Thursday, November 30, 2017
Build like a Child
On a warm summer at a beautiful beach a little boy on his
knees scoops and packs the sand with plastic shovels into a bucket. He upends
the bucket on the surface and lifts it. And, to the delight of the little
architect, a castle tower is created. He works all afternoon spooning out the
moat, packing the walls, building sentries with bottle tops and bridges with
Popsicle sticks. With his hours of hard work on the beach a sandcastle will be
built.
In a Big city with
busy streets and rumbling traffic, a man works in an office. He shuffles papers into stacks, delegates
assignments, cradles the phone on his shoulder and punches the keyboard with
his fingers. He juggles with numbers, contracts get signed and much to the
delight of the man, a profit is made. All his life he will work. Formulating
the plans and forecasting the future. His annuities will be sentries and
Capital gains will be bridges. An empire will be built.
The two builders of
the two castles have very much in common. They both shape granules into
grandeurs. They both make something beautiful out of nothing. They both are
very diligent and determined to build their world. And for both, the tide will
rise and the end will come. Yet that is where the similarities cease. For the
little boy sees the end of his castle while the man ignores it. As the dusk
approaches and the waves near, the child jumps to his feet and begins to clap
as the waves wash away his masterpiece. There is no sorrow. No fear. No regret.
He is not surprised, he knew this would happen. He smiles, picks up his tools
and takes his father’s hand, and goes home.
The man in his sophisticated office is not very wise like
the child. As the wave of years collapses on his empire, he is terrified. He
hovers over the sandy monument to protect it. He tries to block the waves with
the walls he made. He snarls at the incoming tide. “It’s my castle,” he defies.
The ocean need not respond. Both know to whom the sand belongs.
Go ahead and build your dreams, but build with a child’s
heart. When the sun sets and the tides take – applaud. Salute the process of
life and go home with a smile.
The Reflections
Once a dog ran into a museum filled with mirrors. The museum
was very unique, the walls, the ceiling, the doors and even the floors were
made of mirrors. Seeing his reflections, the dog froze in surprise in the
middle of the hall. He could see a whole pack of dogs surrounding him from all
sides, from above and below.
The dog bared his teeth and barked all the reflections
responded to it in the same way. Frightened, the dog barked frantically, the
dog’s reflections imitated the dog and
increased it many times. The dog barked even harder, but the echo was
magnified. The dog, tossed from one side to another while his reflections also
tossed around snapping their teeth.
Next morning, the museum security guards found the
miserable, lifeless dog, surrounded by thousands of reflections of the lifeless
dog. There was nobody to harm the dog. The dog died by fighting with his own
reflections.
Moral: The world doesn’t bring good or evil on its own.
Everything that is happening around us is the reflection of our own thoughts,
feelings, wishes and actions. The World is a big mirror. So let’s strike a good
pose!
Soar Like an Eagle
Did you know that an eagle can foresee when a storm is
approaching long before it breaks?
Instead of hiding, the eagle will fly to some high point and
wait for the winds to come.
When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind can
pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle
soars above it.
The eagle does not escape or hide from the storm instead
it uses the storm to lift it higher. It
rises on the stormy winds which others dread.
When the storm of life or challenges hit us, we can rise
above them and soar like the eagle which ride the winds of the storm. Don’t be
afraid of the storms or the challenges in your life. Use it to lift you higher
in your life.
Unnecessary Doubts
A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a
collection of beautiful marbles. The
girl had some candies with her. The boy offered to give the girl all his
marbles in exchange for all her candies. The girl agreed. The boy gave all the
marbles to the girl, but secretly kept the biggest and the most beautiful
marble for himself. The girl gave him all her candies as she had promised. That
night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept
wondering if the girl had hidden some more tasty candies from him the way he
had hidden his best marble.
Moral: If you don’t give your hundred percent in a
relationship, you’ll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her
hundred percent.
The coldest winter
It was one of the coldest winter and many animals were dying
because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group
together to keep each other warm. This was a great way to protect themselves
from cold and keep each of them warm; but the quills of each one wounded their
closest companions.
After a while, they decided to distance themselves, but they too began to die due to cold. So they
had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or choose
death. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with
the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in
order to receive the warmth of their togetherness. This way they were able to
survive.
The Right Place
A mother and a baby camel were lying around under a tree.
Then the baby camel asked, “Why do camels have humps?”
The mother camel considered this and said, “We are desert
animals so we have the humps to store water so we can survive with very little
water.”
The baby camel thought for a moment then said, “Ok…why are
our legs long and our feet rounded?”
The mama replied, “They are meant for walking in the
desert.”
The baby paused. After a beat, the camel asked, “Why are our
eyelashes long? Sometimes they get in my way.”
The mama responded, “Those long thick eyelashes protect your
eyes from the desert sand when it blows in the wind.
The baby thought and thought. Then he said, “I see. So the
hump is to store water when we are in the desert, the legs are for walking
through the desert and these eye lashes protect my eyes from the desert then
why in the Zoo?”
The Lesson: Skills and abilities are only useful if you are
in the right place at the right time. Otherwise they go to waste.
Being and Breathing
One warm evening many years ago…
After spending nearly every waking minute with Angel for
eight straight days, I knew that I had to tell her just one thing. So late at night, just before she fell
asleep, I whispered it in her ear. She
smiled – the kind of smile that makes me smile back –and she said, “When I’m
seventy-five and I think about my life and what it was like to be young, I hope
that I can remember this very moment.”
A few seconds later she closed her eyes and fell
asleep. The room was peaceful – almost
silent. All I could hear was the soft
purr of her breathing. I stayed awake
thinking about the time we’d spent together and all the choices in our lives
that made this moment possible. And at
some point, I realized that it didn’t matter what we’d done or where we’d
gone. Nor did the future hold any
significance.
All that mattered was the serenity of the moment.
Just being with her and breathing with her.
The moral: We must
not allow the clock, the calendar, and external pressures to rule our lives and
blind us to the fact that each individual moment of our lives is a beautiful
mystery and a miracle – especially those moments we spend in the presence of a
loved one.
Your turn…
How do you think differently today than you once did? What life experience or realization brought
on a significant change in your way of thinking? Please leave a comment below and share your
story with us.
Shark Bait
During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark
into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the
tank.
As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank,
attacked and ate the smaller fish.
The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear
fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the
shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.
Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into
the fiberglass divider and bounced off.
Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to
no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam
around unharmed in the second partition.
Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.
This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the
next few weeks. Each time, the shark got
less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until
eventually the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply
stopped attacking altogether.
The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider,
but the shark didn’t attack. The shark
was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the
bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.
The moral: Many of
us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop
trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were
unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we
continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists
between where we are and where we want to go.
The Weight of the Glass
Once upon a time a psychology professor walked around on a
stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with
students. As she raised a glass of
water, everyone expected they’d be asked the typical “glass half empty or glass
half full” question. Instead, with a
smile on her face, the professor asked, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m
holding?”
Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a
couple pounds.
She replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of
this glass doesn’t matter. It all
depends on how long I hold it. If I hold
it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light.
If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a
little. If I hold it for a day straight,
my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me
to drop the glass to the floor. In each
case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the
heavier it feels to me.”
As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued,
“Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing
happens. Think about them a bit longer
and you begin to ache a little. Think
about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed –
incapable of doing anything else until you drop them.”
The moral: It’s
important to remember to let go of your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as
early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the night and into
the next day with you. If you still feel
the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the
glass down.
All the Difference in The World
Every Sunday morning I take a light jog around a park near
my home. There’s a lake located in one
corner of the park. Each time I jog by
this lake, I see the same elderly woman sitting at the water’s edge with a
small metal cage sitting beside her.
This past Sunday my curiosity got the best of me, so I
stopped jogging and walked over to her.
As I got closer, I realized that the metal cage was in fact a small
trap. There were three turtles,
unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap. She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she
was carefully scrubbing with a spongy brush.
“Hello,” I said. “I
see you here every Sunday morning. If
you don’t mind my nosiness, I’d love to know what you’re doing with these
turtles.”
She smiled. “I’m
cleaning off their shells,” she replied.
“Anything on a turtle’s shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle’s
ability to absorb heat and impedes its ability to swim. It can also corrode and weaken the shell over
time.”
“Wow! That’s really
nice of you!” I exclaimed.
She went on: “I spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning,
relaxing by this lake and helping these little guys out. It’s my own strange way of making a
difference.”
“But don’t most freshwater turtles live their whole lives
with algae and scum hanging from their shells?” I asked.
“Yep, sadly, they do,” she replied.
I scratched my head.
“Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent? I mean, I think your efforts are kind and
all, but there are fresh water turtles living in lakes all around the
world. And 99% of these turtles don’t
have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells. So, no offense… but how exactly are your
localized efforts here truly making a difference?”
The woman giggled aloud.
She then looked down at the turtle in her lap, scrubbed off the last
piece of algae from its shell, and said, “Sweetie, if this little guy could
talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world.”
The moral: You can
change the world – maybe not all at once, but one person, one animal, and one
good deed at a time. Wake up every
morning and pretend like what you do makes a difference. It does.
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