The story of a Woodcutter

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss’s words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”

Reflection:

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy than ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life...

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

Some Thought Provoking Quotes

1.    Nothing is stronger than habit. [Ovid]
2.    If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. [Albert Einstein]
3.    It’s tough when markets change and your people within the company don’t. [Harvard Business Review]
4.    They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself. [Andy Warhol]
5.    We cannot solve a problem by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. [A. Einstein]
6.    Necessity is the mother of invention. [Anonymous]
7.    Minds are like parachutes; they work best when open. [T. Dewar]
8.    The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. [George Bernard Shaw]
9.    There are no old roads to new directions. [The Boston Consulting Group]
10.    You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. [Andre Gide]
11.    Innovation is anything, but business as usual. [Anonymous]
12.    The best way to predict the future is to invent it. [Alan Kay]
13.    If at first the idea is not absurd, then there will be no hope for it. [A. Einstein]
14.    The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards. [Arthur Koestler]
15.    A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind. [A. von Szent-Gyorgyi]
16.    Innovation is the ability to convert ideas into invoices. [L. Duncan]
17.    Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. [Demosthenes]
18.    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. [Robert Frost]
19.    The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible. [A. Clarke]
20.    The key to success is for you to make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear. [Vincent Van Gogh]
21.    The impossible is often the untried. [J. Goodwin]
22.    An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. [Oscar Wilde]
23.    Ideas are useless unless used. [T. Levitt]
24.    It is not how many ideas you have. It’s how many you make happen. [Advertisement of Accenture]
25.    The best ideas lose their owners and take on lives of their own. [N. Bushnell]

Do you hate someone?

A kindergarten teacher decided to let her class play a game.

The teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes.

Each potato will be given the name of a person that the child hates.

So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.

So when the day came, each child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some up to 5 potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for 1 week.

Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended...

The teacher asked: "How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for 1 week?". The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your heart for your lifetime??"

Moral of the story:
Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will not carry the stink for a lifetime.
Forgiving others is the best attitude to take!

Love Everyone & Be Loved

The Oak Tree

One day a woodcutter took his grandson into the forest for his first experience in selecting and cutting oak trees. These they would later sell to the boat builders. As they walked along, the woodcutter explained that the purpose of each tree is contained in its natural shape: some are straight for planks, some have the proper curves for the ribs of a boat, and some are tall for masts. The woodcutter told his grandson that by paying attention to the details of each tree, and with experience in recognizing these characteristics, someday he too might become the woodcutter of the forest.

A little way into the forest, the grandson saw an old oak tree that had never been cut. The boy asked his grandfather if he could cut it down because it was useless for boat building – there were no straight limbs, the trunk was short and gnarled, and the curves were going the wrong way. “We could cut it down for firewood,” the grandson said. “At least then it will be of some use to us.” The woodcutter replied that for now they should go about their work cutting the proper trees for the boat builders; maybe later they could return to the old oak tree.

After a few hours of cutting the huge trees, the grandson grew tired and asked if they could stop for a rest in some cool shade.

The woodcutter took his grandson over to the old oak tree, where they rested against its trunk in the cool shade beneath its twisted limbs. After they had rested a while, the woodcutter explained to his grandson the necessity of attentive awareness and recognition of everything in the forest and in the world. Some things are readily apparent, like the tall straight trees; other things are less apparent, requiring closer attention, like recognition of the proper curves in the limbs. And some things might initially appear to have no purpose at all, like the gnarled old oak tree.

The woodcutter stated, “You must learn to pay careful attention everyday so you can recognize and discover the purpose God has for everything in creation. For it is this old oak tree, which you so quickly deemed useless except for firewood, that now allows us to rest against its trunk amidst the coolness of its shade.

“Remember, grandson, not everything is as it first appears. Be patient, pay attention, recognize, and discover.”