Quiet Corner

© Spirit Path - April 2003

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Thought for the Day

"That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest." - Henry David Thoreau

"A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside." ~ Denis Waitley ~

"Look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two and I know it was not the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before."

- Jacob A. Rils

"Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a sparrow asked a wild dove.

"Nothing more than nothing," was the answer.

"In that case I must tell a marvellous story," the sparrow said. "I sat on a branch of a fir tree, close to its trunk, when it began to snow, not heavily, not a giant blizzard, no, just like in a dream, without any violence. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch - nothing more than nothing, as you say - the branch broke off."

Having said that, the sparrow flew away. The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while and finally said to herself:

"Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come about in the world."

-New Fables: Thus Spoke The Caribu

by Kurt Kauter

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried terribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal,he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
 1. Free your heart from hatred.
 2. Free your mind from worries.
 3. Live simply.
 4. Give more.
 5. Expect less.

P.S.: The donkey later came back and repeatedly kicked the farmer who had tried to bury him.
Moral: When you try to cover your ass, it always comes back to get you.

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~

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