Miracles DID Happen – When Faith and Love WIN and Logic FAILS (Part II)

By shweta Gupta on November 9, 2011  Categories: General, Philosphy, Positive thinking

Continuation of  When Faith and Love WIN and Logic FAILS (Part I)

Sarah Linsdey Gupta passed away in the arms of her loving husband and family on Nov 6, 2011 at 6:40 PM (more information). I am sure that lot of us  were expecting things to turn around and expecting a miracle to happen. I truly feel that not just one but lot of miracles happen.

  • Sarah’s Meeting with her singing group : Sarah was always passionate about two things i.e teaching and singing. She was part of her college’s  cappella’s group(singing group) called “accidentals”. While the members of the accidentals are  all over the US. They all decided to come together to Sarah’s home and sing  with her for sometime. Sarah was not sure whether she will make it to meet them on Oct 24, 2011 but she did.  Here is the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niG3qYvlLJA) prepared by accidentals after they met Sarah where Sarah sings solo while her college a cappella group sings back up. Listen to her voice, its beautiful.
  • Sarah’s birthday Celebration:It was Sarah’s 31st birthday on October 27, 2011. She was very excited about her birthday. She was making a to-do list herself for her “SURPRISE” birthday party. She wanted the whole world to come for her birthday though she was not sure if she will make it to her birthday. She ended up having a very special birthday. Lot of people including our cousins from California, New York, Maryland, her school teacher and friends came to celebrate her birthday. Around 60-70 students wrote beautiful messages for her describing what they learned from Sarah. Lot of her students sent video messages for her birthday. One of her friends used to wear a special pendant in his neck which was like a blessing from his mom. He always thought that it was like a “protection sheath” for him. He gave that necklace and pendant to Sarah as her birthday present for her protection. How often do we get to see this much love?
  • Sarah’s Doctor’s Undying Will to fight:  I mentioned about the homeopathy doctor from Mumbai(India) in my last post. He surely is one of most wonderful people I know. Without any monetary benefits, she visited Sarah twice before her birthday. We were emailing him everyday 10-15 times and he was closely monitoring Sarah and prescribing medicines accordingly. He always said ” I will fight for Sarah till the last breath”. He had been in  the US for last 15 days and was supposed to leave the country on Nov 7th, 2011. Sarah’s health was getting worse everyday. 4 days before she passed away she started having blood in her vomit and stool so Sumit requested Mumbai doctor on Nov 4, 2011 if he can see Sarah before he leaves US on Nov 7, 2011. He said he is very busy but Continue reading →
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When Faith and Love WIN and Logic FAILS…

By shweta Gupta on October 16, 2011  Categories: General

As I mentioned in my last post – my sister-in-law Sarah was diagnosed with adrenal cancer in April 2010. Each successive scan showed the cancer was spreading and tumors were getting bigger.  For the first time since we started doing scans after her surgery, we got a promising scan in May 2011 that showed some stabilization in her tumors. This was the only good news we had received in over a year.

Sumit and Sarah Indian WeddingThen, however, her condition  kept on getting worse. At this point nothing seemed to be working, and the chemo therapy started to take toll on her body.  And her latest scan results again showed continued growth with wide spread tumors, failure of basic bodily functions and frequent overnight trips to the hospital.

By October  2011 the few doctors that had not given up hope also gave up and the doctors at UNC and Duke sent her home to hospice care. At this point we stopped all 28 of her medicines other than the pain killers.  Later that week, she realized that she could not walk or move around on her own. This for family and friends was the beginning of the end of hope!

Even with words of sympathy from family at this point Sumit and Sarah had not given up hope. They have accepted that God might take her but believe with all their heart that miracles do happen!! They both are at peace with whatever will happen. Meanwhile as a long shot, we had been in Continue reading →

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Count your many blessings, name them one by one

By shweta Gupta on July 25, 2011  Categories: Positive thinking, What I Learnt

“When you are discouraged,thinking all is lost

Count your many blessings,name them one by one

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.” — Johnson Oatman

My father told me the following story and asked me to always remember it esp during tough times

———————-

Once upon a time, an angel and his follower went to a small town.  It was  late night and raining so they asked someone in the town for shelter. That person gave them shelter but  was rude and put them in his basement which was leaking and it was very cold there. Angel repaired the basement, thanked the man for providing shelter and left in the morning.

Another day, angel and his follower went to some other town and it started raining again. They again asked someone for shelter. This time, the host was a poor man and had a very small house. He offered his only room to the angel and his follower and he himself slept outside the room. Next morning angle’s follower saw that the poor man’s cow who was Continue reading →

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Being Passive vs Being Peaceful

By shweta Gupta on June 2, 2011  Categories: General

I can’t believe that I am writing after a year now. Procrastination has become my second nature :) . Also it  was  busy and lot of things happened in last one year. My brother-in-law’s wife, Sarah who is 30 years old got diagnosed with Adrenal cancer (stage IV) last year. Life changed for all of us in one year. Most of the things changed for good. I read so many books on cancer, healthy diet, mind, body and lifestyle. It felt like there is a different world out there. It has been a good learning experience. I would love to share with you all what all I learned in  this past one year. A lot of my following blog posts might be on the same topic.

Its been amazing to see  Sumit and Sarah’s attitude in life. I have heard of many such people in books and movies but have NEVER seen such positive people in my life. It has been no less than a roller coaster ride for both of them. Sarah had five scans after her first surgery (where her tumor was completely removed) . Every time we hoped that tumor would have shrunk but each scan showed a huge growth in her tumor. Despite of all this, I NEVER saw Sumit losing hope. He used to be the one giving hope to others. Till this day, they both are like – FIGHT ON !

The other day I was reading this book on cancer with an article “Being passive vs being peaceful”. It says God wants Continue reading →

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What I learnt today (Part 3)

By shweta Gupta on June 3, 2010  Categories: Philosphy, Positive thinking

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal

with the intent of throwing it at someone else

You are the one who gets burned” –Buddha

Isn’t it so true ?? When we get angry with someone , we are the ones who are burning from inside with anger. We feel that if we forgive that person then we will be doing that person a favor but the reality is that if we just let it go and forgive the person we are angry with  then we will be doing OURSELVES the biggest favor. At the end self love is the greatest love so we can always do ourselves this Continue reading →

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What I learnt today (Part 2)

By shweta Gupta on April 15, 2010  Categories: Positive thinking, What I Learnt

“Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways”

“it can change someone else’s life forever.” – Margaret Cho”

Do not think lightly of doing good, saying “A little will not affect me.”   for-

Just as a water jar is filled up by falling rain, drop by drop,

the wise one is filled up with merit by accumulating it little by little”

No matter how small a good deed you may get to do, don’t think that it is not important, for if you habitually do small deeds, in the long run they will become big ones. I have seen that lot of times we feel like doing good things but we feel we don’t have enough time or money or we think if we want to do something then it should be something big forgetting that its the small things together that make a BIG thing.

I truly feel that in our daily lives without joining any social organization or spending money(if we can’t) we can do numerous things that will affect Continue reading →

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Which wolf are you feeding?

By shweta Gupta on March 9, 2010  Categories: General

TWO WOLVES

Which wolf are you feeding ?

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

“One is evil, which is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

“The other is good, which is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, Continue reading →

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What I learnt today (Part 1)

By shweta Gupta on February 24, 2010  Categories: What I Learnt

If not everyday then couple of times a week I learn new lessons. Lot of times they are not worth a big blog post but I would still love to share with you all. So I have decided to start a new series “What I learnt today “. Here goes the first one-

“Problems have nothing to do with situations, but with one’s reaction to them.

“What’s happening is merely what’s happening. How you feel about it is another matter.

A lot of times we face problems and our immediate reaction is to have the situation responsible for it. It just satisfies our ego to have a situation/person wrong and prove itself right. Situation is there but how we interpret it and make  stories make all the difference

For eg   It’s raining

–The story you tell yourself  “Its a miserable day”

 My spouse didn’t give me a gift on our anniversary

– The story you tell yourself – “He/she doesn’t love Continue reading →

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You are in the right situation.

By shweta Gupta on October 30, 2009  Categories: Philosphy, Positive thinking

“Some flowers grow best in the Sun while others do well in Shade.

Remember, we are put where we grow the best and accordingly we get people and situations to grow with”

 A lot of times we get this question :”Why I am this situation when others are in a better one”.The quote above explains a lot. We all have different lessons to learn to grow. A dishonest man need to learn what is honesty while a greedy man needs to learn how to be generous.

Sometimes I think the whole nature is so perfect. There is a perfect rhythm and balance in all the things in nature. Only a prefect one can design such a perfect system and how can that perfect one put us in a  wrong situation. At times things seem bad but when you look back you know there was a good reason why Continue reading →

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Enlightenment through work

By shweta Gupta on September 28, 2009  Categories: General

A young Sannyâsin went to a forest; there he meditated, worshipped, and practiced Yoga for a long time. After years of hard work and practice, he was one day sitting under a tree, when some dry leaves fell upon his head. He looked up and saw a crow and a crane fighting on the top of the tree, which made him very angry. He said, “What! Dare you throw these dry leaves upon my head!” As with these words he angrily glanced at them, a flash of fire went out of his head — such was the Yogi’s power — and burnt the birds to ashes. He was very glad, almost overjoyed at this development of power — he could burn the crow and the crane by a look. After a time he had to go to the town to beg his bread. He went, stood at a door, and said, “Mother, give me food.” A voice came from inside the house, “Wait a little, my son.” The young man thought, “You wretched woman, how dare you make me wait! You do not know my power yet.” While he was thinking thus the voice came again: “Boy, don’t be thinking too much of yourself. Here is neither crow nor crane.” He was astonished; still he had to wait. At last the woman came, and he fell at her feet and said, Continue reading →

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