Million dollars lunch box
Chen, Wan Chia 2012-10-20
In the same year, I was transferred to a new department. The colleague next to my office is a man, who always ate a lunch that was prepared by his wife. I live far away from my hometown and ate lunch at the company’s cafertia. One day, I accidentally saw what he had in his lunch box, which was a nice meal with quite a variety of food. I knew my colleague’s family life, so I sincerely said to him wtih envy’s voice, "your lunch is great! Your wige is perfect. She is unique in our busy modern society. Not only because she lives with your parents, your brothers and sisters, but also patiently prepares vegetarian meals for the in-laws, and the colorful lunch for you. It took a lot of effort and patience to prepare such a good lunch. She is one of the few wonderful wives in our society. You should show her your appreciation when you got home.
The next day, my coworker brought an extra lunch box and said to me, "I got home yesterday and told my wife what you had told me. She was so touched and asked me to bring you the lunch box every day from now on." I was surprised to receive such a wonderful gift after saying something nice. From then on I had a delicious homemade lunch every day at work, until the end of my job in that company. The friendship had imprinted deeply in my heart, and I always send greeting cards to that family every year.
My shifu taught us to reach out to others with kindness. I have always practiced what I was taught from my shifu. Recently, I found some cracks in my house’s floor. A contractor with a good reputation was referred by a friend. The contractor came to the house and gave me an estimate. When I asked him when he could start to work, he told me that he has been very busy and asked me to call back in a while. This situation repeated several times, he once told me not to call at least for another month. I just waited patiently. Finally, he and his crew came to work. At lunch hour, I thought that they must be too busy to take a break and get lunch so I brought them lunch boxes, and appreciated for their hard work, and their carefully working on the floor without making a mess in the house. I told them that I was lucky to hire them for the job.
The next day, I received a call from the contractor. He told me: "I want to be honest with you why I did not start the job earlier. It was because your project is small, and you have so much stuff around the house that makes the job complex. Therefore, I tried to turn down your project by telling you that we were busy. I was surprised how patient you were. You gave me no excuse not to take your project. Also you were so kind to bring us lunch and chat with us. I am deeply touched what a nice person you are. I made a calculation and found that we did not work as many hours as we estimated, we will charge you ten thousand dollars (3,300 U.S. dollars) less than our original quotation." For me, this is a surprise. It is a big discount for such a small project. I shared this story with a sister at Tai Ji Men. She said to me, half joking: "The lunch boxes you bought for the contractor were worth ten thousand dollars."
Shifu taught me to say good words and bring kindness to people around me. I first thought that I was doing good things for others, helping others to stay happy and being humane. Later I realized that I am the one who benefits from the good karma, by creating good fate.
Through the house repairing project, I met the contractor and I learned that he lives alone, far away from his family and relatives. I empathized with his loneliness, so I tried to bring him kindness and friendship. I invited him to visit Tai Ji Men academy, to experience the care and brotherhood. Now he has joined Tai Ji Men and became a member of Tai Ji Men energy family. We have become close friends.
