What does the future have in store for us?

Somebody asked me recently if I believed in astrology and palmistry. I suppose the intention was to know if I believed that our future (or parts of it) could be predicted.

Here is what I said to him.

"I am a Capricorn by the way and I do believe in stars. But only the good parts about them. Like I believe I have all the positive qualities of Capricorns but completely ignore the negative ones. I have found it to be a very useful habit. ;-)
As for palmistry, yes I have come across some good palmist during student life even a clairvoyant, so I know that God has given us hints of what is in store for us but I prefer to leave the knowledge of the unknown to Him. Why would I want to know about my future? That would take all the away all the fun and anticipation from life. Remember it is the element of surprise that keeps us going. Can you image what would happen to the human race if they came to know the entire world was about to come to an end the very next day. I think keeping the future unkown to us is one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind. It gives us hope and keeps us praying.
There is another thing I have noticed over the years and that is that the lines on our hands keep changing. Maybe not the major ones, but the minor ones defiantly do. And that is because of the choices that we make in our lives.
I prefer to be believed that it is up to us to decide what we are to do with our lives. I believe God knows what choice we are going to make but does not interfere.
Were it not for our own choice then we could not be held accountable for our actions on the Day of Judgment.
I have read somewhere that the time of birth and the time of death of each individual is pre decided. What happens in between is up to us.
And yes sometimes we are hit by catastrophes and disasters that we did not expect nor had the power to avoide in any way. That is Taqdeer or Qismat. How we react to them is not.
Any way that is what I prefer to believe about life.
You don’t have to agree with it if you don’t want to. Lots of people wouldn’t.
So keep making the right choices and be happy.
And remember being happy is more important than being successful.
May God bless you."

Recovery of a Stolen Mobile Phone

I have not been very lucky with my cell phones. Admittedly my first Siemens one lasted years. It was a typical die hard one that was much abused by my youngest daughter. It survived being thrown in the air by a toddler several times a day from where it would crash land on the floor, split into three separate parts (the front ,the back and the battery pack) which would fly off in three different directions. But press the three of them back together and it would start working again, that is until the day I placed it on the breakfast table beside my plate and accidentally spilled a full glass of water on it.

That was the end of that faithful companion.

The next one was a Motorola razor (which looked better than it performed). I did not even need to place it on the breakfast table. My youngest who was about three at the time took it to the bathroom , rubbed a generous amount of soap on it, rinsed it under the tap then brought it back to me all wet and dripping. What ever functionality was left in it was taken care of by the Motorola repair people who completely killed it while trying to fix it.

Third was a basic Nokia one. No frills, no special features, just a plain simple mobile phone. It was useful, economical and reliable just like a cell phone should be. Alas, I left it in the back seat of my car one day and when I came back the back window was smashed and the mobile was gone. Ironically that broken window cost us more to replace than what that stolen mobile would probably have fetched in the market.

The latest that happened in a series of unfortunate events involving my cell phones is that my newest one also disappeared.

It was a Sony Ericsson Z610i.

Not only was it expensive but I had also grown considerably attached to it.

Well now that it was gone there was nothing that I could do about it except lament.

But was it really gone?

The day following the theft, as I was coming down for breakfast early in the morning I thought I heard the six o clock morning alarm sound on my cell phone. Not believing what I had heard, I called other family members to the spot. (The mobile had been promptly turned off once it had been picked but the morning alarm had not been deactivated)

What followed was hilarious. Every body standing completely motion less waiting for the alarm to ring and every time it did a pandemonium would erupt as every one tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. We finally tracked it down to a vent in the garage roof where it was neatly wrapped up in plastic bag all ready to be collected at a later, more convenient time.

The hiding place delivered a lot more than just the missing mobile. We did have some workmen in the house repairing stuff on the day the mobile was stolen but since only a few pew people knew that vent in the roof was removable plus the fact that it disappeared from inside the house and was discovered within its premises, narrows down the list of suspects considerably. Infect I am pretty sure I know who the culprit is. But since we did not catch the thief red handed I prefer to keep my mouth shut and my eyes wide open in future.

For now I am just happy that I have got my cell phone back.

I love you Z610i and I love the sound of your alarm ;-)

Nature’s Wonderful Spectacle

Yesterday it rained while the sun was shinning.

It looked fantastic.

Just plain fantastic.