Black-tailed gull’s hatchling

Black-tailed gull’s hatchling

“Squack, Squack.”

You would have once seen a bunch of gulls crying noisily, covering a whole island.

I have seen a documentary which was about a black-tailed gull’s life. This black-tailed gull lays its 4 to 5 eggs in the bushes of a deserted island during May to August, and incubates them.

With an effort, the hatchlings try to survive by remembering their mother’s voice.

Those noisy cries were made by the hatchlings,voices calling for their mother.

Since multiple numbers of black-tailed gulls live in a small space, their turf war is intense.

The bushes are a threatening place for the hatchlings, who cannot distinguish what they see. The young hatchling isn’t an exception as a target of attack.

If one of the gulls crosses over its territory, the hatchlings’ life is in danger. That is why by nature, the hatchlings rely on their mother’s voice.

When the mother alerts, the hatchlings come together in haste, drop their heads down, and wait until their mother’s warning to be canceled.

After listening to their mother’s approval that it’s alright, they then loosen up their bodies and move here and there.

The black-tailed gull cannot distinguish the voice of its own hatchlings.

That is because it cannot catch the change of their hatchlings’ voice, since the hatchlings grow too quickly.

So when the hatchlings shrink with alert and do not snuggle into their mother, the mother gull; deluding itself that they are hatchlings of another gull, attacks them.

The other gulls also distinguish their hatchlings with the hatchlings’ behavior.

It is pitiful to watch young hatchlings being attacked by another mother gull. When a hatchling of another violates a territory, the mother gull of that territory attacks them until they die.

The poor hatchling struggles to survive,but most of them die because they have left their mother.

On the island, you can see dead hatchlings here and there.

When I noticed the hatchling can only survive from the enemies by remembering its mother’s voice, following what the mother had told it to do, and seeing the mother trying to protect its hatchling, it made me think of the heavenly world.

Though we cannot see the invisible world, it brought me to attention thinking that the battle with the evil spirits would be also intense. Heavenly Mother, protects us from many attacks of the evil spirits, and teaches us that we must obey God’s words in order to return to the heavenly home.

I truly give thanks to Heavenly Mother,for even today, She protects these weak children’s souls under Her wings, and leads us with love to Heaven.

Until the day, when we go back to our home, I will become a faithful child who listens attentively to our Heavenly Mother’s voice, and a child who obeys.

Invisible Strength

Invisible Strength

There was a boy living with his mother who didn't know how to read or write. With the lack of formal schooling, the boy was despondent with his life, and by hanging around with wrong friends, he was sent to a reformatory for pick pocketing. The boy blamed his mother for not coming for a visit, and cursed the society for locking him up. One of the guards who watched this boy, gave him a young sparrow as a gift and said,

“I will release you if you raise this as a grown-up sparrow.”

The boy willingly consented having the greed of being released. However, raising the sparrow wasn't easier than he had thought of. He had to stop the sparrow annoying other people, had to make it warm so it wouldn't get cold, and had to feed it time after time.

But after the sparrow grew up a little, it kept on trying to fly away between the bars. When the boy tried to stop it and tied its leg with a string, the sparrow struggled to cut the string. It was no good even though the boy tried to soothe it down with food. Being exhausted, the boy finally said to the guard that he wanted to let it go.

“I want to continue and raise it, but it just wouldn't understand me.”

The guard smiled and said,

“That is your mother’s heart. She wants to keep you, who aren't still a grown-up,from getting away from her. But you just cut the string and fly away. That is why you are here.”

When the boy looked at him oddly, he said,

“Your mother still loves you. Much more than how you consider of the baby sparrow.Your mother must have been learning how to read and write. She personally wrote a petition of requesting us to release you.”

Source from: ‘Among the 108 warm hearted stories that opens the relationships’ / LS

The finger that hurts the most

The finger that hurts the most

They say that you wouldn't understand parents’ heart unless you had a child.

One thing that I was thankful raising my two children was that they grew up well, beautifully, and healthy.

However, I myself hurt my parents many times.

Thinking that I was the very person who scorched my parents’ heart from the point I was born, I feel so sorry.

I had an operation of grinding my back bone from an illness that no one knew about.

In the U.S. army, I happened to have an operation on a cold operating table without anesthesia.

I wailed as if the hospital might go somewhere, and the surgical scar still clearly remains.

I just remember it that it hurt so much that I thought I cried to death. But outside the operating room, listening to my cry, my parents who couldn't do anything for me, their heart would have sunk and have regretted.

“Maybe you have weak eyesight and are always sick because you were so frightened that time.”

My mom still worries about what had happened that time.

Whenever she says that, I just put her at ease saying, “Mom, it’s not because of that, don’t worry.”

But she still doesn't feel comfortable and turns her back and weeps. Seeing her crying, my eyes also ache with tears.

These days, I constantly miss my parents living in the countryside.

Though they didn't have much, they raised me fine and well and got me married.

Whenever I am on the phone my mom sadly says, “You’re the finger that hurts the most.”

I live far away from them and rarely call them, but the parents’ love for their child is just endless.

Through my parents; sacrificing for me until the end, I realize Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother’s love.

Despite of the endless sacrifice for many of their children, they hide their sufferings and pain.

The children are too ignorant to understand Heavenly Parents’ love.

How can we repay for their grace...

At this moment, I don’t envy anything at all.

I believe I am the wealthiest person because I believe in Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother, and that I am a child receiving that love.

Thank You Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother for giving Your endless love to this lacking child. I love You.

Mother’s Love

Mother’s Love

Would there be any conditions for the mother to love her child?

Maybe that could be an instinctive love.

Does it matter if it’s instinctive or not?

The mother loves her child and the child loves her. If the mother forsakes the sentiment and follows the reason, that wouldn't be mother’s love.

If that happens, the value of mother’s existence would be meaningless.

Mother’s love might always be unilateral.

Though she cannot eat or dress well, she just wants to feed her children fully, and wants to dress them with the best, beautiful clothes. That is the heart of all mothers in this world.

If someone praises that her son or daughter is pretty, kind or great, she can’t seem to stop smiling more than receiving those praises for herself.

If the child is happy and comfortable, the mother also feels comfortable. And if the child is distressed or uncomfortable, the mother’s heart hurts and she is painful more than a hundred and thousand times than the child.

She worries and can’t be relieved for a while, when the child is far away from home.

She rejects the warm house during the cold winter or the cooling air conditioner during hot summer.

If there is a day when the child goes to the jail for his or her sin, despite of other people throwing stones at her child, the mother just wanders around the jail until her child is released.

There is nothing she can’t do for her child.

Mother is the one and only person who can sacrifice her only life for her child.

In a sense, like a foolish person.

But in that ‘foolish-like,’ there flows the true spring of mother’s love, and in that ‘foolish-like,’ there is the greatest strength hidden.

That is how mother becomes the most strongest and powerful woman.

That strength can demolish a high mountain in any minute, and can draw all the seawater from the deepest ocean. That strength comes only from mother. That is why mother is great.

She is not just great.

In the greatness, there is a resolution made to pay for the price, and an endless sacrifice.

It is the sacrifice to willingly give up the life.

There is no one except mother who can go under this sacrifice.

No one can easily become a mother.

That is why mother’s path is far and rugged.

Having the unilateral, unconditional relationship, the mother and the child live with downward love and not upward love; until they leave this world.

This is the common path of destiny that all mothers of this world go.

My sister

My sister

When I was an elementary school student, my parents used to leave home for work very early in the morning and came back late when the stars shine in the night sky. Eldest sisters who were two years older than me took care of twin sisters as well as me. As usual, my sister served dinner to us.

“What do you want to eat for dinner?” my sister asked entering the kitchen. “Sis! I want to eat some noodle.” We all spoke with one voice.

“Noodle? I’m not sure if we have any at home. Let me go check first.”

She opened the cupboard and searched everywhere.

“Here it is! Just stay in the room and I will cook delicious noodle for ya.”

While she was cooking, we were watching TV in the room. After some time, there was a delicious noodle smell coming into the room. Holding our breath, we were waiting for the noodle to be ready.

Giving a shout, we hope she could come inside the room soon. When she was coming into the room, holding the noodle pot in her hands,she lost her balance and fell down on the ground with a single cry, ’whoops”. When she was bringing a big pot, she couldn't see the front and finally tripped on the threshold.

“Gosh, it’s too hot!”

Noodle was gushed out on the floor and her arm was splattered with hot noodle soup.

“Oh, no! My noodle! Oh, my noodle!”

Making naught of my sister who fell down and got hurt, both of us sank on the floor and cried a lot looking at the spilled noodle.

“Give me noodle! noodle! “ I cried to get noodle and she cleaned the spilled noodle all over the floor and said,

“Ok, I will cook another noodle for ya. Just wait please.”

Then she went to the kitchen and cooked another noodle for us. Still now, we often talk about this. At that time when it happened I could not readily apologize to her because of the reason that I was very young back then. Rather than caring her who got hurt by cooking for her sisters, we were so mean enough to take it out on her by the thought of not eating noodle.

Thinking how painful she would be back then,my heart was deeply touched.

I am pretty sure my appearance in my childhood must be my spiritual appearance in the past. I wonder if I have ever pained enough attention to how painful my brothers and sisters are. It is no use regretting it after long time has passed by. I would like to become spiritual family who consider and think in the perspective of my brothers and sisters at all times.