The book "Power of Plentiful Wisdom" takes you on the journey of rediscovering the hidden essence of common things. Everything around us is purposeful and meaningful. Starting from the change of seasons to building a house-it's all filled with insights for living wisely. The true wisdom is powerful and plentiful. It's open for anyone who seeks it.
Power of Plentiful Wisdom
By Julia ShpakAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2010 Julia Shpak
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4520-6474-1Contents
A Garden to Cultivate.....................1Unstoppable Water.........................3Pearls....................................5Born in a Duck Yard.......................7Palm Trees................................9Rose......................................11Masterpiece...............................13Grapes....................................15Fire......................................17Let It Rain...............................19Diamond in the Rough......................21Harvest...................................23Becoming a Butterfly......................25Wandering Ship............................27Learning to Fly...........................29Build to Last.............................31Hard to Reach Apples......................33Purified by Fire..........................35Bees and Wasps............................37Comparing Flowers.........................39Lighthouses...............................41Life as a Snowflake.......................43Journey...................................45Seed Within...............................47Mighty Acorn..............................49Spring Love...............................51Clay......................................53Swimming Upstream.........................55Ice.......................................57Love Flower...............................59Fruitless Tree............................61Game of Boomerang.........................63Hourglass.................................65Roots.....................................67Lead the Way..............................69Lonely Pilgrim............................71Timing....................................73Watchtower................................75Hunks of Wood.............................77Quicksand.................................79Anchor....................................81Unexpected................................83
Chapter One
A Garden to Cultivate
Knowledge is like a garden: if it's not cultivated, it cannot be harvested. -Guinea Proverb
Take care of your garden and keep on sowing your seeds, because you never know which one will grow. Some might be eaten by birds or not stand the weather changes, and some just might stand it all.
The soil will give you back exactly what you have put into it. If you plant daises, you cannot expect roses. If you pollute the soil, the fruit it bears will be polluted and poisoned as well.
Surely, a garden could grow all by itself for awhile, but eventually, the weeds will take over, so you won't even see the flowers.
Our mind is a garden that should be the most cherished. If you care about it, you will always smell the flowers.
Unstoppable Water
Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it. -Lao-Tzu
A stream is always moving and making its way persistently, no matter what's blocking its way. With time, even a rock won't be in the way of water.
Water adapts to circumstances, molding itself within the space given, yet nothing can hold it within the borders it doesn't belong to. If needed, a stream may even go underground and emerge some place else.
Who knows where the water stream is heading? It might end up in river waters or it might flow right into the ocean.
Pearls
A successful man is the one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. -David Brinkley
High quality natural pearls are very rare. They are formed by oysters as a defense against any irritant such as a parasite or just a grain of sand inside the shell.
It seems that oysters follow a very good old rule: if you can't remove it, then try to improve it.
Hidden within the shell in the darkness, a pearl is created. It's pretty amazing how something initially so inconvenient can become something so beautiful.
Born in a Duck Yard
Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg. -Hans Christian Andersen
Young swans, or cygnets, are a brownish-gray color, and some people say that ducklings are more attractive than them at that age.
Yet cygnets mature into swans, which are the most beautiful bird of all.
Are dignity, worth, grace, aesthetic, and moral superiority determined by Nature rather than accomplishment?
Palm Trees
The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? -Proverbs 18:14
The roots of a tree are pretty much its soul- take them away and the tree will die.
In the desert, where it's so hard to survive, palm trees seem to be very comfortable. It might look like there's not much going on, but the fight for survival is not always visible to an outsider.
The roots grow deeper and further out in order to reach distant waters. They make their way through miles and miles of sand and rock to prove that life is possible everywhere-it just requires some extra effort.
It takes a long time for a palm tree to grow, but we still see them standing tall. They might bend with the wind, but they don't break easily.
Rose
A rose too often smelled loses its fragrance. -Spanish Proverb
There once was a rose by the road. People passed by it every day and ran their gingers through its gentle white petals. But nobody took the flower home. Until one morning, the rose fell-unable to hold any longer.
Have you seen youth and beauty worn out and thrown away like a dry flower? People come and go, but true love stays.
Masterpiece
I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece. I challenge you to join the ranks of those people who live what they teach, who walk their talk. -Tony Robbins
A masterpiece is a true work of art with flow and character to it that cannot be duplicated. It is always one of a kind.
Broken pieces, unwanted and neglected by others, could become something far more than what they seem if they were understood and treated correctly.
In knowing hands, everything could be turned into means to achieve that perfect work of art-a masterpiece, as beautiful and colorful as life.
Grapes
Good wine praises itself. -Arabian Proverb
Creating a good wine starts with planting and growing exceptional grapes. They are the soul of the wine.
Climbing up, absorbing all the sunshine, the fruit becomes sweet and suitable for future processing.
Later on, depending on how you have handled grape juice, it becomes either sweet wine or vinegar. A truly good wine will always be appreciated and recognized everywhere; it would be priceless.
Fire
Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? -Luke14:34
Fire can burn in different ways. The flame will appear in either case, but how long will its warmth last?
Fire can be set on hay-a substance so lightweight that it catches the re butterflies right away. And so it ends, rapidly, before it could warm anyone.
So unlike is a re made of solid wood-it might take a while to start, but it brings a steady warmth until the last moment.
When a soul burns out, what can you do to restore its light?
Let It Rain
Tears are the summer showers to the soul. -Alfred Austin
Rain drops are like the tears of the sky-they may come along with thunder and lighting but the tension would be gone. It might start raining in the middle of a sunny day, but all the dust and heat are gone afterward.
The air is fresher after the rain. It fills Nature with water of life, giving it a new beginning and spreading a rainbow of colors.
Diamond in the Rough
A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials. -Chinese Proverb
A diamond in the rough needs a lot of work to change into a faceted gem of distinction, durability, and character that will last forever.
Bringing the most most brilliance and re to a rough stone, even a diamond itself, can never be easy.
One of the most important elements to a perfect diamond is its quality of cut. Some diamonds are sold on the basis of weight-unfortunately, they are cut to maximize the weight of the stone not its brilliance.
Harvest
For the unlearned, old age is winter. For the learned, it is the season of harvest. -Hasidic saying
Every tree will shed its leaves. Even if it seems like the summer will never end, and the sunshine is going to last forever, the winter will come. Nature's cycle renews itself with every generation.
Nothing is lost. The leaves are shed in autumn and nourish the soil for future growing. That's the time to harvest.
Becoming a Butterfly
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. -Lao-Tzu
At first sight, a caterpillar and a butterfly don't have much in common, yet one is the beginning of another.
Every caterpillar has a potential of becoming a butter y. If the natural order of things is not disturbed by anything, the transformation will begin.
All alone, a caterpillar starts its metamorphosis with a complete change in body form-until it becomes a fully developed butter y. It cannot be rushed, and every phase must be completed.
Finally, when the butter y has evolved, the mind of a caterpillar has to evolve as well.
Wandering Ship
There is no wind that blows right for the sailor who doesn't know where the harbor is. -Norwegian Proverb
Don't let your ship just wander around in the sea. Even a great ship is worthless without skillful sailing.
The captain is in ultimate command and responsible for the safety of his ship.
Sailing without a set destination will not take you far.
Learning to Fly
He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying. -Friedrich Nietzsche
Newborn birds cannot fly until their muscle structure has fully developed. Later on, a fledgling, just like a human toddler learning to walk, has to work on its skills.
With time, young birds learn to spot rising thermals and use the wind for lift. Instinct and constant training should get them off the ground eventually.
Learning is a process; it's a journey to your dream with one step at a time.
Build to Last
If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. -Isaiah 7:9b
A house built on stone has a firm foundation for a long time to come. It can withstand any weather, either sun or storm. It's solid in its position. Floods can't move it, and wind can't damage it.
A house built on sand is the complete opposite. No matter how strong its walls are, or how good the roof is, it's missing the most important element in its structure-a foundation.
If there is no foundation, walls won't stay straight and the roof will slide to the side. Nothing is right then, no matter how hard you try to fix it.
From the very beginning lay a firm foundation, and build your house to last.
Hard to Reach Apples
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. -Psalms 1:3
Have you ever wondered why the best apples on a tree are usually so hard to reach? An experienced gardener would never shake off those apples before the time has come.
Let them take in all the sunshine, and later, they will fall right into your basket.
It takes patience and understanding. Good things are worth waiting for.
Purified by Fire
Iron is full of impurities that weaken it; through forging, it becomes steel and is transformed into razor-sharp sword. Human beings develop in the same fashion. -Morihei Ueshiba
Some things are purified by water, and others, only by fire.
Iron, for example, as a metallic element, is almost never found in its pure form in Nature and has many elements mixed in. It has a long journey before it can become an object of steel.
And that way is only through the re of the forge. Otherwise, it's nothing but a piece of scrap. In the forge iron is heated to become plastic enough to be shaped and deformed.
Future objects, in order to become something of shape and purpose, have to be hammered out, cut, bent, and shaped. And no pattern of life is ever cast twice quite the same.
Bees and Wasps
From the same flower the bee extracts honey and the wasp gall. -Italian Proverb
Take something as beautiful as a flower. Bees and flowers can't exist one from another. Bees gather nectar from flowers to make honey, and as they y from flower to flower, they pollinate flowers so more can grow.
Wasps, so-called relatives of bees, do completely the opposite. They lay eggs in the stems of plants, which cause the growth of a gall-a greatly swollen tumor.
Comparing Flowers
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. -Confucius
You just cannot compare flowers.
Every flower is unique and beautiful in its own way, no matter whether rose or daisy. Some flowers grow in fields and forests, and some grow in hidden, secluded places.
While people may have preferences, Nature has created everything to be amazing and different in its own way.
It may be said that stereotypes do not exist with flowers. They come in all colors, sizes, and shapes-just like us.
Lighthouses
We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine. -Dwight L. Moody
A lighthouse without a light is just a regular house.
A true light cannot be hidden. Through the darkness it shines to anyone who is lost. Just like a candle is never put under a cover, so is the light-it needs to be seen, otherwise it loses its purpose.
A light house shines for everyone who is ready to follow its light and guide their ship into the safe harbor.
Life as a Snowflake
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. -Zen Proverb
How long does a snow flake last? Falling from the sky, floating in the wind, and the next second-it's gone.
Have you ever wondered what is it like to be a snowflake suspended in the air with no limits and being blown away by the wind, following the air stream, having only this moment that matters the most.
Snowflakes may look the same at first sight, every one of them forming patterns we have seen before. But if you look closer, every one of them is truly unique.
Journey
Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it's too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow. -Paul H. Dunn
Don't quit the journey just because the destination is out of sight. It's like a thousand steps to the mysterious mountain temple-at first, it seems impossible to manage.
The journey by itself should bring you happiness; rushing will only take away from it. True happiness always comes from within and reflects our state of mind.
So, smell the flowers and hear every little bird sing along the way. Don't let impatience cast a shadow over your path.
Seed Within
Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. Every seed destroys its container or else there would be no fruition. -Florida Scott-Maxwell
To be awakened, every seed must return to earth and die before it grows-decomposing for new growth to begin.
There won't be anything to see above the ground for a while, but just keep on watering and weeding. Don't let go of your vision.
Therefore, cultivate the seed inside of you, and you will surely reap its fruit.
Mighty Acorn
The greatest Oaks have been little Acorns. -Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia, 1732
Great things may come from small beginnings.
An acorn does not look anything like a great, tall, sturdy oak tree. Easily fitted in a palm of a child, an acorn has not much resemblance to anything mighty.
You can't see it or touch it, so you don't have any physical proof of its true hidden value. You can only have a vision while holding an acorn in your hand of a great tree standing tall one day.
Not everyone can see a beautiful blossom in a bulb or a lovely garden in a seed. Even large streams take their beginning from little fountains.
Spring Love
If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. -Audra Foveo
Springtime is the time of awakening when everything comes to life. Every form of life will open up towards the sun, no matter old or young, big or small.
Although the winter is cold, spring is sure to follow, bringing along a rainbow of colors.
Spring is Nature's rebirth, arriving when the time is right. Nothing can resist it; just watch the grass grow all by itself.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Power of Plentiful Wisdomby Julia Shpak Copyright © 2010 by Julia Shpak. Excerpted by permission.
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