“… in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” These words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ring strongly in my head recently and in this very moment as I am writing this. And this will live with me as one of my key principles in life, ‘No person should ever be judged – we shouldn’t even be judging anyone in the first place – by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.‘

Change must come from each and every one of us … and very importantly also, through the daily education of our young ones. However, we can preach all we want to the young ones, as long as we are showing otherwise, they will not do what we have preached; very simply put, “Why should I be doing that which you are asking me to do when you yourself are not doing it?”

Thus, the reason why I said that ‘Change must come from each and every one of us.’ In order to do that, shouldn’t we be watching our thoughts? The thoughts will form our actions which will translate to our speeches and the things we do. Purifying the heart with love, understanding, respect, and goodness of people and our actions will be that of love, understanding, respect, and goodness. As we sow, so shall we reap. To be honest, this is not gonna be easy and many of us will fail badly in the first attempt but we’ll get better.

Why should we be doing this? No one wants history to repeat itself; I’m sure you can find, through Google, numerous cases of social unrest in history when there was no racial harmony. Whether we like it or not, this does not affect only us, this goes on to affect our younger generation and for many generations to come.

In actual fact, we not not very different from each other. Today, will be the day we look upon another as the same as we are. Think about it, the person in front of us, could be just another’s grandparent or parent or uncle or aunt or brother or sister or friend …. just as we could be someone’s grandparent or parent or uncle or aunt or brother or sister or friend?

Today, let us join our hands to be part of that change to bring racial harmony to the world starting right there – in our hearts.

A beautifully made video which shows the essence, which all healthcare practitioners should have. As what Henry David Thoreau said, should the healthcare practitioners look through the eyes of their patients, would they have ‘treated’ their patients very differently? I believe so.

I remembered the time when my father was very sick, the ones who were really connected to us were not the ones who merely treated my father but the ones who went through the extra miles to find out what else we needed and to give us advice.

In fact, we could use a lot of empathy in our everyday lives and not only in healthcare or service lines and it should be two-way. We must bear in mind that the waiter/waitress who is serving us in the restaurant, or the cashier who is processing our payments, the strangers who cross our paths – each and everyone of them has a story. It was indeed very wise of Socrates when he said, “Be nicer than necessary to everyone you meet. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle.”

From this moment, whenever we are readied to judge the person in front of us, perhaps … no, then all the more we must get to know the person better. Often time when we dislike something in another, we can be sure that that ‘something’ can be found in us too. You may scream ‘Not True’ all you want. And yet when we calm down and ask ourselves honestly, we do have to admit that that ‘something’, which we dislike in the other person, is also in us.

Next fall, when you see geese heading South for the Winter, flying along in “V” formation, you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way: as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in “V” formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

Lesson #1: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front.

Lesson #2: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way we are.

When the Head goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.

Lesson #3: It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs with people or with geese flying South.

Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Lesson #4: What do we say when we honk from behind?

Finally, and this is important, when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gunshots and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly, or until it dies. Only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation to catch up with their group.

As the saying goes, ‘As we sow, so shall we reap’ … and this is the same truth of the thoughts we put in our minds. The mind doesn’t care what we put inside, it is our choices what we choose to put inside. But what we put into our mind, it must return back to us. If we constantly put negative thoughts into our mind, we will get negative results in our life and if we put positive thoughts into our mind, yes, we get positive results. And thus the ‘possibility’ when we look at a seed; some will see the becoming of a forest and some will just hold on to that one precious seed. In the end, the seed doesn’t even get a chance to be planted.

I hope this poem by Ralph Marston will inspire to see the possibility in life too.

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Possibility by Ralph Marston