Stories by alchemist (7 matches)

Ripples of Light

I have been going through a difficult patch recently and a friend told me this story when we spoke one evening. I am sharing the story with you because it gave me a little bit of hope when I was in need of a positive perspective. I hope that the ripples of this lovely story give you some hope if you need it too. He said that he was standing at the entrance of his building that evening, on his way home from work. He was talking to the building porter, when an old couple entered to go towards their flat. They stopped to talk to the porter and since my friend was standing there too, he overheard their conversation. Earlier in the day, the old couple was trying to stop a taxi to take them somewhere. The old man was severely handicapped and could barely walk without any assistance. A taxi ... Read Full Story >>

Words of encouragement

Today I walked into a shop and was served by a young boy - he must have been around 18. He was being told off by his boss for something. Even if what his boss was saying was valid, which I do not know, because I do not know the full story, I still felt that the way he was being treated was unfair. He was being put down in front of customers and all the other staff. The boss told him that he should not serve in the front of the shop anymore, where he deals with customers and should serve at the back. Then although the boy had started serving me, his boss asked him to stop and passed on the job to somebody else. The boy did not say anything but I could see that he was really upset. I could also see that he could easily have done what ... Read Full Story >>

Talking To The Homeless

Today I was walking along the street when a homeless woman asked me for some change. I gave her some money and stopped to talk to her for a while. I asked her about how she ended up on the street and if there was a shelter she could go to. She told me about some of her struggles. She told me that she left home at seventeen and was homeless since then (she now looked close to 40). She said that her bag with all her clothes and possesions was stolen the night before, while she was sleeping outside a church. She said that she goes to the day centre everyday and they make calls to try to find her a shelter but nothing is available, as all shelters for women are full up. It has been like this for months. I listened to her and said a few kind words to ... Read Full Story >>

Sharing and giving

This year for christmas, I decided to make a special effort to carefully select and wrap presents for my friends and family. I also sent out cards for the first time in many years.

Although I do not usually celebrate christmas, I saw it as an opportunity to show the people who are dear to me exactly how precious they really are to me.

Birthday Celebrations

My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. This year I have asked all my friends and family to send whatever they would normally spend on a gift, card and cake, to a charity that is close to my heart.

Learning life's lessons

I believe that life is always teaching us the lessons we need to learn.  We can either live our lives with awareness and listen to what is being taught to us as it happens, or we can ignore it and let the same message return to us again and again until we have no choice but to take notice. I believe that each lesson ultimately takes us deeper within ourselves so that we can live from a place of unconditional love, more and more, until eventually it is what we become. Recently I was taught a very important lesson. It is the lesson of gratitude. Someone dear to me was taken very ill. It was a devastating scare for the whole family. The event changed my whole perspective on life and what really matters. Suddenly I have realised that there really is no time to waste. No person and no situation in life can be ... Read Full Story >>

Giving support

A friend of mine called me at 2 am. I am an owl and usually work through the night, so I was awake. She was going through some problems and wanted to talk to me about them. I am overloaded with work right now, under a lot of pressure and incredibly stressed out. I too have a lot on my mind apart from just my work. But I decided to stop what I was doing, put it all on hold and talk her through her problems. I think it did the trick because we managed to find some kind of clarity to the situation after the conversation. I hope she feels better. However I know that sometimes it is not really what you talk about or whether you have found a clear solution to the problem that matters. What really matters is knowing that when you are going through a tough time, you ... Read Full Story >>

Three Important Things

Chocolate Insanity