Friday, 28 October 2022

In the middle


      No matter how high we rise in our society, there tend to be always people who are above us, to whom we look up. At work, most of us have subordinates, we have clients and we have superiors. We can say we are somehow in the middle. 

    There is a tendency to focus our efforts on pleasing the people above us. That is not an easy thing to do. People above us, want to "help" us improve by fault finding and criticism. Just like quite often we do with the people below us. 

    I have seen so many house officers and junior medical doctors being close to nervous breakdowns because they get scolded and criticized for the 2 mistakes they made while no one talks about the 98 good things they did. And the weird thing is that those above them, criticizing them, think they are merely helping them to improve. 

    If we shift the focus of our efforts to please the people below us, we enter a wholly different realm. Instead of working to please the "boss" we start to render service to those who need it. There is so much peace and so much job satisfaction to be found in rendering service, seemingly selfless service. In the case of junior docs, if they focus on going the extra mile for their patients, on helping the docs that are still junior to them, on being friendly to nurses and attendants, Job satisfaction will be their part, They will have peace, that will not be easily disturbed by any toxic comments from whoever is their senior. 

    Somehow that is how we were made. Rendering service give peace of mind and happiness of the highest order. Many of us do not know this, or are not consciously aware of this at most of the time. We look for the highest form of happiness in places and achievement where this type of happiness cannot be found. Pleasure was meant as a means to help us survive. Peace of mind and true happiness were meant as a means of becoming a human being with a purpose and contributing to the betterment of this world :)

Let us focus on the people below us. Give them a helping hand and find perfect joy in it.





Monday, 17 October 2022

Imagine!

If the world would be filled with love
The hungry boy in Malawi,
would be bathing in love and not be hungry for very long
The lonely lady in her two bedroom apartment
would be bathing in love and not be lonely for very long

If the world would be filled with love
The quarrels within families
would drown in love and soon be replaced with harmony
The greed within the world
would drown and soon make place for kindness and compassion

If the world would be filled with love
you and me 
would bathe in love

If the world would be filled with love...
Imagine!

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Wonderful poems (inspirational and motivational): https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/
(my pen name for poetry name is Aufie Zophy)
Some beautiful inspirational quotes:  https://quotesfromhans.blogspot.com/ 


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

ENJOY

Saturday, 15 October 2022

Two handles

I share here two parts of the Enchiridion (a work by Epictetus, a Greek philosopher who lived about 2 millennia ago)

 43. Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it cannot. If your brother acts unjustly, don't lay hold on the action by the handle of his injustice, for by that it cannot be carried; but by the opposite, that he is your brother, that he was brought up with you; and thus you will lay hold on it, as it is to be carried.

44. These reasonings are unconnected: "I am richer than you, therefore I am better"; "I am more eloquent than you, therefore I am better." The connection is rather this: "I am richer than you, therefore my property is greater than yours;" "I am more eloquent than you, therefore my style is better than yours." But you, after all, are neither property nor style.

I think that the wisdom in the first part (43) is amazing. Please let it sink in for awhile. If we replace brother by spouse, it becomes still more relevant. In the current times we do spend far more time with our spouses than with our siblings. If our spouse does something unjust or not right to us, do not get blinded by the part of the injustice, but keep in mind that our spouse is the one we love and the one who loves us. There are so many imperfections in each of us and if we think deep and hard enough, we will find that we have not always be perfectly just to them either. Let us hold the handle that can be held. So nice, isn't it?

The second part (44) speaks for itself. Another piece of superb wisdom. 

Sometimes, when I read superb pieces of wisdom like this which have been around for so very long, I find it a bit sad that these things are not common knowledge, that these things are not taught in our schools as something everyone should know.

Let us all get so excited about wisdom, that we actively search for a bit of wisdom every week, or even every day and then share it with our friends, with our family. :)




Friday, 14 October 2022

Focus


Emotions can become the subject of what we focus on.
If we choose that we want to be grateful,
we will find so many things to be grateful for.
And if those things, that usually anger us, present themselves,
we may not notice it, since we are in the process 
of seeing so many wonderful things  we want to be grateful for

If, on the other hand, we choose to be critical of others,
we will easily find so many things that are on our nerve 
and anger and frustration will become lead players in the theater of our life.
 
Let us think for a while about what emotion serves us best,
actively search for things that provoke this emotion
and we will no longer notice things that provoke the opposite emotions
 
What do you think about this? 





Best regards from Bachok Malaysia,
Do enjoy some browsing through the archive 
Hans Van Rostenberghe

Monday, 10 October 2022

The desolate escargot

On a deserted beach, a desolate escargot lay helpless in shallow water.
It observed the extravaganza of a dancing crab in a breaking wave
It could see the amazing shades of green on the forest on the shore
It was not moved by the dance, nor by the colors.
 
It was not until a deep thought coming from far away 
entered his little escargot brain, 
that it managed to shake off the sadness.
What was the deep thought?
 
 

 


Sunday, 9 October 2022

The story of the cat

       Yesterday I went to a restaurant in Bachok, the small Malaysian town on the East Coast of Malaysia, where I live. There are not many restaurants that are closed or have air-conditioning in our place. Usually the weather is pleasantly warm and a ceiling fan is enough to keep it so. 

        A restaurant is typically an open space with a roof above it to protect everyone from the rains that fall abundantly in our region especially in the late evening and at night. 

        I had ordered nasi goreng, ayam kunyit, which is a classical dish of fried risce with chicken that is prepared with the powder of turmeric, a true delicacy, in my opinion.

         Shortly before the dish arrived, I felt a tap on my leg. It was a colorful cat with lovely eyes. The cat had just used her pat to gently tap my leg, to let me know she was there. Her look, straight into my eyes, told me her expectations of "please share a bit of your food with me"

The cat was so beautiful and the look in my eyes touched so much my heart, that as soon as my meal arrived, I shared a bit of the chicken with the cat. She ate it and soon a second cat, a black one, came and joined. A few times again, the colorful one tapped with one of her pats on my leg and each time I gave a small amount of meat to her and to the black cat who was watching with equally eager eyes from a distance. 

After awhile, it seemed that they got enough, and both of them laid down close to my chair, keeping me company throughout the meal. I was there with seven of my close family members, but I had not a clue why the cat had chosen me. 

Anyhow, I felt good about it and that is why I share the story of the cat here. I know that in a western world, cats do not belong in restaurants, and some Europeans would be irritated if they did. Here they are just a part of our life and if we manage to be gentle to them as we are to our fellow human beings, it brings us peace of mind and yes, a bit of happiness. 

And for the meat on my plate, I had plenty left and I certainly did not go hungry.😅

 PS: if you are not a cat lover or do not like the story above, I am sure it will still be possible for you to find something you really enjoy the archive  of this blog. It is filled with inspiring stories and reflections. Many thanks for reading .

Saturday, 8 October 2022

In Every Corner

A few years ago, I wrote a small poem for my sons.  
 
I posted it on the PoemHunter website 
and one yoga teacher let me know 
she used the poem in her yoga classes 
and the people from the classes loved it a lot. 

I post it here in this blog and hope you love it as much as the people in the yoga class :)
Enjoy!

If you are the one shining the light,
You will never be bothered by night.
If loving warmth is given by you to all,
Loneliness may never bother your soul.

If love and kindness are your way of being
And in everyone some good you're seeing,
Then happiness and peace of mind
In every little corner of this world, you'll find. 
 
Aufie Zophy
 
 
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Aufie Zophy is my pen name, I use for writing poems
A selection of the favorites among my own poems 
can be found through clicking the following link

Friday, 7 October 2022

Passion for kindness

Passion for kindness 
 
When our future seems just gloomy and dark
It is time to search for that amazing spark
That is always there, that never goes out
No matter how grey the sky, how dark the cloud.

 
No matter how disturbing the news, we read
We can always find what we truly need
Let’s not seek it on facebook, no, not on the net
That spark is not there, let’s never forget


 It sits inside, in our brain, our heart and soul
That spark of passion, that burning call
that little motivating flame to be ever nice and kind
that inspiring thought that never really left our mind
 
Let’s go on a complete fast from news at least for a day
Let us make it silent within and keep all negativity at bay
Find back that spark inside and feed it
A flame, a fire of passion for kindness, we truly need it


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In difficult times, finding motivation, inspiration may be not easy. 
I am sure if you browse the entries on this blog archive, it may help

I have some created some other sites and blogs too,
that may help to awaken that little spark within
and let it be a flame or even a fire :)
Please take a look
Enjoy
Awaken the awareness of all beauty, love and peace that surrounds us



Wonderful poems (inspirational and motivational): https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/
(my pen name for poetry name is Aufie Zophy)
Some beautiful inspirational quotes:  https://quotesfromhans.blogspot.com/ 


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