On Love

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

 

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Alfred Nobel - His Life and Work

The Sound of Music

The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears
My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds that rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like the chime that flies from a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook as it trips and falls over stones on its way
To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to prey
I go to the hills when my heart is lonely
I know I will hear what I've heard before
My heart will be blessed with the sound of music
And I'll sing once more.

Present

My teacher says it so well when he says, "A gift is a creator of worlds between the giver and receiver. If offered and received in the most sincere way, it completely transcends our ideas of commerce. And when that happens, we are in turn presented with a life experience to cherish."

Incredible!

Can't help but feel so inspired by these people. All along I was of the impression that only full-time athletes participated in such demanding challenges. While this is true in some cases, in most cases it isn't. Reading the book You Are An Ironman has revealed to me the common realities -- years of training along-side working at regular jobs, sacrifices in relationships and financial compromises -- most of these participants face in just making it to the challenge. All this inspite of being aware of the possibility of not finishing at the competition, owing to the unpredictability of the human body's ability to sustain in extremes. It's what makes it even more inspiring -- the guts, the resolve, the perseverance, the dedication...

Incredible!

Ironman

An Ironman triathlete may not be fast but she can endure.

- from You Are An Ironman by Jacques Steinberg

Let's sing our heart-song...:)