Butchivuive

It is so embarrassed but funny when a respectful Aussie lady commented on one of my recent post:

“WRITE IN BLOODY ENGLISH. YOU ARE HERE IN AUSTRALIA.”

I was laughing to death to read these words. Normally, I write my reflections in Vietnamese because it is the way I trained myself to think and express my idea simply and comprehensively. However, now I know that I am having an Aussie reader. To know that someone cares and love is so sweet! Thank you so much for encouraging me to improve my clumsy and poor English, darling Jan!

I am reading the book: GOOD? BAD? WHO KNOWS? Of a respectful monk AJAHN BRAHM. To be honest, I found it so interesting, meaningful and hilarious. One of his articles that I would like to reflect today is: THE PHOTO ALBUM

 “Many people keep a photo album. In it they keep their memories of the happiest of times”: playing at a beach, graduation ceremony, wedding, and holiday snapshots.

“But you will never find in your album any photographs of miserable moments of your life. Absent is the photo of you outside the principal’s office at school. Missing is any photo of you study hard late into the night for your exams. No-one that I know has a picture of their divorce in their album, nor one of them in a hospital bed terribly sick, nor stuck in busy traffic on the way to work on a Monday morning! Such depressing shots never find their way into anyone’s photo album.”

In other words, we only keep only beautiful photos of ourselves in our albums. We do not see again or show to the world our sadness or embarrassing and shameful moments. Of course, this is a very good idea to make us feel emotional and happy to rekindle them.

Nevertheless, we keep another “photo album” in our head called our memory. Sadly, in that album, we put so many negative “photographs.” “There you find so many snapshots of the insulting arguments, many pictures of the episode when you were badly let down and several photo montages of the occasions where you were cruelly treated. There are surprisingly few photos in that album of happy moments. This is crazy!”

That is so true that we tend to keep many bad memories such as: hated, resentment, greedy and wrong passions in our mind and heart. That is the reason we are often afraid to be in silence. For in the silence, we have to face those bad memories and our true self.

That make us lose our inner peace!

WHAT CAN WE DO?

“So, let’s do a purge of the photo album in our head. Take out and trash, or delete, the uninspiring memories. They do not belong in this album.

In their place, put the same sort of memories that you have in the real photo album. Paste in the happiness of when you made up with your partner, when there was that unexpected moment of real kindness, or whenever the clouds parted and the sun shone with extra-ordinary beauty…Then, when you have some spare moments, you will find yourself turning its pages with a smile, or even with laugher.”

In my opinion, this is wonderful metaphor and practical action to purify our head, to be happy again. However, all these words are words until you put them into practice daily and start changing your attitude to this beautiful life!

Thank for reading to this line.

Have a terrific day!

God bless you.

With love,

butchivuive