Stone Soup

There are many variations on the story of stone soup, but they all involve a traveler coming into a town beset by famine. The inhabitants try to discourage the traveler from staying, fearing he wants them to give him food. They tell him in no uncertain terms that there's no food anywhere to be found. The traveler explains that he doesn't need any food and that, in fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with all of them.

The villagers watch suspiciously as he builds a fire and fills a cauldron with water. With great ceremony, he pulls a stone from a bag, dropping the stone into the pot of water. He sniffs the brew extravagantly and exclaims how delicious stone soup is. As the villagers begin to show interest, he mentions how good the soup would be with just a little cabbage in it. A villager brings out a cabbage to share. This episode repeats itself until the soup has cabbage, carrots, onions, and beets-indeed, a substantial soup that feeds everyone in the village.

This story addresses the human tendency to hoard in times of deprivation. When resources are scarce, we pull back and put all of our energy into self-preservation. We isolate ourselves and shut out others. As the story of stone soup reveals, in doing so, we often deprive ourselves and everyone else of a feast.

This metaphor plays out beyond the realm of food. We hoard ideas, love, and energy, thinking we will be richer if we keep to them to ourselves, when in truth we make the world, and ourselves, poorer whenever we greedily stockpile our reserves. The traveler was able to see that the villagers were holding back, and he had the genius to draw them out and inspire them to give, thus creating a spread that none of them could have created alone.

Are you like one of the villagers, holding back? If you come forward and share your gifts, you will inspire others to do the same. The reward is a banquet that can nourish many.

One Eyed

My dad only had one eye. I hated him... He was such an embarrassment. . He cooked for students & teachers to support the family. There was this one day during elementary school where my dad came to Say hello to me. I was so embarrassed. How could he do this to me? I ignored him, threw him a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, "EEEE, your dad only Has one eye!" I wanted to bury myself I also wanted my dad to just disappear.. I confronted him that day and said, " If you're only gonna make me a Laughing stock, why don't you just die?"

My dad did not respond.... I didn't even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was full of anger. I was oblivious to his feelings. I wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with him. So I studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study.

Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. I had kids of my own. I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts, Then one day, my father came to visit me. He hadn't seen me in years and he didn't even meet his Grandchildren. When he stood by the door, my children laughed at him, and I yelled at Him for coming over uninvited. I screamed at him, "How dare you come to my house and scare my Children!" GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!" And to this, my father quietly answered, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I may have Gotten the wrong address," And he disappeared out of sight.

One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house.. So I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity. My neighbors said that he died. I did not shed a single tear. They handed me a letter that he had wanted me to have.

"My dearest son,

I think of you all the time. I'm sorry that I came to your house and Scared your children. I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. I'm sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you were Growing up. You see........when you were very little, you got into an accident, and Lost your eye. As a father, I couldn't stand watching you Having to grow up with one eye. So I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my Place, with that eye.

With all my love to you, Your father.

Honest Lincoln

Lincoln was one of the few great men who really was great. Before he became president, Lincoln spent twenty years as an unsuccessful Illinois lawyer -- at least he was unsuccessful in financial terms. But when you measure the good he did, he was very rich indeed. Legends are often untrue, but Lincoln was the real thing. George Washington never chopped down a cherry tree, but Abraham Lincoln was honest. During his years as a lawyer, there were hundreds of documented examples of his honesty and decency.

For example, Lincoln did not like to charge people much who were as poor as he was. Once a man sent him twenty-five dollars, but Lincoln sent him back ten of it, saying he was being too generous.

He was known at times to convince his clients to settle their issue out of court, saving them a lot of money, and earning himself nothing.

An old woman in dire poverty, the widow of a Revolutionary soldier, was charged $200 for getting her $400 pension. Lincoln sued the pension agent and won the case for the old woman. He did not charge her for his services and, in fact, paid her hotel bill and gave her money to buy a ticket home!

He and his associate once prevented a con man from gaining possession of a tract of land owned by a mentally ill girl. The case took fifteen minutes. Lincoln's associate came to divide up their fee, but Lincoln reprimanded him. His associate argued that the girl's brother had agreed on the fee ahead of time, and he was completely satisfied.

"That may be," said Lincoln, "but I am not satisfied. That money comes out of the pocket of a poor, demented girl; and I would rather starve than swindle her in this manner. You return half the money at least, or I'll not take a cent of it as my share."

He was a fool, perhaps, by certain standards. He did not have much, and it was his own fault. But he was a good human being by anyone's standards and I'm glad we celebrate his birthday.

Honesty makes you feel good about yourself and creates trust in others. It improves your relationship with yourself and with others. It is not much in fashion these days to talk about the benefits of honesty and decency, but the benefits are there and they are valuable and worth the trouble. Honesty. It may be corny, but it is the finest force for good in the world, and it always will be.

Do some honest good in the world.

Don't feed , teach them to catch

Today I visited my bank in order to deposit a cheque for a due payment to a company. The procedure was quite simple but I thought of cross checking it with the teller so as to avoid cheque bounce back. The teller being a fresh employee (I judged it from the face look and the communication approach) wasn't sure about it. She called her manager for assistance. The manager, a nice ethical young man, elaborated the details about the form filling which I understood and thanked him for. However I noticed that while the manager was explaining to me, the teller got busy in something else and didn't pay attention to her manager nor the manager asked her to listen vigilantly to understand the procedure.

Well, I completed my work in bank and ponder that the manger had taken the corrective methodology instead of preventive methodology. Hence there is a big time chance that the teller would call her manager again in future and every time the manager will have to leave his desk, come to the teller point and explain the same procedure to more customers in future which he could have avoided by teaching the procedure to the 'right person', the teller. This extra work would cause disturbance in his routine work and waste his precious time to complete the jobs he has been primarily hired for !!!

This whole situation reminded me of a good quote which says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for the day; Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a life time" And this is why I said earlier, that the teller will ask her manager again (asking for the fish)
because the manager didn't teach to'catch the fish'

So my friend this is where the power of being visionary and proactiveness come into play… that is to see the future now and make the right moves … and this is where Stephen Covey suggests us 'to begin with the end in mind'

Coffee

He met her at someone's wedding. He requested her to have coffee with him, she was surprised but due to being polite, she promised. They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she felt uncomfortable, and she thought to herself, "Please, let me go home..."

Suddenly he asked the waiter, "Would you please give me some salt? I'd like to put it in my coffee." Everybody stared at him, so strange! His face turned red but still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously, "Why you have this hobby?" He replied, "When I was a little boy, I lived near the sea, I liked playing in the sea, I could feel the taste of the sea, just like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there." While saying that tears filled his eyes. She was deeply touched. That's his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart. A man who can tell out his homesickness, he must be a man who loves home, cares about home, has responsibility of home... Then she also started to speak, spoke about her faraway hometown, her childhood, her family.

That was a really nice talk, also a beautiful beginning of their story. They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, was kind hearted, warm, careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him! Thanks to his salty coffee! Then the story was just like every beautiful love story, the princess married to the prince, and then they were living the happy life... And, every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the coffee, as she knew that's the way he liked it.

After 40 years, he passed away, left her a letter which said, "My dearest, please forgive me, forgive my whole life's lie. This was the only lie I said to you---the salty coffee. Remember the first time we dated? I was so nervous at that time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt. It was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the start of our communication! I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to lie to you for anything... Now I'm dying, I afraid of nothing so I tell you the truth, I don't like the salty coffee, what a strange bad taste... But I have had the salty coffee for my whole life! Since I knew you, I never feel sorry for anything I do for you. Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life. If I can live for the second time, still want to know you and have you for my whole life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee again."
Her tears made the letter totally wet. Someday, someone asked her, "What's the taste of salty coffee?" She replied, "It's sweet."
Its a lil bit unrealistic story but the moral and the message of the story is wonderful :)

Stop Judging People

Once upon a time a wealthy old man lived alone in a very big house. He was growing weak day by day and was unable to take care of himself and the big house, so he thought of hiring servants who could help with all the work of the house and also take care of him.


The old man appointed two servants Salim and Ahmed. Salim happened to be a handsome young man and Ahmed was an ugly looking chap. The old man asked Salim to go to the kitchen and make tea for him. After Salim had left, the old man turned to Ahmed and told, “Salim has given a very bad account of you. He says you are very bad guy and untrustworthy. Is this correct?”

Ahmed thought for a moment and told, “Salim is a very handsome guy. He has a beautiful outward appearance so this must be reflected by his inward beauty too”. Ahmed had the belief that such a handsome man could never tell a lie. He therefore told the old man, “If Salim has bad opinion about me, then there must be something wrong with me. I am afraid he must be correct”

The old man was very much impressed by the character of ugly looking Ahmed. Meanwhile, Salim returned with a cup of tea for his master.

The old man sent Ahmed to make breakfast for him and then turned to Salim and told, “Ahmed has given a bad account of you. What do you say about it?” On hearing this Salim became angry and started uttering bad remarks. He said that Ahmed was a liar and a scoundrel.

The Old man thus concluded that the man with a beautiful face had no inner beauty while the man looking ugly outward had tremendous inner beauty.

Moral of The Story

“Real beauty is not what the eyes can behold but what the heart can hold. What we see with our eyes will vanish someday, but what we store in our heart will forever stay…” – Unknown

Mobile Phone

An incident once took place when a student of Knowledge was taking a walk with his teachers in one of the gardens of their school. During this walk, the student decided to address a problem he was facing and seek its remedy from his teacher. He began to tell his teacher, ‘I have a spiritual ailment; I am habitual of talking ill of others and mentioning matters about them behind their backs.’
The teacher carried on walking for a moment and then asked him, ‘do you have a mobile phone?’ The student answered affirmatively and took out his phone to show his teacher. The phone was one of the latest models on the market and he had just purchased it recently.

Upon seeing the phone and the student’s attachment to it, he asked the student to throw the phone in a nearby mud patch and trample upon it. Whilst astonished by the teacher’s request, the student questioned, ‘how can I throw this phone on the floor? It has cost me a lot of money and is worth a lot to me.’

The teacher replied to him with the following words of wisdom, ‘So too is the respect and honour of your brother/friend as sanctified and valuable as this in the eyes of God. How can it be easy for you to trample upon this honour and respect with such ease?’

The student realised how he had never understood nor appreciated the true value of a human being; and from that day onwards he never failed to compare the respect of his brothers to all those items which were the most valuable to him.



Man in the pit

A man was caught and thrown into a pit (A big hole on earth) of about "40 feet" deep, just because he was a stranger. He struggled trying to get out of the pit,but the more he tried, the weaker his muscles became. He said to himself, "I don't know how to get myself out of this. Maybe I should just die instead of enduring these miserable struggles and pains."

Just then, he heard a voice screaming, "Help! Help!! Help!!!" The shouts were coming from another pit, which was 10 feet more deeper than the one he was in.

He thought to himself, "Wow, so there is somebody else like me trapped here too". Listening carefully, he heard some cracking and sand dropping from the wall of the pit of the other victim. Immediately he summed up his courage and with his last bit of strength, started crawling little by little until he made it out of his pit.

MORAL:

That pain you think you are passing through, there are people worst off than you. Always say something sweet to yourself. Always smile at your
pains. Let them be; they are just there for a while and also to challenge you. Today may be your darkest hour, but your joy will come in the morning. Try to encourage yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror, beat your chest and say, "I can make it and I can stand the test of time."

Always try to face your worst fear because nothing GOOD comes easy. You must be UNCOMFORTABLE to get to your COMFORT ZONE.

Parrot Story

There is an old story about a fellow who lived alone and went to a pet store to buy a parrot. He thought the bird might fill some of his lonely hours. The very next day, however, he came back to complain, "That bird doesn't talk."

The store owner asked if he had a mirror in its cage, and the man said he didn't. "Oh, parrots love mirrors," he explained. "When he sees his reflection in the mirror, he'll just start talking away." So he sold him a birdcage mirror.

The bird owner was back the next day to gripe that his parrot still hadn't said a word. "That's very peculiar," allowed the pet expert. "How about a swing? Birds really love these little swings, and a happy parrot is a talkative parrot." So the man bought a swing, took it home, and installed it in the cage.

But he was back the next day with the same story. "Does he have a ladder to climb?" the salesman asked. "That just has to be the problem. Once he has a ladder, he'll probably talk your ear off!" So the fellow bought a ladder.

The man was back at the pet store when it opened the next day. From the look on his face, the owner knew something was wrong. "Didn't your parrot like the ladder?" he asked. His repeat customer looked up and said, "The parrot died."

"I'm so sorry," the stunned businessman said. "Did he ever say anything?"

"Well, yes. He finally talked just before he died. In a weak little voice, he asked me, "Don't they sell any bird seed at that pet store?'"

Some of us have mistakenly thought that happiness consists of lining our cages with toys, gadgets, and other stuff. Excessive consumption has become the hallmark of our life. "Whoever has the most toys wins" seems to be the likely candidate to be the bumper sticker for an entire culture. But is it so?

There is a spiritual hunger in the human heart that can't be satisfied by seeing one's own image reflected back in vanity mirrors, playing with our grown-up toys, or climbing the corporate ladder. Our hearts need real nourishment.The love of family and friends,relationships over the pursuit of more things, personal integrity, a secure connection to God --these are the things that feed the soul.

Have you chosen a life course that leads to a destination that matters?



Dog in the well

In old times, there was a village having only one well for drinking water. One day a dog fell down in the well and died. The water became filthy and undrinkable. The worried villagers went to the old wise man for advice. They were told to take 100 buckets of water from the well so that clean water come to the surface of the well. The villagers took 100 buckets but water status was same. They went to the wise man again. He suggested to take another 100 buckets. The villagers did the same but to no avail. They villagers tried third time to take another 100 buckets as per the advice from the wise man but water was still impure. The wise said, How come the whole well is polluted even removing this much considerable amount of water. Did you remove the dog body prior to taking 300 buckets of water? The villagers said, "no sir, you only advised us to take water out, not the dog body !!!"

Reflection:

Several times in life we try to resolve our problems without considering the root cause of the problems. We believe that we are resolving the problem whereas in actual we are working on the side effects of problem not the problem itself. We don't see the big picture to understand the root of the issue. We take advice from our well wishers but do not use our own brain to think logically to analyze the advice and then decide, instead, we start acting blindly on the solutions suggested by others.