Two Ugly Bricks

A story about a scientist that decided to be a pastor. One day,together with other pastors, they decided to build a church.Because they are not very rich, they decided to build it with their own expenses and their own effort.So they need to learn how to build a building.
Without much experiences, this pastor find it very hard to build a wall. When he started to put on a brick on cements, knocked a little bit at one end to make it even, he realized that the other end started to pop up. The tried to make it even but the other end started to pop up!
But as a pastor, he has all the times and patient that he needed. He make sure every bricks is placed correctly. And finally, he successfully build one side of the wall using the bricks and cement.He turned to the other side of the wall to see the result and at that moment he realized....Oh No...he has accidentally arranged 2 bricks. The rest of the bricks are arranged neatly, but these 2 bricks seems out of place. They looked ugly. They spoilt the whole wall...
And by then the cement has already harden and it’s hard to rearrange the two bricks, so the pastor ask the head pastor if he may tear down the whole wall and rebuild a new one. The head pastor told him that it’s not necessary, let wall be like it is.
When the pastor brought his first guests to visit the church, he always tried to avoid bringing them to the wall that he made. The pastor doesn’t like it if people look at it. So one day, 3 or 4 months after the built the wall, the pastor walked with a guest around the church and suddenly the guest commented ”that’s a beautiful wall”.
”Sir,” the pastor responded, ”do you left your glasses in your car? Don’t you see the 2 ugly bricks that make the whole wall look ugly?”
What the guest said then has changed the pastor’s view to the wall, to his life, and more aspect in his life. The guest said, ”Yes, I can see the 2 ugly bricks, but I also see the rest of 998 good and nice bricks.”
The pastors was dumbfounded. For the first time in more than 3 months, he can see other bricks except the 2 ugly bricks. Above, below, at the left side, and at the right side of the 2 ugly bricks are nice and good bricks which are more than the 2 ugly bricks. All these while, the pastor’s eyes only focused on the 2 mistakes that he had done...he was blinded by it. That’s why the pastor doesn’t like the wall or let other people see the wall. That’s why he wanted to destroy it. Now he can see nice bricks and the wall doesn’t look very ugly after all. The bricks become like what the guest say ”A nice and beautiful wall”.
The wall still exist up to today, many years after the incident, but the pastor has forgotten where the 2 ugly bricks are located. He can’t see the mistake anymore.

Many people decided to end their relationship or divorce because all they can see in their partnet are the ”two ugly bricks”. How many of us fell into depression and suicidal thoughts because all we can see are ”two ugly bricks”? In reality, there are many, far more good bricks but at that moment we can’t see it. In fact, everytime we see it, our eyes only focused on the things that we have done wrong. All that we see are mistakes that we have done, and we thought it’s a mere mistake and because of that we want to get rid of it. And many times, unfortunately, we really destroy a ”nice and beautiful wall”.
All of us have ”two ugly bricks” in our life, but there are more nice and good bricks inside us. Once we can see the nice and good bricks, we will not be as ugly as we think. Not only that we can have peace with ourselves, but with our partner.
I have friends who work in building construction. They told me a secret about their profression: ”All of us work in construction building always make a mistake,” he said, ”But we always tell our customer that it’s ”unique feature” that no other houses will has. We then charged extra for the ”unique feature”!!!”
So, this ”unique feature” in your house, can be, initially a mistake. In the same way, what you think as a mistake in you, your friend, your spouse, or in life in general, can be a ”unique feature”, which enrich your life, when you don’t focus on it....

“Wisdom is learning what to overlook.”
- William James -

Carrot, Egg, and Coffee

Let's imagine you are boiling water on 3 separate container.
In the first container, you put in few carrots. In the second container, you put in few eggs. And in the third container, you put coffee powder.
Heat up all 3 containers for 15 minutes and then take out all 3 items for the containers. Carrot that was hard now is soften; Egg that was soft inside now is harden; And Cofee powder is now gone, but, the color of the water has changed and it has a nice smell of coffee.

Now let's think about our work. Work is not always easy, it's not always comfortable, sometimes work can even be very hard and demanding. Our situations do not always turn out to be what we wanted. People treated us not the way we hoped. We worked hard, but didn't get the optimal result. What happened when we face difficulties?

Let's think back on the 3 containers. Boiling water is like problems in our work.
We can be like carrot, we start a work strong and firm but we have to come out soft and helpless. We becoming very tired and lose hope, we quit. Lost our self confidence. DON'T BE LIKE CARROT!!!
We can be like egg, we start work with a mild and sensitive heart but we end up very egoistic and indifference. We hate other people, we hate ourselves. There's no more warmth in our life. DON'T BE LIKE EGG!!!
We can be like coffee powder. Water didn't change the coffee powder, but it's the coffee powder that changed the water. The water changed because of coffee powder. See, smell, and drink it. The hotter the water, the better the taste of the coffee. We can be like coffee powder. We try to make something good out of the challenges that we face. We learn new things. We gain new knowledge, wisdom and new skills. We grow with experiences. We made our world around us be a better place. In order to be successful, we have to try...try...and try again. We must believe in what we do. We should not give up, we have to be patient. We must always keep our spirit high. Problems and difficulties give us an opportunity to be a stronger and better person. We can decide to be carrot, egg, or coffee powder.
LET'S BE LIKE COFFEE POWDER!!!


"We are exactly where we have chosen to be"
-Vernon Howard-

How to stay young

1. Throw out nonessential numbers
This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That’s why you pay them.

2. Keep only cheerful friends
The grouches pull you down. (Keep this in mind if YOU are one of those grouches.)

3. Keep learning
Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, and whatever. Never let the brain get idle. An idle mind is the devil's workshop. And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!

4.Enjoy the simple things

5.Laugh often, long and loud until you gasp for breath
And if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and lots of time with HIM / HER.

6.Surround yourself with what you love
Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, or whatever. Make a spot your refuge. Keep good relationship with God.

7.The tears happen
Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us in our entire life, is yourself. LIVE while you are alive.

8.Cherish your health
If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, GET HELP.

9.Don't take guilt trips
Take a trip to the mall, even to the next country, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10.Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity


"Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter"
- unknown -

Different Perception

A father who is dying gave 2 advices to his 2 sons:
1. Never ask money back from people that owe you.
2. If you go to shop, never let sun shine on your face.

Time passes and few years later after the father died, the eldest son become richer but the youngest son become poorer.One day the mother asked what happened to both of them.

The youngest answered:"This is because I follow what Dad told me. Dad said that I can't ask people to return back my money if they owe me.And because of that my asset keep decreasing because people never pay me what they owe me."
"Dad also said that if I went out or come back to work, I should not see the sun. And because of that, I have to take vehicle to work even tough I can walk, and that made my expenses keep increasing."

When the mother asked the eldest son, he answered:"All these because I kept father's advice. Because dad said not to ask money from people who owe me, I never owe people money and because of that my asset never decrease."
"Dad also said not to see the sun when I go and come back to work, and because of that I open my shop earlier than other shops and close only when other shops close. And that habit cause people recognise my shop and my business is good because of the long opening hour."

Morale of the Story:
The story above shows how a sentence can be interpreted with different perception.If we look at it with a positive attitude, every difficulty can be a journey that lead us to a success but we can also be swept away with the difficulties because of our routine.

"Do ordinary thing with an extraordinary attitude"

Stress Management

I received this from a forwarded email and I thought it's a very good to share with all of you.
A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.' He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. ''As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.'' So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home.You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.'
So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now.Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
- Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.
- Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
- Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
- Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
- If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
- It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.
- When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
- Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
- You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
- Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
- A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle"
- Albert Einstein -

The Donkey

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly.
Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step upAs the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of t he deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.
2. Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.
3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”
- Marie Curie -

Things Aren't Always as They Seem

Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room. Instead the angels were given a space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied..."Things aren't always what they seem".
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night's rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel "how could you have let this happen!? The first man had everything, yet you helped him," she accused. "The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let their cow die."
"Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied. "When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it. Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave her the cow instead.
Things aren't always what they seem."Sometimes this is exactly what happens when things don't turn out the way you think they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You might not know it until some time later

"He who has faith has... an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well - even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly."
- B.C. Forbes -