The Journey is Short
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An elderly woman got on a bus and sat down. At the next stop, a strong, grumpy young woman climbed up and sat down beside the old woman, hitting her with her numerous bags.

When she saw that the elderly woman remained silent, the young woman asked her why she had not complained when she hit her with her bags?

The elderly woman replied with a Smile: "There is no need to be rude or discuss something so insignificant, as my trip next to you is so short, because I am going to get off at the next stop."

This answer deserves to be written in gold letters: "There is no need to discuss something so insignificant, because our journey together is too short."

Each of us must understand that our time in this world is so short, that darkening it with useless arguments, jealousy, not forgiving others, discontentment and bad attitudes are a ridiculous waste of time and energy.

Did someone break your heart? Stay calm.

The trip is too short.

Did someone betray you, intimidate, cheat or humiliate you? Relax - Don't be Stressed

The trip is too short.

Did someone insult you without reason? Stay calm. Ignore it.

The trip is too short.

Did a neighbour make a comment that you didn't like? Stay calm. Ignore him. Forgive that.

The trip is too short.

Whatever the problem someone has brought us, remember that our journey together is too short.

No one knows the length of our trip. Nobody knows when it will arrive at its stop.

Our trip together is too short.

Let us appreciate friends and family.

Let us be respectful, kind and forgiving,

Because we will be filled with gratitude and joy, after all

Our trip together is very short.

Share your smile to everyone....

Our trip is Very Short!

What's in my cup?

Received in Social Media.

I love this analogy!

You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.

Why did you spill the coffee?

"Well because someone bumped into me, of course!"

Wrong answer.

You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup.

Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.

Whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out.

Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled.

So we have to ask ourselves... “what's in my cup?"

When life gets tough, what spills over?

Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility?

Or anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions?

You choose!

My thoughts: As I write this now in Sept 2020, the entire world is going through a strange phase for the past six months. A lot has been happening which we had never faced before and which we never thought in the wildest of our dreams. Covid is shaking us all making us spill what is inside us. What we carry within, is what we toss around when shaken. Today let's fill ourselves with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation; and kindness, gentleness and love for others.

We do not become poor by giving

The Universe is in an eternal state of cycles. Day & night, cycle of seasons, water cycle, seed to tree to seed….. Nature's attempt to convey to us that giving and receiving are two different forms of the same energy.

We keep the copiousness of this energy circulating in our lives in our readiness to follow this principle. When we try to cut or stop this flow of energy, we find ourselves blocked to receive the abundance that the Universe has to offer us. The act of fulfilling our desires is directly proportionate to the act of our willingness to make others happy.

When we understand that what we give comes flowing back to us in multitudes, we open the door to this flood of energy and would never make any attempt close it again. Because we begin to appreciate what Anne Frank says, “No one has ever become poor by giving.”

What are the ways in which we can give? Here's what Rhonda Byrne of Secret Scroll has to say:

From The Daily Teachings of the Secret Scroll

Giving opens up the door to receiving. You have so many opportunities to give every day.

Give kind words.
Give a smile.
Give appreciation and love.
Give compliments.
You can give courtesy to other motorists while you are driving.
You can give a smile to the car parking attendant.
You can give a warm greeting to the newspaper stand person or the person who makes your coffee.
You can give by allowing a stranger to go ahead of you into an elevator, and you can give by asking which floor they are going to and pressing the button for them.
If someone drops something you can give a helping hand and pick it up for them.
You can give warm embraces to those you love.
And you can give appreciation and encouragement to everyone.

There are so many opportunities for you to give and thereby open the door to receiving.

May the joy be with you,
Rhonda Byrne

Set yourself free

Dictionary defines forgiveness as “to stop feeling anger toward someone who has done something wrong; to stop blaming (someone); to stop feeling anger about (something).”

Understanding what forgiveness is not, is just as important as understanding what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness does not in general mean forgetting / overlooking / pardoning the offender. Replacing the hatred with happiness, displeasure with delight, exasperation with ease, petulance with peace and animosity with agreeability is forgiveness too. It brings the forgiver peace of mind and frees him from being a prisoner of his own destructive frame of mind.

A beautiful legend tells of an African tribe that ritualizes forgiveness.*

When a tribe member acts irresponsibly or unjustly, the offender is taken to the center of the village. All work ceases and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused.

Then the tribe bombards the rejected person with affirmations!

One at a time, friends and family enumerate all the good the individual has done. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with some detail and accuracy is recounted. All their positive attributes, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length.

Finally, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the outcast is welcomed back into the tribe.

What a beautiful ritual of restoration.

Once again they are family. The rejected one is restored and the village is made whole.

* Story taken from http://www.LifeSupportSystem.com by Steeve Goodier

Though there is still a debate over whether forgiveness should replace negative feelings with positive feelings towards the offender, psychologists agree that it empowers the forgiver to heal and move on life.

There can be no place for violence when there is love

Two friends were walking through the desert. At some point of the journey they had an argument, and the first friend slapped the other one in the face. The second one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand:

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The second friend who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the first friend saved him. This time his friend wrote on a stone: 

TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.

The first friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “When I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now when I saved you, you write on a stone. Why?” 

The second friend replied, “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand because winds of forgiveness can erase it completely. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where nothing can ever erase it.”

“When someone does something wrong, don’t forget all the things they did right.”

Learn the facts before you assume

Author Unknown, Found at http://academictips.org/blogs

When I was in elementary school, I got into a major argument with a boy in my class. I have forgotten what the argument was about, but I have never forgotten the lesson I learned that day.

I was convinced that “I” was right and “he” was wrong – and he was just as convinced that “I” was wrong and “he” was right. The teacher decided to teach us a very important lesson.

She brought us up to the front of the class and placed him on one side of her desk and me on the other. In the middle of her desk was a large, round object. I could clearly see that it was black. She asked the boy what color the object was. “White,” he answered.

I couldn’t believe he said the object was white, when it was obviously black! Another argument started between my classmate and me, this time about the color of the object.

The teacher told me to go stand where the boy was standing and told him to come stand where I had been. We changed places, and now she asked me what the color of the object was. I had to answer, “White.”

It was an object with two differently colored sides, and from his viewpoint it was white. Only from my side it was black.

Sometimes we need to look at the problem from the other person’s view in order to truly understand his/her perspective.

Cleverness and Kindness

A man with his donkey carrying two sacks of wheat was on his way to the market. After a little while he was tired and they rested under a tree.

When he woke up from his nap he could not see the donkey and started searching for the donkey everywhere. On the way he met a boy. He asked the boy, “Have you seen my donkey?”

The boy asked, “Is the donkey’s left eye blind, his right foot lame and is he carrying a load of wheat?”

The man was happy and said, “Yes, exactly! Where have you seen it?”

The boy answered, “I haven’t seen it.”

This made the man very angry. He concluded that the boy is lying and he took him to the village chief for punishment.

The judge asked, “Dear boy, if you had not seen at the donkey, how could you describe it?”

The boy answered, “I saw the tracks of a donkey and the right and left tracks were different from this I understood that the donkey that passed there was limping.
And the grass on the right side of the road was eaten but the grass on the left was not. From that I understood that his left eye was blind.
There were wheat seeds scattered on the ground and I understood that he must have been carrying a load of wheat.”

The judge understood the boy’s cleverness and told the man to forgive the boy.

An Important Word to Learn

- By Steve Goodier www.LifeSupportSystem.com

An office reports that they have an answering machine that instructs callers to leave their name and address, and to spell any difficult words.

Early one Monday when an assistant was reviewing weekend messages, she heard an enthusiastic woman recite her name and address and then confidently say, "My difficult word is reconciliation. R-E-C-O-N-C-I-L-I-A-T-I-O-N."

Everyone's a comic. (And I love that.) But in another sense, reconciliation IS a difficult word. If not difficult to spell, then difficult to carry out. But it's also an important word.

When my son was eleven years old he came home from school in tears one day. A couple of the older kids had bullied him at the bus stop.

We soon learned that tension had been brewing for some time. For several days there had been taunts, then pushing and shoving. And now the conflict escalated to fists. Rob wanted to stay home from school so he wouldn't have to confront the boys in the future.

We called the school and found great support. "We'll be happy to call the boys' parents," we were told. "And you should call the police."

"We don't know what we will do yet," I said. I felt that calling the police was a resort to be used when everything else failed, and I wanted first to consider other ways of handling the situation. I asked him to hold off calling the boy's parents.

The next day was Saturday. Rob happened to look out the window and said in alarm, "There are the boys who beat me up!" Two older boys were standing in front of our house, as if they were waiting for Rob to step outside.

I immediately began to think of what I wanted to say to them, but my wife Bev, a natural peacemaker, acted first. She opened the door and said with a smile, "Hi guys. Would you like some ice cream?"

They looked at each other in puzzlement. But they were teenagers, after all, so they shrugged their shoulders and one of them said, "Sure. Why not?"

They followed her indoors and Bev promptly introduced herself, Rob's younger brothers and me. She even introduced Rusty the dog. "And I think you already know Rob," she said, pointing to our son. Her idea was to help them to see that Rob was a person, not a target. He had a family; he lived in a neighborhood and even owned a family pet.

Bev drew the boys into conversation while we ate ice cream. After a few minutes, she said, "I know there's been some trouble at the bus stop. I think there may be a misunderstanding."

They nodded that there had indeed been trouble at the bus stop.

She continued, "Maybe we can talk about the misunderstanding so you can be friends."

They nodded their agreement and we talked until the ice cream was finished. Eventually the boys apologized and said there would be no more trouble. And there wasn't. Ever.

The vice-principal of the school called back the following week and asked about the fighting. "Did you call the police?" he asked.

"No, but we've taken care of it," I said.

"What did you do?" he wondered.

I said, "We fed them ice cream."

Reconciliation is a difficult word...a difficult task. But what could be more important? It may be easier to control conflict by force than to persevere and find a way through to harmony and cooperation. Force can stabilize a situation; it can impose a truce. But reconciliation leads to peace, which is a far better outcome.

Blessed are the reconcilers. May they be given all the ice cream they can ever eat! 

Forgive your enemies

A master enquired his favourite student about his spiritual progress.

The student replied that he was managing to devote every moment of his day to God.

'Now all you need to do is to forgive your enemies.'

The young man was shocked: 'But I don't need to! I'm not angry with my enemies nor do I hate them!'

'Do you think God is angry with you or hates you?'

'Of course not!'

'And yet you still ask Him for His forgiveness, don't you? Do the same with your enemies, even if you don't hate them. By forgiving someone, you are washing and perfuming your own soul. Forgiveness is not something we do for other people. We do it for ourselves so that we progress further.'

The Weight of Resentment

Author Unknown

A teacher once told each of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school. For every person they refuse to forgive in their life's experience, they chose a potato, wrote on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of their bags were quite heavy.

They were then told to carry this bag with them everywhere for one week, putting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to their desk at work.

The hassle of lugging this around with them made it clear what a weight they were carrying, and how they had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget and keep leaving it in embarrassing places.

Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty smelly slime. Beyond a point, the students had to discard the smelly bag of rotten potatoes.

This was a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity!

Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, BUT it clearly is for ourselves!

 

True forgiveness

One of Napoleon's soldiers committed a crime - the story does not explain what exactly - and he was condemned to death.

On the evening before he was due to be shot, the soldier's mother came to plead for her son's life to be spared.

'Madam, your son's action does not deserve clemency.'

'I know,' said the mother. 'If it did, that would not be true forgiveness. To forgive is the ability to go beyond vengeance or justice.'

When he heard those words, Napoleon commuted the death sentence to exile.

The Noble Deer

Contributed by Nandini Bala

Once upon a time there lived a noble deer. He walked with his head high, and his long antlers showed grace. He walked with a gait that made all the animals bow to him. He was the king of the deer. He treated all his subjects and other animals very well. Even the king of the Jungle--the lion respected him.

One day, a group of traders lost their way in the forest. Distressed, and afraid they wondered what to do. When they looked up they saw the deer standing by. It beckoned them to follow him. They had nothing to lose, and followed him. The deer led them to the outskirts of a city and bounded back into the forest. The leader of the traders was so impressed by the deer, that he felt the king ought to know about it.

The traders went to the king and told him about the wonderful deer and his noble deed. The king did not listen to the words praising the deer's noble deeds. He just heard that they had found a wonderful deer.

He decided to go and hunt the deer at once.

When he went into the forest with his soldiers, they saw the deer peacefully grazing in the meadow. The king looked at the stately form of the deer and the long antlers and said, "None of you should shoot at him, that animal is mine. His antlers will grace the walls of my palace."

Saying this, he shot at the deer, which evaded the arrow in time. The deer gave the king a long chase.

As the king chased the deer he went deep into the forest. Soon he was far away from his retinue. The deer gave him the slip and was walking away, when it heard a huge splash. It understood that the king had fallen into the watering hole while looking for him.

Without a thought, the deer went to the watering hole and saw the helpless king screaming for help. No one could hear him. The deer ran to him and lowered its strong antlers. The king held on to it while the deer pulled him out.

The king was thankful and fell at the deer's feet totally ashamed of himself. The deer let the king sit on his back and took him back to his city. The king asked him to stay on at the palace as his friend, but the deer refused saying that the forest was his home.

It is said that the deer was a Bodhisattava - an incarnation of the Buddha.

If we could learn to be noble like the deer, and help even our enemies when they are defenseless, we are sure to gain friends for life.

Tiny Truths

Tiny truths………that you can enjoy

1. Notice at Church, Mandir & Gurudwaras:
''Do not leave your mobile; purses, wallets, hand-bags, girl friends unattended... Others may think it is an answer to their Prayers:''..

2. Who is a Psychiatrist?..
A qualified person who gives you an expensive and critical analysis about yourself, which your spouse gives for free, daily too..!

3. No matter how many times the Teeth bite the Tongue..
They still stay together in one Mouth;
That is the Spirit of Forgiveness!!!

Warmth in relationship

Sometimes we miss out some warmth in human relationship in giving each other support. Whenever things go wrong, we tend to shift responsibilities or blame each other, whether in a relationship, in a job or with the family.  

Forgiving someone we love becomes the hardest thing in the world to do. But not so in the following incident. If everyone can look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be much fewer problems in the world.

A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a loving couple and the boy was the apple of their eyes. When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for work so he asked the wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard. The mother, preoccupied in the kitchen, totally forgot the matter.

The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle and, fascinated with its color, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed, the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died.

The mother was stunned. She was terrified how to face her husband.

When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just four words.

What do you think were the four words?

The husband just said “I Love You Darling”

The husband’s totally unexpected reaction is proactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he have taken time to keep the bottle away, this will not have happened. No point in attaching blame. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her.