Tuesday 27 June 2017

Within the vaults of your heart

Within the deep vaults of your loving heart
Within the blue ocean of your amazing memory
Within the soft magic light of your sparkling soul
There is a poetic truth, waiting to be expressed.

A soft truth, that can change the world:
' cause it 'll be simple inspirational truth
that will take away the greed;
that will take away the lies.


So please my friends, dig within the vault of your heart;
swim and dive within the ocean of your memories;
bathe and enjoy the light of the flames of your soul
and express that truth, share it with the rest of the world.


Dig, swim, bathe in the truth within
talk, write, share and express
and enjoy all goodness
The world needs you.

Imagine world peace,
Kindness, wisdom, love,
forever and ever and ever 
It depends on you!




Saturday 24 June 2017

The sun and the cave

This morning, I read the following powerful story and I do not want to wait another minute to share it with you all:

One day, the sun and a cave were talking to each other. The sun did not understand "dark and damp" and the cave did not understand what it meant by "bright and clear". So they decided to change places for awhile. First the cave went up to the sun and exclaimed: "Oh, how wonderful this all is!". Then they went to the place of the cave and as the sun entered, it said "I cannot see any difference!"

I think this story is 'soooo' powerful!

If you are the one emitting the light and warmth,
    it is quite impossible to experience the dark and cold.
If you are the one emitting peace of mind and serenity
    it is quite impossible to be disturbed and stressed
If you are the one bringing happiness to others
    it is quite impossible to be sad for a long time.
If you are the one bringing inspiration and encouragement
     you may never end up in the drab and gloom

Friday 23 June 2017

A Big Verb

I 'll remember always the story from Stephen Covey.
He ran a practice for therapy and a man came and said:
"Doc, I do not love my wife anymore"
And Stephen said: Why do you not love her anymore?
Man: "I don't know"
Stephen: Well love her again.
Man: "I just told you I do not feel love for her anymore"
Stephen: Love is a verb.
To love somebody is to do loving things for that somebody.
If you love, do loving things, invariably the feeling follows.
If we stop loving, stop doing loving things, the feeling will go.
So just start to love her and your problem will be solved.
We can always (or almost always) choose what we do.
and as such also indirectly choose what we feel :)

Isn't that just a wonderful story?
 

PS: this story was also the basis for a message i posted in this blog last year

Saturday 17 June 2017

Abundance



Waves of enchanting orange morning light

Broke on the shore of sand so white

The sea, colored by it in pastel, wonderfully,

Whispered to the sun, a bit angrily:



“Hey, this is MY shore, to break my waves

Please, dear sun, take back your wavy rays”



The sun, smiling a warm, kind smile at once

Explained with love, the principle of abundance

Of everything created, God gives more than enough

We can truly share all things on earth with love

Friday 16 June 2017

Horse or car?

(idea read in a book by Jonathan Haidt: The happiness hypothesis)
< Riding a horse.
If we ride a horse in a group it is not so difficult. 
One day while riding horse in a group of ten
He was riding on a small mountain path.
The horses were walking two by two
and he was on the outside of the path.
Suddenly the path made a very sharp bent to the left 
He could not go to the left because the other horse was there 
with his friend on it. 
He panicked, he froze.
He felt so powerless in the seconds before going over the edge.
But he did not go over the edge!
The horse knew how to take the bent
The horse had walked this path many times 
and it knew what to do 

Riding a horse, so different from driving a car.

If we drive a car, we have to control it completely.
If we do not steer it away from the cliff it will go over it.
And we may die. >

In our life, we are so used to drive a car
that we extrapolate it to so many other situations.
If we ride a horse, horses know

Worse if at work we drive the people working under us
as if we drive a car.
We tend to want to control everything,
taking away all creativity
But people working with us or under us
know, better still than horses,
what they have to do to steer safe.
Car driving type of leadership takes away
creativity, motivation and enthusiasm
The biggest assets from any organization

So let us lead without interfering.
Good leadership means guidance,
even in such a subtle way  that the followers feel they did
what they did and what they achieved, all by themselves.


Monday 12 June 2017

A bit, not a bit any longer

In our heart
there sits a bit of love.

It is that bit of love 
that moves us, makes us rove

Part of us wants to keep it with all our might
Part of us wants to share it with anyone we meet

It is that last part of us that knows
about the wonderful piece of magic:
By giving away a bit of that bit of love,
that bit will grow so fast and furious
that it won't be a bit anymore.

Looking back

Looking back, at my life,
searching for the most happy moments,
somehow they were all moments of love.

Whenever love is strongly present in our life,
we tend to be happy.
We have so many examples of very famous,
very rich people who felt isolated, did not find love
and took their own life.
A life without love may be not worth living (?)

Love seems so important and very few of the 8+ billion people on this world
would disagree with that. Yet love seems so scarce, so scanty in this world.
Why is that?
I am not sure but I think I know at least part of the answer.
Maybe love is so scarce because we all get focused on receiving love
and appreciation without feeling the need to give love and appreciation.
I think there is much more happiness and peace of mind in giving love
that in receiving love. That may seem like a bit idealistic but it is true.

Looking back, the times I managed to give genuine and selfless love,
were really the best moments of my life.
Looking back, I remember times when I just went the extra mile to
do something loving and it brought such big peace of mind
Looking back, even the small gestures of love or kindness on the road,
giving way, gave me a peace of mind far greater than winning a small
battle with another driver to move into a narrow lane first.
Looking back, I think that perhaps people like Mother Teresa are
among the happiest people on earth. Simply giving love and service
without any expectation of getting something back. It fills so much our hearts
and minds with feelings of peace and love.
Looking back, many times when I chose to give love, I received love back
in great multiples. But even the times I did not experience this return of love,
these moments of giving love were still rewarding in big ways.

Looking back at my own life,
I got so much convinced that peace of mind and true happiness
lies in giving, not in taking, not in winning fights, ...
I pray and ask our Creator to help me to focus more on giving
and less on taking, less on winning.

If you have read this to the end,
I love you and let us give some love to others today.
Our heart is full of love and it seems like the more we give away,
the more our heart seems to be refilled with it.


Saturday 10 June 2017

Spark, flame or fire

We are not our thoughts; we can decide to stop thinking about something.
We are not our mind; we can use our mind in this or that way.
We are not our heart; we can to a certain extend control our emotions.
We are not our body; after the above it must be obvious.

But then, who is that "we" who is in control of mind body and heart?
That is the self, the soul, so closely connected to the conscience.
That conscience that is quite unchangeable.
We may decide not to listen to the conscience,
or reason our conscience into silence but our conscience
will always feel what is right and what is not right.

The soul, the self, the conscience sits inside of us
and is the spark that is able to communicate with
that highly creative Power in the universe, we tend to call our God.

By making it silent every day for a few minutes or even half an hour,
we give oxygen to that spark for it to become a flame.
By thinking, reflecting, praying thoughtfully, we allow the breeze
of the universe to make that light bigger.

All too often we allow the buzz and worries of every day to
deprive us of these few minutes of self reflection, to douse the flame.
But the spark never goes out and whenever we take time to make
it silent, think and reflect and allow some positive thoughts,
that sparks lights up.

Let us all make it silent today, long enough
to make that spark a flame and who knows,
perhaps a superb guiding fire,
a fire of soul that enthuses
us in whatever we do.

If more people would carry their soul
as a fire within, the world would change so fast :)

Thursday 8 June 2017

Unsafe but beautiful!

The world is not safe!

The terror is horrible and incredibly disgusting. 
That being said, if we put the things in perspective, 
in 2015 there were over 15 thousand murders in the USA alone. 
That is three times the death toll of 9.11 and 
about 7 hundred times more than the latest world-news-famous London bridge event. 
And that 15 K  is just in the USA. 

Murders do and did happen everywhere in big numbers, 
sometimes much bigger than we can imagine. 
Then let's talk about the chances of accidents killing us. 
Completely unsafe! 
Right, the world is not safe. 
It never has been safe.
Perhaps never any safer than now

But it is so beautiful. 
Millions of people have said today: "I love you"
(not to me :) , at least not a million :)) to one another, 
millions have given a small charity. 
Billions have greeted each other warmly this morning, 
millions have enjoyed an amazing sunrise, 
millions have uttered words of kindness and 
millions have enjoyed peace of mind 
because they made another one happy. 
 

So, let us be aware of the non-safety in our big world, 
but do not let the media and the politicians make 
our lives filled with fear and worries. 

Certainly I feel for the victims. The victims of London bridge, the victims of the other 15 K murders in the USA, the victims of hunger in Africa, the victims of traffic. I think we have a lot work to do, each of us, to make this world a bit better. And we can do that by being kind to more and more people every day. Let us spread kindness and love and it will slowly evolve as an epidemic, first slowly, then less slowly then a little fast until it becomes an avalanche of love and kindness, unstoppable, enveloping the whole world. 

Note: Wishing you a wonderful day filled with goodness and kindness,  I think it's a good time, now, to read  "in the air"  (clickable) 

Wednesday 7 June 2017

Law and Ethics

Last night I was called to the hospital. It was 1 AM.

Whenever that happens,
I feel a bit of an ambiguity about
what I should do at the traffic lights
on my way to the hospital.

The first light was red.
There was another car going the same direction as me.
The car stopped in front of me on the right lane
I went next to him on the left lane.
Both of us standing there.
No other cars visible near or far.
I was a bit in a hurry to the hospital
and I decided to drive on even though the light was still red.
I disobeyed the law.
Was it wrong?

From a legal point of view it was wrong.
But from an ethical or moral point it did no feel wrong to me.

I think that there is a very big difference between law and ethics.
Whereas it is generally accepted that not following the law is not ethical,
the above example may be (or may not be, perhaps, I may be wrong on this ?)
an exception to this. The driver of the other car in the above example,
surely felt compelled to wait until it was green and perhaps thought 
I was just a reckless driver (??)

It is much easier t find examples
 where people do perfectly legal things
 but morally or ethically it is wrong.
There are legal channels for tax evasion
There are only so many laws while our consciousness and our ethics are so complex.
It is not illegal to let patients wait unnecessarily long in the clinic.
It is not illegal to lie to your wife.
It is not illegal to be nasty up to a certain extent,
....

Let us not confuse the two.
Legally doing things that do feel wrong,
deprives us of our peace of mind.
Missing our peace of mind may be a much bigger burden
than getting a ticket for a minor traffic offense.

What do you all think?
Do you stop for red traffic lights on completely deserted roads at night?


Saturday 3 June 2017

Sources of inspiration

I was thinking who have been my sources of inspiration in my life.
I want to talk about people like Albert Schweitzer, Gandhi and the likes,
but I can not write about them as sources of inspiration without first
talking about the truly biggest sources of inspiration, yes,
of course, like for so many of us: my mother, and my father
Each of them teaching me different things.

I think my mom was the most caring person I have known in my whole life.
She was simply there, knew what we liked, and what we did not like.
While this may sound like a cliche, I mean this with my whole heart:
she was the most lovely person a child could wish as a mom.
Now she is not any longer with us. She passed on in 1995
But her care and her love somehow are still alive in my heart and soul.
I think it is her care that I transfer to my patients.
I think it is her goodness that lives on and multiplies.

My father was a businessman. He owned a printing house.
He had started from scratch and made it, really made in the business world.
He was a man with wisdom
He was a man of persistence and hard work
He was a man of openness
A tough facade with a super-soft heart inside
I do not know which part of him lives on most in me,
but so often I see myself acting like him.

Thanks, my mom and dad, for being such a huge source of inspiration.
The devotion and calmness of my grandfather was another source of inspiration
Quite often I think back about him. He was one of these persons,
whom you wanted really to be proud of you.

Of course, there are my other family members. I love them dearly without them I would not be who I am. Definitely, without my sister, I would have missed so many things in life. We did not quarrel too often; she was 2 years older and was my stronger companion.

This post was actually intended to be about famous people in my life who really made a difference in my thinking.

But before that, one person, I remember, who had a great influence on my thinking was "deken Ryckaert" I am not even sure anymore about the spelling of his name, but he was a bright thinker himself. He was the deacon in our village and came to our small village primary school a few times per year to talk to us about God. I remember him so much saying: 'Is God sitting on a golden or silver throne?' All of us thought of gold. He disagreed: 'God has no Throne'. Then he went on about the clothes of God and the answer again was that God has no clothes. We were really learning the abstract nature of God. But the most important thing he taught us/me was to think during our prayers. He said "So many people are just uttering words they memorized, without giving them any thought. If we do that, our prayer is pretty useless. While we pray, we have to think, about what we say, and what it means to us, to God. At that time I was saying many prayers every night. Thinking slowed me down tremendously. Instead of reciting twenty prayers, I hardly finished one. But I had truly prayed that one with heart and soul rather than merely recited. The impact-on and meaning-for my life of that one prayer with thoughts were like 10,000 times bigger. Ever since, reflection and thoughtful prayer has been my guide, my companion, my light, my 'consoler', my inspiration.

It is a bit strange: I wanted really to write this piece about people like Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson and of course all prophets and my religion.
But I ended up writing about my truest sources of inspiration and as I wrote more and more people crossed my mind.

I will stop here and enjoy a bit more the memories of all these people who were close to me and truly inspired me. I will write about the more famous ones in a later post. In the mean time, I invite you to think and reflect a bit about the people who truly inspired you. It is a pleasant thing to do 👌😊. I wish you wonderful reflection

Hans is wishing you the very best 
Peace!

-----------------------------------------

PS: most people most likely know Gandhi, ML King Jr and Emerson. If you do not know Albert Schweitzer, here is a link to a website dedicated to him.




Gardening magic

Working a bit in the garden,
cleaning up the beach a bit.
I enjoy this so much.

What a tremendous blessing.
Just come to think of it...

What made these moments of joy,
doing some gardening, possible?

For close to 53 years
I needed to be healthy and have a fresh mind
regular rest and good food, no unexpected harm

I needed a garden with grass and flowers
and trees ans shrubs.

I needed to be born  first
If you think about he likelihood of being born...
Each of my 1 million ancestors in the last 20 generations
have to be conceived exactly at the time they were conceived,
or I would not have been here.
Each must have grown and been healthy at least to allow conception and birth of a healthy next ancestor. If just one of the conceptions, one of the births, one of the healthy growing up to generate the next ancestor did not happen exactly as it happened, I would have not been here.

And the garden: think about all the plants and millenia of sunshine and rain
If had not rained for a year, would my garden be possible at all?
 
We can look at the molecular level or atomic level,
how many billions of atoms have to line up correctly to
allow me to enjoy the gardening?
How many neurons have to work together?

Wow, what an enormous blessing!
I think, this afternoon, before dark, I want to garden a bit more.

Friday 2 June 2017

In the air

We so often pray for love and peace and grace
Imagining it will come to us from a place far away.
If we pray in a truly reflective way
it becomes so clear and easy to see
that all goodness of our Creator is
something we bathe in day by day.
All we have to do is open our mind
open our hearts, open our souls
and let it all in.

I wish you all a day
filled with love, peace and grace
filled with kindness and compassion
filled with compassion

I'm plucking a pluck of compassion
I breathe a breath of tenderness
All just from the surrounding air
It's in the fresh air at the sea.

I stand under a shower of peace
I inhale a breath of happiness
All just from the free air
It's in the air all around me

Kindness swirls down from above
I take in a breath of lovely love
Just from the bluest of skies
It's in the sky everywhere

Come with me and enjoy
all the love, peace
kindness,grace, happiness
Let's pluck a big pluck from the air...