stories

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying
the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembere ddying, and that the dog had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it wasbroken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother of pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me,where are we?" "This is Heaven, sir," the man answered."Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked."Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open."Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked. "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book."Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?"
"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there." The man pointed to a place
thatcouldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.
"There should be a bowl by the pump."
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the treewaiting for them. "What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.
"This is Heaven," was the answer.
"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."
"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates?
Nope. That's Hell."

Honesty and Belief

One day, while a wood cutter was cutting a branch
of a tree above a river, his iron axe fell into the river.
When he began crying, an angel appeared and
asked him, "Why are you crying?"
The wood cutter told that his axe has fallen into the river.

The angel went down into the water and came up with
a golden axe. " Is this your axe?", the angel asked.
The wood cutter said "No".

The angel again went down and came up with a silveraxe. " Is this your axe?", the angel asked. The wood cutter said "No".

The angel went down again and came up with the iron
axe. " Is this your axe?", the angel asked. The wood
cutter said "Yes".

The angel was pleased with the woodcutter's honesty
and gave him all the three axes. The woodcutter
lived happily ever after.

Most Beautiful Heart

One day a young man was standing in the middle of
the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful
heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered
and they all admired his heart for it was perfect.
There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all
agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they
had ever seen. The young man was very proud and
boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.
Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the
crowd and said, "Why your heart is not nearly as
beautiful as mine." The crowd and the young man looked
at the old man's heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and
other pieces put in, but they didn't fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.The people stared -- how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state and laughed. "You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and
yours is a mess of scars and tears." "Yes," said the old man, "yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with
you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom
I have given my love - I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart
which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, becausethey remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges -- giving love is taking a chance.Although these gouges are painful, they stay open,reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?" The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece fromhis old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man's heart flowed into his.They embraced and walked away side by side

Write In Sand

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert.In a specific point of the journey, they had an argument,and one friend slapped the otherone in the face.

The one, who got slapped, was hurt, but without anything to
say, he wrote in the sand:"TODAY, MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE".

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they
decided to take a bath. The one who got slapped and hurt started drowning, and the other friend saved him. When he recovered from the fright, he wrote on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE".

The friend who saved and slapped his best friend, asked him, "Why, after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone?"

The other friend, smiling, replied: "When a friend hurts us,
we should write it down in the sand, where the winds of
forgiveness get in charge of erasing it away, and when something great happens, we should engrave it in the stone of the memory of the heart, where no wind can erase it"

Learn to write in the sand.

Follow Your Dreams...

There were once 2 brothers who lived on the 80th level. On coming home one day, they realized to their dismay that the lifts were not working and that they had to climb the stairs home. After struggling to the 20th level, panting and tired, they decided to abandon their bags and come back for them the next day. They left their bags then and climbed on. When they had struggled to the 40th level, the younger brother started to grumble and both of them began to quarrel. They continued to climb the flights of steps, quarreling all the way to the 60th floor. They then realized that they had only 20 levels more to climb and decided to stop quarreling and continue climbing in peace. They silently climbed on and reached their home at long last.Each stood calmly before the door and waited for the other to open the door. And they realized that the key was in their bags which was left on the 20th floor.This story is a reflection on our life.Many of us live under the expectations of our parents, teachers and friends when young. We seldom get to do the things that we really like and love and are under so much pressure and stress so that by the age of 20, we get tired and decided to dump this load. Being free of the stress and pressure, we work enthusiastically and dream ambitious wishes. But by the time we reach 40 years old, we start to lose our vision and dreams.We began to feel unsatisfied and start to complain and criticize. We live life as a misery as we are never satisfied. Reaching 60, we realize that we have little left for complaining anymore, and we began to walk the final episode in peace and calmness.At 80, we think that there is nothing left to disappoint us, only to realize that we could not rest in peace because we have an unfulfilled dream... a dream we abandoned 60 years ago.So what is your dream?
Follow your dreams so that you will not live with regrets.