Day: 26 September 2020

Once upon a time, there was a bird in a cage who sang for her merchant owner. He

took delight in her song day and night, and was so fond of her that he served her

water in a golden dish. Before he left for a business trip, he asked the bird if she had

a wish: “I will go through the forest where you were born, past the birds of your old

neighborhood. What message should I take for them?”

The bird said, “Tell them I sit full of sorrow in a cage singing my captive song. Day

and night, my heart is full of grief. I hope it will not be long before I see my friends

again and fly freely through the trees. Bring me a message from the lovely forest,

which will set my heart at ease. Oh, I yearn for my Beloved, to fly with him, and

spread my wings. Until then there is no joy for me, and I am cut off from all of life’s

sweet things.”

The merchant traveled on his donkey through the dense forest. He listened to the melodies of

many birds. When the merchant reached the forest where his bird came from, he stopped, pushed

his hood back, and said, “O you birds! Greetings to you all from my pretty bird locked in her cage.

She sends tidings of her love to you and wants to tell of her plight. She asks for a reply that will

ease her heart. My love for her keeps her captive with bars all around her. She wants to join her

Beloved and sing her songs through the air with a free heart, but I would miss her beautiful songs

and cannot let her go.”

All the birds listened to the merchant’s words. Suddenly one bird shrieked and fell from a tree

brunch to the ground. The merchant froze to the spot where he stood. Nothing could astound him

more than this did. One bird had fallen down dead!

The merchant continued on to the city and traded his goods. At last he returned to his home.

He did not know what to tell his bird when she asked what message he had brought. He stood

before her cage and said, “Oh, nothing to speak of no, no.” The bird cried, “I must know at once.”

I do not know what happened, said the merchant. “I told them your message. Then, one of them

fell down dead.” Suddenly the merchant’s bird let out a terrible shriek and fell on her head to the

bottom of the cage. The merchant was horrified. He wept in despair, “Oh, what have I done?”

He cried, “What Have I done? Now my life means nothing. My moon has gone and so has my sun.

Now my own bird is dead.”

He opened the cage door, reached in, and took her into his hands gently and carefully. “I will have

to bury her now,” he said; “poor thing is dead.”

Suddenly, the moment he had lifted the bird out of the cage, she swooped up, flew out of the

window and landed on the nearest roof slope. She turned to him and said, gratefully, “Thank you,

merchant master, for delivering my message. That bird’s reply instructed me how to win my

freedom. All I had to do was to be dead. I gained my freedom when I chose to die.”

“So now I fly to my Beloved who waits for me. Good-bye, good-bye, my master no longer.” “My bird

was wise; she taught me secret,” the merchant reflected.

If you want to be with the ones you love, you must be ready to give up everything,

even life itself. And then, by Allah, you will win your heart’s desire.

A Doe had the misfortune to lose one of her eyes, and could not see any one

approaching her on that side. So to avoid any danger she always used to feed on

a high cliff near the sea, with her sound eye looking towards the land. By this

means she could see whenever the hunters approached her on land, and often

escaped by this means. But the hunters found out that she was blind of one eye,

and hiring a boat rowed under the cliff where she used to feed and shot her from

the sea. “Ah,” cried she with her dying voice. “You cannot escape your fate.”

There once was a boy who loved eating sweets. He always asked for sweets from his father. His

father was a poor man. He could not always afford sweets for his son. But the little boy did not

understand this, and demanded sweets all the time.

The boy’s father thought hard about how to stop the child asking for so many sweets. There was a

very holy man living nearby at that time. The boy’s father had an idea. He decided to take the boy

to the great man who might be able to persuade the child to stop asking for sweets all the time.

The boy and his father went along to the great man. The father said to him, “O great saint, could

you ask my son to stop asking for sweets which I cannot afford?” The great man was in difficulty,

because he liked sweets himself. How could he ask the boy to give up asking for sweets? The holy

man told the father to bring his son back after one month.

During that month, the holy man gave up eating sweets, and when the boy and his father returned

after a month, the holy man said to the boy “My dear child, will you stop asking for sweets which

your father cannot afford to give you?”

From then on, the boy stopped asking for sweets.

The boy’s father asked the saint, “Why did you not ask

my son to give up asking for sweets when we came to

you a month ago?” The saint replied, “How could I ask a

boy to give up sweets when I loved sweets myself. In the

last month I gave up eating sweets.” A person’s example

is much more powerful than just his words. When we ask

someone to do something, we must do it ourselves also. We should not ask others to do what we do

not do ourselves.

Always make sure that your actions and your words are same.

Once upon a time there was a water-bearer in India

who had two large pots, each hung on each end of a

pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots

had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect

and always delivered a full portion of water at the end

of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house,

the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer

delivering only one and a half pot full of water in his

master’s house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its

accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was

made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own

imperfection, and miserable that it was able to

accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water-bearer one day by

the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.” “Why?” asked the bearer.

“What are you ashamed of ?”

“I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my

side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have

to do all of this work and you don’t get full value from your efforts, the pot said. The water-bearer

felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s

house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful

wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some.

But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it

apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path,

but not on the other pot’s side?

That’s because have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower

seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you’ve watered

them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table.

Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that

make our lives together so very interesting and warding. You’ve just got to take each

person for what they are and look for the good in them.

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular

bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the

world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not

be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the

time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with

someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington,

an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be

accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration,

and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their

dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site

took the life of John Roebling. Washington was injured and left with a certain amount of brain

damage, which resulted in him not being able to walk or talk or even move.

“We told them so.”

“Crazy men and their crazy dreams.”

“It’s foolish to chase wild visions.”

Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the

Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap

Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his

mind was still as sharp as ever.

He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted

by the task. As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the

windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and

the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.

It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could

do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly

developed a code of communication with his wife.

He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the

engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do.

It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the

bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a

tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by

circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man

who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and

devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told

the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible

physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.

Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face.

The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realized with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are. Even the most distant dream can be realized with determination and persistence.

A group of frogs were hopping contentedly through the woods, going about their froggy business,

when two of them fell into a deep pit. All of the other frogs gathered around the pit to see what

could be done to help their companions. When they saw how deep the pit was, the rest of the

dismayed group agreed that it was hopeless and told the two frogs in the pit that they should

prepare themselves for their fate, because they were as good as dead.

Unwilling to accept this terrible fate, the two frogs began to jump with all of their might. Some of

the frogs shouted into the pit that it was hopeless, and that the two frogs wouldn’t be in that

situation if they had been more careful, more obedient to the froggy rules, and more responsible.

The other frogs continued sorrowfully shouting that they should save their energy and give up,

since they were already as good as dead. The two frogs continued jumping as hard as they could,

and after several hours of desperate effort were quite weary.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to the calls of his fellows. Spent and disheartened, he quietly

resolved himself to his fate, lay down at the bottom of the pit, and died as the others looked on in

helpless grief. The other frog continued to jump with every ounce of energy he had, although his

body was wracked with pain and he was completely exhausted.

His companions began a new, yelling for him to accept his fate, stop the pain and just die.

The weary frog jumped harder and harder and – wonder of wonders! Finally leapt so high that he

sprang from the pit. Amazed, the other frogs celebrated his

miraculous freedom and then gathering around him asked,

“Why did you continue jumping when we told you it was

impossible?” Reading their lips, the astonished frog

explained to them that he was deaf, and that when he saw

their gestures and shouting, he thought they were cheering

him on. What he had perceived as encouragement inspired

him to try harder and to succeed against all odds.

This simple story contains a powerful lesson. Your encouraging words can lift someone up and help

him or her make it through the day. Your destructive words can cause deep wounds; they may be

the weapons that destroy someone’s desire to continue trying – or even their life. Your destructive,

careless word can diminish someone in the eyes of others, destroy their influence and have a lasting

impact on the way others respond to them.

WEAKNESS OR STRENGTH?

Sometimes your biggest weakness can become your biggest strength. Take, for example, the story of

one 10-year-old boy who decided to study Judo despite the fact that he

had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lessons with an old Japanese Judo Master Sensei.

The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three

months of training the master had taught him only one move.

“Sensei,” the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?”

“This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,”

the Sensei replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

Several months later, the Sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy

easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time,

his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match.

Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared

to be over matched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out.

He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened.

“No,” the Sensei insisted, “Let him continue.”

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard.

Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament.

He was the champion.

On the way home, the boy and Sensei reviewed every move in each and every match.

Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

“Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?”

“You won for two reasons,” the Sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most

difficult throws in all of Judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your

opponent to grab your left arm.”

The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.