Solitary Soul

  THE GIFT OF LIFE  Mario D’Couto  The above video may seem to put human existence in a rather pessimistic way as if to say that our lives did not really matter and while no doubt there is some element of truth in it, I still feel that if lived well, there is meaning and purpose to our lives and that none of our lives is some sort of haphazard creation.  As I celebrate my gift of life tomorrow, I suddenly began to think that if we compare ourselves to the vastness of the universe and everything else that exists in it, we may perhaps be nothing more than a tiny dot floating on the surface of the earth and yet in as much as such a thing may appear insignificant, the One who created everything chooses to have a personal relationship with that tiny dot, that is, ourselves. This is something truly uplifting, which gives meaning and purpose to our lives and our existence. At the same time, it is also a reminder for us to stay grounded especially in those moments when w...

  IN THE WORLD YET NOT OF THE WORLD MARIO D’COUTO           Being in the world and yet not of it is something that can be a struggle, at least for me and what I mean by that is in as much as we desire to be good and to do good, God is not going to put a glass jar over us and say that just because we choose to love Him and follow Him more closely, that He is going to shield us from the temptations of this world. To make things clear though, this is not to say that the world in itself is bad or evil nor are the things found in the world either but how we deal with it is what will make us or break us. We all have responsibilities and important things that need our attention. If we are not careful though, our hearts and minds can be consumed with the task of keeping them afloat. Rather than centering ourselves in Christ and letting the other elements of our lives take their rightful place around that center, we can end up shifting our attention fr...

  EVERYBODY’S WORK MATTERS Mario D’Couto              Whenever we talk about work, most people think of it as some sort of necessary evil, something that must be endured in order to put food on the table and pay the bills. Very few of us have the privilege of having that dream job where we wake up every morning with excitement and enthusiasm and because of that we may sometimes feel whether, does our work have any meaning at all? Well, that’s what this blogpost/reflection is about.             The ancient Greeks thought that the gods made human beings for work and so work inherently had no blessing, as the Italian philosopher Adriano Tilgher once put it, “To the Greeks, work was a curse and nothing else.” In fact, Aristotle said that unemployment (by which he meant the ability to live without having to work and not as we would understand today of not having a job) was a primary qua...

  THE COURAGE TO BE …… Mario D’Couto             It’s been a fairly long time since my last blogpost/reflection and to put it in a nutshell, I have been going through quite a bit – from my mother’s heart attack, a change of job, dealing with family issues, it all seemed to come at the same time that there were moments I felt overwhelmed but if it were not for the grace for the Almighty, I don’t know what could have happened. In one of my previous blogpost/reflection called “Looking back” ( https://insightsfromacommonman.blogspot.com/2022/12/looking-back.html ), I dealt with the topic of fear and how it can have its impact on our lives if not dealt with properly and what we can do to overcome it. These last few months have really put me to the test and it felt as though through those experiences, I was being challenged to face my fears. Perhaps, as you read through these words, you may be able to relate with what I am sayi...