Jan 22, 2016

Simple comments

Once an old man spread rumours that his neighbour was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After being released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.

In the court the old man told the Judge: “They were just comments, didn’t harm anyone.” The judge told the old man: “Write all the things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence.”

Next day, the judge told the old man: “Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday.”

The old man said: “I can’t do that! The wind spread them and I won’t know where to find them.”

The judge then replied: “The same way, simple comments may destroy the honor of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. If you can’t speak well of someone, rather don’t say anything.”

Let’s all be masters of our mouths, so that we won’t be slaves of our words.


Jan 15, 2016

The Black Dot

A small town chamber of commerce invited a speaker to address its annual dinner. The community’s economy was bad, people were discouraged, and they wanted this motivational speaker to give them a boost.

During her presentation, the speaker took a large piece of white paper and made a small black dot at the center with a marking pen. Then she held the paper up before the group and asked them what they saw.

One person quickly replied, “I see a black dot.”

“Okay, what else do you see?”

Others joined in agreement: “A black dot.”

“Don’t you see anything besides the dot?” – she asked.

A resounding “No” came from the audience.

“What about the sheet of paper?” – asked the speaker. “I am sure you have all seen it”, she said, “But you have chosen to overlook it.”

“In life, we also tend to overlook and take for granted many wonderful things that we have or happen around us and focus our attention and energy on small, dot-like failures and disappointments. 

The so called ‘problems’ that we have are usually like the black dot on the paper. They are small and insignificant if we can widen our horizon and look at the whole picture.”

Are you one of the person who focuses your attention and energy on dot-like problems?


Jan 8, 2016

Acceptance

Once a king came to the garden and saw fading and dying trees, bushes, and flowers.
An oak said that he dies because it can’t be as high as a pine.

The king found the pine tree falling down because couldn’t give grapes like a grapevine.

And the grapevine was dying because she couldn’t blossom like a rose.

Soon he found a single plant, pleasing heart, bloomy and fresh. After questioning, he received the following answer:

“I think it’s a natural event, because when you planted me, you wanted to get a joy. If you would like to grow an oak, grapes or rose, you would put them. So I think that I can’t be anything else than what I am. And I try to develop my best qualities.”

Look at yourself. You can only be yourself. It is impossible for you to become someone else. You can joy and blossom or you can fade if you do not accept yourself.


Jan 1, 2016

Today is the Best Day

We sat on the swing enjoying the warm summer air, truly without a care in the world. Cody, my 6-year-old nephew laughed, as he swung higher than me. His laugh made me smile.

Afterwards, we went for a walk, looking at the gardens.

As we were walking, Cody looked up at me and said, "Today is the best day!" I smiled at him and replied, "Yes, it is a great day."

I then started thinking about what had we done that day?

We didn't really do anything special; there was nothing that we did that cost any money. It was a simple day - one where we talked, went for walks, and swung on the swing.

So often, we wait for our "best days" without realizing that "today is our best day". Or we say, "when I get this", or, "if only this", or, "when I have more money, I will", and we forget to live every day, enjoying today.

We should be more like children; they truly live in the moment! They don't need expensive things to make them happy; they don't use the phrase, "if only", or, "when I get this", or, "when I have more money". They don't dwell in the past, nor do they worry about the future.

We often hear the expression that we should living in the moment. How do we do that, well watch children as they are the perfect example of living in the moment.

There is a saying, "Carpe Diem" which means, "Seize the Day".

And saying that is full of wisdom, "What I do today is important as I am exchanging a day of my life for it.!"

As we get older, we need to remember these sayings and enjoy each and every day.

Keep your child like attitude of "living each moment to its fullest"!