VICES AND VIRTUES

 

                   VICES AND VIRTUES

            Good health depends on shunning vices and embracing virtues.

            A vice is defined as immoral or wicked behaviour.  It is a form of un-ethicalness. It has harmful effects on one’s body, mind, and soul.

            The antonym of vice is virtue. Its synonyms are – wrongdoing, wickedness, badness, evil-doing, frailty, evilness, crime, offence, scandal, and sin.

            The synonyms of virtue are : uprightness, goodness, probity, integrity, morality,  excellence, righteousness, incorruptibility, rectitude, grace, merit, and excellence,

            What are some of the vices?

            There are at least ten vices which one must shun. They are: greed, envy, gluttony, pride, sloth, wrath, malice, slander, filthy language and lies.            

            Virtues keep a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. They keep him happy, calm, peaceful, safe, contented, patient, fearless, friendly, loving, and affectionate,

            A vicious person loses sleep. A virtuous person enjoys  a long peaceful sleep even in a dangerous situation.

            Vices destroy health and happiness. For example, anger can be fatal.  Vices affect one’s digestion and make him seriously sick.

            Virtues make you brave, patient, robust, glad, cheerful, contented, and worthy of public respect and populariy.

            A vicious person is unreliable; a virtuous one is trustworthy.

            Hell awaits a person who has lived a vicious life.  Heaven is wide open and ready to welcome a virtuous man.

            A vicious man is irreligious.   A virtuous one s a spiritualist. He is concerned with the purity of his soul; whereas the vicious person is a slave of his unhealthy materialistic desires.

To conclude, here are two memorable quotes:

1.     Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbour, and let every new year find you a better man.

2.     It is easier to be vile together than to be virtuous alone. Be noble like the sun; let even those who resent you for shining benefit from your warmth. True virtue is knowing the self not by intellectual knowledge but by pure silence.  When truth looks in the mirror, virtue looks out.

                                    *******

G.R.Kanwal

7th June 2026

A BIT OF GREAT POETRY

 

                A BIT OF GREAT POETRY

1.     John Keats (1795---1821)

       A thing of beauty is a joy for ever

It loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full  of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

                                    ******

Beauty is Truth, truth beauty, ----that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

                                    *******

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow,

And leaden-eyed despairs;

Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,

Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow

                                    *******

2.     Lord Byron (1788—1824)

Eternal spirit of the Chainless Mind!

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty ! thou art

For there thy habitation is the heart—

The heart which love of thee alone can bind;

And when thy sons to fetters are consigned---

Their country conquers with their martyrdom,

And Freedom’s fame finds wings on every wind.

                                    ******

3.     Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Let knowledge grow from more to more

But more of reverence in us dwell

That mind and soul, according well,

May make one music as before.

                        *****

4.     .Chrisina Rossetti (1830-1894)

When I am dead, my dearest

Sing no sad songs for me

Plant thou no roses at my head

Nor, shady cypress tree

But the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet:

And if thou wilt, remember

And if thou wilt, forget.

                        *****

5.Willim Wordsworth (1770---1850)

Thanks to the human heart by which we live

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears,

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

                                    **********

G.R.Kanwal

6^th June 2026  

CRITICISING OTHERS

 

                CRITICISING OTHERS

            A famous quote says: People that critise other people are just unhappy about something in their lives and they take the most pathetic measures to make themselves feel better.   

            Another famous quote about criticism says: Any fool can criticize, complain, and condemn --- and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.

            The proverb :  Think before you speak,  warns us about the cruel  or kind effect of words.

             Words chosen by a speaker or writer can be as sweet as honey or as bitter as poison. They can heal or harm.  Remember the oldest saying : Tongue cuts deeper than sword.

            Such criticism as defames others is condemnable. If one evaluates a person’s work and deeds sympathetically, he acts like a judge, not an enemy.

            Enemies find faults even where they do not exist. Their intention is to defame even by telling lies. To them their adversary’s merits, are his faults. They have selfish interest in criticism. Fair criticism is an asset both for the critic and the person who is criticized.

            Look at the following  thoughts:

*Criticism is meant as a standard of judging well.

*It is easy to criticize a person, but difficult to appreciate him.

* Silence is sometimes the severest criticism.

*It is a barren kind of criticism which tells you what a thing is not.

*There are three things that ought to be considered before some things are                          spoken,----the manner, the place, and the time.

*Learn the art of making friends and influencing people.

* What you say about others doesn’t define them it defines you.

                                                           

            To conclude. here is a memorable quote:

            “The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism         without resentment.”

G.R.Kanwal

5^th June 2026

                                                           

 

 

 

 

SOME SAYINGS AND A POEM

 

SOME SAYINGS AND A POEM

            A saying is defined as a well-k-known phrase or sentence that expresses common truth, piece of advice, or cultural wisdom about human life and experience.

            Sayings are also called short, memorable expressions that convey wisdom, advice, or a general truth.

            Sayings can be as good as proverbial statements.

            Here are some examples:

*Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

            *Truth fears no examination.

            *It takes two to make a quarrel.

            *All is well that ends well.

            *A stitch in time saves nine.

            *Lay by something against a rainy day.

            *Rome was not built in a day.

            *The early bird catches the worm.

            *Where there is a will, there is way.

            *Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.

            *There is many a slip between the cup and the lip.

            *Look before you leap; think before you speak.

            *Every cloud has a silver lining.

            *Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

            *Barking dogs seldom bite.

            *Love begets love.

            *A bid in hand is worth two in the bush.

Here is a saying on loyalty; it’s  followed by a poem from As You Like IT a play written by the English poet-dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

 

SAYING: Loyalty is hard to find. Trust is easy to lose. Actions speak louder than words.

 

  

            POEM:           Blow, blow, thou winter wind,

                                    Thou art not so unkind

                                    As man’s ingratitude.

                                    Thy tooth is not so keen,

                                    Because thou art not seen,

                                    Although thy breath be rude.

                                    Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly

                                    Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

                                    Then heigh-ho, the holly.

                                    This life is most jolly.

 

                                    Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,

                                    That dost not bite so nigh

                                    As benefits forgot.

                                    Though thou the waters warp,

                                    Thy sting is not so sharp,

                                    As friend remember’d not.

                                    Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly

                                    Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.

                                    Then heigh-ho the holly,

                                    This life is most jolly.

                                                                        ********   

                                   

G.R.Kanwal

4 June 2026                                                            

 

 

 

ALL HINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

 

                ALL HINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

            In the beginning of his mythological poem Endymion, the English poet

John Keats (1795--1821)  says;

 

             “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,

            Its loveliness increases; it will never

            Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

            A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

            Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

           

            In her-above-mentioned poem the Anglo-Irish poetess and hymnwriter Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895) says:

 

            All things bright and beautiful,

             All creatures great and small,

             All things wise and beautiful,

             The Lord God made them all.

 

            She is right the whole creation consists of big and small beautiful things. We  have the sun and the moon, as also glowworms and sparks of fire. If there

 are huge elephants and camels, lions and tigers, there  are also tiny sparrows and ants.

 

            If a tree is fruitfully beautiful, a rose is wonderfully small and colourfull.

 

            What about a dewdrop, a small petal of any lovely flower, a  big star in rhe sky and a small lamp in a cottage on earth.

 

            Cecil  Francis Alexander says:

           

            The cold wind in the winter,

            The pleasant summer sun,

            The ripe fruits in the garden,

            He made them every one.

This whole poem is like a hymn. It praises God for creating all bright and beautiful things for mankind.

            The poem ends with the following most appropriate stanza:

                        He gave us eyes to see them,

                        And lips that we might tell

                        How great is God Almighty.

                        Who has made all things well,

 

                                                ****

G.R.Kanwal

3^rd June 2026   

 

 

DISCOMFORTS OF CITY LIFE

 

 

                                DISCOMFORTS OF CITY LIFE

            Cities are full of several kinds of facilities which are aspired by all and sundry. But they are only one side of the coin which is better than the other side which is full of stress and strain, sickness and stress, noise and clamour, , pollution and breathlessness, loneliness and isolation, costliness and financial strain.

            Whenever I ask a citizen who has migrated from the healthy environment of rural life, are you happy here, his invariable  answer is ‘no’.

            The American writer Nixon Waterman (1859-1944) says in the  last stanza of his poem Far From The Madding Crowd :

            Sometimes it seems to me I must

            Just quit the city’s din and dust

            For fields of green and skies of blue;

            And, say! how does it seem to you?    

 

            In two other stanzas of the same poem, he says:

 

            Not real still stillness ----just the trees’

            Low whisperings or the croon of bees;

            The drowsy tinkling of the rill,

            Or twilight song of whippoorwill.

           

            ‘T would be a joy could I behold

            The dappled fields of green and gold.

            Or in the cool, sweet clover lie

            And watch the cloud-ships drifting by.

 

            In his poem titled The Task written in 1785, the English poet William Cowper (1731-1800) said:

 

            God made the country and man made the town.

            This poem highlights the beauty of the countryside and the ugliness of the city life.

            It also points out “the inherent superiority of the natural world over the artificial constructs of human civilization,”

 

                                                            *******

G.R.Kanwal

2^nd June 2026           

             

 

               

 

 

THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM

 

          THE TWENTY-THIRD PSALM

            A psalm is a song, a poem or prayer that praises God, especially one in the Bible.

            The 23^rd psalm is the most beloved of the 150 psalms, and as a commentator believes, it is the best known passage in the entire Bible.

            According to Kyle Yates, the  American pickleball player, “More griefs have been put to rest by the sweet assurance of this psalm. . “ He further says: More sadness has been driven away and more confidence has been instilled than tongue can tell or pen can record. This psalm, says he, pictures God in love with His people, with rest in His bosom, with grace for all of their needs.

            The 23d Psalm , which Kyle Yates liked a lot, was written by David, who was a shepherd boy and who became the King of Israel

            Most of the 150 psalms are written by the Shepherd boy mentioned above, God had anointed him king, because he was a man after his own heart.

            The full text of the psalm which follows shows the singer’s unwavering trust in God’s provision and protection. God is regarded here as a devoted shepherd guiding his flock. On the whole the psalm conveys God’s unending comfort in dark times.

 

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadth me in the paths of righteousness

            for his name’s sake.

Yes, though I walk through the valley of the

            shadow of death, I will fear no evil:

For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff

            they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence

             of mine enemies: :

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup

            runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all

            the days of my life:

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

            for ever.”

                                                *******

G.R.Kanwal

1^st June2026