Life and Spirituality

Developed from picture by Svendsgaard Kurt, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service E very so often it happens to us that we receive something precious, good and great in life that in the final analysis a gift from the Lord and the Universe. However, equally frequently, instead of honoring and cherishing these gifts and being grateful to the Lord for them, we tend to take it for granted as our birth right and misuse them. The result is that soon the same gift becomes a curse. It vanishes, pushing us into misery in the process. My mind went to a childhood friend who was born in a rich elite family. She grew up to be a beautiful and charming lady. At heart, she was a simple and gentle lady with malice for none. It is perhaps because of this that the Lord had showered her with so many gifts in life. But she developed a serious fault. She let herself drown in carelessness and sensual pleasures of the world. As a result she did not end up in the best possible way in later life. One

O nce there was a farmer who had two good looking sons. The farmer and his wife worked hard for several years on the farm and saved enough to send their sons to a very good school on top of the mountain behind the village. It was an expensive residential school but very well known for its excellent training and education. Students from far off lands came to study there. When the two boys were nine and ten year old, the farmer and his wife admitted them to the school with the help of the Principal by the name of Lew who had become an acquaintance. Lew used to come down the mountain for walks on holidays, to visit the farms and for a picnic in the nearby Sherwood Forest. The older boy did not like the hard discipline of school at all. He found study hours hard and physical training classes tiresome and complained about it endlessly. It was so much nicer with the freedom to play and do as one liked at home. The younger boy, however, was grateful to his parents for havi