书城成功励志呵护你的梦想(下)
5827000000010

第10章 生命掌握在你的手里(1)

You are the only one like you in a sea of infinity

Wealth、Success and Love

财富、成功与爱

A woman came out of her house and saw three old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said, "I don"t think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?", they asked. "No", she replied, "He"s out." "Then we cannot come in", they replied. In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. "Go tell them I am home and invite them in!" The woman went out and invited the men in. "We do not go into a House together," they replied. "Why is that?" she asked.

One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, "and he is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!", he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!" His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don"t we invite Success?" Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Wouldn"t it be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love." "Let us heed our daughter-in-law"s advice," said the husband to his wife. "Go out and invite Love to be our guest."

The woman went out and asked the three old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."

Love got up and started walking toward the house.

The other two also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?"

The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would have stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!"

一位妇人走出房间,看到三个白须飘然的老人坐在院前歇脚,她不认识她们。她说:“我想我不认识你们,但你们一定是饿了,请进屋吃一些东西吧。”“房屋的主人在吗?”她们问。“不”,她回答:“他已经出去了。”“这样的话,我们不能进去。”她们回答。晚上,当她的丈夫回家,妇人告诉他所发生的事。“去告诉他们我在家,并邀请他们进屋。”于是妇人出去请他们进来。

三位老人说:“我们不能同时进屋呀!”妇人问:“那是为什么?”

其中一位老人解释说:“他的名字叫财富,”他说着,同时手指向他的一位朋友。“他叫成功,我叫爱。”他接着说,“现在你进屋去和你的丈夫商量,决定你们想要我们哪一位进去。”

妇人便进屋把老人的话说了。丈夫惊喜道:“既然如此,我们就邀请财富老人吧,请他进来,让我们的屋里装满财富!”

妇人不同意:“亲爱的,我们为什么不邀请成功老人呢?做一切事情都能成功,那感觉会有多好!”

这时候,儿媳插嘴进来,说:“我们还是邀请爱吧,让我们的家时时处处都充满爱。”

“那我们就听儿媳的吧!”一对夫妇朝儿媳点点头。

于是妇人出门,邀请爱的老人进屋作客。谁知爱的老人起身,成功老人和财富老人也都跟在后面。妇人感到惊讶:“我们邀请的是‘爱’,你们两位怎么也一起来了?”

三个老人乐了:“如果你邀请财富或成功,我们其他的两位都将呆在屋外,可由于你邀请了爱,他去哪里,我们就跟着去。因为哪里有爱,哪里就有财富和成功!”

The donkey and the farmer

驴子和农户

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway and it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. So he decided to bury the donkey.

He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly then slowly he quieted down till nothing more was heard.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well, and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off.

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone.

We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping, never giving up, shaking it off, and taking a step up!

Enough of that … The donkey later came back and kicked the crap out of the farmer that tried to bury him.

Moral of the story: when you try to cover your ass, it always comes back to get even with you.

一天农户的一头驴子不小心掉到井里了。农户一直在想该怎么办,驴子因此哀叫了好几个小时。最终,农户决定就地将驴子活埋了。反正驴子已经很老了,不值得把它救出来;而那口井也需要被填上。

于是农户请他所有的邻居来帮忙。他们每个人都拿了把铲子,并开始往井里填土。一开始,当驴子意识到发生了什么时,不禁失声痛哭;然后驴子渐渐安静下来直到没有一点声音。

铲了几铲土之后,农户往井里看了看。不看不知道,一看吓了一大跳。当每一铲土落在驴子背上时,驴子令人惊异地把土抖掉,并垫在脚下往上挪一点。

随着农户的邻居们继续往井里铲土,驴子顺势把所有土抖掉,并垫在脚下往上挪一步。很快,每一个人都震惊了,因为驴子已经一步步挪到井边,并快速跳了出来。

生活总是要面对各种各样铲向你的土。从井里走出来的诀窍就是将土抖掉,并垫在脚下往上挪一步。生活中的每一个麻烦其实是你的一块垫脚石。

不要停止,永不放弃,抖掉污土,向上一步,我们就能从很深的井里走出来。

好了,驴子终于上来了,并踢了那个试图要活埋它的农户几脚。

故事的启示:如果你做了坏事后还想掩盖,你迟早会遭报应的。

To be or not to be

是活还是不活

“To be or not to be”. Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: "I think, therefore I am."

But the best definition of existence ever saw did another philosopher who said: "To be is to be in relations." If this true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead.

Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest--even more, a new accomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy, the real pessimist is the person who has lost interest.