Free From Personal Distress

Here is your Sunday STORY on: THE LOVE OF WISDOM: Here is your Sunday STORY on: LOVE OF WISDOM: Today's story is excellent, but I have found that the ending varies around the world. QUOTE: 'Many a true word spoken in jest...' (Unknown Author) Using this quote does actually prompt me to accept that humour does help in explaining wisdom. As spoken before, whenever you are happy, you are more attentive. Thus, when you've just heard some humour that contains wisdom, that very wisdom will always be remembered as you recall the joke. Have you ever experienced the 'lost your car keys' syndrome? You begin the rush around trying to see where the keys are, but realise as ever they are nowhere to be found. What is the best advice at this point? You will have heard this advice before, because it is sound, methodical and philosophically good. 'Calm down and think where you had them last?' Generally speaking, when you have done this, you experience a short flash of knowledge and suddenly the place where the keys were left manifests itself as a picture within your mind. So if that method of 'calming down' is so successful, why don't we adopt it more often to resolve other problems? Because of course we are too fixed in our ways. Let this grip of 'holding on' to our past attitudes diminish, and you'll start to see the benefits. When our day turns out to be about - 'rushing around and getting nothing done' we are not allowing any focus. We are not being attentive on one item, when we don't we are sharing our full attention with six or seven different possibilities. When we do this we forget the main task in hand. This story today shows us how we get our priorities mixed up. We pay too much attention on the smaller things and neglect the bigger and more important ones. THE STORY OF THE STONES A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him, albeit discretely hidden from view. He picked up an empty jam jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks; rocks that were about six centimetres in size. He then asked the students, 'Is the jar full?' They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a jar of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jam jar lightly. The pebbles of course rolled into the open areas within the rocks. He then asked the students once more, 'Was the jar full?' They agreed once more that it was. The students then laughed as the professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course the sand filled everywhere else! 'Now, ' said the professor, 'I want you to recognize that this is YOUR life! The rocks are symbolic of important things, such as your family, your partner, your health and your children - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff.' The professor continued, 'The philosophical point here is that if you put the sand in the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will have no room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical check-ups. Take your partner out more often. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, have a barbeque and fix the waste disposal. Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter, Set your priorities. The rest is just sand...' Just then this philosophical study took a humorous turn... A student then took the jar, which by now everyone had agreed was full, and proceeded to pour in a glass of beer! Of course the beer filled in the remaining spaces within the jar making the jar truly full. The moral of this tale (for those willing to accept humour in their philosophical studies) is: - no matter how full your life is, there is always some room for beer! QUOTE: "A good laugh is sunshine in the house.' (William Makepeace Thackery) 'One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine with only interests' (John Stuart Mill) [[ct]]: Free From Personal Distress

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