

Simply put – we have all the tools of life in us.  We are in control of our own destiny.  Decide and do!

‘Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry.  Don’t stew.  Just go right along.  You’ll start happening too.

The Tao says to go with the flow.  Do not resist.  Surrender to the Universe and it will take you to good places.

 

The next few pages talks about,

‘you’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! …

… wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

…except when you don’t.  Because, sometimes, you won’t.  I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

… you’ll be left in the lurch.

Ying & Yang.  While you enjoy the highs and soar in success, there will also be the lows, when you get stuck and left behind.  There is a balance in life, in the universe.

 

The next few pages speak about being in a slump and coming out of it with difficulty and then how challenges will come our way and we would need to decide which path to take – the left or the right… Getting confused…and then playing the waiting game…

‘…waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go… for waiting for Another Chance.  Everyone is just waiting.’

‘NO! That’s not for you! Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high!  Ready for anything under the sky.  Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!’

… Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!…’

 

There is a chance of stagnation, of being tamasik.  Of sitting around and waiting for something to happen. You will not allow this, as this is not who you are. Because you are in charge.  This is a message we have to keep telling ourselves if we reach stagnation.

 

‘… Fame!  You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV. 

Except when they don’t.  Because, sometimes, they won’t.  I’m afraid that sometimes you’ll play lonely games too.  Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

 

Fame and fortune will come but sometimes we will be cheered and sometimes perhaps jeered or nothing at all.  Vedanta says do not get attached to the results of your efforts.  Focus and do and move on.

Sometimes we have an internal battle.  We compete against ourselves and sometimes we have an internal conflict.

 

And my favourite part:

‘…So be sure when you step.  Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.  Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.  And never mix up your right foot with your left. 

And you will succeed?  Yes!  You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ per cent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

 

The reality of life: enthusiasm, passion, destiny and being in control of it.  The ups and downs and the ins and outs.  We all have to go through this beautiful cycle of life and success is to be had when we accept that ‘Life’s a Great Balancing Act.’

Dr. Seuss so deftly through his rhyme and pun gives the message to children of what to expect in life and what not to settle for and how each one of us has everything we need to create this balance and deal with the highs and lows within us.  A lesson most of us adults are still learning in adult hood.

 

 

The Rosie Project: A review

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion was my April book club read. Its narrated by Don Tillman, a lecturer in Genetics at the University of Melbourne. Don is almost 40 when he reads that married men are happier and stronger and so he sets off on “The Wife project” to find himself a partner. Having Asperger’s syndrome, Don is very frank, highly organised, very literal and quite direct. He struggles to read social cues, finds it difficult being flexible and generally has his life planned out by the minute.

In steps Rosie who is everything he isn’t…with a zest for life, chaos and totally “messed up”, she turns Don’s life upside down when he decides to help her with “The father project”. He suddenly finds himself doing and being everything that he is not and he simply can’t help himself.

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I really enjoyed the book. While it’s a very easy read and quite funny at times, it also focuses on what so many of us might look at as “weird” in real life. You can’t help but warm to Don as he navigates through his emotions and thoughts to realise that although he may not understand what he is feeling, what he is feeling is love.

This book is an honest, simple and touching tender-hearted love story, I’d definitely recommend it 🙂

Late Fragments by Kate Gross

I stumbled upon Kate’s blog a few months ago and was saddened to read of her illness. I think it makes it sadder when the world loses someone who was doing so much for it. In her mid 20’s, Kate was working at No. 10 Downing Street with Tony Blair followed by Gordon Brown, as their personal secretary’s. She then went on to be CEO of the Africa Governance Initiative of which Tony Blair is a patron.

She passed away on Christmas day but what makes her story even more tragic is it happened 10 minutes before her 5 year old twin boys came running in to ask “Is it morning?” Earlier this month her book Late Fragments was published and I immediately ordered a copy which I practically devoured in one sitting.

You wouldn’t be wrong for thinking this is a book about cancer and in many ways of course it is (it’s the reason she writes the book). It tells of Kate’s story and how she deals with knowing death is coming knocking at her door. But to me it’s also a book about life. The book is filled with one liners that make you sit up and think. When asked by someone “What is the best thing cancer has given you?” her response was “a feeling of being alive, awake”.

It reminds you to really live your days, make the most of your life and follow your heart. She wrote the book for her two “knights” whom she hopes will one day read it and know her a bit better.

This book will bring you to tears but it will also raise your spirits. From the little I’ve read about Kate and the work she did, I think this was exactly the kind of reaction she was hoping for.