Practice Reading👒✨ [Music and Words's Cafe]

All the Difference in The World Every Sunday morning I take a light jog around a park near my home. There's a lake located in one corner of the park. Each time I jog by this lake, I see the same elderly woman sitting at the water's edge with a small metal cage sitting beside her. This past Sunday my curiosity got the best of me, so I stopped jogging and walked over to her. As I got closer, I realized that the metal cage was, in fact, a small trap. There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap. She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a sponge brush. "Hello," I said. "I see you here every Sunday morning. If you don't mind my nosiness, I'd love to know what you're doing with these turtles." She smiled. "I'm cleaning off their shells," she replied. "Anything on a turtle's shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle's ability to absorb heat and impedes its ability to swim. It can also corrode and weaken the shell over time." "Wow! That's really nice of you!" I exclaimed. She went on: "I spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping these little guys out. It's my own strange way of making a difference." "But don't most freshwater turtles live their whole lives with algae and scum hanging from their shells?" I asked. "Yep, sadly, they do," she replied. I scratched my head. "Well then, don't you think your time could be better spent? I mean, I think your efforts are kind and all, but there are fresh water turtles living in lakes all around the world. And 99% of these turtles don't have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells. So, no offense... but how exactly are your localized efforts here truly making a difference?" The woman giggled aloud. She then looked down at the turtle in her lap, scrubbed off the last piece of algae from its shell, and said, "Sweetie, if this little guy could talk, he'd tell you I just made all the difference in the world." The Moral of the Story: Each one of us can change the world. Maybe we can't change the world right away but a single good deed will resonate with the rest of the world. Make every day count by knowing that you are capable of so much good, you just need to be brave to make the world a better place!

The Weight of the Glass Once upon a time, a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching stress management principles to an auditorium filled with students. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the typical "glass half empty or glass half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, "How heavy is this glass of water I'm holding?" Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple of pounds. She replied, "From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn't matter. It all depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it's fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me." As the class shook their heads in agreement, she continued, "Your stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache a little. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed - incapable of doing anything else until you drop them." The Moral of the Story: On days when you're stressed out and feeling overwhelmed, learn to embrace the inevitable and let go. Some things cannot be controlled and no amount of worrying could put all your burdens away. Instead of letting stress get to you, embrace it and conquer it. Let yesterday's worries inspire you to a productive day.

Shark Bait During a research experiment, a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank. As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked, and ate the smaller fish. The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other. Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the baitfish swam around unharmed in the second partition. Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up. This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the baitfish, until eventually, the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether. The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark did not attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the baitfish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm. The Moral of the Story: Most people tend to give up after facing a series of setbacks and failures. But do not let these setbacks keep you from trying again. Think of each setback as an opportunity to learn. Do not let the barriers that you set for yourself in your mind keep you from achieving your goals. Remember, nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it.

Being and Breathing After spending nearly every waking minute with Angel for eight straight days, I knew that I had to tell her just one thing. So late at night, just before she fell asleep, I whispered it in her ear. She smiled - the kind of smile that makes me smile back - and she said, "When I'm seventy-five and I think about my life and what it was like to be young, I hope that I can remember this very moment." A few seconds later, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. The room was peaceful - almost silent. All I could hear was the soft purr of her breathing. I stayed awake thinking about the time we'd spent together and all the choices in our lives that made this moment possible. And at some point, I realized that it didn't matter what we'd done or where we'd gone. Nor did the future hold any significance. All that mattered was the serenity of the moment. Just being with her and breathing with her. The Moral of the Story: Our days are made up of fleeting moments. In a split second, these moments are gone. Do not let external pressures or stress keep you from appreciating the little moments that make life beautiful. Every day is a miracle, from the moment you open your eyes in the morning and close your eyes at night.

Value the Things You Have In Your Life A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand "Today my best friend slapped me in the face". They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone "Today my best friend saved my life". The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone, why?" The other friend replied, "When someone hurts us we should write it down in the sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it." The Moral of the Story: It's much easier to hold a grudge when you feel wronged but never close your heart to forgiveness. Sometimes we are all too consumed with our own emotions that we are temporarily blinded by hate or grief. Negative emotions will only bring you down. Letting go of the past and valuing the people that love you is the way to live a rich, rewarding life.

PEACE IN YOUR PAST It's easy to look back and question decisions you have made in the past, but it's unfair to punish yourself for them. You can't blame yourself for not knowing back then what you know now, and the truth is you made each decision for a reason based on how you were feeling at the time. As we grow up, we learn and we evolve. Maybe the person you are now would have done things differently back then, or maybe you are the person you are now because of the decisions you made back then. Trust your journey; it's all going to make sense soon.

Maybe the Universe fights for certain souls to find one another. And maybe the Universe places people in your life just to take them away, just to teach you things that the beauty cannot. Maybe the Universe fights for the heartbreaks, for the missed opportunities, for the bad timing. Maybe the Universe knows in an offhand way, that those moments will show you your strength in ways the hope cannot. Maybe it is within the losses that you truly find gratitude for all that has stayed. Maybe it is through caring for those who make us feel like we are hard to love that we are taught how to embrace those who see us, those who truly protect our souls. And maybe, just maybe, it is through the darkened journey that we are taught how to appreciate the warmth, how to chase the light, how to believe in it even when we do not feel it, how to trust that it is pinned and blooming in this world, waiting to be discovered. And maybe, right now, the Universe is trying to teach you how to be thankful for all that did not work out in your life. Maybe it is reminding you that when it is finally right, everything that you love ruthlessly, will love you back with the same conviction; that when it is finally right, the things that you reach for in life, the things you deeply hope for, they will reach back. And maybe the Universe is trying to help you understand that all of the things you ached for that did not work out they were not the losses that broke you, or ruined you, or made you less worthy. No, instead, you will see that they built you. They taught you about yourself. They led you to the person you were meant to be, and they guided you towards what was meant for you. They shaped you. They challenged you. They grew you. At the end of the day, I hope you remember this the Universe does not take without giving. The Universe does not leave you empty, it always balances the scales within you. For all that it destroys, it creates. For all that falls apart, something is coming together. Please, just trust the timing of your life. Please, just remember that you will never lose what is for you. The right things will always connect right things will always connect.

I hope you have the courage to know when to end things. And I hope you have the courage to see endings as beautiful, transformative stepping stones. I hope you have the courage to let love, and opportunity move through you like rain. To not grip, or seek to change it, to not ask people or circumstances to be more than they can be for you. I hope you have the courage to see endings as the cornerstones of the chapters that changed you, without needing them to be a part of the rest of your story. And when that is done, I hope you have the courage to give yourself closure. To be your own home. To be your own safe place. I hope you have the courage to not let the losses destroy you, to not let them burrow into the heart of who you are and convince you that you failed, or that you are unworthy of the happiness you are standing up for in your life. I hope you have the courage to see the way in which you loved and tried and fought for something as a testament to just how deeply your capacity to feel is, just how beautiful moments can be when you appreciate them for what they were instead of nullifying them or letting them harden you to the world. Please, I hope you have the courage to move forward. I hope you have the courage to walk away with grace.

CHOOSING HAPPINESS Choosing happiness is not as simple as choosing what flavor of ice cream to buy. It is not just like "okay, this is the one I'll pick." Yes, it is given that it is kind of changing your perspective, maybe being kind of optimistic and looking to the brighter side but I don't think it necessarily have to be like that. Choos- ing happiness is also about planning and set- ting your goals; knowing what yor need, what are the things that will help you and telling yourself what you should do to get what you want. And of course, for your plans not to be wasted, you have to put them into actions. If you have told yourself tomorrow you'll talk to your old friends or write them letters or you'll go to your favorite coffee shop or fast food chain or somewhere else with someone, do it, with all your heart and your mind believing that you'll really be happy. Happiness. You don't just choose it, if you don't work for it, you won't get it. Jerico Silvers

A GOOD PERSON From an early age, we are raised by a society that tells us what is right or wrong. Deep down we all know what the right choice is, but the choice we ultimately make is shaped by experience. Experience, trauma and emotion make you make your choice, and this usually for your own good, self-protection, or the most beautiful: empathy or love. You are a good person in most eyes when you look after other people. When you are honest, sincere. When you love, and when you show empathy. You are a good person when you are open to different opinions, different cultures, class and "the unknown". You are a good person when you listen, comfort, help and learn. This is what we have been given, this is what we know, what we all know. Despite the fact that every individual has been given this along the way, it does not mean that this is how we behave. Unfortunately, many have gradually come into a position in which they have started to act differently out of emotion, pain, trauma etc. This manifests itself in the following: They themselves cause pain. While this is something we all understand, it has become a visual circle that we all participate in. Does this make us bad people? No. Let's not forget that we are all born with the same emotions, we share the same pain. You share a trauma with so many others. We should pay more attention to the fact that every choice we make also affects others. We don't know each other's pain, we don't know each other's trauma. Don't try to judge right away. Don't let your pain or self- protection be a reason to put someone else in that same position. Be good to others, as you want them to be good to you.

I HOPE YOU LEARN HOW TO LET GO I hope you learn how to let go of everyone's opinion of your life. I hope you start to see, from a place that lives deep within you, that there is no universally correct way to live a life that is solely your own. Every human being has different goals, has different concepts of what happiness looks like, has a different vision of what it truly means to be alive. And because of that, people will judge you, the world will try to change you, but you must continue to move in your own direction, you must continue to go at your own pace, because if you allow for that to alter your path-you're going to end up living someone else's life. I hope you learn how to make your life your own. I hope you learn how to make your time here something you are proud of. I hope you learn how to let go of the comparison you hold so closely to your chest. I hope you strive to dismantle the distractions, I hope you strive to see beyond what is manicured and what is filtered in this life. You are a real human being who is living and breathing in this world, who is healing through and moving through seasons of beauty and seasons of change and seasons of evolution each and every single day. Your experience in this world will never be perfect, will never be faultless but it will be real. It will be honest. I hope you learn how to embrace that. I hope you learn how to let go of your tendency to favor distance over depth. I hope you learn how to open to this world, how to let love pour into your life. We often protect ourselves from seeming too eager or too interested; we hold our feelings back because we don't want to seem overly emotional or tender. We silence our instincts, we bankrupt our souls, and at the end of the day we feel alone. I hope you learn how to let go of your fear, I hope you learn how to remind yourself that there is nothing wrong with vulnerability, with being human, with unhinging your rib cage and sharing your heart with this world. There is beauty to be found in being the person who cares. So care!.