Friday, May 1, 2009

Life as a book

In one article I read this statement: "The world is a book and every step turns a new page". Don't you think it's a very nice sentence? I do. When I read the sentence, I instantly had this thought about the various story in each book. And each book surely has its own different chapters with different flows of the story. Just like when we are choosing a book to read. Some people like to read a romantic story, some people choose history, some people read science fiction, some people read comic book and the list go on and on. I can picture life as a classroom. Each one of us has our own desk. The teacher called "LIFE". What we're being asked to do is to write down our special book with anythings that we want in our life. Anything related to life, you can write it down. Good and bad, up and down, left and right, black and white, you name it, you write it. The rule is not to complain about what you've written down. because I personally think there's no use to regret what you've done. What's done is done. If you don't like what you've done in the past, take it as a valuable lesson to learn. Next step is to fix what you've done wrong. Life is moving forward not backward.


Here's a small paragraph I've found on personal-development.com about life.
Sometimes all it takes is a visit to the park to reawaken our senses and spirit. If we let go of the cares of the day, we open ourselves to the beauty, wonder, awe, and mystery of life. If your day isn't brimming over with excitement and pleasure, a good start would be to look for things to be thankful for. Do this often enough and it becomes habitual. And later, you will no longer have to search for life's delights because you will be constantly stumbling over them throughout the day. Some would argue that far from being exciting, life is boring. They mistakenly believe that boredom is caused by external events or our environment. But boredom is not a result of outside events. It is caused by a decision to do nothing rather than something. Adventurers are engaged with life. They form a partnership with it, making things happen by taking action and delighting in the surprises that life brings our way.
These sentiments are well expressed in the following poem by writer, poet, and adventurer, William Henry Davies (1871 ~ 1940):

What is this life if, full of care,We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.

Count your garden by the flowersnever by the leaves that fall.
Count your days by golden hoursdon't remember clouds at all.
Count the night by stars, not shadows.
Count your years by smiles, not tears.
And with joy on every birthday,Count your life by friends not years. -Rear Admiral R. H. Jackson-

In the book of life every page has two sides: we human beings fill the upper side with our plans, hopes and wishes, but providence writes on the other side, and what it ordains is seldom our goal. -- Nisami

(source from personal-development.com - images via justbesplendid.tumblr)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boya Arsila, you have such a nice way of putting a post together. I love reading the articles on personal development. I wake up to birds singing every day, and it makes me instantly happy and I feel so grateful! My favourite bird is the mourning dove. Have you ever heard this bird cooing? They look like pidgeons, but do not act like them. They always travel in twos, they mate for life and never leave each others' sides! I absolutely love these birds! I'm going to miss them when I move to PEI, there are none there!

boya arsila said...

Thank you Rain. You're such a sweet lady=) I've seen the link of the mourning dove and have seen the bird often in my house with its unique sound. But I never knew that they always travel in twos. Now I know it because of you. Aaaaw...it's so sweeeeet that they always be together and never leave each others' side=) love is really in the air