"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a
single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared." ~ Buddha
“If you’re not lighting any
candles don’t complain about the dark.”....ONE...makes a difference.
And for every ONE candle that makes a difference...if each of those one
candles lit thousands of others (paid it forward)...just think how bright
our world would be. Buddha, in his quote refers to happiness....what
is happiness? It is not what possess that makes us happy (although they
may bring moments of pleasure)...so in perhaps a simple example,
sharing a meal with homeless gives them food but probably more important
to them was our time and companionship that made them feel like a
person who counts and matters. And while the food gave them sustenance
for a day, that time and companionship and conversation may have give
them sustenance for a great deal longer--perhaps even a lifetime if that
conversation was something that really stuck I think that is what
happiness is..moments...glimpses and snapshots of time...and we share
them when we create them. The snapshots in time can last the duration
it takes to eat a meal or how long the magnitude of the memory and
impact of the moment lasts. We can make moments ordinary or
extraordinary...it just depends on if we are lighting candles..
Sometimes when we put people on a pedestal
because our minds want them to be what we are looking for, what we need
in the moment...and when we realize that those people are not deserving
of that pedestal, it is not them who have fallen, but us. They are who
they were all along. We were wrong to have put them there...and in the
end when that picture of perfection breaks, it is us who ends up being
cut by the glass fragments and we have only ourselves to blame. The
important thing to remember is to learn from these mistakes and to not
repeat them.
He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.”
~ Elbert Hubbard
Sometimes silence is a way of
communicating. Saying nothing says things loudly but only if we are
listening. The sense of hearing is associated with the presence or
absence of sound but most people only associate listening with the
presence of sound. Stop and think for a
moment of a time when you were given the "silent treatment". Saying
nothing at all can speak volumes...but does the intended receiver
understand? It takes a perceptive person to understand and I am not
sure most people stop and truly process what their senses tell them to
truly perceive...looking is not seeing...hearing is not
listening...touching is not feeling.
One who fails to perceive
in life short changes himself and others. What a sad loss. Some
people's silence is filled with prayerful meditation, others with a
spiteful message. People's words are also filled with importance.
Reading and hearing/listening is not equivalent to understanding though.
You must use all of your senses to make meaning...the more senses that
are engaged, the more meaning you have....but...remember, when it comes
to people (and many other things too) looking is not seeing, hearing is
not listening....go a bit deeper...then you might understand a bit
better.
