The Bird and the Woman - Paulo Coelho

Once upon a time, there was a bird. He was adorned with two perfect wings and with

glossy, colourful, marvellous feathers. In short, he was a creature made to fly about

freely in the sky, bringing joy to everyone who saw him.

One day, a woman saw this bird and fell in love with him. She watched his flight, her

mouth wide in amazement, herheart pounding, her eyes shining with excitement. She invited the bird to fly with her, and the two travelled across the sky in perfect harmony. She admired and venerated and celebrated that bird.

But then she thought: He might want to visit faroff mountains! And she was afraid, afraid

that she would never feel the same way about any other bird. And she felt envy, envy for

the bird's ability to fly-

And she felt alone.

And she thought: 'I'm going to set a trap. The next time the bird appears, he will never

leave again.'

The bird, who was also in love, returned the following day, fell into the trap and

was put in a cage.

She looked at the bird every day. There he was, the object

of her passion, and she showed him to her friends, who said:

'Now you have everything you could possibly want.' However, a strange transformation began

to take place: now that she had the bird and no longer needed to woo him, she began to lose interest. The bird, unable to fly

and express the true meaning of his life, began to waste away and his feathers to lose their gloss; he grew ugly; and the woman no longer paid him any attention, except by feeding him and cleaning out his cage.

One day, the bird died. The woman felt terribly sad and spent all her time thinking

about him. But she did not remember the cage, she thought only of the day when she had seen him for the first time, flying contentedly amongst the clouds.

If she had looked more deeply into herself, she would have realised that what had thrilled her

about the bird was his freedom, the energy of his wings in notion, not his physical body.

Without the bird, her life too lost all meaning, and death came knocking at her

door. 'Why have you come?' she asked Death. 'So that you can fly once

Ore with him across the sky,' Death replied. 'If you had allowed him to come and go, you would have loved and

admired him even more; alas, you now need me in order to find him again.'

Don’t Quit

There are days when I felt like I am stuck in a prison of my own making. It’s not only that I felt stuck in life; but also that I had lost my dreams and even my sense of who I was as a person. The various roles I played that supported the lives of other people had somehow left my own life empty and unfulfilled. I began to think back to my childhood and remember the dreams and desires I held then.

I discovered the power of the positive affirmation which keeps me going to day. I have a poem in my computer called “Don’t Quit.” It speaks to me. I would read it every day and feel myself agreeing with the words. I want to share this concept of positive and right affirmation with you.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don't give up though the pace seems slow--

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victor's cup,

And he learned too late when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out--

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--

It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

Fishing experience - Email From Johnathan John

Two men went fishing. One was an experienced fisherman, the other wasn't. Every time the experienced fisherman caught a big fish, he put it in his ice chest to keep it fresh. Whenever the inexperienced fisherman caught a big fish, he threw it back.

The experienced fisherman watched this go on all day and finally got tired of seeing the man waste good fish. "Why do you keep throwing back all the big fish you catch?" he asked.

The inexperienced fisherman replied, "I only have a small frying pan."
 
Sometimes, like that fisherman, we throw back the big plans, big dreams, big jobs, big opportunities that God gives us. Our faith is too small.

We laugh at that fisherman who didn't figure out that all he needed was a bigger frying pan, yet how ready are we to increase the size of our faith? 

Whether it's a problem or a possibility, God will never give you anything bigger than you can handle. That means we can confidently walk into anything God brings our way.

REMEMBER:
Stop telling God you've got big problems. Tell your problems you've got a BIG GOD!

Thoughts

Scientist say that in a day’s time sixty three thousand thoughts pass through our mind. Sixty three thousand thoughts passing through. Not all of these thoughts realize – you choose. Many of these thoughts are good and many bad. It’s upto us to choose which to realize. It’s like the stations in your radio. Just muttering RJ and lying Politicians all making a noise. You choose which station to listen and which to pass through. I wish we could just turn off all our thoughts for a while like the radio.

Over the days you start to get fixed only to one station.That’s the state of our minds. We get locked on to one way of thinking, stopping from even making a choice. We start to become a one track mind and these thoughts starts to realize in our lives.

Think more of what you make happen than what happens to you. Live in the active voice rather than the passive. Live in the first person, evaluating yourself rather than finding fault with others. Care more for your own conscience rather than for the applause of the crowd. If you want a word to live by then choose LOVE.

A Thousand Beads

A couple of months ago, I was driving home through the usual evening Dubai traffic. It was a Sunday evening. I turned on the radio to one of the presets. Along the way, the RJ Chris spoke to an old man about life’s experiences. He came across with a very zealous voice. He began to share his concept of a “ thousand beads”

I was intrigued and turned up the volume to listen to what this guy had to say. "Well, My son Mike, is always very busy with his job. I'm sure they pay him well but it's a shame he has to be away from home and his family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. “Too bad to miss your daughter's dance recital." He continued, "Let me tell you something Chris, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand beads."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Sundays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.

Now stay with me Chris, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Sundays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a tailor store and bought every single bead they had. I ended up having to visit three tailoring stores to roundup 1000 beads. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right next to my bed.

Every Sunday since then, I have taken one bead out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the beads finish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

Now let me tell you one last thing before I leave you and take my lovely wife out for dinner. This morning, I took the very last bead out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Sunday, then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time. It was nice to meet you and speak to you Chris, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. 75 year Old Man, this is Melvin, good evening and bye"

I could hear my heart beat, the sound of the car didn’t exist, when this old man finished. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about.

That evening changed a lot in my life. My priorities changed.

From my GURU

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it. --Rabindranath Tagore

Ctrl+Alt+Delete !!!!

When I logged into my computer this morning, the operating system prompted me saying ‘Your password expires in 5 days. Press Ctrl Alt Del to change your password’. If God send us a message in the morning ‘You expire in 5 days!’ how would we live those five days. What would our priorities be.

Will we find time enough to say sorry to all those we have trespassed. Can we manage to make up with all those we had avoided? Will we be able to spend enough time with our loved ones? Will we be able to visit that great places we haunted in your childhood?

Will we still be making haste to pack all our money to take with us? Will we still gossip?