If I knew what I know now!

Tells a story that the owner of a small shop, who was friends with the well-known poet Olavo Bilac, once stopped him on the street and asked:

Mr. Bilac, I would like to sell my small farm, the one you know well. Could you please write a note for me, to be put on the local newspaper?

Olavo Bilac, very helpful, got a piece of paper and wrote:

Charming property for sale, where birds sing every morning under the spacious tree yard, where crystal and oozing water from a stream flows.

The house, illuminated by the morning sun, offers cool shade in the afternoons, at the porch.

Months later, the poet meets the man again, and asks him if he managed to sell the property.

I did not think about it anymore, said the man. Only when I read the note is that I realized the beauty I had.

*   *   *

Sometimes, as for us to recognize the value of our treasures, it is needed someone to open our eyes for that.

And that is not something that happens only related to our material goods, but it also happens in the affective field.

Motivated by routine or sluggishness, we may only observe the bad habits and small defects of the ones who share their lives with us, forgetting the good qualities they might have.

It is not unusual for people to tell us countless virtues of our children, which have passed unnoticed under our eyes.

Maybe a friend prizes our partner, showing us qualities we have not been able to see.

There are wives who complain about their husbands, who never open the car door for them, do not pull the chairs for them to sit, forget their wedding anniversary, and do not offer them flowers on Valentine's Day...

The same wives may not take into consideration that those same men are caring fathers, dedicated and hardworking, honest, and any time they need a hand, their husbands are there to help.

There are husbands who depreciate their wives because they are not fashionable, because their grey hair is not well disguised, or maybe because they are not given total attention when they believe to need it...

These husbands surely do not give the right value to their wives. They do not recognize the many nights they have spent awake, next to their son's bed when he was ill, and has still worked the whole day without complaining.

They do not see that those women, so many times, are able to make real financial juggle to not permit the husband to know that their monthly money had been so short.

Mothers and fathers who criticize their kids because they do not consider all their parents'extravagant demands or maybe because they do not act in accordance with parents' determinations, forgetting that these kids are actually worth something.

They are young people who care for fidelity, who respect adverse opinions, who prize family, who dedicate themselves to noble causes, healthy young people and good citizens.

Therefore, let us not do as the shop owner who wanted to sell his piece of land, and only when reading the note written by someone else, changed his mind.

Let us have eyes to see, ears to listen and sensibility to feel the good qualities and the virtues of the ones who closely follow us.

*   *   *

There are people who are not capable of showing their true feelings.

Maybe because they fear deception or maybe because they are shy, they hide behind a mask of protection which makes them feel more secure.

This way of isolating oneself, many times can be disguised with hostility or anti-social behaviour.

That is why we should try to develop our capacity of entering people's feelings, going further than appearances.