What a dilemma!

Being faced with our own shortcomings and inherent human weakness
we are quite often reluctant to demand of others a very much needed improvement.
Surely if we actively try to obtain something from others,
they may turn around and point out our own weaknesses.

The ever important and ever true giant saying of
start with improving yourself first is standing strong.

However if things go obviously wrong and
just because we are far from perfect ourselves (we will never be perfect),
does this mean we have to remain silent.

Another important saying is
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to remain silent."

This is a dilemma: Good men keep silently improving themselves without ever reaching a state of true goodness (perfection) or Good men become a bit noisy and demand that others improve themselves along the way ? 

While writing this, I get the idea that demanding others to improve themselves may be a futile effort. It may be better to inspire. But then again some people are just in quite powerful positions and may never be inspired by good examples...

I have not good answer to the dilemma. 
If we follow the examples of great leaders,
we accept a risk and we are not silent about obvious problems... (???)

Please share your ideas in the comments section :)

Honesty

Honesty, sung by Billy Joel,
what a wonderful song

Honesty playing in our mind,
what a wonderful word

And then I think:
do I really  manage to be honest ALL the time?

No matter how much I value it,
sometimes I catch myself with little lies.

It makes me feel like a bit of a failure:
betraying on and off a thing I cherish

But then we have to accept
we are all humans. None of us is perfect.

If we keep our values in front of our eyes,
at the surface of our mind as much as possible,
we may try to live up to our values as much as we can.
We may never succeed to respect our own values all of the time,
but the more we try, like training muscles,
the better we may become at it.

I pray, I hope, I keep becoming stronger at living my own values.
Honesty is among the most cherished ones,
I ask God sincerely to help to live it as much as possible...

The thing I have learned,
that reading about our own values,
being mentally busy with them,
makes them generally a bit stronger,
keeps them a bit more at the surface of our mind.

If we do not think or read about them,
sometimes they sink to deep depths of our conscience...

I love you
See you soon
Can find more value-talk in the archieve
just click on the black blob on the upper right of this page.



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Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any way (perhaps except for commercial purposes)
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

How many people?

How many people will we make happy today?
I wanted to start my day with this wonderful question.
Can we make a positive difference in the life of some people today?
At least give a smile to someone?
Or find a lonely soul to make small talk with?

How many people will we give a smile to today?


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way.
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

The apple cloud

In the desert: a scorching heat!

It is the temperature of greed.

In the sky almost uniformly blue,

there is a little cloud too.

As if magic, it takes the form of a grape.

It swells and grows into a big apple’s shape.

And from my wonderful apple cloud,

Sweet drops of wisdom start raining out.

And as if by the hand of God

A grassy carpet forms on the sand so hot

The raindrops of wisdom are spreading love

A wonderful kindness coming from high above

On the grass, soulful flowers start to grow

And all over, gentleness and harmony flow

In the meantime, still wisdom is pouring out

From that wonderful apple cloud.

Oh, no my friends, this is not just a dream,

In our world now still full of greed, soon will stream:

 A flow of love causing a true wisdom revolution:

That will be the pinnacle of God’s planned evolution!

Maybe needs a bit of explanation :)

The first few stanzas may seem like a strange dream.

But looking how the world is evolving, we have gone though the desert of abominable wars, prosecution, cruelties. We still have those things around but the people being free from these things and who are willing to stand up and speak up and act against these things is ever growing. Once these numbers reach a critical point, kindness and wisdom may capture the world in avalanche speed. 

I am quite sure we are not too far away from that turning point :)

You may call this overly optimistic, but the future will show what evolution is leading to. :) 


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Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

short and simple essays on good things 

 

The "good old times" (?)

Whenever I hear people talking about the good old times,
I get a shiver or two over my spine.

It just takes to read a few novels of 200 years ago to get an impression
of how "good" the old times were.

If we want to talk about good times, it is very clear to me
we have to talk about now.

Even though there is still a lot of vice and there are still a lot of problems
in today's world, life has changed for the better at an enormous pace.

The biggest blessing that humankind has received over the past few centuries
is the huge increase in love and kindness.

At first sight, we may not be aware of that, but if we examine a bit more closely
the past with all its greed, wars, crude discrimination, superstition and cruelties,
anyone should be able to conclude that love and kindness and wisdom has taken
major leaps forward in the last century and the last few decades.

Just thinking  about this,
and seeing what is happening,
I have become a strong believer that somehow
the world is moving towards a world filled with kindness and love.
The number of people getting the correct perception that happiness
is a by product of love and kindness rather than of greed and power,
is increasing 'sooooo' fast
Considering the rate at which kindness and love multiplies, it will not be too long,
that the ongoing kindness revolution will become a clear fact for anyone to see,
whether or not you believe in it now.

Let us play our active role and speed up still further this kindness revolution
by our daily random kind acts for family and strangers alike.



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope you enjoyed this reflection by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any way (perhaps except for commercial purposes)
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

Aladdin

When I imagined for awhile I had the lamp of Aladdin,
I thought what would I wish for?

My first wish that came to mind was to be a world-wide authority in kindness, to be
a spark or flame that makes a foundation for a never ending kindness revolution.
Somewhere deep inside I believe that my poetry ( Poems from Hans (aufie zophy) )
and my blog maybe a small beginning of this big wish coming true.

Then I thought: Isn't it a bit selfish not to wish first for my family.
But Aladdin had three wishes, remember :)

So my second wish was for my family to be full of harmony and health and have a superb time with each other very often.

My third wish came from somewhere deep inside:
To be a father like figure for a large group of children to whom they came with their small and big problems and whom they would love to hear stories from.

I had also a fourth and fifth wish:
To be able to help as many neonates fare well in Kelantan as possible and to establish/consolidate the home care for whomever needs it.

I know Aladdin is a fable, but it is always good to keep our wishes, our ideals alive. Write them on and off down and who knows, one day they will be reality. Every day we can make some mini steps towards them :)

I want to end with a wonderful quote of Jawaharlal Nehru:

Failure comes only 

when we forget our ideals

and objectives and principles

Green

Some of my most happy moments
are when I just take the time
to look at, fully enjoy looking at greenery

In the upcoming day, I will make some time
to just look, do nothing else but look
at the greenery, find the beauty in it
and simply enjoy!
Will you do the same?
Let us do it together.
It will give us peace of mind
and it will inspire us to inspire the world :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Hope you enjoyed this soul sprinkle by Hans Van Rostenberghe
Feel free to share it, use it in any positive way
Will be grateful if you mention the link http://reflectionsbyhans.blogspot.com/

If you have time, please take also a look at
the inspirational quotes page connected to this blog
some of my poems published under my pen name Aufie Zophy.

Touched

Touched by the tremendous love in the hall.
So many parents brought their disabled children to the health camp.
The very special bond and supreme love of these parents was so touching.
That love was filling the hall where the health camp was held.

Touched by the tremendous love in the hall.
More than 250 volunteers had worked so hard for days.
Their love and care for the disabled children, so heart warming.
The hall was truly filled with love.

I just came back from a health camp for disabled children (Johor).
There is sooooo much love in this world of 2017.
There is sooooo much love.

Much more love than hatred!

Much more love than sadness!

Much more love than wickedness!

Much more love than greed!

I do not worry for the future of the world.

While greed is still running high in some areas,
I am so sure love will be its master
While the world has still a lot of haters
Love will be their master

Yes, I was touched today, in so many ways
by the tonnes of love that were present in the hall of the health camp

The mass media (try to) portray that all bad things are on the increase
and that love is shrinking fast in this world.
You and I,  if we look at the people we know, at the world around us,
we know better. Love is ever increasing, and wickedness and hatred
are dying a slow but certain death.

Yes, I was touched today, in so many ways
by the tonnes of love that were present in the hall of the health camp

Judging

I remember so well, a few weeks ago, a lady losing her temper towards a receptionist in a hotel.
We were just in the process of checking in. I told to my wife, loud enough, so the angry lady could hear it: "How ugly is it to lose your temper like this!"

Today, I am staying in another hotel. Yesterday, there was a problem with the lift. It was the room card that did not function to select the floor. We were in a hurry and the one behind the reception took a very long time to solve the problem. Somehow I lost my temper towards him.

Now I feel ashamed to have lost my temper to the receptionist who was actually doing his best. I am grateful, I got a chance to apologize to him. But the main lesson I learned, I think, of the two events (the angry lady few weeks ago and my own anger yesterday) is not to judge too easily when others lose their temper :)

We are all human.
If we sincerely look back at our own life, we all have done some things that are really not nice.
We may detest these things now, but remembering somehow our own weakness will make us milder when it comes to judging others.

If some people do things we don't like, we can try to see the soul inside, try to understand. It will help us not to judge. We can always replace our judgements with kindness.

 Love and kindness seem the highway to happiness and peace of mind!
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and Poems by Aufie Zophy

Reflection

A sip of my cup
of pure Brazilian Coffee;
late at night,
thinking about my day.

The afternoon came first to mind:
the beautiful face of KakWan
A retired matron, still caring,
caring for the most miserable people
with a heart so full of love
with a soul so full of spirit.
Is there anything more beautiful
than the sweet satisfaction
shining on the face of a person
who cares and does so much good?

Then came to mind
 the sunrise, a thousand colors
in the sky above the sea



Then the dinner with my wife,
the teaching I had at noon
my breakfast outside.

I thank you my God
I thank you my God
I thank you my God

Some days, are filled with so much love and beauty. If before sleep, we reflect on our day, we enjoy twice :)
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Plato

Plato
All of us have heard about Plato.
Not many of us have read Plato, did we?

 Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Above is a quote from Plato.
I think it is a particularly wise quote!

Just now, I read a bit more of Plato's main and most famous work, the republic.
In book one, the ten first pages Socrates argues with his friend on what justice means.
His friend starts from the preposition that justice is to repay debt and that the debt you owe to your friends is good, to do good to them and that the debt you owe to your enemies is evil, to do evil to them. In just a few pages he breaks down the notion that a just man should do evil to his enemies and arrives at the conclusion that a just man should do only good to both friends and enemies. If you have time I invite you to read the argument (many copies of plato's full works are freely available on the net). It is written is such a pleasant way that I am sure you will enjoy: (Socrates talking in the first person)

Small moon poem

The moon above the sea

is touching my eyes softly

with the sweetest song,

my heart has ever heard

Keep singing, sweet moon,

your gentle voice coloring

the shore in delicate silver

behind a black crown of a tree


 

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and Poems by Aufie Zophy

News and feelings

On the internet, in the news, on TV,
we read so many messages that upset us
that create some uneasy feelings of hatred.

Every bit of hatred we swallow and
every bit of hatred we make our own,
is a step back in the direction of the stone age.

I do not think we should stop reading all the news,
I do think that we should not swallow all the news,
not swallow all the hatred and disgust it intends to instill.

At the same time we do not want to be indifferent to the news.
But not allowing the hatred and disgust to enter does not mean
that we cannot practice compassion.
A compassionate approach to the news....

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Please visit also:  inspirational/motivational quotes from Hans
and Poems by Aufie Zophy