介绍:
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," my 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 that 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 a day, 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 choices you make today.
A Loving Gentleness
Do you know what a loving gentleness is like? Have you had a taste of it or shown it to others?
Surely you can get some idea of it from swallows under the eaves. They show it when they are busy flying to and fro to feed their nestlings. You can see it from the moon shedding cool light over the scorched land so that it becomes comfortable. You can also feel it when you listen to the clock ticking steadily, so considerate as not to disturb a sweet dream. Again you can find it in the heart of a young girl. She is charming because of her loving tenderness.
It's also a picture of loving tenderness for a youngster playing a pampered child in his or her mother' lap. But later, the person is so much changed by fate that tenderness is gone together with values of life. Some people are born uncouth. But tossed by life's storms they become gentle and good-humored unexpectedly, like mushrooms sprouting from the root of the tree of life.
True, gentleness or a tender care is often associated with love and kindness. It can also be found in a good- natured or broad-minded person. It is not fair to think that it has anything to do with weakness.
Gentle as spring breeze, it cracks the frozen river with its light touch. Soft as cotton, it renders a steel ball bouncing high from the ground paralyzed in its embrace. Similarly, tenderhearted as friendship, it melts the toughness of an ironwilled man and reduces him to grateful tears.
A loving gentleness is too subtle to describe. Though it seems invisible, inaudible and evasive to the touch, it is still perceptible. It is the quintessence of kindness, enthusiasm, love and moral support. It gives strength and power. It is the source of beauty.
