Benevolence

 

Benevolence is the desire to do good to others.

That desire resides in highest form in the wisest of people. 

 

A homeless man admitted to the hospital asked me where he could get a deck of playing cards. I answered him that he could try the convenience store within the hospital compound. Somehow I knew the likelihood of the convenience store selling playing cards was quite low and even if they would sell them there, there was no way the man had money to buy them. When later, I drove home, I thought about my day in the car and became aware that I had been not nice. I think it was guilt that made me search and find a deck of playing cards and go back to the hospital and give it to the man. 

 

Actually this was such important event in my life. On my way home after giving the cards to him, I felt like being afloat. I felt so good inside. The smile on his face was priceless.This is the reward of benevolence, a happiness of supreme quality, top notch happiness, grade 1 happiness,...

 

I was a ware of the feeling that simple act of kindness, of benevolence was really giving to me. I loved it and I could not remember a time when I felt so good about something. I took some time to think deeper about it. Society around me thought happiness is to be found in going out to cafes with friends and get at least a bit drunk. Society felt that happiness was generated by getting material things and showing them off. Society felt....

Society had been wrong! Some comfort and good feeling can be found in all the above but supreme, grade1, top notch happiness is found in kind acts. I am now fully aware, the more simple extra things I do just in service of others, the more I get true happiness. And the quality of my life is supreme on days I manage to several random kind acts. On days when my soul seems weaker and I have mainly ego driven achievements, I feel some pride but it is so different from the true happiness that lies in benevolence.

Affability

Affability is treating everyone 

as if you were receiving a great guest.

All people meeting you receiving a VIP treatment

 

An affable person is easy to talk to

humble and down to earth.

An affable person is not aloof

polite and friendly

 

 

An affable person makes no difference 

between rich and poor

between the powerful and the meek

between high or low positions 

It is perhaps the most important trait 

of a successful person, a truly successful person

who not only gathers abundance in the material world

but who also gather abundance in all other areas,

such as happiness, peace of mind, feeling good,...

Friendliness

There is a difference between friendship and friendliness.

Friendship is a relationship between two people.
It is not fully within our control!

Friendliness is an attitude.
We can choose to be friendly at any time.
We can choose to be friendly to anyone.
Friendliness is fully within our control.

Friendliness starts with friendly thoughts.
Friendly thoughts can result in a smile, a sweet hello.
Friendly thoughts can result in a multitude of friendly words.
Friendly thoughts can result in a multitude of friendly actions.

Your friendliness may be greeted with nastiness,
but more often, it will provoke nice responses.
True friendship may follow.

Friendliness is an attitude, a choice.
It leads to peace of mind and happiness.
Let's choose friendliness for today :)

Openness

I was writing a small essay about  How clever! our Creator or the universe must have been to make us all so different, so diverse. And I truly think that diversity is the whole strength of humanity. Just to get a glass of fresh orange on the table, you need people who are interested in farming orange trees, people who are pluckers and people who like to be involved in the transport of oranges from where they grow to our shops, shopkeepers, glassmakers, and so many others.

Luckily not everyone just wants to be a lawyer or an executive. As true as it is for something as simple as a glass of orange, it is true for all other aspects of life too, that diversity is a superb richness. Our Creator was so clever to give us thousands of people with thousands of different opinions, different cultures, different religions, different perceptions, different talents, different interests. Being afraid of pluralism is one of the worst things that can happen to any of us. Let us learn all from each other, let us keep growing. Surely pluralism is not equal to absorbing all things from anyone. It is getting interested in the other person’s perspective, trying to understand them and only internalizing the gems of wisdom that look worth doing so.

I am grateful for the diversity of the people I am allowed to encounter in my job on a daily basis. Let us be open-minded, open-hearted and “open-souled”. 😊

Empathy

Better then any essay, i think, the poem below is a very nice illustration of empathy:

At the time, I was a five-year old boy
A visit to my auntie, always a joy
My cousin was playing with cars at the back
He just had a new one, the body in black
Orange lines on the side, oh boy, what a toy

Only a few minutes later, it is hard to believe
My cousin was called and he had to leave
This left us alone, that beautiful car, and me
The temptation was great, as great as could be,
I could not resist and became a thieve 

Into my pocket, very smoothly it went,
I was delighted, extremely content
When we reached home, I told to my mom
With much pride about what I had done
And that's where contentment would end

My mother, incredibly sweet, incredibly bright
Swallowed her anger but asked in a voice, slightly tight
Please consider for a minute or two
How you would feel if someone did this to you.
Deep in my mind, I considered this plight.

It was easy to see the horrible feeling
I'd caused in my cousin by carelessly stealing
Our next visit, I was allowed to put it silently back
That car, with orange stripes on a body of black
Since then, I ‘ve quit forever the stealing

I don't think that there ever could be
A more brilliant lesson in empathy

Ideals

Short essay on ideals

Ideals and idealism are often seen as something for the young and inexperienced, not rarely labelled as naive. I disagree with this quite a lot. I am 55 and still have my ideals. My ideals have been flexible and surely as we grow up we get insights and experiences that mould our ideals into ideas that tend to be a bit less absolute and more open.

For my young readers, please do not give up on your ideals easily. Be flexible but keep the flame, the passion that lies at the origin of ideals fully alive throughout your life.
For my not so young readers, please think back about your ideals when you were young and I am sure it will not take a big effort to blow again a wonderful soul in them and let them be a guide for what we do on a daily basis.

Ideals and idealism, something to cherish, something keep, something to revive.
Ideals and idealism, nothing naive about it, nothing to shun.

Greatness

When Michelangelo was asked about how he manages to create such great sculptures,

he said that God had put the wonderful sculpture already inside the big pieces of marble.

All he did was hacking away some of the extra marble to expose the superb sculpture.

I heard the above story yesterday and it was compared to our own "greatness"

Our God has put some greatness in each and everyone of us: all we need to do

is to remove some of the misconceptions about ourselves to expose our true nature.

Some religious people  get upset if we call anything in humans great.

But these people are not aware that our God has put a soul in each of us,

Our God has put His love inside our heart, God has put a bit of greatness 

inside our mind, our heart, our soul. 

The problem is that we often cover it with layers of dogma, and daily unhappiness,

by negative thoughts, and greed, by perception of limitation and grudges kept.

It is time to hack away anything prohibiting the love in our heart to be shared,

It is time to hack away anything prohibiting the light in our soul to shine.

Be confident, choose to love, to share, to help, to give service.

The sculpture inside will be exposed and all will enjoy our presence,

including ourselves, everyone around us and .... surely our God as well.