The monsoon season

The North East Monsoon season in Kelantan can get very wet, no, extremely wet.
Definitely it is not the season that would attract most tourists.

But in its own, it definitely has its very special enchanting charms
Just yesterday, I wrote a small poem about it:

On the stairs by the sea, sitting down,
I absorb the strength of violent winds.
The waves' white foam has turned brown.
Skies give away only a slit-like glimpse
of their deep and far-away azure beauty.
My heart is melting in the view of a tree;
I feel intimately connected to the wild sea,
while cloudy heavens seem to embrace me.
The soulful thoughts end quite abruptly,
when my son from behind calls suddenly. 

Aufie Zophy

Close to the end of the year!

Close to the end of the year!
A time when many of us look back
and then look forward, sending wishes.

Somehow it is a vast dream of humans to predict the future
and there is perhaps no time busier in future-telling than this time.

I read about economies crashing and bubbles bursting
and about the wars that will happen, all pretty much the same stuff
they came up with last year this time. One time they will be right
because on and off bubbles do burst and on and off economies do crash.

Another type of predictions come from religious sects predicting the end of the world.
The leaders of such sects gaining significant power because they claim to know
what everyone has to do for salvation.

Let us not fall victim to any fear mongers!

Hereunder I state what I wish for 2017,

I wish for all of us a wisdom revolution.
I wish that we discover that there is a lot of love in our heart,
and that we start to very consciously enjoy giving this love away.
I wish fewer of us get drunk on Saturday nights, making them sick the whole of Sunday,
I wish fewer of us feel they have to show off.
I wish we value more than ever before things like
 kindness, honesty, humility, a search for truth.

Happiness is found in altruism, selfless altruism, in random kind acts, in simple friendliness, in going the extra mile for a friend or for a complete stranger. These are the things that make us feel really good. And what else is happiness than feeling really good.



This is my personal wish for every one of my friends, for every one of my family for 2017.

B-you-tiful

The scent of lavender
lavishly roams in my nose
but it is just in my imagination.

The touch of the softest grass
grasps and tickles my toes
but it is just in my imagination

A sip of superbly brewed coffee
cozily entices my taste buds
But just in my imagination

The most sweet tunes of a flute
flush my inner ear with sweetness
but it is just in my imagination

Then, I look at you,
byoutiful as ever;
it is real

The nicest memory

Dear friends,

Today is almost over.
I just took a little tour through my memory of what happened today.
I was trying to think and find the best memory, the nicest one that came my way.
It was the lunch with my son.

When we reflect on our day in such a way
we tend to become a bit grateful
a bit appreciative of life

What was your nicest memory of the day?

Love, peace and beauty

This morning I made a walk and saw the grass in the picture above, cuddling so nicely and warmly against the big leave. It looks like the big leave was just saying: "come lean on me", like in the beautiful song by Bill Withers (link).

A certain feeling of love, beauty and peace filled my heart. I walked on and I noticed a young coconut tree that seemed to make the V sing of peace for me with its leaves. :)

On my way back the beautiful flower in the lower right photo was smiling at me in all her beauty.

The whole walk felt like receiving a wonderful Christmas present :) .

A merry Christmas to all my friends who celebrate it and my very best wishes for the new year.

Go

The Japanese board game, Go is a very interesting game. I was playing it recently on my phone. it is fun, entertaining and it challenges your mind to a high level.

However as many other games, it seems to be a game basing its aim on the principles of scarcity.
The board is only that big and we have to fight with our opponent to get as much territory as possible. I have chosen a level of difficulty that is a bit above my own level in order to improve my skills but this means I lose more than I win. In the heat of the fight with the intelligence of my phone, I feel sometimes frustrated, sometimes victorious.

While Go is just a game, I think too many of us perceive our life as a field of scarcity too. There is only so much of everything, and if I do not take it, someone else will.

Have you seen people putting far too much on their plates at buffets
Have you seen people taking free sugars sachets or napkins, more than they can possibly need
Have you seen how people with a scarcity mindset behave in general.
I think all of us have behaved like this, at least at one time in our life.

It is because of the scarcity mind set that we all go and fight with each other.
We want to win, no matter what. Sometimes during a long fight both contenders forget what it was that started the fight, but they will not give up.

Sure there have been times of scarcity. In many places there still is.
But in many other places there is so much abundance that if only
we would be ready to give up the scarcity thinking, we could alleviate
the scarcity for almost the whole rest of the world.

Scarcity thinking gives rise to greed.
Greed is part of our instincts, our physical structure.

It is time for a spiritual revolution.
where we celebrate day by day or human nature.
Our human nature is better than our instincts.

Being human means to think and reflect
Being human means to love and share
Being human means to control our flight or fight
Being human means loving our enemies
Being human means helping each other
Being human means compassion
Being human means searching for truth
Being human means .... name another 100

Let us give up scarcity thinking sooner rather than later
and choose to be a fantastic human :)

Potential

Tic toc, tic toc
close to dawn;
magic moments.
Amazing love,
fascinating care,
like that of my late mom for me,
moves slowly from my heart
where it was safely stored,
to my awakening awareness

Sitting in this bath of lovely care,
a tender wave of joy washes over my spirit.
The first orange sun rays are coming in,
in my room, in my eyes, in my soul;
and my mission for the day becomes:
to share the love and care in which I bathe
with every soul, I will meet
and live a life of true potential

Beauty

Sometimes we travel far and long
to see a beautiful town.
Sometimes we long deep inside
to see a far away finesse

Reflecting on the above, back in 2011,
I wrote the simple poem below:

 Up high,
Up high in the vast sky
I searched for ultimate beauty
Ultimate beauty was what I yearned to see
But then just inches above the horizon
Right in front of my brown open eyes
I found the most amazing
The most picturesque
Of all clouds
Luxurious soft pastels
Of light purple and
Mellow orange
Almost caressing the sea 

Sometimes while looking up,
while looking for beauty in far away places,
we miss out on the beauty that surrounds us.

Let us take a minute right now and
find something of exquisite beauty, right where we are.
If our eyes do no find it,let us use our other senses.
let us feel the beauty of the breeze
or listen to the beauty of the sound of the rain
or put up a favorite song,
smell or taste something beautiful.

Walk around for a while
just giving our attention
to finding beauty in the air
in the color of the sky,
in the palms of our hands
in the piece of furniture nearest to you

Beauty

I love Beauty
I am sure you love beauty too.

Let us enjoy the beauty of the world around us,
a little more consciously today,
give it a bit more attention
our heart will be filled with a thousand beautiful feelings

(http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/y-a-thousand-beautiful-feelings/ )

 

Kindness

Even though there is a big part of jealousy (1) in the world,
an even bigger part of greed (2) and hatred (3),
a still bigger part of selfishness (4),
kindness (5) is on the increase

Kindness is on an exponential curve.
Do you know how exponential curves go?
Initially, they go up very slowly, but up they go.
Then they meet an inflection point and
suddenly they go up very steep.
I am sure we are pretty close to that inflection point

Nothing else can happen when kindness increases,
than that  (1), (2), (3) and (4) hopelessly shrink.
and that is what they are doing now.
Still in the slow phase of shrinking.
but soon they will meet their own downwards inflections point
and they will go falling off a huge cliff to scatter
and to never return.

Hard to believe?
Just shut down your TV and
start looking at the world.
Watch and see with your own eyes

Jealousy

Jealousy is a disease.
It has always been around
and for everyone affected
it has been detrimental.

The jealous mind loses  

its power to think clearly.
It creates vicious stories
on the subject of the jealousy.

It is so easy to recognize jealousy
Just like hatred it is only a burden
to the person carrying it.

Let us all be magnanimous.
Rejoice in the successes of others.
May be easier said than done,
but still the best choice, one can make.

Realist

Yesterday saw this video by Marissa Peers, where she gave a simple demonstration of the power of our thoughts. She asked the whole audience to close their eyes and hold both arms stretched horizontally in front of them. Then she went on to talk about heavy bucket of cement they kept in their left hand and the right hand was tied to a huge helium filled balloon. Almost all left arms went down a bit and the right ones up.

There were no buckets, no balloons, just thoughts.

So thoughts do have a strong effect on us.
That is why we better choose to think positive.
For pessimists this may sound as a lie.
But for optimists, the negative thoughts of the pessimists
 sound every bit as much as a lie.

The world is supporting us.
It provides with all the water we need.
All nutritious foods are found easily
The air is full of oxygen.
And if you really look out for opportuinity,
the world is full of opportunity.

So we have a choice to be pessimist, and tell ourselves negative lies
which will end up to be self fulfilling prophecies like the imagined bucket was pulling the left arms down or we can choose to think positive thoughts which will also become self fulfilling prophecies like the imagined balloons were pulling the right arms up.

We do not have to become surreal dreamers.
But somehow expecting the best to happen is not surreal.

I think all of us went to a few huge disappointments:
expecting the best but getting it not.
The disappointment is a real bad feeling.
Too quickly we learned to expect the worst, so we will not be disappointed.

In the process of expecting the worst we manipulate circumstances so the chances for a good outcome decrease very significantly
In the process of expecting the worst, we go through the agony of anticipating the worst, even if the worst may not come our way in the end.
In the process of expecting the worst, we create lot of fear and worry that may affect our physical health in many ways.


If we expect the best, we remain alert to all opportunities coming our way and are more likely to notice and take the opportunities with both hands
If we expect the best, we will be generally much more happy and outgoing, increasing the likelihood of good things to happen
If we expect the best, occasionally we may have big disappointments, but so be it. The occasional disappointment is much preferred over the continuous fretting, worry and fear of the pessimists with their occasional pleasant surprises, which tend to happen rarely exactly because of their negative attitude and actions.

Praise

This morning, in the local supermarket, I saw a man who looked a bit familiar
but somehow I could not exactly remember from where the familiarity came.
I nodded a hello from a distance and he came right up to me and shook my hand.
He said that 15 years ago, I saved the life of his daughter
when she was admitted to our neonatal ward.

After a talk filled with friendship and happiness we went each on our way.

I surely was smiling a smile, broad, coming straight from my heart.
Sometimes we get these God-sent expressions of thanks.
We try to be humble in moments like these.


At times, being a doc is quite tough.
We tend to do our work with enthusiasm and lots of energy.
But somehow, frustrations do happen and they can get to the heart.
when things go less well we tend not spare ourselves from harsh self criticism.

If the father of that daughter, would happen to read this page.
MANY thanks, my friend.
We all need appreciation from time to time.
I felt great after the encounter and it will surely give me
much extra energy and enthusiasm durung my next moments of frustration.

Power / temper

Today I lost my temper a bit during a ward round.

It is so easy for a consultant who heads the round to let his or her temper flare.
So easy to belittle the medical officer who forgot something.
They may have done 99 things right but they tend to get it for the 1 thing wrong.

Whenever I lose a bit of my temper, I almost always regret it, within the same day.
Being kind and humble, no matter what position we are in ourselves is one of my aspirations.

But then again we are only human.
Sometimes we are not in a good mood because things happening outside of our work.
Then we start the round with good intentions but if something seems to be revealed
that should not have happened, it adds stress. If then the one who "did it" tries to
hide the obvious, sometimes, off the temper goes.


On calm seas, it is easy to steer the ship towards all love.
If we manage to do so on rough seas too, we get a bit closer to the ideal, I think.
Whenever something happens like today (losing my temper during a round,
out of a position of power), I feel I have a long, long way to go. 

Who is in control

We tend to accumulate so many things in our life.
Sometimes we work for the money
That is good.
But if we work all the time for the money,
then who is working for who?

There is time for us to work for the money
but there has to be time too, that we allow the money to work for us.
If we hoard and hoard without using the money we earn,
we allow the money to be the boss and we just work for it.

So let us work hard for the money we need and maybe more than that,
but then let us also make time to enjoy using the money
for ourselves and for others too if possible.

We need to take control if it comes to money matters.
We cannot let money dominate our whole lives.

The double jeopardy of pessimism

On my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, I bought a book, titled, "Do humankind's best days lie ahead?" It is the narrative of a debate held in Canada. Thought-provoking.

If we are to learn from history, everything, from health, to mean income, to safety and so many other things are getting better with time. Still, there are the pessimists, who call themselves unjustified, realists, who have fatalistic thinking. They rely on what they see on TV and the news.

While pessimistic thoughts are not supported by history, neither by any logical or rational thinking, pessimists tend to go on making a still graver thinking error: since the future is so bleak, we better try to take care of ourselves as good as we can. While that seems sound by itself, it becomes a complete joke if we look at what they mean by taking care of themselves: hoarding money, and wealth and partying and drinking and so on.

Whether we are optimistic or pessimistic, we should know what brings real happiness to us, what taking care of ourselves truly means!

Adequately taking care of ourselves and achieving enduring happiness does not lie in
- drinking and partying.
- accumulating wealth way beyond our needs
- showing off our latest material possessions
It does mean and lie in selfless service and sharing and being randomly kind!

Love and stand

  Love And Stand

 

I love them
I like them
I love them

And yet some traits
I cannot stand

I love them
but if they...
and if they...
and surely if they...
I cannot stand it!
But still I love

Oh, my God, when 
will unconditional love
come my way 
to be mine?
So I can love
I can stand
I can love and stand,
no matter what. 

Aufie Zophy

The golden egg

Back in 2010, I fractured one vertebra (a bone in my spine).
I was confined to lying down in a supine position for three months.
Even reading was not easy to do in this position,
so I started listening to audiobooks.
In one audiobook, I heard the poem, eternity by William Blake.
I liked the poem so much that I looked it up on the internet.
This brought me to the website poemhunter.
I wanted to comment on the poem, but I had first to register.
In the registration process it became clear that we could post our own poems there too.

Not much later I was sitting (lying) outside and a little purple flower caught my eye.
I took a picture of it and not much later my very first poem in the English language was born:
little purple flower. The comments I received were so encouraging. I wrote a few more poems in the following weeks. I wrote them actually for my sons. Somehow they do not show too much interest in my poetry even if I directly show it to them. Hope some day, they will enjoy. While waiting for them to enjoy I hope, you will enjoy the following one which gave me a smile, when I read it back this evening:

The golden egg

Suppose you had a goose,
A goose that would produce
A golden egg a day
You wouldn’t want to lose
That special golden goose
You’d care for it in every way

Now something of more incredible worth
Was given to each of us at birth
We ‘ve got a worthy thinking brain
If positive, loving thoughts we’d feed it
Yes that is really all that’s needed
Just think of all the golden eggs to gain

If we keep up with doom and hateful thinking
Consuming drugs, excessive drinking
Getting stressed about any item in the news
Neglect good deeds and thoughts of pure
We can count on it, perfectly sure
That we will lose our brain as golden goose

Let’s feed our brain with all the best
Positive thoughts, lofty aims, a loving chest
Let’s focus on God’s way, forget the rest
Search daily for some goodness in the news
And sure your brain, just like the goose
A golden egg a day it will produce

Aufie Zophy

Dreams of joy

 "I slept and dreamed that life is joy
I woke up and saw that life was service
I acted and behold, service was joy"

The above quote from Rabindranath Tagore is really speaking to my soul
I have deep inside that very strong belief that indeed service equals joy.
Service brings peace of mind and
peace of mind is such a huge component of joy!

Just think of the last time you rendered selfless service.
Does it bring peace of mind, does it bring joy?

So what to do in our life?
Let us create more joy for others and ourselves.
and understand fully what Rabindranath meant in the above quote
If we live a life of service, we live a life of joy.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. Rabindranath Tagore
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. Rabindranath Tagore
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. Rabindranath Tagore
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rabindrana134933.html

Authority

Hitler gathered so much authority
that he managed to corrupt the minds of the masses
in favor of evil and violence within a short time.

Would it be possible that soon we get someone
gathering so much authority, perhaps more than Hitler
to move the minds of the masses in the other direction:
towards a true and all encompassing kindness revolution?

I can see clearly that this is possible.
We need authority for the good.
Not liars and power-sick politicians,
but true advocates of compassion and kindness

Looks sometimes a bit that people like Mother Teresa
Ghandi and the Dalai Lama are among the persons
preparing the path for such an authority to come.

Somehow, our elected leaders of today, in many countries,
are willing to give up all their own moral values,
practice all kinds of evil, just to obtain massive wealth.

Outwardly they seem to be doing well.
But inwardly they must be wrecks.
The moments they are true to themselves
they must hate themselves so much.

Oh, my dear good friends,
we need an authoritative figure
Authority for love, care, kindness, empathy.
If Hitler can corrupt the mind almost all Germans in less than ten years,
Surely a new authority, standing for the GOOD,
might be able to influence the mind of almost all people on earth for the better.

Let us all within our small communities, become authorities for the GOOD.
 

True power

Somehow we were given the true power to choose
the values and principles we want to live our lives by.

But what do we do?


The values and principles, I want to live by are love and peace.
The power is mine to choose these principles at any time!
And yet so often I give away that power to others,
to govern my actions and emotions with their principles.

I want to share the following story:

It is about a loving and generous young man who loves to help people.
He had agreed to meet his friend at 3 PM.
The friend did not turn up and was not contactable at the time.
That was mean of that friend.

The young man became upset, gave away his peace of mind.
He was grumpy for the rest of the day.
Everyone he met, was told in a loud way about how bad that friend was.

The young man could have stuck with his principle of love and generosity
and have imagined a situation where that friend was stuck somewhere
in traffic with a telephone that had a flat battery, or he could have chosen
to just pity the guy for his lousy behaviors and lack of manners.

Instead he gave away the power to control his own principles to that friend.
That friend had been mean. He had allowed his own principles and values
to be determined by his friends values and principles.


We have the power to choose.
We do not have to let others or circumstances determine
our values and principles by which we live.
It is our choice. Our TRUE POWER. 

If we choose love and kindness, the meanness of others cannot change this.
If the actions of others determine how we behave (kind or mean),
we give that enormous wonderful power to them, to the circumstances.
Let us starting today with fully exerting this enormous personal power!
Maybe easier said than done, but worth to try, isn't it?

Sense-ational

Just sharing a poem, I wrote about 3 years ago

Sense-Ational

The smell of the sea was more special
More precious than that of a rose in spring
The wind on my skin was so sweet and soft
It was fantastic, a real caressing
The sounds of the waves, real music
Mozart, Bach, never heard such a thing
The view of the sea the colours so nice
Blue green, white waves, amazingly amazing

I tried to smell, feel, hear and see
All at the same time, simultaneously
But this was really much easier said than done
When I looked and listened, the smell was gone
Focusing on smell and the breeze from the skies
gave me the sudden strong urge to close my eyes
I tried again and again to absorb the senses of the sea
And what was first two, became soon a wonderful three.

After some time I finally could sense all four
It felt like being one with the sea in my core
I felt and smelled and heard and saw
It really had me standing there in awe
I licked my lips and guess what
I could taste some of the sea’s salt…

Aufie Zophy

(Aufie Zophy is my author name/nom de plume)

Changing the world

When the terrible news of a genocide comes we tend to get despondent.
We want to do something about it; sometimes we sign a petition,
but generally we feel quite powerless.

When we see the children in Africa dying from hunger
We want to do something about it; sometimes we donate a sum to a charity involved
but generally we feel powerless.

When I was very young, I had this dream, this ideal to change the world for the better. I saw it quite big. This is not a simple thing to do however. As I grew a bit less young :), I almost gave up on this wonderful ideal, this amazing dream. But in moments of reflection I became aware that I do not have to give up that adorable dream and fantastic ideal:

We may be not able to save the world from atrocities, but we CAN change the world! We may not be able to help our brothers and sisters suffering now in places that are far away from us, but we can get ourselves inspired.

If we manage to make a small positive change in our family or prevent a minor negative event in our village or at our workplace,we are in the process of changing the world. If we manage to enjoy the pleasure of living a life filled with altruism and try to inspire some others about this very true feeling and desired way of life, we are changing the world. Each and everyone can make many small changes in this world and I am sure if enough us do so, we look at a future that is bright for most people, 100% foolproof against idiotic despotism

If wondering how to start, there is a good site on the web about random acts of kindness: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/ 

Paradox

I have always been intrigued by the paradox:
It is in giving that you receive.

For a long time, I thought it did not make too much sense.
If you give away your money, you have less in your account.
Giving with the aim to receive sounded more like corruption.

Now I think I understand that the paradox is not about money.
It is not about material things. It is more like this, I feel:
It is in giving love that you receive peace of mind

And somehow receiving peace of mind is a tremendously bigger gift
to receive than any amount of love we could ever give.

The paradox could also be understood as follows:
Inside our heart we have a large amount of love.
If we take some of it to give it away,
automatic it is replenished with much bigger amounts
than the amount that was given away.
So again it is in giving that we receive.

I remember an event in my own life, i have described already before:
As I work in Malaysia, whenever I visited my family in Belgium
I somehow expected a special welcome, from my closest family.
If it did not work out as expected, I was frustrated and sometimes,
the whole visit turned out to be not so pleasant.
Then I read in the prayer of Francis of Assisi:
"Please, God, Let me seek to
love rather than to be loved"
My next visit, I applied this wisdom and tried to give love no matter what.
I received a great peace of mind
My own heart become more filled with love
and as cream on the cake, my closest relatives love for me was fantastic
It was the best visit ever

So, before frowning again (as I used to do in the past) upon hearing or reading
this amazing paradox: it is in giving that we receive,
try to apply it to giving love.
Amazing, truly astonishing, fascinating, awesome

No gym, don't worry

If we feel like we need a body work out,
we tend to go to the gym and burn some calories doing exercises
or we go for a log walk and to burn more calories we jog a bit.

This morning, I was wondering, why do we waste so much efforts
why do we waste so much money
There are so many useful things we could do while still getting the work out our bodies need so badly. Why not we go and clean the beach instead of going to the gym or why not instead of running in the park or along the beach, we bring a person in a wheelchair and burn the extra calories while walking, pushing a wheelchair and having a nice chat with the person in the chair?

Let us each organize at least once in a year a crazy event like a wheelchair walk
If you are a member of a gym, why not ask your friends from the gym to replace
one session in the gym with cleaning a stretch of beach of 1 km long
or go and cut the grass in a whole kampung to make it look really nice?

There are so many useful things we can do
that provide exercise to the body in a very balanced manner,
much more balanced than the apparatus from the gym :)

Happiness

Happiness is a word with at least two very different meanings.

When i get food, it makes me happy (blij in Dutch, gembira in Malay)
When I drive my new car it makes me happy (blij, gembira)

But when I call my auntie who is 84 years old and very lonely
something much more profound is happening:
It touches my inner self, my inner being, my soul
I am happy (gelukkig in Dutch, bahagia in Malay)

In English blij is maybe closer to gaiety
and gelukkig to having peace of mind
But in both Malay and Dutch these two
are not used interchangeably by the same word

I think most humans should strive to get peace of mind - type - of - happiness
Perhaps if the English language as such would have a sharper distinction between the two types of happiness, it may be likely that less people would trick themselves in doing all to get the temporal type of happiness f material wealth, power and ego gratification. <?>

Please read also on the two meanings of love

or visit my poetry page: http://www.poemhunter.com/aufie-zophy/

Words

One of the biggest confusions in this world arises from
the poverty of the English Language for certain words:

1. Love
The meanings of love are so diverse and yet so similar.
If the different meanings of love would have different words,
our world would perhaps be a lot less confused.

The meaning of love as in being in love is an infatuation.
It is a powerful and wonderful feeling that falls on us from the sky
and that most often falls out of us again within a reasonably short time.
It comes almost invariably with the illusion of being eternal

The meaning of love as in "love thy neighbour as thyself"
or in the sense the Dalai Lama talks about loving our fellow humans,
is something completely different. This type of love, has 2 sub-meanings
still:
Love as a do-word (verb): we love when we do something loving for people
Love as a noun: the feeling associated with doing loving things.

If we remember some of the most famous songs, like "love hurts"
or some of the heartbroken "love"- poems, it is invariably about the 'in love'-love.

Doing simple loving things for our neighbours or even for strangers (almost) never hurts
Love in its meaning without the 'in' is so very different.

If we would have different words for in love and love and have a better understanding of the differences between the two, I think we would see a lot more happy couples in this world.

We always fancy -like in fairy tales- for the in love to last and live happily ever after.
If we fall out of love which almost always happens we feel there is something wrong and we feel we are with the wrong partner. But nothing is less true. IF we possess some wisdom we will replace the in love (the infatuation) with love (the verb) and create as such love (the feeling). In this way the infatuation may come back on and off for the same partner and we will enjoy the feeling that is endlessly more valuable still than the infatuation. We will be able to build a stable relationship which is essential for the well being of our children and in fact also ourselves. There are plenty examples of people (the most famous examples among the pop or movie stars)  who fly from infatuation to breakup to new infatuation to break up and new infatuation and break up and repeat the whole sequence many, many times. They tend to end up as wrecks and not rarely such a life ends in suicide or overdose of something illicit.

2. my next soul sprinkle will deal with another important word

Deep

There is a story of settlers of a big land,
passing over big plains areas of fertile soil
but they did not find water.
They dug wells and the wells dried up too soon
and they moved on and on.

Later other people came to the same areas.
They dug deeper wells and found abundant streams of water
and now the land is giving so much produce

The author of the text (SW Bremer) compared the deep streams of abundance
with the deep sources, talents and callings, that reside deep within our inner self.
We may just live on the surface and experience drought after drought,
but then, when we dig deeper in our mind, heart and soul,
we may find our very own special talents and start a life
where work becomes a hobby.
Please, let us keep on searching
searching for our calling
searching for the truth
Sometimes we may have to search deep.

What a wonderful world

I was just listening again to the song of Louis Armstrong, what a wonderful world.
Each time I hear the song it seems to have a kind of special effect on me.
His almost magical voice gets time after time the fullest of my attention
and each word in the song seems to move my heart in an extraordinary way.

I think we need more songs like this.
We need more people like Louis Armstrong,
singing excitedly about the beauty of the world,
about flowers and friendship and children.

Right now, I feel the world is still reeling
by a surprising American vote for hatred
for division and isolation and bigotry,
but somewhere inside I keep hoping.

Actually inside of me,
there is something so much stronger than hope.
It is more of a positive certainty that soon,
much sooner than many of us can expect,
the world will take a turn for the better.

Perhaps the American election was meant to be like this.
We tend to learn very valuable lessons from our mistakes.
I hope, no, I know, that somehow the force that has pushed evolution
to the extremely high level of human function we experience to day,
will continue to steer the world to new heights,
no longer alone in the sense of new technical progress
but much more now in the sense of wisdom progress.

The world is caring.
Extremely caring, when compared to 200 years ago.
And our generation Y and Z is rejecting greed at a much higher level
than ever before.

Please my friends, keep believing with me.
If you have a hard time, especially after Brexit and Trump,
take a minute or two and listen to the most amazing song ever produced:
What A WONDERFUL WORLD

I wish you so much love
So much caring
So much sharing
and a day full of peace of mind and happiness.

Awe suddenly quadrupled

I do not know too much about life,
but I know that it keeps amazing me.

Today my good friend Prof Zabidi
shared with me the most astonishing coincidences
happening for his adopted daughter who is severely disabled.

Coincidence comes from the word, coincide.
If two lines coincide, that means that they perfectly match.
Perfectly matching lines have nothing to do
with haphazardness or chance events.

Surely some coincidences are just chance events
but I think almost every human being has witnessed
not one but multiple coinciding events that
touch on the borders of the impossible.

The new-age thinkers believe that through
directed thoughts and positive feelings
people can increase the likelihood
of supreme level coincidences in their life.

I am not a believer in magic
but somehow if we keep our mind busy with positive thoughts
we will give more attention to the positive things and
notice the opportunities more readily and accurately too.

The way we think affects our attention
Our attention affects our perception and from there also our actions.
So, even if not agreeing with most of new-age thoughts,
it does make sense to think more positive thoughts
in order to create more positive events in our life.

Another huge puzzle and amazing thing in our life
is the capability of humans to control to a certain extent our emotions.
By changing our thoughts, we can change our emotions.

And then how our problems tend to shape quite often our life.
Life never seems to stop to be truly amazing!
Thinking about life does bring a feeling of awe.

This evening I was experiencing such a state of amazement and awe,
while thinking about life and all the above, when I suddenly looked outside
and saw a most adorable sunset from my hotel room over the skyline of Kuala Lumpur.
My awe and respect for the world, which was at almost maximal levels, I thought,
suddenly quadrupled !

The "wild well-doer"

(title borrowed from a cartoon)
This small essay is on the combination of service and humility.


If we manage to give some real good selfless service,
quite often we feel we should keep it to ourselves,
if not, we think, it will be no longer selfless;
If we share our good deeds with others, we may feel we lost humility.
That leads to people to be very discrete about their own good deeds
while most people tend to be quite loud about other people's bad deeds.


The above causes a disproportionate ratio of bad talk, bad news over good talk, good news.
Sharing our good and nice achievements does not mean a lack of humility.
One can immediately see whether it is done to share and inspire
or to elevate the wild well-doer

If we try to give good service however, there is always a threat of loss of humility.
It lies not so much in sharing our achievements to inspire, but it lies in our judgement.
After a while we become sure that what we do is right, because it feels so right.
That is still OK. But that feeling of being right makes us too often judge others as wrong.
And that is not OK.

We are all humans with our innate limitations and weaknesses.
Whenever I tend to become too judgemental, there seems to happen something
that really brings me back with my feet on the ground.
It is good to encourage, to inspire, but harsh criticism is rarely of benefit.

So, in conclusion, yes, always keep focused on remaining humble
not so much in terms of avoiding to inspire others
but more in terms of avoiding to criticize others.
But remember:

ABOVE ALL, Enjoy to be a wild well-doer

Colors of Love

Let us reach deep in our heart,
and then the painting will start
in the colors of love, kindness and peace;
not one single soul, entering our place
will miss out the warmth and bliss
upon the sight of colors like this

You may choose to believe it or not:
in no place, the painting will stop.
Our whole house will be colored the same;
our street, village, and soon our whole state
Hues of love and kindness ‘ll glow everywhere
And no, the painting will not stop there

It 'll go on 'til the whole land is covered in love
Kindness in front, from behind, below and above
All my brothers and sisters 'll use their brush
painting colors so adorable, vibrant and lush.
Until all children in our whole world wide
Will enjoy love's bliss and kindness' light

Let us all take up our biggest brush today
And start painting the world, right away.

  ---------------
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/ 
my poetry:
http://www.poemhunter.com/aufie-zophy/

A small thought

A small thought my dear students and friends,
may make you pass or fail.

If you do not believe deep inside
that you are ready to pass the exam,
How can you convince your examiner
that you are?

So, today start believing in yourself
gather enough self confidence to stirr
something deep inside.
Believe you will pass.

Too many times we are so afraid of grand disappointments
that we choose not to believe from the start.
But that lack of belief, that lack of self confidence
will soon became a self fulfilling prophecy.
That lack of belief will cause so much agony, so much pain,
perhaps ten times more than the pain of the disappointment in
case you'd not pass after having believed you would.

So let us think clear, not choose certain pain even before we sit for the exams
Let us think clear and choose a healthy level of self-confidence.
Passing is never a certainty
but no one needs to go through the agony of facing an exam
while convincing themselves they will not pass.

Most of the things we need to bring out from our brain, during an exam,is sitting somewhere in our memory. Whether or not we manage to bring out the true answer from the depths of our memory
will depend on our mental state. We need exactly the right amount of adrenaline:
- If we are too self confident we may have a lack of adrenaline
- If we are not confident enough we will produce far too much

So at least a few weeks before any exam,
start practicing a healthy level of self confidence
This positive self talk is so important.

Self confidence alone is not enough; we have to be prepared for the exam
but without self confidence, even if we prepare are chances to achieve success will be most likely not very great.

Aim for distinction, If you miss, you 'll still pass

Think: "I will pass"
Do not think: "I will fail"
'cause on little thought can make a huge difference

Serendipity

I was sitting inside.
I was looking at you-tube on my phone,
had found some very old fashioned Flemish songs
from local singers, singing in my very own dialect.

Then came out the sun, from behind the clouds.
My eye caught the sunlight and there was such a strong nudge inside
to go outside and enjoy the beauty of the sun shining in the garden.

I went outside and completely unexpected on the leaves of the first tree i met
was sitting a butterfly with wonderful wings. I stopped in my steps and admired the beauty.
The butterfly slowly opened its wings and showed me the other side of his wings,
different but also amazingly beautiful. I went on walking and saw a few wild white small flowers
which must have grown overnight. They contrasted so beautifully with yellow wild flowers that were there all the time.

Serendipity, such a nice word. It means something good happening unexpectedly. Encountering something good that we did not fully expect. If we manage to walk with an open mind, an open heart and our eyes widely open for beauty, we can encounter so many things. Sometimes all it takes is to listen to that little voice inside, that little voice that is inviting you to make a walk outside :)

I remember just last week. It was about 11 pm. I felt the desire to make a walk to the beach. My rational mind protested. Usually if I get these kind of crazy ideas, I invite my eldest son and he is almost always ready to join me on a little crazy adventure. Sometimes he says to me, we like to do crazy things, don't we? And it gives me a smile. But that night last week, when I went to his room, he was tired and did not feel like going out. I put the idea aside but as I was in my room again the idea to make a nightly walk towards the beach came back. I thought, well, perhaps I just need some fresh air and made the walk alone. When I reached the beach I got so much more than fresh air. There were fireflies making the most wonderful dance in the air. At first I saw one and then another one and then more and more. It was so nice. It made me think of a small poem (in-the-dark-of-the-night-) I have written quite some years ago about a single firefly that was giving me so much hope for a wonderful sunrise. Here I had in front of me not one but so many. Somehow it kindled my hope for humanity and I went to sleep in such a peaceful state of mind.

Serendipity, something nice, meeting something nice that we were not looking for. If you were not familiar with the word, let us make it something familiar. If we follow our small nudges inside (some people call it intuition), we tend to meet things we never had expected.

Many mornings, I ask our God, please my God, let me follow your path. Then I think for a while what that means to me, but I always end with: or something better. And surely our Creator knows what is best for us, and many days, we get opportunities to do good, far beyond our imagination. I love the word serendipity. Just celebrate the word today with me :)

Potassium's wonder

Potassium, Kalium (K), that amazing element.
Inside our blood we have 5 mmol/L of it
If it would drop to 2 or rise to 8, we would be very likely be dead.

And yet in our cells, all our cells, we have close to 150 mmol/L of it.
98% of our bodies' potassium is inside the cells.
The membranes of the cells in our body work 24/7 in a most wonderful way
to keep the potassium inside the cells and to prevent us from dying of too much K in our blood.

Now at this moment, all the membranes of each cell in your body are working hard and throughout the day and night they go on! How they handle this element is a miracle

Then how our gut and our kidney regulate the total amount of K in our body,
is still more amazing, more unbelievably complex and superb.
A miracle of the highest order.

Please my friends and my students,
take the effort to read everything about potassium and its most wonderful physiology.

Then take it one step further and see how it interacts with H+
and the H+ and K+ with with Na+
and all of these with Ca++
and Cl- and the proteins
and the hormones

If we study from a point of awe, studying is a true pleasure.

Who still thinks this extremely extreme miracle of our body managing just to have enough of everything is a mere random event ?
Even for ones not believing in a God, it is logically undeniable that there is a creative force in the universe steering evolution. And please my friends, take a while to think about this. If we think we are regressing in today's world because of Trump or any real or would-be leader or politician, then think twice. We rarely see the positive changes in our world . But think or read about just 100 years ago. Think how people died of infections, how people treated others in research, how people treated orphans or children born to unmarried women, how many demons of the mind were kept alive by scholars to keep themselves in their powerful positions,...

Just think and see how fast we are moving forward.
Just think how much wisdom is shared daily and how much we tend inspire each other
Did this happen two hundred years ago?

Definitely we do still have plenty of problems in the world.
But how big, really, are our problems if we consider all
the good in the world, the superb beauty of the nature
and ...
the wonder that lies in potassium :)

A K-word

Music of Kindness
is playing a pleasing piece
pleasing peaceful song;

Colors of Kindness
are painting masterly art
drawing peace at heart;



Fragrance of Kindness
smell of indulgence
softer, sweeter than Jasmine 

Pleasing heart and mind
Kindness is kindling the soul
spirit filled with peace.

Today we had a fun-event for underprivileged children.
The kindness displayed by all was superb,heart warming.

Let us celebrate kindness today!


 

Big things

'Many big things have started with a small dream.'
That was the answer of a friend of mine when
I had posted my dream of a world without money.


Somehow he was correct.
Whether it is a car or a house
or a revolution or movement
everything starts with a thought
with a small dream of someone thinking
a bit different from mainstream.

I would like you to read now one of the small prayers for a big world:
http://smallprayersforabigworld.blogspot.my/2016/09/a-dream-of-world-without-money-where.html
You can click on the link above and read some other small prayers too.
If the link would not work, I have pasted the content of it below:

I dream of a world without money
where each of us serve
according to our talents
just for the pleasure of serving.
Money was made to ensure fair trades
so that everyone gets compensated
according to the level of work they deliver
But this is not happening.
Money is not fairly distributed
Money is not fairly paid
The financial world has become
a huge parody, a mockery of fairness and justice
So let us forget about fairness and justice.
There will be always people who do not want to work
There will be always people who serve less than others
The world may be never fair.
But isn't it about time that we get out of the slavery of money
Isn't it about time we start fully enjoying the pleasure of selfless service
Isn't it about time we give up our enormous hunger for money.
IF enough people would give selfless free service,
the need for money would disappear.
It would be a world much fairer than anything we have today.
Those who do not participate in the service will enjoy the service of others
without rendering service themselves, but they will miss out on the great pleasure
that selfless service brings. They will be actually on the losing end.
May sound like a wild, wild dream,
but somewhere deep inside there is a spark of hope, my God,
that enough people will get inspired by Your great Love.
The world is changing and it is changing fast.
Let us take this unlikely turn towards
a worldwide united loving society
I dream about
I pray for
I long for
I visualize
I believe in
a world where money lost all value
a world where all contribute to the good
of each other