英语美文—情寄八荒

1 Feed Your Mind Since the prehistoric times man has had an urge to satisfy his needs Be it hunger shelter or search for a mate he has always manipulated the circumstances to the best of his advantages Probably this might be the reason why we human are the most developed of all living species on the earth and probably also in the universe As we climbed the steps of evolution with giant leaps we somehow left behind common sense and logical thinking we forgot that we have stopped thinking ahead of times If you are hungry what do you do Grab a piece of your favorite meal and stay quiet after that Just like your stomach even your mind is hungry But it never lets you know because you keep it busy thinking about your dream lover favorite star and many such absurd things So it silently began to heed to your needs and never let itself grow When mind looses its freedom to grow creativity gets a full stop This might be the reason why we all sometimes think What happens next Why can t I think Why am I always given the difficult problems Well this is the aftermath of our own karma of using our brain for thinking of not so worthy things Hunger of the mind can be actually satiated through extensive reading Now why reading and not watching TV Because reading has been the most educative tool used by us right from the childhood Just like that to develop other aspects of our life we have to take help of reading You have innumerable number of books in this world which will answer your entire How to questions Once you read a book you just don t run your eyes through the lines but even your mind decodes it and explains it to you The interesting part of the book is stored in your mind as a seed Now this seed is unknowingly used by you in your future to develop new ideas The same seed if used many times can help you link and relate a lot of things of which you would have never thought of in your wildest dreams This is nothing but creativity More the number of books you read your mind will open up like never before Also this improves your oratory skills to a large extent and also makes a significant contribution to your vocabulary Within no time you start speaking English or any language fluently with your friends or other people and you never seem to run out of the right words at the right time Actually I had a problem in speaking English fluently but as I read I could improve significantly I am still on the path of improvement to quench my thirst for satisfaction So guys do join me and give food for your thoughts by reading reading and more reading Now what are you waiting for Go grab a book and let me know 2 Deciding to Live I believe I am a climber Three years ago a series of medical and personal crises took what was a clinical depression and made it something much darker I thought of it as falling as jumping off a bridge on a rainy winter day three seconds in the air before I hit the water and plunged deep into the icy cold my heavy coat pulling me deeper And the surface far overhead too far away This is the question that kept me from making the image a real one What if I changed my mind Jumping into the water the air in my lungs would fail me before I could swim back to the living world I would know for those last seconds that I did want to live after all but it would be too late I m not sure why I started climbing I walked through the door of the local climbing gym one day on a whim It was an alien world strong beautiful men and women towering walls under sodium vapor lights white dust filling the air Light instead of dark Up instead of down It was in every way the opposite of what was inside me The second time I climbed I got to a move where I was sure I would fall I was 25 feet up on a rope but I didn t know yet that I could trust it I heard my voice say out loud I have a choice here fear or joy What I meant was climb or don t climb live or die In the more than two years since then I have climbed hundreds of days inside and out sometimes tied to a rope often not I do pay a price here My body can be so bruised from hitting walls that people ask me about my home situation Nine months ago I broke my leg and ankle I healed fast but the risk remains Next time I might not Climbing requires a cold blooded decision to live If I am inattentive or careless I will fall Every time I climb at the gym or rope up for a route outside or go bouldering which is climbing without a rope and often more dangerous I am taking a risk And I am committing to staying alive Now I believe in climbing in not jumping Jumping would have been easy just step over the bridge railing and let go Climbing is harder but worth it I believe that deciding to live was the right decision There s no way to describe the terrible darkness of depression in a way that non depressed people can understand Now I m less focused on the darkness Instead I think about the joy I feel in conquering it and the tool I used I am a climber and I am alive 3 Getting What You Want in Life There are lives that have bread in abundance and yet are starved with barns and warehouses filled with shelves and larders laden they are empty and hungry No man need envy them their feverish restless whirl in the dust of publicity is but the search for a satisfaction never to be found in things They are called rich in a world where no others are more truly pitiably poor having all they are yet lacking in all because they have neglected the things within The abundance of bread is the cause of many a man s deeper hunger Having known nothing of the discipline that develops life s hidden sources of satisfaction nothing of the struggle in which deep calls unto deep and the true life finds itself he spends his days seeking to satisfy his soul with furniture with houses and lands with yachts and merchandise seeking to feed his heart on things a process of less promise and reason than feeding a snapping turtle on thoughts It takes many of us altogether too long to learn that you cannot find satisfaction so long as you leave the soul out of your reckoning If the heart be empty the life cannot be filled The flow must cease at the faucet if the fountains go dry The prime the elemental necessities of our being are for the life rather than the body its house But how often out of the marble edifice issues the poor emaciated inmate how out of the life having many things comes that which amounts to nothing The essential things are not often those which most readily strike our blunt senses We see the shell first To the undeveloped mind the material is all there is But looking deeper into life there comes an awakening to the fact and the significance of the spiritual the feeling that the reason the emotions the joys and pains that have nothing to do with things the ties that knit one to the infinite all of which constitute the permanent elements of life 4 The Thanks We Give It s not the turkey alone we re grateful for Not the cranberry sauce or the stuffing or even the pumpkin pie Some of the people seated at the table are strangers friends of friends cousins of in laws and some are almost desperately familiar faces we live and work with every day In any other week today would merely be Thursday and the gathering of all these people the cooking and serving and cleaning a chore But today it doesn t feel that way The host perhaps it s you stands up and asks that we give thanks and we do each in our own way And what we re thankful for is simply this the food the shelter the company and above all the sense of belonging As holidays go Thanksgiving is in some ways the most philosophical Today we try not to take for granted the things we almost always take for granted We try if only in that brief pause before the eating begins to see through the well worn patterns of our lives to what lies behind them In other words we try to understand how very rich we are whether we feel very rich or not Today is one of the few times most Americans consciously set desire aside if only because desire is incompatible with the gratitude not to mention the abundance that Thanksgiving summons It s tempting to think that one Thanksgiving is pretty much like another except for differences in the guest list and the recipes But it isn t true This is always a feast about where we are now Thanksgiving reflects the complexion of the year we re in Some years it feels buoyant almost jubilant in nature Other years it seems marked by a conspicuous humility uncommon in the calendar of American emotions And this year We will probably remember this Thanksgiving as a banquet of mixed emotions This is after all a profoundly American holiday The undertow of business as usual seems especially strong this year The shadow of a war and misgivings over the future loom in the minds of many of us Most years we enjoy the privacy of Thanksgiving but this year somehow the holiday feels like part of a public effort to remember and reclaim for ourselves what it means to be American That means giving thanks for some fundamental principles that should be honored every day of the year in the life of this nation principles of generosity tolerance and inclusion This is a feast that no one should be turned away from The abundance of the food piled on the table should signify that there is plenty for all plenty to be shared The welcome we feel makes sense only if we also extend it to others 5 Today I Begin a New Life Today I shed my old skin which hath too long suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity Today I am born anew and my birthplace is a vineyard where there is fruit for all Today I will pluck grapes of wisdom from the tallest and fullest vines in the vineyard for these were planted by the wisest of my profession who have come before me generation upon generation Today I will savor the taste of grapes from these vines and verily I will swallow the seed of success buried in each and new life will sprout within me The career I have chosen is laden with opportunity yet it is fraught with heartbreak and despair and the bodies of those who have failed were they piled one atop another would cast a shadow down upon all the pyramids of the earth Yet I will not fail as the others for in my hands I now hold the charts which will guide through perilous waters to shores which only yesterday seemed but a dream As a child I was slave to my impulses now I am slave to my habits as are all grown men I will form good habits and become their slave And how will I accomplish this difficult feat Through these scrolls it will be done for each scroll contains a principle which will drive a bad habit from my life and replace it with one which will bring me closer to success And I make a solemn oath to myself that nothing will retard my new life s growth I will lose not a day from these readings for that day cannot be retrieved nor can I substitute another for it I must not I will not break this habit of daily reading from these scrolls and in truth the few moments spent each day on this new habit are but a small price to pay for the happiness and success that will be mine Today my old skin has become as dust I will walk tall among men and they will know me not for today I am a new man with a new life 6 A Truth of Life One of my patients a successful businessman tells me that before his cancer he would become depressed unless things went a certain way Happiness was having the cookie If you had the cookie things were good If you didn t have the cookie life wasn t worth a damn Unfortunately the cookie kept changing Some of the time it was money sometimes power sometimes desire At other times it was the new car the biggest contract the most prestigious address A year and a half after his diagnosis of prostate cancer he sits shaking his head ruefully It s like I stopped learning how to live after I was a kid When I give my son a cookie he is happy If I take the cookie away or it breaks he is unhappy But he is two and a half and I am forty three It s taken me this long to understand that the cookie will never make me happy for long The minute you have the cookie it starts to crumble or you start to worry about it crumbling or about someone trying to take it away from you You know you have to give up a lot of things to take care of the cookie to keep it from crumbling and be sure that no one takes it away from you You may not even get a chance to eat it because you are so busy just trying not to lose it Having the cookie is not what life is about My patient laughs and says cancer has changed him For the first time he is happy No matter if his business is doing well or not no matter if he wins or loses at golf Two years ago cancer asked me Okay what s important What is really important Well life is important Life Life any way you can have it life with the cookie life without the cookie Happiness does not have anything to do with the cookie it has to do with being alive Before who made the time He pauses thoughtfully Damn I guess life is the cookie 7 Storms Always Give Way to the Sun What is the secret ingredient of tough people that enables them to succeed Why do they survive the tough times when others are overcome by them Why do they win when other sink The answer is very simple It s all in how they perceive their problems Yes every living person has problems A problem free life is an illusion a mirage in the desert Accept that fact Every mountain has a peak Every valley has its low point Life has its ups and downs its peaks and its valleys You may not be able to control the times but you can compose your response You can turn your pain into profanity or into poetry The choice is up to you You may not have chosen your tough time but you can choose how you will react to it For instance what is the positive reaction to a terrible financial setback In this situation would it be the positive reaction to cop out and run away Escape through alcohol No Such negative reactions only produce greater problems by promising a temporary solution to the pressing problem Your reaction to the problem is the last word What will you let this problem do to you It can make you tender or tough It can make you better or bitter It all depends on you In the final analysis the tough people who survive the tough times do so because they ve chosen to react positively to their predicament Tough times never last but tough people do Tough people stick it out History teaches us that every problem has a lifespan No problem is permanent Storms always give way to the sun Winter always thaws into springtime Your storm will pass Your winter will thaw Your problem will be solved 8 Dreams To accomplish great things you must dream great dreams But dreaming alone isn t enough you must believe in your dreams and you must act Without action even the most grand of dreams evaporate into the air when left unnurtured in the misty realms of the mind Do you dare to be a dreamer Prepare to go it alone Dreamers build bridges between the known and the unknown As you dance your dreams into reality those who can t hear the music may think you a fool Pay no heed to those who would kill your dreams small minds always do that Great minds will encourage you that you can become great too Afraid you haven t got what it takes Then get it Feed your mind the mental food it hungers for There was a dog breeder who had two dogs that raced every weekend He took bets and always won One week he d bet on his black dog and the black dog would win The next week he d bet on the white dog and folks seeing the black dog win the week before would bet but this time the white dog would win Why One week he d feed the dog he wanted to win a grand diet and just give the other dog enough to survive The dog that was well fed was stronger and would always win the race Your mind is the same way it grows stronger or weaker with what you feed it The diet of the mind is what gives you the confidence courage knowledge and the direction you need to succeed in your dreams or keep you from them You can build your mind up or tear it down The choice is yours and you make it every day Have you been waiting for the right time to reach for your dreams Have you been waiting for the right circumstances to reach for your dreams Have you been waiting for the right opportunity to reach for dreams My you re patient aren t you You could be waiting forever you know Time is an illusion Circumstances are what you make them Opportunity is a whisper that waits for your invitation it doesn t burst in and shout its arrival Now is the right time Circumstances change when you take action Opportunity is yours for the making So what are you really waiting for 9 I Want I Do I Get There s a great song out there by Jimmy Cliff one of reggae s top artists that in six words summarizes just how you succeed in life I want I do I get These six words are a very powerful way of connecting what you want with what you will achieve First comes wanting something a better life for yourself your family more money a better job whatever it is you dream about and long for You desire it you dream about it you daydream about it you yearn for it But that s not enough Next and this the part too many people forget about comes the doing All of the wanting in the world is not going to move you one inch closer to what you want you have to do You have to find a better job change jobs take risks write software try new things stop doing old things go to college work act do The doing is the absolutely indispensable connection between what you want and what you get Finally if you keep doing what needs to be done if you keep adjusting what you do to move you closer to what you want you get Maybe not easily maybe not as quickly as movies and television portray but it will come One final philosophical note about these six words notice that I is three of them Not what others want not what others say you are supposed or should do What s more no one is going to do it for you You