Inspirationals

Hey - Get off me!

The following collection of messages that - for whatever reason - tripped Dickies trigger. All of these were recieved via email.

Note: There used to be stories mixed in this section that have been relocated.
Click on that there stories word, and you'll be relocated too...

A Lesson In Life Smiles The Real Difference

A LESSON IN LIFE

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, they serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become.

You never know who these people may be; your roommate, neighbor, professor, long lost friend, lover or even a complete stranger who, when you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.

And sometimes things happen to you and at the time they may seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection you realize that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized your potential, strength, will power or heart.

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good or bad luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul.

Without these small tests, if they be events, illnesses or relationships, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere. Safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless. The people you meet who affect your life and the successes and downfalls you experience create who you are, and even the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are probably the most poignant and important ones.

If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to who you open your heart to. If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are
teaching you to love and opening your heart and eyes to things you would have never seen or felt without them.

Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again.

Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen, let yourself fall in love, break free and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will
believe in you either. You can make of your life anything you wish. Create your own life and then go out and live it.

Smiles

He said that he was captured by the enemy and thrown into a jail cell. He was sure that from the contemptuous looks and rough treatment he received from his jailers he would be executed the next day. From here, I'll tell the story as I remember it in my own words.

I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous and distraught. I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes which had escaped their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips.
But I had no matches, they had taken those.
I looked through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me.
After all, one does not make eye contact with a thing, a corpse.
I called out to him 'Have you got a light, por favor?' He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.

As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don't know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn't want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too.
He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile. I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension, too.

'Do you have kids?' he asked. 'Yes, here, here.' I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his ninos and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I'd never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too.

Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out. Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.
My life was saved by a smile.

Yes, the smile - the unaffected, unplanned natural connection between people.
I tell this story in my work because I'd like people to consider that underneath all the layers we construct to protect ourselves, our dignity, our titles, our degrees, our status and our need to be seen in certain ways - underneath all that, remains the authentic, essential self.

I'm not afraid to call it the soul. I really believe that if that part of you and that part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn't be enemies.
We couldn't have hate or envy or fear. I sadly conclude that all those other layers, which we so carefully construct through our lives, distance and insulate us from truly contacting others.
Saint-Exupery's story speaks of that magic moment when two souls recognize each other. I've had just a few moments like that. Falling in love is one example. And looking at a baby. Why do we smile when we see a baby? Perhaps it's because we see someone without all the defensive layers, someone whose smile for us we know to be fully genuine and without guile. And that baby-soul inside us smiles wistfully in recognition.

The Real Difference

A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord said to the man,
Come, I will show you hell.They entered a room where a group of people sat
around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was famished, desperate and starving.

Each held a spoon that reached the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much
longer than their own arm that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible.

Come, now I will show you heaven, the Lord said after a while. They entered
another room, identical to the first - the pot of stew, the group of people, the
same long-handled spoons. But there everyone was happy and well-nourished.

I don’t understand," said the man. Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room and everything was the same?

The Lord smiled, Ah, it is simple, he said.

Here they have learned to feed each other.

More to come...

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