One beautiful spring day a red rose blossomed in a forest.

Many kinds of trees and plants grew there. As the rose looked around,

a pine tree nearby said, "What a beautiful flower.

I wish I was that lovely." Another tree said,

"Dear pine, do not be sad, we can not have everything."

The rose turned its head and remarked,

"It seems that I am the most beautiful plant in this forest."

A sunflower raised its yellow head and asked,

"Why do you say that? In this forest there are many beautiful plants.

You are just one of them." The red rose replied,

"I see everyone looking at me and admiring me."

the rose looked at a cactus and said, "Look at that ugly plant full of thorns!"

The pine tree said, "Red rose, what kind of talk is this?

Who can say what beauty is? You have thorns too."

The proud red rose looked angrily at the pine and said,

"I thought you had good taste! You do not know what beauty is at all.

You can not compare my thorns to that of the cactus."

"What a proud flower", thought the trees.

The rose tried to move its roots away from the cactus,

but it could not move. As the days passed, the red rose would look at the cactus and say insulting things,

like: This plant is useless? How sorry I am to be his neighbor."

The cactus never got upset and he even tried to advise the rose,

saying, "God did not create any form of life without a purpose."

Spring passed, and the weather became very warm.

Life became difficult in the forest, as the plants and animals needed water and no rain fell.

The red rose began to wilt. One day the rose saw sparrows stick

their beaks into the cactus and then fly away, refreshed. This was puzzling,

and the red rose asked the pine tree what the birds were doing.


The pine tree explained that the birds got water from the cactus.

"Does it not hurt when they make holes?" asked the rose.

"Yes, but the cactus does not like to see any birds suffer," replied the pine.

The rose opened its eyes in wonder and said, "The cactus has water?"

"Yes you can also drink from it. The sparrow can bring water

to you if you ask the cactus for help."

The red rose felt too ashamed of its past words and behavior to ask for water

from the cactus, but then it finally did ask the cactus for help.

The cactus kindly agreed and the birds filled their beaks with water and watered the rose's roots.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Thus the rose and all of us learned a lesson that never

judge anyone by their appearance again. God did not create anything without a purpose.

A Long time ago, there was an Emperor who told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he likes, then the Emperor would give him
the area of land he has covered. 

Sure enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible.

When he was hungry,thirsty or tired, he did not stop because he wanted to cover as much area as possible. Came to a point when he had covered a substantial area and he was exhausted and was dying. Then he asked himself, "Why did I pushed myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only need a very small area to bury myself."

The above story is similar with the journey of our Life. We push very hard everyday tomake more money, to gain power and recognition. We neglect our health, time with our family and to appreciate the surrounding beauty and the hobbies we love to do.   One day when we look back, we will realize that we don't really need that much, but then we cannot turn back time for what we have missed.   Life is not about making money, acquiring power or recognition. Life is definitely not about work! Work is only necessary to keep us living so as to enjoy the beauty and pleasures of life.

Lessons to Learn from The Story:

Life is a balance of Work and Play, Family and Personal time. You have to decide how you want to balance your Life. Define your priorities, realize what you are able to compromise but always let some of your decisions be based on your instincts.

Happiness is the meaning and the purposeof Life, the whole aim of human existence. So, take it easy, do what you want to do and appreciate nature. Life is fragile, Life is short. Do not take Life for granted. Live a balance lifestyle and enjoy Life!

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.


Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."


I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."

Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be thankful for what you have.. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.

When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.

The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling. And even more beautiful is, knowing that you are the reason behind it!!!

Enjoy your day with a heart of gratitude.