Good men

I always tell my son:

"We are good men. You and me are good men.
If someone does nasty things to us,
this does not change us from good to nasty.
We just choose to remain good men.
In case we would respond to nastiness
with our own nastiness,
then we would allow the nasty men
to turn us, who are good men,
into nasty men.
We are good and have chosen to be good
We do not give the power to anyone
to take away our goodness."

So if someone treats us good,
we treat them good.
If someone treats us in a nasty way,
we treat them good.
If someone ignores us
we treat them good

No one can take away our goodness :)

PS: of course we are not perfect, we do lose our temper sometimes,
we are not "always" good. But if we stray, we will choose not to do so for long.
We will try to quickly come back to be just...... good men

The rose

Overnight, in the garden I own,
a little red rose, named Love, had grown

Seeing its beauty, I knew from the start
I had to pluck it, place it in my heart

From this exquisite rose, I am giving away
to my friends, a petal or two, every day

And of magical petals, I have no lack
'cause for each petal I give, two grow back

A big rose named Love will as long as I live
Reside in my heart: lots of petals to give

Now quick, I am sure that in your garden too,
there will be a rose, named Love, for you 

Aufie Zophy

I think...

Je pense, donc je suis!
A famous phrase, perhaps never intended to carry the importance, it has been given through the years.
But standing there, isolated from the rest of the story, it is an impressive phrase: I think, thus I exist.

Thinking is such a fantastic, fascinating, fabulous skill we were born with, or if we did not have it fully at birth, something we developed over our youthful years.It makes us human, it makes us special and yet so often I have lived for days and days or even weeks, without stopping the daily activities and not taking some specific to think, to think about myself, to think about the world, to think about my beliefs and faith, to think about important things. But I count my self lucky that quite often I manage to think, to reflect on a regular basis. 

If we make it silent around us and silent within, this wonderful train of thoughts seem to come, some thoughts from within, but some seem to come from we do not know where. If I walk in nature and think about difficult questions, complex problems, sometimes answers do appear in my mind. I assume they come from our God, because I believe in a God, but I often wonder where do people not believing in a God, think these thoughts come from, or do they not have experiences as such?

There are periods where thinking is not as easy and these are the times that books and wisdom from our ancestors becomes so useful. Sometimes reading a few verses from scriptures or from philosophers or psychologists or simply a touching story can start a thinking process. I feel that we can learn all from each other. We think spontaneous thoughts. If there seems to be a period of lack of thoughts we look at books, at nature or anywhere from without and we can build up our own wisdom. 

I love to reflect.

Acceptance

Just a few moments ago, I received the shocking news that one of our young colleagues, trainee pediatrician, tragically died in a car accident.

She was brilliant, goodhearted, humble.
So true!

When things like that happen, we are struggling with the question of why.
Why this has to happen? A mother of 3 young children, a wife, a sister, a daughter!
A wonderful doc with a huge potential to do so much good and to make a wonderful difference for the children she would treat.

We will all miss her very much.
And this feeling of missing makes us really sad.
Not only sad, struggling to accept that it happened.

But young people do die.
and we cannot but accept
Faith can help in these situations but the explanations given, even though softening the sharpness of all the deep pain and sadness of those closest to the person who is no longer with us, tend not to be easily understood. The question of why a loving almighty God would want such a thing to happen remains.

As a doctor myself, and as a son of my late mom and dad, I have asked these questions again and again and thought about them for so long. The only answer that makes sense to me is that we as simple humans cannot understand. Surely we have a superb and unbelievably complex mind, but it is really to small to understand all things that happen.

I do believe in a loving almighty God, but over time I have come to accept that things do happen that I cannot understand. Many of the common 'religious' explanations seem to put our Creator in a rather cruel or 'selfish' perspective, which makes me feel worse than simply accepting that we cannot understand :(

As time moves on, the sharp pain and sadness of the feeling of loss, do soften a bit and moments of gratefulness for having known the wonderful person who passed on tend to occur. It seems like nothing is permanent in this world, but while we are alive we meet so many wonderful persons, have so many wonderful experiences, encounter so many wonderful things. When we lose them it makes us sad, it can cause us a huge pain. But the great miracle of life is going on and while not understanding the non-permanence, a sense of forgiveness, love and gratefulness tends to bring us a bit closer to acceptance

Fame and name

I came across the following verses, written more than 2500 years ago by Lao Tzu:

(part of verse 44, Tao Te Ching)

What contributes more to you:

Your self or your fame?

What matters more to you:

Your self or the possessions in your name?

When I read these verses, at first, I was revolting a bit against them.

These were questions and I felt I could answer as I wanted.

I wanted to choose the fame. Somewhere deep inside of us resides this longing to be renowned, to have some fame, to have a name that will be remembered. And I think it is good. If we are living in a corner, in anonymity, what can we possibly do or mean for the world? It was quite clear however that these verses were written and intended to make the reader aware of the opposite. The author intended us to become aware, to come to the conclusion that fame is less important than self.

Is it really? I refuse to put fame and a good name in the category of unimportant things. They are very important. When thinking then about how could I reach to the deeper meaning of these verses, I thought about the meaning of my Self. The I inside of me, my Self, is that part that has the values and the principles, the soul. But I am not only soul. I am also heart and mind and body. It may well be the soul that controls the rest of me in a certain way. When I manage to make it quiet enough to listen to my soul and when I manage to live up to my values of love, kindness, integrity, honesty, compassion and so on, I feel at peace with myself. Whenever I violate some of my inner self-values, I feel a lack of peace, an excess of stress.

While thinking like this, the meaning of the verses became a bit clearer. I think the verses do not condemn fame and possessions, but if in the process of acquiring them, we give up our values, our principles which are basically belonging to our soul, it may be all not worth it. Because without these values, we lose our peace of mind, our own sense of purpose our own happiness. I think the author meant: if you cannot get fame or richness without giving up your soul-values, you may be better off for the future not to have (yet) fame and wealth. And that is a great message for all of us, I think…

The missing link

Is it better to serve

and be happy

or to reign 

and be upset?

I hear your answer:

You want to reign 

and be happy

But life is filled with paradoxes

Somehow we were made in such a way

that if we serve selflessly

we will get peace of mind

and so much happiness

Somehow we were made in such a way

that if we force something on others

there will be always a bitter taste

to the sweet victory

the more we serve 

the more true power we get... 

the link between service and happiness

the link between  force and bitterness

the secret that will bring happiness to the world

The power of love

The power of love,
a wonderful song by Celine Dion.

But come to think of it,
the power of love,
so much more than just a song.

Surely, Celine has her point:
Romantic love
extremely powerful!

But there is so much more to it


Think of it,
What makes mother a mom
a father a dad,
Tremendously powerful stuff!

A brother, a sister,
an auntie, a nephew

A neighbor, a friend,

What would the world be without love?

And yet,
so many days of my life
have passed by without even thinking
without even a grain of gratefulness
for all that love in my life,
love i can give, love I receive.

And yet,
so many opportunities
to take a loving approach
gone by without noticing,
lost .

The power of love,
the power to make this life of me
truly worthwhile
the power to make this life of me
a happy loving life
the power to change my life,
to change your life
to change his life
to change her life
to change our life,
to change all life on earth.

Let us grasp the power!
The power of love!
Give it, receive it, fully enjoy it,
live it, love it, truly do it
be super grateful for it

Let us live the POWER OF LOVE :)

Silence the violence

Just now I saw a video, titled, Silence the Violence
How many women still today suffer in silence?

There is no need.
Please let us intervene.
Intervene on behalf of the women suffering.
Not only for particular cases.
Let us tackle violence at a scale, sooo big,
that every single human even thinking about any form of violence
gets so thoroughly disgusted, that there is no place any longer for violence at all.

The main thing is education.
Education, not as in going to school and memorizing a lot of things,
solving a lot math problems and understanding physics in order to score ‘A’s.
No, we have had enough of this kind of education.
Our children need to be educated differently now

The high-tech of the future will harbor so many opportunities for wicked minds to
viciously destroy the whole world, that is it HIGH time to start sharing wisdom
The simple wisdom of kindness, of love. It has become urgent.

There is no other thing more important than teaching this to all children.
We have to stop the violence at schools, stop the violence at houses,
stop the violence in the streets, stop the violence between nations.

The teachings of non-violence, even when under attack,
have been proven to be the most effective ways to achieve whatever you want.
I keep referring to Ghandi and M. Luther  King Jr in this blog, but it is so true.

Let us truly understand how it works:

I am kind to you. You are happy. I am pleased with myself.
We were made that way. We are so pleased, so happy
if we manage to make someone else happy.
We get so much peace of mind,
if we manage to make someone happy.
We experience so much ease,
if  we manage to make someone happy.

Kindness is truly THE path to happiness.

And yet,
Today it seems more than ever true,
that people are again allowing themselves to become victims of Hitler-like figures,
who like to vilify, demonize certain groups, based on ethnicity and religion.
Today it seems more than ever true,
that demagogues manage to pump fear in gullible people, so the demagogues get power.
that these same demagogues get support for their violent approach,
causing only suffering and destruction, but then people laud them as heroes.
History has shown again and again the absolute absurdity of war.
And yet ,
And yet,...

Let us today as people with a certain wisdom
not endorse any of the demagogues instilling fear
not support ANY use of violence
Let us today as people with a certain wisdom
spread the message of peace
spread the message of kindness
of love, and honesty and all the good things of the world.
Let us today find 3 positive message and share them with everyone we know,
perhaps on Facebook, but also in our conversations.
Let us look for the good, be kind and create world full of peace.

Let us start today to
silence the violence
Domestic violence and ANY other kind of violence

At the end of the video, I mention in the beginning of this essay,
the teacher says to the victim: the shame is not on you.
That is so true: Shame on the violent people.
Shame on anyone supporting any type of violence!!!

Before I end this small essay on silencing violence,

I want to invite you to read also Tolstoy's masterpiece,

The kingdom of God is within

Clicking on the link will bring you straight to chapter one of the book

How do we make it better?

Many times you read in the news about these
desperate people who in their final act of their life,
want to shout out a message and kill as many innocents
just before killing themselves.

They are called terrorists and without thinking
a group of nationalist often extreme right wing people
want retaliation; resulting in more violence, more destruction

We have seen a few of these stupid retaliation efforts in the past one month.
Assad went on to use bombs on his own people, killing so many Syrians.
Leadership of the USA was moved by the images and went on to
cause some more destruction and more death among the Syrians
by using 59 missiles. This is just one of these events.

Let us think for a short while why people commit these crimes, these acts of terror.
How important is the huge distortion in the distribution of wealth
in all the violence directed to the western world?
How important is poverty, hunger in the creation of anger and extremism?
Does causing more destruction (by retaliations) and causing more poverty
help in reducing the violence in the world?

Please my friends, my readers,
before voicing out any support for revenge or retaliations
remember the success of people like Ghandi,
who effectively decided to practice: turn the other cheek.

Let us all together make things better in the world,
not worse!

Let us not spread anger and hatred
Let us spread education, goodness, wisdom!

Treasure

"There is no greater misfortune
than the feeling: I have an enemy"

Words of Lao Tzu, written more than 2500 years ago.
Over 2500 years, we have not been able as humanity
to fully assimilate, understand and put these words in practice.

It is my hope, no my belief, even my certainty
that sooner rather than later now,
humanity will embrace this giant wisdom.

Even though we will never be able to please all,
we do not need to feel enmity to anyone.

Lao Tzu went on, " when there is I and the enemy,
there is no place for my treasure"

And my treasure, I think, is meant the tremendous amount of love,
sitting right there in our heart since birth, ready to be given away
and in the process being refilled with a much bigger love still.

I want you to close your eyes for a short while;
vividly imagine a heart, your heart being full of love.
You give it all away and more and more love keeps coming
straight from the universe into your heart.
Imagine then what happens to the world around you.
What a treasure !

Ghandi

When I read all the nonsense coming out of the USA in recent months, applauding violence, encouraging hatred and at the same time calling themselves staunch Christians, my stomach turns.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself
Turn the other cheek
Love your enemies

Were not the three lines in the above paragraph key teaching of Christ?

Did great leaders as Ghandi not prove how effective the principles of non-violence could be applied in the politics of one of the most populated nations of the world that was occupied by one of the most powerful colonial powers and get them to retreat and give independence to India without a major war?

Did great leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. not prove that with a non-violence-approach to even the most wicked white supremacists, one can achieve the abolition of segregation policies and decades later even in America electing a black president?

Oh, my friends, we do not need violence.
Love is what the world needs.

We need a visionary approach to world politics.
Let us give enough power to UNICEF to make no children hungry
Let us give enough power to people to give all children equal educational chances.
We do not need more borders, stupid brexiters, stupid trumpists
We need less borders.

We are in need of a anti-hitler.
A demagogue who can convince us all to live in peace
A person with superb authority who can influence the thinking of all for the better
not for the worst
Perhaps what we see now happening in the US and other parts of the world, will be a last
lesson for humanity to learn forever about the enormous stupidity of violence.

Somehow we were made in a way to enjoy peace. NO ONE enjoys war
Somehow we were made in a way to enjoy kindness. NO ONE enjoys violence
Somehow we were made to enjoy love. NO ONE enjoys hatred.

Only wicked politicians try to benefit from war violence and hatred through mindless fear mongering. "The world is a dangerous place" Does it sound familiar? Nonsense to make gullible people believe they need these wicked politicians to protect them. Nonsense! Even though gullible immature people are still around in big numbers, slowly they get outnumbered by the more mature thinkers who see through this nonsense of fear mongering.

Let us all look again at the movie, Ghandi, let us read about him, let us be mature enough NOT to fall for the nonsense politicians rhetoric!

Naivety

The naivety of idealists of today
will be the reality of tomorrow.

The next revolution will be
one of kindness
one of wisdom

the naivety of today
the reality of tomorrow!

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/naivete-2/

The above small poem written in support of idealism
Let us all keep our ideals from our youth throughout our life.

In our society it is alright for teenagers to have ideals,
but as we reach our twenties, we tend to give them up
because if we keep them very much alive,
we tend to be labelled as dreamers, as naive.

If everyone would have kept ideals alive for much longer,
the world would now already be soooo different

Let us not wait any longer and
either rekindle our ideals of old,
keep our current ideals
or create some new ones.

The world needs a change
and we can do it!

Beauty, everywhere

I met one unhappy person
He was dwelling on the ugly things of the past
The ugly things people had done to him,
the ugly things he had done himself.

Surely we are all only human,
on and off we do ugly things,
on and off ugly things come our way.

But what is done, is done,
we cannot change the past.
We can remember the lessons of the past,
but sitting on ugly memories, allowing them to make us unhappy,
does not help us or anyone else in any way.

So let us try to remember the lessons we have learned,
enjoy the forgiveness we have obtained from others
or try to obtain from others,
then forgive ourselves
and start a new day with a new mindset.

My favorite saying:
Life is not easy,
but so beautiful

There is always beauty we can see, hear or feel
if we just look or listen for it.

So, no matter what has happened in the recent or distant past,
let us look and listen for beauty today and enjoy with all our heart.
let us go out and share the beauty we saw, heard or felt
and make others feel and see the beauty too.

Every day is a new day.
Every moment is a new moment

No matter how difficult our life may be,
let us stop now look outside or just within our soul,
and find the beauty sitting there
waiting to be discovered