Dare to be aware

Dare to be aware

Aware of peace

Dare to be aware

Aware of love

Dare to be aware

Aware of beauty

Dare to be aware

Aware of creativity

In the morning  when we wake

We become aware of all duties lying ahead

We need breakfast; to go to the toilet;

We need to get ready to go to work;

Become aware of the quarrels we had;

Of all the problems we face;

Aware of our fears and worries.

And our awareness of the peace

That surrounds us is blurred

And the awareness of the love

in our heart is blurred

And the awareness of the beauty

of the skies and trees is blurred

And the awareness of creativity

roaming in our imagination is blurred.

Oh my, let me tomorrow morning

Dare to put aside

the small things that anger me

The small things that worry me

The small things that cause fear

The small duties that await me

And let me dare to be aware

Of the sea of peace

Of the ocean of love

Of the expansion of beauty

Of the endless creativity

That is here right now for me.

And will likely be here tomorrow morning too…

A global heart

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

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

The global heart!

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

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

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

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

Keep it up. Keep it cool. :)

Rain

After a period of drought for at least a few weeks now, this morning we had a small thunderstorm with a good downpour of about 30 to 40 minutes.
For the last two weeks, I had been sprinkling water to parts of my lawn and some of the beautifully flowering plants, some of the younger trees regularly.

Rain, this morning was not only for the flowers and wonderful trees, but it was also for each and every blade of grass, no matter in what corner it had grown, it was also for the weeds and shrubs. What amazing fairness of nature on display. Every single plant, tall or small, colourful or not, got their own share of this fantastic blessing.

What a wonderful lesson for mankind.

On a ship

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

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

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

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

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

You will never walk alone

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

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

video of the song

Ali

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

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

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

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

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


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

Changing the world

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Gifts: from big to small

The biggest gift is love, 

kindness and compassion

Then we get the relaxation 

brought through peace and beauty

And also a wonderful gift 

but smaller than the above: possession

Size matters! 

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

The Stone

One day, a master had travelled a long way, and before sunset, he reached the border of a city. He found a place under a tree and decided to spend the night there before entering the city the next day.

Shortly after he settled, a man came running up to him out of the city. He said: "It must be you, where is the stone?" The master asked "Which stone?" and the man replied: "Last night I had a dream and a prophet told me that tonight there would be a master resting near the border of the city, and he would give me a stone, so valuable that I would not have to work for the rest of my days." The master reached in his bag, took out a big stone and gave it to the man, saying: "It must be this stone, the prophet was talking about; I found it on my way here."

It was a diamond, almost as big as a head. The man was very excited, and he brought the stone straight back home. The value of such a big diamond must be enormous. But at night, the man could not sleep. He kept thinking and thinking and early in the morning, he went back tot he master and said: "Please teach me the wisdom that allows you to give away so easily such a precious stone."

A story, I read many years ago.
I still enjoy very much the moral of the story.

Hans Van Rostenberghe

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

A to Z

"Logic will take you from A to Z
Imagination will bring you everywhere"

I like to plough through quotes from Einstein.
Some are amazing, some are puzzling
The above one is an amazing one, I feel.

Let us imagine
Let us build in beautiful images in our imagination
Let us build in love and peace
and kindness
and more beauty and more peace
and make stories, never made before.

Imagination will bring you everywhere ... 😀😃😀😃

 Hans Van Rostenberghe

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

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

Sweetest

Think for a short while:
What would be the sweetest words you could say tomorrow?
to your mom...
to your dad...
to your spouse...
to your son or daughter...
to your sister or brother...
to your friend...
to your lonely old auntie...
to your neighbour...
at your work...

Did you think about it?
Next, let us go ahead and say these words :)

 Hans Van Rostenberghe

Inspiration

If we do not take the time to cultivate our own personality and character, we neglect the most valuable thing in our life. Let us read some inspirational texts today. Internalise the ideas that seem valuable to us, incorporate in our own principles and create a personality and character that is better than before. Then share what we feel.

Over the last few decades, I have read many texts that somehow touched my mind and heart enough to make a significant difference in my life. Small quotes, stories, short chapters, sometimes a whole book, containing enough wisdom, brilliant ideas. They made me think a bit further, made me sometimes change my bad habits and had a positive effect.

I want to say thanks to the authors of these quotes, stories, texts, books. I have taken some of these ideas and internalized them and it felt like they became mine. Without any intent of plagiarism, I have been sharing my own convictions here in this blog, inspired by so many people who lived before me or at this time. If it was not for the sharing and going to the extent of writing down their ideas, our civilisation would not have progressed to the place where it is now.

Let us just do so: read, reflect, let the good ideas sink in, incorporate and modify them to fit in our own value system and then go on sharing with many others.

Getting inspired feels great; sharing some inspiration with others feels super.

I wish you all a fruitful reading and sharing.

Hans Van Rostenberghe

PS: I have written up to now more than 800 entries in this blog. Please take a look at the archives. When I read my old postings, I think the initial ones from 2014 may be still the most inspiring ones.
Feel free to share anything written here, to go and inspire your friends and family. No copyright!

What is a poem?

Once I was asked: what is a poem?

The question, what is a poem,  may have many different answers, depending on whom you would talk to. When I started my own attempts at writing lyrics, I was convinced that poetry has to rhyme, but then I read so many beautiful, touching poems that did not rhyme, that I have given up this notion. Deep inside, I still like better rhyming poems, though.

The best definition of a poem, I read in Emerson's essay, the poet. This essay is freely available online, and Emerson wrote the following  <"...For it is not metres, but a metre-making argument that makes a poem,--a thought so passionate and alive that like the spirit of a plant or an animal it has an architecture of its own, and adorns nature with a new thing. The thought and the form are equal in the order of time, but in the order of genesis the thought is prior to the form."> 

I agree very much that the poem making argument is what makes a poem. In far too many verses, the argument tends to get lost in beautiful lyrics and the reader experiences only an impressive collection of words.

I like poems with wonderful metaphors.

I think nobody really has a universal definition for poetry, but it is still worth, I feel, to take some time every day to read a poem or two. (for a modest collection of simple, yet interesting motivational and inspirational poems, please click this safe link )
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you found a few drops of inspiration 
If you felt good while reading this blog
Please do not hesitate to share the feelings, the inspiration with your family and friends
There is no copyright. No issues. (just will grateful if you attach my name as an author).
Same goes for my poems, I wrote under the author name Aufie Zophy. as in the safe link above
  Other blogs and sites from my hand:
Inspirational quotes
Small prayers for a big world

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

The Best Farmer

I came across a verse (34) of the Tao Te Ching,
a Chinese book filled with a lot of wise sayings.
In summary, I think it tried to express the following: 

The endless creative power in the universe,
the power, the energy, many of us call God,
is everywhere, and everyone and everything depends on It.
But It does not make claims for itself, It does not take possession
It does not dominate.

Some of these concepts sound a bit abstract,
but they tend to carry important lessons for us.
It is always nice to put these concepts in story format,
so even the youths may benefit from these bits of wisdom.
A simple story I could come up with,
was the following, about a farmer:

 In a faraway land, there was a farmer,

the best farmer in the world.

He was the only farmer in his country,
providing food for everyone living there.
He did not make any claims;
He did not try to get privileges;
He surely could be in control,
but did not dominate;
did not try to abuse his position.

No one else was interested in farming,
except his only one apprentice.
He taught him the skills and tricks of farming,
but above all, not to make any claims for himself
and perhaps,
the latter was the most important thing he taught him!
He went on and passed this to all humans who were open to it.

What do you think about this?
Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Please read also my other postings.
Not all are as complex😉😀 as this one. :)





 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you found a few drops of inspiration 
If you felt good while reading this blog
Please do not hesitate to share the feelings, the inspiration with your family and friends
There is no copyright. No issues. (just will grateful if you attach my name as an author).
Same goes for my poems, I wrote under the author name Aufie Zophy.
A selection of the poems is found by clicking https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/
 

 Other blogs and sites from my hand: Inspirational quotes
Small prayers for a big world

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

Sailing between the waves

 Do you have some of these days where you feel like this may be a good day

and then, just something happens? Let me tell you about what happened today.

I woke up and prayed for the strength to be nice throughout the day. 

I was to chair a meeting of our local research ethics committee. 

These meetings are often the extreme challenge to a person's patience.
Researchers do take their research and ethical obligations to their participants serious,

But a certain percentage couldn't care less. 

Remaining nice throughout the meeting feels like sailing in between storms with giant waves, steering your boat away from the waves that could shake up all aboard your boat. You feel like a master captain until suddenly boom, a storm you did not expect turns up in front of your eyes, your boat gets shaken by the waves and there goes your peace of mind. To get back the poise and control quickly after the storm, is a skill worth learning. Today, I had one such storm, but then I think I managed to steer the ship again in between the big waves giving the impression to all in my boat that the sea was superbly calm again.

The point I try to make here is that when we are trying to be good, lovely and nice, it will be like a trip on a calm sea, no matter how many storms may rage not far from where we fare. The peace of mind we get through being good, lovely and nice is such a great treasure. Surely when we are driven by a purpose and want to make it to a certain destination, we may not be able to avoid all waves and get shaken up on and off, but then getting back to the captains hut and steer masterfully, being good lovely and nice again, may require a lot of willpower, but will guarantee to come back to the so much cherished treasure of peace of mind. 

I have a small poem for you:

 

For our family and everyone we know

let us do nothing but our very best

Pray that our God's light may glow

and that they will be forever blessed

Try to love, listen and fully understand

let truth and trust forever grow

make them truly feel to be your friend

                                                                                   Aufie Zophy 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you got a few drops of inspiration 
If you felt good while reading this blog
Please do not hesitate to share the feelings, the inspiration with your family and friends
There is no copyright. No issues. (just will grateful if you attach my name as an author).
Same goes for my poems, I wrote under the author name Aufie Zophy.
A selection of the poems is found by clicking https://aufiezophypoems.blogspot.com/
and a more complete set of almost all poems I wrote can be found on PoemHunter.
The PoemHunter website though is a bit disturbed by a lot of advertisements. Other blogs and sites from my hand:
Inspirational quotes
Small prayers for a big world
Dutch version of some of my posts: Juweeltjes voor de ziel

Year with flowers

Husband: "You look so optimistic for 2020. 
What do you think it will bring? 
The world is in such a big mess."
Wife: "I expect it will bring flowers."
Husband: "Yes? How come?"
Wife: "Because I am planting flowers."

  The world is indeed in quite a mess in many places.
But in many more places, the world is still wonderfully beautiful.
Let us plant some seeds, some flower bulbs and small trees.
Let us plants seeds of love, seeds of kindness.
Let us plant seeds of honesty and dedication;
seeds of passionate care and positivity.
Then we can expect the coming year will bring us just that

Contest

Let us all participate in an imaginary contest:
The grand prize goes to the one who can most people smile in one day.

Actually, the grand prize is shared by all contestants,
because for every smile generated, each will get a giant dose of happiness
and what a better grand prize than that could you imagine.

So come, let us start the contest today, make as many as possible people smile!

Some drops may stay

A cup of coffee
a glass of water,
internalized in the dark depth of my body;
some drops may stay there for years to come.

My experiences today:
the good and bad things I did,
the messages I heard,
internalized in the dark depths of my mind;
some drops may stay there for years to come.

The feelings I felt,
the happiness I shared,
the hurt I caused;
some drops may stay in my heart for years to come.

The prayers I said,
the silence I heard,
the peace I felt;
some drops may be with me forever.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sister blogs:
Inspirational quotes
Small prayers for a big world
Brother blog (selection of my poems, written under the pen name of Aufie Zophy):
aufiezophypoems

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

Looking

The way we see the world depends first on the world,
but secondly, it depends also on the way we look.

We can look at the world through pessimistic glasses
and see the small plastic bottle that was left on the beach,
get really upset that people throw rubbish everywhere and
miss out on the beautiful colors of the sea under the sunny sky.

We can look at the world through optimistic glasses
and see the sea in all its glory with its magnificent tints;
we may notice the bottle and pick it up so no one else gets upset about it.

Can you see the difference?
Which spec shall we choose?

I have a photo below, showing a painting from my niece:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sister blogs:
Inspirational quotes
Small prayers for a big world
Brother blog (selection of my poems, written under the pen name of Aufie Zophy):
aufiezophypoems

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

Belief

Have you ever thought of buying a particular car?
You start seeing the model everywhere.
The cars had been always there, but you start noticing them.

If you choose to believe something, you will start a similar selective seeing. What will you pick up? Evidence; you will find pieces of evidence for your belief. Everywhere!
Your belief will become stronger, and soon it will be experienced as a knowing.

You may choose to believe the world is good, to believe you can do something or that there are a lot of opportunities. You WILL find your evidence, and your belief will get stronger.
You may choose to believe that the world is bad, to believe something is impossible or that there is a lack of opportunity. You WILL find your evidence for what you believe and your belief will get stronger.

It is good to listen to all sides of the story, even to listen to the people who have opposite visions of ours. We do not have to adopt their view, but just hearing something different, may allow us to notice different things in the world.

I think that an open mind is the most important thing for us to keep somehow a balance in what we believe, and to keep our visions, concepts, and paradigms as close to reality as possible. Keeping an open mind to everything, but still, scanning all information that tries to enter our mind and deciding what is definitely worth letting in, what is definitely deserving to be blocked out and what is worthy of some serious reflection before we let it in or block it out. A majority of things may be worthy of some reflection!