This is an inane subject of innocuous proportions. Having a good lunch? Plenty of us do. We eat and then we are back at work and we quickly forget what we have just eaten.
Well I just had a great lunch. What made it even more memorable was the fact that I shared a table with two other colleagues and we partook in a great lunch conversation.
Some of the nicest things that happen to us on a daily basis is lunch and how we go through it. We think eating is compulsory in maintaining life. Well, it's true to a small extent. Man can actually survive for quite a long spell without eating.
But since we belong to that lucky group of people who get to eat three square meals a day, we should be slightly thankful that we can afford to eat and have meals to eat several times a day on a daily basis.
I have had hundreds of thousands of lunches in my lifetime. I have had many forgettable lunches but as time passes by, I realise that I have taken a lot of important things for granted.
No longer so. These days, I anticipated each meal with some happiness and joy. Am I crazy? Absolutely not. Eating is a blessing. Just think of all those who want to eat, and eat joyously but can't. It could be due to ill health, it could be due to a lack of good teeth, and it could also be due to a constant lack of appetite.
Thus, having a good lunch is one of those blessings that come upon many of us without prior notice, and it often taken for granted by the best of us for many a good year.
Hence, I would like to conclude by announcing to all and sundry that you all must no longer look upon lunches as some kind of a chore but as a privilege and a gift from heaven.
Just imagine the scenario where you could no longer have lunches or can't afford to have one regulary. Surely, that must be one of life's greatest punishments if I ever hear one.
Enjoy your lunch and I mean it!
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
Forgive, Forget and Move on
There's a saying that goes: Forgive and forget, life's too short. Actually, that's one of the most practical piece of advice I have ever come across.
Most of us don't really think about that until we find a very good reason to dislike a particular person. It gets worse when our hostility is amply justified. Can you imagine forgiving someone whom you dislike intensely, and then in the same breath, proclaim that you will not forget that incident.
A philosophy of that kind is simply unacceptable. To forgive means to forget as well. When you say that you will forgive but will not forget, you are in actual act, saying that you will get married but will also continue to lead the life of a single person.
Through personal experience, I have found out that forgive, forget and move on is the best antidote to all painful experiences that sometimes come unexpectedly. I know of a couple of people who can't forgive, never forget and vow not to move on until the other chap drops dead.
It is a monumental waste of energy and time. If that person whom you dislike intensely does not know that you have such strong feelings towards him or her, then it doesn't affect him. Only you have that hostility all bottled in your frail body.
The body cannot contain too much of this kind of strong feeling because too much of aggression, hostility and frustration will be manifested in illnesses and transformed into all kinds of unhealthy stress-related abnormalies.
One of the most powerful factors for sectarian conflicts in many parts of the world is this unusual propensity to destroy another community, simply for the sake of killing someone.
The consequence of taking another person's life is to trigger a chain of events that will lead to more destruction. The more the feeling is allowed expression through murderous means, the more it will gather momentum.
So if you caught in this tragic cycle of runaway emotions, you must immediately break the momentum by forgiving, forgetting and moving on. I know it is very difficult but it sure beats getting yourself killed as well as trying to kill others.
All the great religious teachers who have come before us eons ago have promulgated the philosophy of loving your neighbour and doing good unto others as you would want them to do unto you.
The teaching is rather simple but humans have this sad inclination of learning simple things.
If you think you have a long life ahead of you, and you can stop hating after 50 years of existence on earth, you may be in for a deep shock. The reason is because your life may come to an abrupt end at 40 years.
Not quite the 50 years that you have expected. There's no prize for wanting to hate others until they retire in the cemetery. You will join them there too, soon enough.
The idea is to make your passage on earth as smooth as silk. Why indulge in all these meaningless and physically exhausting feelings that will bring you no good at all.
Don't wait till you are at death's door before you suddenly realise that all those bad feelings which have been kept under lock and key in your heart and mind have been a terrible waste of time all those decades.
Think about it!!
Most of us don't really think about that until we find a very good reason to dislike a particular person. It gets worse when our hostility is amply justified. Can you imagine forgiving someone whom you dislike intensely, and then in the same breath, proclaim that you will not forget that incident.
A philosophy of that kind is simply unacceptable. To forgive means to forget as well. When you say that you will forgive but will not forget, you are in actual act, saying that you will get married but will also continue to lead the life of a single person.
Through personal experience, I have found out that forgive, forget and move on is the best antidote to all painful experiences that sometimes come unexpectedly. I know of a couple of people who can't forgive, never forget and vow not to move on until the other chap drops dead.
It is a monumental waste of energy and time. If that person whom you dislike intensely does not know that you have such strong feelings towards him or her, then it doesn't affect him. Only you have that hostility all bottled in your frail body.
The body cannot contain too much of this kind of strong feeling because too much of aggression, hostility and frustration will be manifested in illnesses and transformed into all kinds of unhealthy stress-related abnormalies.
One of the most powerful factors for sectarian conflicts in many parts of the world is this unusual propensity to destroy another community, simply for the sake of killing someone.
The consequence of taking another person's life is to trigger a chain of events that will lead to more destruction. The more the feeling is allowed expression through murderous means, the more it will gather momentum.
So if you caught in this tragic cycle of runaway emotions, you must immediately break the momentum by forgiving, forgetting and moving on. I know it is very difficult but it sure beats getting yourself killed as well as trying to kill others.
All the great religious teachers who have come before us eons ago have promulgated the philosophy of loving your neighbour and doing good unto others as you would want them to do unto you.
The teaching is rather simple but humans have this sad inclination of learning simple things.
If you think you have a long life ahead of you, and you can stop hating after 50 years of existence on earth, you may be in for a deep shock. The reason is because your life may come to an abrupt end at 40 years.
Not quite the 50 years that you have expected. There's no prize for wanting to hate others until they retire in the cemetery. You will join them there too, soon enough.
The idea is to make your passage on earth as smooth as silk. Why indulge in all these meaningless and physically exhausting feelings that will bring you no good at all.
Don't wait till you are at death's door before you suddenly realise that all those bad feelings which have been kept under lock and key in your heart and mind have been a terrible waste of time all those decades.
Think about it!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
