At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.
She started screaming out of fear.
With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her
hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.
Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.
The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but… it landed on another
lady in the group.
Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.
The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach
next fell upon the waiter.
The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the
cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his
fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.
Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked
up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their
histrionic behaviour?
If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection,
without any chaos.
It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance
caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies.
I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that
disturbs me, but it’s my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their
shouting that disturbs me.
It’s not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the
disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.
More than the problem, it’s my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my
life

Once upon a time, there was a very lazy man who would always look for an easier
way to feed himself. One day while he was searching for something to eat, he saw
the fruit farm. He looked around and didn’t see anyone guarding the fruits on the tree,
so he quickly decided to steal some fruits. But as soon as he walked into the farm
and started to climb the tree, the farmer saw him and started coming at him to catch
him. The lazy man saw the farmer coming at him with a stick, he got afraid and ran
towards the forest nearby and went inside it to hide.
After some time when he felt he started to move on from the forest and while passing
through, he saw the wonderful scene. There was a fox. It had only two legs and still
was crawling on them happily. The lazy man thought, how can this fox stay alive in
such condition?! The fox can’t run, how he must be able to feed himself or stay alive
from the threat of other animals.
Suddenly, he saw the lion coming towards the fox with a piece of meat already in his
mouth. All the animals ran away and the lazy man climbed up on the tree to save
himself but, the fox stayed there only, he didn’t have the ability to run on two legs. But
what happened next surprised the lazy man. The lion left a piece of meat which was
in his mouth for the fox!
The lazy man felt happy seeing god’s play. He thought the god who is the creator of
all, always has a plan set to take care of what he created. He felt that god must have
something planned for him too. So, he left that place and sat somewhere away alone
waiting for someone to feed him too. As time starting to pass, he kept looking at the
road, waiting for his food. He waited there for 2 days without any food! Finally, he
couldn’t bear the hunger and started to leave.
He met an old sage (a wise person famed for wisdom) on the way. He told everything
happened to the sage. The sage first gave him some food and water. After having it,
the lazy man asked the sage, “oh wise one, the god had shown his mercy on the
crippled fox, but why the god was so cruel to me?”
The old sage with a smile said, “True that the creator has a plan for everyone. You
are obviously a part of the god’s plan. But Son, You took his sign in a wrong way. He
didn’t want you to be like the fox. He wanted you to be like the Lion”.
Moral: Often we misunderstand the signs. God has given everyone a strength and
ability to do their part. Always learn to see the things in a positive way and see
yourself in a strong position to help the ones who need. Don’t go for the easy choice.
Make a right choice.

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The
girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his
marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed.
The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to
the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised.
That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept
wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his
best marble.
Moral of the story: If you don’t give your hundred percent in a relationship, you’ll
always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent. This
is applicable for any relationship like love, friendship, employer-employee
relationship etc., Give your hundred percent to everything you do and sleep
peacefully.

A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery.
He answered the call ASAP, changed his clothes and went directly to the surgery
block. He found the boy’s father pacing in the hall waiting for the doctor.
On seeing him, the father yelled, “Why did you take all this time to come? Don’t
you know that my son’s life is in danger? Don’t you have any sense of
responsibility?”
The doctor smiled and said, “I am sorry, I wasn’t in the hospital and I came as fast
as I could after receiving the call and now, I wish you’d calm down so that I can do
my work”.
“Calm down?! What if your son was in this room right now, would you calm down?
If your own son dies while waiting for the doctor than what will you do??” said the
father angrily. The doctor smiled again and replied, “We will do our best by God’s
grace and you should also pray for your son’s healthy life”.
“Giving advises when we’re not concerned is so easy” Murmured the father.
The surgery took some hours after which the doctor went out happy, “Thank
goodness! your son is saved!” And without waiting for the father’s reply he carried
on his way running by saying, “If you have any questions, ask the nurse”.
“Why is he so arrogant? He couldn’t wait some minutes so that I ask about my
son’s state” Commented the father when seeing the nurse minutes after the doctor
left. The nurse answered, tears coming down her face, “His son died yesterday in
a road accident, he was at the funeral when we called him for your son’s surgery.
And now that he saved your son’s life, he left running to finish his son’s funeral.”
Moral: Never judge anyone because you never know how their life is and what
they’re going through.

One day King came to his garden and saw withering and dying trees, bushes and
flowers.
An oak said it dies because it can’t be as high as a pine.
A pine tree was falling down because it could not give grapes like a grapevine.
Meanwhile the grapevine was dying because it couldn’t blossom like a rose.
But soon the King found a single plant, pleasing heart, bloomy and fresh.
The king asked:
-All the trees and flowers here are withering, and you are flourishing, why?
– I think it comes naturally. You have planted me, because it was Your wish and
Your choice. If you would like to grow an oak, grapes or rose, you would plant
them. And I cannot be anything else than what I am. So I try to develop my best
qualities.
Look at yourself. You can be only yourself. It is impossible for you to
become someone else. You can enjoy life and blossom or you can wither if
you do not accept yourself.

Once an unhappy young man came to an old master and told he had a very sad
life and asked for a solution.
The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a
glass of water and then to drink it.
“How does it taste?” – The Master asked.
“Terrible.” – spat the apprentice.
The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of
salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when
the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake.
The old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”
As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the Master asked, “How does it
taste?”
“Good!” – remarked the apprentice.
“Do you taste the salt?” – asked the Master.
“No.” – said the young man.
The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said, “The
pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the
same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the ‘pain’ depends on the
container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to
enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”
Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

There lived a young farmer who used to grow wheat. After few years of gaining
experience he became over confident on his wheat growing skills and challenged
God.., “My dear God, if you can give me your powers, I would do wonders in
growing the best ever wheat crop in the world”. God became interested to see
what the young farmer would achieve and gave his powers for a year on condition
that the farmer will use his powers only to the extent of wheat cultivation. Farmer
happily returned to his farm and as soon as he started with the new crop, he gave
the crop more than sufficient sunlight, more than required rainfall, most favourable
climatic conditions for the crop to give its best yield with the help of his newly
acquired powers from the God.
As expected by the farmer, the wheat grew double its natural length and also very
thick. Farmer was happy with the outcome. But after close examination he
realized that the crop is not potent, i.e., it has no strength from inside, it has no
taste, it just appears healthy from outside.
The young farmer was disheartened. When asked God, he said to the farmer “Any
living being derives its strength from struggling. You have given the crop all that is
more than required. Adverse conditions like insufficient sunlight, inadequate
rainfall makes the crop struggle for survival. In the due course, it becomes
stronger. Storms and floods test the crop’s mettle. Insects and worms which try to
destroy the crop make it much more powerful. You have deprived the crop all
these things by giving it all the favourable conditions. There is no struggle. How do
you expect it to have the inner strength, the potence that can only come with a
fight, the genuine taste that will only come when the crop is victorious in the battle
for survival?”
Same is the case with human beings. Unless there is a struggle, unless there is a
fight with the adverse conditions there is no internal development. Unlucky are
those whose life is a bed of roses, since they will miss the most important lessons
that life is going to teach, the most important skills that only adverse conditions
can impart.

A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied in life. But one day he saw a
swan. “This swan is so white,” he thought, “and I am so black. This swan must be the
happiest bird in the world.”
He expressed his thoughts to the swan. “Actually,” the swan replied, “I was feeling
that I was the happiest bird around until I saw a parrot, which has two colours. I now
think the parrot is the happiest bird in creation.” The crow then approached the
parrot. The parrot explained, “I lived a very happy life until I saw a peacock. I have
only two colours, but the peacock has multiple colours.”
The crow then visited a peacock in the zoo and saw that hundreds of people had
gathered to see him. After the people had left, the crow approached the peacock.
“Dear peacock,” the crow said, “you are so beautiful. Every day thousands of people
come to see you. When people see me, they immediately shoo me away. I think you
are the happiest bird on the planet.”
The peacock replied, “I always thought that I was the most beautiful and happy bird
on the planet. But because of my beauty, I am entrapped in this zoo. I have
examined the zoo very carefully, and I have realized that the crow is the only bird not
kept in a cage. So for past few days, I have been thinking that if I were a crow, I could
happily roam everywhere.”
That’s our problem too. We make unnecessary comparison with others and become
sad. We don’t value what God has given us. This all leads to the vicious cycle of
unhappiness. Learn to be happy in what you have instead of looking at what you
don’t have. There will always be someone who will have more or less than you
have. Person who is satisfied with what he/she has, is the happiest person in the
world.

One day a son came to his father for an advice:
– Dad, I can’t do this anymore, – he said, – those lessons only exhaust me, and
the result doesn’t change. It must be not destined for me to play football and my
dream will never come true.
The father looked at his son with loving eyes and said:
– You know son, every person in life has a dream, a goal of his life. They are the
ones that make us do what we are doing, because it’s what we should do. We
have to fight for what we believe in, what we feel. In other case, you will simply
brake. Once – and for all.
The easiest way is to quit everything and not go until the end, because the path is
difficult and we are not used to inconveniences. We want everything to be easy
and at once. But the wishes are fleeting! This is how our dream dies, and the goal
becomes unreachable.
Gradually, life becomes a routine without depth and meaning. Then one day, we
try to forget and start everything from the beginning, we wait for a new day to
make our life different. But new obstacles come in our way, and we stop again.
We become full of despair and anger for our own helplessness.
But you only need to remember one thing: never give up, fight, battle. It doesn’t
matter that you have lost one battle and even dozens of battles. Life goes on!
Your biggest enemies are hiding in you – laziness, fear, doubt, indecision. Be a
warrior of your dream, a knight of your goal and a soldier of your wishes!

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things
were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted
to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed that as one problem
was solved, a new one arise.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed
each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first she placed carrots, in
the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She
let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and
placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then
she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs,
and coffee,” the daughter replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and
noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and
break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the
mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its
rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?”
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity
—boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and
unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and
became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its
liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became
hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the
boiling water, they had changed the water.
“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door,
how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?”
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and
adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts
with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but
after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become
hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and
tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very
circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the
fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you
get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is darkest and
trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you
handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you
strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything—they just
make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will
always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of
your past failures and heartaches.