2019-12 - What Do You Hear?

There's a story about a Native American walking in New York City with a friend. The streets were filled with people and cars were honking.

All of  a sudden the  Native  American said, "I hear a cricket."

His friend responded, "Are you crazy? You couldn't  possibly  hear  a cricket  in  all this noise."

The Native American walked across the street to a bush and found the cricket.

"That's   incredible,"   his   friend   said. "You must have superhuman ears!"

"No," the  Native American  said. "My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you’re listening for."

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. Even with all the noise of the city people's heads turned to see if the money was theirs.

What we hear depends on what's important to us.

~ Jane T

---

You can do anything as long as you have the passion, the drive, the focus, and the support.

~ Sabrina Bryan

2019-11 - A Teacher's Lesson...

We stood there on the corridor of our classroom talking with our English teacher, not on academic matters but on general issues. He was really speaking with us as if we were full adults. We were still in our penultimate class in high school.

In the cause of our discussion, my friend made a comment. Then our teacher stopped talking for a moment and said in effect, "You have just spoken like one of my friends. He never liked it when people are ill spoken of; never accuses them when they are unable to defend themselves because of their absence." I caught a message that changed me.

From that day it sank deep into me like a command not to say anything bad about a person. When I heard a rumour about someone, I don't receive and spread it. Not that I take sides but I believe everyone needs to be treated with some level of trust and credibility until that person proves otherwise.

~ Charmaine S

---

Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half.

~ Author Unknown

2019-10 - Caring...

In a ram-shackled house, far from the village, lived a young man who was mentally impaired. He was always seen in the village, working hard to fill his old bag with discarded items and scraps of food. The children of the village sneered at him; the elderly villagers looked down on him and scolded their children from coming near him.

One day, the villagers learned that the young man had passed away. He had died alone. When they went to his house, they were surprised to find the man's parents, sickly and bed-ridden in the lonely and secluded house.

The shock of their discovery brought them to their senses. They quickly realized that the young man whom they had disregarded in their village, despite his mental and physical impairments, was devoted to taking care of his sick and bedridden parents until the day he died.

With his death, he taught the villagers a valuable lesson: We can never make assumptions about others, for sometimes the most caring individuals are those we wouldn't suspect.

~ Joan Pitrousky

---

You really can change the world if you care enough.

~ Marian Wright Edelman

2019-08 - Just a Fly in My Tea...

One afternoon, a fly fell into my tea. This was a minor occurrence. As I lifted my cup, I must have registered, by a small grunt, the presence of the fly.

Choegyal leaned forward in sympathy and consternation, "What is the matter?" "Just a fly in my tea.", I said. After all, I was a seasoned India-wallah, relatively free of Western phobias and attachments to modern sanitation.

Choegyal crooned softly, "Oh, oh, a fly in the tea." "It's no problem," I reiterated, smiling at him reassuringly.

But he leaned over and inserted his finger gently into my tea. With great care he lifted out the offending fly, and then exited from the room.

When Choegyal re-entered the cottage he was beaming. "He is going to be all right.", he told me quietly. He explained how he had placed the fly on the leaf of a branch, where his wings could dry. And the fly was still alive, because he began fanning his wings, and we confidently expect him to take flight soon...

That is what I remember of that afternoon - not the agreements we reached or plans we devised, but Choegyal's report that the fly would live. I could not, truth to tell, share Choegyal's dimensions of compassion, but the pleasure in his face revealed how much I was missing by not extending my self-concern to all beings, even to flies.

~ Joanna Macy

---

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.

~ Lao Tzu

2019-07 - The Old Man and the Scorpion...

One morning, after he had finished his meditation, the old man opened his eyes and saw a scorpion floating helplessly in the water. As the scorpion was washed closer to the tree, the old man quickly stretched himself out on one of the long roots that branched out into the river and reached out to rescue the drowning creature.

As soon as he touched it, the scorpion stung him. Instinctively the man withdrew his hand. A minute later, after he had regained his balance, he stretched himself out again on the roots to save the scorpion. This time the scorpion stung him so badly with its poisonous tail that his hand became swollen and bloody and his face contorted with pain.

At that moment, a passer-by saw the old man stretched out on the roots struggling with the scorpion and shouted: "Hey, stupid old man, what's wrong with you? Only a fool would risk his life for the sake of an ugly, evil creature. Don't you know you could kill yourself trying to save that ungrateful scorpion?"

The old man turned his head. Looking into the stranger's eyes he said calmly, "My friend, just because it is the scorpion's nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save."

~ Art Mitchel

---

Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.

~ Allen Ginsberg