It is not difficult

I think more than 90% of the people have experienced the extreme joy that lies in performing simple random kind acts and I think that almost all of these 90% of the people in the world have thoroughly enjoyed that joy.
The most logical thing to do, would be to get more and more of that joy, through more and more kindness and love
But we are so inundated, flooded, overwhelmed by the media with strong messages that happiness lies in being rich and famous and in purchasing all things shown in the endless ads. We are shown the comfort of private jets, of super expensive cars  of a life in luxury. And surely these things bring comfort.
But the biggest joy, the truest happiness still lies in kindness, service, helpfulness.
 
I think 90% of the people who know the joy of service and kindness, still are deceived by the media. While the comfort we find in material wealth is pleasant and worthy of obtaining, it tends to become problematic if that is our priority. Because upon achieving one level of wealth we do enjoy the comfort but do not experience true joy, true happiness and then are led to believe that our wealth is not enough.
Let us all shift our perception a bit, our paradigm. Let the media go on with their deception, but we do not want to allow ourselves to be the victims of such deception. Let us all get clear what comfort means and how it is different from true joy and true happiness. Let us experience every day at least a few moments of the true joy and happiness that lie in kindness and service. Let us put our priorities right.
Some simple ideas that could add a bit of meaning to our day:
Give a call to you mom
Help you neighbor with something or just smile at him
Give way to that driver who is in a big hurry
Read an inspirational quote
Take a picture of the sky
Find a nice tree
....
Please add some more in the comments.
I look forward to many simple ideas adding meaning to our day

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If you like to read short stories with some sparks of inspiration,

you will not want to miss "A Fish with a Wish"

A link to this fantastic short story:

https://afishwithawish.blogspot.com/

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You may enjoy also:

Beautiful inspirational quotes: https://quotesfromhans.blogspot.com/

Peace

 

A huge field of lavender. We replace one flower by a bubble filled with peace. And then one more flower replaced with peace. And then another and we go on replacing flower per flower with peace. We end up in a field of peace. 

We wake up from that beautiful dream and find ourselves in an amazing field of peace. We don't have to search for peace, we do not have to pray for it, we are right in the middle of it. We become grateful and the colors of that field of peace change to soft pastel of extreme beauty.

A train of thoughts flashes by. The negativity within the thoughts is like tornado, breaking all the colourful bubbles of peace. We end up in a barren field of broken lavender flowers of poked peace bubbles and go on and live a hectic day. 

But each of us can stop the crazy tornadoes of negativity. We do not have to listen to all negativity in the news. We do not have to allow us to be swept away by negative emotions. We are in control. We can block the tornadoes, we can choose simple positive thoughts, live a life filled with love and enjoy the huge field of peace throughout the day.

In our heart

Taking 10 minutes to have a short reflection while in a very quiet place

Let us do this together:

Imagine in our heart there is a river:

instead of with water, it is filled with love

the love flowing out of our hearts.

As water from a river, it never stops flowing.

It just keeps flowing with a strong, strong current

engulfing every person we meet. 

Kindness, love, allowing it just to flow out.

Enjoying the peace of mind it brings...

 

Good and allmighty?

I keep reading that there are so many bad things happening in the world that a good and almighty God cannot exist. If there would be a good AND almighty God, all these bad things would not happen.

Do you agree with that? I don't. It is not my purpose here to convince anyone of my opinion, but this post is more of an invitation to think a bit deeper about it.

What is "good"?
A healthy life, a long life, a harmonious marriage, safety, and so on and on.

We all have our own definitions of what is good and what is bad and there are many common things that almost all people consider as good and others that almost all people consider as bad.

Death is one of the famous bad ones.
Can you imagine what it would be to live forever?
Would the world run out of place?
Would there be still children?
If we go beyond the superficial, is it really a bad thing that we do NOT live forever?

Let us take a look at the famous good ones:
Endless health and vigour for everyone. Endless wealth and vacations
Are the kings and sultans in this world really the happiest people?
Do we really want to live in a perfect world?
I want yo to read one of my first reflections, I posted in this blog, about perfection.
You can reach it by going through the archives (April 2014) or by clicking
on: https://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/2014/04/reflection-3.html

I do think there is an intelligent creative force in the universe,
Try tomorrow when you wake up, to take a few moments to experience the peace, given to you by that creative force, the universe, maybe while taking a look at the colours of the sunrise.
Try tomorrow before going to work, to go outside and thoroughly observe the beauty of one tree, a big tree, and then the miraculous potential lying in a small tree.
Try tomorrow to feel the love that sits forever in your heart and give it away to the first few strangers you meet. The more you give, the more your heart gets refilled with love.
Try tomorrow to make it silent within for a while and let the creativity flow: write a few melodious words, draw a small figure, or sing a song.

If we do think a bit deeper, if we do try to get in tune with that Intelligent Creative Power, if we do accept that it is impossible to understand everything that happens (a simple explanation for this can be found in some melodious verses by clicking here); embracing the idea of an all-powerful and good God, becomes one of the very logical things to do.

A straight road.

True happiness is hidden in a thick curtain of smoke.
The media and all the adds we see want to make us believe
that happiness lies in things; in getting drunk; in smoking;
that happiness lies in controlling others; in getting power,
and as such, they create a lot of smoke on the highway to happiness,
causing many of us getting stuck on the sideways, on the premature exits.

The highway to happiness is kindness.
Simple kind acts, simple loving deeds alight the happiness from within.
Living a life of love and beauty of kindness and creativity lights up flames inside.
It lightens our mood; gives us peace of mind, peace of heart, peace of soul

The highway to happiness: Let us stay on the highway,
no matter how much smoke unscrupulous industries blow over the road
with deceiving advertisements

The highway to happiness:
A straight road filled with kindness

 

 

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.

Soft words

Soft words,
imagined in our mind,
then carefully spoken,
caressing ears,
entering hearts,
easing worries,
lessening pain.
Soft words:
so much strength.
 So soft
So strong.

The Drop and the Ocean

"Give up the drop 
become the ocean"
Rumi

The quotes of Rumi seem difficult to grasp sometimes upon first reading,
but if we search for what he might have meant, it may become interesting.

The drop may be the pleasure and happiness we tend to pursue on a daily basis:
The extra money, the new phone, the new car, the promotion, the high salaried job,...
These are all sources of pleasure and happiness, but we tend to chase them.
As we chase, they tend to run faster and when finally caught,
we take a close look at them, bask in what we achieved, but when later
we take a closer look at them, our desire has moved to a higher aim.

What would be then the ocean?
If we open our mind and heart for the peace, offered to us by the universe every day, the beauty, and if we tune into the love that sits in our heart and let it flow, these things tend to be endless as the ocean. We can allow ourselves to be immersed in them and they can slowly become part of our personality, our character, we become part of the ocean.

No matter how big our wealth and position may appear to us and our friends, they are mere drops, when compared to the peace of mind, happiness and bliss, lying in the peace, beauty, love and creativity. Let us become aware of the peace and consciously enjoy it, of the beauty and consciously enjoy it. Let us become aware of the love in our heart and let it flow to consciously enjoy it.

Give up the drop
Become the ocean.

Makes so much sense :)


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

The Wisdom Tortoise

Here a small poem that complements my latest post.
It may sound like a poem for children. 😌

I suspect that the average adult, including definitely me,
likes poems for children the same or even more than other poems. 😀

I hope you like it.

The wisdom tortoise

While taking a walk, I heard a squeak
I looked and there right at my feet
Was a tortoise who seemed very slow
Why it squeaked, I didn't know

I looked it into the eyes for awhile
And tried to please it with a smile
The tortoise looked up and said with a wail
'Just now, my friend, you stepped on my tail'

"Oh, did I? " My voice was filled with regret
I should better look where my feet, I set
I expressed how I felt sorry,
And ask it to please forgive me

'Of course, I will forgive you
Even if not asked for, I always do
Forgiveness is an integral part of me, you see
I am the wisdom tortoise, that's what they call me'

"Wow", said I, "so you must love philosophy"
'Oh no', she cried, 'that is not for me'
"But love of wisdom is what means philosophy"
'If that's so, it has disintegrated terribly'

'The wisdom that I love and adhere to
May be far too simple for you
It is all about loving and being kind
Since that is what brings us peace of mind'

'I do not bother about the reasons for being
Neither about the ghosts some of us are seeing
It is all so simple for me
Unconditional kindness is the way to be'

"Oh wisdom tortoise, what a pleasure to meet you here
Wisdom and kindness is also to me extremely dear
I believe that the next step in the evolution
Is a wisdom and kindness revolution"

The tortoise nodded and agreed with this
Kindness simply means happiness and bliss.
I thanked the tortoise and there our ways did part
To meet her again is still a wish sitting in my heart. 

 

 

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Safe 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/

 

I personally think the first two and the last two suggestions are really best

 

What's next?

The time is ripe
for a revolution

After an agricultural revolution
After an industrial revolution
After the IT revolution
the time is ripe for a new revolution

And no, it will not be based on genomics
Not on neurosciences and brain waves
Not on space travel

The next revolution will be a wisdom revolution
Wisdom exposes our follies of searching happiness in places where it is not
Wisdom exposes that kindness is the highway to true happiness and peace of mind
Wisdom will expose that harmony among all of us and generosity are the way to go.

This revolution has started quite some time ago,
but soon we are reaching the inflexion point
where doubling of the wisdom will mean an enormous increase
and the doubling will go fast, one after another, bigger and bigger.

This is no longer a dream, no longer an illusion.
It is a reality.

Power in seeds

the seed that breaks through the cement
the grass growing on the parking lot
the power in a single seed.

Let the words above enter your mind
read them again
Let the words enter your heart
read them again
Let them enter your soul
read them again

While the seed of a plant is extremely powerful
think about the power in a seed of love
a seed of kindness, a seed of caringness, 'sharingness'.

Let us plant a seed of love in our mind, heart and soul
Let it grow roots today and spout
Then water it and let it grow
No cement, no concrete will be able to contain it
It will break through all barriers, it will grow no matter what

Into a wonderful tree carrying blossoms, and flowers
and fruits and millions of new seeds
to be planted in us, in everyone we meet
Let us plant these seeds today
Everywhere.

The world in which George Floyd was murdered
will transform
Keep planting seeds and the world
will change

Are you sceptic about a new world filled with love?
Once the time of an idea has come,
nothing can stop it
Emancipation of women
Smoking bans
Life moves on fast
The world is getting better.
Nothing can stop love and kindness anymore.
Be part of it, believe in it, plant the seed of love
Plant it everywhere and let it spout, water it.
A jungle of love will grow over the desert of greed.
Soon. Very soon.

Stop working

Stop working, start serving.

If what we do for a living, feels like work, we undergo a kind of slavery;
no matter how high our position or rank or how big our powers.
If what we do for a living, feels like service, we have perfect freedom.
We will not count how much we earn, we will just perform for the good;
the good of our clients, our patients, our peers, our friends, our family;
we will just give the best of ourselves, no matter how much is the remuneration.

We will be happy, we will feel satisfied
and no matter what, the universe will invest more in us...

(inspired by M. Beckwith)

Light is shining

When we think a positive thought
a little light is shining.
When we give a small compliment
a little light is shining.
When we share a bit of love
a little light is shining.

As we become more positive,
more friendly, more loving,
the light will get brighter,
and soon the night,
that long night of greed
the world is bathing in
will make place
for a wonderful dawn.

Yes! Good morning.

A big blue whale came to meet me
while I was swimming in the sea.
Hi mister whale, how are you today?
What's up, what brought you this way?

Whale: " my friend, you may believe it or not,
but I have a short message from our all-loving God:
A tonne of love sits inside your heart, you know,
please, Hans, let it flow, let it flow."

If we let it flow from within, all that love
we will receive so many blessings from above
not only to us but truly to all people we know
imagine a world filled with love, yes just let it flow.

And then the whale returned to the deeper part of the sea
with a big splash that seemed to have awakened me.
What a wonderful dream, so close to the break of the day.
I love the message and plan certainly to follow that way. :)

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(This small poem was written for children, but for all to enjoy) 
You may enjoy this simple sonnet too (click on 'simple sonnet')

Letting anger out?

There was this little girl sitting on a chair
She was sitting with Thich Nhat Hanh,
a Vietnamese monk, exiled during the Vietnam war to France.

She asked him: "how do I let my anger out?"

Thich Nhat thought for a while and then asked her:
"do you think the anger came from outside?"
Anger is something ugly, like the mud in a pond.

It is sitting inside the pond
Anger is not coming from outside, it sits inside of us.
But if the mud in a pond is used in the right way
it can be the source from which lotus flowers grow.
Mud is useful
So is anger! We do not have to throw it out. It is ours.
If we use it in the right way, something nice can grow off it.
We can use our anger to grow peace, forgiveness and joy
to make the world better but in a peaceful way.

The anger inside of us flares up, mostly because we lack understanding
If we look deep enough and try to understand the behaviour of the one that makes us angry,
we will understand, and understanding brings compassion, love and a will transform our anger into the lotus flower of peace and forgiveness.

People who say mean things tend to suffer.
Then we punch back and make them suffer more.
It is like taking the mud in our hands and throwing it all around.
The other person made a mess and we create a much bigger mess.
IF on the other hand we take our mud in our hands
and try to actively understand why this mud was stirred up so much,
why that other person felt the need to be mean.
Most of the time we will find that they are suffering.
With this understanding we can transform our anger in the lotus flower of compassion
love will grow and anger will settle at the bottom of the pond, just feeding the love since we have mixed it with understanding, a most important nutrient for love.

So next time we are angry, let us not start slinging the mud around.
Let us activate our ratio and try to understand instead.
Let us transform our anger and let it nourish
the beautiful lotus flowers of peace, love and forgiveness.

Dare to be aware

Dare to be aware

Aware of peace

Dare to be aware

Aware of love

Dare to be aware

Aware of beauty

Dare to be aware

Aware of creativity

In the morning  when we wake

We become aware of all duties lying ahead

We need breakfast; to go to the toilet;

We need to get ready to go to work;

Become aware of the quarrels we had;

Of all the problems we face;

Aware of our fears and worries.

And our awareness of the peace

That surrounds us is blurred

And the awareness of the love

in our heart is blurred

And the awareness of the beauty

of the skies and trees is blurred

And the awareness of creativity

roaming in our imagination is blurred.

Oh my, let me tomorrow morning

Dare to put aside

the small things that anger me

The small things that worry me

The small things that cause fear

The small duties that await me

And let me dare to be aware

Of the sea of peace

Of the ocean of love

Of the expansion of beauty

Of the endless creativity

That is here right now for me.

And will likely be here tomorrow morning too…

A global heart

I just watched Michael Beckwith on a youtube video
and he called the internet the global brain.
In times of this pandemic, the global brain connects the world.

Then he went on saying that what we need to add to that global brain is:

The global heart!

We can lift ourselves up from the level of fear.
As we wash our hands, we can wash away our reptilian brain level responses. Surely we need to go shopping, but we do not need to take it all from the shelves. Surely we need to take precautions against Covid19 but we do not have to be consumed by fear. We can wash our inside too and connect to the Creative Force of this world. We have come here for a reason and somehow in these times, we are given more time to make it still, to make it quiet inside and (re)connect to our inner inspirational, powerful self, to our soul.

Even though we can not physically be together we still can connect, we can be kind and kindness and compassion are big boosters of health. If we would have a comparative study between one group of patients receiving all recommended vitamins and another group practising daily lots of genuine simple random acts of kindness, I am convinced that the immune system would be much stronger and more balanced in the latter group.

Let us all add a lot of heart to the internet; let the internet become more heart than brain. Let us spread lavishly messages of hope, of compassion, of kindness, of love, of harmony. Enough of fear-mongering, enough of scaremongering. In Canada, they coined the term, care-mongering and that is what we need. Care, care, care, love, love, love, kindness, kindness, kindness.

Let us all stay safe, take proper preventive measures that can help control the pandemic, but do not allow yourself to wither away in fear, in worry or anxiety. Let us make silent within, connect to the universe with all its beauty and energy and start a ripple of kindness, then a small wave, then a big wave and then a giant wave. Each ripple or wave may contribute in a major way to the upcoming kindness revolution.

Keep it up. Keep it cool. :)

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.

On a ship

While I cannot understand how anyone still has boarded a cruise ship after what happened to the Diamond Princess in February, it is a fact that now still thousands of people are stuck on cruise ships that are at sea and do not find any place to dock.

Every country, every port refuses to let the passengers and crew on land. Some good news came from Florida allowing the Zaandam and the Rotterdam to dock, but the war against the coronavirus is showing humanity's worst side.

Lives could be saved, but no one wants to commit. What happened to the Diamond Princess in Japan, was sending shivers over my spine, but the drama, the tragedy now seems worse with other ships.

Borders are closed, messages full of hatred are flooding the news article comments section and the social media. What would have seemed unthinkable violations of human rights, now seems to become a weird normal. People are dying alone in homes for the elderly, nobody allowed any visits. We were taken aback by the quite sudden pandemic, but there must be better ways, more creative solutions on how to deal with our elderly population in a safe and humane way.

Let us please come up with more humane preventive measures. While the stay-at-home policy may be an acceptable and effective way to prevent the spread of the disease, please keep things in place to preserve the sanity and humanity of humanity. It would be nice to read in the comments section of this post, creative ideas on how we can keep it all a bit more humane.

You will never walk alone

"When you walk through a storm,
hold your head up high
and don't be afraid of the dark
at the end of a storm is a golden sky
and the sweet silver song of love
walk on through the rain
walk-on through the rain
for your dreams be tossed and blown
walk-on walk on with hope in your heart
and you will never walk alone...
You will never walk alone.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
and you will never walk alone
You will ne-ever walk alone..."

the lyrics of a wonderful song,
You may enjoy the song,
especially in the times of this pandemic...

video of the song

Ali

I think it is easy to love a champion.
But champions like Muhammad Ali are special above the rest I think.
I was reading some really nice quotes from him, I want to share with you:

- Don't count the days, make the days count
- The man who has no imagination has no wings
and a quote that gave me a smile:
- If you ever dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologize :)

I think that in these difficult days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can pull ourselves quite a bit up on the first quote. Even though we may be locked in our homes, deprived of social contacts, can we still gather enough imagination to make our days count for ourselves or for others?

Few simple ideas:
Reading inspirational books, quotes, essays
Writing something like a poem, a letter to your prime minister
Looking at old pictures and write something about them to share with your loved ones,
phone a lonely person ,... and so many other potential creative things we can do.

And PS: let us not forget to make it on and off silent in our mind and
say thanks for the peace, love, our senses and all we have.


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Please read also some of my older posts, as I did just now. I particularly liked this one    (click on "this one")
I have also a collection of short essays on good things. Sometimes we want more than a quote but not a very long text either. Can access them by clicking https://abcofvirtues.blogspot.com/

Changing the world

The world is changing continuously.
And each of us is contributing to that change.

Whenever we think a positive thought
whenever we help someone, give something,
deliver some service, share a smile or a joke,
share a motivating or inspiring thought,
we make a positive change in the world and add to the positivity.

Whenever we think a negative thought,
whenever we push someone down, steal something,
whenever we talk harshly or sarcastically,
demotivate someone or depress,
we make a negative change in the world and add to the negativity.

Nobody, I think, manages to contribute on the same side (+ or -) all the time.
But the balance is what makes the real difference.
When I am positive more than negative, my balance tilts towards +
and my life contributes to happiness in the world.
If my balance tilts the other way, I will contribute to suffering the world.

Let us each commit to make our balance tilt.
Let it tilt heavily towards +.
Especially in these difficult times of COVID-19!
As long as we can, let us tilt our balance actively.


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If you found a few drops of inspiration 
If you feel good while reading this blog
Please do not hesitate to share the feelings, the inspiration with your family and friends
There is no copyright. No issues. (just will grateful if you attach my name as an author).
Same goes for my poems, I wrote under the author name Aufie Zophy. as in this safe link
  Other blogs and sites from my hand:
Inspirational quotes
Small prayers for a big world

Dutch version of some of my posts: Juweeltjes voor de ziel

Gifts: from big to small

The biggest gift is love, 

kindness and compassion

Then we get the relaxation 

brought through peace and beauty

And also a wonderful gift 

but smaller than the above: possession

Size matters! 

Maybe not the physical size, but the size of its value to us as human beings.