Stay Connected and Stay Blessed

Father is flying a kite. His son is watching him carefully.

After some time son says "Dad. Because of the string the kite is not able to go any further higher."

Hearing this, the father smiles and breaks the string.

The kite goes higher after breaking of the thread and then shortly after that it comes and falls on the ground.

The child is very dejected and sad.

The father sits next to him and calmly explains:

"Son, in life we reach a certain level of prosperity and then we feel that there are certain things in our life that are not letting us grow any further like Home, Family, Culture, Friendship etc. We feel we want to be free from those strings which we believe are stopping us from going higher."

"But, remember son. Going higher is easier than staying at the higher level."

"And friends, family and culture etc are the things that will help us stay stable at the high heights that we have achieved. If we try to break away from those strings our condition will be similar to the kite."

Moral

"Never go away from culture, family, friends and relationships as they help keep us stable while you are flying high."

Don't Judge People So Fast

A 24-year old boy looking out through a train's window shouted, 

Dad, look, "the trees are going behind; they are moving very fast" 

His Dad simply stared at him with so much joy and smiled! A young couple seated nearby looked at the 24-year old and thought to themselves, he's so grown up but so childish, he must have a mental disorder for his father not to be bothered. Suddenly the young man exclaimed again; 

Dad, look, "the clouds are running with us" 

The couple could not resist and said to the old man, why don't you take your son to a good doctor may be a psychiatrist? The old man smiled and said I just did. 

We are just coming from a doctor but not a psychiatrist ; we are just coming from the hospital. My son was blind from birth. He just got his sight today for the very first time, his behavior may seem stupid to you, it's more than a miracle to me. 

The young couple just sat down there, lost for words with a mixture of tears and shame in their eyes. 

Everybody on earth has a story; 

don't judge people so fast or jump into conclusion about their private affairs; you don't know where they are coming from or what they have to deal with. The truth behind their story might surprise you. Take it  easy with others, even if you have a perfect life.

Stop Hating

A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game.

The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates.

So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.

So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes;

some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for 1 week.

Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes.

Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended....

The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?". The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

Then the teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. It gets rotten, starts smelling bad and eclipse your own personality.

LIFE IS TO SHORT TO LOVE, I DON’T KNOW HOW PEOPLE MANAGE TO HATE

Selfless Love

My wife called, 'How long will you be with that newspaper? Will you come here and make your darling daughter eat her food?'

I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter Fatima looked frightened.

Tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with Curd Rice. Fatima is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age. She has just turned eight. She particularly detested Curd Rice. My mother and my wife are orthodox, and believe firmly in the 'cooling effects' of Curd Rice! I cleared my throat, and picked up the bowl.

'Fatima, darling, why don't you take a few mouthful of this Curd Rice? Just for Dad's sake, dear.

Fatima softened a bit, and wiped her tears with the back of her hands.

'OK, Dad. I will eat - not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this.

But, you should...' Fatima hesitated. 'Dad, if I eat this entire curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?'....

Oh sure, darling'.... 'Promise?'......... 'Promise'.

I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal.

'Ask Mom also to give a similar promise', my daughter insisted.

My wife put her hand on Fatima's, muttering 'Promise'. Now I became a bit anxious.

'Fatima dear, you shouldn't insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. OK?'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive'.

Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity.

I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child eat something that she detested. After the ordeal was through, Fatima came to me with her eyes wide with expectation.

All our attention was on her.

'Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!' was her demand.

'Atrocious!' shouted my wife, 'A girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!' 'Never in our family!' my mother rasped.

Fatima darling, why don't you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything else', Fatima said with finality.

'Please, Fatima, why don't you try to understand our feelings?' 

I tried to plead with her.

'Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice'.

Fatima was in tears. 'And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for.

Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of an ancient King, and its moral that we should honour our promises no matter what?'

It was time for me to call the shots. 'Our promise must be kept.'

'Are you out your mind?' chorused my mother and wife.

'No. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honour her own.

Fatima, your wish will be fulfilled.'

With her head clean-shaven, Fatima had a round-face, and her eyes looked big and beautiful.

On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Fatima walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, 'Fatima, please wait for me!'

What struck me was the hairless head of that boy.

'May be, that is the in-stuff', I thought. 'Sir, your daughter Fatima is great indeed!' Without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued, ' that boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Ahmed. He is suffering from... ... leukaemia.' She paused to muffle her sobs.

Ahmed could not attend the school for the whole of the last month. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates.

'Fatima visited him last week, and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue.

But, I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son! Sir, you and your wife are blessed to have such a noble soul as your daughter.'

I stood transfixed. And then, I wept. 'My little Angel, you are teaching me how self-less real love is!'

The happiest people on this planet are not those who live on their own terms but are those who change their terms for the ones whom they love.
Love Touch And Inspire your FRIENDS "The life is short, the vanities of world are transient but they alone live who live for others; the rest are more dead than alive”

The Crow and the Peacock

A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied with his life as he had ample food, beautiful trees to nest upon and loving birds all around who would stand with him whenever in need. But one day he saw a swan. “This swan is so white,” he thought, “and I am so black. This swan must be the happiest bird in the world.”

He expressed his thoughts to the swan. “Actually,” the swan replied, “I was feeling that I was the happiest bird around until I saw a parrot while flying over plains of south east Asia. It had two colours and a lovely red necklace around his neck. I now think the parrot is the happiest bird in creation.” The crow then approached the parrot. The parrot explained, “I lived a very happy life until I saw a peacock dancing in a zoo. I have only two colours, but the peacock has multiple colours and while dancing it looks as if rainbow has fallen down from sky.”

The crow then visited a peacock in the zoo and saw that hundreds of people had gathered to see him. After the people had left, the crow approached the peacock. “Dear peacock,” the crow said, “you are so beautiful. Every day thousands of people come to see you. When people see me, they immediately shoo me away. I think you are the happiest bird on the planet.”

The peacock replied, “I always thought that I was the most beautiful and happy bird on the planet. But because of my beauty, I am entrapped in this zoo. I have examined the zoo very carefully, and I have realized that the crow is the only bird not kept in a cage. So for past few days I have been thinking that if I were a crow, I could happily roam everywhere.”

We make unnecessary comparison with others and become sad. We don’t value what God has given us.  This all leads to the vicious cycle of unhappiness.  Learn to be happy in what you have instead of looking at what you don’t have.   There will always be someone who will have more or less than you have.  Person who is satisfied with what he/she has, is the happiest person in the world.

Bite What You Can Chew

One Sunday morning, a wealthy man sat in his balcony enjoying sunshine and his coffee when a little ant caught his eye which was going from one side to the other side of the balcony carrying a big leaf several times more than its size. The man watched it for more than an hour. He saw that the ant faced many impediments during its journey, paused, took a diversion and then continued towards destination.

At one point the tiny creature came across a crack in the floor. It paused for a little while, analyzed and then laid the huge leaf over the crack, walked over the leaf, picked the leaf on the other side then continued its journey.

The man was captivated by the cleverness of the ant, one of Nature’s tiniest creatures. The incident left the man in awe and forced him to contemplate over the miracle of Creation.  In front of his eyes there was this tiny creature, lacking in size yet equipped with a brain to analyse, contemplate, reason, explore, discover and overcome. Along with all these capabilities, the man also noticed that this tiny creature shared some human shortcomings.

The man saw about an hour later the creature had reached its destination – a tiny hole in the floor which was entrance to its underground dwelling. And it was at this point that the ant’s shortcoming that it shared with the man was revealed. How could the ant carry into the tiny hole the large leaf that it had managed to carefully bring to the destination? It simply couldn’t!

So the tiny creature, after all the painstaking and hard work and exercising great skills, overcoming all the difficulties along the way, just left behind the large leaf and went home empty-handed.

The ant had not thought about the end before it began its challenging journey and in the end the large leaf was nothing more than a burden to it. The creature had no option, but to leave it behind to reach its destination. The man learned a great lesson that day.

Isn’t that the truth about our lives?

We worry about our family, we worry about our job, we worry about how to earn more money, we worry about where we should live – 5 bedroom or 6 bedroom house, what kind of vehicle to buy – a Mercedes or BMW or a Porsche, what kind of dresses to wear, all sorts of things, only to abandon all these things when we reach our destination – The Grave. We don’t realize in our life’s journey that these are just burdens that we are carrying with utmost care and fear of losing them, only to find that at the end they are useless and we can’t take them with us.

Life is Struggle

A daughter, fed up of her miserable life complained to her father about her miseries and said she was unable to comprehend how she was going to make it. She was sick and tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed as if endless problems are lined up and as soon as one problem was resolved, another one pops up.

Her father, a chef in a five star hotel, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on on the burner over a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes the father turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a plate. He then poured the coffee out it in a cup.

Turning to her daughter, he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer”, he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity-the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

In life, things happen around us and things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about leaning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.