Feed yourself or Feed each other?

A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and said, 'God , I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'

God led the holy man to two doors..
He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The 20 people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.

They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.

But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

God said, 'You have seen Hell.'

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.

There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water..

The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, 'I don't understand..'
It is simple,' said God . 'It requires but one skill.

You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

Bflygal's comments:
原来不是环境的不同，而是人群的品质不一样使得环境也变得不一样。

Anyway, I have another question, is this a sunrise or a sunset?

Is a question posed in Healing Hands. I finally went back to it after watching so many other shows esp the Trimming Success (because I so loved Nnadia Chan).
[Sidetrack on Trimming Success: It was really a simple show. But I cried a lot when Auntie Shuying died in an accident. And while they said she died while collecting her health report so it is not the hubby's fault - about his insistence to change the colour of the sweater; I felt that if we see it from another perspective, he is still at fault because she could have collected her health report earlier and thus avoided the accident. Sometimes life allow delays to allow you to avoid some events.. and sometimes life causes delays to let you meet some events. That's life. And Auntie Shuying reminds me so much of how hardworked my mum is.. ya I know I'm unfilial. In addition, Chun Chun simple mind is something I wish I have. But even for such a simple mind, she still feel very upset when Jason actually contemplated going back to Choco. No matter how giving you are, I guess love really is hard to just give it away. Also how apologetic Chun Chun felt towards her ex is something very heart-wrenching. But at least she still got a happy ending.. how many really will get it?]

It is said that sunset means pessimist while sunrise is optimist thinking. Fortunately or unfortunately to me, both sunset or sunrise is a welcoming prospect to me. Maybe I aspire to be 知足常乐 haha!

But then compare to this article, I'm really 小巫见大巫. 15 years of blessing, 15 years of determination, 15 years of appreciating that each day lived is a day given by God which you should give thanks to. 15 years = 180 months = 5475 days = 131400 hours = 7884000 minutes. Every minute is spent smiling and being strong. Most importantly every minute is spent being appreciative of what is given to you. I am speechless.

Oh one more quote on bitter gourd.

苦瓜，又称半世瓜。如果你以前不吃，当你现在开始习惯吃的时候，证明你已经过了半世。很多人刚开始不喜欢吃苦瓜，因为觉得它很苦。然而当你长大，发现其实人生比苦瓜还要苦很多倍，你就会发现，其实，苦瓜一点都不苦。
~ 《妙手仁心2》

When I was young, I hated bitter gourd too. I'm not sure is it because mum changed her style of cooking to include wolfberries (枸杞) make it less bitter or is it because I started to live my 2nd half of my life already thus I can finally understand the bitterness in bitter gourd is nothing compared to the bitterness in my heart. Maybe..

Healing Hands sometimes makes one feel how fragile life is. The solemn atmosphere really isn't too good for extremist like me. But I guess it is good for me now. At least it provides an outlet for my heart...