First Step:
Plant yourself deep in a bed of faith, and pack it down solid and tight. Drench daily with positive thinking and keep saturated just right. Mulch often with forgiveness, for this will help you grow. Quickly remove any seeds of worry, for they will soon germinate and keep out the weeds of despair. Nourish disappointments with hope whenever it is needed and always stay cool and shaded when you feel irritated or heated. Trim away guilt or depression, for they create decay and cultivate with happy memories as often as very day.
Second Step:
Harvest the lessons of the past; just dig, pick and hoe. And nurture the roots of the present, for now is when you flourish and grow. Start planting for the future; set your goals in a row. Spade the bed well for all your dreams to grow.
Third Step:
Remember that grief is a natural predator, so learn to tolerate some damage. Protect your garden with daily prayers, for this will help you manage. Bury the criticism and complaining, for they are injurious pests. Sow the seed of love wherever you may go – for joy, love and laughter are surely bound to grow. Although the thorns of life may be here to stay, just sprout a smile along the way … and be thankful for what you have today!
2009年6月2日 星期二
2009年6月1日 星期一
2009年5月31日 星期日
Did You Made A Wrong Choice?
Dear Yi Jun,
Have you ever, at any one time, had the feeling that life there is bad quality, real bad, and you wish you were in another situation? You find life make things difficult for you, study sucks, life sucks and everything seems to go wrong …
Watch the following link story … it may change your views about life:
Films: Chicken a la Carte by Fredinad Dimdura
Taken a back by the scene, the bread and chicken people was eating halfway. And almost instantly, a flock of 5 or 6 children swamped towards this food which was covered with dirt, robbing bits from dustbin – the natural reaction of hunger.
We began to tell ourselves how fortunate we are. How fortunate we are to be able to have a complete body, have chance to study oversea, have a family, have the chance to complain what food is nice and what isn’t nice, have the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people in front of him are deprived of …
Now you begin to think and feel it, too! How? Were you life really that bad? Perhaps --- No, You should not feel bad at all … . Maybe the next time you think you are, think about the child who search the food from dustbin. “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want; it is the realization of how much you already have.”
When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one which has been opened for us. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lost it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we have been missing until it arrives.
Have you ever, at any one time, had the feeling that life there is bad quality, real bad, and you wish you were in another situation? You find life make things difficult for you, study sucks, life sucks and everything seems to go wrong …
Watch the following link story … it may change your views about life:
Films: Chicken a la Carte by Fredinad Dimdura
Taken a back by the scene, the bread and chicken people was eating halfway. And almost instantly, a flock of 5 or 6 children swamped towards this food which was covered with dirt, robbing bits from dustbin – the natural reaction of hunger.
We began to tell ourselves how fortunate we are. How fortunate we are to be able to have a complete body, have chance to study oversea, have a family, have the chance to complain what food is nice and what isn’t nice, have the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people in front of him are deprived of …
Now you begin to think and feel it, too! How? Were you life really that bad? Perhaps --- No, You should not feel bad at all … . Maybe the next time you think you are, think about the child who search the food from dustbin. “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want; it is the realization of how much you already have.”
When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one which has been opened for us. It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lost it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we have been missing until it arrives.
2009年5月30日 星期六
2009年5月29日 星期五
Relish The Moment
Tucked away in our subconsciousness is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.
But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering – waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.
“When we reach the station that will be it!” we cry. “When I am 30 years old.” “When I buy a new Proton Saga!” “When I put my kids through university.” “When I have paid off the mortgage!” When I get a promotion.” “When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!”
Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.
“Relish the moment” is a good motto. This is the day which the Lord had made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today.
But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering – waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.
“When we reach the station that will be it!” we cry. “When I am 30 years old.” “When I buy a new Proton Saga!” “When I put my kids through university.” “When I have paid off the mortgage!” When I get a promotion.” “When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!”
Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.
“Relish the moment” is a good motto. This is the day which the Lord had made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today.
2009年5月28日 星期四
妈妈的叮咛
亲爱的婆婆：
妈妈常常提醒我说：“阿嬷岁数这么大了，你要懂得孝敬她老人家。”其实孙子能孝顺婆婆固然重要，因百养以孝为先；但是女儿孝顺父母天公地道，是圣人之训。孙子孝顺老人家是孙子们的福报；女儿孝顺父母亲则是女儿们的福报，所谓有孝就有福，有愿就有力，自耕福田，自得福缘。也许妈妈心存孝心，但切不晓得如何立身行孝，故屡次都这么心切的叮咛着我们要孝顺婆婆。其实行孝并不难，《弟子规》之入则孝这一篇告诉我们道：“父母呼，应勿缓，父母命，行勿懒，父母教，须敬听，父母责，须顺承”
其大意是：父母呼唤，应及时回答，不要慢吞吞的很久才应答。父母有事交待，要立刻动身去做，不可拖延或推辞偷懒。父母教导我们做人处事的道理，是为了我们好，应该恭敬的聆听。做错了事，父母责备教诫时，应当虚心接受，不可以强词夺理，使父母亲生气，伤心。
妈妈常常提醒我说：“阿嬷岁数这么大了，你要懂得孝敬她老人家。”其实孙子能孝顺婆婆固然重要，因百养以孝为先；但是女儿孝顺父母天公地道，是圣人之训。孙子孝顺老人家是孙子们的福报；女儿孝顺父母亲则是女儿们的福报，所谓有孝就有福，有愿就有力，自耕福田，自得福缘。也许妈妈心存孝心，但切不晓得如何立身行孝，故屡次都这么心切的叮咛着我们要孝顺婆婆。其实行孝并不难，《弟子规》之入则孝这一篇告诉我们道：“父母呼，应勿缓，父母命，行勿懒，父母教，须敬听，父母责，须顺承”
其大意是：父母呼唤，应及时回答，不要慢吞吞的很久才应答。父母有事交待，要立刻动身去做，不可拖延或推辞偷懒。父母教导我们做人处事的道理，是为了我们好，应该恭敬的聆听。做错了事，父母责备教诫时，应当虚心接受，不可以强词夺理，使父母亲生气，伤心。
2009年5月27日 星期三
Count Your Blessings
Dear Yi Jun,
MCA had raised the issue of many outstanding Chinese students who had failed to get JPA scholarships this year with the Cabinet recently. Without the scholarship, the excellent result’s students having scored 10As – 16As in last year's Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia couldn’t pursue their studies overseas. You are blessing.
When I say your blessings, not your troubles, the message is not to become complacent. If complacence was the message you got, then I would be guilty of faulty communication and you of selective listening.
To give you an example of selective listening, let me share with you a story I heard about a medical doctor who was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of alcoholic. He wanted to make a demonstration that would be powerful enough to make people realize that alcohol was injurious to their health. He had two containers, one with pure distilled water and one with pure alcohol. He put an earthworm into the distilled water and it swam beautifully and came up to the top. He put another earthworm into the alcohol and it disintegrated in front of everyone’s eyes. He wanted to prove that this was what alcohol did to the insides of our body. He asked the group what the moral of the story was and one person from behind said: “If you drink alcohol you won’t have worms in your stomach.” Was that the message? Of course not. That was selective listening –we hear what we want to hear and not what is being said.
Many of our blessings are hidden treasure – count your blessings and not your troubles.
MCA had raised the issue of many outstanding Chinese students who had failed to get JPA scholarships this year with the Cabinet recently. Without the scholarship, the excellent result’s students having scored 10As – 16As in last year's Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia couldn’t pursue their studies overseas. You are blessing.
When I say your blessings, not your troubles, the message is not to become complacent. If complacence was the message you got, then I would be guilty of faulty communication and you of selective listening.
To give you an example of selective listening, let me share with you a story I heard about a medical doctor who was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of alcoholic. He wanted to make a demonstration that would be powerful enough to make people realize that alcohol was injurious to their health. He had two containers, one with pure distilled water and one with pure alcohol. He put an earthworm into the distilled water and it swam beautifully and came up to the top. He put another earthworm into the alcohol and it disintegrated in front of everyone’s eyes. He wanted to prove that this was what alcohol did to the insides of our body. He asked the group what the moral of the story was and one person from behind said: “If you drink alcohol you won’t have worms in your stomach.” Was that the message? Of course not. That was selective listening –we hear what we want to hear and not what is being said.
Many of our blessings are hidden treasure – count your blessings and not your troubles.
2009年5月26日 星期二
2009年5月25日 星期一
The Golden Mean
Confucian once reduced all virtue to the golden mean (the doctrine of the mean). Push right to the extreme and it becomes wrong; press all the juice from an orange and it become biter. Even in enjoyment never go to extremes.
You should learn to seize things not by the blade, which cut; but by the handle, which saves you from harm; especially is this the rule with the doings of your enemies. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Their ill will often levels mountains of difficulties which one would otherwise not face. Flattery is more dangerous than hatred because it covers the stains which the other causes to be wiped out. The wise will turn ill will into a mirror more faithful than kindness, and remove or improve the faults referred to.
Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point. Notice in what quality you surpass, and take charge of that. In some, judgment excels, in others valor. Most do violence to their natural aptitude and thus attain superiority in nothing. Time disillusions us too late of what first flattered the passions.
You should learn to seize things not by the blade, which cut; but by the handle, which saves you from harm; especially is this the rule with the doings of your enemies. A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. Their ill will often levels mountains of difficulties which one would otherwise not face. Flattery is more dangerous than hatred because it covers the stains which the other causes to be wiped out. The wise will turn ill will into a mirror more faithful than kindness, and remove or improve the faults referred to.
Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point. Notice in what quality you surpass, and take charge of that. In some, judgment excels, in others valor. Most do violence to their natural aptitude and thus attain superiority in nothing. Time disillusions us too late of what first flattered the passions.
2009年5月23日 星期六
天上有繁星，有幸来过藩
亲爱的婆婆：
谢谢婆婆把妈妈从老远的唐山带来“过藩”（南洋），所以才造就今日的我。据潮州老乡说“天上有繁星，此生才有幸来过藩”。在巴金的《繁星》里这么写道：“我爱月夜，但我也爱星天。从前在家乡七、八月的夜晚在庭院里纳凉的时候，我最爱看天上密密麻麻的繁星。望着星天，我就会忘记一切，仿佛回到了母亲的怀里似的。”我现在才明白潮州老乡所谓的繁星象征着幸福，就如巴金所说仿佛回到了母亲的怀里般幸福。也许这句话对土生土长的我们并不是那么简单就体会出它的意境。 虽然未曾听过妈妈就此事向婆婆道谢，我还是代妈妈感谢婆婆这么多年来的辛苦劳碌，关爱子女，呵护子女。这完全是出自於天性，毫无保留、毫无怨言。若我们时时刻刻把感恩的心付诸行动，就不枉婆婆的一番苦心了。祝：母亲节快乐。
谢谢婆婆把妈妈从老远的唐山带来“过藩”（南洋），所以才造就今日的我。据潮州老乡说“天上有繁星，此生才有幸来过藩”。在巴金的《繁星》里这么写道：“我爱月夜，但我也爱星天。从前在家乡七、八月的夜晚在庭院里纳凉的时候，我最爱看天上密密麻麻的繁星。望着星天，我就会忘记一切，仿佛回到了母亲的怀里似的。”我现在才明白潮州老乡所谓的繁星象征着幸福，就如巴金所说仿佛回到了母亲的怀里般幸福。也许这句话对土生土长的我们并不是那么简单就体会出它的意境。 虽然未曾听过妈妈就此事向婆婆道谢，我还是代妈妈感谢婆婆这么多年来的辛苦劳碌，关爱子女，呵护子女。这完全是出自於天性，毫无保留、毫无怨言。若我们时时刻刻把感恩的心付诸行动，就不枉婆婆的一番苦心了。祝：母亲节快乐。
2009年5月22日 星期五
The Living Art
The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is a paradox; it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual relinquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way, “A man comes to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open.”
Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of the earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.
We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.
Every evening, I like to jog under the sun with my wife, I like the sunlight hit me; because by this way I can get free vitamin D from natural environment. Try to imagine if the sunlight hit us during the bitterly cool of winter day at Moscow. Just the light of the sun, and yet how beautiful it was – how warming, how sparking, how brilliant! Anyone else relished the sun’s golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life’s gifts are precious – but we are too heedless of them.
Here then is the first pole of life’s paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Size each golden minute.
Hold fast to life, but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life’s coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.
At every stage of life we sustain losses – and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.
Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of the earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this truth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.
We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.
Every evening, I like to jog under the sun with my wife, I like the sunlight hit me; because by this way I can get free vitamin D from natural environment. Try to imagine if the sunlight hit us during the bitterly cool of winter day at Moscow. Just the light of the sun, and yet how beautiful it was – how warming, how sparking, how brilliant! Anyone else relished the sun’s golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remembered how often I, too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and sometimes even mean concerns to respond from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itself: life’s gifts are precious – but we are too heedless of them.
Here then is the first pole of life’s paradoxical demands on us: Never too busy for the wonder and the awe of life. Be reverent before each dawning day. Embrace each hour. Size each golden minute.
Hold fast to life, but not so fast that you cannot let go. This is the second side of life’s coin, the opposite pole of its paradox: we must accept our losses, and learn how to let go.
This is not an easy lesson to learn, especially when we are young and think that the world is ours to command, that whatever we desire with the full force of our passionate being can, nay, will, be ours. But then life moves along to confront us with realities, and slowly but surely this truth dawns upon us.
At every stage of life we sustain losses – and grow in the process. We begin our independent lives only when we emerge from the womb and lose its protective shelter. We enter a progression of schools, then we leave our mothers and fathers and our childhood homes. We get married and have children and then have to let them go. We confront the death of our parents and our spouses. We face the gradual or not so gradual waning of our strength. And ultimately, as the parable of the open and closed hand suggests, we must confront the inevitability of our own demise, losing ourselves as it were, all that we were or dreamed to be.
2009年5月21日 星期四
母亲节
亲爱的婆婆：
慈母手中线， 游子身上衣。
慈母手中线， 游子身上衣。
临行密密缝， 意恐迟迟归。
谁言寸草心。 报得三春晖。
五月的母亲节让我想起孟郊这首“游子吟”，同时也唤醒我记得向婆婆及妈妈祝福。
小时后，半夜梦中惊醒，发现脚拇指被老鼠咬个洞，鲜血直流；婆婆不作声为我止血敷药。婆婆您可记得这么一件事？虽然时过境迁，但这件事还是牢牢的烙印在我的脑海里。婆婆不但要养育女儿还要替女儿照顾儿子。婆婆是位伟大的母亲，您的爱如阳光般大，如海般深。
在婆婆的生命中，只有爱没有嗔恨，只有宽恕没有抱怨。虽然别人对自己不好，对女儿不好；但总不会去记恨对方，而以宽容心接纳对方。婆婆受教育不多但懂得学会放下的智慧，所以在人生旅途中的任何困境都心无挂碍，受人尊敬。婆婆的身教是我们学习的对象。最后让我借用小姨的口讯向婆婆请安，愿婆婆身体健康。祝：母亲节快乐。
五月的母亲节让我想起孟郊这首“游子吟”，同时也唤醒我记得向婆婆及妈妈祝福。
小时后，半夜梦中惊醒，发现脚拇指被老鼠咬个洞，鲜血直流；婆婆不作声为我止血敷药。婆婆您可记得这么一件事？虽然时过境迁，但这件事还是牢牢的烙印在我的脑海里。婆婆不但要养育女儿还要替女儿照顾儿子。婆婆是位伟大的母亲，您的爱如阳光般大，如海般深。
在婆婆的生命中，只有爱没有嗔恨，只有宽恕没有抱怨。虽然别人对自己不好，对女儿不好；但总不会去记恨对方，而以宽容心接纳对方。婆婆受教育不多但懂得学会放下的智慧，所以在人生旅途中的任何困境都心无挂碍，受人尊敬。婆婆的身教是我们学习的对象。最后让我借用小姨的口讯向婆婆请安，愿婆婆身体健康。祝：母亲节快乐。
2009年5月20日 星期三
Our Own Identity
In the eternal universe, every human being has a one – off chance to live – his existence is unique and irretrievable, for the mold with which he was made, as Rousseau said, was broken by God immediately afterwards.
Fame, wealth and knowledge are merely worldly possessions that are within the reach of anybody striving for them. But your experience of and feelings about life are your own and not to be shared. No one can live your life over again after your death. A full awareness of this will point out to you that the most important thing in your existence is your distinctive individuality or something special of yours. What really counts is not your worldly success but your peculiar insight into the meaning of life and your commitment to it, which add luster to your personality.
It is not easy to be what one really is. There is many a person in the world who can be identified as anything – either his job, his status or his social role – that shows no trace about his individuality. It does do him justice to say that he has no identity of his own, if he doesn’t know his own mind and all his things are either arranged by others or done on others’ suggestions; if his life, always occupied by external things, is completely void of an inner world. You won’t be able to find anything whatever, from head to heart, that truly belongs to him. He is, indeed, no more than a shadow cast by somebody else or a machine capable of doing business.
Fame, wealth and knowledge are merely worldly possessions that are within the reach of anybody striving for them. But your experience of and feelings about life are your own and not to be shared. No one can live your life over again after your death. A full awareness of this will point out to you that the most important thing in your existence is your distinctive individuality or something special of yours. What really counts is not your worldly success but your peculiar insight into the meaning of life and your commitment to it, which add luster to your personality.
It is not easy to be what one really is. There is many a person in the world who can be identified as anything – either his job, his status or his social role – that shows no trace about his individuality. It does do him justice to say that he has no identity of his own, if he doesn’t know his own mind and all his things are either arranged by others or done on others’ suggestions; if his life, always occupied by external things, is completely void of an inner world. You won’t be able to find anything whatever, from head to heart, that truly belongs to him. He is, indeed, no more than a shadow cast by somebody else or a machine capable of doing business.
2009年5月19日 星期二
让生命在每一个当下圆满
亲爱的婆婆：
回想自己定居巴生的时间，不知不觉已经有二十六年了，还记得当初，对家有着殷切的思念，我离开家之后才深深地感受到家的美好；当父亲突然往生之后，才让我了解到感恩，生存的价值，才想到有好多的“应该做”，结果都错失了。要弥补错失，唯有把这应该做的想法转变成马上做的行动，应该好好地去珍惜还健在的婆婆，妈妈及身边所有的人，要马上告诉他们，我多么感谢他们对我们所付出的一切，让他们知道他们教育的苦心没白费。让生命在每一个当下圆满，让生活没有太大的遗憾。祝福大家在生命的旅途中，一路顺风，自在无碍。
回想自己定居巴生的时间，不知不觉已经有二十六年了，还记得当初，对家有着殷切的思念，我离开家之后才深深地感受到家的美好；当父亲突然往生之后，才让我了解到感恩，生存的价值，才想到有好多的“应该做”，结果都错失了。要弥补错失，唯有把这应该做的想法转变成马上做的行动，应该好好地去珍惜还健在的婆婆，妈妈及身边所有的人，要马上告诉他们，我多么感谢他们对我们所付出的一切，让他们知道他们教育的苦心没白费。让生命在每一个当下圆满，让生活没有太大的遗憾。祝福大家在生命的旅途中，一路顺风，自在无碍。
2009年5月18日 星期一
You Are On A Journey
Wherever you are and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike at this moment and in all the moments of our existence: we are not at rest; we are on a journey. Our life is a movement, a tendency, a steady, ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal. We are gaining something or losing something, everyday. Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing. For the mere advance of time is a change. It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. The season makes the difference. The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man.
Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. It sets us forward or backward. The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline is to accept – the other alternative.
Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? Yes, -- you must be a little nearer to some port or other; for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life, you have never been still for a single moment; the sea is too deep, you could not find an anchorage if you would; there can be no pause until you come into port.
Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. It sets us forward or backward. The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline is to accept – the other alternative.
Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? Yes, -- you must be a little nearer to some port or other; for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life, you have never been still for a single moment; the sea is too deep, you could not find an anchorage if you would; there can be no pause until you come into port.
2009年5月17日 星期日
现实生活的无奈
亲爱的婆婆：
妈妈说四姨也有阅读婆婆的信，因此让我谈些与四姨有关的往年事迹。在小学毕业时，四姨是位名列前茅的优异生，但因当时生活崎岖困苦，环境所逼，婆婆决定让四姨休学出来工作补足家用。这个晴天霹雳的消息让四姨流下生活无情的眼泪，伤心了好几天。婆婆何尝也不如此难过。婆婆向来都疼爱孩子，庇护她们，期望孩子们可以安心求学，无忧无虑的长大；但现实生活的无奈，只好下了百般不愿的痛苦抉择。假如没有四姨的牺牲小我就不能实践姐妹们爱求学的梦想，所以至今四姨深懂得珍惜求学的机会，成就孩子圆满其心愿。如果把婆婆比喻成一支蜡烛，四姨就是这支蜡烛的心，没有心的蜡烛就不能燃烧，即使有心，也要点燃才有意义，点燃了的蜡烛会有泪，但总比没有燃烧的好。
祝：幸福快乐
妈妈说四姨也有阅读婆婆的信，因此让我谈些与四姨有关的往年事迹。在小学毕业时，四姨是位名列前茅的优异生，但因当时生活崎岖困苦，环境所逼，婆婆决定让四姨休学出来工作补足家用。这个晴天霹雳的消息让四姨流下生活无情的眼泪，伤心了好几天。婆婆何尝也不如此难过。婆婆向来都疼爱孩子，庇护她们，期望孩子们可以安心求学，无忧无虑的长大；但现实生活的无奈，只好下了百般不愿的痛苦抉择。假如没有四姨的牺牲小我就不能实践姐妹们爱求学的梦想，所以至今四姨深懂得珍惜求学的机会，成就孩子圆满其心愿。如果把婆婆比喻成一支蜡烛，四姨就是这支蜡烛的心，没有心的蜡烛就不能燃烧，即使有心，也要点燃才有意义，点燃了的蜡烛会有泪，但总比没有燃烧的好。
祝：幸福快乐
2009年5月16日 星期六
Man’s Youth
Man’s youth is a wonderful thing: it is so full of anguish and of magic and he never comes to know it as it is, until it has gone from him forever. It is the thing he cannot hear to lose, it is the thing whose passing he watches with infinite sorrow and regret, it is the thing whose loss he must lament forever, and it is the thing whose loss he really welcomes with a sad and secret joy, the thing he would never willingly relive again, could it be restored to him by any magic.
Why is this? The reason is that the strange and bitter miracle of life is nowhere else so evident as in our youth. And what is the essence of that strange and bitter miracle of life which we feel so poignant, so unutterable, with such a bitter pain and joy, when we are young? It is this: that being rich, we are so poor; that being mighty, we can yet have nothing; that seeing, breathing, smelling, tasting all around us the impossible wealth and glory of this earth, feeling with an intolerable certitude that the whole structure of the enchanted life – the most fortunate, wealthy, good, and happy life that any man has ever known – is ours – is ours at once, immediately and forever, the moment that we choose to take a step, or stretch a hand, or say a word – we yet know that we can really keep, hold, take and possess forever – nothing. All passes; nothing lasts: the moment that we put our hand upon it, it melts away like smoke, is gone forever, and the snake is eating at our heart again; we see then what we are and what our lives must come to.
A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing. He hurls the great shoulder of his strength forever against phantasmal barriers, he is a wave whose power explodes in lost mid-oceans under timeless skies, he reaches out to grip a fume of painted smoke, and he wants all, feels the thirst and power for everything and finally gets nothing. In the end, he is destroyed by his own strength, devoured by his own hunger, impoverished by his own wealth. Thoughtless of money or the accumulation of material possessions, he is none the less defeated in the end by his own greed a greed that makes the avarice of King Midas seem paltry by comparison.
And that is the reason why, when youth is gone, every man will look back upon that period of his life with infinite sorrow and regret. It is the bitter sorrow and regret of man who knows that once he had a great talent and wasted it, of a man who knows that once he had a great treasure and got nothing from it, of a man who knows that he had strength enough for everything and never used it.
Why is this? The reason is that the strange and bitter miracle of life is nowhere else so evident as in our youth. And what is the essence of that strange and bitter miracle of life which we feel so poignant, so unutterable, with such a bitter pain and joy, when we are young? It is this: that being rich, we are so poor; that being mighty, we can yet have nothing; that seeing, breathing, smelling, tasting all around us the impossible wealth and glory of this earth, feeling with an intolerable certitude that the whole structure of the enchanted life – the most fortunate, wealthy, good, and happy life that any man has ever known – is ours – is ours at once, immediately and forever, the moment that we choose to take a step, or stretch a hand, or say a word – we yet know that we can really keep, hold, take and possess forever – nothing. All passes; nothing lasts: the moment that we put our hand upon it, it melts away like smoke, is gone forever, and the snake is eating at our heart again; we see then what we are and what our lives must come to.
A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain and so lost. He has everything and he is able to use nothing. He hurls the great shoulder of his strength forever against phantasmal barriers, he is a wave whose power explodes in lost mid-oceans under timeless skies, he reaches out to grip a fume of painted smoke, and he wants all, feels the thirst and power for everything and finally gets nothing. In the end, he is destroyed by his own strength, devoured by his own hunger, impoverished by his own wealth. Thoughtless of money or the accumulation of material possessions, he is none the less defeated in the end by his own greed a greed that makes the avarice of King Midas seem paltry by comparison.
And that is the reason why, when youth is gone, every man will look back upon that period of his life with infinite sorrow and regret. It is the bitter sorrow and regret of man who knows that once he had a great talent and wasted it, of a man who knows that once he had a great treasure and got nothing from it, of a man who knows that he had strength enough for everything and never used it.
2009年5月15日 星期五
2009年5月14日 星期四
The Road Of Life
The lives of most men are determined by their environment. They accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only with resignation but even with good will. They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly flitter that dashes in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily across the open country. I respect them; they are good citizens, good husbands and good fathers and of course somebody has to pay the taxes; but I do not find them exciting. I am fascinated by the men, few enough in all conscience, who take life in their own hands and seem to mould it to their own liking. It maybe that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events, we have the illusion of it. At a cross road it does seem to us that we might go either to the right or the left and the choice once made, it is difficult to see that the whole course of the world’s history oblige us to take the turning we did.
2009年5月13日 星期三
有空一定要去深望婆婆
亲爱的婆婆：
妈妈时常交待说：“阿嬷这么老了，有空一定要去探望她。“孙子深望婆婆固然可贵，但女儿们探望妈妈更为重要。婆婆渴望见到的是女儿并非孙子。因为女儿是妈妈身上的一块肉，母女的亲情是与生俱来，怎样甩也甩不掉。希望阿姨们有阅读婆婆的信，然后亲切的向婆婆请安，至少每周日探望她老人家一次。
婆婆看似那么的近，但却离我们越来越远了。也许有一天，婆婆会望着来访的女儿问来者是谁。因为婆婆的记忆已随着时间而逐渐健忘了。行孝不能等，该做就要把握时机，也要把握因缘，因缘消逝才想做就来不及了。人总是想要去行好孝，但都想等到自己有时间，或有空余时才去做，须知人生无常啊！只要有心，哪怕是亲切的一个问候，也要赶快去做，千万不要等到因缘错过留下遗憾。祝：合家平安。
妈妈时常交待说：“阿嬷这么老了，有空一定要去探望她。“孙子深望婆婆固然可贵，但女儿们探望妈妈更为重要。婆婆渴望见到的是女儿并非孙子。因为女儿是妈妈身上的一块肉，母女的亲情是与生俱来，怎样甩也甩不掉。希望阿姨们有阅读婆婆的信，然后亲切的向婆婆请安，至少每周日探望她老人家一次。
婆婆看似那么的近，但却离我们越来越远了。也许有一天，婆婆会望着来访的女儿问来者是谁。因为婆婆的记忆已随着时间而逐渐健忘了。行孝不能等，该做就要把握时机，也要把握因缘，因缘消逝才想做就来不及了。人总是想要去行好孝，但都想等到自己有时间，或有空余时才去做，须知人生无常啊！只要有心，哪怕是亲切的一个问候，也要赶快去做，千万不要等到因缘错过留下遗憾。祝：合家平安。
2009年5月12日 星期二
With Love In My Heart
I will greet this day with love in my heart. For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscle can split a shield and even destroy life but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men. I sill make love my greatest weapon and none can defend against its force.
And how will I do this? Henceforth will I look on all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.
And how will I speak? I will laud mine enemies and they will become friends; I will encourage my friends and they will become brothers. Always will I dig for reasons to applaud; never will I scratch for excuses to gossip. When I am tempted to criticize I will bite on my tongue; when I am moved to praise I will shout from the roofs.
Is it not so that birds, the wind, the sea and all nature speak with the music of praise for their creator? Cannot I speak with the same music to his children? Henceforth will I remember this secret and it will change my life.
And how will I act? I will love all manner of men for each has qualities to be admired even though they are hidden. With love I will tear down the wall of suspicion and hate which they have built round their hearts and in its place will I build bridges so that my love may enter their souls.
I will love the ambitious for they can inspire me! I will love the failures for they can teach me. I will love the kings for they are but human; I will love the meek for they are divine. I will love the rich for they are yet lonely.
I will love the poor for they are so many. I will love the young for the faith they hold; I will love the old for the wisdom they share. I will love the beautiful for their eyes of sadness; I will love the ugly for their souls of peace.
But how will I react to the actions of others? With love, for just as love is my weapon to open the hearts of men, and love is also my shield to repulse the arrows of hate and the spears of anger. Adversity and discouragement will beat against my new shield and become as the softest of rains.
And how will I confront each whom I meet? In only one way – In silence and to myself I will address him and say “I Love You”. Though spoken in silence these words will shine in my eyes, unwrinkled my brow, bring a smile to my lips and echo in my voice; and his heart will be opened.
And how will I do this? Henceforth will I look on all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.
And how will I speak? I will laud mine enemies and they will become friends; I will encourage my friends and they will become brothers. Always will I dig for reasons to applaud; never will I scratch for excuses to gossip. When I am tempted to criticize I will bite on my tongue; when I am moved to praise I will shout from the roofs.
Is it not so that birds, the wind, the sea and all nature speak with the music of praise for their creator? Cannot I speak with the same music to his children? Henceforth will I remember this secret and it will change my life.
And how will I act? I will love all manner of men for each has qualities to be admired even though they are hidden. With love I will tear down the wall of suspicion and hate which they have built round their hearts and in its place will I build bridges so that my love may enter their souls.
I will love the ambitious for they can inspire me! I will love the failures for they can teach me. I will love the kings for they are but human; I will love the meek for they are divine. I will love the rich for they are yet lonely.
I will love the poor for they are so many. I will love the young for the faith they hold; I will love the old for the wisdom they share. I will love the beautiful for their eyes of sadness; I will love the ugly for their souls of peace.
But how will I react to the actions of others? With love, for just as love is my weapon to open the hearts of men, and love is also my shield to repulse the arrows of hate and the spears of anger. Adversity and discouragement will beat against my new shield and become as the softest of rains.
And how will I confront each whom I meet? In only one way – In silence and to myself I will address him and say “I Love You”. Though spoken in silence these words will shine in my eyes, unwrinkled my brow, bring a smile to my lips and echo in my voice; and his heart will be opened.
2009年5月11日 星期一
2009年5月10日 星期日
The End Of The Year
Come to the end of the year, it means I am growing old. I was planning to conquer the Mountain Kinabalu summit as many as possible before it conquers me one day.
A great psychologist said that most men are “old fogies at twenty five.”
He was right. Most men at twenty five are satisfied with their jobs. They have accumulated the little stock of prejudices that they call their “principles” and closed their minds to all new ideas; they have ceased to grow.
The minute a man ceases to grow – no matter what his years – that minute he begins to be old.
On the other hand, the really great man never grows old.
Goethe passed away at eighty three and finished his “Faust” only a few years earlier, Gladstone took up a new language when he was seventy.
Laplace, the astronomer, was still at work when death caught up with him at seventy eight. He died crying: “What we know is nothing; what we do not know is immense.”
And there you have the real answer to the question: “When is a man old?”
Laplace at seventy eight died young. He was still unsatisfied, still sure that he had a lot to learn.
A great psychologist said that most men are “old fogies at twenty five.”
He was right. Most men at twenty five are satisfied with their jobs. They have accumulated the little stock of prejudices that they call their “principles” and closed their minds to all new ideas; they have ceased to grow.
The minute a man ceases to grow – no matter what his years – that minute he begins to be old.
On the other hand, the really great man never grows old.
Goethe passed away at eighty three and finished his “Faust” only a few years earlier, Gladstone took up a new language when he was seventy.
Laplace, the astronomer, was still at work when death caught up with him at seventy eight. He died crying: “What we know is nothing; what we do not know is immense.”
And there you have the real answer to the question: “When is a man old?”
Laplace at seventy eight died young. He was still unsatisfied, still sure that he had a lot to learn.
2009年5月9日 星期六
2009年5月8日 星期五
Beauty
And a poet said, speak to us of beauty.
And he answered: Where shall you seek beauty and how shall you find her unless herself be your way and your guide? And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech.
The aggrieved and the injured say, “Beauty is kind and gentle. Like a young mother half – shy of her own glory she walks among us.”
And the passionate say, “Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread. Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us.”
The tired and the weary say, “Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit. Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow.”
But the restless say, “We have heard her shouting among the mountains. And with her cries came the sound of hoofs and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions.”
At night the watchmen of the city say, “Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east.” And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, “We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset.”
In winter say the snow-bound, “She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hill.”
And in the summer heat the reapers say, “We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves and we saw a drift of snow in her hair.”
All these things have you said of beauty. Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied and beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, but rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted. It is not the image you would see or the song you would hear, but rather an image you though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears. It is not the sap within the furrowed bank, nor a wing attached to a claw, but rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.
People of Orphalese, beauty are life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
And he answered: Where shall you seek beauty and how shall you find her unless herself be your way and your guide? And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech.
The aggrieved and the injured say, “Beauty is kind and gentle. Like a young mother half – shy of her own glory she walks among us.”
And the passionate say, “Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread. Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us.”
The tired and the weary say, “Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit. Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow.”
But the restless say, “We have heard her shouting among the mountains. And with her cries came the sound of hoofs and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions.”
At night the watchmen of the city say, “Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east.” And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, “We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset.”
In winter say the snow-bound, “She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hill.”
And in the summer heat the reapers say, “We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves and we saw a drift of snow in her hair.”
All these things have you said of beauty. Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied and beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, but rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted. It is not the image you would see or the song you would hear, but rather an image you though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears. It is not the sap within the furrowed bank, nor a wing attached to a claw, but rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.
People of Orphalese, beauty are life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
2009年5月7日 星期四
2009年5月6日 星期三
Work And Pleasure
To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three bobbies and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend.
It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.
It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.
2009年5月5日 星期二
孙子怎么能不来看婆婆
亲爱的婆婆：
清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有，牧童谣指杏花村。
每当清明节快到时，就会想起杜牧这首诗。清明节也称为孝亲节，让我们在有生之年孝顺感恩年长之辈，不让它在我们生命中出现任何遗憾，所以在时间的许可下，我会常去探望婆婆，要不然就写信问候婆婆。我最记得婆婆曾对我说：“孙子，你怎么能不来看我。”因此我务必好好把握机会常写信给婆婆。
最后我诚心以感恩之心感谢婆婆对我的照顾，没有婆婆的关照，也没今日的我。婆婆在我的心目中无人可取代。婆婆永远是我那位和蔼可亲的至亲。祝：安康
清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有，牧童谣指杏花村。
每当清明节快到时，就会想起杜牧这首诗。清明节也称为孝亲节，让我们在有生之年孝顺感恩年长之辈，不让它在我们生命中出现任何遗憾，所以在时间的许可下，我会常去探望婆婆，要不然就写信问候婆婆。我最记得婆婆曾对我说：“孙子，你怎么能不来看我。”因此我务必好好把握机会常写信给婆婆。
最后我诚心以感恩之心感谢婆婆对我的照顾，没有婆婆的关照，也没今日的我。婆婆在我的心目中无人可取代。婆婆永远是我那位和蔼可亲的至亲。祝：安康
2009年5月4日 星期一
Friendship
Your friend is you needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanks giving. And he is your board and your fireside, for you come to him with your hunger and you seek for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay”; and when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; for without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not, for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit, for love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also, for what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live, for it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay”; and when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; for without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not, for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit, for love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also, for what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live, for it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
2009年5月3日 星期日
2009年5月2日 星期六
Man’s Guide
Man in this moment of his history has emerged in greater supremacy over the forces of nature than has ever been dreamed of before. There lies before him, if he wishes, a golden age of peace and progress. He has only to conquer his last and worst enemy – himself.
The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes, but with this shield, however the Fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.
We shall go forward together. The road upward is long. There are upon our journey dark and dangerous valleys, through which we have to make and fight our way. But it is sure and certain that if we persevere and we shall persevere, we shall come through these dark and dangerous valleys into sunlight broader and more genial and more lasting than mankind has ever know.
The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes, but with this shield, however the Fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.
We shall go forward together. The road upward is long. There are upon our journey dark and dangerous valleys, through which we have to make and fight our way. But it is sure and certain that if we persevere and we shall persevere, we shall come through these dark and dangerous valleys into sunlight broader and more genial and more lasting than mankind has ever know.
2009年5月1日 星期五
姨姨们对婆婆关怀之至
亲爱的婆婆：
在睡梦中被婆婆慈祥的面孔唤醒，思念婆婆的心情让我不觉中落泪。婆婆青春年少时离乡背景到南洋寻找新生活；深切悉知这一离乡后，返回的日子遥遥无期，下跪家婆叩了头便道别潮安离开了汕头。这一幕让我深深的感动，婆婆为了让新生命能够在异乡延续下去，尽一生的忙碌与努力担当整个家庭的生活，其功不可没。如今婆婆已是白发苍苍的九旬老人家了，有安逸幸福的日子过是另人欣慰的乐事。幸好众阿姨们个个都能尽孝心，对婆婆关怀之至，周日不忘去探望您老人家，小姨也常陪伴婆婆逛巴刹。姨姨们深懂得感恩婆婆这些年来对她们的付出。这是我们做晚辈必须学习的风范。最后让我向婆婆请安，表达我深切的问候与关怀。祝婆婆永远健康幸福。
在睡梦中被婆婆慈祥的面孔唤醒，思念婆婆的心情让我不觉中落泪。婆婆青春年少时离乡背景到南洋寻找新生活；深切悉知这一离乡后，返回的日子遥遥无期，下跪家婆叩了头便道别潮安离开了汕头。这一幕让我深深的感动，婆婆为了让新生命能够在异乡延续下去，尽一生的忙碌与努力担当整个家庭的生活，其功不可没。如今婆婆已是白发苍苍的九旬老人家了，有安逸幸福的日子过是另人欣慰的乐事。幸好众阿姨们个个都能尽孝心，对婆婆关怀之至，周日不忘去探望您老人家，小姨也常陪伴婆婆逛巴刹。姨姨们深懂得感恩婆婆这些年来对她们的付出。这是我们做晚辈必须学习的风范。最后让我向婆婆请安，表达我深切的问候与关怀。祝婆婆永远健康幸福。
2009年4月30日 星期四
Life Instructions
Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
Memorize your favorite poem.
Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
When you say, “I love you”, mean it.
When you say, “I’m sorry”, look the person in the eye.
Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
Believe in love at first sight.
Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
Don’t judge people by their relatives.
Talk slowly but think quickly.
When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, “Why do you want to know?”
Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
Call your parents.
Say “bless you” when you hear someone sneeze.
When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
Remember the three R’s: 1. Respect for self; 2. Respect for others; 3. Responsibility for all your actions.
Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
Marry a man / woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
Spend some time alone.
Open hour arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Read more books and watch less TV.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll get to enjoy it a second time.
Trust in God but lock your car.
A loving atmosphere in home is so important. Do all you can to create a tranquil harmonious home?
In disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current situation.
Don’t bring up the past.
Read between the lines.
Pray. There’s immeasurable power in it.
Never interrupt when you are being flattered.
Mind your own business.
Don’t trust a man / women who doesn’t close his / her eyes when you kiss.
Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
If you make a lot of money, put it to use helping others while you are living. That is wealth’s greatest satisfaction.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck.
Remember that the best relationship is one where your love for each other is greater than your need for each other.
Judge your success by what you have done compared to what you could have done, not to what others have done with their abilities.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
Memorize your favorite poem.
Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.
When you say, “I love you”, mean it.
When you say, “I’m sorry”, look the person in the eye.
Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
Believe in love at first sight.
Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
Don’t judge people by their relatives.
Talk slowly but think quickly.
When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, “Why do you want to know?”
Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
Call your parents.
Say “bless you” when you hear someone sneeze.
When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
Remember the three R’s: 1. Respect for self; 2. Respect for others; 3. Responsibility for all your actions.
Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
Marry a man / woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
Spend some time alone.
Open hour arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Read more books and watch less TV.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll get to enjoy it a second time.
Trust in God but lock your car.
A loving atmosphere in home is so important. Do all you can to create a tranquil harmonious home?
In disagreements with loved ones, deal with the current situation.
Don’t bring up the past.
Read between the lines.
Pray. There’s immeasurable power in it.
Never interrupt when you are being flattered.
Mind your own business.
Don’t trust a man / women who doesn’t close his / her eyes when you kiss.
Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
If you make a lot of money, put it to use helping others while you are living. That is wealth’s greatest satisfaction.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a stroke of luck.
Remember that the best relationship is one where your love for each other is greater than your need for each other.
Judge your success by what you have done compared to what you could have done, not to what others have done with their abilities.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
2009年4月29日 星期三
教育下一代，用心做人
亲爱的姨姨：
妈妈时常都在提醒我说: “婆婆已活了这把年纪，你得空的时候千万记得常给她老人家打电话问候。”婆婆听觉不好，不如写信来得好，又有小姨亲口代问候来的亲切。谢谢小姨一路来讨婆婆的细心照顾，也常代我向婆婆问候请安。不因什么，只因您的妈妈就是我的婆婆。
最近爱写信，伊浚成了我电脑的文书助理。过程中也可以教育下一代，让他们了解我们这一代是如何把人做好，用心做人，做好本分的工作，如小姨现在做者是。
生命教育提醒我们活着要感恩，珍惜拥有，而很多时候这简单适时的提醒，真的可以免除一生的遗憾；这简单适时的表达，会让身边的人知道，您是多么的感恩他们对您所做的一切。因为生命有限所以我们更要格外珍惜，因为有缘，所以我们更应该把握。祝福大家身体健康。
妈妈时常都在提醒我说: “婆婆已活了这把年纪，你得空的时候千万记得常给她老人家打电话问候。”婆婆听觉不好，不如写信来得好，又有小姨亲口代问候来的亲切。谢谢小姨一路来讨婆婆的细心照顾，也常代我向婆婆问候请安。不因什么，只因您的妈妈就是我的婆婆。
最近爱写信，伊浚成了我电脑的文书助理。过程中也可以教育下一代，让他们了解我们这一代是如何把人做好，用心做人，做好本分的工作，如小姨现在做者是。
生命教育提醒我们活着要感恩，珍惜拥有，而很多时候这简单适时的提醒，真的可以免除一生的遗憾；这简单适时的表达，会让身边的人知道，您是多么的感恩他们对您所做的一切。因为生命有限所以我们更要格外珍惜，因为有缘，所以我们更应该把握。祝福大家身体健康。
2009年4月28日 星期二
Perseverance
Napoleon declared, “Victory belongs to the most persevering.” Upon careful study we find perseverance depends upon three things – purpose, will and enthusiasm. He who has a purpose is always concentrating his forces. By the will, the hope and the plan are prevented from evaporating into dreams. Enthusiasm keeps the interest up and makes the obstacles seem small.
Life is in a sense a battle. The man who thinks to get on by mere smartness and by idling meets failure at last. Perseverance is the master impulse of the firmest souls and holds the key to those treasure-houses of knowledge from which the world has drawn its wealth both of wisdom and of moral worth.
Great men never wait for opportunities; they make them. They seize upon what ever is at hand, work out their problem and master the situation. The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given to him. This I success and there is no other.
One of the important lessons of life is to learn how to get victory out of defeat. It takes courage and stamina, when mortified by humiliating disaster, to seek in the ruins the elements of future conquest. Yet this measures the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. We cannot measure a man by his failures. We must know what use he makes of them. The man who has not fought his way upward and does not bear the scar of desperate conflict does not know the highest meaning of success.
Life is in a sense a battle. The man who thinks to get on by mere smartness and by idling meets failure at last. Perseverance is the master impulse of the firmest souls and holds the key to those treasure-houses of knowledge from which the world has drawn its wealth both of wisdom and of moral worth.
Great men never wait for opportunities; they make them. They seize upon what ever is at hand, work out their problem and master the situation. The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given to him. This I success and there is no other.
One of the important lessons of life is to learn how to get victory out of defeat. It takes courage and stamina, when mortified by humiliating disaster, to seek in the ruins the elements of future conquest. Yet this measures the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. We cannot measure a man by his failures. We must know what use he makes of them. The man who has not fought his way upward and does not bear the scar of desperate conflict does not know the highest meaning of success.
2009年4月27日 星期一
不为什么，只因为你是我的孩子
亲爱的母亲：
念小学五年级的时候，因您的疏忽，忘了留下巴士费便去上班。当时家境贫穷，翻开整间家也搜不出两毛钱来塔巴士，由于有耻向邻居借钱，只好提早徒步从拉庆老家走到市区宽柔一小；路经义兴路婆婆家，顺道问候婆婆。婆婆见到我汗流浃背问起原因，我说着说着，婆婆眼泪掉了下来，泪中悲欣交集，悲中柔和了婆婆对孙女们纯纯的爱，是如实的爱，就像冰心最著名的那一句“不为什么，只因为你是我的孩子”的爱。婆婆慈祥的面容唤起了我对婆婆的思念。现今婆婆的记忆逐渐淡忘，请切记转告我对婆婆的问候与关怀，以免日后空遗憾。祝：万事顺利。
念小学五年级的时候，因您的疏忽，忘了留下巴士费便去上班。当时家境贫穷，翻开整间家也搜不出两毛钱来塔巴士，由于有耻向邻居借钱，只好提早徒步从拉庆老家走到市区宽柔一小；路经义兴路婆婆家，顺道问候婆婆。婆婆见到我汗流浃背问起原因，我说着说着，婆婆眼泪掉了下来，泪中悲欣交集，悲中柔和了婆婆对孙女们纯纯的爱，是如实的爱，就像冰心最著名的那一句“不为什么，只因为你是我的孩子”的爱。婆婆慈祥的面容唤起了我对婆婆的思念。现今婆婆的记忆逐渐淡忘，请切记转告我对婆婆的问候与关怀，以免日后空遗憾。祝：万事顺利。
2009年4月26日 星期日
“The Present”
Dear Yi Jun,Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them: Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit. And you are keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
How?
Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself to others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.
Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would to your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us each together.
Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.
Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.
Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift; that’s why we call it “The Present”.
2009年4月25日 星期六
2009年4月24日 星期五
If I Rest, I Rust
The significant inscription found on an old key “If I rest, I rust” would be an excellent motto for those who are afflicted with the slightest taint of idleness. Even the industrious might adopt it with advantage to serve as are minder that, if one allows his faculties to rest, like the iron in the unused key, they will soon show signs of rust and ultimately cannot do the work required of them.
Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gates that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, medicine, art, literature, agriculture very department of human endeavor.
Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasure of achievement. If Hugh Miler, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness. Had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep on the hillside, instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.
Labor vanquished all not inconstant, spasmodic or ill directed labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.
Those who would attain the heights reached and kept by great men must keep their faculties polished by constant use, so that they may unlock the doors of knowledge, the gates that guard the entrances to the professions, to science, medicine, art, literature, agriculture very department of human endeavor.
Industry keeps bright the key that opens the treasure of achievement. If Hugh Miler, after toiling all day in a quarry, had devoted his evenings to rest and recreation, he would never have become a famous geologist. The celebrated mathematician, Edmund Stone, would never have published a mathematical dictionary, never have found the key to science of mathematics, if he had given his spare moments to idleness. Had the little Scotch lad, Ferguson, allowed the busy brain to go to sleep on the hillside, instead of calculating the position of the stars by a string of beads, he would never have become a famous astronomer.
Labor vanquished all not inconstant, spasmodic or ill directed labor, but faithful, unremitting, daily effort toward a well directed purpose. Just as truly as eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, so is eternal industry the price of noble and enduring success.
2009年4月23日 星期四
2009年4月22日 星期三
The Value Of Time
“Time is money, youth is capital”, says the proverb. This means that every moment well spent may put some money into our pockets. If our time is usefully employed, it will either turn out some useful and important piece of work which will fetch its price in the market, or it will add to our experience and increase our capacities so as to enable us to earn money when the proper opportunity comes. Let those who think nothing of wasting time remember this.
Our life is nothing more than our time. To kill time is therefore a form of suicide. We are shocked when we think of death and we spare no pains, no trouble, and no expense to preserve life. But we are too often indifferent to the loss of an hour or of a day, forgetting that our life is the sum total of the days and of the hours we live. A day or an hour wasted is therefore so much life forfeited. Our life is a brief span measuring some seventy or eighty years in all. But nearly one third of this has to be spent in sleep; some years have to be spent over our meals; some in making journeys on land and voyages by sea; some in merry making; some in watching over the sick-beds of our nearest and dearest relatives. Now if all these years were to be deducted from the term over which our life extends, we shall find about twenty or thirty years at our disposal for active work. Whoever remembers this can never willingly waste a single moment of his life.
All time is precious, but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any other portion of our existence. For those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our capacities. If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. Just as money lain out at interest doubles and trebles itself in time, so the precious hours of childhood any youth, if properly used, will yield us incalculable advantage.
Our life is nothing more than our time. To kill time is therefore a form of suicide. We are shocked when we think of death and we spare no pains, no trouble, and no expense to preserve life. But we are too often indifferent to the loss of an hour or of a day, forgetting that our life is the sum total of the days and of the hours we live. A day or an hour wasted is therefore so much life forfeited. Our life is a brief span measuring some seventy or eighty years in all. But nearly one third of this has to be spent in sleep; some years have to be spent over our meals; some in making journeys on land and voyages by sea; some in merry making; some in watching over the sick-beds of our nearest and dearest relatives. Now if all these years were to be deducted from the term over which our life extends, we shall find about twenty or thirty years at our disposal for active work. Whoever remembers this can never willingly waste a single moment of his life.
All time is precious, but the time of our childhood and of our youth is more precious than any other portion of our existence. For those are the periods when alone we can acquire knowledge and develop our capacities. If we allow these morning hours of life to slip away, we shall never be able to recoup the loss. Just as money lain out at interest doubles and trebles itself in time, so the precious hours of childhood any youth, if properly used, will yield us incalculable advantage.
2009年4月21日 星期二
家有一老，如有一宝
亲爱的母亲：
新年佳节期间，很高兴有缘向婆婆及阿姨们拜年。婆婆身体虽然老了，但是讲起往日孙子们的故事时都充满朝气和活力。当晚她老人家向我谈起阿亮的故事，阿辉的故事，雪梨的故事，锦连的故事及……。虽然个个故事千篇一律，重复了又在重复；我还是很有耐心的听完每一个故事的情节。个个故事让我感受到婆婆对生命充满了无限的热诚，希望与喜悦。论年龄；婆婆已近古稀之年，但是当我听她说起威风神勇的往事，仿佛回到了当年的时候。婆婆虽近在眉睫，但感觉上切离我们越来越远了。我们要好好的去珍惜。
家有一老，如有一宝；婆婆是值得我们去关心，体贴和问候。毕竟终有一天，我们每个人都会老去，当手执拐杖，白发苍苍的时候，回顾自己的一生，若能有婆婆般的贤慧与尊严，也才不狂此生。最后让我们大家一起来为婆婆祝福。希望她老人家永远健康，幸福与快乐
新年佳节期间，很高兴有缘向婆婆及阿姨们拜年。婆婆身体虽然老了，但是讲起往日孙子们的故事时都充满朝气和活力。当晚她老人家向我谈起阿亮的故事，阿辉的故事，雪梨的故事，锦连的故事及……。虽然个个故事千篇一律，重复了又在重复；我还是很有耐心的听完每一个故事的情节。个个故事让我感受到婆婆对生命充满了无限的热诚，希望与喜悦。论年龄；婆婆已近古稀之年，但是当我听她说起威风神勇的往事，仿佛回到了当年的时候。婆婆虽近在眉睫，但感觉上切离我们越来越远了。我们要好好的去珍惜。
家有一老，如有一宝；婆婆是值得我们去关心，体贴和问候。毕竟终有一天，我们每个人都会老去，当手执拐杖，白发苍苍的时候，回顾自己的一生，若能有婆婆般的贤慧与尊严，也才不狂此生。最后让我们大家一起来为婆婆祝福。希望她老人家永远健康，幸福与快乐
2009年4月20日 星期一
Success
There are no secrets of success. Success is doing the things you know you should do. Success is not doing the things you know you should not do.
Success in not limited to any one area of your life. It encompasses all of the facets of your relationships: as parent, as wife or husband, as citizen, neighbor, worker and all of the others.
Success is not confined to any one part of your personality but is related to the development of all the parts: body, mind, heart and spirit. It is making the most of your total self.
Success is discovering your best talents, skills and abilities and applying them where they will make the most effective contribution to your fellow men.
Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.
Success is 99% mental attitude. It calls for love, joy, optimism, confidence, serenity, poise, faith, courage, cheerfulness, imagination, initiative, tolerance, honesty, humility, patience and enthusiasm.
Success is not arriving at the summit of a mountain as a final destination. It is a continuing upward spiral of progress. It is a perpetual growth.
Success is having the courage to meet failure without being defeated. It is refusing to let present loss interfere with your long rang goal.
Success is accepting the challenge of the difficult. In the inspiring words of Phillips Brooks, “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.”
Success in not limited to any one area of your life. It encompasses all of the facets of your relationships: as parent, as wife or husband, as citizen, neighbor, worker and all of the others.
Success is not confined to any one part of your personality but is related to the development of all the parts: body, mind, heart and spirit. It is making the most of your total self.
Success is discovering your best talents, skills and abilities and applying them where they will make the most effective contribution to your fellow men.
Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.
Success is 99% mental attitude. It calls for love, joy, optimism, confidence, serenity, poise, faith, courage, cheerfulness, imagination, initiative, tolerance, honesty, humility, patience and enthusiasm.
Success is not arriving at the summit of a mountain as a final destination. It is a continuing upward spiral of progress. It is a perpetual growth.
Success is having the courage to meet failure without being defeated. It is refusing to let present loss interfere with your long rang goal.
Success is accepting the challenge of the difficult. In the inspiring words of Phillips Brooks, “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.”
2009年4月19日 星期日
2009年4月18日 星期六
On Motes And Beams
It is curious that our own offenses should seem so much less heinous than the offenses of others. I suppose the reason is that we know all the circumstances that have occasioned them and so manage to excuse in ourselves what we cannot excuse in others. We turn our attention away from our own defects and when we are forced by untoward events to consider them, find it easy to condone them. For all I know we are right to do this; they are part of us and we must accept the good and bad in ourselves together.
But when we come to judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world. To take a trivial instance: how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie; but who can say that he has never told even one, but a hundred?
There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have more strength of character or more opportunity and so in one direction or anther give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same. For my part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action I my life and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows, even the most eminent and respectable, with humor and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.
But when we come to judge others, it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world. To take a trivial instance: how scornful we are when we catch someone out telling a lie; but who can say that he has never told even one, but a hundred?
There is not much to choose between men. They are all a hotchpotch of greatness and littleness, of virtue and vice, of nobility and baseness. Some have more strength of character or more opportunity and so in one direction or anther give their instincts freer play, but potentially they are the same. For my part, I do not think I am any better or any worse than most people, but I know that if I set down every action I my life and every thought that has crossed my mind, the world would consider me a monster of depravity. The knowledge that these reveries are common to all men should inspire one with tolerance to oneself as well as to others. It is well also if they enable us to look upon our fellows, even the most eminent and respectable, with humor and if they lead us to take ourselves not too seriously.
2009年4月17日 星期五
2009年4月16日 星期四
Successful Living
The first requirement of effective living is that we should have some sort of aim. Generally speaking, the difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful one is that the former knows what he wants and bends every effort towards securing that end, while the latter has only a vague idea of what it is he is trying to do with his life.
Such a person may have day dreams in plenty, may wish vaguely to be and do this, that, and the other; but that is a vastly different thing from having a definite objective in living – an all constraining aim towards which all interest and effort are directed.
Ask half a dozen people what their aim in life is. You will be amazed to discover how greatly most of them will be taken by surprise at the question and how they will have considerable difficulty in answering it with any certainty. More important is ask yourself with the same question.
What is your own dominant air? What do you want to do and to be? Unless you can answer this question at once in a few crisp sentences, you have not really started on the path of successful living.
The aim need not b anything very startling like making a fortune, or establishing a nationwide chain of business, or writing a best seller. It may be to widen your general culture by ordered and regular reading. It may be to become as efficient as you possibly can be in your own job, even though that job is a limited one. It may be to engage in some sort of voluntary social service. It may be to lay in your own home the basis of a truly happy family.
Any one of these aims could become an engrossing and satisfying pursuit, greatly enriching your own life and that of the community in which you live.
The human spirit is capable of almost inconceivable triumphs. We shall save ourselves some unnecessary frustration and heart break, however, if we choose an aim which is reasonably within the scope of the powers with which we have been endowed.
Once the aim is fixed, we must be willing to under go the necessary discipline and to attain the necessary knowledge and competency to fulfill it.
Somebody once said, “Genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.” Many people fail to achieve their object because, while enamoured of the aim, they are less enamoured of the effort required in its fulfillment. They think how lovely it would be to play like Paderewski, but they are not willing to practice long hours daily as he did. They dream of writing a best seller, or of having their name in lights, but imagine that such things can be achieved simply by thinking about them!
Whatever our aim, we need an insatiable thirst for knowledge about it. On the tombstone of a famous scholar are the words, “He died learning.” Learned as he was, he never imagined that he knew everything that was to be known.
But mere theoretical knowledge is not enough. The runner needs to know all about the science of starting, about poise, about breathing. But he learns to run by running. So, too, the artist will learn about perspective, anatomy, color blending and much besides, but he perfects his art by painting!
No aim can be achieved without determination. The difficulties that can be overcome, the problems that can be solved and the success that can be achieved by the exercise of the will, are simply astonishing. Here lies one of the truly dynamic powers of the human spirit.
But coupled with the will there must be an emotional drive of imagination, too. The interest and enthusiasm with which we give ourselves to the task in hand determine to a large extent the measure of success we shall achieve. We do best those things which we love doing.
Such a person may have day dreams in plenty, may wish vaguely to be and do this, that, and the other; but that is a vastly different thing from having a definite objective in living – an all constraining aim towards which all interest and effort are directed.
Ask half a dozen people what their aim in life is. You will be amazed to discover how greatly most of them will be taken by surprise at the question and how they will have considerable difficulty in answering it with any certainty. More important is ask yourself with the same question.
What is your own dominant air? What do you want to do and to be? Unless you can answer this question at once in a few crisp sentences, you have not really started on the path of successful living.
The aim need not b anything very startling like making a fortune, or establishing a nationwide chain of business, or writing a best seller. It may be to widen your general culture by ordered and regular reading. It may be to become as efficient as you possibly can be in your own job, even though that job is a limited one. It may be to engage in some sort of voluntary social service. It may be to lay in your own home the basis of a truly happy family.
Any one of these aims could become an engrossing and satisfying pursuit, greatly enriching your own life and that of the community in which you live.
The human spirit is capable of almost inconceivable triumphs. We shall save ourselves some unnecessary frustration and heart break, however, if we choose an aim which is reasonably within the scope of the powers with which we have been endowed.
Once the aim is fixed, we must be willing to under go the necessary discipline and to attain the necessary knowledge and competency to fulfill it.
Somebody once said, “Genius is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.” Many people fail to achieve their object because, while enamoured of the aim, they are less enamoured of the effort required in its fulfillment. They think how lovely it would be to play like Paderewski, but they are not willing to practice long hours daily as he did. They dream of writing a best seller, or of having their name in lights, but imagine that such things can be achieved simply by thinking about them!
Whatever our aim, we need an insatiable thirst for knowledge about it. On the tombstone of a famous scholar are the words, “He died learning.” Learned as he was, he never imagined that he knew everything that was to be known.
But mere theoretical knowledge is not enough. The runner needs to know all about the science of starting, about poise, about breathing. But he learns to run by running. So, too, the artist will learn about perspective, anatomy, color blending and much besides, but he perfects his art by painting!
No aim can be achieved without determination. The difficulties that can be overcome, the problems that can be solved and the success that can be achieved by the exercise of the will, are simply astonishing. Here lies one of the truly dynamic powers of the human spirit.
But coupled with the will there must be an emotional drive of imagination, too. The interest and enthusiasm with which we give ourselves to the task in hand determine to a large extent the measure of success we shall achieve. We do best those things which we love doing.
2009年4月15日 星期三
2009年4月14日 星期二
Your Success Is Your Choice
Dear Yi Jun,
All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up everyday. If we expect that life won’t be perfect, we’ll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.
Whether it’s a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones or some other traumatic event in your life, these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.
Adversity happens to all of us and it happens all the time. Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it’s lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self-delusion.
But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crashed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Abraham Lincoln overcomes a difficult childhood, depression, the death of two sons and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.
There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances and were able to move ahead.
All of us ought to be able to brace ourselves for the predictable challenges and setbacks that crop up everyday. If we expect that life won’t be perfect, we’ll be able to avoid that impulse to quit. But even if you are strong enough to persist the obstacle course of life and work, sometimes you will encounter an adverse event that will completely knock you on your back.
Whether it’s a financial loss, the loss of respect of your peers or loved ones or some other traumatic event in your life, these major setbacks leave you doubting yourself and wondering if things can ever change for the better again.
Adversity happens to all of us and it happens all the time. Some form of major adversity is either going to be there or it’s lying in wait just around the corner. To ignore adversity is to succumb to the ultimate self-delusion.
But you must recognize that history is full of examples of men and women who achieved greatness despite facing hurdles so steep that easily could have crashed their spirit and left them lying in the dust. Abraham Lincoln overcomes a difficult childhood, depression, the death of two sons and constant ridicule during the Civil War to become arguably greatest president ever. Helen Keller made an impact on the world despite being deaf, dumb and blind from an early age. Franklin Roosevelt had polio.
There are endless examples. These were people who not only looked adversity in the face but learned valuable lessons about overcoming difficult circumstances and were able to move ahead.
訂閱：
文章 (Atom)
.jpg)
.jpg)
