An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.
He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.
When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house, " he said, "my gift to you."
What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.
So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized that we would have done it differently.
Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project." Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.
-Author Unknown-
14 comments to THINK ABOUT YOUR HOUSE...
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Village Boy If life is to be lived anyway, then why not adorn our lives with the greatest of philosophy and high ideals?
Let's not lead tiny, selfish lives but grand ones of the highest standards.
Have a nice day
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Anonymous "You may fool all of the people, but you cannot escape the workings of cause and effect."
~~ Alisher Navoi
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Very Sad If we continue to see, at every election campaign money is being promised only if votes are being given, we have become an immoral nation of peoples that do not care for the next generation of children.
-- DR. AZLY RAHMAN
Food for thought.
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Selvi When we do our best today, the future sparkles, and flames of joy leap high. Reality consists of our actual feeling at "this moment" and "this moment" continues eternally.
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Darth Vader MWS,
Yr tile for this lovely piece is "THINK about yr house"
The word THINK is very important.
Malaysian education system does not teach us how to think. This is the heart of the matter. I myself is a product of this education system. Only when i was in employment, ex-boss forced me to use my grey matter and i am very thankful to him for giving me such an important lesson which i could not learn in university.
In order to have a mature society, we must first revamp our education system to teach our children to think. We must not fish for our children but we must provide them the fishing rod so that they can fish for themselves. We have to guide and teach them ways to fish.
Only when we change our education system, we would be able to nurture "thinkers" and thus think about our house unselfishly.
Darth Vader
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Anonymous Your short story carries a warm and beautiful message. Reading it brings to mind another human value – filial piety.
Oftentimes, we see and hear of many young and/or older families who mistreat their age parents, who in their twilight years, and through no fault of their own, had to depend on their children for their daily needs; more so when the parents are sick and/or physically weak. TV soaps usually have a way to really break your heart with actors playing the role of evil sons or daughters (and, I don’t know why, there’s always a wicked daughter-in-law but never a wicked son-in-law), chiding, or even physically torturing their helpless parents.
Parents, especially your mom, are the most beautiful humans in this world. If there’s one person who will die for you so that you could live – it is your mom. Sons, daughters (and daughters-in-law!!) somehow never could understand this. I’d like to share a heartwarming story with you and your readers. Man! Tissues please!! Anyway, here goes…
My mom only had one eye. I hated her… She was such an embarrassment. At the school, she cooked for students and teachers to support me and the family.
There was this one day during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me. I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, ‘EEEE, your mom only has one eye!’
I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear. I confronted her that day and said, ‘ If you’re only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don’t you just die?" My mom did not respond… I didn’t even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was full of anger. I was oblivious to her feelings.
I wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with her.
And so I studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. I had kids of my own. I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts.
Then one day, my Mother came to visit me. She hadn’t seen me in years and she she’d never met her grandchildren. When she stood by the door, my children laughed at her, and I yelled at her for coming over uninvited. I screamed at her, ‘How dare you come to my house and scare my children!’ GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!’
And to this, my mother quietly answered, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,’ and she disappeared out of sight.
One day, a letter regarding a school reunion in the coming week came to my house. I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip.
After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity.
“Where’s they old lady who used to live here?” I asked. Her neighbors (who knew I was the son) said that she died the week before. I did not shed a single tear. As I was leaving, they handed me a letter they said that she had wanted me to have if I came by. This was what she wrote to me...
‘My dearest son,
I think of you all the time. I’m sorry that I came to your house and scared your children. I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. I’m sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you were growing up.
You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn’t stand watching you having to grow up with one eye. So I gave you mine. I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye.
With all my love to you,
Your mother.’
To my dearest x1,000 mother – Mummy, I love you.
sob!sob! sob!
Little Corgi
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Unknown Dear Dr. Bala
Glad you like this post. Simple but profound message for all ages. Take care and have a great week.
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Unknown Dear Village Boy
Many thanks for a gloriously inspiring comment!
Have a blessed week and thanks for infusing my blog with your wisdom.
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Unknown Dear Anon @ 11.18am
My deepest appreciation to you for sharing with us that quotation which is most relevant to Malaysia at this point of time.
Take care and God bless!
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Unknown Dear Very Sad
Most saddeningly, Dr. Azly's words are spot on! Thanks for sharing this quotation ...
Take care and have a blessed week.
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Unknown Dear Selvi
Lovely to see you again. Thanks for your inspiring words which ring true. It is better that we try our best all the time rather than rot in mediocrity. Life is precious and indeed we have to seize the day.
Bless you, dear sister, for your wisdom.
Cheers
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Unknown Dear Darth Vader
As one who served in the education sector for over 25 yrs, I can assure you that you are 100% right. While retarding the young population's critical thinking skills by lowering stds in education, those decision-makers are actually reducing our competitiveness and retarding growth in key area - one serious reason why we are not moving forward.
You are blessed to have such a boss and sometimes the best university is the one called life :-).
I really love your concluding statement! Very true. Thanks for resonating with this post. Take care and please keep in touch.
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Unknown Dear Little Corgi
Thanks so much for sharing this beautiful and inspiring story. I first read this many years ago. Still, I never fail to be touched by the deep and profound message of sacrificial love...Take care and may you have many little corgis :-).
Cheers
Monyet King MWS, very enlightening indeed. Hope you have a nce day.