Xcellerate (accelerate) your efforts.
(Be prepare before you attend your examination. Study not gambling, no gain without pain.)
2009年9月26日 星期六
2009年9月25日 星期五
Y for You -- Y
You are unique. Nothing can replace YOU.
(In all time before now and in all time to come, there has never been and will never be anyone just like you. You are unique in the entire history and future of the universe. Wow! Stop and think about that. You’re better than one in a million, or a billion or a gazillion …)
(In all time before now and in all time to come, there has never been and will never be anyone just like you. You are unique in the entire history and future of the universe. Wow! Stop and think about that. You’re better than one in a million, or a billion or a gazillion …)
2009年9月24日 星期四
2009年9月17日 星期四
Are You Selfish?
Dear Yi Jun,
Hurt feelings between people can be very upsetting. How should you respond when you are being “put down” or insulted by someone else?
Suppose somebody say, “ChrisLee, you have golden hair.” Would that make you feel bad?
You’ll probably reply, “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I know I don’t have golden hair.”
So what they say to you needn’t affect how you feel. What you believe about yourself is more important.
Add, what if they say, “ChrisLee, you are selfish?” That statement can only hurt you if you have doubts about whether you really are selfish. If you are clear that you are a warm, generous person, then you won’t be hurt because you know what they said isn’t true.
Anytime you feel upset about what someone says about you, or something you do, it’s because at some level you doubt yourself in that area.
If someone says, in effect, “You have golden hair” and you know you don’t, there’s no problem.”
If there’s some truth in what the person says, view it as feedback or information you can use for self-improvement.
Hurt feelings between people can be very upsetting. How should you respond when you are being “put down” or insulted by someone else?
Suppose somebody say, “ChrisLee, you have golden hair.” Would that make you feel bad?
You’ll probably reply, “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I know I don’t have golden hair.”
So what they say to you needn’t affect how you feel. What you believe about yourself is more important.
Add, what if they say, “ChrisLee, you are selfish?” That statement can only hurt you if you have doubts about whether you really are selfish. If you are clear that you are a warm, generous person, then you won’t be hurt because you know what they said isn’t true.
Anytime you feel upset about what someone says about you, or something you do, it’s because at some level you doubt yourself in that area.
If someone says, in effect, “You have golden hair” and you know you don’t, there’s no problem.”
If there’s some truth in what the person says, view it as feedback or information you can use for self-improvement.
2009年9月13日 星期日
What I've Learned
I have learned that the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.
I have learned that being kind is more important than being right.
I have learned that no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.
I have learned that that money doesn’t buy class. (Wear smart to build up our image)
I have learned that it’s those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I have learned that under everyone’s hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I have learned that sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I have learned that the Lord didn’t do it all in one day. What makes me think I can?
I have learned that when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you. (Kind to everyone)
I have learned that the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I have learned that life is tough, but I’m tougher. (The way to grow as a man)
I have learned that love, not time, heals all wounds.
I have learned that everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.
I have learned that I can always pray for someone when I don’t have the strength to help him in some other way.
I have learned that no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I have learned that opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.
I have learned that when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere. (Don’t worry, always be happy)
I have learned that one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I have learned that a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. (To make us look smarter)
I have learned that I can’t choose how I feel, but I can choose what I do about it.
I have learned that everyone wants to stand on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.
I have learned that it is best to give advice in only two circumstances: when it is requested and when it is a life – threatening situation.
I have learned that the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done. (Don’t delay our work, study or examintion)
I have learned that being kind is more important than being right.
I have learned that no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.
I have learned that that money doesn’t buy class. (Wear smart to build up our image)
I have learned that it’s those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I have learned that under everyone’s hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I have learned that sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I have learned that the Lord didn’t do it all in one day. What makes me think I can?
I have learned that when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you. (Kind to everyone)
I have learned that the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I have learned that life is tough, but I’m tougher. (The way to grow as a man)
I have learned that love, not time, heals all wounds.
I have learned that everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.
I have learned that I can always pray for someone when I don’t have the strength to help him in some other way.
I have learned that no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I have learned that opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.
I have learned that when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere. (Don’t worry, always be happy)
I have learned that one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I have learned that a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks. (To make us look smarter)
I have learned that I can’t choose how I feel, but I can choose what I do about it.
I have learned that everyone wants to stand on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.
I have learned that it is best to give advice in only two circumstances: when it is requested and when it is a life – threatening situation.
I have learned that the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done. (Don’t delay our work, study or examintion)
2009年9月10日 星期四
You're Unique In Your Life
Dear Yi Jun,
Consider … YOU. In all time before now and in all time to come, there has never been and will never be anyone just like you. You are unique in the entire history and future of the universe. Wow! Stop and think about that. You’re better than one in a million, or a billion or a gazillion …
You are the only one like you in a sea of infinity!
You‘re amazing! You’re awesome! And by the way, TAG, you’re it. As amazing and awesome as you already are, you can be even more so. Beautiful young people are the whimsy of nature, but beautiful old people are true works of art. But you don’t become “beautiful” just by virtue of the aging process.
Real beauty comes from learning, growing and loving in the ways of life. That is the art of life. You can learn slowly and sometimes painfully, by just waiting for life to happen to you. Or you can choose to accelerate your growth and intentionally devour life and all it offers. You are the artist that paints your future with the brush of today.
Paint a masterpiece.
God gives every bird its food, but he doesn’t throw it into its nest. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, it’s truly up to you. However, what your decision, I will give my fully support. Take care yourself.
Consider … YOU. In all time before now and in all time to come, there has never been and will never be anyone just like you. You are unique in the entire history and future of the universe. Wow! Stop and think about that. You’re better than one in a million, or a billion or a gazillion …
You are the only one like you in a sea of infinity!
You‘re amazing! You’re awesome! And by the way, TAG, you’re it. As amazing and awesome as you already are, you can be even more so. Beautiful young people are the whimsy of nature, but beautiful old people are true works of art. But you don’t become “beautiful” just by virtue of the aging process.
Real beauty comes from learning, growing and loving in the ways of life. That is the art of life. You can learn slowly and sometimes painfully, by just waiting for life to happen to you. Or you can choose to accelerate your growth and intentionally devour life and all it offers. You are the artist that paints your future with the brush of today.
Paint a masterpiece.
God gives every bird its food, but he doesn’t throw it into its nest. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, it’s truly up to you. However, what your decision, I will give my fully support. Take care yourself.
2009年9月6日 星期日
Let Your Heart To Guide You
Dear Yi Jun,
There comes a time when you must stand alone at Mosscow. You must feel confident enough within yourself to follow your own dreams. You must be willing to make sacrifices.
You must be capable of changing and rearranging your priorities, so that your final goal can be achieved.
Sometimes, familiarity and comfort need to be challenged. There are times when you must take a few extra chances and create your own realities.
Be strong enough to at least try to make your life better.
Be confident enough to settle your Latin and Anatomy examination. That is worth to spend 1.5 hours to take the dorpusk with Professor Shermakov.
Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop and find your true sense of purpose in this life.
Don’t stand in someone else’s shadow when it’s your sunlight that should lead the way.
Work hard at what you like to do and try to overcome all obstacles.
Laugh at your mistakes and praise yourself for learning from them.
Pick some flowers and appreciate the beauty of nature.
Say hello to strangers and enjoy the people you know.
Don’t be afraid to show your emotions, laughing and crying make you feel better.
Love your friends and family with your entire being they are the most important part of your life.
Feel the calmness on a quiet sunny day.
Find a rainbow and live your world of dreams, always remember life is better than it seems.
Hope you and your friend always live happily at RSMU.
There comes a time when you must stand alone at Mosscow. You must feel confident enough within yourself to follow your own dreams. You must be willing to make sacrifices.
You must be capable of changing and rearranging your priorities, so that your final goal can be achieved.
Sometimes, familiarity and comfort need to be challenged. There are times when you must take a few extra chances and create your own realities.
Be strong enough to at least try to make your life better.
Be confident enough to settle your Latin and Anatomy examination. That is worth to spend 1.5 hours to take the dorpusk with Professor Shermakov.
Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop and find your true sense of purpose in this life.
Don’t stand in someone else’s shadow when it’s your sunlight that should lead the way.
Work hard at what you like to do and try to overcome all obstacles.
Laugh at your mistakes and praise yourself for learning from them.
Pick some flowers and appreciate the beauty of nature.
Say hello to strangers and enjoy the people you know.
Don’t be afraid to show your emotions, laughing and crying make you feel better.
Love your friends and family with your entire being they are the most important part of your life.
Feel the calmness on a quiet sunny day.
Find a rainbow and live your world of dreams, always remember life is better than it seems.
Hope you and your friend always live happily at RSMU.
2009年8月30日 星期日
Face Your Problem
Dear Yi Jun,
What is the secret ingredient of tough people that enables them to succeed? Why do they survive the tough times when others are overcome by them? Why do they win when other lose? Why do they pass the examination when others fail?
The answer is very simple. It’s all in how they perceive their problems. Yes, every living person has problems. A problem – free life is an illusion – a mirage in the desert. Accept that fact.
Every mountain has a peak. Every valley has its low point. Life has its ups and downs, its peaks and its valleys. No one is up all the time, nor are they down all the time. Problems do end. They are all resolved in time.
You may not be able to control the times, but you can compose your responses. You may not have chosen your tough time, but you can choose how you will react to it. For instance, what is the positive reaction to settle your Latin examination? In this situation would it be the positive reaction to cop out and run away? Blame to others because didn’t help you? No! Such negative reactions only produce other problems. The positive solution to a problem may require courage to face your lecturer and settled all your academic debts by our own before you settle your visa issues.
When you control your reaction to the seemingly uncontrollable problem of life, then in fact you do control the problem’s effect on you. Your reaction to the problem is the last word! That’s the bottom line. What will you let this problem do to you? It can make you tender or tough. It can make you better or bitter. It all depends on you.
In the final analysis, the tough people who survive the tough times do so because they’ve chosen to react positively to their predicament. Tough times never last, but tough people do. Tough people stick it out. History teaches us that every problem has a lifespan. No problem is permanent. Please take care yourself.
What is the secret ingredient of tough people that enables them to succeed? Why do they survive the tough times when others are overcome by them? Why do they win when other lose? Why do they pass the examination when others fail?
The answer is very simple. It’s all in how they perceive their problems. Yes, every living person has problems. A problem – free life is an illusion – a mirage in the desert. Accept that fact.
Every mountain has a peak. Every valley has its low point. Life has its ups and downs, its peaks and its valleys. No one is up all the time, nor are they down all the time. Problems do end. They are all resolved in time.
You may not be able to control the times, but you can compose your responses. You may not have chosen your tough time, but you can choose how you will react to it. For instance, what is the positive reaction to settle your Latin examination? In this situation would it be the positive reaction to cop out and run away? Blame to others because didn’t help you? No! Such negative reactions only produce other problems. The positive solution to a problem may require courage to face your lecturer and settled all your academic debts by our own before you settle your visa issues.
When you control your reaction to the seemingly uncontrollable problem of life, then in fact you do control the problem’s effect on you. Your reaction to the problem is the last word! That’s the bottom line. What will you let this problem do to you? It can make you tender or tough. It can make you better or bitter. It all depends on you.
In the final analysis, the tough people who survive the tough times do so because they’ve chosen to react positively to their predicament. Tough times never last, but tough people do. Tough people stick it out. History teaches us that every problem has a lifespan. No problem is permanent. Please take care yourself.
2009年6月24日 星期三
The Benefits Of Work
Remember, my son, you have to work. Whether you handle a pick or a pen, a wheel-barrow or a set of books, digging ditches or editing a paper, ringing an auction bell or writing funny things, you must work. If you look around you will see the men who are the most able to live the rest of their days without work are the men who work the hardest. Don’t be afraid with overwork. It is beyond your power to do that on the sunny side of thirty. They die sometimes, but it is because they quit work at six in the evening, and do not go home until two in the morning. It’s the interval that kills, my son. The work gives you an appetite for your meals; it lends solidity to your slumbers; it gives you a perfect and grateful appreciation of a holidays.
There are young men who do not work, but the world is not proud of them. It does not know their names; even it simply speaks of them as “old so – and – so’s boy”. Nobody likes them; the great, busy world doesn’t know that they are there. So find out what you want to be and do, and take off your coat and make a dust in the world. The busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays, and the better satisfied will the world be with you.
There are young men who do not work, but the world is not proud of them. It does not know their names; even it simply speaks of them as “old so – and – so’s boy”. Nobody likes them; the great, busy world doesn’t know that they are there. So find out what you want to be and do, and take off your coat and make a dust in the world. The busier you are, the less harm you will be apt to get into, the sweeter will be your sleep, the brighter and happier your holidays, and the better satisfied will the world be with you.
2009年6月23日 星期二
年迈的父母
亲爱的姨姨：
面对自己的年迈父母，谁不想好好侍候他们度过晚年？但有时需要很大的耐心。亲友探访和关心不过是一两个小时的事，但侍候在侧，却是天天日以继夜的工作。所以我敬佩小姨天天在旁侍候婆婆。这差事不轻松。其实，很多老人都不想麻烦別人。如果自己可以做的事，他们并不想假手于人。老人最怕的就是被当成没有用的人或不被尊重啊！所以，当婆婆因无法完成某些事，我们千万不要対她露出不耐烦的表情。这是一记很重的心理伤害！希望大家都肯用多一点耐心对待家里的老人。
当我们年幼时，父母亲牵着我们的手慢慢走。如今，已经茁壯的自己，该是静下心来，静静地伴他们的时刻。和老人家相处时，记得放慢自己的步调，陪伴老人慢慢走。因为，我们面对的，莫非是未耒的自己。如果可以选择，老人都不愿意麻烦我们。祝幸福快乐。
面对自己的年迈父母，谁不想好好侍候他们度过晚年？但有时需要很大的耐心。亲友探访和关心不过是一两个小时的事，但侍候在侧，却是天天日以继夜的工作。所以我敬佩小姨天天在旁侍候婆婆。这差事不轻松。其实，很多老人都不想麻烦別人。如果自己可以做的事，他们并不想假手于人。老人最怕的就是被当成没有用的人或不被尊重啊！所以，当婆婆因无法完成某些事，我们千万不要対她露出不耐烦的表情。这是一记很重的心理伤害！希望大家都肯用多一点耐心对待家里的老人。
当我们年幼时，父母亲牵着我们的手慢慢走。如今，已经茁壯的自己，该是静下心来，静静地伴他们的时刻。和老人家相处时，记得放慢自己的步调，陪伴老人慢慢走。因为，我们面对的，莫非是未耒的自己。如果可以选择，老人都不愿意麻烦我们。祝幸福快乐。
2009年6月22日 星期一
Feather In The Wind
A certain good woman one day said something that hurt her best friend of many years. She regretted immediately and would have done anything to have taken the words back. What she said hurt the friend so much that this good woman was herself hurt for the pain she caused. In an effort to undo what she had done, she went to an older, wiser woman in the village, explained her situation and asked for advice.
Listening to her, the older woman sensed the younger woman’s distress and knew she must help her. She also knew she could never alleviate her pain, but she could teach. She knew the outcome would depend solely on the character of the younger woman. She said, “Tonight, take your best feather pillows and put a single feather on the doorstep of each house in town before the sun rises.”
The young woman hurried home to prepare for her chore, even though the feather pillows were very dear to her. All night long, she labored alone in the cold. Finally the sky was getting light and she placed the last feather on the steps of the last house. Just as the sun rose, she returned to the older woman.
“Now,” said the wise woman, “Go back and refill your pillows with the feather you have put on the steps. Then everything will be as it was before.”
“You know that’s impossible! The wind blew away each feather as fast as I placed them on the doorsteps!” The young woman was surprised.
“That’s true,” said the older woman, “Never forget. Each of your words is like a feather in the wind. Once spoken, no amount of effort, regardless how heartfelt or sincere, can never return them to your mouth. Choose your words well and guard them most of all in the presence of those you love.”
Listening to her, the older woman sensed the younger woman’s distress and knew she must help her. She also knew she could never alleviate her pain, but she could teach. She knew the outcome would depend solely on the character of the younger woman. She said, “Tonight, take your best feather pillows and put a single feather on the doorstep of each house in town before the sun rises.”
The young woman hurried home to prepare for her chore, even though the feather pillows were very dear to her. All night long, she labored alone in the cold. Finally the sky was getting light and she placed the last feather on the steps of the last house. Just as the sun rose, she returned to the older woman.
“Now,” said the wise woman, “Go back and refill your pillows with the feather you have put on the steps. Then everything will be as it was before.”
“You know that’s impossible! The wind blew away each feather as fast as I placed them on the doorsteps!” The young woman was surprised.
“That’s true,” said the older woman, “Never forget. Each of your words is like a feather in the wind. Once spoken, no amount of effort, regardless how heartfelt or sincere, can never return them to your mouth. Choose your words well and guard them most of all in the presence of those you love.”
2009年6月21日 星期日
记父亲节
父亲的心声最难捉摸，
父亲的委屈最难被看到，
父亲的温柔容易被忽略，
疼爱妈妈之余，勿忘了爸爸的好！
父亲是一位性格如山的男人，他刚毅，坚强，沉稳，执著，从不屈服外力和困难，在我的记忆中，父亲仅仅流了一次泪。父亲的泪是因其一兒子被母亲的疏忽而溺敝。当晚邻居集聚在我家，那时的我仅五岁，自然不懂得生离死别的滋味。隔天早上，父亲坐在地上背靠牆无言以対，伤心的流泪。男人因为有眼泪可以沉淀情感，滋补心灵，所以更显丰满厚实。我为有我这样的父亲而自豪，因为他教会了我该如何做一个男人，他的眼泪滋润了我的一生！同时也教会我看透人生，没有一件东西可以永远与我们为伴，再亲爱的人，再多的财物，也终有离别聚散的时候，所以又有什么东西捨不得的呢?
父亲的委屈最难被看到，
父亲的温柔容易被忽略，
疼爱妈妈之余，勿忘了爸爸的好！
父亲是一位性格如山的男人，他刚毅，坚强，沉稳，执著，从不屈服外力和困难，在我的记忆中，父亲仅仅流了一次泪。父亲的泪是因其一兒子被母亲的疏忽而溺敝。当晚邻居集聚在我家，那时的我仅五岁，自然不懂得生离死别的滋味。隔天早上，父亲坐在地上背靠牆无言以対，伤心的流泪。男人因为有眼泪可以沉淀情感，滋补心灵，所以更显丰满厚实。我为有我这样的父亲而自豪，因为他教会了我该如何做一个男人，他的眼泪滋润了我的一生！同时也教会我看透人生，没有一件东西可以永远与我们为伴，再亲爱的人，再多的财物，也终有离别聚散的时候，所以又有什么东西捨不得的呢?
2009年6月19日 星期五
We Are Happiest In Our Life
A man and his girlfriend were married. It was a large celebration. All of their friends and family came to see the lovely ceremony and to partake of the festivities and celebrations. All had wonderful time.
The bride was gorgeous in her white wedding gown and the groom was very dashing in his black tuxedo. Everyone could tell that the love they had for each other was true.
A few months later, the wife came to the husband with a proposal, “I read in a magazine, a while ago, about how we can strengthen our marriage,” she offered, “Each of us will write a list of the things that we find a bit annoying with the other person. Then, we can talk about how we can fix them together and make our lives happier together.”
The husband agreed. So each of them went to a separate room in the house and thought of the things that annoyed them about the other. They thought abut this question for the rest of the day and wrote down what they came up with.
The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would go over their lists.
“I’ll start.” offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many items on it. Enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were starting to appear in her husband’s eyes.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Nothing,” the husband replied, “keep reading your list.”
The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands over the top of it.
“Now, you read your list and then we’ll talk about the things on both of our lists.” She said happily.
Quietly the husband stated, “I don’t have anything on my list. I think that you are perfect the way that you are. I don’t want you to change anything for me. You are lovely and wonderful and I wouldn’t want to try and change anything about you.”
The wife, touched by his honesty and the depth of his love for her and his acceptance of her, turned her head and wept.
In life, there is enough time when we are disappointed, depressed and annoyed. We don’t really have to go looking for them. We have a wonderful world that is full of beauty, light and promise. Why waste time in this world looking for the bad, disappointing or annoying when we can look around us and see the wondrous things before us?
The bride was gorgeous in her white wedding gown and the groom was very dashing in his black tuxedo. Everyone could tell that the love they had for each other was true.
A few months later, the wife came to the husband with a proposal, “I read in a magazine, a while ago, about how we can strengthen our marriage,” she offered, “Each of us will write a list of the things that we find a bit annoying with the other person. Then, we can talk about how we can fix them together and make our lives happier together.”
The husband agreed. So each of them went to a separate room in the house and thought of the things that annoyed them about the other. They thought abut this question for the rest of the day and wrote down what they came up with.
The next morning, at the breakfast table, they decided that they would go over their lists.
“I’ll start.” offered the wife. She took out her list. It had many items on it. Enough to fill 3 pages, in fact. As she started reading the list of the little annoyances, she noticed that tears were starting to appear in her husband’s eyes.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Nothing,” the husband replied, “keep reading your list.”
The wife continued to read until she had read all three pages to her husband. She neatly placed her list on the table and folded her hands over the top of it.
“Now, you read your list and then we’ll talk about the things on both of our lists.” She said happily.
Quietly the husband stated, “I don’t have anything on my list. I think that you are perfect the way that you are. I don’t want you to change anything for me. You are lovely and wonderful and I wouldn’t want to try and change anything about you.”
The wife, touched by his honesty and the depth of his love for her and his acceptance of her, turned her head and wept.
In life, there is enough time when we are disappointed, depressed and annoyed. We don’t really have to go looking for them. We have a wonderful world that is full of beauty, light and promise. Why waste time in this world looking for the bad, disappointing or annoying when we can look around us and see the wondrous things before us?
2009年6月18日 星期四
2009年6月17日 星期三
Life Is An Attitudes
Dear Yi Jun,
We walk through life making choices. Some of them are good and some of them not so good, but hopefully we learn something from all of them. Life is an attitude, our attitude always affects us. We can’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose our attitudes toward each situation.
If we walk through life on the path we have chosen feeling as though we have to do this or we have to do that, eventually we might fell overwhelmed. We must change our attitude and looking at the opportunities presented to us each day. If we at those opportunities or challenges with a “get to” instead of a “have to” se might enjoy the journey just a little bit more.
If you make a conscious effort over the next couple of days to exchange the words “have to” with “get to” in your conversations with friends, coworkers and family, but most of all in your thoughts, and something amazing will happen. You will notice that all the things you “get to” do and started appreciating the opportunities and challenges on your path.
Just imagine:
You get to go to university to fulfill your dream.
You get to go to oversea when so many people can’t.
You get to do the laundry, thankful for a washing machine and dryer.
You get spend time with a friend, who needs you help.
You get to read a book; you still have your sight.
You get to remember the things that make you happy.
I give you a challenge. With every thought and conversation for the next day or two, change the words “I have to” with the words “I get to” and see if it make a difference in your day.
We walk through life making choices. Some of them are good and some of them not so good, but hopefully we learn something from all of them. Life is an attitude, our attitude always affects us. We can’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose our attitudes toward each situation.
If we walk through life on the path we have chosen feeling as though we have to do this or we have to do that, eventually we might fell overwhelmed. We must change our attitude and looking at the opportunities presented to us each day. If we at those opportunities or challenges with a “get to” instead of a “have to” se might enjoy the journey just a little bit more.
If you make a conscious effort over the next couple of days to exchange the words “have to” with “get to” in your conversations with friends, coworkers and family, but most of all in your thoughts, and something amazing will happen. You will notice that all the things you “get to” do and started appreciating the opportunities and challenges on your path.
Just imagine:
You get to go to university to fulfill your dream.
You get to go to oversea when so many people can’t.
You get to do the laundry, thankful for a washing machine and dryer.
You get spend time with a friend, who needs you help.
You get to read a book; you still have your sight.
You get to remember the things that make you happy.
I give you a challenge. With every thought and conversation for the next day or two, change the words “I have to” with the words “I get to” and see if it make a difference in your day.
2009年6月16日 星期二
A Lesson For Our Life
One day a father took his young son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night in the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“Very good, Dad!”
“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.
“Yeah!”
“And what did you learn?”
The son answered, “I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden; they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden; they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard; they have a whole horizon.”
When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.
His son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!”
Isn’t it ture that it all depends on the way you look a things? If you have love, friends, family, healath, good humor and a positive attitude towards life, you’ve got everything!
“Very good, Dad!”
“Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked.
“Yeah!”
“And what did you learn?”
The son answered, “I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden; they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps in the garden; they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard; they have a whole horizon.”
When the little boy was finishing, his father was speechless.
His son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are!”
Isn’t it ture that it all depends on the way you look a things? If you have love, friends, family, healath, good humor and a positive attitude towards life, you’ve got everything!
2009年6月15日 星期一
2009年6月14日 星期日
I Wish You Enough
Dear Yi Jun,
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirits up.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get your friends at Moscow.
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirits up.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get your friends at Moscow.
2009年6月13日 星期六
2009年6月12日 星期五
The Ways For Staying Calm
I watched the old man’s fumbling fingers as he slowly counted out the coins, one by one. I was all but dancing with impatience in the checkout line and sighed with exasperation. Hearing me, he smiled apologetically – a tiny smile of humiliation at being feeble and holding up the world’s business.
Then I became contrite. Putting myself in his shoes, I realized that someday they might pinch my feet. I too, could become dependent on the kindness of strangers. I patted his frayed sleeves “Take your time,” I said, “there’s no hurry”.
It occurred to me how often I have acted impatiently – honking my horn the instant the light changed, speaking sharply to someone slow to understand. Did it matter? It did. When you’re impatient, you’re apt to be rude. And such behavior is counter – productive, making people angry or stubborn or uncooperative.
I decided to try becoming more patient and to develop various approaches for calming myself in stressful situations. I can’t claim that these techniques transformed me into a model of patience, but they have helped me eliminate some impatience from my life and control most of it.
Allow for a margin of error – A friend had passed the interviews for an important new job; all that remained was for the president of the company to meet his wife.
At six, my friend and his wife were in the tunnel on their way into New York for a seven O’clock appointment. At seven, they were still in the tunnel, stuck behind an overturned tractor-trailer. When they finally reached the president’s hotel, he had gone, leaving no message. He would not accept an explanation the next day. “You should have planned for delays,” he said.
Impatient people don’t like to waste time, so they cut things too closely. They budge the exact number of minutes that a journey or task should take, not allowing for the possibility of delay or the unexpected. It is better to provide a margin for error. The more important your appointment is, the more time should be allotted. When a appointment absolutely can’t be missed, it pays to allow ridiculous amounts of time.
Put thing in perspective – Not setting a coveted job is calamitous, but the consequences of being held up are seldom that serious. They are not worth getting impatient.
I’ve learned to ask myself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” If the answer is that I’ll miss the opening credits of a movie or the start of a ball game, I calm down. Will I even remember next week that I was ten minutes late today? Putting matters in perspective should ease your impatience.
Think ahead – One evening as an acquaintance was leaving for a weekend trip, her car wouldn’t start – and three friends were waiting to be picked up on a street corner. She had no way of getting word to them; they were cold and miserable and worried when she arrived an hour late. Since hearing her predicament, I’ve always arranged to meet people where they or I can be reached incase of delay. It enables me to be far more patient when things go wrong.
Be prepared – Waiting in airports is one of the most trying features of modern life. I was watching torrential rains streak the windows at Kinabalu International Airport one evening when a man came up, took a word game from his pocket and asked if I wanted to play. We played with pleasure for the four hours our plane was delayed. Near us, a man worked on his laptop computer. One woman went through a stack of catalogues methodically, turning down the corners of the pages, filling out order blanks. The most impatient people – the ones who prowled the waiting area and complained loudly – were those who had nothing to do but put coins in the vending machines.
I now assume I’ll encounter a delay, so always carry a book. A friend do SUDUKO.
Live for the moment – A man I knew was always racing impatiently into the future. If we met for a drink after work, the first thing he talked about was where we’d go for dinner; at dinner, he rushed through dessert to get to a movie; at the movie, he was on his feet before the last frame faded. And in the car on the way home, he was making plans for the next day, next week and next year.
Never did he live in the here and now. Consequently, he couldn’t enjoy life.
I’ve come to appreciate that life has its own timetable. It takes nine of ten months to make a baby, 21 years to make an adult. It takes a long time to become a good violinist or downhill skier. It also takes time to become a success and even more time to become a success as a person.
Perhaps the last thing for controlling impatience is to examine your own contribution to it. Are you unwilling to grant children time to learn or slow people time to accomplish a task? If impatience is only occasional, your annoyance will pass. But if you’re almost always irritable and abrupt, you may well feel that you’re just too important to ever be kept waiting for anyone or anything.
You’re not, of course; none of us are. If we can accept that the world is ours to enjoy but not made for our convenience, we’ll be better able to move through it equably, more patient with the ordinary vicissitudes of life and a good companion to out fellow human beings – and to ourselves.
Then I became contrite. Putting myself in his shoes, I realized that someday they might pinch my feet. I too, could become dependent on the kindness of strangers. I patted his frayed sleeves “Take your time,” I said, “there’s no hurry”.
It occurred to me how often I have acted impatiently – honking my horn the instant the light changed, speaking sharply to someone slow to understand. Did it matter? It did. When you’re impatient, you’re apt to be rude. And such behavior is counter – productive, making people angry or stubborn or uncooperative.
I decided to try becoming more patient and to develop various approaches for calming myself in stressful situations. I can’t claim that these techniques transformed me into a model of patience, but they have helped me eliminate some impatience from my life and control most of it.
Allow for a margin of error – A friend had passed the interviews for an important new job; all that remained was for the president of the company to meet his wife.
At six, my friend and his wife were in the tunnel on their way into New York for a seven O’clock appointment. At seven, they were still in the tunnel, stuck behind an overturned tractor-trailer. When they finally reached the president’s hotel, he had gone, leaving no message. He would not accept an explanation the next day. “You should have planned for delays,” he said.
Impatient people don’t like to waste time, so they cut things too closely. They budge the exact number of minutes that a journey or task should take, not allowing for the possibility of delay or the unexpected. It is better to provide a margin for error. The more important your appointment is, the more time should be allotted. When a appointment absolutely can’t be missed, it pays to allow ridiculous amounts of time.
Put thing in perspective – Not setting a coveted job is calamitous, but the consequences of being held up are seldom that serious. They are not worth getting impatient.
I’ve learned to ask myself, “What’s the worst that can happen?” If the answer is that I’ll miss the opening credits of a movie or the start of a ball game, I calm down. Will I even remember next week that I was ten minutes late today? Putting matters in perspective should ease your impatience.
Think ahead – One evening as an acquaintance was leaving for a weekend trip, her car wouldn’t start – and three friends were waiting to be picked up on a street corner. She had no way of getting word to them; they were cold and miserable and worried when she arrived an hour late. Since hearing her predicament, I’ve always arranged to meet people where they or I can be reached incase of delay. It enables me to be far more patient when things go wrong.
Be prepared – Waiting in airports is one of the most trying features of modern life. I was watching torrential rains streak the windows at Kinabalu International Airport one evening when a man came up, took a word game from his pocket and asked if I wanted to play. We played with pleasure for the four hours our plane was delayed. Near us, a man worked on his laptop computer. One woman went through a stack of catalogues methodically, turning down the corners of the pages, filling out order blanks. The most impatient people – the ones who prowled the waiting area and complained loudly – were those who had nothing to do but put coins in the vending machines.
I now assume I’ll encounter a delay, so always carry a book. A friend do SUDUKO.
Live for the moment – A man I knew was always racing impatiently into the future. If we met for a drink after work, the first thing he talked about was where we’d go for dinner; at dinner, he rushed through dessert to get to a movie; at the movie, he was on his feet before the last frame faded. And in the car on the way home, he was making plans for the next day, next week and next year.
Never did he live in the here and now. Consequently, he couldn’t enjoy life.
I’ve come to appreciate that life has its own timetable. It takes nine of ten months to make a baby, 21 years to make an adult. It takes a long time to become a good violinist or downhill skier. It also takes time to become a success and even more time to become a success as a person.
Perhaps the last thing for controlling impatience is to examine your own contribution to it. Are you unwilling to grant children time to learn or slow people time to accomplish a task? If impatience is only occasional, your annoyance will pass. But if you’re almost always irritable and abrupt, you may well feel that you’re just too important to ever be kept waiting for anyone or anything.
You’re not, of course; none of us are. If we can accept that the world is ours to enjoy but not made for our convenience, we’ll be better able to move through it equably, more patient with the ordinary vicissitudes of life and a good companion to out fellow human beings – and to ourselves.
2009年6月11日 星期四
2009年6月10日 星期三
Support
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” ---- Wharton
You support someone when you willingly step forward to help him through a challenging time. Yet the great irony is that when you support others, you are also, in fact, supporting yourself. When you withhold support from others, it is usually an indicator that you are also withholding support from yourself.
We are most often called upon to support others in friendship. One of my acquaintances, Donna, told me a story recently that clearly illustrates the magic of support and its potential as an emotional mirror.
Several years ago, Donna had been feeling very depressed. She had just broken up with her boyfriend of two years, and she was having a very difficult time accepting the loss. She had been laid up with a knee injury for several days, and the time alone at home certainly was not helping. Her misery was only compounded by her frustration at herself for not being able to pull it together and stop crying all the time.
Early one morning, Donna received a phone call with some terrible news: her best friend’s brother had been killed in a car accident. Donna had known this friend, Mary, and her brother nearly her entire life, and the news was devastating. However, Donna quickly pulled herself together, got in the car, and drove to her friend’s house to be there with her.
Over the course of the next few days, amidst the haze of the funeral and hundreds of visitors, Donna was 100 percent present for Mary. She held her close while she cried endless tears, sat by her side as the waves of fried washed over her friend, and slept on the floor next to Mary’s bed to make sure she did not wake up alone in the middle of the night. During that time she hardly felt any pain in her knee at all and none of the depression she had been experiencing.
Several weeks later, when life began to return to normal, Donna realized that the level of support she had given Mary far exceeded any support she had offered herself during her dark time. She was able to use the support she had given her friend as a mirror for the support she had been withholding from herself. She realized that her own tears required as much attention and nurturing from her as anyone else’s, and that if she could give it to another, she must be able to also give it to herself ….
So, when you find yourself unable to support someone else, look within and see if perhaps there is something within yourself that you are not supporting. Conversely, when you give complete support to others, it will mirror those places within you that require the same level of attention.
You support someone when you willingly step forward to help him through a challenging time. Yet the great irony is that when you support others, you are also, in fact, supporting yourself. When you withhold support from others, it is usually an indicator that you are also withholding support from yourself.
We are most often called upon to support others in friendship. One of my acquaintances, Donna, told me a story recently that clearly illustrates the magic of support and its potential as an emotional mirror.
Several years ago, Donna had been feeling very depressed. She had just broken up with her boyfriend of two years, and she was having a very difficult time accepting the loss. She had been laid up with a knee injury for several days, and the time alone at home certainly was not helping. Her misery was only compounded by her frustration at herself for not being able to pull it together and stop crying all the time.
Early one morning, Donna received a phone call with some terrible news: her best friend’s brother had been killed in a car accident. Donna had known this friend, Mary, and her brother nearly her entire life, and the news was devastating. However, Donna quickly pulled herself together, got in the car, and drove to her friend’s house to be there with her.
Over the course of the next few days, amidst the haze of the funeral and hundreds of visitors, Donna was 100 percent present for Mary. She held her close while she cried endless tears, sat by her side as the waves of fried washed over her friend, and slept on the floor next to Mary’s bed to make sure she did not wake up alone in the middle of the night. During that time she hardly felt any pain in her knee at all and none of the depression she had been experiencing.
Several weeks later, when life began to return to normal, Donna realized that the level of support she had given Mary far exceeded any support she had offered herself during her dark time. She was able to use the support she had given her friend as a mirror for the support she had been withholding from herself. She realized that her own tears required as much attention and nurturing from her as anyone else’s, and that if she could give it to another, she must be able to also give it to herself ….
So, when you find yourself unable to support someone else, look within and see if perhaps there is something within yourself that you are not supporting. Conversely, when you give complete support to others, it will mirror those places within you that require the same level of attention.
2009年6月9日 星期二
两代衔绵靠温馨的爱
亲爱的姨姨：
人到中年，父母开始衰老。老化是生命自然现象，力不从心和老之将至的无奈，使他们有些孤单不安，体力不及往常，所以我们须加以体恤婆婆老人家的身心特质，提供养护和鼓励，给他安全感和尊严。如果不及时做这件尽孝的事，总会令人追悔。
通常我们在自己年老时，才会有感叹没好好珍惜好时光，两代衔绵要靠温馨的爱，才能接续起来。如果不及时把握，那个心灵上的断层，将是一个生命的难关。
父母天生要当儿女们的守护神，所以无时无刻不担忧着我们。他们所做的事，尽管不是每件都正确，都令我们开心，但他们的爱不干枯，为了子女从不畏惧。这是我们该了解的。
我们对父母的感恩，正是别人也感恩我们的起点，这就是生命美好而绵延不断的真谛。祝：安康。
人到中年，父母开始衰老。老化是生命自然现象，力不从心和老之将至的无奈，使他们有些孤单不安，体力不及往常，所以我们须加以体恤婆婆老人家的身心特质，提供养护和鼓励，给他安全感和尊严。如果不及时做这件尽孝的事，总会令人追悔。
通常我们在自己年老时，才会有感叹没好好珍惜好时光，两代衔绵要靠温馨的爱，才能接续起来。如果不及时把握，那个心灵上的断层，将是一个生命的难关。
父母天生要当儿女们的守护神，所以无时无刻不担忧着我们。他们所做的事，尽管不是每件都正确，都令我们开心，但他们的爱不干枯，为了子女从不畏惧。这是我们该了解的。
我们对父母的感恩，正是别人也感恩我们的起点，这就是生命美好而绵延不断的真谛。祝：安康。
2009年6月8日 星期一
The Road To Happiness
It is a common place among moralists that you can't get happiness by pursuing it. This is only true if you pursue it unwisely. Gamblers at Monte Carlo are pursuing money and most of them lose it instead, but there are other ways of pursuing money, which often succeed. So it is with happiness. If you pursue it by means of drink, you are forgetting the hang-over. Epicurus pursued it by living only in congenial society and eating only dry bread, supplemented by a little cheese on feast days. His method proved successful in his case, but he was a valetudinarian and most people would need something more vigorous. For most people, the pursuit of happiness, unless supplemented in various ways, is too abstract and theoretical to be adequate as a personal rule of life. But I think that whatever personal rule of life you may choose it should not, except in rare and heroic cases, be incompatible with happiness.
There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income and who nevertheless are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the fault must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from thee animals than we are. Animals live on impulse and are happy as long as external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for an occasional night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis in instinct. In civilized societies, especially in English – speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective and restrain all impulses that do not minister to it. A businessman may be so anxious to grow rich that to this end he sacrifices health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no pleasure remains to him except harrying other people by exhortations to imitate his noble example. Many rich ladies, although nature has not endowed them with any spontaneous pleasure in literature or art, decide to be thought cultured and spend boring hours learning the right thing to say about fashionable new books that are written to give delight, not to afford opportunities for dusty snobbism.
If you look around at the men and women whom you can call happy, you will see that they all have certain thins in common. The most important of these things is an activity which at most gradually builds up something that you are glad to see coming into existence. Women who take an instinctive pleasure in their children can get this kind of satisfaction out of bringing up a family. Artists and authors and men of science get happiness in this way if their own work seems good to them. But there are many humbler forms of the same kind of pleasure. Many men who spend their working life in the city devote their weekends to voluntary and unremunerated toil in their gardens and when the spring comes, they experience all the joys of having created beauty.
The whole subject of happiness has, in my opinion, been treated too solemnly. It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion. Perhaps those who have been rendered unhappy by a bad theory may need a better theory to help them to recovery, just as you may need a tonic when you have been ill. But when things are normal a man should be healthy without a tonic and happy without a theory. It is the simple things that really matter. If a man delights in his wife and children, has success in work and finds pleasure in the alternation of day and night, spring and autumn, he will be happy whatever his philosophy may be. If on the other hand, he finds his wife fateful, his children’s noise unendurable and the office a nightmare; if in daytime he longs for night and at night sighs for the light of day, then what he needs is not a new philosophy but a new regimen – a different diet or more exercise or what not.
Man is an animal and his happiness depends on his physiology more than he likes to think. This is a bumble conclusion, but I cannot make myself disbelieve it. Unhappy businessmen, I am convinced, would increase their happiness more by walking six kilometer every day than by any conceivable change off philosophy.
There are a great many people who have all the material conditions of happiness, i.e. health and a sufficient income and who nevertheless are profoundly unhappy. In such cases it would seem as if the fault must lie with a wrong theory as to how to live. In one sense, we may say that any theory as to how to live is wrong. We imagine ourselves more different from thee animals than we are. Animals live on impulse and are happy as long as external conditions are favorable. If you have a cat it will enjoy life if it has food and warmth and opportunities for an occasional night on the tiles. Your needs are more complex than those of your cat, but they still have their basis in instinct. In civilized societies, especially in English – speaking societies, this is too apt to be forgotten. People propose to themselves some one paramount objective and restrain all impulses that do not minister to it. A businessman may be so anxious to grow rich that to this end he sacrifices health and private affections. When at last he has become rich, no pleasure remains to him except harrying other people by exhortations to imitate his noble example. Many rich ladies, although nature has not endowed them with any spontaneous pleasure in literature or art, decide to be thought cultured and spend boring hours learning the right thing to say about fashionable new books that are written to give delight, not to afford opportunities for dusty snobbism.
If you look around at the men and women whom you can call happy, you will see that they all have certain thins in common. The most important of these things is an activity which at most gradually builds up something that you are glad to see coming into existence. Women who take an instinctive pleasure in their children can get this kind of satisfaction out of bringing up a family. Artists and authors and men of science get happiness in this way if their own work seems good to them. But there are many humbler forms of the same kind of pleasure. Many men who spend their working life in the city devote their weekends to voluntary and unremunerated toil in their gardens and when the spring comes, they experience all the joys of having created beauty.
The whole subject of happiness has, in my opinion, been treated too solemnly. It had been thought that man cannot be happy without a theory of life or a religion. Perhaps those who have been rendered unhappy by a bad theory may need a better theory to help them to recovery, just as you may need a tonic when you have been ill. But when things are normal a man should be healthy without a tonic and happy without a theory. It is the simple things that really matter. If a man delights in his wife and children, has success in work and finds pleasure in the alternation of day and night, spring and autumn, he will be happy whatever his philosophy may be. If on the other hand, he finds his wife fateful, his children’s noise unendurable and the office a nightmare; if in daytime he longs for night and at night sighs for the light of day, then what he needs is not a new philosophy but a new regimen – a different diet or more exercise or what not.
Man is an animal and his happiness depends on his physiology more than he likes to think. This is a bumble conclusion, but I cannot make myself disbelieve it. Unhappy businessmen, I am convinced, would increase their happiness more by walking six kilometer every day than by any conceivable change off philosophy.
2009年6月7日 星期日
2009年6月2日 星期二
Three Step To Grow Your Hapiness
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!
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.
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