Our life does not happen without troubles, sending us new and new trials, and new “lumps of dirt”. But every time another “lump” falls, we immediately bend under it, instead of shaking it off, and thanks to it, we rise a little higher. And gradually - get out of the well.

In one yard lived an old but hardworking donkey. And one day a terrible misfortune happened to him. The donkey fell into the well. He got very scared and began to scream loudly, calling for help. The owner came running to his screams, looked at the current situation and just threw up his hands - after all, he thought it was completely impossible to pull the donkey out of the well.

And the owner, after thinking, reasoned like this: “My donkey is already old, and he probably doesn’t have much time left, but I still wanted to buy a new young and strong donkey. This well has already completely dried up, I don’t use it, and I have long wanted to fill it up and dig a new one. So why not kill two birds with one stone - I’ll fill up the old well, and bury the donkey at the same time, anyway, he won’t last long there.”

Without thinking twice, he invited his neighbors and everyone took up shovels and began throwing earth into the well. The donkey immediately understood what was happening and began to scream loudly and desperately, but the people did not pay attention to his screams and, silently, continued to throw earth into the well. Soon the donkey fell silent. The owner decided that the donkey had given his soul to God and continued to fill the well with earth.

When a lot of earth was covered, the owner looked into the well and froze in surprise: he shook off every piece of earth that fell on the donkey’s back and crushed it with his feet, without stopping for a second. And then the owner called on people to throw earth into the well even more actively, hoping that his old donkey would not be able to cope with a large amount so quickly.But very soon, to everyone’s surprise, the donkey was at the top, jumped out of the well, and ran out of this yard...

This is an old wise parable. Our life does not happen without troubles, sending us new and new challenges, and new “lumps of dirt”. But every time another “lump” falls, we immediately bend under it, instead of shaking it off, and thanks to it, we rise a little higher. And gradually - get out of the well.

Every problem is a stone that life throws at us. It seems to us that she is throwing it at us. But in fact, it gives us the opportunity to build our own road, walking along which we can overcome even a stormy stream! But to really do this, you need to move lightly, freeing yourself from unnecessary burdens.

Having freed your heart and your body from hatred and resentment, forgive everyone you were offended by and forgive yourself. This is easier to do than it seems if you sincerely want to. Let go - there is no need to carry this burden with you.

It's never too late to give yourself the opportunity to reset. Free your heart and mind from worries - most of them are useless and unproductive. And it takes an irreplaceable amount of energy. Make your life easier to use and appreciate what you have.

There is a perfect balance in the world. It seems to us that there is more bad. But the problem is in our perception: we take the good and valuable things we have for granted, and we always give the entire focus of our attention to troubles.

Our accents are undergoing a catastrophic distortion. And we get used to seeing the bad more often and more closely.

Every stage of human existence contained difficult times, not a single century was rosy. Because the development of mankind never stopped and every century moved Homo sapiens forward, developing and developing new skills.

Give more - expect less. Expectations are a direct path to disappointment. The world will always find a way to return what was given to you from the bottom of your heart, through other people, situations, circumstances. Not a single good message, not a single kind word, not a single sincere deed, not a single sincere feeling disappears into nowhere, does not sink into oblivion. And he always finds a way to return to you, matured and stronger.

Be sincere, it will save you from many problems and consequences, even if it seems to you that the situation does not provide for sincerity. Sincerity is not weakness, but strength! Strength is not for everyone. If you are sincere, you will begin to smile more often, because your soul will feel much lighter. And if you start smiling more often, you will start to be liked more often, and if you start to be liked more often... then you know.

Stop being afraid of everything. Nothing will happen to you that shouldn't happen to you. The only difference is that both fear and its absence have a magnetic force of attraction. And thus, you can strengthen some events in your life and weaken others.

But the strongest understanding and desire to get rid of fears, and not feed them, will come to you if you imagine that tomorrow could be your last day. And one of the first regrets will be that you were always afraid of something, didn’t dare to do something, didn’t do something, didn’t have the courage to say or show something, were afraid to go somewhere, something change, etc.And behind all this, the first thing will be your fear, which you yourself let into your life, nurtured and fed.

Believe me, if you have a dream or desire to do something, start doing it now, tomorrow you may no longer have the time and energy for this! Whip up the “lumps of dirt” flying at you under your feet. And no matter how deep your “well” is, if you fall into it, it means you can get out of it.

You won't have another life to live differently. Set your priorities correctly and live by filling yourself and your life, not depleting it. No matter who “falls asleep” on you with their “good” intentions, remember that this can also be used for good. Whoever tells you what you owe and to whom, remember that first of all we owe it to ourselves; in our entire lives we never owe anyone as much as ourselves.And you will see the harmonious structure of everything in this world.

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Nobody punishes anyone, God is Love, not an avenger and a “punisher.” We punish ourselves with our inertia, fears, inaction, negative thinking, stinginess of feelings, trust in someone, expectation of something, lack of faith in anything. And life is extremely beautiful.

Don't believe me? Stand up and see for yourself. Don't put off this great realization until the last day... published

© Tatiana Varukha

Ecology of life. Word on the eve of the New Year by Archpriest Dimitry Klimov, rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Kalach-on-Don, Volgograd region.

Towards the New Year: The less you expect from people, the more you expect from God

Word on the eve of the New Year by Archpriest Dimitry Klimov, rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Kalach-on-Don, Volgograd region.

Photo used: Stanislav Krasilnikov / ITAR-TASS

Regarding the New Year, thoughts periodically arise that this date is very arbitrary. Once upon a time it was celebrated at one time, then at another. I personally prefer to celebrate a new day - this is also new joy, new prospects, new expectations. And a year is such a long period of time that it is difficult to trace or make plans for anything.

For a believer, every day is a new time. This is a time that has never existed before and will never exist again. And he asks that God guide him on this day, act on him, help him, and not leave him. And the same thing, probably, every year coming - we all ask that the Lord does not turn away from us and does not forget us. Well, then we begin to think that it is not so much God who turns away from us as we who turn away from Him. It is not He who forgets about us, but we who forget about Him.

Personally, I am tired of feeling anxious and pessimistic about the times ahead. For a Christian, pessimism is such an interesting perspective. On the one hand, we are waiting for the end of this world, and on the other hand, we are waiting for the coming of a new world and a new life, after the coming of Christ.

I no longer expect anything good politically or socially from our history, from our life. I have no hopes for a “bright future” here.

Firstly, as a person who is no longer young and, secondly, as a historian who knows that so much has already been repeated, what, it would seem, humanity should never repeat, should already comprehend, should overcome and not step on the same rake. However, it comes and everything repeats itself.

All this pessimism, all the darkness of our present life is sanctified by the light of Christ, the light of His promise, the light of His promise that He will not leave us, that He will come and restore justice and joy. What we could not restore, the Lord will restore for us. And so I have been living in this expectation lately.

I'm already tired of expecting prudence from some people, from politicians. The less you expect something from people, the more you expect it from God. And so my faith is becoming stronger and stronger.

When we don’t see justice here, for some reason I believe more and more in Divine justice. When we don’t see love here, I, again, believe more and more in the love of God, which will conquer everything.

On New Year's Day, we wish each other “new happiness.” It seems to me that you can expect new happiness from God when you have already managed to process and somehow rethink the “old happiness” that you already have.

We must learn ourselves and teach our children to be happy at the moment. Don't wait for this happiness all the time. We could all be so happy if we saw the happiness that is nearby. Not because nothing bad is happening, but because we live. We live in the light of God's love.

Today, as children grow up, they grow up with the mindset that nothing depends on them in our country. They give up and become socially passive. But they need to be convinced that a lot actually depends on us.

Because God does a lot of things in the world with the hands of people, with our hands. Children should be taught so that they strive to create their future now. To be fair, to be merciful, to focus only on the commandments of God, on those laws that the Lord gave us.

Well, on a personal level, God grant to all of us that nothing bad happens this year. We all pray about this every day. We ask that there be no wars, that all people find words to solve problems.

Scary for the children, of course! But you must educate them, you must do your job, participate in public life. After all, it was not for nothing that the Holy Fathers said that even if it is known that tomorrow will be the end of the world, still today you must give birth to children, raise them, you still must sow bread, do what you are doing, despite the fact that tomorrow all this will stop .

From scratch?

Often people are going to start the next New Year with a clean slate and change their lives in some way. Probably, human psychology is characterized by a certain cyclical nature. It is necessary, on the one hand, to close worries, on the other hand, to open up your life in such holidays. That's why they exist.

But if religious holidays, Christian holidays, open a person to eternity, to communion with God, to immersion in timeless events, then secular holidays, such as the New Year, are specifically associated with psychology. A person wants to reconfigure himself and is waiting for something. Like Natasha Rostova, who would pull up her knees and fly. She dreams, but she doesn’t fly anywhere. People are waiting for something, but it all ends on January 1st with firecrackers scattered on the streets, all those poor swollen faces after the holidays. And yet, somehow no one flew anywhere and nothing really came true for anyone.

But simply in a psychological sense, it is important for a person to build some expectations, to project dreams. And whether they will come true later or not, that’s the third question. Nobody really expects them to come true. The main thing is to set a perspective and expect something good. This is akin to calling completely different things faith. That is, the same word is used to describe ordinary faith and religious faith, faith in God. And they say that you have to believe in something.

A person believes in tomorrow. He cannot know that this day will come for him, that it will be successful. He cannot know that the children he raises will be happy and good. He cannot know that the grain he sows will grow and he will reap the harvest. He doesn't know it, but he believes it. And this faith helps him. Helps in the ordinary, psychological, everyday sense.

But faith in God is not only faith in something good. Although for many this is exactly the case. A person believes in a better future, that something good will come ahead. And he projects this faith onto his relationship with God. That is, he believes in God as something good that must exist, because you have to believe in something good.

So, in fact, faith for a Christian is still an experience, a meeting with God, God touching the heart. And in this regard, holidays are different for believers and non-believers.

For a believer, Christmas is a touch of reality, which is much more real than his life, it is a coming before the born, incarnate God. And an unbeliever is deprived of this escape from everyday life, from the moment. He relies only on psychology, only on the desire to believe in something better. Moreover, this best does not even have to come true, but the main thing is to believe in it. Therefore, the New Year, it seems to me, is some kind of embodiment of such psychologism in this regard.

The joy of the New Year is often a gastronomic joy. Even in my younger years, when I rethought a lot of things, I stopped taking the New Year seriously. It’s interesting for children, all these paraphernalia. And somehow I’m no longer interested.

I remember how I made a mistake in my younger years, as a student, when we were preparing ahead of time with the guys for the New Year: where we would celebrate, how much we would eat, how much delicious food we would drink. And then New Year comes, then January 1 - and what, what happened? Nothing.

Now, looking at many of our compatriots, I see that they are still in the same state that I was in at the age of 17-18. And they seem to be adults, but it seems to them that there is joy in this - to eat, go on visits, drink so legally, despite the fact that the wife is nearby, you can still get drunk. This is already kind of funny to me.

Another point why we notice and mark certain periods of time is because God Himself sanctified this time, that God Himself entered at this time. He sanctified it with His existence, with His earthly life. And therefore, it is also sacred to us to some extent, and these periods that we call years are also holy, because the Lord lived with us for 33 years. And, so to speak, he also revolved around the sun with us.

Thank God, of course, that the Lord gives us this time, and also gives us time to revolve around the Sun one more time.

Of course, all the most heartfelt wishes, all connected only with peace.

So that we can learn to appreciate this peace and stop talking about war with such simplicity, with such ease. So that we understand that peace is important to people.

Previously, when there were many people alive who went through the terrible Great Patriotic War, they were the immunity of the people, protecting them from a new war. They, having gone through the bitterness of war, through suffering, understood that this should not happen again. And now they are almost all gone, with their terrible experience, there are practically no veterans left. And now we have lost this immunity, and we began to perceive war easily.

With our easy-going attitude, just a lit match is enough and everything will explode. It feels like all the gunpowder is scattered and gasoline is spilled. All that remains is to strike and everything will light up with amazing ease. Therefore, of course, for ourselves, for all of us, and for our children, we need to wish for peace and always pray for this peace. published

Prepared by Oksana Golovko

Golden rules of life

1. The mirror principle. Before judging others, you should pay attention to yourself.
2. The principle of pain. An offended person inflicts offenses on others.
3. The principle of the upper road. We move to a higher level when we begin to treat others better than they treat us.
4. The boomerang principle. When we help others, we help ourselves.
5. The hammer principle. Never use a hammer to kill a mosquito on someone else's forehead.
6. The principle of exchange. Instead of putting others in their place, we must put ourselves in their place.
7. Principle of learning. Every person we meet has the potential to teach us something.
8. The principle of charisma. People show interest in a person who is interested in them.
9. Principle 10 points. Believing in people's best qualities usually makes them show their best qualities.
10. The principle of confrontation. You should take care of people first and only then enter into confrontation with them.
11. The principle of stone rock. Trust is the foundation of any relationship.
12. The principle of the elevator. In the process of relationships, we can lift people up or bring them down.
13. The principle of the situation. Never let a situation mean more to you than the relationship.
14. The Bob Principle. When Bob has problems with everyone, the main problem is usually Bob himself.
15. The principle of accessibility. Being at ease with ourselves helps others feel at ease with us.
16. The principle of the trench. When preparing for battle, dig a trench for yourself large enough to fit a friend in it.
17. The principle of agriculture. All relationships need to be cultivated.
18. The 101 percent principle. Find the 1 percent that we agree with and focus 100 percent of our efforts on it.
19. The principle of patience. Traveling with others is always slower than traveling alone.
20. The principle of celebration. The true test of a relationship is not only how faithful we are to our friends when they fail, but how much we rejoice when they succeed.
21. The principle of friendship. Other things being equal, people will tend to work with those they like; under other unequal conditions, they will still do it.
22. The principle of cooperation. Working together increases the likelihood of winning together.
23. The principle of satisfaction. In a great relationship, all the parties need to do to enjoy it is simply being together.

Question: Why is there so much disappointment in the world?

Osho: Because there are a lot of expectations. Expect, and then there will be disappointments. Don't expect anything and there won't be any disappointments. Disappointments are a by-product: the more you expect, the more you create your own disappointment. So it's not a matter of disappointment, it's just a result. Expectations are the real problem.

Disappointment is the shadow that follows expectations. If you have no expectations, even for a moment, if you have no expectations in your mind, then everything is simple. You ask a question and the answer comes; there is satisfaction. But if you ask and you yourself have some expectations, then the answer will disappoint you.

Everything we do, we do with expectations. If I love someone, we are consumed by expectations that we are not even aware of. I begin to expect that love is reciprocated. I'm not gender yet