The Story of the Carpenter

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "[M]y gift to you."

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

So it is with us.

We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created[,] and find that we are now living in the house we have built.

If we had realized, we would have done it differently. Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project." Who could say it more clearly? Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.

(c)2006, www.positive-club.com

Are You Different From An Athlete?

Have you ever heard of Jesse Owens, the great African American athlete who set his first junior world record when he was still in high school?

This man is one of the greatest sports figures of all times. While still a student in university, he smashed three world records in one hour!

But he is best known for making a fool of Hitler and his nazi friends during the 1936 Olympics. His talent, physical aptitude, and strength of character allowed him to establish three Olympic records and win four gold medals.

Do you feel you are incapable of performing such exploits? You may be right, but things may also not be what you believe. Although Jesse Owens had an athlete's body, he also understood what differentiates winners from losers.

He wrote this in his memoirs: "One day or another every athlete feels like taking it easy. He stops trying to exceed his limits, and thinks he can keep winning because of his lucky star, or the bad luck of his opponents. You must overcome this negative instinct, which affects all of us, and which is the only difference between the person who wins a race, and those who lose. This is the battle you have to fight every day of your life."

Do you still think you are that different from an athlete?

You probably don't have the physical strength and the training to be able to run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds. But, like every human being, you do have a character that you can develop. Persevarance is just like a muscle!

An athlete never looks for excuses. Instead, he or she concentrates on the goal to be attained.

(c)2006, www.positive-club.com

"Not getting what you want either means you don't want it enough, or you have been dealing too long with the price you have to pay." -Rudyard Kipling

Listen To Your Heart

Every year Father Cornillo opened the vestry of his little country church and received visits from the young people of neighbouring villages.

They came from far to receive advice and to learn about what to meditate on.

One day, a young girl from a good family knelt at the feet of the priest. "Father," she said, "I want to become a saint. What should I do?"

"Follow your heart, and never deviate from what it tells you," Father Cornillo replied.

The girl was pleased with the advice. 'How easy it is to become a saint,' she thought. 'All I have to do is listen to what my heart says.'

But before she could get up and leave the church, the priest added, "To follow you heart you will have to be very strong, and your life will be full of sacrifice."

Father Cornillo was perfectly right: listening to your heart requires tremendous willpower.

It is not a question of living according to what you feel like doing day by day. On the contrary, you have to seek out the wisdom of your heart, and never give up. You cannot be satisfied with little victories, and you must not fall prey to self satisfaction.

Listening to your heart means being hard on yourself, and never trying to circumvent its moral requirements.

(c)2006, www.positive-club.com

The Tibetan Spider

The Tibetan Spider

A Tibetan student was practicing meditation in his cell when a spider descended from the ceiling and hung suspended in front of him.

It slowly spun around, attached to the end of its web, until the novice tried to catch it, at which point it raced back up to the ceiling in a second.

Every day for a week the student's meditation was disturbed by the spider. It even seemed that it was getting bigger, that it was becoming more adventurous, and sometimes tried to swing back and forth in front of him, with all its legs spread wide.

"This spider is bothering me," thought the novice, "and making fun of me. I'll catch it one day, I know will!"

He became so upset that he went to ask the advice of his Spiritual Master.

"I hid a knife in my sleeve while I was meditating," he said. "I wanted to kill the spider when it came down, but I didn't succeed. It disappeared the moment I thought about catching it."

"Replace your knife with a piece of chalk," the Master replied, "and make a cross on the spider's back each time it disturbs your meditation. Come back and see me in a week."

A week later the novice returned to his Master's cell and knelt down before him, his head lowered.

"Lift your robe and look at yourself," the Master instructed.

To his great surprise, the novice saw a big X drawn on his own chest.

This short parable may seem absurd, and yet it contains a profound truth.

The spider that disturbed the novice during his meditation was his own bad conscience, which always surfaces when we are most relaxed. And what do we do? We accuse it of trying to harm us, we say that it is someone else, we seek a threatening monster to fight with. But the monster, the spider, is our own self.

We have to be able to look at ourselves objectively in order to overcome our worries, before they assume a form that we have not chosen.

"Know thyself!"

This phrase is attributed to Socrates, but it also appears on the facade of the Temple of Delphi. 2500 years later it is still relevant, and will always remain so!

(c) 2006, www.positive-club.com