In Search of Meaning with Amelia Rose

A Science Professor used a half glass of water to teach his students a valuable lesson about the weight of negativity; listen and tell us what you think.

Members of the body started a strike to starve one member they thought was lazy. After a few days , all the body parts were hurting and quickly ended the strike. They learned a valuable lesson; what do you think it was?.

The story is about a Crow that thought it could be the happiest bird in the world if only it could be like 3 others birds. It soon discovered that envying the other birds wouldn't really make that happen for him. Listen and learn what the real problem was and what we as human beings can do should we find ourselves in the same predicament.

"Doing good does you good". This episode is about a painter whose Boss asked him to paint his boat, but the painter unbeknown to the Boss also plugged a hole he noticed in the Hull. Listen and discover how this small act made all the difference.

The story is about a man and his associates who headed to the west Coast during the gold rush of 1948. The initial dig showed that gold was present, but disappointment set in when nothing was found along the next 3 feet. I will let you guess what they did next. Another man after hearing what happened tried his luck and discovered gold 3 feet from where the first ones stopped drilling. Ouch!!! What can you learn from this story?

This story is about a man who mistakenly killed his pet dog in a rush to judgment. Listen and consider how you and I might have done the same thing without pulling an actual weapon. Think twice before you act once.

This story is about a group of successful past students who visited their old university professor on evening. However, instead of enjoying his company, they spent most of the time focusing on their coffee cups and complaining about life. The professor used the coffee and the cup to teach them a valuable lesson about life. What lesson did you garner from this brief story?

This is a story set in Germany in 12th Century. It is known by many titles, but more famously as "The Four Musicians of Bremen" and has as its characters a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster. These animals worked for years on separate farms until their masters felt they were no longer useful and plotted to discard them. They each decided to run away rather than face death; curious to know how things turned out for them? Stay tuned.

Six blind men curious to determine what an elephant looks like agreed to do so by touch. Each reported their thinking, but not after accusing each other of not telling the truth. A sighted man finally described the elephant to the men and they to collaborate to come to a full understand using their mind's eye. One life lesson for for all of us is that we often perceive different animals along our journey, but usually experience the same elephant- let's seek to understand.

This story is about a student who stole an expensive watch belonging to a fellow classmate. The wise teach recovered the stolen watch without exposing the thief, which changed his life for the better. Listen and determine how you would handle your teachable moment.

A young eagle fell from the safety of its nest one day and landed in a farm yard. The farmer picked it up and raised it with his chickens and before long it began to act like a chicken. A naturalist hearing this stopped by the farm to confirm what he heard and you will have to listen to hear what happened next.

A young business man was caught up with his affairs and paid little attention to anything else. One day while driving his brand new car in a neighborhood, someone threw a brick into the car door. Listen to hear what happened next and how his life changed; then tell us what was your brick.

A father laid on his sick bed, but wanted to teach his four sons a valuable lesson before he passed because they were always fighting among themselves. He thought a bundle of sticks would do the trick and called them to his bedside one day. Listen and learn the lesson they learn and what you can learn too.

This episode was set in Istanbul, Turkey and is about an old Caliph, who a young ruler observed planting saplings of date palms. The young ruler engaged the old Caliph in conversation about the sense in planting trees that take years to bear fruits , which he would not even live to eat. Listen and learn the rationale behind this story as the conversation between the two continued.

"The game of life is like a game of boomerang; our thoughts, our words and our deeds return to us with astounding accuracy".  See how this philosophy played out in the life of one couple at different places on the same day; who knows- you could be next.  

The is the story of a blind boy, who sat on the steps of a famous building in his hometown begging.  He carried a sign in his hand that read, " I am blind; please help" and he placed a hat by his feet.  One day, a gentleman passed by a changed the wording on his sign to read, " The day is beautiful, but I cannot see it". Shortly afterwards, the man watched as more people began to stop by and putting more money in the boy's  hat. This simple act by one thought soul changed the direction of the boy's life forever.  Who changed your sign?

A father wanted to teach his four sons the importance of not judging too quickly; he sent them on a trip to a neighboring city in different seasons.  They each returned with a different report about the one tree and your job is to learn the life lesson for you.

Everyone at some point loses something or someone and to each that loss appears the greatest. This story outlines the different losses people have experienced in life, including those due to death, but  when compared to the quote by Norman Cousins, political journalist and renown world peace advocate, " Death is not the greatest loss; it is what dies inside us while we still live".

This is the story about a group of frogs traveling in the woods when two of them fell into a deep pit.  Instead of trying to help , the others discouraged them from trying to get out until one actually defied them jumped out.  The trick was to ignore the negative messages and considering them cheers instead. The moral of the story is that life and death are in the power of the tongue and each one of us must determine for ourselves the positive messages embedded even in the most negative circumstances. 

The story is about a donkey (Ass) and a tiger having a discussion about the color of grass. The discussion got heated and a mediator was required- in came the Lion (The King), who settled the argument by punishing the tiger for wasting time arguing with an Ass.  Listen for the life lessons and share with a friend.

The story is about a merchant who purchase a camel and later found diamonds under the saddle. He returned and during a conversation with the camel seller taught him that some gems are better than diamonds. Listen and share your story.

From the beginning of time humanity has always been divided, but not until in modern time- the 17th Century to be exact have we been divided into races.  Ancient religions believe in the concept of the oneness of humanity and our inter-connectedness to nature until the big lie.  The truth is that there is only one human race and any division has served only to institute oppression and genocide. Know the truth.

An old woman once had two large pots which she used to carry water from a stream to her house.  One pot developed a leak, but she continued to use it. To make things easy for her, she placed each pot at each end of a long pole laid across her shoulder. Every day she walked from the stream home , with one pot leaking and the other perfect. The leaky pot became sad and miserable because it could only transport half of the amount of water; the other pot boasted about its perfection. The cracked pot complained to the old woman, who explained that she knew that it leaked, but kept it anyway because it watered the flower seeds she planted along the way, wherein the perfect pot didn't. She went on to show the beautiful flower that adorned her house and attributed them to it imperfection.  We all have flaws, but are uniquely valuable. 

This episode is about two brothers, who, after 40 years of healthy collaboration in business, fell into conflict. The conflict exploded tremendously causing them to not speaking to each other for sometime.  The older brother hired a carpenter, who stopped by with his toolbox looking for work.  The job he was given to do was to build a fence around the older brother's farm so that he wouldn't have to look at the younger brother's farm.  However, after the older brother left to purchase building materials in town, instead of building a fence, the carpenter built a bridge between the two farms. Eventually the two brothers crossed over the bridge, shook hand and resolved their differences.  The moral of the story is that we should always be prepared to employ the right tool from our toolbox to solved a problem when the job requires it.

A neighborhood woman's conversation with an elderly she observed sitting by a lake near her home, led to a lesson about how our actions on a small scale can impact lives for good.

This story is about an elephant and a dog who became pregnant the same month; however, the dog got curious when the elephant did not give birth in 9 month.  The life lesson derived from the story is that even when others seem to be getting ahead of you in life, we should not envy or resent them ; instead we should be confident in our own journey knowing that your destiny is not in the journey of others.

Happy New Year and welcome back to "In Search of Meaning with Amelia Rose".  This episode has to do with two 9 year old kids- a boy and a girl.  The girl approached a philosopher to ask the question, "Why do we Live?" the answers will amaze you let alone a 9 year old.  The other story has to do with a boy whole was experimenting with matches and gasoline , much to his misfortune.  Luckily for him he lived to tell his story of Hope, resilience and community and attribute them for saving his life.  You don't want to miss it.

The story is about a professor who was asked to speak with some first year business students about an important management subject.  Wanting to make a lasting impression on the young mind he decided to do an illustration, with limited words.  Using a big jar, a sack of pebbles, a pouch of sand and a bottle of water; the professor taught the most profound lesson about priority and life. Enjoy.

James Baldwin, internationally acclaimed author, preacher and Civil Rights activists was asked by a journalist why he wrote his first book- "Go Tell it on the Mountain"; he replied, " In order for me to write anything else, I first had to deal with the thing that hurt me the most- my father/step-father".  But what about his father that hurt him for years you ask?  He recalled in his book that one day his step-father looked at him and told him that he was the ugliest child he had ever seen; not only was he hurt for himself, but he hurt also for his mother because she had the same-Frog's eyes.  So, as I made some connections to Baldwin's life and  his hurt to America, I ask you to consider what hurt you the most about America? 

As much as we would like to deny this truth, we are all guilty of judging others and whether we realize it or not, when we judge others, we do so not knowing their true motivation and without knowing what they are going through at any given time in their lives.  The hard truth though is that when we judge other we conclude that we are superior to them and nothing is further from the truth.  So, why no join me in trying not to judge others and this way giving them the best gift ever.

The story is about a boy with anger issue and how his father used a bucket of nails, a hammer and the backyard fence to teach to teach him a valuable lesson.  The truth of the matter though is that as adults we sometimes more anger issues than children and we tend to use more hurtful words than they do. After all is said and done, removing the nail does not solve the problem; what it does is reveal the damage done. Listen and be changed.

This story is about a family of four-parents and two sons.  The older son in each was to inherit his father's legacy as was the custom was in those days, but when his younger brother noticed that he had little regard for the inheritance; both he and his mother plotted to steal it from him.  Both designed an elaborate scheme and did just that, but life played an equal trick on the younger son later in life. Check out the life lessons interwoven in the story and let us know what you think.

This episode is about a father who taught his daughter a valuable life lesson about challenges using a potato, an egg and coffee beans , by pouring boiling water on all three. The moral of the story is that the way we experience life's challenges has everything to do with the way we respond to them.  Which one are you likely to be? Learn how you can be all three.

This episode tells the story of a father who gave his two sons enough money to build a house except that he didn't tell them who the houses were for.  The older son did a lousy job with his construction while the younger built a masterpiece. At the end of the day, the father informed both sons that the houses were theirs. The building of a house is equated with building one's life and the moral of the story is that we should be careful what we build because we will have to live in it.

This episode is about elephants conditioned at a young age that they couldn't break free from small ropes tied to only one of their legs. Listen and learn how like these elephants we as human beings can be kept in place by our pass learning and what we can do to break free.

Whether we believe it or not the impressions we create for those looking on make for some memorable and not-so memorable moments in life; so, it behooves us to be intentional and genuine when we are in the presence of others. This is the lesson Nigerian, billionaire and Philanthropist, Femi Otedola learned when he complied with a friend's request to purchase and deliver wheelchairs to 200 disabled children.  What will you be remembered for? 

The estimated annual cost of gun injury in 2012 exceeded $229 billion—about 1.4% of GDP; 31% of all households in the U.S. have firearms, and 22% of American adults personally own one or more firearms; there were 39,740 deaths from firearms in the U.S. in 2018. Sixty-one percent of deaths from firearms in the U.S. are suicides.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

This episode take a brief look of the killing of an unarmed, black man, George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.  We looked at the failed attempts by bystanders to get the police officers to do anything to prevent Mr. Floyd's death; the power of privilège, and the feelings of helplessness, by people who already marginalized by society.  Finally, consideration is given to loss in which the biggest loser is actually the Killer. 

Listen as we discuss the concept of a soul and whether or not a nation has a soul; stay as we examine America's soul and what is wrong with it. Then learn what we can all do to fix it.

This episode give a snapshot on the current voting rights attack on minority voters by Republicans lawmakers. I also makes some connections to the history of some of the states with the strictest voting restrictions, root causes and suggest possible solutions to the problem

This is the first in a series of episodes on inequalities in America and takes the form of an interview with my friend and guest Mr. Ed Barber, retired engineer and student of history. Mr. Barber explains the grid system that failed in Texas recently due to a winter storm and the impact on residents.  You don't want to miss it. Follow us on Facebook and leave your questions or comments.

For centuries, we've read about things people do for love, but this story gives Thomas Kempis' quote standing. "Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible."

Enjoy!!

In observance of Black History Month, I have chosen to address one aspect of derogatory name-calling of black to each other; nothing can be so dehumanizing or demoralizing (Nigger, whore, bitch, etc). Instead I am admonishing those who are so inclined to banish the ghosts of self-hate in honor of our ancestors, who paid the price for us to be called by our proper names. 

Silence can be viewed as a double-edged sword because as with most things in life it has both favorable and unfavorable consequences. Every day, all around us, we see negative  consequences of silence manifest themselves; however, it is my hope that after listening to this episode you will examine your own use of silence and use it to save lives..

Many  have difficulties learning life's lessons during ordinary times, but crises have a way of forcing us to learn them in extraordinary, like this pandemic.   Whatever you decide, the fact of the matter is that we can choose to learn them through pleasure or through pain.