IX . SIMPLIFY ... DON'T SWEAT OVER SMALL STUFF

         How do you fill up your life ?  I heard a good story once circulated by a beer brand and it goes like this :

     A guy once asked a golfing buddy how he sees life since he seem to be always in a happy mood. The guy emptied the glass pitcher infront of them and filled the pitcher with golf balls. Then he asked his friend if he thinks the pitcher is full. The guy said yes then  he explained - yes it is but there are still some room as he filled the pitcher with marbles.
Again he asked if the guy thinks it is full and after the guy said yes he filled the voids with sand. The guy then said - " now I guess the pitcher is full ". His friend smiled and then poured in a bottle of beer until the pitcher overflowed. Then he said to the guy, now it is full, so then he explained :

      The pitcher represents our life. The golf balls are the big things or as we say the most important things in our life - our faith, our family, our home, our friends, our career. These are the first things we have to deal with yet after all these are taken care there are still room for other smaller things as the marbles represent - our hobbies, our tasks at work, our relationships with other people. But still like the sands represent there are still plenty of room for other small things that we usually don't pay much attention to - movies, books, sharing stories, and other small stuffs. And yet besides all these, even when you think that you have accomplished a lot there is still room to enjoy yourself - just as the beer represent. A simple life is its own reward - piece by piece we take stone away so that the mountain that we once feared will be nothing more but a hill.

      Life is similar to computer programming - if we want a good life as an output we should chop it down to its simplest component by going back to the very beginning. Once we know what makes a good life, we then come up with a plan or a flow chart on how to be able to produce our anticipated result. Its always a go or no go, if go then go to the next step if no go then do another step. Once you have come up with the output, then we debug to see if there are still things you can improve. You don't stop, you start with love then you go on loving until the very end - don't pay attention to other program that comes up with the same result, that's okay. You don't burn a neighbor's house to make your house look good. Your method may become obsolete to some but the older ways, the older language, as lesser programmers are use to it will be harder to hack.

       Its okay if others have better tools, better methods, better machines, its how you use things that gives it its shining value. That's the reason why antiques are priced higher than new ones - its the history behind it that gives it its real value.