“There is only one time that is important — NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time that we have any power.”

– Tolstoy

“There is a time for work and a time for love. That leaves no other time.”

– Coco Chanel

“Your choices in life do not only bring what you want, but also show the kind of person you want to become.”

– Sonny Shah

“The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

“There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures.”

– William Penn

“Learn to reject friendship, or rather the dream of friendship. To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art, or life (like aesthetic joys). I must refuse it in order to be worthy to receive it.”

– Simone Weil

“You don’t play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball.”

– Bobby Knight

“In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience.”

– W.B. Prescott

“What lies before us and what lies behind us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Serve without the presumption or precondition that you will receive as a result of your giving.”

– Heena R Modi

One should give unconditionally as this is pure and protects the giver from feeling cheated or used. Although it is debatable whether they should feel this, should you take any ‘serving’ for granted?

If someone cooks for you how can you show appreciation without being tied into feeling you have to match or better this act? If someone talks you through how to positively focus your actions re your career, relationships, time management etc. How can you show how much it means to you without feeling obliged? Is it not simple?

Gratitude – a hug, kiss, verbal recognition, use it where applicable and show it when you do yet do not depend on them to carry you, think for you or maintain this role of giver forever more.

(commentary by Heena R Modi)