Tuesday 8 February 2011

A Touch of the Poor Me


How easy it is to suffer from the poor me.  Right now I am fighting very hard not to do so. But before I begin I need to explain something about yesterdays story. The character Barry was a very real person,and many people treated him like that. I remember him well.

Today I am going to keep this short because sitting here for long periods is not at all easy. Yesterday while out running in the rain and the gale force winds I had a difference of opinion with a car and it won. While trying to avoid a place in the road that was flooded a car sped round the bend under the bridge where I was. The next thing I knew I was lying in the road and the car was still speeding off. Today I can hardly move, so no walking today, never mind running.

This reminds me of the story of the frogs.


A group of frogs were travelling through the woods, and two of them 
fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit 
was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The 
two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit 
with all their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, 
that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs tookheed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down 
and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could.

Once again, 
the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He 
jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the 
other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to 
them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the 
entire time.



This story reminds me of two important lessons:



1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging 
word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it 
through the day.


2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes 
to kill them.

Be careful of what you say. We have to be careful what we say. Speak life to those who cross our path.

The power of words... it is sometimes hard to understand 
that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak 
words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in 
difficult times.

Special is the individual who will take the time 
to encourage another. 

I apologise to anybody I have ever hurt by saying something that was thoughtless.

This blog is linked to my other.   Autumn Will Come

8 comments:

  1. Lovely post about the Frogs - very encouraging as always Thanks Ralph - Also for your comments yesterday . Sorry to hear about the car stand-off !!

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  2. I so hope you are ok, Ralph. It might be wise to see a doc. I was hit by a car once myself, right in both knees (it sideswiped me as I stood on the corner to cross the road). At any rate, I cringe to think of any times my words have been hurtful to anybody, especially my kids. My mom has a way of tearing down so often that it has been a life long goal of mine to try not to do the same thing.

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  3. HIt by a car? (Ha ha in a typo I wrote cat... wish it was) I can't believe it. How are you? Broken? I mean bones. Any broken bones? How did you get home?

    I don't care what anybody says, I wish you well.

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  4. Good Morning, Ralph, could be worse, huh? There is an expression in carpentry that we learn early in the trade: "measure twice, cut once". We need to be careful of what we say. Like arguing skills, "what you heard isn't what I said!" or at least what I intended to say!, Not how I intended you to hear it! Thoughts and words need to be tempored for an audience. In an ideal world we would take into consideration how our thoughts would be perceived and make sure it was as we intended. Sometimes unintended thoughts fall upon deaf ears to good results and other times they are just plain painful.

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  5. So right Jerry so right. Maybe I ought not to have written that blog on reflection because I was hurting at the time.

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  6. Ralph, it is nice to know all of you, even when in pain. Have no fear, say what you like. I'll still keep reading your blog. It is how I begin my day.

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  7. Dear Ralph, I do hope you are feeling better. And you are so right about the power of words to heal and to deflate. Best wishes for your healing. xx

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  8. Ralph! I can't believe someone would hit you WITH A CAR and KEEP GOING! What kind of person does that??? I am just so glad that that person did not kill you! I hope you feel better soon...that is horrible that a person would drive away like that!

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