Smile

My wife shared this poem with me yesterday and it's truly inspirational. You too enjoy it and keep smiling. Let this poem travel the world, you can simply email to the ones who you want to SMILE.

Love
Vivek

SMILE

Smiling is infectious,
You catch it like the flu,
When some one smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner
And someone saw my grin;
When he smiled I realised
I’d passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile
And realised its worth,
A single smile just like mine,
Could travel round the earth.

So if you feel a smile begin,
Don’t leave it undetected;
Let’s start an epidemic quick –
And get the world infected!

Forgive for Your Own Sake

An early morning, when I turned on BBC, I was in the middle of an ongoing documentary. An old lady in late 50s was talking about her only daughter who was brutally killed after being sexually assaulted by a robber at the farmhouse.
Like others, she decided to fight for her daughter’s justice. The court case lasted for many years. At last, the accused was awarded a death sentence. Finally this is what she said, “… I had a satisfaction that the sinner was punished. But, still I was not at peace. One day I decided to see the convict at the prison. His face was stubbed and pale, and he looked hopelessly at me. I couldn’t believe. I was moved, something from inside stirred me and I decided to forgive..”

“..just in a moment my life was transformed. I felt as if I’m relieved of a big burden. I felt free.”

Revenge is a natural response right after we are hurt. It might console for a while but doesn’t set us free. We still live with a heaviness of guilt. The only way to freedom is forgiveness.

As a human, we feel generous while forgiving. Do it, not for anyone, but yourself!

Rebuild the Bridge

People had assembled to have glimpse of the legendary sage in the huge ground.  Holy chants were resonating and the ambience was euphoric. It was a beautiful village located amidst the hills and the only thing connecting the village was the wooden-bridge over river Beas.

The sage clad in saffron waived his hand towards the public to calm down and asked, “What will you do if the floodwater washes away the bridge?”

“We will rebuild the bridge!” everyone screamed at once.

“Why will you rebuild the bridge?”

There was skepticism after this question among the crowd because the answer was very clear. Still, some of them said, “Because the bridge is our lifeline and we can’t wait.”

“True!” the saint paused.

“When we experience a loss in life, we tend to worry and repent when it’s the time to act.  Mostly, you will notice people reiterating the loss which further worsens their state.  Many losses are irreparable, but our life demands action. The sooner you rebuild the bridge the happier you will be.”

The message was very clear.

I find this story very apt in these turbulent times. Many have lost their entire life’s saving, some have lost job, a few have received pay cuts and a fear psychosis has gripped most of us.  But, we all know life is not going to end here, it has to move on.

So, let’s start finding ways to rebuild our bridge.  No crisis in the universe comes without a way out, you just need an eye to look for.

The words of Encouragement

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

This story teaches two lessons:

1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them.

Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path. The power of words... it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times. Special is the individual who will take the time to encourage another.