The Old Man and the Life after Death

by | Feb 11, 2017 | Inspirational Stories

The Old Man and the Life After Death

An old man and his grandson were traveling through the desert. They’ve been walking for days, visited sacred places, shared stories with strangers around the fire, followed the voice of the wind, the whispers of nature and the trails of stars at night. As the sun sank one more time behind the sand dunes, they stopped before the gates of an ancient town. They stood silent for a while to admire the beauty of the place. Bright torches lighted the old streets and the joyful laughter of locals in the central square floated above the town’s walls.

“My boy” spoke the old man gently while handing him a few coins, “Go in this town tonight, eat well and sleep at the inn. Get some rest and tomorrow morning before the break of dawn, come and bury my body. This is my last night on Earth, and I want to be here under the stars. I want to be alone tonight and pray.”

The young man turned pale, and mumbled a few words:

“How do you know…? Are you not afraid to leave this world? I am very afraid of death.”

The old man smiled and spoke gently:

“Sit down here for a moment and look around. You see how beautiful it is? Imagine now you could speak to a soon-to-be-born child. If you were to tell this unborn baby to come out in this world and be born because he has a wonderful family that will care for him and love him unconditionally even beyond the realms of this world, that he will have friends to play with and the animals as his dear companions, that he will fall in love with beautiful strangers and travel across the oceans, that he will be surrounded by the magical beauty of these lands and will be in awe under the starry sky at night…Do you think this baby who is still in his mother’s womb will believe you? He will be afraid to be born.

I was once born, and I loved my life and this world. I learned not be afraid of the unknown. Why would I be afraid to leave this world, and be born into a new one? You are still young, but there will be many times in your life when you will have to die to the old, face the great unknown, and be reborn into a new you.

You will be afraid, but fear has no power in eternity, only in the moment. You will have dreams you will want to follow, but you will doubt yourself. Love will call you to distant lands, and you will want to answer Her voice. The voice of Love is the voice of God, why wouldn’t you listen? And with every dream and with every love, you will have to die to the old, and be reborn to the new, to leave the known behind, die to the familiar, and surrender to the mystery. For thousands of years humanity has been trying to answer the question: “Do we have life after death?” Maybe for the first time you must now answer the question: “Do I really have a life before death?”

(from my book Sleepers: 10 Bedtime Stories for Grownups, a little book on how to find meaning & the courage to fall in love with your dreams)

 

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

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DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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Fear has no power in eternity, only in the moment.

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The Weight of Her Tears

by | Jan 26, 2017 | Inspirational Stories

The Weight of Her Tears

Long time ago, a woman dressed in rags passed through a village in the mountains. With her head bowed, her face covered in dry tears and her eyes heavy with suffering, she walked into the grocery store and asked the owner if he could give her a little food, with the promise to return the money in the near future. She explained to him that her husband was very ill and cannot work, and their children haven’t had anything to eat in days.

The man looked at her in anger, and through his mouth disfigured with contempt said: “Get out of my store!”

“I am begging you. I will pay everything back in a few days” the woman said to him with a shaking voice.

In the store there was another man who overheard their conversation.

“I will pay for whatever this woman needs” said the stranger to the store owner. “Please, get anything you need for your family” he told her.

“Do you have a list of what you need?” said the owner, disgusted by the generosity of this strange man.

“Yes” the woman answered.

“Fine. Put your list on the scale, and I will give you food the same weight as your list” grinned the owner. “And not a single ounce more.”

The woman reached in her scruffy pockets, and pulled out a piece of paper. With her head bowed and her eyes to the floor, she put the list on the scale. The store owner put a loaf of bread, but the scale tipped to the side with the paper. He put a bag of flour with the bread, but the scale was tipped to where the paper was. The owner fumed red with anger, and kept putting groceries on the scale, which wouldn’t budge. He put food until his counter was covered. The scale stayed tipped to the side with the piece of paper.

The stranger smiled, and the store owner grabbed the woman’s list from the scale. Only four lines were written on that piece of paper:

Beloved Heavenly Father,

You know my needs.

I surrender to your will.

Only God knows the weight of your prayers. ” said the Soul Mechanic.

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

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DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

Do Think Do

by | Jan 18, 2017 | Follow Your Dream, Science & Spirituality

The Silicon Valley Way of Thinking

One evening after lights had been turned off at the NASA center in Silicon Valley where Singularity University is located, my colleagues and I sat on bean bags in a circle in the classroom, and talked about the predictions for the future. Rebecca, one of Google’s leading innovators, grabbed a coke, and joined our conversation.

“Thinking about the future is the worst way of thinking about the future. Working on your future is the best way of thinking about your future . You learn only by doing, but herein lies the problem” said Rebecca. “Let’s say you’re in a job. You want to make a change in your life. What do you do?”

“You get another job” someone said. We all laughed, because we’ve all done the same in the past.

“Exactly. You know why?” said Rebecca. “Doing always precedes knowing. You do what you know, and you only know what you have done before. Because you had a job for years, you know how to do that. Because you never had your own startup, you don’t know how to do that. Doing what you don’t know brings fear. Your brain thinks fear is danger—which, by the way, are two different things because you can be afraid for no reason, and you can be in danger without knowing it—and prevents you from stepping into the unknown. You go about doing what you know, because the known gives you a sense of security. So you find another job, and begin the process all over again. You drag the past into the future. Makes sense, right? If you want to create a different future – the one you actually want – you have to do what you haven’t done before.

You must walk into the unknown.”

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

– from my book, The Pursuit of Dreams

DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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Thinking about the future is the worst way of thinking about the future. Working on your future is the best way of thinking about your future.

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The Gift

by | Jan 1, 2017 | Inspirational Stories

The Last Gift

This is the story of the fourth magus, the wise man whom the world has forgotten.

When the magus saw the star shining in the the night’s sky over Bethleem, he sold everything he owned and bought three expensive gems: a sapphire stone, a ruby and an exquisite perl – to take to the new born king. He traveled for many days and nights to meet the other three magi.

On the way to Babylon, he found an injured man lying, almost dead, on the side of the road. The magus put the man on the camel and took him to the doctor. He gave the medicine man the sapphire stone in return for taking care of the wounded stranger. But the magus was three days late on his journey and when he reached their meeting place in Babylon, the three magi had already left without him. His dream was to bring gifts to the new born Jesus and didn’t feel discouraged. He followed the star to Betheleem alone. When he arrived, he learned the three magi had already found the baby, Kind Herod’s soldiers were slaying all the babies under the age of two, and Mary, Joseph and Jesus had already fled into Egypt. As the magus walked outside the gates of Bethleem, right in front of him a soldier was trying to rip a baby from his mother’s arms and slay him. The young woman was battling him trying to save her baby and screaming for help from the frightened villagers. The magus pulled out the ruby from the bag:

“Spare him! Let the baby live and I will give you this precious stone. Nobody will know our pact.”

The soldier grabbed the stone, and ran into the night. The young mother dropped on her knees with her eyes filled with tears of gratitude, and thanked the magus for saving her baby boy.

The magus continued his journey, hoping one day to see his dream come true: to find Jesus and give him the only gift he had left: the pearl. He traveled to Egypt and roamed for years trying to find Jesus, but without luck. Thirty years later, the magus learned that, somewhere in Palestine, Jesus was preaching the gospel. He journeyed to Jerusalem, only to discover that Christ had been crucified earlier that day. He ran towards Calvary hoping to see Jesus before it was too late, but on the road he encountered two roman soldiers dragging in chains behind them a young hebrew woman.

“Let her go, and I will give you this pearl. You can sell it and share the gold. Both of you will be rich” he said.

The soldiers ripped the stone from his hands and let the young woman go free.

The magus hurried to reach Calvary before it was too late, and was praying to God for the chance to see Jesus at least once. That was his dream, but now he had nothing. He was ashamed to come to Christ without a gift. When he arrived on the mountain, Jesus looked at him from the cross and said:

“Finally, you have come. I had been waiting for you. Thank you for your gifts, my beloved brother.”

“I have nothing” said the magus bowing his head in shame.

“You’ve given me everything” said Jesus. “When you gave to those in need, you gave to me, and what you gave to me in love, you gave to our Father. I have received all your blessed gifts. Your acts of unconditional love are never in vain and your gifts of love are never lost my brother, although they will have effects far beyond what you will ever know. “

(inspired from an old Christian story)

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

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DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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Your acts of unconditional love are never in vain and your gifts of love are never lost my brother, although they will have effects far beyond what you will ever know.

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Decision

by | Dec 25, 2016 | Follow Your Dream, Inspirational Stories

The Importance of Decision

“You have a dream, but you will never get to live it if you keep doing this” said the Soul Mechanic. “You keep changing your mind, you think you want to do it and then an hour later you give up because you don’t see how it can happen, then you read something in a book and decide to try again but after a few days you give up and throw in the towel. There is only one way to make your dream a reality: make the decision to do the work and then not change it.”

“I do not see how it can be done” I said. “I have a rush of enthusiasm going through my body when I read stories of people who worked for years, who went through the dark times alone and then succeeded, but when I think of my dream I realize there’s no chance I can do it.”

“There is only one way to make your dream a reality: make the decision and then not change it. The means will show up along the way. When you follow your heart, you are doing the work of Love in this world. Your mind will see obstacles in the future, but by the time you get there they will have been removed for you. Jesus taught us not to worry about tomorrow and only focus on today, because tomorrow will take care of itself. He also said that if we make Love the most important thing in our life and we first seek the kingdom of Heaven – everything else will come to us. God cannot remove the obstacles that are in the future because they exist only in your mind now, but He will remove them for you by the time you get there.”

 

Your friend,
Dr. Dragos

P.S: If you enjoy these conversations, subscribe below and get the most inspiring stories of the week straight to your Inbox.

DR DRAGOS

Live in truth and make your dreams a reality.

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There is only one way to make your dream a reality: make the decision and then not change it.

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