My Values of Life

What is life? What do we live for? What are the values of life? People have been asking these questions since times immemorial /,imi’mo:riəl/ с незапамятных времен and each generation tries to find the keys to them.

There is an old legend. Long ago there lived two men. When their children were born they left their families and started wandering with bags on their backs. While travelling around the world they put small stones into their bags. A lot of years passed. The men decided to return to their wives and chil­dren. They were very happy to be again with their families. In the evening, when they opened their bags, they found that their stones disappeared. One of them found beautiful flowers in his bag. They were Health, Love, Happiness, and Friendship. He gave these flowers to his children and asked to guard them so that для того чтобы they should never leave their family. He told his children that those beautiful flowers were the values of life.

Another man found spiders and snacks in his bag. He had nothing to give to his children. He collected greed, thirst for money arid envy.

It's sometimes the case with us. Some of us find that our values of life are everlasting. Others, only at the end of their lives, come to understand that they have lived in vain, mat they've cared only for material things and haven't thought about die eternal.

All of us have different values of life. Mine are love, happiness, health and friendship. I cannot say what is more important and what less. They are correlated: one cannot exist without the others. You cannot be happy without love - be it love of a person, parents, friends, or motherland. Love makes our life complete and full of sense. Love makes friendship. You cannot love friends without loving people. To love means to give rather than to take.

Love adds happiness and health. Good health is a great blessing. Lack of health deprives our life of its vividness. “Good health is above wealth,” says an English proverb. Even having money you cannot buy it. You will probably ask me, “Don’t you need money at all?” Well, I need it only to buy clothes, food, and lead a decent /’di:snt/ life. But you cannot make other people love and respect with the help of money.

I think that the most important thing for us is to find real values of life while being young and stick to them throughout our lives.

Traits I wish I didn't have

"Every human has three characters - that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has".

(Karr)

Nobody on Earth is perfect, and I am no exception. We are just human beings with many drawbacks недостатки and faults and I'm trying to do away with at least some of them.

First of all, my tongue is my great enemy. Some inconsiderate необдуманный words can escape my lips and the next moment I may regret to have said this or that. The tongue is a very small organ of our body but its potential impact is huge. It can crush and destroy. It can cause people dislike or avoid us. It can be a great stumbling block to friendship unless we keep it under control. Isn't it funny that it takes a baby about two years to learn to talk and the rest of its life to keep its mouth shut?

Another unpleasant feature of mine is gossiping. Actually I hate gossips for I realize me great harm they do to people. Nevertheless, I often find myself doing it; it must be a weak point with every female being. They say that the only time people dislike a gossip is when you gossip about them. Now I try to put myself in other persons' shoes and think of the pain and hurt they might feel from being gossiped about; it helps me to hold my tongue somehow. A gossip is like mud thrown against a clean wall which may not stick but leave a mark.

Judging goes hand in hand with gossiping. Again I hate myself doing it but very often I am guilty of judging people in my heart. It is so easy to see somebody else's mistakes — it helps you not to focus on yours. I wish I were not so critical and fault-finding.

Another characteristic feature I don't like about myself is my being over­sensitive, too touchy and easy to get offended. A harsh /ha:∫/ remark or unkind word can sometimes hurt me very deeply. Then it makes room for bitterness and unforgiveness which I detest /di’test/ most of all. I know I need to develop a deaf /def/ ear to people's offensive remarks and not let them hurt me. There is a good state­ment, which goes like this, "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that the prisoner was you". No comments, as they say.

Still another feature I would like to get rid of is enviousness /’enviəsnis/ or jealousy /’dzeləsi/. Sheridan stated: “There is no passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy”. When you envy, you are discontent with what you have and don’t feel satisfaction with your present state or well-being, but covet /’kΛvit/ more and more. Obviously, it is not a pleasant emotion and the first person to suffer from it is you.

Of course, I have many other bad traits but I still believe that I have a strong will and desire to get rid of them and I’ll do my best to improve myself in the future.