A joke by comedian Tim Vine about a vacuum cleaner has been voted the winner of the Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh Fringe Award 2014.  See the full top 10 list above.

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The Eyes – Your Eyes may be giving away more than you know!!

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Little things matter. Never underestimate even the simplest acts of kindness and love. The author of  Dilbert ,  Scott Adams, says:

Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness.
Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

Another one of my favorite quotations comes from the highly-celebrated poet, William Wordsworth:

The best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

There are beautiful random acts of kindness that we can do everyday. All it takes is to have some consideration for others, and to look for opportunities to make the day a little happier and brighter for someone else.

I am not sure whether you do recall this lovely little poem by Mrs. J. A. Carney that you would have probably learned as a child. Though these words have the innocence of childhood in them, they are, nevertheless, timeless and very profound.

Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean,
And the beauteous land.

Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above.

And the little moments,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages,
Of Eternity.

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One of the things that modernization and technology have done for us these days is to give us many options in life. For example, when we purchase things, whether it is food, vehicles, computers or cellphones, we are confronted by an expanding array of brands, flavors and options. Take milk, for example. If we only had just plain milk in the past, now we have skimmed milk, calcium-enriched, vitamin-enhanced, high-protein and etc.,

Similarly, we have more options in our choice of careers and lifestyle, and this can make our lives more complicated than before. However, I do not deny that choice can be a good thing. But, sometimes too many options become a source of distraction and frustration, and we lose our priorities and maybe even forget what our original objectives are.

How to combat this malady of modernity? Do not get caught by discounts so that you will not end up with things that you do not need. This resonates well with my preference not to browse and window-shop. Get to the shop, choose from what they have, buy it and go home.

Consider the wise words of Baloo the bear in The Jungle Book, when he taught Mowgli how to survive in the jungle.

Look for the bare necessities,

The simple bare necessities,

Forget about your worries and your strife;

I mean the bare necessities,

That’s why a bear can rest at ease,

With just the bare necessities of life,

Don’t spend your time looking around,

For something you want that can’t be found,

When you find out you can live without it,

And go along not thinking about it,

I’ll tell you something true,

The bare necessities of life will come to you,

They’ll come to you.

In this regard, I am certain that Baloo the Bear would heartily shake paws and hands with the great sage Lao Tzu if he hears him saying this:

Be content with what you have,

Rejoice in the way things are;

When you realize there is nothing lacking,

The whole world belongs to you.

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Let’s go fly a kite,

Up to the highest height,

Let’s go fly a kite,

And send it soaring…..

Up to the atmosphere,

Up where the air is clear,

Oh, let’s go…fly a kite!

Do you remember this song from Mary Poppins? We should go “fly a kite” all the time! By this, I mean that we must let go of our anxieties, worries, anger, jealousy, craving and many other defilement that we have, and “soar up to the atmosphere where the air is clear”. The more we are able to let go, the higher we will rise to enlightenment. Granted, sometimes we get hurt and angered, but the faster we let go, the less we will suffer.

We would do well also to remember that we must not cling to even the good feelings and so-called “correct” views. Do not hold on to opinions and concepts, or we get trapped in dualism.

Besides craving for material things, sometimes we also crave to be right. “I am right.You are wrong.” is a form of craving that afflicts many people these days. It does not do us any good to adopt this superiority complex because it would only hinder our own growth and the opportunity to discover and learn new method.

Hence, we should always keep letting go as we learn new things.

Let go of our views,

Let go of our cravings,

Let’s go fly a kite, folks,

And send it soaring………..!

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