Monday, August 22, 2011

If you could turn back time, would you have lived life differently?


An elderly house-builder was ready to retire. He told his employer of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. He would get-by.

The employer was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favour. The builder said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the builder finished his work, the employer came to inspect the house. He handed the front door key to the builder. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you." The builder was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.

So it is with us. We build our lives a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the building. Then, with a shock, we realize we have to live in the house we have built. If we could do it over, we'd do it much differently. But we cannot go back.

You are the builder. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, erect a wall. "Life is a do-it-yourself project," someone had said. Your attitude and the choices you make today build the "house" you live in tomorrow.


Build wisely!
Author unknown





"Walk on a trail of loving kindness
Walk on a path of compassion
And all else around you will be beautiful."
Every Blessing

14 comments:

A Mature Student said...

Great post. Food for thought.
The same reason, lau ang will not have anyone do the renovation to our home and it has taken him years....and still ongoing but he said at least he knows he hit the nail in the walk straight. The tiles are symmetrical.....
Having said that, yes, in all honesty, I would live my life differently if I could turn back the clock.

Chen Xing said...

Thanks for sharing this piece.

As for my part, I would say that I'll live it differently if given a chance to go back in time.

But then, as of now, we can only be thankful of what we have and continue to picture a brighter future which is ahead of us.

wenn said...

interesting story..

Linda Chia said...

Meaningful post .. It's so true. We have to lie in the bed we made!! However, in life, we have to accept and learn from the mistakes we have made and move forward. It's no point dwelling in the past.

William said...

Now, that's a big "Opps". Life's a big sack of 'unfinished business'.

இ Baŋäŋaz இ said...

Great story about giving your best. Heard it before but humans have short memory and need to be reminded often. Life is like a boomerang be it good or bad would come back to you. tQ +Ant+ when you gonna ask me to build another house for you before I retire?

Medie007 said...

i guess not.
given a chance, i'd prolly make mistakes again. albeit a different one.

Alice Law said...

*Nodding... how true... but I'll probably get bored and lazy to do something over again (if I ever turn back time), my 2nd attempts might be worse thn the former! Kiahahaha!

Whatever had done can't be undo. I reckon we should treasure our present, leave the past behind and of course strive for a better future!^^

Caroline said...

Agree no more. I also wish I could turn back the time and correct my mistake which is impossible. What I can do now is make sure I do the right thing. :)

Gratitude said...

Thank you all for your wonderful comments. I guess a majority of us would love to turn back the clock if we could, to be able to do things better.

Medie, of course we would still make mistakes but I'm sure we would be less fallible.

Alice, gosh that was indeed a cute comment that left me speechless :p lolz.
+Ant+

Gratitude said...

Bananaz, unless you could prove being capable of building, I'd only prolly pass to you my set of lego blocks :p Lmao
+Ant+

Anonymous said...

I guess I would. Change a bit here and there to make it better - just minor renovations. Keep the good and discard the bad and thankfully, most had been good...

[SK] said...

food for thoughts.. but i guess if the house is already built, we would need to learn to love it no matter how bad we have built it.. we can't go back and rebuild the house but we can always renovate to make it looks more beautiful.. :)

mNhL said...

That;s a nice story to share..... so meaningful.