Stories with a message
Shared by Sumathi Singaravadivel
Circle of Joy
A farmer knocked heavily at a convent’s door. When the brother doorkeeper opened the door, the farmer stretched out a magnificent bunch of grapes to him.
“Dear brother doorkeeper, these are the most beautiful grapes produced in my vineyard. And I come here to give them to you as a gift,” said the farmer.
“Thank you. I will take them immediately to the Abbot, who will be happy about your offer,” said the doorkeeper happily.
“No. I brought them for you,” said the farmer.
“For me?” The doorkeeper turned red because he thought he didn’t deserve such beautiful gift of nature.
“Yes!” the farmer insisted, “Because whenever I knock at this door, you open it. Whenever I needed your help because of the harvest being destroyed by drought, you gave me a piece of bread and a cup of wine. I want this bunch of grapes to bring you a little of the sun’s love, of the rain’s beauty and of God’s miracle, as He made it grow so beautifully.”
The doorkeeper placed the bunch of grapes in front of him and spent the morning admiring it. As the bunch of grapes was really gorgeous, he decided to give it to the Abbot as a gift, who had always stimulated him with words of wisdom.
The Abbot was very happy about the grapes, but remembered that there was a brother who was sick at the convent, and thought, “I will give him the grape bunch. Who knows, it might bring some joy to his life.”
And so he did. However, the grapes didn’t stay very long with the sick brother, because he thought, “Brother cook has been taking care of me for so long, nourishing me with the best there is. I am sure he will appreciate it.”
When brother cook brought his meal at the lunch time, he gave him the grapes.
“They are yours,” said the sick brother, “as you are always in contact with the produce that nature offers; you will know what to do with this work of God.”
Brother cook was fascinated by the beauty of the bunch. So perfect, he thought, that there is no one better to prize them as brother sacristan; as he was responsible for the guard of the Blessed Sacrament and many at the monastery saw him as a holy man; he would be able to value the marvel of nature.
The brother, on his turn, gave the grapes as a gift to the youngest novice, so that he could understand that God’s work is found in the smallest details of creation.
When the novice received it, his heart filled with the glory of the Lord, because he had never seen such a beautiful bunch of grapes. At the same moment, he remembered the first time he came to the monastery and the person who opened the door to him; it was this gesture that allowed him to be in that community of people who knew how to value miracles today.
Before the nightfall, he took the grape bunch to brother doorkeeper.
“Eat it and enjoy it,” he said. “Because you spend most of your time here alone and these grapes will make you very happy.”
The doorkeeper understood that the gift had really been destined to be with him, so he savoured each grape of that bunch and slept happily.
The circle was closed — the circle of happiness and joy, which always stretches out around the generous people.
• Another circle of Joy…. If you choose to be happy, you will, feel elated, think humorous things, and then, you will have an uninhibited and full throat-ed laugh, and then again you will Be happy after your laugh. That’s when the circle is complete and you can go into a cycle of happiness. You started by choosing to be happy and you ended up laughing, and laughing caused you to Be happy again. You now know how to be in Constant Joy, and just know this too…Success comes to those who are happy NOW.
• The circle was closed — the circle of happiness and joy, which always stretches out around the generous people.
• Act of helping others is also an act of helping ourselves.
Humility
A person with humility has a confident yet modest sense of his or her own merits, but also an understanding of his or her limitations. The moment you think you have seen everything or know it all (“Been there, done that . . . ” ) , the universe senses arrogance and gives you a great big dose of humility. You must give up on the idea that you can ever become so enlightened that you have nothing left to learn; Zen masters know that even for them learning never ends.
That is what happened to Will. Extremely handsome, tan, and athletic, with penetrating eyes, Will looked and dressed like a fashion model. Things came easily to him, and he mastered everything he tried. With his charm, intelligence, and talents, his business was lively and success was a way of life.
So when Will was served a lawsuit one day, he assumed that the case would work out as easily as everything else in his life and he didn’t worry about it. But it didn’t, and the suit eventually led to the breakup of his company. He tried for months afterward to get a job, but no one would hire him. His finances became strained, payments fell behind, and finally bankruptcy was his only option. Will couldn’t understand why his ”magic” was no longer intact, and after seven years of assorted jobs that yielded no magic, he finally faced up to the lesson of humility.
When he came to see me, Will couldn’t understand how so much could come to a “perfect person” like him. He had to learn that his talents were wonderful but were negated alongside an attitude of arrogance. He looked condescendingly upon people who didn’t have his gifts-speaking to them in a patronizing manner, treating them with impatience and annoyance, judging them as worthless or stupid – so his curriculum led him to the lesson of humility. The lessons were difficult for him at first but with understanding, Will made sense of his situation and committed to learning his lessons, and he turned his circumstances around.
Have pride in who you are and what you have accomplished. However, if you find yourself harboring secret thoughts of arrogance or conceit, remind yourself of the lesson of humility before the universe does it for you. It will sting much less that way.
“A great man is always willing to be little.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.”
― Albert Einstein
“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
― Michel de Montaigne
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.”
- Kahlil Gibran
“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”
― Alexander Pope
Presence of mind
Voltaire was walking down the street in London one day, in an era when Englishmen really hated the French.
A group of Englishmen realized who he was, and angrily yelled, “Hang the Frenchman!”
Voltaire responded, “Englishmen. You want to kill me because I am a Frenchman. Am I not already punished enough in not being an Englishman!”
The Englishmen were so flattered by this, that not only did they refrain form attacking him, they even cheered for him and escorted him to where he was going.
It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of man is tested. - James Russell Lowell
Hard Work
he King was bored, and made an announcement to his people and declared, “I will pay a great reward for whoever brings me the most delicious food.”
Upon hearing of this reward, many people came to the royal palace and presented him with various dishes. After eating a wide variety of these carefully prepared food for many days, the king still did not find any to be good enough to impel him to award someone the victor of his contest.
Then Xieng Mieng came to the palace one morning and said to the king, “I am going to bring you the best food tonight. However, you mustn’t eat anything the whole day, in order for you to properly partake of the food I am going to bring you.”
Curiously about Xieng Mieng’s offer, the king agreed, and did not eat anything the whole day, growing more and more eager to eat as each hour passed. Finally, when Xieng Mieng arrived at the palace, the king was famished, and said, “Give me the tasty food you promised. I am very hungry!”
Xieng Mieng then handed him a plate of plain boiled rice. Very shocked to see this, the king said, “This is just regular rice. People have been constantly giving me all kinds of food over these past few days in hopes of winning the reward, and you are just giving me plain rice.”
“Just eat it, and you will understand,” Xieng Mieng replied.
The king, hungrier than he had been in a long time, ate the food enthusiastically, and enjoyed it greatly. He was so hungry and the food was so satisfying, that he did indeed admit that the plain rice was the most delicious food he ate in the contest, as its deliciousness was magnified by his intense hunger.
He gave Xieng Mieng the reward.
• Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory. - Mahatma Gandhi
• It’s after a long and tiring hard work, one can actually enjoys the success.
• It’s after a long struggle one can actually enjoys the every bit of their award, their success, their thirst.
• One appreciates life ever so much, after coming from the mouth of the death.
• Appreciate what you have, for, you’ll appreciate it even more, when it’s gone forever.
Everyone needs a mother
A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombasa, officials said. The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.
“It is incredible. A less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a mother,” ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.
“After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized.
It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat, and sleep together,” the ecologist added. ”The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,” Kahumbu added.
“The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mother for four years,” he explained.
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”
This is a real story that shows that our differences don’t matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures. ”Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.”
Best Medicine
During the first two decades of this century, a great number of babies under one year of age wasted away in hospitals and children's institutions and died from unknown causes. In some institutions it was customary to enter the condition of all seriously sick infants as "hopeless" on admission cards.
Among the doctors who were confronted with infant mortality daily was Dr. Fritz Talbot of the Children's Clinic in Dusseldorf. Dr. Talbot had uncommon success in dealing with sick children. For many years, as he made his rounds, he would be followed from ward to ward by groups of interns seeking new ways of handling children's diseases.
One such intern was Dr. Joseph Brennermann, who told this story.
"Many times we would come across a child for whom everything had failed. For some reason the child was hopelessly wasting away. When this would happen, Dr. Talbot would take the child's chart and scrawl some indecipherable prescription. In most of the cases, the magic formula took effect and the child began to prosper. My curiosity was aroused and I wondered if the famous doctor had developed some new type of wonder drug.
"One day, after rounds, I returned to the ward and tried to decipher Dr. Talbot's scrawl. I had no luck, and so I turned to the head nurse and asked her what the prescription was.
"'Old Anna,' she said. Then she pointed to a grandmotherly woman seated in a large rocker with a baby on her lap. The nurse continued: 'Whenever we have a baby for whom everything we could do had failed, we turn the child over to Old Anna. She has more success than all the doctors and nurses in this institution combined.'"
Life that makes a difference
'How do you account for your remarkable accomplishment in life?' Queen Victoria of England asked Helen Keller. 'How do you explain the fact that even though you were both blind and deaf, you were able to accomplish so much?'
Ms. Keller's answer is a tribute to her dedicated teacher. 'If it had not been for Anne Sullivan, the name of Helen Keller would have remained unknown.'
Speaker Zig Ziglar tells about 'Little Annie' Sullivan, as she was called when she was young. Little Annie was no stranger to hardship. She was almost sightless herself (due to a childhood fever) and was, at one time, diagnosed as hopelessly "insane" by her caregivers. She was locked in the basement of a mental institution outside of Boston. On occasion, Little Annie would violently attack anyone who came near. Most of the time she generally ignored everyone in her presence.
An elderly nurse believed there was hope, however, and she made it her mission to show love to the child. Every day she visited Little Annie. For the most part, the child did not acknowledge the nurse's presence, but she still continued to visit. The kindly woman left cookies for her and spoke words of love and encouragement. She believed Little Annie could recover, if only she were shown love.
Eventually, doctors noticed a change in the girl. Where they once witnessed anger and hostility, they now noted an emerging gentleness and love. They moved her upstairs where she continued to improve. Then the day finally came when this seemingly 'hopeless' child was released.
Anne Sullivan grew into a young woman with a desire to help others as she, herself, was helped by the loving nurse. It was she who saw the great potential in Helen Keller. She loved her, disciplined her, played with her, pushed her, and worked with her until the flickering candle that was her life became a beacon of light to the world. Anne Sullivan worked wonders in Helen's life, but it was a loving nurse who first believed in Little Annie and lovingly transformed an uncommunicative child into a compassionate teacher.
'If it had not been for Anne Sullivan, the name of Helen Keller would have remained unknown.' But if it had not been for a kind and dedicated nurse, the name of Anne Sullivan would have remained unknown. And so it goes. Just how far back does the chain of redemption extend? And how far forward will it lead?
Those you have sought to reach, whether they be in your family or elsewhere, are part of a chain of love that can extend through the generations. Your influence on their lives, whether or not you see results, is immeasurable. Your legacy of dedicated kindness and caring can transform lost and hopeless lives for years to come.
You can never overestimate the power of your love. It is a fire that, once lit, may burn forever.
Comparison is the death of joy
There was once a candy maker who made candy in the shapes of animals and birds of different colors and sizes.
When he sold his candy to children, they would begin to quarrel with words such as these: “My rabbit is better than your tiger…..My squirrel may be smaller than your elephant, but it is tastier…..”
And the candy maker would laugh at the thought of grown-ups who were no less ignorant than the children when they thought that one person was better than another.
• It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Comparison is the death of joy. - Mark Twain
• When the Lord makes it clear you’re to follow Him in this new direction, focus fully on Him and refuse to be distracted by comparisons with others. - Charles R. Swindoll
• Comparisons deplete the actuality of the things compared.