Discovery is Seeing What Everyone Else Has Seen

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups -- porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -- telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking expensive cups were taken first, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress".

"The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive, and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup. But you consciously went for the best cups...and then you began eyeing each others cups".

"Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate. Your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy that which matters most".

A short while ago I had a moment of realization. I was accused of thinking of no-one but myself. Me, thinking of myself? Right, ok. Before responding I thought about this surprising accusation and realized that I never do think of myself, all my life it's been about others: I'm always lending family money (which I have come to realize causes more problems than it solves), always inconveniencing myself to help another who, after my help, doesn't bother to even say thanks, I'm always the one left with the burden after helping a friend. There are so many parasites and leeches out there, I feel like I'm being picked and picked, until there's nothing left.

I have always tried to live a good life. As mentioned before, I am not very religious but am spiritual, and when I pass on I want to at the very least be able to say, "I lived a good, decent life". Then there are those that take advantage of the good, those who want nothing but to strip you bare. These thoughts made me almost, ALMOST reconsider my take on life, until I came to the conclusion that were I to live by any other manner or logic, I would be no better than those that I have come to be weary of.

As such, I will continue along my path and will not change, I have a deep sense of self-worth and self-appreciation, and can look back on my short life up till now and have no feelings of regret or shame - and that to me is an accomplishment when faced with a world filled with lies upon lies.

Lee and I spent the month of February buying various items for Leah - a pricey chest of drawers, a cot, clothes, toiletries, etc, etc and etc:faint:.

All this left us utterly broke and without sufficient cash for a dinner for two at a fancy restaurant:down:. We instead went to Spur on Valentine's - Spur is a first tier South African restaurant that specializes in t-bone steaks and ribs:chef:. It was great stuffing ourselves and sitting back and letting it all settle:D.

Before then we just laid in bed and did NOTHING, lazing about and cuddling - my fave Valentines yet.

I wonder, is it me, or is trustworthy people becoming a dying breed? I repeatedly put my trust in those closest to me (of both the male and female persuasion) and am repeatedly disappointed.

I refuse to go the generic route and not trust again, to punish the next person for someone else's mistakes. Is it too much to ask for someone that I can trust ? Implicitly trust, with anything and everything? Is the world today so corrupt that a shoulder to lean on in a time of need is becoming increasingly absent? Is EVERYONE out there simply looking out for themselves , being greedy and selfish?

I don't want to live my life in fear of trusting those close to me, that would be horrible, but who can I trust? I so often find that I have to lick my own wounds, why can't I just lie under someone's wing, at least once, just once I would like to feel totally safe, totally at ease, openly talking about my fears and regrets, with no fear of reprieve. Is that too much to ask?

I was off the last three days and my manager pointed out to a colleague (that sits next to me) that his stats is better with me not sitting next to him. To cut a long story short, my colleague (who is also my friend) blamed me for HIS lack of performance when I'm at work, and my manager moved me to a different cubicle - SHE MOVED MY SEATING while I was off!!!

Today she is'nt in work, but when she's back on Monday I am going to unload twelve shades of brown crap onto her inconsiderate, yellow-bellied carcuss. It's ridiculous!! In today's world an adult doesn't take responsibilty for his actions and uses someone else as his scapegoat - and here's the thumper: he gets away with it - until monday at least, and this is someone I would do anything for, someone I trusted. He defended himself (or tried to) by saying if I was in that situation, I'd have done the same - clearly he doesn't know me. He also made a weak attempt at justifying his betrayal by saying I wasn't at work to defend myself - so it's my fault. This guy deserves an asshole award draped in extra ass.

Right now he is laughing and having fun while I am out in the open, taking even higher risks to log onto opera. I have an extremely strong inclination to severely beat him, but have to control myself, I have to play this smart...