2nd edition MEMORIES OF ROCK

“You always do this,” she said. “Palm wine doesn't make the problems disappear.”

“Neither does water.”

“Water doesn't drag in more problems.”

“Then you have never drank water from a well near a latrine. But don't worry, Bessem. I have learned my lesson. Maybe anyone would learn a lesson when their palm wine seller wants them dead.”

“It could have been worse. He could have poisoned you.”

Deruk laughed in genuine amusement. “The Tegrut had been poisoning me with that ash soup he called palm wine. Perhaps I should take his place as a seller and show the tribes what good palm wine tastes like.”

Bessem had to admit it was not the worse idea she had ever heard from him. It could even keep him busy and bring in some cowries. “You do not know the first thing about palm wine tapping,” she said instead. “Except you mean to sell horse piss to the tribes.”

“Then it would still taste better than the Tegrut's, trust me.”

She frowned. “How would you what horse piss tastes like?”

“When I was twelve, I saw some older boys playing with a harmless snake. They said it wouldn't bite.”

“And it bit you?”

“Of course. Don't look at me like that. It was excruciating and they told me to drink horse piss to dull the pain. Now that I think of it, a jar of piss just happened to be nearby and I don't think it was a horse's either.”

“Now we know at least.”

“What do we know?”

“That I didn't learn my common sense from you.”

“There is still time,” he said with another stiff grin.

 ***

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Quote of the day

"Loving is the art of forgetting you might get hurt. Love is blissful amnesia."

- Palle Oswald

I. Heart

Your eyes gentle my spirit
Your voice caresses my being
Your touch makes me tremble
So why is loving you a sin?          

It is a taboo, they say    
We are not meant to love this way
Why judge a Creator and the creation
When we were all made this way?

I have loved and lost, again and again
And it all seemed a illusionary ploy
Then I realised if I wasn't loving me
I don't stand a chance at joy

A relationship built of optics
 Our bond forged of chips
I will take it rather than walk alone    
In a partnership of blood and bone

You were an idea        
I made you into being
I taught you all of me
You are my being

A cold touch on cold nights
A warm pillar on colder heights
A ray of peace on troubled days
An imperfect form of perfect grace

I know you will always stand with me
You are an essence of me
You tell me you love me, I know you mean it
Because only me can love me as much as me                          
                                       
If love makes us human
Loving must be humane
Those who have peace, have love
Those who have love, have everything    

PAID IN FULL

To pay for his education, a poor boy used to sell goods from door to door. One day, the young boy found he was really hungry but had no money to buy any food. He decided to ask for something to eat when he knocked on the front door of the next house.

A beautiful young woman opened the door, and the boy lost his nerve. He simply asked for a drink of water, too embarrassed to ask for food. The young woman brought him a glass of milk, which the boy greedily drank.

The boy asked her how much he owed, but she simply smiled and said her mother had taught her to be kind to others and never expect anything in return. The young boy left the woman's home with a full tummy and a heart full of renewed strength to push on with his education and continue working hard. Just when he was ready to quit, the woman had instilled in him newfound faith and fortitude.

Years later, in a big city, renowned surgeon Dr. Howard Kelly was called to consult on a woman who was suffering from a rare disease. When the woman told him the name of the small town where she lived, Dr. Kelly felt a faint memory arise in his mind, and then suddenly recognition dawned on him. She was the woman who had given him the glass of milk many years ago.

The doctor went on to provide the woman with the very best care and made sure she received special attention. In fact, it was his skills as a doctor that saved her life. After a long and difficult hospitalization, the woman was finally ready for discharge home. The woman was worried it would take her years to settle her account with the hospital. Her serious illness and long hospital stay had produced a substantial bill. However, when she received the bill, she found that Dr. Kelly had paid the entire bill himself and written a small note for her.

The note simply stated: Paid in full with a glass of milk.

Quote of the day

"A secret to happinness is the decision to be. The happy person might not always be happy, but they understand when to be."

By Palle Oswald

Quote of the day

"Better not to know which moment may be your last, alive to the mystery of it all."

- Captain Jack Sparrow

The Natural Order

A very wealthy man asked a Zen master for a text which would always remind him how happy he was with his family.
The Zen master took some parchment and, in beautiful calligraphy, wrote:
“The father dies. The son dies. The grandson dies.”
“What?” said the furious rich man. “I asked you for something to inspire me, some teaching which might be respectfully contemplated by future generations, and you give me something as depressing and gloomy as these words?”
“You asked me for something which would remind you of the happiness of living together with your family.
“If your son dies first, everyone will be devastated by the pain. If your grandson dies, it would be an unbearable experience.
“However, if your family disappears in the order which I placed on the paper, this is the natural course of life.
“Thus, although we all endure moments of pain, the generations will continue, and your legacy will last.”

The Black Man

We are at the restaurant of a German University. A red haired student, and undeniably German takes her tray and sits down at her table.
She then realizes she has forgotten her cutlery and gets up again to pick it up.
Coming back, she sees with astonishment that a black man, possibly sub-Saharian by his appearance, is sitting there and is eating from her tray.
Straight away, the young woman feels lost and stressed . But immediately changes her thought and presumes that the African is not familiar with European customs concerning private property and privacy.
She also takes into consideration that perhaps he does not have enough money to pay for his meal.
In any case, she decides to sit in front of the guy and to smile at him in a friendly manner.
The African responds with another dazzling smile.
The German girl starts to help herself, -sharing the food with the black man with genuine pleasure and courtesy.
And thus, he took the salad, she ate the soup, both took their share of the stew, one took care of the yoghurt and the other of the piece of fruit,
All this peppered with numerous refined smiles – timid from the man and smoothly, encouraging and kind by the girl -.
They eat up their lunch.
The German girl gets up to get a coffee.
And it is then that she discovers, on the table behind the black man, her coat placed on the back of a chair and her food tray untouched.
________________________
I dedicated this charming story – furthermore an authentic one – to all who are wary of immigrants and consider them as inferior individuals.
To all these people, who with the best of intentions, observe them condescendingly and with paternalism.
It would be better that we free ourselves of prejudices or we run the risk to make a fool of ourselves like the poor German who thought to be at the height of civilisation whilst the African greatly educated, let her eat and share her meal and at the same time was thinking :; how mad these Europeans are.’

By Paulo Coelho

True Story

“Sometimes we get used to what we see in the movies and end up forgetting the true story,” says one friend to another as they admire the port of Sydney.
“Do you remember the most remarkable scene in “The Ten Commandments”?
“Of course I do! At a certain moment, Moses – played by Charlton Heston – raises his staff, the waters divide, and the Hebrew people cross the sea on foot.”
“In the Bible it is different. God orders Moses to “tell the children of Israel to walk.” And it’s only after they start walking that Moses raises his staff and the Red Sea opens up.”
- Only confidence in the path will make it reveal itself.

Divine Melody

Zaki heard Xa asking his friends what was the most beautiful sound on Earth.

‘The sound of the flute,’ said one.

‘Birdsong,’ said another.

‘A woman’s voice,’ said a third.

They continued the discussion late into the night, without reaching any conclusion.

Days later, Zaki invited Xa and his friends to supper. In the room next door, the best orchestra in the world was playing lovely music, but there was no food on the table. Around midnight, by which time his guests were all starving hungry, Zaki finally served up an exquisite banquet.

‘After hours without eating, isn’t the clatter of cutlery on plates a divine sound?’ remarked Xa.

‘I am simply answering your question about what is the most beautiful sound on Earth,’ replied Zaki. ‘It could be the voice of the woman we love, the singing of birds, the clatter of plates, the breathing beside us in bed of someone dear to us, but it will always be the sound that our heart needs to hear at that precise moment.’

Wells of the Heart

There are different wells within your heart.
Some fill with each good rain,
Others are far too deep for that.

In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water,
That “love” is literally something of yourself,
It can grow as slow as a diamond
If it is lost.

Your love
Should never be offered to the mouth of a stranger,
Only to someone
Who has the valor and daring
To cut pieces of their soul off with a knife
Then weave them into a blanket to protect you.