CHILDREN

Learn to forgive

How many of you find it difficult to forget the wrong somebody has done to you. Sometimes you may get angry with your friend over a trivial matter and may not talk with him/her for days, weeks and months. Both parties feel uncomfortable, but neither you nor your friend is willing to settle the matter. So anger continues, but it does neither of you any good.

I am sure you all know who Nelson Mandela is? He served as the president of South Africa from 1994-1999. That is not what is so special about him. He spent 27 years in prison. But surprisingly bore no malice towards those who sent him to prison on unjust terms.

The following are his own words. “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I did not leave my bitterness and hatred behind I’d still be in prison.”

Don’t you think that it is a beautiful utterance which shows the value of forgiveness?

According to Mahatma Gandhi the weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

You should always know who your friends and enemies are. But try not to bear malice towards those who are not on good terms with you. From your childhood know that “to forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you!”

Bye for now, -Sanju : [email protected]

Sunny Stories:

A game of cricket

Kavindu sat on the grass in the playground and watched his friends. They were playing cricket. Romesh was at the crease waiting for Primal to ball. Primal ran fast and balled at the wooden plank which was used as a wicket. Romesh hit the ball sky high.

Kavindu watched as the ball went higher and higher. Then, suddenly it started to fall. He was horrified when he realized the ball was coming towards him. He got to his feet.

“Catch it Kavi, catch it” cried his friends. He cupped his hands and waited. But when the ball was directly on top of him he moved aside. The ball fell to the ground. “Oooooh” moaned his friends. “It was such an easy catch,” said Primal. “Why couldn’t you catch it?

Now we will never get Romesh’s wicket”.

Kavindu left the playground and started to walk home, head bent, a worried look on his face. Why was he so scared? Why did he move aside thinking the ball would hit him when he could have easily caught it?

When Kavindu reached home he saw his grandfather sitting on his favourite chair in the front verandah. Grandfather was reading a book and did not see Kavindu.

Kavindu sat on the steps near grandfather’s chair and stared at an ant scurrying here and there, searching for food. When the ant came near Kavindu’s foot Kavindu watched to see if it would get scared and run off. But the ant quite boldly started to climb onto his toe. “Even an ant has more courage than I,” Kavindu said to himself.

“Eh, what did you say?” asked grandfather, realizing Kavindu had come home from the playground. “What happened to the match? Did you bat? How much did you score?”

Kavindu shook his head in dismay. “I didn’t play” he told his grandfather. “I sat on the ground and watched the others. Romesh was batting. Suddenly the ball came towards me. Everyone wanted me to catch it.”

“Did you catch it?” asked grandfather.

“No,” said Kavindu. “I got scared and moved aside when the ball got close to me.”

Grandfather got up from his chair and came to sit near Kavindu. Kavindu told his grandfather that, even though he went to the playground with his friends he never played because he thought he was not good enough.

He was old enough and big enough but he was too afraid to try. He thought if he ever got up to bat, he would never be able to hit the ball. He was scared he would let his friends down and that they would laugh at him. Grandfather asked Kavindu to close his eyes.

“Now imagine you are on the playground. There is a bat in your hands. Primal is balling to you. What do you do?”

“I hit the ball.”

“Where does the ball go?”

“The ball goes over the boundary. It’s a six”

He watched the rest of the game in his mind. He was doing wonderful things, with the bat and the ball on the playground, things he had always wished but never had found the courage to do.

Kavindu opened his eyes and realized he had been living in a dream world. But he also realized grandfather had told him something.

“Grandfather, do you think I can be the same boy I had been in the dream?” he asked.

Grandfather said,” It was not a dream.” Then he got to his feet and placing his hand on Kavindu’s shoulder said, “Promise me you will always remember: You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think”

From that moment on, Kavindu was never afraid.

The next day he joined his friends to play cricket and was no longer scared when the ball came his way. It was just as grandfather had said.

He could do it. And he did.

-Aditha : [email protected]

Forests

Water, food, air are our major needs. Can we live without them? No, we cannot. Nature has given needful gifts to us. The nature is like a cobweb. Forests, animals, human beings are some strands of it. If one strand of this cobweb is broken, it loses its balance.

Forests are important for human existence. Therefore we have to protect our forests.

There are lots of benefits for humans from forests. Forests give us water and food. Forests provide us with medicine and also many useful products such as cane, resin, exotic flowers, mushrooms, bee honey, treacle etc.

Forests are home to many varieties of animals, insects, birds and reptiles. Plants provide them with food. Forests absorb carbondioxyde and release oxygen to the environment and purify air. It decreases global heat and stop floods, droughts and soil erosions. Forests help to have a rich bio-diversity. We can see many rare, endemic and valuable and fantastic flora and fauna in jungles. They add beauty to the nature.

At present, forests are destroyed by humans and by natural causes. Humans mainly destroy forests by cutting trees. Cutting trees have destroyed many catchment areas. Development projects, poaching, smuggling of wood, felling trees illegally and population growth are the key threats to the growth of forests.

Natural disasters such as wild fires, droughts and floods are another threat to forests.

As a world organization UNESCO helps to protect the forests. They have named some forests as world heritage. In 1989 Sinharaja rain forest was named as a world heritage. It is the only undisturbed rain forest left in our country. We have to take essential methods to conserve forests.

We can put advertisements on television, write articles for magazines and newspapers, make pamphlet and distribute them among people, persuading people to participate in organizations or clubs such as ‘Nature Club’ and help them organize many competitions to protect the forests. Some people clear forests for agricultural purposes like chena cultivation, but now the state has ordered to stop that.

If we take these measures to protect the forests, we can conserve them for the future generation.

I would like to tell all of you to protect and love forests. Please don’t destroy it. I love my mother nature very much!

Prasadini Weerasinghe , 9-E , Mahamaya Girls’ College, Kandy

Knowledge is power

Knowledge is what you gain by learning. Our world needs people who use their knowledge for the betterment of the country but not who use their knowledge to destroy the world. During the middle ages of Europe the Catholic priests were known to be more educated than others.

As a result, even royalty sought their advice. Naturally the priests

of India too were very educated.

People eventually started to realise the importance of education.

They used their knowledge to gain power. Later man became so knowledgeable that he learnt even to control dangerous animals.

Shamila Amith , Sailan International School, Negombo, 5B

Nature

Nature is beautiful,
Nature is fun,
Nature is something to love,
Nature is god’s gift to us,
Nature!
Nature we love,
Water and feed nature,
God gave us nature,
We cannot live without it,
Nature makes us.
I know nature,
Nature is beautiful,
Nature is about the earth,
Nature has flowers and weeds, Weeds or flowers is us .......

Aneesah Sabara

Flowers	A fish tank	Coconut trees	Women with pitchers
Rachel grade 4 Kingston College International, Wellawatte	S.Santhosh grade 3 Kingston College International, Wellawatte	Rahma Rushdie Rising Stars Montessori School Mt.Lavinia	Geethi Piumika Athukoorala Senevirathna grade 7 St.Thomas’ Girls’ High School, Matara

Robot	A house
S. Venuja grade 3, Kingston College International, Wellawatte	S.Kiran grade 3 Kingston College International, Wellawatte