There once was a king who offered a prize to the
artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried.
The king looked at all the pictures. But there
were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for
peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with
fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a
perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare.
Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning
played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This
did not look peaceful at all.
But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny
bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had
built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the
mother bird on her nest - in perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second
picture. Do you know why?
"Because," explained the king, "peace does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in
the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is
the real meaning of peace."
The Perfect Girl
--
Author Unknown
A friend asked a gentleman how it is
that he never married.
The gentleman replied, "Well, I guess I
just never met the right woman ... I guess I've been looking for the
perfect girl."
"Oh, come on now," said the friend, "Surely you have met at least one
girl that you wanted to marry."
"Yes, there was one girl ... once. I guess she was the one perfect girl
... the only perfect girl I really ever met.
She was just the right everything
... I really mean that she was the perfect girl for me."
"Well, why didn't you marry her," asked the friend.
"She was looking for the perfect man," he said.
The Most Beautiful Woman
-- Author Unknown
There
was a man walking on the beach who looked up and saw the most beautiful
girl he had ever seen.
He was awestruck, captured, stunned by
her beauty.
He could do nothing but forget
everything and follow her. He was so intrigued by her beauty that he
followed her for hours on the beach.
For a long time she did not notice him following, but eventually the
beautiful woman turned around and asked the man who he was, and why he
was following her.
The man explained that he was so captured by her beauty, that he had
never seen any woman as beautiful as she was, that he could not help
but to follow her, that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever
seen, and would she be his.
The woman replied, "I am very flattered at such a compliment, but
surely this cannot be true, for if you had turned to look behind you,
you would have seen my sister who has been following you, and she is
ten times more beautiful than me."
The man turned to look, and saw a homely looking girl behind him.
He turned to the other woman and
said, "I'm confused, your sister is not more beautiful than you.
Why would you tell me that ? You lied
to me."
The woman looked at him and said, "And you lied also, for you turned
your head."
