Moral Story (posted by Priya Deelchand)

Once upon a time there were two brothers,
Tham and Hien. They had scarcely reached
adolescence when their parents died leaving
the two brothers the ancestral home - a large
but simple house, a few fields and also a
small parcel of forest land with a small hut.

Tham was greedy, miserly and proud. Hien
was good, obliging and generous. When the
two brothers thought of marrying, Tham looked
for the richest possible bride whereas
Hien followed his heart and looked for
a sweet and loving partner. Immediately
following the marriages Tham came to see
his brother and told him:

"Now that we are both married, the house
is too small for all of us. Since I am the
eldest, it is only natural that the house
should come to me. But I am not ungenerous,
I don't expect you to leave empty-handed.
You can have the small hut and the patch
of forest land surrounding it. You are
a worker, you can easily repair the hut
and cultivate your land". Hien bowed his
head in agreement and went to tell his wife.

The small hut was in a pitiable condition
and the tiny plot of land was hard and rocky.

The only redeeming feature was a majestic
cucumber-tree at one end of the field, still
full of vigour despite its age. Its leaves
provided shade for the hut, and seeing this
Hien thought that perhaps the Gods had not
completely abandoned him.

Hien and his wife worked very hard but what
they were able to earn from the land was not
sufficient to support them. On top of this,
the young lady was expecting their first child.

One day when Hien was in a sad mood his wife
calmed him. She led him outside the hut.

"Look at the cucumber tree", she said,
"It is bending with the burden of its fruits.
Soon I'll be able to pick them and sell them
in the village. Don't give up hope".

But the next day when Hien started out for
the forest he saw a very large bird with
feathers of fire sitting in the tree and
eating the cucumbers.

"Good bird, please have pity on us. The
cucumbers are all that we have. If you eat
them all, there will be nothing left for us!"

Hien did not know that the beautiful bird
was the legendary Phoenix, so he was very m
uch surprised when the bird turned and replied:

"I shall not be ungrateful and you will be g
reatly compensated for allowing me to taste
these cucumbers. Ask your wife to sew a sack
and come and see me tomorrow morning under
the cucumber-tree".

The next day Hien waited under the
cucumber-tree with the sack in his hand.
He heard a fluttering of feathers over head
and saw that the Phoenix was once again
feasting on the cucumbers. Eventually the
bird saw him:

"Open your sack and put it under the tree".
Hien did so. As the bird ate the fruits,
it dropped the equivalent weight of precious
stones, diamonds and nuggets of gold into
the sack.

Even before the sack was full Hien cautioned
the Phoenix:

"Stop beautiful bird! I've already got more
than enough to give us a good living.
I thank you. You have been very good to us.”

The Phoenix understood the wisdom of the
young farmer and told him:

"If misery again strikes at your door,
look at this cucumber-tree and remember
that you need not despair, that there will
always be a solution; and if you are in need
of me I shall not be far away".

............................................

This popular story hides a great truth:
wealth is not just about having lots of
money - it is also about the potential and
possibilities of finding our own strengths:

our imagination, our intelligence and
creativity. Certainly the cucumber-tree and
the Phoenix are proverbial, but the good bird
didn't consider it worthwhile to speak to
the wicked brother.

He spoke to Hien. This signifies that
luck smiles on those who are enterprising,
courageous, who have perseverance and
confidence in their capacity to succeed
and who do not give up the responsibility
of their life by blaming it on fate or destiny.

............................................

"There are two types of people on earth:
those who look for ways of succeeding and
those who look for excuses for their
failures".
M. de Cornouardt

"To have the courage of undertaking something
is one of the principal factors of success".
James A. Worsham

- Author unknown -

Posted by Priya Deelchand

What money can buy (posted by Priya Deelchand)

Money can buy pleasure... but not love;

Money can buy a show... but not joy;

Money can buy a slave... but not a friend;

Money can buy a woman... but not a wife;

Money can buy a house... but not a home;

Money can buy food... but not an appetite;

Money can buy medicines... but not health;

Money can buy diplomas... but not culture;

Money can buy books... but not intelligence;

Money can buy tranquillizers. but not peace;

Money can buy indulgences... but not forgiveness;

Money can buy the earth... but not the sky.

- Author unknown -

Posted by Priya Deelchand

Charity bears interest (posted by Priya Deelchand)

Dining one day with Baron James Rothschild,
Eugene Delacroix, the famous French artist,
confessed that, during some time past, he had
vainly sought for a head to serve as a model
for that of a beggar in a picture which he
was painting;

and that, as he gazed at his host's features,
the idea suddenly occurred to him that the
very head he desired was before him.

Rothschild, being a great lover of art,
readily consented to sit as the beggar.

The next day, at the studio, Delacroix
placed a tunic around the baron's shoulders,
put a stout staff in his hand, and made him
pose as if he were resting on the steps
of an ancient Roman temple.

In this attitude he was found by one of
the artist's favorite pupils, in a brief
absence of the master from the room.

The youth naturally concluded that the
beggar had just been brought in, and with
a sympathetic look quietly slipped a piece
of money into his hand.

Rothschild thanked him simply, pocketed
the money, and the student passed out.
Rothschild then inquired of the master,
and found that the young man had talent,
but very slender means.

Soon after, the youth received a letter
stating that charity bears interest, and
that the accumulated interest on the amount
he had given to one he supposed to be a
beggar was represented by the sum of
a hundred thousand francs, which was awaiting
his claim at the Rothschild office.

- Author unknown-

Posted by Priya Deelchand

Live Fully (shared by Priya Deelchand)

An army chaplain tells of the time he was asked to preach at a church
some 20 miles from the base. He took his family along, but had
ne glected to tell his six-year-old daughter where they were going.
After a few miles on the road, she asked, "Dad, when we get to where
we're going, where will we be?" A good question! And one all of us
should try to answer for ourselves.

Think of your life's journey. When you get to where you're going,
where will you be? One year, five years, or even 20 years from now, if
you keep heading in the same direction you are head ing and keep doing
what you are doing, what will your life look like? Not only
vocationally and fi nancially, but what kind of person will you be? Do
you have a pretty clear picture of the way you would like things to
turn out, or will you be as surprised when it happens as everybody
else?

It has been my experience that most people do not spend much time with
these questions. But as Henry David Thoreau once said, "In the long
run, we only hit what we aim at."

To live aimlessly is to waste this precious gift of life. But to live
with direction is to live fully.

Author unnknown

Shared by Priya Deelchand

Lesson in self-confidence (shared by Priya Deelchand)

When Henry Ward Beecher was a young boy in school, he
learned a lesson in self-confidence, which he never forgot. He was
called upon to recite in front of the class. He had hardly begun when
the teacher interrupted with an emphatic, "No!" He started over and
again the teacher thundered, "No!" Humiliated, Henry sat down.

The next boy rose to recite and had just begun when the
teacher shouted, "No!" This student, however, kept on with the
recitation until he completed it. As he sat down, the teacher
responded, "Very good!"

Henry was irritated. "I recited just as he did," he
complained to the teacher.

But the instructor replied, "It is not enough to know your
lesson, you must be sure. When you allowed me to stop you, it meant
that you were uncertain. If all the world says, `No!' it is your
business to say, `Yes!' and prove it."

The world says, "No!" in a thousand ways:

"No! You can't do that."

"No! You are wrong."

"No! You are too old."

"No! You are too young."

"No! You are too weak."

"No! It will never work."

"No! You don't have the education."

"No! You don't have the background."

"No! You don't have the money."

"No! It can't be done."

And each "No!" you hear has the potential to erode your
confidence bit by bit until you quit altogether. Though the world
says, "No!" to you today, will you determine to say, "Yes!" and prove
it?

Author unknown

Shared by Priya Deelchand

Taking Chances (shared by Priya Deelchand)

Lecturer Charles Hobbs sometimes tells about a woman who lived in
London over a century ago. She saved what little money she could
working as a scullery maid and used it one evening to hear a great
speaker of her day. His speech moved her deeply and she waited to
visit with him afterward. "How fine it must be to have had the
opportunities you have had in life," she said.

"My dear lady," he replied, "have you never received an opportunity?"

"Not me. I have never had a chance," she said.
"What do you do?" the speaker asked.

She answered, "I peel onions and potatoes in my sister's boarding
house."

"How long have you been doing this?" he pursued.
"Fifteen miserable years!"

"And where do you sit?" he continued.

"Why, on the bottom step in the kitchen." She looked puzzled.

"And where do you put your feet?"

"On the floor," she answered, more puzzled.

"What is the floor?"

"It is glazed brick."

Then he said, "My dear lady, I will give you an assignment today. I
want you to write me a letter about the brick."

Against her protests about being a poor writer, he made her promise to
complete the assignment.

The next day, as she sat down to peel onions, she gazed at the brick
floor. That evening she pulled one loose, took it to a brick factory
and asked the owner to explain to her how bricks were made.

Still not satisfied, she went to a library and found a book on bricks.
She learned that 120 different kinds of brick and tile were being
produced in England at the time. She discovered how clay beds, which
existed for millions of years, were formed. Her research captivated
her imagination and she spent every spare moment learning more. She
returned to the library night after night and this woman, who never
had a chance, gradually began to climb the steps of knowledge.

After months of study, she set out to write her letter as promised.
She sent a 36-page document about the brick in her kitchen and, to her
surprise, she received a letter back. Enclosed was payment for her
research. He had published her letter! And along with the money came a
new assignment - this time he asked her to write about what she found
underneath the brick.

For the first time in her life she could hardly wait to get back to
the kitchen! She pulled up the brick and there was an ant. She held it
in her hand and examined it.

That evening, she hurried back to the library to study ants. She
learned that there were hundreds of different kinds of ants. Some were
so small they could stand on the head of a pin; while others were so
large one could feel the weight of them in one's hand. She started her
own ant colony and examined ants underneath a lens.

Several months later she wrote her findings in a 350-page "letter."
It, too, was eventually published. She soon quit her kitchen job to
take up writing.

Before she died, she had traveled to the lands of her dreams and had
experienced more than she ever imagined possible! This is the woman
who had never had a chance.

Some people wait for opportunity to come knocking. Here is a person
who sought it out, proving again that we can be more than victims of
mere circumstance.

If given a chance, will you take it? If given no chance, can you make
one?

Author unknown

Shared by Priya Deelchand

Learn from your mistakes (shared by Priya Deelchand)

My dearest friends,

Hope you are all doing awesome.

Here is a story sent to me by my friend Janet Drew that I would like

to share with you today.

A humorous story has it that a newly appointed young clergy
person was contacted by a local funeral director to hold a
graveside service at a small country cemetery in Iowa. There was
to be no funeral, just the committal, because the deceased had no
family or friends left in the state.

The young pastor started early to cemetery, but soon became lost.
After making several wrong turns, he finally arrived a half-hour
late. The hearse was nowhere in sight and cemetery workers were
relaxing under a near-by tree, eating their lunch.

The pastor went to the open grave and found that the vault lid
was already in place. He took out his book and read the service.
As he returned to his car, he overheard one of the workers say,
"Maybe we'd better tell him it's a septic tank."

Why is it we make our biggest mistakes in public? And some people
can't avoid it...former hockey goalie Jacques Plante wonders,
"How would you like a job where, if you made a mistake, a big,
red light goes on and 18,000 people boo?"

But we should never give up our right to be wrong. Good judgment
comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. It
is your right to be wrong. "No (one) ever became great or good
except through many and great mistakes," said William E.
Gladstone. Great mistakes are opportunities for great learning.
And great learning makes for great living.

You have a right to be wrong. And if you are to build a great
life, you have a duty to make great mistakes. If possible, laugh
at them. Always learn from them. And try to make sure your next
mistake is one you haven't made before!

Have a great day!

Much Love,

Priya:))

Posted by Priya Deelchand