Riches

 

    A woman gave an alm to a blind beggar leaving herself with not enough cash to hail a taxi. So she went back by bus. On the bus it was super crowded and she had to stand pressed between other travelers. The high heels, she had chosen to wear in the morning were hurting her feet and she felt bad about it. 

     Then while the bus was waiting in front of a traffic light she noticed two homeless men having a merry time. They were absorbed in a nice conversation and on and off they heartily laughed at each other's jokes. The woman on the bus enjoyed the scene. When the bus started to move, she could see that the two men had actually no legs.

    She decided to get of the crowded bus a few blocks before she reached her house and to walk the rest of the way. Her feet still hurt a bit, but she thoroughly enjoyed every step, being aware of her own richness to have legs and be able to walk. 

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I hope you enjoyed the little true story above, which I read in one of the 'chicken soup for the soul' books. 

Riches comes to us in so many ways :)   :)   :)👶😃😆😊

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Please read my uplifting simple poems and visit my other sites for free extra richness :)

 - Inspirational and motivational poems (I have written them under the pen name of Aufie Zophy)

  https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/

 

- Beautiful skies seen by Hans:

https://hansvro.wixsite.com/mysite-1/skies-seen-by-hans  

 

- Beautiful flowers:

 https://hansvro.wixsite.com/flowersbyhans

 

- Two fables and a short story (my own favorite is 'Sammy and Alice')

https://shortstoriesfables.blogspot.com/ 

- Inspirational quotes:

https://quotesfromhans.blogspot.com/

 

- Very short essays about simple good things:

https://abcofvirtues.blogspot.com/

 

 Small prayers for this big world:

https://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.com/
 

 

As a raindrop

 As clean and pure

as a raindrop 

from a thundering cloud

still suspended in the air

just before falling on my skin

As clean and pure,

I want my life to be

 I pray I may have the strength today

to treat every single person I meet

like a VVIP

Number 1000

This is my 1000th post in this blog. It started in 2014 and I have written down quite a lot of ideas. Many of these ideas are bright, some may sound a bit eccentric, but I am sure that most can speak to the heart and soul of many people. Please do visit the archive after  you have enjoyed today's soul sprinkle.

While we are in the game of life and society, we are sometimes in the illusion that we need to be equal to others, or if not equal, superior, but definitely not inferior. That game of comparing our situation with that of others, ignores and even deprives us of our own uniqueness. We are simply unique human beings, each with our own gifts, own talents, own limitations and that makes unique. We can simply NOT compare with others. It is time now to get out of the game of equality, superiority, inferiority. We are unique and that is what counts.

Let us celebrate our uniqueness and if we do so, we will move effortlessly towards abundance, love and prosperity. Not to be superior or equal to anyone else but to have this wonderful life of purpose leading to peace of mind and true happiness while making a positive difference to the world we live in. If every day for ten years we make a small positive difference, think how big this thing becomes over a period of ten years. 

Enjoy, ...

Never to be left behind

 Honesty, humility, helpfulness,...

Take them with you wherever you go

Do not leave them at home!

They may evaporate and never be found back.

 

Let's take them along on our journey;

incorporate them in whatever we do,

and they will grow inside of us,

making ourselves the wonderful persons we are 

 

 

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Links to other blogs/sites that may be worth a bit of your time:

 

A look at some beautiful skies: https://hansvro.wixsite.com/mysite-1/skies-seen-by-hans 

Beautiful flowers: https://hansvro.wixsite.com/flowersbyhans

 

Inspirational poetry https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/

Some beautiful inspirational quotes:  https://quotesfromhans.blogspot.com/ 

A fantastic short story: https://afishwithawish.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-fish-with-wish-whole-story.html

Simply some essays about good things: https://abcofvirtues.blogspot.com/

Small prayers for a big world: https://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.com/

 

Can it be?

Can it be that life was meant to be filled with pleasure?

Can it be that life was meant for us to be rich?

Can it be that life was meant for us to be powerful?

 

We risk risk to become slaves of pleasure, chasing it, only to see it run from us.

We risk to become slaves of money, thinking that the end justifies the means

We risk to become slaves of power, clinging to imagined greatness, never satisfied

Could it be that life was meant to serve the force that brought us here. 

Simply serving life's principles of love, peace, beauty and creativity

Simply helping human beings in need, serving humanity, serving God?

 

Let us not become slaves of bodily pleasures, of money, of power.
Let us not become slaves of our desires. 

Let us find the path of that Force that put us here, and serve...

Happiness boils up from inside.

Care

When I grew up, Christmas time meant family time.

The coziness of cold evenings, spent near the wood fire.

The small but beautiful decorations, put up by my mom.

Now it has become a time of the year of peace and reflection.

My mom is no longer around, my dad neither.

I still value so much the values they taught me:

 

Roots reaching deep 

in my heart and soul 

A seed had been planted 

Mom had planted love and care

The roots reach so deep
'coz she watered the seed
she fed it and let grow
from sapling to majestic tree

The roots are deep and strong.
Getting love and care, for so long
Blossoms, fruits all year round
Seeds to share and lots of bliss

So many thanks my mom

New and old

If we want to start anew, we have to be ready to give up the old.

Revenge is truly useless

All the problems and challenges of the past are mere lessons

to be a better person today. No point getting stuck in the past.

People may have wronged you.

Just forgive them, even if they do not ask for it.

 

Why should we?

Because grudges, hatred and anger is like fire sitting inside

It burns our inner peace of mind, our inner soul life

and destroys our own happiness. The subject of our hatred

of our grudges, of our anger may be barely aware of our negative feelings.

Revenge is like giving the behavior of the other one full approval.
He or she does this to me, I will just blindly follow the bad behavior 

and behave in the same way to them. That is being a follower of evil.
Let us all be leaders of the good. No matter how others behave, 

we choose the good. We choose friendliness no matter what. 

The past is gone, we cannot change it.

It has affected who and where we are today.

The future is ours to come.

What we do and think and feel today

will determine who and where we will be tomorrow.

Time to redirect?

 While I try to respect and appreciate the work of archeologists and astronomers, looking in the past and looking at far away stars and planets, sometimes I feel it is time to stop for awhile looking away from our current reality here on our planet.

If just for two or three years, we would be brave enough to stop, and spend all the money and time to solve our own, present hunger problems, what a difference that would make to our human society.

I know that somehow this is a bit of a crazy idea and the exploration of our distant past and the distant stars can be useful to humanity too, but for now, i never get really excited to by the discoveries, which are often at best educated guesses from long ago or far away....

At the same time, i tend to be thrilled if i read or hear about successful humanitarian missions.

 

 Author: Hans Van Rostenberghe

 

 
😀*no copyright - while sharing, just mention author *😀

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You may enjoy also:
Beautiful skies: https://hansvro.wixsite.com/mysite-1/skies-seen-by-hans
Beautiful flowers: https://hansvro.wixsite.com/flowersbyhans
Beautiful poems: https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/

Beautiful inspirational quotes:  https://quotesfromhans.blogspot.com/
Essays about good things: https://abcofvirtues.blogspot.com/

 

Written

A small thought written down 

may be more worth than a big thought

that floats in the air and flies away

 

Here is small thought I encountered today: 

The world is full of wonders, of miracles.

From the tree that is a hundred years old

to the magical crops that feed our body

The clouds in the skies and 

flowers on the ground.

 

But much bigger than all these wonders, perhaps,

much bigger gifts still from our Creator than all above,

is our ability to perceive them, to think about them

is our ability to be aware of that and be grateful

is our ability to feel good and be compassionate

is our ability to live a life of virtue

is our ability to write these things down and share them with our friends.

 

I encourage you, to write in the comments section of this posting

your own small thought of today and share it with all friends who happen to read this blog...

 

Let's write at least 100 words every day...

 Author: Hans Van Rostenberghe

 

 

Overtaking a rival

I want to be the best father in the world
I want to be the best husband in the world
I want to be the best doctor in the world
I want to be the happiest human in the world.

These are or were some of my real desires.
Have you ever had any similar feelings?

In one way, they are good motivators for us to move to higher levels,
to keep growing in personality, in character, in heart and mind.
Just making time for reflection and asking ourselves:
would the best father in the world do similar things as I do now?
would the best husband behave in a way I behave now?
would the best professional perform in a way I perform now?
can be really stimulating, motivational and inspirational.

In another way, if we take these desires to the letter and set it as our goal
to become number one in the world, in the nation or even in our smaller region,
we tend to end up in a race. If you are a sportsman or a car racer, that is all right.
It may be less right if we want to be elected best father, for example. We may start to focus on all criteria put forward by the institution or body that is busy with the awarding of such an honour but we put ourselves at risk of ignoring our baseline duties that the individuality of our own children demand.

The more complex our activity tends to be, the riskier it gets for a person, team or institution to get solely or predominantly focused on a race to become number one in the field. The more complex the activity, the more difficult it is for bodies, ranking individuals or institutions, to be assessing really the quality and to be fair to all players.

Secondary schools tend to be ranked on how many full-A-students they produce. Universities are ranked on a variety of international ranking scales that serve mainly the designers of the ranking system. Ranking hospitals on hard outcomes, like mortality may contribute to severe restriction and limitations of the care that the sickest, at highest risk of mortality can receive.

While overtaking a rival may give us a good feeling, it is not always the best aim to put forward. With one eye on the competition or on the race, we are left only with one eye on the daily tasks at hand. It may be much more suitable for individuals, teams or institutions to focus on their special strengths and get to a certain level of motivation and inspiration based on job satisfaction and personal growth, rather than based on the prospect of overtaking a rival in rankings that may not match the values, principles and strengths of the person, team or the institution.

Rain

After a period of drought for at least a few weeks now, this morning we had a small thunderstorm with a good downpour of about 30 to 40 minutes.
For the last two weeks, I had been sprinkling water to parts of my lawn and some of the beautifully flowering plants, some of the younger trees regularly.

Rain, this morning was not only for the flowers and wonderful trees, but it was also for each and every blade of grass, no matter in what corner it had grown, it was also for the weeds and shrubs. What amazing fairness of nature on display. Every single plant, tall or small, colourful or not, got their own share of this fantastic blessing.

What a wonderful lesson for mankind.

The Power of Words

(available in Dutch as well: Juweeltjes voor de Ziel  )

Words are powerful indeed.

Putting the right words and thoughts in our mind
will influence how we think, how we act
and thus influence the outcome
and what happens in our life.

I love to think positive words. It boosts my spirit.
Here is a list of positive words.
Just reading them may have already a positive effect:

Abundance,     Benevolence,     Love,      Truth,

Patience,    Calmness,    Honesty,      Gratitude,

Elegance,     Sweetness,    Charity,     Success,

 Wisdom,   Wonderful,   Goodness,   Understanding,

 Service,    Fabulous,   Prosperity,      Miraculous,   

Virtue,   Helpfulness,   Grace,    Hope, 

Beauty,   Confidence,    Harmony,   Brilliance,
  
Caring,    Peace,    Fantastic,   Compassion,

Handiness,     Superb,     Heart,   Friendliness,   
  
Serendipity,    Health,    Faith,      Smiles,

Sympathy,    Positivity,     Courage,    Openness,
      
Empathy,      Safety,    Kindness,  Ideal.

 Greatness,  Giving,    Forgiveness,    Nature,
        
 Luck,    Nice,     Sharing,    Respect,       

......


Please add a few of your own,
Most likely, you love positive words,
as much as I love them.

I wish you a day filled love
and all other things, listed in the above list :)

Like a hand

Life is like a hand. For so many people it resembles a fist,tightly clenched. Eager to take but only able to punch. More and more of humankind, start to release, to release the cramped, damned fist.

The hand slowly opens and the goodness of each and every finger becomes visible

The thumb is the thickest of them all and stands for kindness

It is the thumb that allows all of us to hold something

Kindness will hold the world together; the rule of thumb:

Kindness, holding us all in unity

The other fingers unfold.The index finger pointing at wisdom, not blurred philosophy, but true wisdom of loving selfless altruism. Life is like a hand

The  middle finger: the highway to truth, a simple everlasting hunger; a search and a findin, truth being bit by bit uncovered.Life is like a hand

The ring finger unity

The small finger humility

And in the middle of the open hand, the palm, making a lake

A lake of beauty peace and happiness, surrounded by the trees of kindness

Wisdom, truth, unity and humility.

Oh, my friends

Open your hands

Relax your fists

Turn your wrists

Oh my friends,

Please open your hands.

Turn them from deserts in oases, turn them from waste land to lofty forests

From stones of bitterness and greed, to seeds of kindness and love, to a soft and caring heart

Oh my friends open your hands, look at our hands in wonder; open our hands

Let the kindness, wisdom and truth, flow through our arms, straight into your heart, mind and soul Let the unity and humility inspire you, touch you make you love.

Soon that wonderful lake of the palms, will flow through our veins, reaching each and every cell. Peace and happiness, beauty, harmony, and sweet satisfaction will reign our life. Life is like a hand. 

I have expressed the idea also in a small rhyming poem: 

The lake of your palm
 
Imagine while looking at your hand
In your palm there is a wonderful lake
With amazing trees at every end

Your thumb is the kindness tree
You need it to hold or take
Kindness will hold together society

Your index the wisdom tree
joy, only nice simple thoughts can make
Not complex abstract philosophy

In the middle a tree standing tall
Reflecting truth in the clear blue lake
A highway to honesty for all

Finger four, tree of love and charity
Teaching us to give more, not always take
The little pinky standing for humility.

Let the superb water of the lake flow
Through your arms to your heart and soul
And help you personally and spiritually grow

And this is a wish to all my friends
Do not make a fist, do not turn your wrist
But at all time, open your hands.