I am more often than not unaware of these amazing gifts, but if I manage to remove my big ego from the picture, I sometimes become suddenly aware and get fully absorbed in these superb gifts from our Creator, from the Universe. Once aware, I become grateful in my heart and forgiving, willing to accept the small imperfections that arise so often in my day. If I manage to remain focused on all the good things in my life, my days are immensely more enjoyable than if I get caught in a few ego-matters.
Soul sprinkles
Welcome. Some tiny beads of inspiration and reflections about life.(By Hans Van Rostenberghe)******** Please visit the archive (on right of page) or browse per topic according to label (under archive)
Tuesday 9 April 2024
Take off the coat
I am more often than not unaware of these amazing gifts, but if I manage to remove my big ego from the picture, I sometimes become suddenly aware and get fully absorbed in these superb gifts from our Creator, from the Universe. Once aware, I become grateful in my heart and forgiving, willing to accept the small imperfections that arise so often in my day. If I manage to remain focused on all the good things in my life, my days are immensely more enjoyable than if I get caught in a few ego-matters.
Wednesday 6 March 2024
Building the Road
Today, I want to share a story, I heard from Dr Srikumar Rao, an international speaker and famous teacher
Imagine you are a civil engineer. You are called by your boss and he orders you to build a road from point A to point B. Between the two points are a forest, a swamp, and a mountain.
Do you get angry at the forest, the swamp and the mountain?
No you will be creative and find ways to go through them, around them, over them or under them. You take up the challenge, may increase the fees you ask, but you will work until the road is completed because that is what you were trained for.
Now, in our life, the road to point B is the road to a successful, purposeful, joyful life. The irritating, perhaps toxic people and the adverse situations you are subjected to, these are the forests and the mountains. You do not get angry at them, you just figure out how you are going to get your road built. We and we alone are responsible for our own successful, purposeful and joyful existence.
I am sure you will enjoy some of my other online treasures as well:
Thursday 29 February 2024
Awake
I woke up already to the peace within my heart,
Waiting eagerly for the flower buds
To open and let me drink their nectar
So my simple mind can take on
The task of letting the love in my heart
Flow freely to all in the world
So my simple soul
Can open up to the divine
And let my words flow as music
To provide a bit of inspiration
Fully aware that giving some explanation of a poem, can take away some magic of it, I still think the main aim of poetry is to share the innermost things that live in the heart of the writer and if the meaning is lost in the metaphors, lots of value is gone.
I believe quite strongly that we receive every day the wonderful gifts of peace, beauty, a huge dose of love placed in our hearts to freely share with all, and of creativity. In the small poem above, I was in a state of appreciating the peace but still searching inside and outside for the other three amazing gifts of beauty, love and creativity :)
Tuesday 27 February 2024
A big enough flame
A boy was passing a group of peasants who were trying to light a fire. They gathered dry wood and as soon it was alight, they put on some larger wet logs and the fire went out. This happened again and again. The boy was saying: you have to wait until the fire of the dry wood is big enough before putting on the wet logs. The peasants gathered enough dry wood and make a fire with huge flames before putting the wet logs and the fire was burning for a long time.
I think something similar is happening to all the kindness in the world. We kindle it with dry wood and all to soon we try to convince the wet logs, the people consumed by greed and selfishness, to follow us. The greedy ones mock us and the fire goes out. I think we need a critical number of people to truly believe and practice daily random acts of kindness and inspire as many as possible among us who are not drenched in greed and selfishness, let us kindle a huge fire with the "dry wood" and have a blaze of kindness that will not go out no matter how many wet logs drenched in greed and selfishness try to douse it.
I think the above is quite true. Our own fire has to be big enough before we can have an effect on others. Big souls like Ghandi were living a truth like this: be the change you want to see in the world. I love to think that one day soon the world will experience a true kindness and wisdom revolution. Let us all be part of the critical number of "dry wood", so we have a flame of kindness burning hard enough to warm up all those drenched in greed.
The above metaphor was inspired by a passage in a short story by Leo Tolstoy ("the godson")
Sunday 25 February 2024
The story of the bamboo
The Chinese bamboo tree grows very slowly for 3 to 5 years, after which it suddenly can grow a few feet within weeks. During the period of slow growth it builds an underground network of roots and builds up the energy that will be necessary for the rapid growth phase.
Ferns grow quite fast very soon after planted but never reach the height of an adult bamboo tree.
The Chinese parable of the bamboo tree compares humans to ferns and bamboos. Some of us are made to grow fast but do not reach the final heights of those among us who need to build a strong foundation before we can start to grow fast. It is a story of patience and perseverance. If we do not see the growth in our life even though we work hard and live a good life, this may the period we require to grow strong roots to sustain us when we experience rapid growth.
Sometimes we need to learn so many lessons, especially the lesson of humility before we can grow as the bamboo tree, very fast. Without humility we tend to be so reckless that after a period of rapid growth, we will fall as fast as we were growing. Only if we have a strong foundation of values we will stay at a good height. I do not consider the billionaires or presidents of large nations who cannot even manage their own core family as high growers. They may be in the news, but they are often so far from peace of mind and true happiness that it is hard to call them truly successful. Becoming very wealthy without peace of mind or true happiness is a far cry from true success
Sunday 4 February 2024
The most unopened gift
Friday 26 January 2024
Kaizen and the amygdala
Our history as humans from thousands of years ago, is still having an effect on how our brains are working.
Thousands of years ago, when we met a big bad wolf in the forest, we had not time to think. So for the purpose of saving our life, our basic brain structures, our amygdala were helping to shut down all other brain functions including our thinking processes, our sexual desires our need for approval, our creativity, and made us fight or flight, run for our lives or try to fight off the danger. The fear for the wild beast had successfully triggered fear and an appropriate reaction for our survival. Since we were not very fast or strong comparing to the beasts preying on us, it was best to learn where it was safe and to really go and explore the unknown. Major changes were readily triggering our amygdala, shut down all our higher brain functions and got us ready to run or fight.
Now if we have to sit for this very important test or we face a major change in our life, our amygdala tend still to respond in such a way. We want to lose weight, but diets are difficult, exercising demands time and causes us to have sore muscles initially at least and instead of effectively going towards the change, our fear sets in and we are in a run or fight mood. Our higher brain functions shut down and no change tends to happen.
Now small incremental changes in what we want to achieve, tends to bypass this primitive response. If we start with one snack less per day, we may not lose a lot of weight in the first week, but we see that change is possible without too much effort and we are encouraged to take the next step. Or for exercising, instead of enrolling a program of half an hour for five days a week, which is very likely to fail we then start with doing a few minutes of exercise every day. No trigger of fear, no trigger of amygdala no run or fight response, no shutting down of higher mental functions.
Wednesday 10 January 2024
Good stories from students
I want to share with you two amazing stories of medical students who had spent almost 7 weeks in the pediatric wards. I asked them to share their worst and best moments in these wards.