Lelaki Ensem vs Lelaki Tak Ensem

Kalau lelaki handsome pendiam
Perempuan akan cakap:: woow, cool giler...
kalau lelaki tak handsome pendiam
Perempuan akan cakap: eh perasan bagus...


kalau lelaki handsome berbuat jahat
perempuan akan kata: nobody's perfect
kalau lelaki tak handsome berbuat jahat
perempuan akan cakap: memang.... muka pun macam pecah rumah!


kalau lelaki handsome menolong perempuan yg diganggu
perempuan akan cakap: wah.. machonya.. macam hero filem!
kalau lelaki tak handsome menolong perempuan yang diganggu
perempuan akan kata: entah2 kawan dia...


kalau lelaki handsome dapat perempuan cantik
perempuan akan kata: sepadan sangat...
kalau lelaki tak handsome dapat perempuan cantik
perempuan akan kata: mesti kena bomoh perempuan tuh!


kalau lelaki handsome ditinggal kekasih
perempuan akan kata: jangan sedih, kan saya ada..
kalau lelaki tak handsome ditinggal kekasih
perempuan akan kata:...(terdiam, tapi telunjuknya>> >meliuk-liuk dari atas ke bawah, patutlah, tengok saja luarannya)...


kalau lelaki handsome penyayang binatang
perempuan akan cakap: perasaannya halus...penuh kasih sayang
kalau lelaki tak handsome penyayang binatang
perempuan akan cakap: sesama keluarga memang harus menyayangi...


kalau lelaki handsome bawa BMW
perempuan akan cakap: matching... hebat luar dalam
kalau lelaki tak handsome bawa BMW
perempuan akan cakap: bang, bosnya mana?..


kalau lelaki handsome tak mau bergambar
perempuan akan cakap: pasti takut kalau2 gambarnya tersebar
kalau lelaki tak handsome tak mau bergambar
perempuan akan kata: tak sanggup melihat hasilnya ya?...


kalau lelaki handsome menuang air ke gelas perempuan
perempuan akan cakap:ini barulah lelaki gentlemen
kalau lelaki tak handsome menuang air ke gelas perempuan
perempuan akan cakap: naluri pembantu, memang begitu....


kalau lelaki handsome bersedih hati
perempuan akan cakap: let me be your shoulder to cry on
kalau lelaki tak handsome bersedih hati
perempuan akan kata: kuat nangis!! lelaki ke bukan ni?

Dr Mahathir perjelas isu AP, Proton

PENJELASAN ini ingin saya buat kerana akhbar dan TV tidak mungkin melapor semua fakta kepada orang ramai.

Soal Proton bukan soal perbezaan kenyataan antara mana-mana individu atau perkelahian antara menteri dengan pesara. Sebaliknya, ia adalah berkenaan sebuah perusahaan nasional.

Pada zaman ketika mana banyak perusahaan kereta bermotor sudah bankrap dan tutup kedai, umpamanya Austin, Morris, MG-Rover dan lain-lain syarikat gergasi seperti General Motors dan Chrysler sudah bankrap, Proton masih hidup dan subur, mempunyai wang tunai lebih daripada RM2 bilion dan tidak bergantung kepada kerajaan atau bank untuk melabur lebih daripada RM2 bilion dalam kilangnya yang baru di Tanjung Malim.

Saya tidak iri hati dengan orang Melayu yang menjadikaya. Tetapi kekayaan mereka hendaklah dengan jalan yang sah ”Sedikit sebanyak kejayaan ini tentulah hasil pengurusan yang cekap, lebih-lebih lagi memandangkan kesan daripada import kereta buatan asing yang begitu banyak dengan harga import yang begitu murah.

AP (Approved Permit) mula dikeluar pada 1970-an, sebelum ada Proton. Pada masa itu, orang Melayu tidak dapat masuk perniagaan kereta kerana ejennya seperti Kah Motors (Honda), UMW (Toyota) dan Cycle and Carriage (Mercedes) dan lain-lain terdiri daripada bukan Bumiputera. Mereka enggan memberi peluang bagi peniaga Bumiputera.

Kereta yang dipasang dalam negara atau diimport oleh ejen/pengedar/pengimport yang rasmi tidak boleh diimport oleh sesiapa lain, tanpa membayar ‘over-riding’ komisen kepada ejen rasmi. Justeru, AP diberi untuk import kereta terpakai yang dibaiki (recond cars). Walaupun ramai Bumiputera yang menjual AP, ada Bumiputera yang berjaya dalam bidang perniagaan ini. Di antara mereka ialah Tan Sri S M Nasimuddin S M Amin. Tanpa AP ini tidak mungkin ada peniaga kereta Bumiputera sebelum Proton dikeluarkan. Apabila Proton dikeluarkan, ramai Bumiputera yang berjaya menjadi ejen penjual kereta Proton.

Pengeluaran Proton berjaya mengurangkan import kereta buatan asing oleh ejen bukan Bumiputera. Sudah tentu lebih banyak permintaan untuk Proton, lebih ramailah ejen Bumiputera dan lebih larislah penjualan oleh mereka. Sebaliknya, apabila AP diberi dengan lebih banyak kepada sebilangan kecil Bumiputera dan mereka ini pula tidak ada apa-apa persediaan untuk berniaga, maka tentulah jumlah peniaga kereta Bumiputera tidak bertambah dengan banyak dan penjualan Proton oleh ejen Proton yang terdiri daripada Bumiputera tidak akan laris. Lagipun, harga kereta asing yang diimport dengan AP ini terlalu rendah, yang mana ini membolehkan kereta ini diberi diskaun tinggi dan penjualan menjadi laris. Pada masa sama, ejen Proton tidak dapat ditambah.

Jelas sekali pemberian AP ini menguntungkan segelintir Bumiputera tertentu dan merugikan ejen Proton, Bumiputera terutamanya serta mengurangkan peluang Bumiputera lain untuk menjadi peniaga kereta Proton. Tidaklah benar pengeluaran AP yang banyak menambah bilangan Bumiputera dalam perniagaan kereta, terutama apabila dua tiga orang yang tidak ada kedai mendapat beribu-ribu AP.

AP Terbuka dulu membolehkan pemegang mengimport pelbagai jenama. Apabila diperkenalkan AP Francais, maka hanya mereka yang dapat francais ini saja yang boleh mengimport jenama berkenaan. Mereka yang dulu dibenarkan mengimport melalui AP Terbuka, sekarang tidak lagi dapat mengimport jenama berkenaan. Yang mendapat francais ini bukanlah peniaga kereta, tetapi bekas pegawai kementerian. Mereka ini mendapat beribu-ribu AP walaupun tidak ada kemudahan untuk memasang atau menjual kereta ini. Mereka hanya menyerah (dengan bayaran tertentu) kepada pihak yang mampu memasang dan menjual kereta jenama tertentu ini.

Soal kualiti Proton tidak timbul kerana Proton berjaya menembusi pasaran seperti United Kingdom dan Australia. Namun, keluaran model baru tetap mempunyai sedikit kecacatan. Berpuluh ribu kereta jenama terkenal biasa ditarik balik kerana kecacatan tertentu. Ini termasuk Mitsubishi, Chevrolet, Ford dan lain-lain.

Penjelasan ini dibuat demi maruah dan kepentingan negara dan sebuah perusahaan nasional yang berjaya. Saya tidak ada apa-apa kepentingan dalam Proton. Saya tidak menerima barang satu sen pun sebagai Penasihat Proton. Jika anak saya dapat sebilangan yang kecil (95 AP) untuk kereta Porsche, ia adalah mengikut syarat. Untuk menjual 50 biji kereta jenama ini tidak mudah. Janganlah seperti dulu mengaitkan keluarga saya apabila perbuatan yang tidak harus dibuat dilakukan.

Saya terpaksa mendedah sepenuhnya kerana kepentingan perusahaan negara, bukan seperti yang didakwa oleh seorang penulis akhbar berbahasa Inggeris kerana saya tidak dapat AP. Saya terima surat penjelasan daripada YB Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri. Saya dapati isi kandungan surat berkenaan serta lampiran tidak menjadi bukti akan kebenaran dakwaan YB Menteri berkenaan.
i) Kelulusan untuk Naza Ria menjadi kereta nasional;
ii) Jumlah AP yang dikeluarkan pada 2004-2005;
iii) Asas dan syarat untuk keluaran AP;
iv) Jenis AP yang dikeluarkan;
v) Nama-nama mereka (syarikat/individu) yang mendapat AP dan jumlah yang didapati masing-masing.

Pada Perhimpunan Agung Umno pula, YB Menteri membuat beberapa dakwaan yang tidak benar. Juga dalam temuramah TV menteri mendakwa bahawa saya mungkin sudah lupa itu dan ini. Walaupun saya sudah berusia 80 tahun, saya belum lagi nyanyuk. Pada mulanya, selepas menjawab surat menteri dengan salinan kepada Kabinet, saya tidak berhajat untuk membuat apa-apa kenyataan lagi. Terpulanglah kepada Kabinet untuk menentukan apakah yang benar dan apa yang tidak benar. Tetapi oleh kerana YB Menteri tidak membuat kenyataan yang benar kepada perwakilan Umno dan orang ramai, maka terpaksalah saya membuat penjelasan. Ketika saya jadi Perdana Menteri, tidak ada keputusan oleh kerajaan untuk tidak mengisytihar nama pemegang AP kepada orang ramai. Mungkin kerajaan sekarang membuat keputusan ini. Soalnya ialah apakah keputusan ini dibuat sebelum atau selepas YB Menteri membuat kenyataan bahawa dasar kerajaan tidak membenarkan nama pemegang AP diumumkan.

Saya pernah menjadi Menteri Perdagangan dan Industri. Penjelasan oleh YB Menteri bahawa apabila beliau mengambil alih kementerian, ada ramai yang diberi AP yang tidak memenuhi syarat dan beliau membatalkan AP kepada mereka, mencerminkan ketegasan YB Menteri pada masa itu. Siapakah Menteri Perdagangan dan Industri yang mendahului YB Menteri sekarang? Jika tidak disebut mungkin ada yang memikir sayalah orangnya.
Pemberian AP kepada bekas pegawai kerajaan. Walaupun tidak ada larangan secara rasmi bahawa pegawai yang baru bersara (secara pilihan) diberi peluang istimewa oleh kerajaan, tetapi umum tertanya-tanya kenapa bekas pegawai ini, dengan tidak pun memiliki syarat yang ditetapkan diberi beribu-ribu AP.

Kita tahu ramai daripada peniaga kereta, termasuk yang menjadi ahli Persatuan Pengimport dan Peniaga Kenderaan Melayu Malaysia (Pekema) meminta AP tetapi tidak dapat. Mereka juga tidak diberitahu berkenaan kategori francais daripada pengeksport yang jika didapati melayakkan anugerah AP yang banyak. Pengenalan AP Francais ini tidak diumum kepada peniaga kereta secara terbuka. Tiba-tiba kategori ini diperkenalkan dan orang tertentu mendapat AP yang begitu banyak dalam kategori ini dan pemegang AP yang dulu dapat mengimport jenama francais, tidak lagi dibenar mengimport jenama ini. Saya tidak iri hati dengan orang Melayu yang menjadi kaya. Tetapi kekayaan mereka hendaklah dengan jalan yang sah. Saya berkali-kali menegur mereka yang menjual AP untuk kaya cepat. Nampak jelas yang penjualan AP berleluasa sekarang. Adalah menjadi tanggungjawab seseorang menteri untuk memerhati keadaan supaya sebarang penyelewengan tidak berlaku. Butiran terperinci berkenaan surat menyurat antara pihak berkenaan akan disusuli kemudian untuk mengelak daripada pertikaian.

Tiada Lagi Tangisan - Aishah

Kini telah lama kita berpisah
Rintihan asmara kian berubah

Tiada lagi mengharap
Tiada lagi belaian manjamu
Semua telah berakhir

Ketenangan hidup menyinari ku
Keperitan cinta terlerai sudah
Tabahkan lah hati duka nan berduri
Aku mengenali siapakah diriku yang sebenarnya

Tiada lagi tangisan
Tiada lagi air mata
Membasahi jiwa luka
Yang tinggallah hanya memori duka

Semua telah diduga pertemuan kali ini
Takkan berkekalan berakhirnya istana bahagia

Biarkan aku hidup keseorangan
Tak perlu lagi cinta yang menghiris luka
Titisan air mata kini kekeringan
Tak perlu menabur kasihmu..

Ketenangan hidup menyinari ku
Keperitan cinta terlerai sudah
Tabahkanlah hati luka nan berduri
Aku mengenali siapakah diriku yang sebenarnya

Dan tertutup jendela harapan ini
Kau yang menanti kepangkuan ku
Semua takdir yang telah ku temui
Kan ku bina segala tanpamu

Tiada lagi tangisan
Tiada lagi air mata
Membasahi jiwa luka
Yang tinggallah hanya memori duka

Detik-detik Rasulullah S.A.W menjelang sakratul maut.

Ada sebuah kisah tentang totalitas cinta yang dicontohkan Allah lewat kehidupan Rasul-Nya.

Pagi itu, meskipun langit telah mulai menguning, burung-burung gurun enggan mengepakkan sayap. Pagi itu, Rasulullah dengan suara terbata memberikan petuah, "Wahai umatku, kita semua ada dalam kekuasaan Allah dan cinta kasih-Nya. Maka taati dan bertakwalah kepada-Nya. Kuwariskan dua hal pada kalian, sunnah dan Al Qur'an. Barang siapa mencintai sunnahku, bererti mencintai aku dan kelak orang-orang yang mencintaiku, akan bersama-sama masuk yurga bersama aku." Khutbah singkat itu diakhiri dengan pandangan mata Rasulullah yang teduh menatap sahabatnya satu persatu. Abu Bakar menatap mata itu dengan berkaca-kaca, Ummar dadanya naik turun menahan napas dan tangis nya. Uthman menghela napas panjang dan Ali menundukkan kepalanya dalam-dalam. Isyarat itu telah datang, saatnya sudah tiba. "Rasulullah akan meninggalkan kita semua," desah hati semua sahabat kala itu.

Manusia tercinta itu, hampir usai menunaikan tugasnya di dunia. Tanda-tanda itu semakin kuat, tatkala Ali dan Fadhal dengan sigap menangkap Rasulullah yang limbung saat turun dari mimbar. Saat itu, seluruh sahabat yang hadir di sana pasti akan menahan detik-detik berlalu, kalau bisa. Matahari kian tinggi, tapi pintu Rasulullah masih tertutup. Sedang di dalamnya, Rasulullah sedang terbaring lemah dengan keningnya yang berkeringat dan membasahi pelepah kurma yang menjadi alas tidurnya. Tiba-tiba dari luar pintu terdengar seorang yang berseru mengucapkan salam. "Bolehkah saya masuk?" tanyanya. Tapi Fatimah tidak mengizinkannya masuk, "Maafkanlah, ayahku sedang demam," kata Fatimah yang membalikkan badan dan menutup pintu. Kemudian ia kembali menemani ayahnya yang ternyata sudah membuka mata dan bertanya pada Fatimah, "Siapakah itu wahai anakku?" "Tak tahulah aku ayah, sepertinya ia baru sekali ini aku melihatnya," tutur Fatimah lembut. Lalu, Rasulullah menatap putrinya itu dengan pandangan yang menggetarkan. Satu-satu bagian wajahnya seolah hendak di kenang. "Ketahuilah, dialah yang menghapuskan kenikmatan sementara, dialah yang memisahkan pertemuan di dunia. ialah malaikat maut," kata Rasulullah, Fatimah pun menahan ledakkan tangisnya. Malaikat maut datang menghampiri, tapi Rasulullah menanyakan kenapa Jibril tak ikut menyertai. Kemudian dipanggilah Jibril yang sebelumnya sudah bersiap diatas langit dunia menyambut roh kekasih Allah dan penghulu dunia ini. "Jibril, jelaskan apa hakku nanti dihadapan Allah?" ,Tanya Rasululllah dengan suara yang amat lemah. "Pintu-pintu langit telah terbuka, para malaikat telah menanti rohmu. Semua syurga terbuka lebar menanti kedatanganmu,"kata jibril. Tapi itu ternyata tak membuat Rasulullah lega, matanya masih penuh kecemasan. "Engkau tidak senang mendengar kabar ini?"Tanya Jibril lagi."Kabarkan kepadaku bagaimana nasib umatku kelak?". "Jangan khuawatir, wahai Rasul Allah, aku pernah mendengar Allah berfirman kepadaku: 'Kuharamkan syurga bagi siapa saja, kecuali umat Muhammad telah berada didalamnya," kata Jibril.

Detik-detik semakin dekat, saatnya Izrail melakukan tugas. Perlahan roh Rasulullah ditarik nampak seluruh tubuh Rasulullah bersimbah peluh, urat-urat lehernya menegang. "Jibril, betapa sakit sakaratul maut ini." Lirih Rasulullah mengaduh. Fatimah terpejam, Ali yang di sampingnya menunduk semakin dalam dan Jibril membuang muka "Jijikkah kau melihatku, hingga kau palingkan wajahmu Jibril?" Tanya Rasulullah pada Malaikat penghantar wahyu itu. "Siapakah yang tega, melihat kekasih Allah direnggut ajal," kata Jibril. Sebentar kemudian terdengar Rasulullah memekik, kerana sakit yang tak tertahankan lagi. "Ya Allah, dahsyat niat maut ini, timpakan saja semua siksa maut ini kepadaku, jangan pada umatku. " Badan Rasulullah mulai dingin, kaki dan dadanya sudah tak bergerak lagi. Bibirnya bergetar seakan hendak membisikkan sesuatu, Ali segera mendekatkan telinganya. "Uushiikum bis shalati, wa maa malakat aimanuku, peliharalah solat dan santuni orang-orang lemah di antaramu" Di luar pintu tangis mulai terdengar bersahutan, sahabat saling berpelukan. Fatimah menutupkan tangan diwajahnya, dan Ali kembali mendekatkan telinganya ke bibir Rasulullah yang mulai kebiruan. "Ummatii, ummatii, ummatiii?" - "Umatku,umatku, umatku" Dan, pupuslah kembang hidup manusia mulia itu.

Kini, mampukah kita mencinta sepertinya? Allahumma sholli 'ala Muhammad wa baarik wasalim 'alaihi. Betapa cintanya Rasulullah kepada kita. Kirimkan kepada sahabat-sahabat muslim lainnya agar timbul kesadaran untuk mencintai Allah dan RasulNya, seperti Allah dan Rasulnya mencinta kita. Kerana sesungguhnya selain daripada itu hanyalah fana belaka.

Adusss kenangan

Kenangan itu kadangkala teramat pahit untuk diredah, tetapi ia terlalu manis untuk dikenang. Hidup tak selalunya indah tapi yang indah itu tetap hidup dalam kenangan. Andainya hadirnya cinta sekadar untuk mengecewakan, lebih baik cinta itu tak pernah hadir. Kecewa bercinta bukan bermakna dunia sudah berakhir. Masa depan yang cerah berdasarkan pada masa lalu yang telah dilupakan.Hidup ini indah jika kita tahu menghargainya... Tapi ia amat menyakitkan andai kita melaluinya sambil lewa...

Doaku Buat Kekasih

Ya Allah...

Seandainya telah engkau catatkan Dia tercipta untukku

Satukanlah hatinya dan hatiku

Titipkanlah kebahagian di antara kami,

Agar kemesraan itu abadi...

Ya Allah Ya Tuhanku yang maha mengasihani,

Seiringkanlah kami melayari hidup ini

Ketepian yang sejahtera dan abadi

Maka jodohkanlah kami

Tetapi Ya Allah...

Seandainya telah engkau takdirkan

Dia Bukan milikku

Bawalah dia jauh dari pandanganku

Luputkanlah dia dari ingatanku

Dan peliharalah aku dari kekecewaan

Ya Allah Ya Tuhanku yang maha mengerti...

Berikanlah aku kekuatan

Menolak bayangannya jauh ke dada langit

Hilang bersama senja nan merahAgar aku sentiasa tenang

Walaupun tanpa bersama dengannya.

Ya Allah yang tercinta...

Peliharalah aku dengan takdirmu

Sesungguhnya apa yang telah engkau takdirkan

Adalah yang terbaik untukkusesungguhnya engkau maha mengetahui

Segala yang terbaik untuk hambaMu ini....

Dan sekiranya aku menemui seseorang yang baru di dalam hidupku

Kau semaikan lah rasa kasih sayang dan cintaku yang penuh ikhlas kepada dirinya

Agar diriku dan dirinya memahami antara satu sama lain

Dan terbinalah satu ikatan yang lebih suci dan murni

Ya Allah...

Cukuplah engkau sahaja yang menjadi pemeliharaku

Di dunia dan di akhirat

Dan peliharalah kami dari azab api neraka

Amin...amin..yarabbal alamin....

Kenangan itu kadangkala teramat pahit untuk diredah, tetapi ia terlalu manis untuk dikenang. Hidup tak selalunya indah tapi yang indah itu tetap hidup dalam kenangan.Andainya hadirnya cinta sekadar untuk mengecewakan, lebih baik cinta itu tak pernah hadir.Kecewa bercinta bukan bermakna dunia sudah berakhir.Masa depan yang cerah berdasarkan pada masa lalu yang telah dilupakan.

Jika seseorang hadir dalam hidup kamu dan menjadi sebahagian daripada kamu, tetapi atas sebab tertentu dia terpaksa pergi, jangan terlalu sedih, terimalah kenyataan itu dan sekurang-kurangnya dia pernah membahagiakan kamu.

Apa Ada Pada Cinta Pertama...

Cinta pertama amat terkesan dihati kebanyakkan orang.. antara petikan dari cinta pertama yang menyentuh hati naluri wanitaku..

kata mereka,
" cinta pertama tidak akan pernah bisa dilupakan "
sampai kapanpun kita akan membawa sebagian dari diri mereka yang entah bagaimana bisa tertinggal di dalam diri ..
mungkin senyumnya yang pernah memikat hati, mungkin tatapannya yang pernah mengisi hari hari,
mungkin pemikirannya yang masih saja mempengaruhi kita, mungkin kenangan kenangan lain yang kadang terlintas .. atau bahkan luka? lara? pedih? derita?
kata mereka, "yang terindah itu cuma hanya akan datang sekali"dan di tengah istimewanya, dia akan menyentuh kamu ..
hingga sewaktu pergipun jejaknya masih membekas jelas di hati, membuatmu tersenyum .. tersipu2 .. atau bahkan mengernyit pedih mengenang duka ..
entah, hidup ini pilihan kan? dan lagi-lagi adalah suatu pilihan bagaimana kita akan menyikapi segala hal yang ditakdirkan terjadi dalam hidup kitakata mereka,
"waktu menyembuhkan segalanya"seperti untuk segala sesuatu ada masanya, ada saatnya juga kita akan melepas kain kabung dan abu untuk mengenakan jubah kebahagiaan dan menyanyikan lagu puji2an ..entah bagaimana, segala yang pernah melukai akan hilang,
rantai - rantai masa lalu terkikis waktu, menjadi tua lalu mati dalam sendiri .. dan kita, asalkan tetap teguh akan berada disini untuk menyongsong masa depan ..
kata mereka,"mencintai itu berarti bersedia merelakan dia pergi jika dia memang harus pergi"tapi apa arti kata harus?harus menurut siapa? menurutku? menurutnya? menurut mereka? menurut kalian? atau menurut DIA?
cinta tidak selamanya harus memiliki mungkin, karena bukankah cinta tidak memiliki apapun selain dirinya sendiri?bukankah cinta tidak hidup dimanapun selain di dalam dirinya sendiri?dan bukankah cinta tidak berada di hati karena cinta ada dimana manamenjadi api, menjadi air, menjadi udara ..menjadi batu, menjadi kayu, menjadi rumput ..bukankah cinta hidup tidak disuatu tempat karena cinta adalah tempat itu sendiri?dan cinta bukan keadaan tapi jiwa ?lalu apa yang harus direlakan jika cinta tidak pernah menjadi apapun, menuntut apapun,

Ayat pertama, Cinta Pertama tidak akan bisa dilupakan.. ungkapan yang berbisa bagi aku.. seandainya aku ada kuasa untuk menghindarkan perasaan yang berkecamuk di fikiranku..alangkah bahagiannya aku sekarang...

Rama-Rama OoOOoooOOo Rama-Rama

Saya salah seorang member Relexjab di Yahoo Group.. banyak pengetahuan dan artikel yang diforwardkan oleh member Relexjap amat menarik untuk dibaca dan dijadikkan panduan.. ada banyak juga yang telah saya kongsikan bersama di dalam blog ini..

Satu tulisan berkenaan dengan rama-rama dan wanita begitu mencuit hati saya:-

Lihatlah rama-rama, ia cantik. Apabila pandangan kita dihiasi rama-rama, kita menjadi suka dan ceria. Hampir semua orang akan tersenyum melihat rama-rama. Ia mengindahkan alam dan menyempurnakan sekuntum bunga. Seindah mana pun bunga tanpa rama-rama mahu hinggap di situ, tentu ada sesuatu yang tidak kena.

Cubalah tangkap dan pegang rama-rama itu dengan sayapnya. Lihat apa yang melekat di jari anda – warna dan corak rama-rama itu telah berpindah ke jari-jari anda. Kemudian lepaskan kembali, ia terbang tapi lebih terbuai oleh angin. Siapa pun yang akan menangkapnya kembali tidak tertarik padanya lagi. Harganya telah tiada untuk dikagumi, disimpan mahukan diawetkan.

Rama-rama ibarat wanita. Ia indah untuk dipegang tetapi nilainya cepat turun setiap kali ada tangan-tangan yang tidak wajar hinggap pada tubuhnya. Memang fizikalnya tiada apa-apa yang kurang, tapi harga diri dan maruah telah mula tercemar.

Begitulah wanita. Ia bagaikan rama-rama yang terbang membawa corak-corak indah, apabila corak-corak itu telah pudar ia tidak dipedulikan lagi. Harga rama-rama terletak pada warna dan coraknya; harga wanita terletak pada apakah tubuhnya masih tulen tatkala dia didampingi oleh suaminya.

Rama-rama terpaksa berjuang untuk memulakan hidupnya. Dia terpaksa membebaskan diri daripada kepompong. Bukan mudah untuk keluar daripada kepompong yang mengikat itu. Sedangkan sepanjang berada di dalam kepompong tiada siapa pedulikannya, malah tatkala bergelar ulat ia lebih dibenci.

Sulitnya untuk akhirnya bergelar rama-rama. Terpaksa melalui kitaran dan evolusi bentuk. Daripada sesuatu yang menjijikan akhirnya bertukar menjadi sesuatu yang amat menyenangkan. Rama-rama adalah contoh terbaik wanita untuk sedar betapa bernilainya kehidupan mereka. Sewaktu anda dipuja, usah terlalu mabuk sebaliknya kenang-kenang kehidupan serba susah sebelum itu. Sewaktu anda digoda, dihambat dan dirayu usah terlalu mudah menyerah sebab ingatlah mereka yang bersusah payah memastikan anda dapat bangkit sebagai manusia sempurna hari ini. Anda tidak muncul sendiri, sebaliknya anda adalah lambang pengorbanan ibu bapa.

Usah jadi rama-rama yang di dalam bingkai gambar – indah dipandang tetapi diri sendiri menanggung beban. Hiduplah dengan bebas dan terjemahkan kebebasan itu kepada nilai-nilai murni yang perlu dipertahankan. Hak anda ialah memelihara kehormatan. Selama mana anda memelihara kehormatan dan maruah diri anda berada pada taraf A1, sebaik sahaja anda tidak peduli kepada siapa maruah itu hendak diberikan, anda sudah kehilangan masa depan.

Kalaulah rama-rama tahu dia cantik dan sentiasa memukau penglihatan manusia, dia tentu tidak mudah-mudah terbang ke sana sini. Sebab setiap kali ia mengibarkan sayapnya, ia sentiasa terdedah pada bahaya. Namun rama-rama tidak pernah tahu dia itu indah dan sentiasa menjadi sasaran manusia. Jika anda tidak pernah tahu kewanitaan anda itu adalah sasaran terpenting sang penceroboh, anda ibarat rama-rama yang tidak sedar diintai bahaya.

Mahalkan harga diri anda. Semakin sukar anda dimiliki semakin mahal nilai anda di sisi lelaki. Lelaki perosak hanya inginkan kuasa memiliki tetapi tidak mahu setia apalagi memelihara dan melindungi anda.

Usah terperangkap ke dalam tangan yang hanya akan meleraikan warna-warna anda. Setelah warna-warna itu hilang anda dibiarkan. Jadilah wanita angun yang punya nilai dan maruah diri, anda akan lebih dihormati.

Nilai anda bukan terletak pada berapa ramai lelaki yang ingin memiliki anda tetapi berapa ramai yang benar-benar sanggup menyintai anda. Cinta itu terjemahan pada kasih sayang dan belaian sayang penuh ikhlas. Selama mana anda belum menemuinya anggaplah diri anda masih berhak terbang bebas bagaikan sang rama-rama.

Jadilah rama-rama yang mengindahkan alam, jadilah wanita yang membanggakan semua orang.

Semoga dapat direnungkan bersama apa maksud tersurat dan tersirat yang ingin disampaikan. It's worth reading.

Quote

"The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to quote another's wit."-- Christian Nestell Bovee

"To keep the body in good health is a duty. . . otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear."-- Buddha (563?-483? BC)

"Those who don't know the mistakes of the past won't be able to enjoy it when they make them again in the future."-- Diane Elizabeth Duane (b. 1952)

"Confront your fears, list them, get to know them, and only then will you be able to put them aside and move ahead."-- Jerry Gillies

"I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate."-- Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

"As the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill."-- Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968)

"To become an able and successful man in any profession, three things are necessary, nature, study and practice."-- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-87)

"Failing doesn't make you a failure. Giving up, accepting your failure, refusing to try again does!"-- Richard Exely

"I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate."-- George Burns (1896-1996)

"Golf is like a love affair: if you don't take it seriously, it's no fun. If you do take it seriously, it breaks your heart."-- Arnold Daly

:"To love for the sake of being loved is human, But to love for the sake of loving is angelic." -- Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine (1790-1869)

"Neither genius, fame, nor love show the greatness of the soul. Only kindness can do that."-- Jean Babtiste Henri Lacordaire

"To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage."-- Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.)

"Berikan hatimu yg masih elok kpd kekasih, dia akan menghancurkannya. Berikan hatimu yg hancur itu kpd ALLAH, nescaya DIA akan memperbaikinya"
~Pepatah Arab

"I've had enough success for two lifetimes, My success is talent put together with hard work and luck."-- Kareem Abdul-Jabar (b. 1947)

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."-- Douglas Noel Adams (b. 1952),

"Doing easily what others find difficult is talent; doing what is impossible for talent is genius."-- Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-81), Swiss philosopher

"Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend."-- Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not."-- Walter Bagehot (1826-77)

"Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck -- but, most of all, endurance."-- James Arthur Baldwin (1924-87)

"Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them."-- Warren G. Bennis (b. 1925)

"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think."-- Niels Henrik David Bohr (1885-1962)

"'Tis said of love that it sometimes goes, sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it."-- Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973), Anglo-Irish novelist

"Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information."-- Kingman Brewster, Jr. (1919-88)

"Studies indicate that the one quality all successful people have is persistence. They're willing to spend more time accomplishing a task and to perservere in the face of many difficult odds. There's a very positive relationship between people's ability to accomplish any task and the time they're willing to spend on it."-- Dr. Joyce (Diane Bauer) Brothers (b. 1929)

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make yourself a happier and more productive person."-- Dr. David M. Burns

"The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community-these are the most vital things education must try to produce."-- Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877-1965)

"Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do."-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

"More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams."-- Amy Grant

To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is being educated."-- Edith Hamilton (1867-1963)

"One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency."-- Arnold H. Glasgow

"When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory."-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors."-- African Proverb

"Behind an able man there are always other able men."-- Chinese Proverb

"You have not lived a perfect day, even though you have earned your money, unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay you."-- Ruth Smeltzer

"Every success is built on the ability to do better than good enough."-- Unknown

"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors."-- African Proverb

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."-- Aristotle (384-322 BC)

"Tolerance is the eager and glad acceptance of the way along which others seek the truth."-- Sir Walter Besant (1836-1901)

"It is long accepted by the missionaries that morality is inversely proportional to the amount of clothing people wore."-- Alex Carey

"You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don't win, at least you can be satisfied that you've tried. If you don't accept failure as a possibility, you don't set high goals, and you don't branch out, you don't try-you don't take the risk."-- Rosalynn Smith Carter (b. 1928), US First Lady

"Truly loving another means letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another's personhood."-- Karen Casey

"The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life Is the source from which self-respect springs."-- Joan Didion

"It just ain't possible to explain some things. It's interesting to wonder on them and do some speculation, but the main thing is you have to accept it-take it for what it is, and get on with your growing."-- Jim Dodge (b. 1945)


"Always fall in with what you're asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going. Not against: with."-- Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963)

"Acceptance. It is the true thing everyone longs for. The one thing everyone craves. To walk in a room and to be greeted by everyone with hugs and smiles. And in that small passing moment, you truly know you're loved, needed, and accepted."-- Rena Harmon

"When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal."-- Napolean Hill

"Evil is a fact not to be explained away, but to be accepted; and accepted not to be endured, but to be conquered. It is a challenge neither to our reason nor to our patience, but to our courage."-- John Andrew Holmes, Jr.
"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."-- W(illiam) Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

"Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts."-- Edward R(oscoe) Murrow (1908-65)

"A friend is someone who makes me feel totally acceptable."-- Ene Riisna

"If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance."-- Orville Wright

"Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite."-- Edward Albee

"You say that love is nonsense....I tell you it is no such thing. For weeks and months it is a steady physical pain, an ache about the heart, never leaving one, by night or by day; a long strain on one's nerves like toothache or rheumatism, not intolerable at any one instant, but exhausting by its steady drain on the strength."-- Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)

"Some pray to marry the man they love, my prayer will somewhat vary: I humbly pray to heaven above that I love the man I marry."-- Anouk Aimée (b. 1932), French actor

"As you think, you travel, and as you love, you attract. You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you."-- James Lane Allen (1849-1923)

"In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person."-- Margaret Anderson

"The highest love of all finds its fulfillment not in what it keeps, but in what it gives."-- Father Andrew SDC

"The one who loves the least, controls the relationship."-- Robert Newton Anthony (b. 1916),

"In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities."-- Janos Arany (1817-82), Hungarian poet

"I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies."-- Pietro Aretino (1492-1556)

"Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others!"-- Paul Aubuchon

"To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind."-- Paul Aubuchon

"In those whom I like, I can find no common denominator; in those whom I love I can: they all make me laugh."-- Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-73)

The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me."-- Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-73)

"Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all."-- Saint Augustine (354-430)

"Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart."-- Marcus Aelius Aurelius (121-180 AD)

"I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others."-- Marcus Aelius Aurelius (121-180 AD)

"One does not love a place the less for having suffered in it unless it has all been suffering, nothing but suffering."-- Jane Austen (1775-1817)

"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love."-- Jane Austen (1775-1817)

"All doubt, despair, and fear become insignificant once the intention of life becomes love, rather than dependence on love."-- Sri da Avabhas (Adi Da Samraj)

"It is impossible to love and to be wise."-- Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"May no gift be too small to give, nor too simple to receive, which is wrapped in thoughtfulness, and tied with love."-- L. O. Baird

"The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."-- James Arthur Baldwin (1924-87)

"Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck -- but, most of all, endurance."-- James Arthur Baldwin (1924-87)

"The face of a lover is an unknown, precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment."-- James Arthur Baldwin (1924-87)

"True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart."-- Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

"A woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea."-- Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

"When women love us, they forgive us everything, even our crimes; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even our virtues."-- Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

"The more one judges, the less one loves."-- Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

"The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're alive."-- Orlando A. Battista

"We find greatest joy, not in getting, but in expressing what we are...Men do not really live for honors or for pay; their gladness is not the taking and holding, but in doing, the striving, the building, the living. It is a higher joy to teach than to be taught. It is good to get justice, but better to do it; fun to have things but more to make them. The happy man is he who lives the life of love, not for the honors it may bring, but for the life itself."-- R. J. Baugha

"The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you."-- Brendan Francis Behan (1923-64)

"To love is not a passive thing. To love is active voice. When I love I do something, I function, I give. I do not love in order that I may be loved back again, but for the creative joy of loving. And every time I do so love I am freed, at least a little, by the outgoing of love, from enslavement to that most intolerable of master, myself.-- Bernard Iddings Bell

"True love is not rare at the age of a teen, but recognizing it as true love is."-- Brad Bell

"The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope."-- Walter Benjamin (1892-1940)

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."-- Ingrid Bergman (1915-82)

"I recently read that love is entirely a matter of chemistry. That must be why my wife treats me like toxic waste."-- David Bissonette

"They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for."-- Thomas Edward Bodett (b. 1955)

"She who loves roses must be patient and not cry out when she is pierced by thorns."-- Olga Brouman

"About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all."-- Rita Mae Brown (b. 1944)

"We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together."-- Jean de La Bruyère (1645-96)

"There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts being broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream-whatever that dream might be."-- Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1892-1973)

"Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life."-- Dr. (Felice) Leo(nardo) Buscaglia (b. 1924),

"I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate -- it's apathy."-- Dr. (Felice) Leo(nardo) Buscaglia (b. 1924)

Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great."-- Comte de Bussy-Rabnutin

"It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly."-- Samuel Butler (1612-80)

"You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving."-- Carmichael

"Little deeds of kindness, little words of love, help to make earth happy like the heaven above."-- Julia A. Fletcher Carney

"You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip."-- Jonathan Carroll (b. 1949)

"Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough."-- George Washington Carver (1864-1943)

"Where there is great love, there are always miracles."-- Willa Sibert Cather (1873-1947)

"I hate and I love. Perhaps you ask why I do so. I do not know, but I feel it, and am in agony."-- Catullus

"Sympathy constitutes friendship; but in love there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion. Each strives to be the other, and both together make up one whole."-- Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

"That's the nature of women not to love when we love them, and to love when we love them not."-- Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)

"In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love."-- Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

"There is time for work. And there is time for love. That leaves no other time."-- Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

"The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable."-- John Cheever (1912-82)

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul, but his life."-- Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."-- Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

"Our hours in love have wings; in absence, crutches."-- Colley Cibber (1671-1757)


"For those who love it, cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love."-- Craig Claiborne

"I dream of wayward gulls and all landless lovers, rare moments of winter sun, peace, privacy, for everyone."-- William F(rancis) Claire (b. 1935)

"I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy, golden storm, yes many loved before us, I know we are not new, in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, but now it's come to distances and both of us must try, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye."-- Leonard (Norman) Cohen (b. 1934)

"Persecution was at least a sign of personal interest. Tolerance is composed of nine parts apathy to one of brotherly love."-- Frank Moore Colby (1865-1925)

"Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship--never."-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834

"Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love - and to put its trust in life."-- Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

"Love is the extra effort we make in our dealings with those whom we do not like and once you understand that, you understand all. This idea that love overtakes you is nonsense. This is but a polite manifestation of sex. To love another you have to undertake some fragment of their destiny."-- Pierre Corneille (1606-84)

"I love criticism just so long as it's unqualified praise."-- Noel Coward

"I love youNot only for what you areBut for what I amWhen I am with you."-- Roy Croft

"We need not think alike to love alike."-- Francis David (b. 1900)

"Pleasure of love lasts but a moment, Pain of love lasts a lifetime."-- Bette Davis (1908-89)

"One of the most effectual ways of pleasing and of making one's self loved is to be cheerful; joy softens more hearts than tears do."-- Mme. de Sartory

"A little kindness from person to person is better than a vast love for all humankind."-- Richard Dehmel (1863-1920)

"I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself."-- Marlene Dietrich (1901-92)

"Love won't be tampered with, love won't go away. Push it to one side and it creeps to the other."-- Isak Dinesen (1885-1962)

"For in the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."-- Baba Dioum

"We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end."-- Benjamin "Dizzy" Disraeli (1804-81)

"Love all love of other sights controls, And makes one little room an everywhere."-- John Donne (1572-1631)

"At different stages in our lives, the signs of love may vary: dependence, attraction, contentment, worry, loyalty, grief, but at heart the source is always the same. Human beings have the rare capacity to connect with each other, against all odds."-- Michael Dorris

"Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering."-- Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-81),

I have felt it and lived it and now it leaves me here, love is the ultimate pain and joy, without it you die with it you perish."-- Christopher S. Drew

"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love."-- Henry Drummond (1851-97)

"Pains of love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are."-- John Dryden (1631-1700)

"Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit."-- Alexandre Dumas (1802-70)

"In love there are no vacations … No such thing. Love has to be lived fully with its boredom and all that."-- Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)

"The richest love is that which submits to the arbitration of time."-- Lawrence George Durrell (1912-90)

"Time is Too slow for those who wait, Too swift for those who fear, Too long for those who grieve, Too short for those who rejoice, But for those who love Time is not."-- Henry Van Dyke

"Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth."-- Umberto Eco

"Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love."-- George Eliot (1819-80)

"Love and you shall be loved."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82)

"The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down; aspires and not despairs."-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82)

"Love won't be tampered with, love won't go away. Push it to one side and it creeps to the other."-- Louise Erdrich (b. 1954)

Love makes the time pass. Time makes love pass."-- Euripides (480?-406 BC)

"Love is blind. It will take over your mind. What you think is love, is truly not. You need to elevate your mind."-- Eve, Rapper

"Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death--fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous constant."-- Edna Ferber

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."-- Ella Fitzgerald

"Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes."-- Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969)

"Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly."-- Rose Dorothy Franken (1895-1988)

"Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage."-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-90)

"We are never so defensless against suffering as when we love."-- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

"Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism."-- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

"Today I begin to understand what love must be, if it exists.... When we are parted, we each feel the lack of the other half of ourselves. We are incomplete like a book in two volumes of which the first has been lost. That is what I imagine love to be: incompleteness in absence."-- Erich Fromm (1900-80)

"Immature love says: 'I love you because I need you.' Mature love says 'I need you because I love you.'"-- Erich Fromm (1900-80)

"Life goes through changes so fast, you think your life is great, than one of your best friends dies. Then you think you found someone you truly love, only to figure out, she doesn't love you back. You cry and cry and cry, but nothing changes. You realize, that you must accept things for what they are, and what they have made you become.Everything in life changes you in some way. Even the smallest things. If you do not accept these changes, you do not accept yourself. For through these changes brings new and greater things to you, making you wiser, as time progresses. To avoid these changes is a loss. You only live your life once. Do not waste a minute of it avoiding things. Let them come to you, and learn from them. There's always tomorrow."-- Adam R. Gwizdala

"The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers."-- Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh

"When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."-- Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh

"Acceptance. It is the true thing everyone longs for. The one thing everyone craves. To walk in a room and to be greeted by everyone with hugs and smiles. And in that small passing moment, you truly know you're loved, needed, and accepted."-- Rena Harmon

"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better."-- Sydney J. Harris (b. 1917)

"The story of a love is not important - what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity."-- Helen Hayes (b. 1900)

"To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind."-- William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

"Having a place to go - is a home. Having someone to love - is a family. Having both - is a blessing."-- Donna Hedges

"Never judge someone by who he's in love with; judge him by his friends. People fall in love with the most appalling people. Take a cool, appraising glance at his pals."-- Cynthia Heimel
"A friend drops their plans when you're in trouble, shares joy in your accomplishments, feels sad when you're in pain. A friend encourages your dreams and offers advice--but when you don't follow it, they still respect and love you."-- Doris Wild Helmering

"If two people love each other, there can be no happy end to it."-- Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899-1961)

"Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think."-- Robert Henri

"A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money, but even ... without any hope of doing it well."-- Oliver Herford (1863-1935

"The best things in life are never rationed. Friendship, loyalty, love do not require coupons."-- George T. Hewitt

"You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave."-- Billie Holiday

"...since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned."-- John Holt

"You've got to love what you're doing. If you love it, you can overcome any handicap or the soreness or all the aches and pains, and continue to play for a long, long time."-- Gordie Howe

"The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia."-- Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915),

"The love we give away is the only love we keep."-- Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?"-- Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

"Separated lovers cheat absence by a thousand fancies which have their own reality. They are prevented from seeing one another and they cannot write; nevertheless they find countless mysterious ways of corresponding, by sending each other the song of birds, the scent of flowers, the laughter of children, the light of the sun, the sighing of the wind, and the gleam of the stars-all the beauties of creation."-- Victor Hugo (1802-85)

"Life is the flower for which love is the honey."-- Victor Hugo (1802-85)

"If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is, it's not enough."-- Ann Landers

"To a person in love, the value of the individual is intuitively known. Love needs no logic for its mission."-- Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-74)

"The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love."-- W(illiam) Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

"If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is, it's not enough."-- Ann Landers, American journalist, editor More about the author

"A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar."-- Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.), Legendary Chinese philosopher More about the author

"The sage wears clothes of coarse cloth but carries jewels in his bosom; He knows himself but does not display himself; He loves himself but does not hold himself in high esteem."-- Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.), Legendary Chinese philosopher More about the author

"To be successful, the first thing to do is to fall in love with your work."-- Sister Mary Lauretta More about the author

Chicken Soup For The Soul

BE YOURSELF
Ever since I was a little kid, I didn't want to be me. I wanted to be like Billy Windledon, and Billy Windledon didn't even like me. I walked like he walked; I talked like he talked; and I signed up for the high school he signed up for. Which was why Billy Windledon changed. He began to hang around Herby Vandeman; he walked like Herby Vandeman; he talked like Herby Vandeman. He mixed me up! I began to walk and talk like Billy Windledon, who was walking and talking like Herby Vandeman. And then it dawned on me that Herby Vandeman walked and talked like Joey Haverlin. And Joey Haverlin walked and talked like Corky Sabinson. So here I am walking and talking like Billy Windledon's imitation of Herby Vandeman's version of Joey Haverlin, trying to walk and talk like Corky Sabinson. And who do you think Corky Sabinson is always walking and talking like? Of all people, Dopey Wellington - that little pest who walks and talks like me!

KALAU SETIAP KESALAHAN MANUSIA BOLEH DIMAAFKAN DENGAN HANYA KATA-KATA MAAF, MAKA TUHAN TIDAK PERLU MENCIPTA NERAKA

"WHATEVER YOU NEED"
I was working as a consultant in a beer company, helping the president and senior vice-president formulate and implement their new strategic vision. It was an enormous challenge. At the same time, my mother was in the final stages of cancer. I worked during the day and drove 40 miles home to be with her every night. It was tiring and stressful, but it was what I wanted to do. My commitment was to continue to do excellent consulting during the day, even though my evenings were very hard. I didn't want to bother the president with my situation, yet I felt someone at the company needed to know what was going on. So I told the vice-president of Human Resources, asking him not to share the information with anyone.

A few days later, the president called me into his office. I figured he wanted to talk to me about one of the many issues we were working on. When I entered, he asked me to sit down. He faced me from across his large desk, looked me in the eye and said, "I hear your mother is very ill." I was totally caught by surprise and burst into tears. He just looked at me, let my crying subside and then gently said a sentence I will never forget: "Whatever you need." That was it. His understanding and his willingness to both let me be on my pain and to offer me everything were qualities of compassion that I carry with me to this day.
Martin Rutte - Extracted from Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte & Tim Clauss, Health Communication Inc., 1996

A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward - William J Bennett

GOLDEN RULES FOR LIVING
If you open it, close it - If you turn it on, turn it off
If you unlock it, lock it - If you break it, admit it
If you can't fix it, call in someone who can - If you borrow it, return it
If you value it, take care of it - If you made a mess, clean it up
If you move it, put it back
If it belongs to someone else and you want to use it, get permission
If you don't know how to operate it, leave it alone
If it's none of your business, don't ask questions
If it ain't broke, don't fix it - If it will brighten someone's day, say it
If it will tarnish someone's reputation, keep it to yourself
Author Unknown - Extracted from A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communication, 1996

Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it -
Dr Karl Menninger

Father's Day
When I was five, my biological father committed suicide. It left me feeling as though I'd done something wrong, that if I had been better somehow, maybe he'd have stayed around. My mother remarried shortly thereafter, and this man was my dad until I was nineteen. I called him Dad and used his name all through school. But when he and my mother divorced, he just walked away. Once again, I wondered what was wrong with me that I couldn't keep a father. Mother remarried again, and Bob was a wonderful, jind man. I was twenty now and no longer living at home, but I felt a great love and attachment for him. A few years later my mother was diagnosed with cancer and was not given long to live. Shortly before she died, Bob came over to my house alone one day. We talked about a lot of things, and then he told me that he wanted me to know that he'd always be there for me, even after Mother was gone. Then he asked if he could adopt me.

I could hardly believe my eyes. Tears streamed down my face. He wanted me - me! This man had no obligation to me, but he was reaching out from his heart, and I accepted, During the adoption proceedings, the judge commented on all of the undesireable duties of his profession and then with a tear in his eye, thanked us for brightening his day as he pronounced us father and daughter. I was twenty-five, but I was his little girl. Three short years later, Bob, too, was diagnosed with cancer and was gone within the year. At first I was hurt and angry at God for taking this father away too. But eventually the love and acceptance that I felt from Dad came through again, and I became, once more, grateful the years we had. On Father's Day I always reflect on what I've learned about fatherhood. I've learned that it is not dependent on biology or even on raising child. Fatherhood is a matter of the heart. Bob's gift from the heart will warm my soul for eternity.
Sherry Lynn Blake Jensen Miller - Extracted from A 5th Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communication, 1998

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs - Henry Ford

MR GILLESPIE
When I was in seventh grade, I was a candy striper at a local hospital in my town. I volunteered about thirty to forty hours a week during the summer. Most of the time I spent there with Mr Gillespie. He never had any visitors and nobody seemed to care about his condition. I spent many days there holding his hand and talking to him, helping with anything that needed to be done. He became a close friend of mine, even though he responded with only an occasional squeeze of my hand. Mr Gillespie was in a coma. I left for a week to vacation with my parents and when I came back, Mr Gillespie was gone. I didn't have the nerve to ask any of the nurses where he was, for fear they might tell me he had dies. So with many questions unanswered, I continued to volunteer there through my eighth-grade year. Several years later, when I was a junior in high school, I was at the gas station when I noticed a familiar face. When I realised who it was, my eyes filled with tears. He was alive! I got up the nerve to ask him if his name was Mr Gillespie and if he had been in a coma about five years ago. With an uncertain look in his face, he replied yes. I explained how I knew and that I had spent many hours talking with him in the hospital. His eyes welled up with tears and he gave me the warmest hug I had ever received.

He began telling me how, as he lay there comatose, he could hear me talking to him and could feel me holding his hand the whole time. He thought it was an angel, not a person, who was there with him. Mr Gillespie firmly believed that it was my voice and touch that had kept him alive. Then he told me about his life and what happened to him to put him in the coma. We both cried for a while and exchanged a hug, said good-byes and went our separate ways. Although I haven't seen him since, he fills my heart with joy every day. I know that I made a difference between his life and his death. More important, he has made a tremendous difference in my life. I will never forget him and what he did for me: he made me an angel.
Angela Sturgill - Extracted from a 5th Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, 1998

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us – Aristotle
Think Good - Do Good - Be Good
(words from Abdul Aziz Masod Alhaj)

SPELLING BEE
In the fourth round of a national spelling bee in Washington, eleven-year-old Rosalie Elliot, a champion from South Carolina, was asked to spell the word "avowal". Her soft Southern accent made it difficult for judges to determine if she had used an 'a' or an 'e' as the next to last letter of the word. They deliberated for several minutes and also listened to tape recording playbacks, but still they couldn't determine which letter had been pronounced. Finally the chief judge, John Lloyd, out the question to the only person who knew the answer. He asked Rosalie, "Was the letter an 'a' or an 'e'?"

Rosalie, surrounded by whispering young spellers, knew by now the correct spelling of the word. But without hesitation, she replied that she has misspelled the word and had used an 'e'. As she walked from the stage, the entire audience stood and applauded her honesty and integrity, including dozens of newspaper reporters covering the event. While Rosalie had not won the contest, she had definitely emerged a winner that day
God's Little Devotional Book for Students - Honor Books
Extracted from a 5th Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, 1998.

What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others -
(Submitted by Abdul Aziz Masod Alhaj)

A TURNING POINT
Seventy years ago I was quite a small little girl, the baby of the family, with an older brother and sister. My father was very ill at the time and my mother took in sewing of any kind so we could live. She would sew far into the night with nothing but dim gas mantles and an old treadle sewing machine. She never complained even when the fire would be low and the food very scarce. She would sew until the early hours of the morning. Things were very bad that particular winter. Then a letter came from where her sewing machine was purchased, stating that they would have to pick up her machine the next day unless payments were brought up to date. I remember when she read the letter I became frightened; I could picture us starving to death and all sorts of things that could come to a child's mind. My mother did not appear to be worried, however and seemed to be quite calm about the matter. I, on the other hand, cried myself to sleep, wondering what would become of our family. Mother said God would not fail her, that he never had. I couldn't see how God was going to help us keep this old sewing machine.

The day the men were to come for our only means of support, there was a knock at the kitchen door. I was frightened as a child would be, for I was sure it was those dreaded men. Instead, a nicely dressed man stood at our door with a darling baby in his arms. He asked my mother if she was Mrs Hill. When she said she was, he said, "I'm in trouble this morning and you have been recommended by the druggist and grocer down the street as an honest and wonderful woman. My wife was rushed to the hospital this morning and since we have no relatives here, and I must open my dentist office, I have nowhere to leave my baby. Could you possibly take care of her for a few days?" He continued, "I will pay you in advance." With this he took out ten dollars and gave it to my mother. Mother said, "Yes, yes, I will be glad to do so." and took the baby from his arms. When the man left, mother turned to me with tears streaming down a face that looked a though a light was shining on it. She said, "I knew God would never let them take away my machine."
Adeline Perkins - Extracted from a 5th Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications; 1998

Rather fail by honour than succeed by fraud – Sophocles

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip? "It was great, Dad. "Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked. "Oh yeah," said the son. "So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are. " Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your family & friends!


There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others - George Shinn

LET'S GO BUG HUNTING MORE OFTEN
One fall afternoon I rushed from the university where I taught. I prepared a hasty dinner, threatened my nine-year-old daughter, Christi, to hurry and finish her homework "or else," and properly reprimanded Del, my husband, for leaving his dusty shoes on the good carpet. I then frantically vacuumed the entryway because a group of prestigious ladies were coming by to pick up some good used clothing for a worthwhile cause; and then later a graduate student would be at our house to work on a very important thesis - one that I was certain would make a sound contribution to research.

As I paused to catch my breath, I heard Christi talking with a friend on the telephone. Her comments went something like this: "Mom is cleaning house - some ladies we don't even know are coming by to pick up some old worn-out clothes ... and a college student is coming out to work on a thesis ... no, I don't know what a thesis is ... I just know Mom isn't doing anything important ... and she won't go bug hunting with me." Before Christi had hung up the phone, I had put on my jeans and old tennis shoes, persuaded Del to do likewise, pinned a note to the door telling the graduate student I'd be back soon, and set the box of used clothing on the front porch with a note on it that Del, Christi and I had gone bug hunting.
Barbara Chesser, PhD - Extracted from a 5th Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, Inc. 1998
Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself - John Dewey


THE BEAUTY OF LOVE
The question is asked, "Is there anything more beautiful in life than a boy and a girl clasping clean hands and pure hearts in the path of marriage? Can there be anything more beautiful than young love?" And the answer is given. "Yes, there is a more beautiful thing. It is the spectacle of an old man and an old woman finishing their journey together on that path. Their hands are gnarled, but still clasped; their faces are seamed, but still radiant; their hearts are physically bowed and tired, but still strong with love and devotion for one another. Yes there is a more beautiful thing than young love. Old love."
Anonymous - Extracted from A 5th Portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communication Inc., 1998.

Three things in human life are important : The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind - Henry James

CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NOT A MICKEY MOUSE AFFAIR
Not too long ago, a guest checking out of our Polynesian Village resort at Walt Disney was asked how she enjoyed her visit. She told the front-desk clerk she had a wonderful vacation, but was heartbroken about losing several rolls of Kodak colour film she had not yet developed. She was particularly upset over the loss of the pictures she had shot at our Polynesian Luau, as this was a memory she especially treasured. Now, please understand that we have no written service standards covering lost luau snapshots. Fortunately, the hostess at the front desk understood Disney's philosophy of caring for our guests. She asked the woman to leave her a couple of rolls of fresh film, promising she would take care of the rest.

Two weeks later, this guest received a package at her home. In it were photos of the entire cast of our luau show, personally autographed by each performer. There were also photos of the parade and fireworks in the theme park, taken by the front-desk hostess on her own time, after work. I happen to know this story because this guest wrote us a letter. She said that never in her life had she received such compassionate service from any business establishment. Heroic service does not come from policy manuals. It comes from people who care - and from a culture that encourages and models that attitude.
Valerie Oberle, Vice President Disney University Guest Programs
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte & Tim Clauss, Health Communications, Inc., 1996.
It's all right letting yourself go as long as you can get yourself back - Mick Jagger


DO WHAT YOU LOVE - THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW
In Srully Blotnick's research reflected in Getting Rich Your Own Way (Playboy Paperbacks, 1982), 1500 people were divided into two groups are followed for 20 years. Group A made up 83% of the sample. These people are embarking on a career chosen for the reason of making money now in order to do what they wanted later. Group B, the other 17% chose their career based on what they wanted to do now and would worry about the money later.

The data revealed some startling discoveries :
At the end of the 20 years, 101 of the 1500 had become millionaires. Of the millionaires, all but one - 100 out of 101 - were from Group B, the group that had chosen to pursue what they loved!
extracted from "Heart at Work", Jack Canfield & Jacqueline Miller, McGraw-Hill, 1996

SINGH & KAUR - How The Names Originated
In 1699, the Sikh guru Gobind Singh from Punjab formed the Khalsa - a brotherhood of believers. The day April 14, is known as Vesakhi Day, the sikh new year. The Guru gave the name Singh to every male and the name Kaur to every female. Singh means 'lion' while Kaur means 'lioness or princess'. The moment a Punjabi child is born, he or she is brought to the temple to receive blessings, and will get the same universal name.

A Sikh does not have an individual surname and thus, a Sikh man's daughter would not carry his name. In Sikhism, Khalsa also means purity - the purity that you are given when you are born, and you are to maintain that purity in form, mind and soul. This would include the symbols of five Ks - Kesh (hair), Kara (steel bangle), Kangha (comb), Keehara (loose undergarment) and Kirpan (dagger).

There are about 100,000 Sikhs in Malaysia.
As published in the Malay Mail on 4th April 2000

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall - Confucius

ON SALES
Shops that have a lot of sales simply budget to sell goods at the reduced tariff, treating any full-price purchases as a bonus. They cope with the smaller income by buying in bulk and hoping that the reduced products will draw in customers to buy pricier items. Sales are still a more successful marketing tool than permanently low prices because shoppers prefer an "event" to everyday value, says Dr Hugh Philips of Bournemouth University in England, an expert in the psychology of shopping. "It satisfies our hunting instinct to feel we've tracked down a bargain," he explains. "Even if we queue for four hours to save a dollar."
Facts of Life, Reader's Digest, January 2004 issue
If you tell the truth you don't need a long memory - Jesse Ventura in Time

WISDOM
Three cowboys had been riding the range since early in the morning. One of them was a member of the Navajo Nation. Being busy with herding stray cattle all day, there had been no time for the three of them to eat. Toward the end of the day, two of the cowboys started talking about how hungry they were and about the huge meals they were going to eat when they reach town. When one of the cowboys asked the Navajo if he was hungry, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "No'". Later that evening, after they had arrived in town, all three ordered large steak dinners. As the Navajo proceeded to eat everything in sight with great gusto, one of his friends reminded him that less than an hour earlier he had told them that he was not hungry. "Not wise to be hungry then," he replied.No food."
Author Unknown - Extracted from a 2nd helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications Inc; 1995
The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention - Patti Labelle in Labelle Cuisine (Broadway)

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER
Interviews with the elderly and the terminally ill do not report that people regret for the things they have done but rather people talk about the things they regret not having done.

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier that I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream abd less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments and if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments. One after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

I've been one of those people who never go anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a rain-coat and a parachute. If I had to do again, I would travel lighter next time. If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.
Nadine Stair (age 85) - Extracted from Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, Inc. 1995

Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other - it doesn't matter who it is - and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other - Mother Teresa

A LIFE WORTH SAVING
A man risked his life by swimming through the treacherous riptide to save a youngster being swept out to sea. After the child recovered from the harrowing experience, he said to the man, "Thank you for saving my life."

The man looked into the boy's eyes and said, "That's okay, kid. Just make sure your life was worth saving."
Author Unknown - from More Sowers's Seeds by Brian Cavanaugh - Extracted from 2nd Helping 'Chicken Soup for the Soul', Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, Inc. 1995
Life is a Song - Sing it; Life is a Game - Play it; Life is a Challenge - Meet it; Life is a Dream - Realize it; Life is a Sacrifice - Offer it; Life is Love - Enjoy it - Sai Baba

I Can Be Flexible
There is more than one way to do something. More than one person has had good ideas that will work. There is no one and only "best" way. Everybody has ideas that are worthwhile. Some may make more sense to me than others, but everyone's ideas are worthwhile and everyone has something worthwhile to contribute.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.

The most important journey you may make in life is meeting people half way. It's often the most difficult - Source Unknown

Other People Are Capable
I can't solve other people's problems for them. I don't have to take on other people's problems as if they were my own. I don't need to change other people or fix up their lives. They are capable and can take care of themselves and can solve their own problems. I can care and be of some help, but I can't do everything for them.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will avoid one hundred days of sorrow - Chinese Proverb

I Can Change
I don't have to be a certain way because of what has happened in the past. Every day is a new life. It's silly to think I can't help being the way I am. Of course I can. I can change.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.
Think Young. Aging is for wine - Cited in More of...The Best of BITS & PIECES

I Am Capable
I don't need someone else to take care of my problems. I am capable. I can take care of myself. I can think for myself. I don't have to depend on somebody else to take care of me.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.

If you treat an individual ... as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It Is Important To Try
I can. Even though I may be faced with difficult tasks, it is better to try than to avoid them. Avoiding a task does not give me any opportunities for success or joy, but trying does. Things worth having are worth the effort. I might not be able to do everything, but I can do something.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.

Pain and suffering is inevitable, being miserable is optional - Art Clanin

I Can Handle It When Things Go Wrong.
I don't need to watch out for things to go wrong. Things usually go just fine and when they don't, I can handle it. I don't have to waste my energy worrying. The sky won't fall in; things will be okay.


Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy or strong. The amount of work is the same.-Beau Bauman

I Am Responsible for My Day
I am responsible for how I feel and what I do. Nobody can make me feel anything. If I have a rotten day, I am the one who allowed it to be that way. If I have a great day, I am the one who deserves credit for being positive. It is not the responsibility of other people to change so that I can feel better. I am the one who is in charge of my life.


If you cannot be a good leader, be a good follower. You will be appreciated just the same.
Raja Dato' Aman Ahmad - Former CEO AFFIN Bank
To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

I Don't Have To Control Things
I will survive if things are different than what I want them to be. I can accept things the way they are, accept people the way they are and accept myself the way I am. There is no reason to get upset if I can't change things to fit my idea of how they ought to be. There is no reason why I should have to like everything. Even if I don't like it, I can live with it.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.
Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.

Other People Are Okay and I Am Okay
People who do things I don't like are not necessarily bad people. They should not necessarily be punished just because I don't like what they do or did. There is no reason why other people should be the way I want them to be and there is no reason why I should be the way somebody else wants me to be. People will be whatever they want to be and I will be whatever I want to be. I cannot control other people or change them. They are who they are; we all deserve basic respect.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.
He who knows not and not know he knows not is a fool - Anonymous

It Is Okay To Make Mistakes
Making mistakes is something we all do and I am still a fine and worthwhile person when I make them. There is no reason for me to get upset when I make a mistake. I am trying and if I make a mistake, I am going to continue trying. I can handle making a mistake. It is okay for others to make mistakes, too. I will accept mistakes in myself and also mistakes that others make.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.

Everybody Doesn't Have To Love Me
Not everybody has to love me or even like me. I don't necessarily like everybody I know, so why should everybody else like me? I enjoy being liked and being loved, but if somebody doesn't like me, I will still be okay and still feel like I am an okay person. I cannot make somebody like me, any more than someone can get me to like them. I don't need approval all the time. If someone does not approve of me, I will still be okay.
Author Unknown
Submitted by Allison Stevenson
Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Kimberly Kirberger, Health Communications, Inc., 1997.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall - Confucius

MISCOMMUNICATION ???
Walking through Chinatown, a tourist is fascinated with all the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs and banners. He turns a corner and sees a building with the sign, "Hans Olaffsen's Laundry." "Hans Olaffsen?", he muses. "How the heck does that fit in here?" So he walks into the shop and sees an old Chinese gentleman behind the counter. The tourist asks, "How did this place get a name like "Hans Olaffsen's Laundry?" The old man answers, "Is name of owner." The tourist asks, "Well, who and where is the owner?" "Me, is right here," replies the old man. "You? How did you ever get a name like Hans Olaffsen?" "Is simple," says the old man. "Many, many year ago when come to this country, was stand in line at Documentation Center. Man in front was big blonde Swede. Lady look at him and go, "What your name?" He say, "Hans Olaffsen." Then she look at me and go, 'What your name?'" "I say, Sem Ting."

Source Unknown

Don't blame them, train them
Alan McGivern 'Positive Business Minutes' on the Light & Easy morning show, one morning many moons ago

The Spalshes of Life

My grandfather took me to the fish pond on the farm when I was about seven, and he told me to throw a stone into the water. He told me to watch the circles created by the stone. Then he asked me to think of myself as that stone person.

"You may create lots of splashes in your life but the waves that come from those splashes will disturb the peace of all your fellow creatures," he said. "Remember that you are responsible for what you put in your circle and that circle will also touch many other circles. You will need to live in a way that allows the good that comes from your circle to send the peace of that goodness to others. The splash that comes from anger or jealousy will send those feelings to other circles. You are responsible for both."

That was the first time I realized each person creates the inner peace or discord that flows out into the world. We cannot create world peace if we are riddled with inner conflict, hatred, doubt, or anger. We radiate the feelings and thoughts that we hold inside, whether we speak them or not. Whatever is splashing around inside of us is spilling out into the world, creating beauty or discord with all other circles of life.
-Author unknown-
Success is getting what you want; Happiness is wanting what you get - Anonymous

A SIMPLE GESTURE
Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, that he was having a lot of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.

They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was invited for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came, and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.

Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. "Do you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?" asked Bill. "You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life."
John W Schlatter - Extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen,Health Communication,Inc, 1993.
At the heart of any good business is a chief executive officer with one - Malcolm Forbes
JOSH AND HIS JAG
About ten years ago a young and a very successful executive named Josh was travelling down a Chicago neighbourhood street. He was travelling a bit fast in his sleek, black, sixteen-cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old. He watched for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed and - whump - smashed into the Jag's shiny side door. SCREECH! Brakes slammed. Gears pounded into reverse and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick was thrown. Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "Just what was that about? Who do you think you are?" Building up a head of steam he continued, "That's my new Jag; that brick is going to cost you plenty. Why did you throw it?"

"Please ... please, mister, I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do," pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop."Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother, mister," he said. "He fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help him back into his wheelchair? He's too heavy for me." Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He helped the youngster upright the wheelchair and the two of them lifted his brother back into the chair. It was a long, long walk back to the sleek, black, sixteen-cylinder Jaguar XKE - a long and slow walk. Now, Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. It reminded him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention.
Josh Ridker - Extracted from 'a 5th portion of Chicken Soup for the Soul', Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, Inc., 1998
A good heart and a good mind - these are what you need to be a good chief - Louis Farmer-

ONE FOR THE TEAM
This story was told by an old priest one Sunday. It is a true story of when he served in the military.

One day their drill sergeant came out and threw a hand grenade into a group of young soldiers. The men all ran away and took cover away from the grenade. Then the drill sergeant told them that the grenade was not set to explode and he just did it to see their reaction. The next day a newly recruited joined the group. The drill sergeant told the other soldiers not to tell the new soldier what was going to happen. As the drill sergeant came out and threw the grenade into the crowd of soldiers, the new soldier, not knowing it wasn't going to explode, threw himself on top of the grenade to prevent it from killing the other men. He was willing to die for his fellow soldiers.

That year the young man was awarded the only medal for courage and bravery that had not been won during battle.
Kim Noone - Extracted from the "Chicken Soup Series", Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Aubery & Nancy Mitchell, R.N., Health Communications, Inc., 1996
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. Beverly Sills

THE QUESTION
Isn't it amazing how few of us ask ourselves the important question? Several years ago I was invited to hear an important speaker address the student body of a small college in South Corolina. The auditorium was filled with students excited about the opportunity to hear a person of her stature speak. After the governor gave the introduction, the speaker moved to the microphone, looked at the audience from left to right, and began: "I was born to a mother who was deaf and could not speak. I do not know who my father is or was. The first job I ever had was in a cotton field." The audience was spellbound. "Nothing has to remain the way it is if that's not the way a person wants it to be," she continued. "It isn't luck, and it isn't circumstances, and it isn't born a certain way that causes a person's future to become what it becomes." And she softly repeated, "Nothing has to remain the way it is if that's not the way a person wants it to be. "All a person has to do," she added in a firm voice, "to change a situation that brings unhappiness or dissatisfaction is answer the question: 'How do I want this situation to become?' Then the person must commit totally to personal actions that carry them there." Then a beautiful smile shone forth as she said, "My name is Azie Taylor Morton. I stand before you today as Treasurer of the United States of America."
Bob Moore
Extracted from "Chicken Soup Series, Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications Inc, 1995

Procrastination is like a credit card : it's a lot of fun until you get the bill - Christopher Parker

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK
He was admitted to emergency receiving and placed on the cardiac floor. Long hair, unshaven, dirty, dangerously obese, with a black motorcycle jacket tossed on the bottom shelf of the stretcher, he was an outsider to this sterile world of shinning terrazzo floors, efficient uniformed professionals and strict infection control procedures. Definitely an untouchable. The nurses at the station looked wide-eyed as this mound of humanity was wheeled by, each glancing nervously at Bonnie, the head nurse. "Let this one not be mine to admit, bathe and tend to ... " was their pleading unspoken message. One of the true marks of a leader, a consummate professional, is to do the unthinkable. To tackle the impossible. To touch the untouchable. It was Bonnie who said, "I want this patient myself." Highly unusual for a head nurse - unconventional - but the stuff out of which human spirits thrive, heal and soar.

As she donned her latex gloves and proceeded to bathe this huge, very unclean man, her heart almost broke. Where was his family? Who was his mother? What was he like as a little boy? She hummed quietly as she worked. It seemed to ease the fear and embarrassment she knew he must be feeling. And then on a whim she said, "We don't have time for back rubs much in hospitals these days, but I bet one would really feel good. And it would help you relax your muscles and start to heal." The thick, scaly, ruddy skin told a story of an abusive lifestyle: probably lots of addictive behavior with food, alcohol and drugs. As she rubbed those taut muscles, she hummed and prayed. Prayed for the soul of a little boy grown up, rejected by life's rudeness and striving for acceptance in hard, hostile world. The finale was warmed lotion and baby powder. Almost laughable - such a contrast to this huge, foreign surface. As he rolled over his back, tears ran down his cheeks and his chin trembled. With amazingly beautiful brown eyes, he smiled and said in a quivering voice, "No one has touched me for years. Thank you. I am healing."
Naomi Rhode
extracted from 'Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Maida Rogerson, Martin Rutte & Tim Clauss, Health Communications, Inc., 1996.

Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows. - Michael Landon, quoted by Brad Darrach in Life

SONG OF THE BIRD
A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eagle hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet in the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked. "That's the eagle, the king of birds," said his neighbour. "He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth - we're chickens." So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was.
Anthony DeMello
extracted from a 4th course of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Hanoch McCarty and Meladee McCarty, Health Communications, Inc.,1997.

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently - Henry Ford.

DO WHAT YOU LOVE - THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW
In Srully Blotnick's research reflected in Getting Rich Your Own Way (Playboy Paperbacks, 1982), 1500 people were divided into two groups are followed for 20 years. Group A made up 83% of the sample. These people are embarking on a career chosen for the reason of making money now in order to do what they wanted later. Group B, the other 17% chose their career based on what they wanted to do now and would worry about the money later.

The data revealed some startling discoveries :
At the end of the 20 years, 101 of the 1500 had become millionaires. Of the millionaires, all but one - 100 out of 101 - were from Group B, the group that had chosen to pursue what they loved!
extracted from "Heart at Work", Jack Canfield & Jacqueline Miller, McGraw-Hill, 1996

ON DETERMINATION
You have to be single minded, drive only for one thing on which you have decided. And if it looks as if you might be getting there, all kinds of people, including some you thought were your loyal friends, will suddenly show up ... to trip you, blacken you and break your spirit.
John R Noe
Extracted from 'Speaker's Sourcebook II', Glen Van Ekeren, Prentice Hall, 1994.

You give your best not because you need to impress people. You give your best because that's the only way to enjoy your work - Andrew Matthews

TWO NICKELS AND FIVE PENNIES
In the days when ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" "Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studies a number of coins in it. "How much is a dish of plain ice cream?" he inquired. Some people were now waiting for a table and the waitress was a bit impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she said brusquely.

The little boy again countered the coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and departed. When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then swallowed hard at what she saw. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies - her tip.
The Best of Bits & Pieces
extracted from 'a 3rd serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul', Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, Health Communications, Inc; 1996
The shortest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time
Samuel Smiles (1812 - 1904) - Physician and writer, Cited in BITS & PIECES