Never hurt

"We all face death in the end, 
but on the way, be careful never to hurt a human heart"
Rumi

One of the gems of Rumi.
Perhaps none of us has truly never hurt anyone's heart.
At least a few times we did hurt others.
But the less we do hurt other people's heart
the more peace of mind is ours
The more we support and try to heal other hearts,
the more peace of mind is ours,
the more true happiness is ours.

Let us all try never to hurt a human heart.
Even though none of us may succeed in this almost impossible aspiration,
trying, consciously trying will make a huge difference in the number of people whose heart gets hurt :)

Ripples of love

Tonight I was praying, making it really silent within.
My mind was open, my heart was open and it seemed like
the Universe was filling it with thoughts of Goodness

The love of the universe, the love of God.
That love, I felt, was effectively flowing
through my body and my being

Every flow causes a ripple, a wave
a wave of love that may keep rippling all over the world.
I hope my love and my prayerful thoughts touch many others.
I wrote it up in a small poem
(no worries about copyright :) )

It was silent, in my heart and mind;

All emotions, all thoughts put on hold;

Trying some wisdom, some ease to find.

A flow of love came in, unheard of, untold.

I felt it flow, I felt it in every vein

A love, a positive force, an energy

Taking hold of my heart, of my brain

Changing for a few moments, my reality

It all came in silence while I wanted to pray

A ripple it made in the ether, the air

And I hope that ripple of love in a way

Will touch the hearts of many out there.

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Note:
I have a sister blog with inspirational quotes
If you have time, please pay this little sis a short visit:
http://quotesfromhans.blogspot.my/
I have also a brother blog with small prayers for the big world
If you have time, please pay this little bro a short visit:
http://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.my/

Enjoy a bit of beauty

This morning I took some time to look for a bit of beauty in my garden.
I found a few flowers that satisfied my thirst.
I inhaled the beauty and took a picture.
I share that bit of beauty here with you.
If every day we take some time to consciously look at a flower
we inevitably increase the amount of beauty in our life :)

Please share something about the most beautiful flower you encountered today in the comments section of this post.

 🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅
Hans Van Rostenberghe
Bachok, written on March 22, 2019
✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔ 
Dedicated to all my readers. 
Feel free to share/use this text without worries about copyright
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Every day

Every day changes at least a bit who we are.
My right hand looks a bit different from yesterday.
Does yours too?

On most days each part of our body changes only a little bit.
But the more interesting change is happening not so much in the physical arena, but in our emotional being, in our character, in our personality. Each encounter, each small thing happening in our life, has the potential to really change our view, change our perception our emotional status.

Actually it is the sum all these small, minute daily changes that adds up to who we really are. Every small and big thing in the news, affects and molds a bit our way of thinking, of feeling.  Every unexpected reaction from a friend, any new person we meet; it is all having an effect.

The good thing is, that we can modulate these effects through sincere reflection. Negative happenings do not necessary have to influence our thinking and feelings, our character, our personality in a negative way. We can search for meaning, we can accept that we cannot understand everything, we can appreciate persons and things, we can look for the good in everyone and every situation, we meet. We do not have to let every message from the news or from all the publicity we encounter into our minds and souls unaltered. We can modulate, we can modify and we can even block the toxic info.

Makes me think of a former reflection in this blog, about mushrooms (Mushrooms for the heart)
Not all mushrooms are good for us to eat.
Not all information coming our way is good for us to swallow, to internalize.
Not all experiences are equally useful.
Still we try to learn from all that comes our way, we need to weigh it and filter the nasty parts away. Keeping an open mind but still guarding the gates with a good dose of wisdom and critical thinking.

Let us think for awhile what today has brought to us, how it has changed us and what are the things that we want to store in our heart, in our memory to let us grow, in terms of personality, of spirit, of heart and soul. I am sure we can find quite something on most days. Makes me think now about another piece I wrote before in poem format (by the way, today is poetry day anyhow). A small experience at night, made me realize that I had not really paid attention to all the beauty that I had encountered during the day: unblind

! a translation of this essay in Dutch is available in juweeltjes voor de ziel !

 🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅🌅
Hans Van Rostenberghe
Bachok 
(written, March 21, 2019)

✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔

Dedicated to all my readers.

Feel free to share/use this text

without worries about copyright

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  If you have time, please pay also a visit to Skies seen by Hans

Simple beauty

skies seen by Hans

"If you get simple beauty and naught else,
you get about the best thing, God invents."
Robert Browning

I loved so much the above quote from Robert Browning, that I wanted to write this post about it.

It is so true and so wise !

When I find striking verses or quotes like this one, I often look it up on the internet and I tend to find a wealth of other beautiful verses and writings as well. I really encourage all of my readers to go and find a good quote, read around it a bit further (perhaps about the author or about similar quotes) and enjoy the wealth of thoughts and great ideas that come your way.

Today, for myself, while reading about the profile of Robert Browning (1812-1889) there was a referral to the poet PB Shelley and his famous poem, 'the masque of anarchy'. It is said to be one of the great inspiring poems to Mahatma Gandhi and his belief in non-violence.  I went on to read it and it truly amazed me. Here is a small piece of it:

And if then the tyrants dare   
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,--
What they like, that let them do.


  85
`With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.

  86
`Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak  
In hot blushes on their cheek.

  87
 `Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand--
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.

Special learning

Last week we were in a dialog with a variety of stakeholders in the care of disabled children in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. One parent, Mr. Chi Poh Yung who founded a daycare center for children with cerebral palsy, named Wishesland, taught us the following valuable lessons. As doctors perhaps the most special and valuable learning comes to us by listening to our patients or their closest relatives.

1. In his daycare center, Mr. Chi said, no one is allowed to use the word cannot. Instead of saying that a child cannot walk or talk which provokes in our mind, the image of bedridden children not able to talk, the staff is very much encouraged to talk about these children as still learning to walk and to talk. This provokes in the mind of everyone who hears it, an image of a walking and talking child. I think personally that this change in approach is a very valuable thing. Positive expectations, positive imagery in our minds (and the patient's minds), leads to more positive beliefs in the potential of each child and eventually to better outcomes.

2. No one can touch a child in any way without asking his or her permission. How many times doctors show our students the brisk reflexes of the children who are badly affected without asking first explicitly permission of the children? They may not be able to answer in words, but they will feel respected and valued as a human being. No matter how bad the mental status of our patients, we will do no harm by asking permission for anything we do in the process of the medical consultation or during a teaching session. It can only benefit the person we examine, the patient.

Small things at first sight, but actually quite big things, at least big in the difference they can make for children who suffer from a severe disability and their parents.

Angel baby

Oh angel baby, what have you done to my life?
A number on your monitor could make me smile
A blood result of yours could make me sad
Oh angel baby, when you left, I felt so bad.

Your eyes, yellow and oh, so small
shone the beauty of your soul
when we saw you breathe with a bit of ease
Oh angel baby, we were so pleased

Oh, angel baby, you lived not long
but your parents endlessly sweet and strong
were by your side and prayed so much
I remember how you liked your mother's touch

When you cried and on your face some strain,
a bit of oral sugar to forget your bodily pain
I loved the relief on your face
How I remember those days.

It is hard to understand why without a cure
babies like you had to suffer day by day
But one thing I know for sure:
They change our life in a magical way

Drive

Am in the middle of reading the book, "Drive", from author, Daniel Pink.
The book seems to strengthen my belief that we are due for a wisdom revolution,
for a kindness revolution, for a slow departure of the world of greed.

He started talking about wikipedia, a huge online encyclopedia,
completely composed and written by amateurs and experts, all for free.

Can you imagine?
An encyclopedia, if we would pay writers for all pages inside,
how much it would cost?

Then he talked about a range of experiments done by psychologists.
Each of them showed that financial incentive tended to interfere with a good output
rather than to enhance it.

In one of the studies they looked at the effect of payment on people solving a puzzle.
Without payment it took on average 5 minutes to solve the puzzle.
When people were promised to get $20 if they solved the puzzle within 5 minutes,
the average time went up from 5 to more than 8 minutes.

In another study, they recruited people who expressed an interest in blood donation.
One third was promised nothing and about 50% went to donate within 4 weeks.
One third was promised $50 and about 30% went to donate within 4 weeks
One third was promised $50 but it would be all donated to a charity of their choice, and about 50% went to donate within 4 weeks.

There are so many more experiments showing that we are slowly becoming more caring about a life filled with purpose, a life that makes a positive difference for others, than being society filled with greed and egotism.

Science now seem to back up the dream of a kindness revolution coming. Let's jump on the wagon and start practicing kindness to strangers as much as we can :)

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