People Are Like Wines

People Are Like Wines

People are like wines, age souring the bad and improving the good. The author of this saying is unknown, I happens to see it when I was at my customer place one day. On a contrary, there are people who keep making the same mistake over and over again and they call that experience.

Most people can improve the good if they make it a point to change for the good of course. People are also like bird living in a cage. Why I say that ? To a bird, what is it like living in a cage as compare to able to fly to where they want, they are 2 big difference. The former means the bird need not worry about food and water or predator such as an eagle. But this bird loose it freedom. The later has to find its own food and runs the risk of being eaten by a predator. So most person are afraid of stepping out of their comfort zone, be it the place they are living in or the company they are working for. They may think that if the job is stable and the income is acceptable, why bother to change. The fact is in todays world, nothing is certain or the future is so uncertain. A company which is doing well now does not mean it will be growing each year. People can age and our stay in this world is short.

So in general, the saying is true but I think only people who are willing to change, learn and moving forward each day.

Giving Thanks

GIVING THANKS

We live, for the most part, lives dominated by self-created routine and unskilful obligation. It is when we come upon moments of thankfulness that we become truly alive. Thankfulness is an immensely powerful skillful thought energy, and this is why it is good to give thanks every day.

In giving thanks daily, we start to connect to the underlying forces of abundance. Give thanks not just for what you have, but also what you do not have. Give thanks for all the good and the bad, the positive and negative in your life. Give thanks, also, that you are free from the problems that others have. In this way you keep yourself free of these problems and you also lessen the misfortune of others.

To give thanks is to open your heart. To open your heart is to experience what others experience. To experience what others experience is the first step in developing compassionate thought energy that can help others to be free of suffering and bring them happiness, wisdom, and the power to create prosperity.

Giving thanks teaches each of us the special responsibility that we have to use our personal and global resources wisely.

Giving thanks reduces anger, transforms greed, and purifies lust, all of which are entwined in the structure of money.

THE GIVE THANKS THOUGHT EXERCISE

Giving thanks can help you to solve all your financial problems.

First, make a list of all your problems with money. Then make a list of areas in your life where you have no problems with money. Than make a list of all other good and bad things in your life. Now speaking aloud, thank each thing in this way: "I give thanks that I have a good job. I give thanks that my relationship broke up. I give thanks for my health. I give thanks for losing money."

Giving thanks heals the pain of good and bad things and creates new opportunities for growth and financial successes. It also secures and increases the power of the good things in every area of your life. Giving thanks bring peace, beauty, and understanding to the skillful thought energy that lies behind all prosperity.

Above all give thanks for yourself, for who you are, have been, and shall be in the future.

My Shanghai Trip in Dec 07

As what I have said earlier, I try to go a country which I have never been, each year. If I can't, at least go to a new place instead. This can help to widen your knowledge and perspective.

In Dec 07, I went to Shanghai for a 8 days tour by Hong Tai Travel Services. This is my first trip to Shanghai. The tour package is S$674 and it covers almost everything except for shopping.

Why you should join tour you may ask ?

I think you should if you want to save money. My wife cousin and her family go on the same flight, China Eastern, they pay about $550 for air- ticket alone. Their flight is one day after us but we came back in the same flight. I have to say free and easy tour also got it pros, you need not wake up at 6:30am each day I guest. But the pros for joining tour is a lot, you have someone to receive you the moment you touch down till you check-in on the day you depart.

For Shanghai tour, it includes Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi and Wuzhen because they are near Shanghai. As Dec is winter in China, the temperature is around 5 deg in the day and below 5 deg in the night. The daylight is also short in Dec, by 4:30pm, it will be dark.

About Food

I have no problem with the food provided. The way they are prepared is different from here in terms of way of cooking and the ingredients used. I think we should try the food there to know more about what people there eat daily. Food is something you have to try it yourself then you know how it taste. People can descript to you, show it to you in pictures or video, if you don't try it, you don't know how exactly it taste.

As a whole, I quite like the trip. The only time I felt uneasy is one day when we went brought to a shopping centre in Shanghai. Outside the shopping centre, we can see some youngster hanging around outside. They dressed like gangsters and also were smoking. We minute we stepped out of the coach, they knew we were tourists and started staring at us. When we walked to the basement, there are people following us and asked whether we want to buy leather and branded goods. All these people will carry with them a card showing pictures of wallet, handbag, etc. Our tour guide told us never follow them to where they said they will take you to. There are just so many this kind of people around there. They will follow you all the way if you talk to them.

My colleague told me his daughter went for the same trip with another tour agent and paid about $1,200 for the same tour also in Dec 07. I was told the service was good as they need not carry their luggage. I believed the food they enjoyed and the hotels they stayed are also better then us.

People are like wines, age souring the bad and improving the good.

Poetry In Nature

POETRY IN NATURE

Never step over one duty to perform another (duty)

Take heed you do not find what you do not seek (goals)

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst (hope)

Sometimes you must be cruel to be kind (kindness)

A full cup must be carried steadily (prosperity)

Poverty is not a shame, but the being ashamed of it is (poverty and the poor)

Some men go through a forest and see no firewood (opportunity)

It is an equal failing to trust everybody, and to trust nobody (trust)

A good beginning makes a good end (beginning)

Be not deceived with the first appearance of things, for show is not substance (appearance)

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner (adversity)

Use soft words and hard arguments (argument)

Life Application

LIFE APPLICATION

Beginning

In every phenomenon the beginning remains always most notable moment - Thomas Carlyle

Imagination

Imagination wil often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere - Carl Sagan

Knowledge

Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul - Will Durant

Believe

You can change your beliefs so empower your dreams and desires. Create a strong belief in yourself and what you want - Marcia Wieder

Strategy

Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan - Tom Landry

Direction

If you've lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more - Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Action

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them - Aristotle

Commitment

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart - Confucius

Health

To insure good health:

eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness and maintain an interest in life

- William Londen

Reserve

He who gathers money little by little make it grow - Proverbs 13:11

Contentment

Nothing is more honourable than a grateful heart - Seneca

Happiness

Happiness is an attitude of mind, born of the simple determination to be happy under all outward circumstances - J. Donald Wlters