Friday, June 30, 2006

Daily Digest, a story

CONTENTMENT


Read the following story... it may change your views about life:After a conversation with one of my friends, he told me despitetaking 2 jobs, he brings back barely above 1K per month, he is happyas he is.I wonder how he can be as happy as he is considering he has to skimphis life with the low pay to support a pair of old parents, in-laws,a wife, 2 daughters and the many bills of a household.He explained that it was through one incident that he saw inIndia.........that happened a few years ago when he was reallyfeeling low and touring India after a major setback.He said that right in front of his very eyes he saw an Indian motherchop off her child's right hand with a chopper. The helplessness inthe mother's eyes, the scream of pain from the innocent 4-year-oldchild haunted him until today.You may ask why did the mother do so; had the child been naughty, hadthe child's hand been infected??No, it was done for two simple words- - - TO BEG!The desperate mother deliberately caused the child to be handicappedso that the child could go out to the streets to beg.Taken aback by the scene, he dropped a piece of bread he was eatinghalf-way. And almost instantly, a flock of 5 or 6 children swampedwith sand, robbing bits from one another.The natural reaction of hunger. Stricken by the happenings, heinstructed his guide to drive him to the nearest bakery. He arrivedat two bakeries and bought every single loaf of bread he found in thedumbfounded but willingly sold everything. He spent less than $100 toobtain about 400 loaves of bread (this is less than $0.25 per loaf)and spent another $100 to get daily necessities.Off he went in the truck full of bread into the streets. As hedistributed the bread and necessities to the children(mostly handicapped) and a few adults, he received cheers and bowsfrom these unfortunate.For the first time in his life he wondered how people can give uptheir dignity for a loaf of bread which cost less than $0.25.He began to tell himself how fortunate he is. How fortunate he is tobe able to have a complete body, have a job, have a family, have the nice,have the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people infront of him are deprived of...Now I begin to think and feel it, too! Was my life really that bad?Perhaps... no, I should not feel bad at all... What about you?Maybe the next time you think you are, think about the child who lostone hand to beg on the streets."Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, it is the realizationof how much you already have." When the door of happiness closes, anotheropens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't seethe one which has been opened for us.It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's alsotrue that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; theyjust make the most of everything that comes along their way.The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you go onwell in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

Kenneth Fu was shot at 10:05 PM

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