From the generous offering of a poor teenager's last scrap of food to the conversion of a professional assassin; from a futuristic megamall in 2034 to the mountainous region of 1st century Palestine; Fr. Nil Guillemette's stories transcend time and space, and they never fail to reach the very depths of my heart.
The stories may bring about a smile, boisterous laughter, deep contemplation, profound inspiration or renewed rigour to face life's daily challenges. In short, they will change your very own life story...
I would like to share one particular story here which deeply affected my life and hopefully, enabled me to touch hearts and change lives. It's about a little chipmunk who came to understand the "The Power of Praise":
No
one in the whole kingdom of Forestia was chippier than Chipper the Chipmunk.
And so, no one was more deserving of his name. For Chipper was invariably
cheerful, lively, and lighthearted. And he had a good reason to be so, an
excellent reason, in fact: his mother and his father had begun to praise him
when he was just a tot. On every occasion they had something positive to say to
him, especially when he had tried his best to succeed at doing something. For
example, the first nut he brought to the burrow was the occasion for a
celebration. Likewise, his first attempt to store seeds in his cheek pockets
was saluted with a round of applause. And every day or so, his mother would
compliment him on his long, bushy tail.
"How
nice your tail looks in the sunlight!" she would tell him-or something to
that effect. Of course Chipper's parents disciplined and corrected him and his
siblings, but their admiring comments far outweighed their rebukes. They
honestly thought their children were wonderful. They were proud of their
children and never tired telling them so. Because they loved their children,
they praised them. And the result was a brood of healthy, self-assured, and
chippy chipmunks.
Now
the day came when Chipper was old enough to leave the burrow and go forth on
his own into the great, wide world. But before he left, while his mother was
packing a nice bunch of berries in a poplar leaf, his father took him aside for
some last-minute parental guidance.
"Listen,
son," his father said, "what I'm going to tell you now is important.
After loving God with all your heart and soul, the most important thing in life
is to love your fellow creatures."
"l
know, Dad," Chipper interrupted, "you're always telling us
that."
"Well,
son, it's because those two loves are the center of the universe. But what I
didn't tell you is how to love your neighbor."
"Yes,
you did," the young chipmunk protested. "You taught us to love our
neighbor, by honoring him, respecting his rights, responding to his needs,
protecting his interests, serving him, and all of the rest."
"True,
son, I did teach you that. However, there's one duty I left out because you
weren't ready for it yet. Although it shouldn't be too difficult for you to put
it into practice because your Mom and I have been doing it all the time.
Because it's one of the finest ways to show your love to someone."
"And
what's that, Dad?"
"Praise,"
came the answer.
"Praise?".
"Yes,
praise. Free praise. Truthful and sincere praise from the heart."
Chipper
was puzzled.
"Well-how
do I go about praising my neighbor? What if I don't see anything in my neighbor
that deserves praise?"
"Ah,
but there's always something in everyone that deserves praise, son. All beings
on this planet have something good in themselves, some quality or excellence
that deserves to be praised. True, sometimes you do have to look long and hard before
you find it. But it's always there, just waiting to be discovered. And, once
you've discovered it, you voice your feelings or appreciation with a heartfelt
compliment. What you like in someone, just say it to that someone. Tell the
others about it, too. If you can hug that someone or smile at that someone, all
the better. It'll add spice to your praise."
"But
why is praise so important, Dad?"
"Because,
son, your fellow creatures need affirmation as much as they need oxygen."
"And
what will happen when I affirm them with my praise?"
The
father smiled.
"Ah-that
I won't tell you. You'll see for yourself."
Thus
ended their conversation, a conversation which Chipper later on often replayed
in his head and which was to shape his life.
After
the chipmunk took leave of his parents and siblings amid many tears and hugs,
he started walking towards the center of Forestia, where the vegetation was
quite dense.
"You'll
have a better chance of finding big nuts and fine berries there," his father
had explained to him.
As
he progressed on his journey, he chipped and chirped happily away, eager for
adventure. And thus he met Twitter the Turtle.
"Good
morning, ma'am," he cried out to her. "lsn't it a beautiful
day?"
The
moment Twitter saw him and heard his greeting, she nervously pulled her head
and neck backward into her shell and thus sealed herself off from the rest of
the world. She was a timid creature and lived almost like a hermit.
A
bit disconcerted by her reaction, Chipper felt at a loss as to what he should
do. This was the first forest creature he had encountered since he had left
home, and he really wanted to befriend her. What should he do for that? Then he
remembered his father's wise advice on praise. Now he knew what to do. He
examined the creature attentively and noticed the animal's slightly
hemispherical shell. It was a marvel of smooth lines and fine colors-or so it
seemed to Chipper.
"My,
my!" he exclaimed out loud so that Twitter could hear him. "This
turtle's shell is one of the most beautiful dome-like shapes I've ever
seen."
This
compliment was sincere, for he truly found the shell of Twitter attractive.
When she heard this, Twitter cautiously risked showing the tip of her head.
"You
mean that?" she queried, taken aback by the unexpected commendation.
"Yes,
ma'am!" chipper replied enthusiastically. "And I also think that the
rectangles of color on your shell are quite spectacular."
This
time Twitter's whole head emerged from her shell.
"Really?"
she inquired, delighted at the homage paid to her appearance. It was the first
time in her long life that anyone had lauded her. She felt wonderfully warmed
by Chipper’s word, but didn't quite know how to respond to them.
"Why-thank
you," she finally uttered shyly. Then she added with a smile, "You
made my day. What's your name?"
Chipper
told her and after that they had a long and friendly conversation. Twitter was
enchanted with her new acquaintance. Never had she felt so happy. It was as if
years, even decades, had slid off her old frame. In fact, she had become so
different from her bashful self that she even reciprocated Chipper's praise at
one point.
"Your
long, bushy tail is very impressive,” she said admiringly. "And those
stripes of altering colors on your back are very fetching."
She
felt a bit self-conscious as she uttered these words. After all, it was the
first time in her life that she paid anyone a compliment.
"Good
Lord!" she thought with dismay, "what on earth is happening to me?
I'm acting like a schoolgirl!”
But
she was glad she had praised the fine young chipmunk facing her. In fact, she
felt elated over the novel experience of befriending a perfect stranger.
Henceforth, she resolved, she would be less fearful of others.
Eventually
Chipper took leave of his new friend and resumed his journey. Soon he came
across Burly the Bear, a large grizzly bear of two and a half meters tall,
weighing more than four hundred kilos.
"What
are you doing here, runt?" he asked gruffly. "This is no part of the
forest for rodents like you! Go away, go back to your mother!"
These
last words were emphasized with a frightful growl and Chipper was very tempted
to dash away in panic. But then he remembered his father's parting words.
"Excuse
me for being so bold," he uttered in a small voice, "but you're the
most awesome creature I've ever seen. Surely you're the largest and most
powerful animal in the whole of Forestia."
 |
| Illustrated by Jay Chua |
Burly
the Bear was taken aback by Chipper's reaction. Usually everybody fled at his
approach, running for his or her life. At any rate, nobody had ever expressed
this kind of high regard for his size and strength. The chipmunk's hero-worship
somewhat mollified his grumpy disposition.
"Well,"
he responded in gruff acknowledgement, I suppose I am rather big."
"Not
just that," Chipper continued, "but the color and texture of your fur
are fantastic. No wonder humans hunt you guys and prize you as trophies."
This
was said with such undisguised sincerity that Burly's congenital bad humor
seemed suddenly to melt inside him. This time he hardly knew how to react.
"Well,"
he finally replied, fumbling for words, "I-ah-certainly-ah-appreciate-what
you just said."
"Would
you kindly show me" Chipper pursued, wanting to press his advantage and
win over Burly's acceptance, "how fast you can climb that tree over
there?"
Needless
to say, within minutes after that the two of them were swapping stories like
old friends. Never before had Burly showed to anyone how much, at bottom, he
was lonely and in need of company. Anyway, when Chipper finally said farewell, tears
rolled down Burly's jowls.
"Hope
to meet you again, pal," he said hoarsely, a bit embarrassed by the new
feelings he was experiencing. "Take care."
Again
Chipper was on his way towards the heart of Forestia.
"Wow!"
he mused, as he skipped and leapt between rocks and trees, "this praise
thing really seems to work. I guess Dad was right. Or, to say the least, praise
seems to cause some kinds of creatures to open up and begin to blossom. It had
that effect on Twitter the Turtle and Burly the Bear. But I wonder what effect
it would have on really mean
creatures.”
Well,
Chipper didn't have to wait long to find out. When he openly admired the
enormously strong jaws and teeth of Harpy the Hyena, the latter decided not to savagely
attack and eat him. And when Chipper gallantly celebrated that animal's call-it
alternately resembled wailing and maniacal laughter-he was immediately treated
like Harpy’s best friend.
The
same thing happened a bit later. Upon chancing on Worryguts the Wolf, Chipper
extolled the latter’s remarkable intelligence. Then he passed on to laud
Worryguts on his social skills. Finally, he marveled at the wolf's respect for
hierarchy within his pack. By the time Chipper had rounded off his eulogy,
Worryguts was as gentle as a lamb.
Even
Sting, the Black widow Spider, upon hearing Chipper's sincere tribute to the
perfection of her web and the beauty of her eyes, practically blushed with
pleasure. Soon she was chatting away with him as if they had been schoolmates. Never
in her life had she acted in such a neighborly way.
As
for Jazzy the Rattlesnake, his cynicism fell off him like an old skin after a
molt when he heard Chipper applaud the line of his long, slender body. But
Jazzy was completely mellowed when Chipper went on to compliment him on his unique
rattle. After that memorable exchange with Chipper, that snake was never again
the same.
"So
then," the chipmunk concluded one day, "creatures do indeed blossom
when they are given sincere praise. They might not always know how to react to
a compliment, but it's obvious they delight in it. I suppose that's what we'll
do in Heaven. Hum! Maybe that's why sometimes we say of someone that he or she
was praised to high Heaven. We'll praise God, he'll praise us, we'll praise
each other. Wow! That sounds great..."
And
that's how Chipper the Chipmunk discovered the power of praise.
transformed my life... It spurred me to attend daily 
