Do you take the time to understand the other person's point of view?

This is a short story to illustrate a point.
Sand in the lounge.....

A Dad walked into the house after a stressful day at work to find a pile of sand in the middle of the lounge, brought in by his 6 year old daughter, while his wife had been in the shower. This was the last thing that he needed after the day that he had just had so he scolded her and sent her to bed crying.

After cleaning up the sand (still in his work clothes) he went upstairs to change. He peered into his little girl's room to see that she had fallen asleep and, as he did this, his wife emerged from the bathroom and said " Sally said she was going to make you a special sandcastle - did you like it?".

His wife obviously wasn't aware that their daugher had made it in the lounge and he hadn't taken the time to think about the positive intention behind the behaviour, or to listen to what his daughter had to say.....

When could you listen better, and take time to see the other person's point of view before making a judgement?

A story about how your perception can change your version of reality

One day a rich father took his son on a trip to the countryside with the sole aim of showing him how poor people can be.

They spent a day and a night at the farm of a very poor family. When they got back from their trip the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

"Very good Dad!"

"Did you see how poor people can be?" the father asked.
"Yes I did Dad!"

"What did you learn?"

The son answered, "I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of the garden; they have a river that flows all the way to the sea. We have imported lamps in the garden; they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front garden, they have a whole horizon."

When the little boy was describing what he saw, his father was speechless.

His son continued, "Thanks dad for showing me how poor we are!"
Isn't it true that it all depends on the way you look at things?

The moral of this story is: If you have love, friends, family, health, good humour and a positive attitude towards life, you've got everything. You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for the future, etc... but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing.