The important things in life 455 comments

Category: Moral stories

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STORIES TO MAKE YOU THINK

Thoughtful stories, motivational tales, and wisdom from around the world
Some of the most memorable lessons in life come from stories - whether these be nursery rhymes
or children's fables read to us by our parents, parables from the Bible or Jewish wisdom tales, or
motivational booklets like "Who Moved My Cheese?" [click here]. I thought that it would be fun
and helpful to collect some of the stories that I've found meaningful and share them with you.
Each new story is added at the top of the page, so visit as often as you like and feel free to e-mail
me your story.
"The one who tells the stories rules the world."
Native American proverb from the Hopi
"All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create.
They teach the morality we live by. They teach it much more effectively than moral precepts and
instructions".
Philip Pullman, author of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, speaking in 1996
"Everything we know comes in the form of a story, a narrative with a beginning and end. Delia
Smiths recipes and the handbook of latest version of Windows are stories just as much as
'Coronation Street'. A thing becomes meaningful only when we can embed it in a story."
Dorothy Rowe, "The Independent on Sunday", 31 March 1996
"Human beings are meaning-seeking creatures; we crave narratives that have a beginning and
an end - something that we rarely encounter in everyday life. Stories give coherence to the
confusion of our experience."
Author Karen Armstrong, "Guardian", 26 August 2006
"Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses."
Aleks Krotoski, "Observer", 7 August 2011
"Stories are compensatory. The world is unfair, unjust, unknowable, out of control."
"Why Be happy When You Could Be Normal?" by Jeannette Winterson (2011)
Contents

The hedgehogs

The fence

Your influence on the universe

A turn of the screw

Every bucket counts

Two frogs in the milk

A story for Passover

Piece of mind

Jumping the queue

Knowledge and wisdom

The starfish

The American dream

Alexander and Diogenes

Testing for gossip

Rafting

The mouse trap

A foot has no nose

From Russia with love

Virtually no competition

The little wave

Believe what you feel

Everyone can play

I must at least try

King Arthur and the witch

Helping hands

The teacher and the taught

Going the extra mile

Who you are

Different perspectives

The eagle

The three races

The obstacle in our path

Bad by name; bad by nature?

Everyone is important

The carrot, the egg, and the coffee bean

The two wolves

The great fire and the little water

A sense of a goose

The seeker of truth

A meeting of minds

Chopsticks

The problem with dandelions

In the same boat

The frogs and the tower

The international food shortage

The Japanese master

The secret of happiness

The house with the golden windows

Nothing is written

The Chinese farmer

King Solomon and the baby

The wise teacher and the jar

Listening - at Christmas and always

The hedgehogs
It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold.
The hedgehogs, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they
covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.
After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone
and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or
disappear from the Earth.
Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds
caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came
from the others. This way they were able to survive.
The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual
learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

The fence
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told
him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the
boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his
anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was
easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didnt lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and
the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his
temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails
were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said you have done well, my
son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in
anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It wont
matter how many times you say Im sorry, the wound is still there. Make sure you control your
temper the next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later.

Your influence on the universe

I read the first chapter of "A Brief History Of Time" when Dad was still alive, and I got
incredibly heavy boots about how relatively insignificant life is, and how, compared to the
universe and compared to time, it didn't even matter if I existed at all.
When Dad was tucking me in that night and we were talking about the book, I asked if he could
think of a solution to that problem. "What problem?" "The problem of how relatively
insignificant we are."
He said, "Well, what would happen if a plane dropped you in the middle of the Sahara Desert and
you picked up a single grain of sand with tweezers and moved it one millimetre?" I said, "I'd
probably die of dehydration." He said, "I just mean right then, when you moved that single grain
of sand. What would that mean?"
I said, "I dunno, what?" He said. "Think about it." I thought about it. "I guess I would have
moved a grain of sand." "Which would mean?" "Which would mean I moved a grain of sand?"
"Which would mean you changed the Sahara."
"So?" "So?" So the Sahara is a vast desert. And it has existed for million of years. And you
changed it!" "That's true!" I said, sitting up. "I changed the Sahara!"
"Which means?" he said. "What? Tell me." "Well, I'm not talking about painting the Mona Lisa
or curing cancer. I'm just talking about moving that one grain of sand one millimetre."
"Yeah?" "If you hadn't done it, human history would have been one way ..." "Uh-huh?" "But,
you did do it, so ...?"
I stood on the bed, pointed my fingers at the fake stars, and screamed: "I changed the universe!"
"You did."
Source: "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

A turn of the screw

There was an industrialist whose production line inexplicably breaks down, costing him millions
per day. He finally tracks down an expert who takes out a screwdriver, turns one screw, and then
- as the factory cranks back to life - presents a bill for 10,000.
Affronted, the factory owner demands an itemised version. The expert is happy to oblige: "For
turning a screw: 1. For knowing which screw to turn: 9,999."

Author: Oliver Burkeman in "The Guardian Weekend", 13 August 2011

Every bucket counts

Once day, having learned that the King of Fez was hunting lions in the neighbourhood, they
decided to invite him and his court, and killed a number of sheep in his honour. The sovereign
had dinner and went to bed. Wishing to show their generosity, they placed a huge goatskin bottle
before his door and agreed to fill it up with milk for the royal breakfast.
The villagers all had to milk their goats and then each of them had to tip his bucket into the
container. Given its great size, each of them said to himself that he might just as well dilute his
milk with a good quantity of water without anyone noticing.
To the extent that, in the morning, such a thin liquid was poured out for the king and his court
that it had no taste than the taste of meanness and greed.
Source: "Leo The African" by Amin Maalouf

Two frogs in the milk

This is the story of two frogs. One frog was fat and the other skinny. One day, while searching
for food, they inadvertently jumped into a vat of milk. They couldn't get out, as the sides were
too slippery, so they were just swimming around.
The fat frog said to the skinny frog, "Brother frog, there's no use paddling any longer. We're just
going to drown, so we might as well give up." The skinny frog replied, "Hold on brother, keep
paddling. Somebody will get us out." And they continued paddling for hours.
After a while, the fat frog said, "Brother frog, there's no use. I'm becoming very tired now. I'm
just going to stop paddling and drown. It's Sunday and nobody's working. We're doomed. There's
no possible way out of here." But the skinny frog said, "Keep trying. Keep paddling. Something
will happen, keep paddling." Another couple of hours passed.
The fat frog said, "I can't go on any longer. There's no sense in doing it because we're going to
drown anyway. What's the use?" And the fat frog stopped. He gave up. And he drowned in the
milk. But the skinny frog kept on paddling.
Ten minutes later, the skinny frog felt something solid beneath his feet. He had churned the milk
into butter and he hopped out of the vat.
Author: Melissa D Zartman

A story for Passover

A good Passover story should always involve cakes. Austrian baker Manfred Klaschka is the
subject of this years story. He was in the news because of his most recent catalogue of cake
designs; Klaschka is a pastry specialist.
Of course, Austrian pastries are famous the world over. Now, pastry baker Manfred Klaschkas
most recent catalogue of such tasty delights was in the news this week because it included cakes
decorated with swastikas as well as one with a baby raising its right arm in a Nazi salute.
Herr Klaschka insists he is not a Nazi. After the news story broke, he even met with a Holocaust
awareness group, and apologized for what he had done, and he then baked a cake to say he was
sorry a cake with Jewish and Christian symbols. The point of the story the bit I found
interesting is Herr Klaschkas explanation for what he did.
"I see it was a mistake, anyone who knows me knows what kind of person I am. I am no Nazi",
said Klaschka, who had earlier said he was just a pastry maker fulfilling his customers wishes.
Fulfilling his customers wishes? There is a market in Austria in 2011 for cakes with babies
raising their arms in Nazi salutes, cakes with swastikas on them? There are parties where people
serve such cakes? Maybe birthday parties for babies?
Of course there are such people, and there are such parties, and because of that, there is a market
there is consumer demand for swastika cakes. Which is why Herr Klaschka was happy to
bake them. And not only in Austria.
You may remember the case of the Campbell family from New Jersey.
When Kurt Waldheim was exposed as a war criminal his popularity rose. The neo-Nazi Freedom
Party headed by the late Jorg Haider, won 27% of the vote in the 2000 elections and became part
of the coalition government the first time since 1945 that Nazis had sat in a European
government.
But this never happened in New Jersey which is why I want to talk about the Campbell family.
The Campbell family in New Jersey made the news back in 2008 when they tried to get a
birthday cake made for their son they have a son and two daughters at the local Shop Rite in
Holland Township.The store refused their request.
And the reason was that Mr. Campbell wanted the cake to read "Happy birthday Adolf Hitler".
Because, you see, his sons name was Adolf Hitler Campell. One of the daughters is named is
named JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell. Well, you get the point.
When I read about the Austrian baker Manfred Klaschka, I thought here was a marketing
opportunity for him. He would have happily baked a cake for the Campbell family. So what does
all this have to do with Passover?

This week, when we are forbidden to eat Sachertore or Linzer tort or even the delightfully named
Punschkrapfen, we might want to pause and think about something we say every year at the
Passover seder: 'In every generation it is the duty of man to consider himself as if he had come
forth from Egypt'.
Because in this generation, as in all others, there are those who order custom-made swastika
cakes. There are those who name their children after Adolf Hitler. And there are others who fire
anti-tank missiles at school busses with Jewish children in them. Because there are those who are
building nuclear weapons, having told the world that their intention is to wipe the Jewish state
off the face of the earth. Because people like that make Pharaoh look like a nice guy. Because
getting out of the house of bondage, out of slavery in Egypt, was not the end of the story for the
Jewish people, but was the beginning.
It is a story of a never-ending struggle for freedom, for dignity, for respect, for human rights, that
has universal resonance and meaning for all people, everywhere, always.
Source: Eric Lee

Peace of mind
Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was
in the initial days. While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there
and Buddha told one of his disciples, I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake
there.
The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were
washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the
lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, How can I
give this muddy water to Buddha to drink! So he came back and told Buddha, The water in
there is very muddy. I dont think it is fit to drink.
After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get
him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that
the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked
fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.
Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, See what you did to
make the water clean. You let it be ... and the mud settled down on its own and you got clear
water... Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will
settle down on its own. You dont have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is
effortless.
What did Buddha emphasize here? He said, It is effortless. Having 'peace of mind' is not a
strenuous job; it is an effortless process. When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to

the outside. It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling
that peace and grace.

Jumping the queue

Today, a true tale of heroism that takes place not in a war zone, nor a hospital, but in Victoria
station in London in 2007, during a tube strike. Our hero a transport journalist and selfdescribed "big, stocky bloke with a shaven head" named Gareth Edwards, who first wrote about
this experience on the community blog metafilter.com is standing with other commuters in a
long, snaking line for a bus, when a smartly dressed businessman blatantly cuts in line behind
him. (Behind him: this detail matters.)
The interloper proves immune to polite remonstration, whereupon Edwards is seized by a
magnificent idea. He turns to the elderly woman standing behind the queue-jumper, and asks her
if she'd like to go ahead of him. She accepts, so he asks the person behind her, and the next
person, and the next until 60 or 70 people have moved ahead, Edwards and the seething
queue-jumper shuffling further backwards all the time. The bus finally pulls up, and Edwards
hears a shout from the front of the line. It's the elderly woman, addressing him: "Young man! Do
you want to go in front of me?"
Author: Oliver Burkeman in "The Guardian Weekend", 28 August 2010

Knowledge and wisdom

There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit not a vegetable.
Wisdom is knowing not to include it in a fruit salad.

The starfish
Once a man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in
the distance he could see a person going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the
beach. Back and forth this person went. As the man approached, he could see that there were
hundreds of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the natural action of the tide.
The man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish.
Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached, the person continued the task of picking up
starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the person, he said: "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach
covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference." The person looked at the man. He
then stooped down and pick up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned
back to the man and said: "It sure made a difference to that one!"

The American dream

An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a
small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin
tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
"How long did it take you to catch them?" the American asked.
"Only a little while" the Mexican replied.
"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" the American then asked.
"I have enough to support my family's immediate needs" the Mexican said.
"But" the American then asked, "What do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said: "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with
my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my
amigos. I have a full and busy life, senor."
The American scoffed: "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time
fishing and with the proceeds you could buy a bigger boat and, with the proceeds from the bigger
boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of
selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening
your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would
need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually
NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked: "But senor, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied: "15-20 years."
"But what then, senor?"
The American laughed and said: "That's the best part. When the time is right, you would
announce an IPO - an Initial Public Offering - and sell your company stock to the public and
become very rich. You would make millions."
"Millions, senor? Then what?"

The American said slowly: "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village
where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll
to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos..."

Alexander and Diogenes

Now when Alexander [the Great] appeared before the Greek leaders in Corinth they greeted him
warmly and paid him lavish compliments- all of them, that is but one. A funny fellow, a
philosopher named Diogenes. He had views not unlike those of the Buddha. According to him,
possessions and all the things we think we need only serve to distract us and get in the way of
our simple enjoyment of life. So he had given away everything he owned and now sat, almost
naked, in a barrel in the market square in Corinth where he lived, free and independent like a
stray dog.
Curious to meet this strange fellow, Alexander went to call on him. Dressed in shining armour,
the plume on his helmet waving in the breeze, he walked up to the barrel and said to Diogenes: 'I
like you. Let me know your wish and I shall grant it.' Diogenes, who had until then been
comfortably sunning himself, replied: 'Indeed, Sire, I have a wish.' 'Well, what is it?' 'Your
shadow has fallen over me: stand a little less between me and the sun.' Alexander is said to have
been so struck by this that he said: 'If I weren't Alexander, I should like to be Diogenes.'
Source: "A Little History Of The World" by E.H. Gombrich

Testing for gossip

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an
acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, Do you know what I just heard about your
friend?
Hold on a minute, Socrates replied. Before telling me anything Id like you to pass a little
test. Its called the Triple Filter Test.
Triple filter?
Thats right, Socrates continued. Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a
good idea to take a moment and filter what youre going to say. Thats why I call it the triple
filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell
me is true?
No, the man said, Actually I just heard about it and ...

All right, said Socrates. So you dont really know if its true or not. Now lets try the
second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something
good?
No, on the contrary
So, Socrates continued, you want to tell me something bad about him, but youre not
certain its true. You may still pass the test though, because theres one filter left: the filter of
Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?
No, not really
Well, concluded Socrates, if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even
useful, why tell it to me at all?

Rafting
By good fortune, I was able to raft down the Motu River in New Zealand twice during the last
year. The magnificent four-day journey traverses one of the last wilderness areas in the North
Island.
The first expedition was led by "Buzz", an American guide with a great deal of rafting
experience and many stories to tell of mighty rivers such as the Colorado. With a leader like
Buzz, there was no reason to fear any of the great rapids on the Motu.
The first half day, in the gentle upper reaches, was spent developing teamwork and coordination. Strokes had to be mastered, and the discipline of following commands without
question was essential. In the boiling fury of a rapid, there would be no room for any mistake.
When Buzz bellowed above the roar of the water, an instant reaction was essential.
We mastered the Motu. In every rapid we fought against the river and we overcame it. The
screamed commands of Buzz were matched only by the fury of our paddles, as we took the raft
exactly where Buzz wanted it to go.
At the end of the journey, there was a great feeling of triumph. We had won. We proved that we
were superior. We knew that we could do it. We felt powerful and good. The mystery and
majesty of the Motu had been overcome.
The second time I went down the Motu. the experience I had gained should have been
invaluable, but the guide on this journey was a very softly spoken Kiwi. It seemed that it would
not even be possible to hear his voice above the noise of the rapids.
As we approached the first rapid, he never even raised his voice. He did not attempt to take
command of us or the river. Gently and quietly he felt the mood of the river and watched every

little whirlpool. There was no drama and no shouting. There was no contest to be won. He loved
the river.
We sped through each rapid with grace and beauty and, after a day, the river had become our
friend, not our enemy. The quiet Kiwi was not our leader, but only the person whose sensitivity
was more developed than our own. Laughter replaced the tension of achievement.
Soon the quiet Kiwi was able to lean back and let all of us take turns as leader. A quiet nod was
enough to draw attention to the things our lack of experience prevented us from seeing. If we
made a mistake, then we laughed and it was the next person's turn.
We began to penetrate the mystery of the Motu. Now, like the quiet Kiwi, we listened to the river
and we looked carefully for all those things we had not even noticed the first time.
At the end of the journey, we had overcome nothing except ourselves. We did not want to leave
behind our friend, the river. There was no contest, and so nothing had been won. Rather we had
become one with the river.
It remains difficult to believe that the external circumstances of the two journeys were similar.
The difference was in an attitude and a frame of mind. At the end of the journey, it seemed that
there could be no other way. Given the opportunity to choose a leader, everyone would have
chosen someone like Buzz. At the end of the second journey, we had glimpsed a very different
vision and we felt humble - and intensely happy.

The mouse trap

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a
mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the
house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said "Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave
concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."
The mouse turned to the pig and told him "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a
mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said "I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there
is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap
in the house!" The cow said "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap
alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - like the sound of a mousetrap catching
its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was
a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer
rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the
farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and
neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The
farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many! people came for her funeral, the farmer had
the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next time you
hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember: when one of us is
threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye
out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. Each of us is a vital
thread in another person's tapestry.

A foot has no nose

Of the many interactions I had with my mother those many years ago, one stands out with clarity.
I remember the occasion when mother sent me to the main road, about twenty yards away from
the homestead, to invite a passing group of seasonal work-seekers home for a meal. She
instructed me to take a container along and collect dry cow dung for making a fire. I was then to
prepare the meal for the group of work-seekers.
The thought of making an open fire outside at midday, cooking in a large three-legged pot in that
intense heat, was sufficient to upset even an angel. I did not manage to conceal my feelings from
my mother and, after serving the group, she called me to the veranda where she usually sat to
attend to her sewing and knitting.
Looking straight into my eyes, she daid "Tsholofelo, why did you sulk when I requested you to
prepare a meal for those poor destitute people?" Despite my attempt to deny her allegation, and
using the heat of the fire and the sun as an excuse for my alleged behaviour, mother, giving me a
firm look, said ""Lonao ga lo na nko" - "A foot has no nose". It means: you cannot detect what
trouble may lie ahead of you.
Had I denied this group of people a meal, it may have happened that, in my travels some time in
the future, I found myself at the mercy of those very individuals. As if that was not enough to
shame me, mother continued: "Motho ke motho ka motho yo mongwe". The literal meaning: "A
person is a person because of another person".

Source: "African Wisdom" by Ellen K. Kuzwayo

From Russia with love

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the communications trade union for which I then
worked received several delegations from the emergent nations and we ran courses for them on
how market economies operated and how free collective bargaining was conducted. As is my
practice when lecturing to foreign audiences, I had my visual aids translated into the vernacular,
so I used overhead slides in Russian, although of course I spoke in English and had an
interpreter.
I cannot read the cyrillic alphabet and know very little Russian, so I just worked through my
slides in order. However, there came a point when I could tell from the statistical data on the
latest slide that, for the previous ten minutes, I had been speaking to the wrong slide. British
students would have pointed this out in seconds, but none of the Russians had said a word.
I was perplexed and asked why nobody had told me that I had been speaking to the wrong slide.
Eventually one brave soul volunteered an answer and the interpreter translated: "In our country,
no one challenges the teacher".
Author: Roger Darlington

Virtually no competition
While professional soccer is still struggling to find a firm foothold in the United States, in the
1970s the North American Soccer League marked the brave first attempt to introduce the game
to American sports fans. While most teams had only limited success at best, one did manage to
break through to genuine mainstream popularity - the New York Cosmos.
It was the brainchild of Steve Ross, a passionate soccer fan who was also a major executive at
Warner Communications.
Max Ross told his son Steve: "In life there are those who work all day, those who dream all day,
and those who spend an hour dreaming before setting to work to fulfil those dreams. Go into the
third category because there's virtually no competition".
Source: "Once In A Lifetime - The Extraordinary Story Of The New York Cosmos" by Gavin
Newsham

The little wave

The story is abut a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's
enjoying the wind and the fresh air until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing
against the shore. My God, this terrible,the wave says. Look what's going to happen to
me!
Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him: Why
do you look so sad? The first wave says: You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All
of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?
The second wave says: No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean.
Source: "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom

Believe what you feel

On this day, Morrie says that he has an exercise for us to try. We are to stand, facing away from
our classmates, and fall backward, relying on another student to catch us. Most of us are
uncomfortable with this, and we cannot let go for more than a few inches before stopping
ourselves. We laugh in embarrassment.
Finally, one student, a thin, quiet, dark-haired girl whom I notice almost always wears bulky,
white fisherman sweaters, crosses her arms over her chest, closes her eyes, leans back, and does
not flinch, like one of those Lipton tea commercials where the model splashes into the pool..
For a moment, I am sure she is going to thump on the floor. At the last instant, her assigned
partner grabs her head and shoulders and yanks her up harshly.
Whoa! several students yell. Some clap. Morrie finally smiles. You see, he says to the
girl, you closed your eyes, That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you
see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you,
you must feel that you can trust them too even when you're in the dark. Even when you're
falling".
Source: "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom

Everyone can play

At a fundraising dinner for an American school that serves learning disabled children,the father
of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After
extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

"When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection.
Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other
children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?" The audience was stilled by the
query.
The father continued. "I believe,that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally
handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself,
and it comes, in the way other people treat that child."Then he told the following story:
Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball.
Shay asked,"Do you think they'll let me play?" Shay's father knew that most of the boys would
not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were
allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be
accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.
Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play, not expecting
much. The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in
the eighth inning

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front
of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty
mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in diameter.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He
shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the
rocks.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand
filled up everything else.
He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a
unanimous Yes.

Now, said the professor, I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The rocks are the important things your family, your partner, your health, your
children things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life
would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car.

The sand is everything else. The small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first, he continued there is no room for the
pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room
for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical
to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will
always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the
disposal.

Take care of the rocks first the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The
rest is just sand.

2)
Live and Work 263 comments
Category: Inspirational stories

Father was a hardworking man who delivered bread as a living to support his wife
and three children. He spent all his evenings after work attending classes, hoping to
improve himself so that he could one day find a better paying job. Except for
Sundays, Father hardly ate a meal together with his family. He worked and studied
very hard because he wanted to provide his family with the best money could buy.

Whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them,
he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend
more time with his family.

The day came when the examination results were announced. To his joy, Father
passed, and with distinctions too! Soon after, he was offered a good job as a senior
supervisor which paid handsomely.

Like a dream come true, Father could now afford to provide his family with lifes
little luxuries like nice clothing, fine food and vacation abroad.

However, the family still did not get to see father for most of the week. He
continued to work very hard, hoping to be promoted to the position of manager. In
fact, to make himself a worthily candidate for the promotion, he enrolled for another
course in the open university.

Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with
them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to
spend more time with his family.

Fathers hard work paid off and he was promoted. Jubilantly, he decided to hire a
maid to relieve his wife from her domestic tasks. He also felt that their three-room
flat was no longer big enough, it would be nice for his family to be able to enjoy the
facilities and comfort of a condominium. Having experienced the rewards of his hard
work many times before, Father resolved to further his studies and work at being
promoted again. The family still did not get to see much of him. In fact, sometimes

Father had to work on Sundays entertaining clients. Again, whenever the family
complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he
was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

As expected, Fathers hard work paid off again and he bought a beautiful
condominium overlooking the coast of Singapore. On the first Sunday evening at
their new home, Father declared to his family that he decided not to take anymore
courses or pursue any more promotions. From then on he was going to devote more
time to his family.

Father did not wake up the next day.

3)
Give time to our family 239 comments
Category: Moral stories

After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out to dinner
and a movie. She said, I love you, but I know this other woman loves you and
would love to spend some time with you.

The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has been a
widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three children had made it
possible to visit her only occasionally. That night I called to invite her to go out for
dinner and a movie. Whats wrong, are you well? she asked.

My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a surprise
invitation is a sign of bad news. I thought that it would be pleasant to spend some
time with you, I responded. Just the two of us. She thought about it for a
moment, and then said, I would like that very much.

That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit nervous. When I
arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be nervous about our date.
She waited in the door with her coat on. She had curled her hair and was wearing
the dress that she had worn to celebrate her last wedding anniversary. She smiled
from a face that was as radiant as an angels. I told my friends that I was going to
go out with my son, and they were impressed, she said, as she got into the car.
They cant wait to hear about our meeting.

We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and cozy. My
mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady. After we sat down, I had to read
the menu. Her eyes could only read large print. Half way through the entries, I lifted
my eyes and saw Mom sitting there staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips.
It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small, she said. Then
its time that you relax and let me return the favor, I responded. During the dinner,
we had an agreeable conversation nothing extraordinary but catching up on
recent events of each others life. We talked so much that we missed the movie. As
we arrived at her house later, she said, Ill go out with you again, but only if you let
me invite you. I agreed.

How was your dinner date? asked my wife when I got home. Very nice. Much
more so than I could have imagined, I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened so

suddenly that I didnt have a chance to do anything for her. Some time later, I
received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant receipt from the same place
mother and I had dined. An attached note said: I paid this bill in advance. I wasnt
sure that I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates one for you and
the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant for me. I love
you, son.

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: I LOVE YOU and to
give our loved ones the time that they deserve. Nothing in life is more important

than your family. Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be
put off till some other time.

4)
Helpless love 215 comments
Category: Moral stories

Once upon a time all feelings and emotions went to a coastal island for a vacation.
According to their nature, each was having a good time. Suddenly, a warning of an
impending storm was announced and everyone was advised to evacuate the island.

The announcement caused sudden panic. All rushed to their boats. Even damaged
boats were quickly repaired and commissioned for duty.

Yet, Love did not wish to flee quickly. There was so much to do. But as the clouds
darkened, Love realised it was time to leave. Alas, there were no boats to spare.
Love looked around with hope.

Just then Prosperity passed by in a luxurious boat. Love shouted, Prosperity, could
you please take me in your boat?

No, replied Prosperity, my boat is full of precious possessions, gold and silver.
There is no place for you.

A little later Vanity came by in a beautiful boat. Again Love shouted, Could you help
me, Vanity? I am stranded and need a lift. Please take me with you.

Vanity responded haughtily, No, I cannot take you with me. My boat will get soiled
with your muddy feet.

Sorrow passed by after some time. Again, Love asked for help. But it was to no
avail. No, I cannot take you with me. I am so sad. I want to be by myself.

When Happiness passed by a few minutes later, Love again called for help. But
Happiness was so happy that it did not look around, hardly concerned about
anyone.

Love was growing restless and dejected. Just then somebody called out, Come
Love, I will take you with me. Love did not know who was being so magnanimous,
but jumped on to the boat, greatly relieved that she would reach a safe place.

On getting off the boat, Love met Knowledge. Puzzled, Love inquired, Knowledge,
do you know who so generously gave me a lift just when no one else wished to
help?

Knowledge smiled, Oh, that was Time.

And why would Time stop to pick me and take me to safety? Love wondered.

Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and replied, Because only Time knows your
true greatness and what you are capable of. Only Love can bring peace and great
happiness in this world.

The important message is that when we are prosperous, we overlook love. When
we feel important, we forget love. Even in happiness and sorrow we forget love.
Only with time do we realize the importance of love. Why wait that long? Why not
make love a part of your life today?

5)
The little boy 399 comments
Category: Moral stories

Sally jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room.
She said: How is my little boy? Is he going to be all right? When can I see him?

The surgeon said, Im sorry. We did all we could, but your boy didnt make it.

Sally said, Why do little children get cancer? Doesnt God care any more? Where
were you, God, when my son needed you?

The surgeon asked, Would you like some time alone with your son? One of the
nurses will be out in a few minutes, before hes transported to the university.

Sally asked the nurse to stay with her while she said good-bye to son. She ran her
fingers lovingly through his thick red curly hair.

Would you like a lock of his hair? the nurse asked.

Sally nodded yes. The nurse cut a lock of the boys hair, put it in a plastic bag and
handed it to Sally. The mother said, It was Jimmys idea to donate his body to the
university for study. He said it might help somebody else. I said no at first, but
Jimmy said, Mom, I wont be using it after I die. Maybe it will help some other little
boy spend one more day with his Mom. She went on, My Jimmy had a heart of
gold. Always thinking of someone else. Always wanting to help others if he could.

Sally walked out of Childrens mercy Hospital for the last time, after spending most
of the last six months there. She put the bag with Jimmys belongings on the seat
beside her in the car. The drive home was difficult. It was even harder to enter the
empty house. She carried Jimmys belongings, and the plastic bag with the lock of

his hair to her sons room. She started placing the model cars and other personal
things back in his room exactly where he had always kept them. She laid down
across his bed and, hugging his pillow, cried herself to sleep.

It was around midnight when Sally awoke. Laying beside her on the bed was a
folded letter. The letter said:

Dear Mom,

I know youre going to miss me; but dont think that I will ever forget you, or stop
loving you, just cause Im not around to say I LOVE YOU. I will always love you,
Mom, even more with each day. Someday we will see each other again. Until then, if
you want to adopt a little boy so you wont be so lonely, thats okay with me. He can
have my room and old stuff to play with. But, if you decide to get a girl instead, she
probably wouldnt like the same things us boys do. Youll have to buy her dolls and
stuff girls like, you know. Dont be sad thinking about me. This really is a neat place.
Grandma and Grandpa met me as soon as I got here and showed me around some,
but it will take a long time to see everything. The angels are so cool. I love to watch
them fly. And, you know what? Jesus doesnt look like any of his pictures. Yet, when I
saw Him, I knew it was Him. Jesus himself took me to see GOD! And guess what,
Mom? I got to sit on Gods knee and talk to Him, like I was somebody important.
Thats when I told Him that I wanted to write you a letter, to tell you good-bye and
everything. But I already knew that wasnt allowed. Well, you know what Mom? God
handed me some paper and His own personal pen to write you this letter. I think
Gabriel is the name of the angel who is going to drop this letter off to you. God said
for me to give you the answer to one of the questions you asked Him Where was
He when I needed him? God said He was in the same place with me, as when His
son Jesus was on the cross. He was right there, as He always is with all His children.

Oh, by the way, Mom, no one else can see what Ive written except you. To
everyone else this is just a blank piece of paper. Isnt that cool? I have to give God
His pen back now. He needs it to write some more names in the Book of Life. Tonight
I get to sit at the table with Jesus for supper. Im, sure the food will be great.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I dont hurt anymore. The cancer is all gone. Im glad
because I couldnt stand that pain anymore and God couldnt stand to see me hurt

so much, either. Thats when He sent The Angel of Mercy to come get me. The Angel
said I was a Special Delivery! How about that?

Signed with Love from: God, Jesus & Me.

6)
Hospital window 151 comments
Category: Moral stories

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed
to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.
His bed was next to the rooms only window. The other man had to spend all his
time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives
and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where
they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass
the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the
window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world
would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the
water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm
amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the
distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the
other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man couldnt hear the band he could see it. In his minds eye
as the gentleman by th! e window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the
lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She
was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to
the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was
comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the
real world outside.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his
deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.

7)
The story of a blind girl 504 comments
Category: Moral stories

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she was blind. She hated
everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She said that if
she could only see the world, she would marry her boyfriend.

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and then she could see everything,
including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, now that you can see the world,
will you marry me?

The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind too, and refused to
marry him. Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her
saying:

Just take care of my eyes dear.

This is how human brain changes when the status changed. Only few remember
what life was before, and whos always been there even in the most painful
situations.

Life Is A Gift

Today before you think of saying an unkind word

think of someone who cant speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food

think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife

think of someone who is crying out to God for a companion.

Today before you complain about life

think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before you complain about your children

think of someone who desires children but theyre barren.

Before you argue about your dirty house, someone didnt clean or sweep
think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive

think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job
think of the unemployed, the disabled and those who wished they had your job.

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another

remember that not one of us are without sin and we all answer to one maker.

And when depressing thoughts seem to get you down

put a smile on your face and thank God youre alive and still around.

Life is a gift Live it, Enjoy it, Celebrate it, and Fulfill it.

8)
A Glass of Milk Paid In Full 215 comments
Category: Moral stories

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way
through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He
decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when
a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of
water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank
it slowly, and then asked, How much do I owe you? You dont owe me anything,
she replied. Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness. He said,
Then I thank you from my heart.

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in
God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Years later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled.
They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her

rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the
name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he
rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctors
gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the
consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave
special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to
pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the
edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it
would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something
caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:

Paid in full with one glass of milk

Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.

9)
DONT HOPE,DECIDE! 153 comments
Category: Motivational stories

While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of
those life-changing experiences that you hear other people talk about the kind
that sneaks up on you unexpectedly. This one occurred a mere two feet away from
me.

Straining to locate my friend among the passengers deplaning through the jet way, I
noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to
me to greet his family.

First he motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his
bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated enough to look in
each others face, I heard the father say, Its so good to see you, son. I missed you
so much! His son smiled somewhat shyly, averted his eyes and replied softly, Me,
too, Dad!

Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe nine or ten) and
while cupping his sons face in his hands said, Youre already quite the young man.
I love you very much, Zach! They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.

While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half) was
squirming excitedly in her mothers arms, never once taking her little eyes off the
wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said, Hi, baby girl! as he gently
took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her
close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed
and simply laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.

After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, Ive
saved the best for last! and proceeded to give his wife the longest, most
passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds
and then silently mouthed. I love you so much! They stared at each others eyes,
beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.

For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids
that they couldnt possibly be. I puzzled about it for a moment then realized how
totally engrossed I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than
an arms length away from me. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading
something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask, Wow!
How long have you two been married?

Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those. he replied, without
breaking his gaze from his lovely wifes face. Well then, how long have you been
away? I asked. The man finally turned and looked at me, still beaming his joyous
smile. Two whole days!

Two days? I was stunned. By the intensity of the greeting, I had assumed hed been
gone for at least several weeks if not months. I know my expression betrayed me.

I said almost offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace
(and to get back to searching for my friend), I hope my marriage is still that
passionate after twelve years!

The man suddenly stopped smiling.

He looked me straight in the eye, and with forcefulness that burned right into my
soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me, Dont hope,
friend decide! Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and
said, God bless!

- By Michael D. Hargrove and Bottom Line Underwriters, Inc.

Copyright 1997

10)
Keep your dream 134 comments
Category: Motivational stories

I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro. He has
let me use his house to put on fund-raising events to raise money for youth at risk
programs.

The last time I was there he introduced me by saying, I want to tell you why I let
Jack use my horse. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of
an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race
track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boys high

school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to
write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.

That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a
horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram
of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the
track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000-square-foot house that would
sit on a 200-acre dream ranch.

He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to
his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a
large red F with a note that read, `See me after class.

The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, `Why did I
receive an F?

The teacher said, `This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have
no money. You come from an itinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a
horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for
the original breeding stock and later youll have to pay large stud fees. Theres no
way you could ever do it. Then the teacher added, `If you will rewrite this paper
with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.

The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what
he should do. His father said, `Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on
this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you. Finally, after sitting
with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all.

He stated, You can keep the F and Ill keep my dream.

Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, I tell you this story because
you are sitting in my 4,000-square-foot house in the middle of my 200-acre horse
ranch. I still have that school paper framed over the fireplace. He added, The best
part of the story is that two summers ago that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids

to camp out on my ranch for a week. When the teacher was leaving, he said,
Look, Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was something of a
dream stealer. During those years I stole a lot of kids dreams. Fortunately you had
enough gumption not to give up on yours.

Dont let anyone steal your dreams. Follow your heart, no matter what.

- Author Unknown

11)
The horse that wanted more beauty 104 comments
Category: Moral stories

A cosmic god had a horse. The horse was beautiful and also it had many good
qualities. But it wanted to be more perfect in every way. It especially wanted to
become beauty unparalleled.

One day the horse said to the cosmic god, 0 Lord, you have given me beauty. You
have given me other good qualities. I am so grateful to you. But how I wish you
could make me more beautiful. I would be extremely, extremely grateful if you
could make me more beautiful.

The cosmic god said, I am more than ready to make you more beautiful. Tell me in
what way you want to be changed.

The horse said, It seems to me that I am not well proportioned. My neck is too
short. If you can make my neck a little longer, my upper body will be infinitely more

beautiful. And if you can make my legs much longer and thinner, then I will look
infinitely more beautiful in my lower body.

The cosmic god said, Amen! Then immediately he made a camel appear in place
of the horse. The horse was so disheartened that it started to cry, 0 Lord, I wanted
to become more beautiful. In what way is this kind of outer form more beautiful?

The cosmic god said, This is exactly what you asked for. You have become a
camel.

The horse cried, Oh no, I do not want to become a camell I wish to remain a horse.
As a horse, everybody appreciated my good qualities. Nobody will appreciate me as
a camel.

The cosmic god said, Never try to achieve or receive more than I have given you. If
you want to lead a desire-life, then at every moment you will want more and more.
But you have no idea what the outcome will be. If you cry for a longer neck and
legs, this is what will happen. Each thing in my creation has its own good qualities.
The camel is not as beautiful as you are, but it carries heavy loads and has a
tremendous sense of responsibility.

Face difficulties positively 106 comments

Category: Moral stories

This parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmers well.
The farmer heard the mule praying or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After
carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that
neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his

neighbors together, told them what had happened, and enlisted them to help haul dirt to
bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.
Initially the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued
shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that
every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, HE WOULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP!
This he did, blow after blow. Shake it off and step upshake it off and step upshake it off
and step up! He repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or how
distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept right on SHAKING
IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!
It wasnt long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the
wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him actually helped him . . . all because of
the manner in which he handled his adversity.
THATS LIFE! If we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in
to panic, bitterness, or self-pity.

A gift of love! 67 comments

Category: Moral stories

Can I see my baby? the happy new mother asked.

When the bundle was nestled in her arms and she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his
tiny face, she gasped. The doctor turned quickly and looked out the tall hospital window.
The baby had been born without ears.
Time proved that the babys hearing was perfect. It was only his appearance that was
marred. When he rushed home from school one day and flung himself into his mothers
arms, she sighed, knowing that his life was to be a succession of heartbreaks. He blurted
out the tragedy. A boy, a big boy called me a freak.
He grew up, handsome for his misfortune. A favorite with his fellow students, he might have
been class president, but for that. He developed a gift, a talent for literature and music.
But you might mingle with other young people, his mother reproved him, but felt a
kindness in her heart. The boys father had a session with the family physician. Could
nothing be done? I believe I could graft on a pair of outer ears, if they could be procured,
the doctor decided.

Whereupon the search began for a person who would make such a sacrifice for a young
man. Two years went by. Then, You are going to the hospital, Son. Mother and I have
someone who will donate the ears you need. But its a secret, said the father. The operation
was a brilliant success, and a new person emerged. His talents blossomed into genius, and
school and college became a series of triumphs.
Later he married and entered the diplomatic service. But I must know! He urged his
father, Who gave so much for me? I could never do enough for him. I do not believe you
could, said the father, but the agreement was that you are not to know not yet. The
years kept their profound secret, but the day did come one of the darkest days that a son
must endure. He stood with his father over his mothers casket. Slowly, tenderly, the father
stretched forth a hand and raised the thick, reddish-brown hair to reveal that the mother
had no outer ears. Mother said she was glad she never let her hair be cut, he whispered
gently, and nobody ever thought Mother less beautiful, did they?
Real beauty lies not in the physical appearance, but in the heart. Real treasure lies not in
what that can be seen, but what that cannot be seen. Real love lies not in what is done and
known, but in what that is done but not known.

What goes around comes around 226 comments

Category: Moral stories

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light
of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out.
His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last
hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didnt look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He
could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It
was those chills which only fear can put in you. He said, Im here to help you, maam. Why
dont you wait in the car where its warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled
under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon
he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him.
She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldnt
thank him enough for coming to her aid.
Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any
amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that

could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This
was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty,
who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never
occurred
to
him
to
act
any
other
way.
He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who
needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, And
think
of
me.
He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but
he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and
take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking
restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The
waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile,
one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldnt erase. The lady noticed the
waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change
her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a
stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.
After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly
went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the
door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the
lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: You dont owe me
anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way Im helping you. If
you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with
you.
Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress
made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into
bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady
have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it
was
going
to
be
hard.
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a
soft kiss and whispered soft and low, Everythings going to be all right. I love you, Bryan
Anderson.
There is an old saying What goes around comes around.

Temper control 91 comments

Category: Moral stories

Once upon a time there was a little boy who was talented, creative, handsome, and
extremely bright. A natural leader. The kind of person everyone would normally have
wanted on their team or project. But he was also self-centered and had a very bad temper.
When he got angry, he usually said, and often did, some very hurtful things. In fact, he
seemed to have little regard for those around him. Even friends. So, naturally, he had few.
But, he told himself, that just shows how stupid most people are!
As he grew, his parents became concerned about this personality flaw, and pondered long
and hard about what they should do. Finally, the father had an idea. And he struck a bargain
with his son. He gave him a bag of nails, and a BIG hammer. Whenever you lose your
temper, he told the boy, I want you to really let it out. Just take a nail and drive it into the
oak boards of that old fence out back. Hit that nail as hard as you can!
Of course, those weathered oak boards in that old fence were almost as tough as iron, and
the hammer was mighty heavy, so it wasnt nearly as easy as it first sounded. Nevertheless,
by the end of the first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence (That was one angry
young man!). Gradually, over a period of weeks, the number dwindled down. Holding his
temper proved to be easier than driving nails into the fence! Finally the day came when the
boy didnt lose his temper at all. He felt mighty proud as he told his parents about that
accomplishment.
As a sign of your success, his father responded, you get to PULL OUT one nail. In fact,
you can do that each day that you dont lose your temper even once.
Well, many weeks passed. Finally one day the young boy was able to report proudly that all
the nails were gone.
At that point, the father asked his son to walk out back with him and take one more good
look at the fence. You have done well, my son, he said. But I want you to notice the holes
that are left. No matter what happens from now on, this fence will never be the same.
Saying or doing hurtful things in anger produces the same kind of result. There will always
be a scar. It wont matter how many times you say youre sorry, or how many years pass,
the scar will still be there. And a verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. People are much
more valuable than an old fence. They make us smile. They help us succeed. Some will
even become friends who share our joys, and support us through bad times. And, if they
trust us, they will also open their hearts to us. That means we need to treat everyone with
love and respect. We need to prevent as many of those scars as we can.
A most valuable lesson, dont you think? And a reminder most of us need from time to time.
Everyone gets angry occasionally. The real test is what we DO with it.
If we are wise, we will spend our time building bridges rather than barriers in our
relationships.
Author Unknown

The Cookie Thief 68 comments

Category: Moral stories

A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She
hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as
bold as could be. . .grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to
ignore to avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished
her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, If I wasnt so
nice, I would blacken his eye.
With each cookie she took, he took one too, when only one was left, she wondered what he
would do. With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke
it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other, she snatched it from him and thought oooh,
brother. This guy has some nerve and hes also rude, why he didnt even show any
gratitude!
She had never known when she had been so galled, and sighed with relief when her flight
was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at
the thieving ingrate.
She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, then she sought her book, which was almost
complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise, there was her bag of
cookies, in front of her eyes.
If mine are here, she moaned in despair, the others were his, and he tried to share. Too late
to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.
By Valerie Cox in A Matter of Perspective
Submitted by Tom The Colonel Parker

My mom only had one eye 517 comments

Category: Inspirational stories,Parent_family

My mom only had one eye. I hated her She was such an embarrassment. She cooked for
students and teachers to support the family.
There was this one day during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me. I
was so embarrassed.
How could she do this to me? I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next
day at school one of my classmates said, EEEE, your mom only has one eye!
I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear. I confronted her that day
and said, If youre only gonna make me a laughing stock, why dont you just die?
My mom did not respond I didnt even stop to think for a second about what I had said,
because I was full of anger. I was oblivious to her feelings.
I wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with her. So I studied real hard, got a
chance to go abroad to study.
Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. I had kids of my own. I was happy with
my life, my kids and the comforts. Then one day, my Mother came to visit me. She hadnt
seen me in years and she didnt even meet her grandchildren.
When she stood by the door, my children laughed at her, and I yelled at her for coming over
uninvited. I screamed at her, How dare you come to my house and scare my children! GET
OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!
And to this, my mother quietly answered, Oh, Im so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong
address. and she disappeared out of sight.
One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. So I lied to my wife that I
was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity.
My neighbors said that she died. I did not shed a single tear. They handed me a letter that
she had wanted me to have.
My dearest son,
I think of you all the time. Im sorry that I came to your house and scared your children.
I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I may not be able to even
get out of bed to see you. Im sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you
were growing up.

You see..when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a
mother, I couldnt stand watching you having to grow up with one eye. So I gave you mine.
I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that
eye.
With all my love to you,
Your mother.

Determination and Persistence 91 comments

Category: Education,Inspirational stories,Moral stories

This is a real life story of engineer John Roebling building the Brooklyn Bridge in New York,
USA back in 1870. The bridge was completed in 1883, after 13 years.

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a
spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building
experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to
forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done
before.
Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all
the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the
dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince
his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.
Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could
be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and
inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and
began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on
the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was also injured and left with a certain
amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to talk or walk.
We told them so. Crazy men and their crazy dreams. Its foolish to chase wild visions.
Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped
since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built.
In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to
complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. He tried to inspire and pass on
his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task.
As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows,
a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the
tops of the trees outside for just a moment.
It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he
could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he
slowly developed a code of communication with his wife.
He touched his wifes arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the
engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers
what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.
For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wifes arm, until
the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its
glory as a tribute to the triumph of one mans indomitable spirit and his determination not
to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work,
and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a
tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently
decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.
Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a
terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal.
Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in
comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams
that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what
the odds are.
back to main page to read more: inspirational stories and motivational stories.

The last cab ride 65 comments

Category: Life,Moral stories

Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. One time I arrived in the middle of the night for
a pick up at a building that was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.
Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute,
then drive away. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as
their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to
the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself.
So I walked to the door and knocked.
Just a minute, answered a frail, elderly voice.
I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened.
A small woman in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat
with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon
suitcase.
The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered
with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters.
In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.
Would you carry my bag out to the car? she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, then
returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb. She
kept thanking me for my kindness.
Its nothing, I told her. I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother
treated.
Oh, youre such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address,
then asked, Could you drive through downtown?
Its not the shortest way, I answered quickly.
Oh, I dont mind, she said. Im in no hurry. Im on my way to a hospice.
I looked in the rear view mirror. Her eyes were glistening.
I dont have any family left, she continued. The doctor says I dont have very long.
I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. What route would you like me to take? I
asked.
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she
had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she

and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a
furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Sometimes shed ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit
staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, Im tired. Lets go
now.
We drove in silence to the address she had given me.
It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a
portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and
intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her. I opened the trunk
and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
How much do I owe you? she asked, reaching into her purse.
Nothing, I said.
You have to make a living, she answered.
There are other passengers.
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.
You gave an old woman a little moment of joy, she said. Thank you.
I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It
was the sound of the closing of a life.
I didnt pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. For the
rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one
who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked
once, then driven away? On a quick review, I dont think that I have done anything more
important in my life. Were conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great
moments. But great moments often catch us unawarebeautifully wrapped in what others
may consider a small one.
A true story by Kent Nerburn

Positive Thinking 158 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had
something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply,
If I were any better, I would be twins!
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around
from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his
attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there
telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I
dont get it! You cant be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it? Jerry replied,
Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can
choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a
good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose
to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I
can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose
the positive side of life.
Yeah, right, its not that easy, I protested.
Yes it is, Jerry said. Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every
situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will
affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: Its your
choice how you live life.
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own
business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life
instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never
supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was
held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand,
shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.
Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18
hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with
fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, If I were any better, Id be twins. Wanna see my
scars?
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the
robbery took place. The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have
locked the back door, Jerry replied. Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had
two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.
Werent you scared? Did you lose consciousness? I asked. Jerry continued, The
paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled
me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and
nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, Hes a dead man. I knew I needed to take
action.
What did you do? I asked.

Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me, said Jerry. She asked if I was
allergic to anything. Yes, I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited
for my reply I took a deep breath and yelled, Bullets! Over their laughter, I told them, I
am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I
learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is
everything.

Let
this
really
then choose how you start your day tomorrow.

By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz
sink
in-

To Let Go 20 comments
Category: Inspirational stories

To let go does not mean to stop caring, it means I cant do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off, its the realization that I cant control another.
To let go is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try to change or blame another, its to make the most of myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about.
To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect
their own destinies.
To let go is not to be protective, its to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to criticize, or regulate anyone, but to try to become what I dream I can do.

To let go is to fear less, and to love more

elieve in Yourself 149 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

There may be days when you get up in the morning and things arent the way you had
hoped they would be.
Thats when you have to tell yourself that things will get better. There are times when
people disappoint you and let you down.
But those are the times when you must remind yourself to trust your own judgments and
opinions, to keep your life focused on believing in yourself.
There will be challenges to face and changes to make in your life, and it is up to you to
accept them.
Constantly keep yourself headed in the right direction for you. It may not be easy at times,
but in those times of struggle you will find a stronger sense of who you are.
So when the days come that are filled with frustration and unexpected responsibilities,
remember to believe in yourself and all you want your life to be.
Because the challenges and changes will only help you to find the goals that you know are
meant to come true for you.
Keep Believing in Yourself!

Never Quits 44 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Abraham Lincoln never quits.

Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections,
twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown.
He could have quit many times but he didnt and because he didnt quit, he became one of
the greatest presidents in the United States history.
Here is a sketch of Lincolns road to the White House:
1.

1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

2.

1818 His mother died.

3.

1831 Failed in business.

4.

1832 Ran for state legislature lost.

5.

1832 Also lost his job wanted to go to law school but couldnt get in.

6.

1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the
year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.

7.

1834 Ran for state legislature again won.

8.

1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.

9.

1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

10.

1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature defeated.

11.

1840 Sought to become elector defeated.

12.

1843 Ran for Congress lost.

13.

1846 Ran for Congress again this time he won went to Washington and did a
good job.

14.

1848 Ran for re-election to Congress lost.

15.

1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state rejected.

16.

1854 Ran for Senate of the United States lost.

17.

1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his partys national convention get
less than 100 votes.

18.

1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again again he lost.

19.

1860 Elected president of the United States.

Juggle Balls 16 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them
work, family, health, friends and spirit and youre keeping all of these in the air. You will
soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other
four balls family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these,
they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will
never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?

Dont undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are
different that each of us is special.

Dont set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is
best for you.

Dont take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would
your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Dont let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By
living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

Dont give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the
moment you stop trying.

Dont be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that
binds us each together.

Dont be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be

brave.

Dont shut love out of your life by saying its impossible to find. The quickest way to
receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best
way to keep love is to give it wings.

Dont run through life so fast that you forget not only where youve been, but also
where you are going.

Dont forget that a persons greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

Dont be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry
easily.

Dont use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a
journey to be savored each step of the way.

By Coca Cola CEO Brian Dyson

The Smell of Rain 57 comments

Category: Motivational stories

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the Doctor walked into the
small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her
hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10,1991,
complications had forced Diana, only 24 weeks pregnant, to Danae Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was
perilously premature. Still, the doctors soft words dropped like bombs. I dont think shes
going to make it, he said, as kindly as he could. Theres only a 10 percent chance she will
live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future
could be a very cruel one. Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor
described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would
never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be
prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation,
and on and on. No! No! was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son
Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of
four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana
slipped in and out of sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter
would live, and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to
additional dire details of their daughters chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much
less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable. David walked in and said
that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements. Diana remembers, I felt so bad
for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I
just wouldnt listen, I couldnt listen. I said, No, that is not going to happen, no way! I
dont care what the doctors say; Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine,
and she will be coming home with us!
As if willed to live by Dianas determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the
help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure. But as those
first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danaes underdeveloped nervous system was essentially raw, the lightest kiss or caress only intensified
her discomfort, so they couldnt even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer
the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the
ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to
their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger.

But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of
strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold
her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors continued to
gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal
life, were next to zero. Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had
predicted.
Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and
an unquenchable zest for life. She shows no signs, what so ever, of any mental or physical
impairment. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is
far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was
sitting in her mothers lap in the bleachers of a local ballpark where her brother Dustins
baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother
and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms
across her chest, Danae asked, Do you smell that? Smelling the air and detecting the
approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, Yes, it smells like rain. Danae closed her eyes
and again asked, Do you smell that? Once again, her mother replied, Yes, I think were
about to get wet, it smells like rain. Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head,
patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, No, it smells like
Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest. Tears blurred Dianas eyes as
Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughters words confirmed what Diana and all the members of
the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those
long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive
for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest and it is His loving scent that
she remembers so well.
This is a real story.

Dont Be Afraid 27 comments

Category: Motivational stories

Here we are, afraid of losing what we have all the time, holding on to it so tight that not a
soul can touch it. We think by hiding it from the world, its hidden and its ours. Nothing is.
Nothing ever will be. For, nothing ever was.

If you think there is anything that you have, thats yours, be it money, a house, a job, or a
girlfriend its nothing but an illusion. Itll all disappear in one blow. One blow, my man.
Here we are, so insecure that we are afraid of re-starting our lives, so we just carry on
trying to sort out the current mess. The thought that we should give it all up and just start
all over with nothing might cross our minds some time, sure, but we get scared and we
push away anything that scares us.
There is nothing I can ever achieve or gain that I cannot lose, in a matter of seconds. You
have never gained enough to not be able to lose it all, in just a few minutes. What you think
is yours, was never yours and will never be yours. Whatever you make here, you leave
here. You came naked and youre going to go back naked.
So what are you afraid of?
Let all be lost. Let them take away everything. As long as you have your heart beating
strong, as long as you have your nostrils working fine, as long as the blood flows in your
veins, you will live, you will breathe and you can get it all back again and again. For, if you
can do it once, you can damn well do it again. Its just a game we play Life.
By Rohit Wadhwaney

Learn and Earn 52 comments

Category: Life

Chuan and Jing joined a wholesale company together just after graduation. Both worked
very hard.
After several years, the boss promoted Jing to sales executive but Chuan remained a sales
rep. One day Chuan could not take it anymore, tender resignation to the boss and
complained the boss did not value hard working staff, but only promoted those who flattered
him.
The boss knew that Chuan worked very hard for the years, but in order to help Chuan
realize the difference between him and Jing, the boss asked Chuan to do the following. Go
and find out anyone selling water melon in the market? Chuan returned and said yes. The
boss asked how much per kg? Chuan went back to the market to ask and returned to inform
boss the $12 per kg.

Boss told Chuan, I will ask Jing the same question? Jing went, returned and said, boss, only
one person selling water melon. $12 per kg, $100 for 10 kg, he has inventory of 340
melons. On the table 58 melons, every melon weighs about 15 kg, bought from the South
two days ago, they are fresh and red, good quality.
Chuan was very impressed and realized the difference between himself and Jing. He decided
not to resign but to learn from Jing.
My dear friends, a more successful person is more observant, think more and understand in
depth. For the same matter, a more successful person sees several years ahead, while you
see only tomorrow. The difference between a year and a day is 365 times, how could you
win?
Think! how far have you seen ahead in your life? How thoughtful in depth are you?

Dont Quit! 25 comments

Category: Life

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

when the road youre trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but do not quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Dont give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victors cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when youre hardest hit
Its when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Help others win 26 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

A few years ago at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally
disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100 yard dash. At the gun, they all started
out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is,
except one boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times and began to
cry.
The other eight heard the boy. They slowed down and looked back. They all turned around
and went back. Every one of them. One girl with Downs Syndrome bent down and kissed
him and said, This will make it better. All nine linked arms and walked across the finish line
together. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes.

Giving when it counts 25 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl
named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery
appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously
survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would
be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking
a deep breath and saying, Yes, Ill do it if it will save her.
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did,
seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He
looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, Will I start to die right away?.
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have
to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Remember those who serve 27 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year-old boy entered a hotel
coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. How much is
an ice cream sundae? he asked. 50, replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.
Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream? he inquired. By now more people were
waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. 35! she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins. Ill have the plain ice cream, he said. The waitress
brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice
cream, paid the cashier and left.
When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed
neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldnt have
the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

The mouse trap 39 comments

Category: Life,Moral stories

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a
package. What food might this contain? the mouse wondered. He was devastated to
discover it was a mousetrap.
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: There is a mousetrap in
the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a
grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.
The mouse turned to the pig and told him There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a
mousetrap in the house! The pig sympathized, but said I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but
there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.

The mouse turned to the cow and said There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a
mousetrap in the house! The cow said Wow, Mr. Mouse. Im sorry for you, but its no skin
off my nose.
So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmers
mousetrap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house like the sound of a mousetrap
catching its prey. The farmers wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did
not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmers
wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to
the farmyard for the soups main ingredient. But his wifes sickness continued, so friends
and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered
the pig. The farmers wife did not get well; she died. So many! people came for her funeral,
the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next
time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesnt concern you, remember:
when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called
life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one
another. Each of us is a vital thread in another persons tapestry.

How the poor live 86 comments

Category: Touching stories

One day, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm
purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on
the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the
father asked his son, How was the trip?
It was great, Dad.
Did you see how poor people live? the father asked.
Oh yeah, said the son.
So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip? asked the father.
The son answered, I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that
reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have

imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the
front yard, and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, and
they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve
others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect
us; they have friends to protect them.
The boys father was speechless.
Then his son added, Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.

A box of kisses 53 comments

Category: Touching stories

Some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping
paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to
put under the Christmas tree.
Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, This is
for you, Daddy. He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again
when he found the box was empty.
He yelled at her, Dont you know that when you give someone a present, theres supposed
to be something inside it?
The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said,Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I
blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy.
The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her
forgiveness.
It is told that the man kept that gold box by his bed for years and whenever he was
discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who
had put it there.
In a very real sense, each of us as humans have been given a gold container filled with
unconditional love and kisses from our children, friends, family and God. There is no more
precious possession anyone could hold.

Moms Last Laugh 39 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Consumed by my loss, I didnt notice the hardness of the pew where I sat. I was at the
funeral of my dearest friend my mother. She finally had lost her long battle with
cancer. The hurt was so intense, I found it hard to breathe at times.
Always supportive, mother clapped loudest at my school plays, held a box of tissues while
listening to my first heartbreak, comforted me at my fathers death, encouraged me in
college, and prayed for me my entire life.
When mothers illness was diagnosed, my sister had a new baby and my brother had
recently married his childhood sweetheart, so it fell on me, the 27-year-old middle child
without entanglements, to take care of her. I counted it an honor.
What now, Lord? I asked sitting in church. My life stretched out before meas an empty
abyss. My brother sat stoically with his face toward the cross while clutching his wifes hand.
My sister sat slumped against her husbands shoulder, his arms around her as she cradled
their child. All so deeply grieving, no one noticed I sat alone. My place had been with our
mother, preparing her meals, helping her walk, taking her to the doctor, seeing to her
medication, reading the Bible together. Now she was with the Lord. My work was finished
and I was alone.
I heard a door open and slam shut at the back of the church. Quick footsteps hurried along
the carpeted floor. An exasperated young man looked around briefly and then sat next to
me. He folded his hands and placed them on his lap. His eyes were brimming with tears.
He began to sniffle. Im late, he explained, though no explanation was necessary. After
several eulogies, he leaned over and commented, Why do they keep calling Mary by the
name of Margaret?
Oh Because that was her name, Margaret. Never Mary. No one called her Mary, I
whispered. I wondered why this person couldnt have sat on the other side of the church. He
interrupted my grieving with his tears and fidgeting. Who was this stranger anyway?
No, that isnt correct, he insisted, as several people glanced over at us whispering, Her
name is Mary, Mary Peters.
That isnt who this is, I replied..
Isnt this the Lutheran church?
No, the Lutheran church is across the street.
Oh.
I believe youre at the wrong funeral, Sir.

The solemnness of the occasion mixed with the realization of the mans mistake bubbled up
inside me and came out as laughter.
I cupped my hands over my face, hoping it would be interpreted as sobs.
The creaking pew gave me away. Sharp looks from other mourners only made the situation
seem more hilarious. I peeked at the bewildered, misguided man seated beside me.He was
laughing, too, as he glanced around, deciding it was too late for an uneventful exit.
I imagined mother laughing.
At the final Amen, we darted out a door and into the parking lot. I do believe well be the
talk of the town, he smiled. He said his name was Rick and since he had missed his aunts
funeral, asked me out for a cup of coffee.
That afternoon began a lifelong journey for me with this man who attended the wrong
funeral, but was in the right place.
A year after our meeting, we were married at a country church where he was the assistant
pastor. This time we both arrived at the same church, right on time. In my time of sorrow,
God gave me laughter. In place of loneliness, God gave me love. This past June we
celebrated our twenty-second wedding anniversary. Whenever anyone asks us how we met,
Rick tells them, Her mother and my Aunt Mary introduced us, and its truly a match made
in heaven.

Be Content About Your Life 43 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Wonder if any of you ever had the feeling that life is bad, real bad,and you wish you were
in another situation. Do you find that life seems to make things difficult for you, work sucks,
life sucks, everything seems to go wrong.
It was not until yesterday that I totally changed my views about life; after a conversation
with one of my friends.
He told me despite taking 2 jobs, and bringing back barely above 1K per month, he is happy
as he is. I wonder how he can be as happy as he is now, considering that he has to skimp
his life with the low pay to support a pair of old-age parents, in-laws, wife, 2 daughters and
the many bills of a household.

He explained that it was through one incident that he saw in India

That happened a few years ago when he was really feeling low and was touring India after a
major setback. He said that right in front of his very eyes, he saw an Indian mother
chopped off her childs right hand with a chopper. The helplessness in the mothers eyes, the
scream of the pain from the innocent 4 years old child haunted him until today. You may ask
why did the mother do so, has the child been naughty, was the childs hand infected??
No, it was done for two simple words to beg. The desperate mother deliberately caused
the child to be handicapped so that the child can go out to the streets to beg. I cannot
accept how this could happen, but it really did, just in another part of the world which I
dont see.
Taken aback by the scene, he dropped a small piece of bread he was eating half-way. And
almost instantly, flock of 5 or 6 children swamp towards this small piece of bread which was
then covered with sand, robbing of bits from one another. The natural reaction of hunger.
Striken by the happenings, he instructed his guide to drive him to the nearest bakery. He
arrived at two bakeries and bought every single loaf of bread he found in the bakeries.
The owner is dumbfolded , but willing sold everything. He spent less than $100 to obtain
about 400 loaf of bread (this is less than $0.25/per loaf) and spend another $100 to get
daily necessities. Off he went in the truck full of bread into the streets. As he distributed the
bread and necessities to the children (mostly handicapped) and a few adults, he received
cheers and bows from these unfortunate. For the first time in life he wonder how people can
give up their dignity for a loaf of bread which cost less than $0.25. He began to ask himself
how fortunate he is as a Singaporean. How fortunate he to be able to have a complete body,
have a job, have a family, have the chance to complain what food is nice what isnt, have
the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people in front of him are
deprived of..
Now I begin to think and feel it, too. Was my life really that bad?
Perhaps.no, it should not be bad at all.
What about you? Maybe the next time you think you are, think about the child who lost one
hand to beg on the streets.
Story By Wendy Tan
Story Submitted to AcademicTips.org By Laura

The Fat Lady 46 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Hi! How are you? The woman smiled as she took the seat beside me. She had to lower
herself slowly, squeezing her ample bottom into the seat, filling all available space.
Positioning herself comfortably, she plopped her enormous arm on our common armrest.
Her immensity saturated the space around us, shrinking me and my seat into insignificance.
I cringed and reclined towards the window.
She leaned towards me and repeated her greeting in an upbeat, friendly voice. Her face
towered above my head, forcing me to turn to look at her. Hi, I replied with obvious
loathing.
I turned away to stare out the cabin window, sulking silently about the long hours of
discomfort I was going to experience with this monster beside me.
She nudged me with her meaty arm. My name is Laura. Im from Britain. How about you?
Japan?
Malaysia, I barked.
Im so sorry! Will you accept my heartfelt apology? Come, shake my hand. If were going
to spend six hours side-by-side on this flight, wed better be friends, dont you think? A
palm waved in front of my face. I shook the hand reluctantly, still silent.
Laura started a conversation with me, taking no notice of my unfriendly reactions. She
talked excitedly about herself and her trip to Hong Kong to see her frinds. She rattled off a
list of things she was going to buy for her students in the boarding school where she was
teaching.
I gave her one-word answers to her questions about me. Unperturbed by my coldness, she
nodded as she made appreciative comments to my answers. Her voice was warm and
caring. She was considerate and obliging when we were served drinks and meals, making
sure that I had room to manoeuvre in my seat. I dont want to clobber you with my
elephant size! she said with utmost sincerity.
To my surprise, her face which repulsed me hours before, now opened into extraordinary
smiles, lively and calm at the same time. I couldnt help but let down my guard slowly.
Laura was an interesting conversationalist. She was well read in many subjects from
philosophy to science. She turned a seemingly unimportant subject into something to
explore and understand. Her comments were humorous and inspirational. When our topic
turned to cultures, I was pleasantly surprised by her intelligent comments and well-thoughtout analysis.
During our conversation, Laura managed to make every cabin crew who served us walk
away laughing at her jokes.
When a flight attendant was clearing our plates, Laura cracked several jokes about her size.
The flight attendant roared with laughter as she grabbed Lauras hand, You really make my
day!

For the next few minutes, Laura listened attentively and gave pointers to the flight
attendants weight problem. The grateful attendant said before she rushed off, Ive got to
work. Ill come back later and talk to you about it.
I asked Laura, Have you ever thought about losing some weight?
No. Ive worked hard to get this way. Why would I want to give it up?
You arent worried about cardiovascular diseases that come with being overweight?
Not at all. You only get the diseases if youre worried about your weight all the time. You
see advertisements from slimming centres that say, Liberate yourself from your extra
baggage so that you are free to be yourself. Its rubbish! Youre liberated only if youre
comfortable about who you are, and what you look like any time of the day and anytime of
the year! Why would I want to waste my time on slimming regimes when I have so many
other important things to do and so many people to be friends with? I eat healthily and walk
regularly; Im this size because I am born to be big! There is more to life than worrying
about weight all day long.
She sipped at her wine. Besides, God gives me so much happiness that I need a bigger
body to hold all of it! Why would I lose weight to lose my happiness? Taken aback by her
reasoning, I chuckled.
Laura continued. Folks often see me as a fat lady with big bosoms, big thighs and a big
bottom that no man would even bother to cast a glance at. They see me as a slob. They
think Im lazy and have no willpower. Theyre wrong. She held up her glass to a passing
flight attendant. More of this magnificent wine, please. She smiled sweetly at the
attendant. Great service from your crew. May God bless all of you.
She turned to me, Im actually a slim person inside. Im so full of energy that people wont
be able to keep up with me. This extra flesh is here to slow me down, otherwise Ill be
running everywhere chasing after men!
Do men chase after you? I asked jokingly.
Of course they do. Im happily married but men still keep proposing to me.
Most of them have relationship problems and they need someone to confide in. For some
reason, they like to talk to me. I think I should have been a counsellor instead of a school
teacher!
Laura paused before she said thoughtfully, You know, the relationship between men and
women is so complicated. Women worship men and call them, Honey until they find out
they have been lied to, and then they turn into bitter gourds! Men love women so much that
they see them as their soul mates until they look at their credit card bills, and then women
become devils with tridents!
Lauras enthralling conversation had turned the flight into something thoroughly enjoyable. I
was also fascinated by the way people were drawn to her. By the end of the flight, almost
half the cabin crew was standing near the aisle by us, laughing and joking with Laura. The

passengers around us joined in the merry-making too. Laura was the centre of attention,
filling the cabin with delightful warmth.
When we waved goodbye to each other at the arrival lounge at Hong Kongs Kai Tak Airport,
I watched her walking towards a big group of adoring adults and kids. Cheers sounded as
the group hugged and kissed Laura. She turned around and winked at me.
I was stunned, as the realisation set in: Laura was the most beautiful woman I had ever
met in my life.
By Chong Sheau Ching

The Elephant Rope 42 comments

Category: Education,Inspirational stories,Moral stories

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these
huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no
cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds
but for some reason, they did not.
He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no
attempt to get away. Well, trainer said, when they are very young and much smaller we
use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, its enough to hold them. As they grow
up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still
hold them, so they never try to break free.
The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but
because they believed they couldnt, they were stuck right where they were.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do
something, simply because we failed at it once before?
Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

You are unique! 62 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

Think what a remarkable, unduplicatable, and miraculous thing it is to be you! Of all the
people who have come and gone on the earth, since the beginning of time, not ONE of them
is like YOU!
No one who has ever lived or is to come has had your combination of abilities, talents,
appearance, friends, acquaintances, burdens, sorrows and opportunities.
No ones hair grows exactly the way yours does. No ones finger prints are like yours. No
one has the same combination of secret inside jokes and family expressions that you know.
The few people who laugh at all the same things you do, dont sneeze the way you do. No
one prays about exactly the same concerns as you do. No one is loved by the same
combination of people that love you NO ONE!
No one before, no one to come. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE!
Enjoy that uniqueness. You do not have to pretend in order to seem more like someone
else. You werent meant to be like someone else. You do not have to lie to conceal the parts
of you that are not like what you see in anyone else.
You were meant to be different. Nowhere ever in all of history will the same things be going
on in anyones mind, soul and spirit as are going on in yours right now.
If you did not exist, there would be a hole in creation, a gap in history, something missing
from the plan for humankind.
Treasure your uniqueness. It is a gift given only to you. Enjoy it and share it!
No one can reach out to others in the same way that you can. No one can speak your
words. No one can convey your meanings. No one can comfort with your kind of comfort. No
one can bring your kind of understanding to another person.
No one can be cheerful and lighthearted and joyous in your way. No one can smile your
smile. No one else can bring the whole unique impact of you to another human being.
Share your uniqueness. Let it be free to flow out among your family and friends and people
you meet in the rush and clutter of living wherever you are. That gift of yourself was given
you to enjoy and share. Give yourself away!
See it! Receive it! Let it tickle you! Let it inform you and nudge you and inspire you! YOU
ARE UNIQUE!
Author Unknown

Success depends upon maturity! 12 comments

Category: Awakening,Inspirational stories

Maturity is many things. It is the ability to base a judgment on the big picture, the long
haul.
It means being able to resist the urge for immediate gratification and opt for the course of
action that will pay off later.
One of the characteristics of the young is I want it now.
Grown-up people can wait.
Maturity is perseverancethe ability to sweat out a project or a situation, in spite of heavy
opposition and discouraging setbacks, and stick with it until it is finished.
The adult who is constantly changing friends and changing mates is immature. He/she
cannot stick it out because he/she has not grown up.
Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction.
The mature person can face unpleasantness, frustration, discomfort and defeat without
collapsing or complaining. He/she knows he cannot have everything his/her own way every
time. He/she is able to defer to circumstances, to other people-and to time. He/she knows
when to compromise and is not too proud to do so.
Maturity is humility. It is being big enough to say, I was wrong. And, when he/she is right,
the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, I told you so.
Maturity is the ability to live up to your responsibilities, and this means being dependable. It
means keeping your word. Dependability is the hallmark of integrity. Do you mean what you
say-and do you say what you mean? Unfortunately, the world is filled with people who
cannot be counted on. When you need them most, they are among the missing. They never
seem to come through in the clutches. They break promises and substitute alibis for
performance. They show up late or not at all. They are confused and disorganized. Their
lives are a chaotic maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business and good
intentions that somehow never materialize. They are always a day late and a dollar short.

Ann Landers

Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it. Immature people spend their lives
exploring endless possibilities and then doing nothing. Action requires courage. Without
courage, little is accomplished.
Maturity is the ability to harness your abilities and your energies and do more than is
expected. The mature person refuses to settle for mediocrity. He/she would rather aim high
and miss the mark than low-and make it.
Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which cannot be changed, the courage to
change that which should be changed, no matter what it takes, and the wisdom to know the
difference.
By Ann landers

A Simple Gesture 36 comments

Category: Life

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had
tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball
bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the
scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the
burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boys name was Bill, that he loved video
games, baseball and history, and that he was having lots of trouble with his other subjects
and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend. They arrived at Bills home first and Mark
was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly
with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see
each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from

junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts
over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came and three weeks before
graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.
Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. Did you ever wonder why I
was carrying so many things home that day? asked Bill. You see, I cleaned out my locker
because I didnt want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my
mothers sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some
time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed
that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up
those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life.
-John W. Schlatter (true story)

One Step 20 comments

Category: Life

Foolish people with all their other thoughts, have this one too: They are always getting
ready to live, but never living.
Your success will start when you begin to pursue it. To reach your goal or to attain success,
you dont need to know all of the answers in advance. You just need to have a clear idea of
what your goal is.
Dont procrastinate when faced with difficult problems. Break your problems into parts, and
handle one part at a time.
Develop tendencies toward taking action. You can make something happen right now. Divide
your big plan into small steps and take that first step right away.
Everyone who ever got where they are had to begin where they were. Your big opportunity
is where you are right now.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Take it.

A Smile 37 comments
Category: Life

A smile costs nothing, but gives much.

It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give.
It takes a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.
None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor, but that he
can be made rich by it.
A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business, and is the countersign
of friendship.
It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and it is natures
best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value
to anyone, until it is given away.
Some people are too tired to give you a smile;
Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

Angels 37 comments
Category: Life

Barefoot and dirty, the girl just sat and watched the people go by. She never tried to speak,
she never said a word. Many people passed, but never did one person stop.
Just so happens the next day I decided to go back to the park, curious if the little girl would
still be there.
Right in the very spot as she was yesterday she sat perched on high, with the saddest look
in her eyes. Today I was to make my own move and walk over to the little girl. As we all
know a park full of strange people is not a place for young children to play.
As I began walking towards her I could see the back of the little girls dress indicated a
deformity. I figured that was the reason the people just passed by and made no effort to
help. As I got closer, the little girl slightly lowered her eyes to avoid my intent stare. I could
see the shape of her back more clearly. It was grotesquely shaped in a humped over form. I
smiled to let her know it was ok, I was there to help, to talk.

I sat down beside her and opened with a simple Hello. The little girl acted shocked and
stammered a hi after a long stare into my eyes. I smiled and she shyly smiled back. We
talked til darkness fell and the park was completely empty. Everyone was gone and we
were alone. I asked the girl why she was so sad. The little girl looked at me and with a sad
face said Because Im different.
I immediately said that you are! and smiled. The little girl acted even sadder, she said, I
know. Little girl, I said, you remind me of an angel, she stood to her feet, and said,
Really?
Yes, maam, youre like a little guardian angel sent to watch over all those people walking
by. She nodded her head yes and smiled, and with that she spread her wings and said with
a twinkle in her eye, I am. I was speechless, sure I was seeing things. She said, And
since you thought of someone other than yourself, my job here is done.
Immediately I stood to my feet and said, Wait, so why did no one stop to help an angel?
She looked at me and smiled, Youre the only one who could see me, and you believe it in
your heart. And She was gone. And with that my life was changed dramatically.
So, when you think youre all you have, remember, there is an angel always watching over
you.
Pass this to everyone that means anything at all to you. to let them know youre glad they
care about you like the story says we all need someone.
Everyone of your friends is an angel in their own.

Life 37 comments
Category: Life

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be
there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you
are or who you want to become.
You never know who these people may be a roommate, a neighbor, a professor, a friend, a
lover, or even a complete stranger but when you lock eyes with them, you know at that
very moment they will affect your life in some profound way.
Sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible, painful, and unfair at first, but in
reflection you find that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realized
your potential, strength, willpower, or heart.

Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness, and sheer stupidity all occur to test the
limits of your soul. Without these small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a
smoothly paved straight flat road to nowhere. It would be safe and comfortable, but dull
and utterly pointless.
The people you meet who affect your life, and the success and downfalls you experience,
help to create who you are and who you become. Even the bad experiences can be learned
from. In fact, they are sometimes the most important ones.
If someone loves you, give love back to them in whatever way you can, not only because
they love you, but because in a way, they are teaching you to love and how to open your
heart and eyes to things.
If someone hurts you, betrays you, or breaks your heart, forgive them, for they have helped
you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.
Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from those moments everything
that you possibly can for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people that
you have never talked to before, and listen to what they have to say.
Let yourself fall in love, break free, and set your sights high. Hold your head up because you
have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you
dont believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in you.
You can make anything you wish of your life. Create your own life and then go out and live it
with absolutely no regrets.
And if you love someone tell them, for you never know what tomorrow may have in store.
Learn a lesson in life each day that you live!
Today is the tomorrow you were worried about yesterday.
Think About it? Was it worth it?

Prison help! 54 comments

Category: Moral stories

An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very
hard work. His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a
letter to his son and mentioned his situation:
Dear
Son,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I wont be able to plant my potato garden this
year. I hate to miss doing the garden because your mother always loved planting time. Im
just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would
be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you werent in prison.
Love,
Dad

Shortly, the old man received this telegram: For Heavens sake, Dad, dont dig up the
garden!! Thats where I buried the GUNS!!
At 4 a.m. the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug
up the entire garden without finding any guns.
Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what had happened, and
asked him what to do next.
His sons reply was: Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad. Its the best I could do for
you, from here.
MORAL: NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE WORLD, IF YOU HAVE DECIDED TO DO
SOMETHING DEEP FROM YOUR HEART, YOU CAN DO IT. IT IS THE THOUGHT THAT
MATTERS, NOT WHERE YOU ARE OR WHERE THE PERSON IS.

Enjoy your life at every moment 90 comments

Category: Motivational stories

Once a fisherman was sitting near seashore, under the shadow of a tree smoking his beedi.
Suddenly a rich businessman passing by approached him and enquired as to why he was
sitting under a tree smoking and not working. To this the poor fisherman replied that he had
caught enough fishes for the day.
Hearing this the rich man got angry and said: Why dont you catch more fishes instead of
sitting
in
shadow
wasting
your
time?
Fisherman
asked:
What
would
I
do
by
catching
more
fishes?

Businessman: You could catch more fishes, sell them and earn more money, and buy a
bigger
boat.
Fisherman:
What
would
I
do
then?
Businessman: You could go fishing in deep waters and catch even more fishes and earn
even
more
money.
Fisherman:
What
would
I
do
then?
Businessman: You could buy many boats and employ many people to work for you and earn
even
more
money.
Fisherman:
What
would
I
do
then?
Businessman:
You
could
become
a
rich
businessman
like
me.
Fisherman:
What
would
I
do
then?
Businessman:
You
could
then
enjoy
your
life
peacefully.
Fisherman: What do you think Im doing right now?
MORAL You dont need to wait for tomorrow to be happy and enjoy your life. You dont
even need to be more rich, more powerful to enjoy life. LIFE is at this moment, enjoy it
fully.
As some great men have said My riches consist not in extent of my possessions but in the
fewness of my wants.

Love in action 38 comments

Category: Life

One night a man came to our house and told me, There is a family with eight children.
They have not eaten for days, I took some food and I went. When I finally came to the
family, I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger. There was no sorrow or
sadness in their faces, just the deep pain of hunger. I gave the rice to the mother. She
divided it in two, and went out, carrying half the rice with her. When she came back, I asked
her, Where did you go? She gave me this simple answer, To my neighbors-they are
hungry also.
I was not surprised that she gavebecause poor people are generous. But I was surprised
that she knew they were hungry. As a rule, when we are suffering, we are so focused on
ourselves we have no time for others.
Mother Teresa

I have learned 177 comments

Category: Life

Ive
learnedthat you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved.
The rest is up to them.
Ive
learnedthat no matter how much I care, some people just dont care back.
Ive
learnedthat it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
Ive
learnedthat no matter how good a friend is, theyre going to hurt you every once in a while and you
must forgive them for that.
Ive
learnedthat its not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts.
Ive
learnedthat you should never ruin an apology with an excuse.
Ive
learnedthat you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, youd better know
something.
Ive
learnedthat you shouldnt compare yourself to the best others can do.
Ive
learnedthat you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
Ive
learnedthat its taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.
Ive
learnedthat you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see
them.
Ive
learnedthat you can keep going long after you cant.
Ive
learnedthat we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
Ive
learnedthat either you control your attitude or it controls you.
Ive
learnedthat regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there
had better be something else to take its place.
Ive
learnedthat heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done,
regardless of the consequences.
Ive
learnedthat money is a lousy way of keeping score.

Ive
learnedthat my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.
Ive
learnedthat sometimes the people you expect to kick you when youre down will be the ones to help
you get back up.
Ive
learnedthat sometimes when Im angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesnt give me the
right to be cruel.
Ive
learnedthat true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true
love.
Ive
learnedthat just because someone doesnt love you the way you want them to doesnt mean they
dont love you with all they have.
Ive
learnedthat maturity has more to do with what types of experiences youve had and what youve
learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays youve celebrated.
Ive
learnedthat you should never tell a child their dreams are unlikely or outlandish. Few things are
more humiliating, and what a tragedy it would be if they believed it.
Ive
learnedthat your family wont always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you arent
related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people again. Families
arent biological.
Ive
learnedthat it isnt always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you are to learn to forgive
yourself.
Ive
learnedthat no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesnt stop for your grief.
Ive
learnedthat our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are
responsible for who we become.
Ive
learnedthat a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.
Ive
learnedthat just because two people argue, it doesnt mean they dont love each other. And just
because they dont argue, it doesnt mean they do.
Ive
learnedthat we dont have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
Ive
learnedthat you shouldnt be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
Ive
learnedthat two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
Ive
learnedthat no matter how you try to protect your children, they will eventually get hurt and you
will hurt in the process.

Ive
learnedthat even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will
find the strength to help.
Ive
learnedthat credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.
Ive
learnedthat the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.
Ive
learnedthat its hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting
peoples feelings, and standing up for what you believe.
Ive
learnedthat people will forget what you said, and people will forget what you did, but people will
never forget how you made them feel.
By Omer B. Washington
back to main page to read more: inspirational stories and motivational stories.

The doll and the white rose 89 comments

Category: Life

I was walking around in a Target store, when I saw a Cashier hand this little boy some
money back. The boy couldnt have been more than 5 or 6 years old. The Cashier said, Im
sorry, but you dont have enough money to buy this doll. Then the little boy turned to the
old woman next to him: Granny, are you sure I dont have enough money? The old lady
replied: You know that you dont have enough money to buy this doll, my dear. Then she
asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look a round. She left quickly.
The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand. Finally, I walked toward him and I asked
him who he wished to give this doll to. Its the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so
much for Christmas. She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her. I replied to him
that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry. But he replied to
me sadly. No, Santa Claus cant bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to
my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.
His eyes were so sad while saying this. My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that
Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her
to give it to my sister. My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said: I
told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.
Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me I
want mommy to take my picture with her so she wont forget me. I love my mommy and I

wish she doesnt have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little
sister. Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.
I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. Suppose we check again, just in case
you do have enough money for the doll? OK he said, I hope I do have enough. I added
some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough
for the doll and even some spare money. The little boy said: Thank you God for giving me
enough money! Then he looked at me and added, I asked last night before I went to sleep
for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give It to
my sister. He heard me! I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my
mommy, but I didnt dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll
and a white rose. My mommy loves white roses.
A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket. I finished my shopping
in a totally different state from when I started. I couldnt get the little boy out of my mind.
Then I remembered a local news paper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man
in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right
away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull
the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to
recover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy? Two days after this encounter
with the little boy, I read in the news paper that the young woman had passed away. I
couldnt stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home
where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wishes
before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand
with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. I left the place, tearyeyed, feeling that my life had been changed forever. The love that the little boy had for his
mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of a second, a
drunk driver had taken all this away from him.
The value of a man or woman resides in what he or she gives, not in what they are capable
of receiving
Author Unknown

Mother Teresa Quotes 52 comments

Category: Quotes

We forget that forgiveness is greater than revenge. People make mistakes.

We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a rage will haunt us
forever.
Pause and ponder. Think before you act. Be patient. Forgive & forget. Love one and all.
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful
thing.

Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we
have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us.
It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of
someone unloved in our own home.
Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.

The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would
be less because of that missing drop.

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only
more love.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much
greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do but how much love we put in that
action.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of
silence. See how nature trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon
and the sun, how they move in silence We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Peace begins with a smile.

Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone
to call their own.

If you cant feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we
have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but
they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Intense love does not measure, it just gives.

I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door
neighbor?

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldnt
touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for
it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we
could use.

The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child, what
is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.

Benefits of Struggling 26 comments

Category: Inspirational stories

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched
the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.
Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it
could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a
pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged
easily.

But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the
butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to
be able to support the body, which would contract in time.
Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and
shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon
and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Gods way
of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for
flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go
through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as
what we could have been.
And we could never fly.

alue and invest in yourself 8 comments

Category: Awakening,Education

If you are into financial investment, youre probably very familiar with Mr. Warren Buffet
(1951present). He is the most successful investor in the world. His investment strategies
are legendary and many people seek to learn after him.
Even more respectable, he pledged to give away 99% of his wealth (more than $30 billions
at the time of the pledge in 2006) to non-profit foundations, mostly to Bill Gates
Foundation.
Mr. Buffet often travels to universities to give speeches to educate and motivate students.
Here is one of his speeches to teach us the value of our body, to invest in ourselves, in
education for a great future.

Imagine that a Genie offers you any car in the world. The catch is
that it is the only car you will ever own. What would you do?
You would read the manual ten times, change the oil twice as often as required, and you
would take fastidious care so that that car remained the car of your dreams forever.
Think about what this tells you about your body.
You get only one mind and one bodythe same ones you will have at 20, 40, 60, etc.
Take care of them and maximize their potential. It will be too late to take care of your body
and mind (and car) later on. You can maintain them, but it is hard or impossible to undo big
mistakes or negligence later on. You do not want to end up with a wreck on your hands.

Your main asset in life is yourself.

Treat yourself as a valuable asset. I often explain to students that I would be willing to pay
today for a percentage of the future earnings of good students.
If you value yourself, and invest in yourself, you will be worth a great deal through out your
lifetime, both to yourself and to your community.
Author: Warren Buffet

Funny short stories 273 comments

Category: Funny Jokes,Short stories

The child and his mother:

A curious child asked his mother: Mommy, why are some of your hairs turning grey?
The mother tried to use this occasion to teach her child: It is because of you, dear. Every
bad action of yours will turn one of my hairs grey!
The child replied innocently: Now I know why grandmother has only grey hairs on her
head.

Wrong email address:

A couple going on vacation but his wife was on a business trip so he went to the destination
first and his wife would meet him the next day.
When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.
Unfortunately, when typing her address, he mistyped a letter and his note was directed
instead to an elderly preachers wife whose husband had passed away only the day before.
When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a
piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
P.S. Sure is hot down here.

Wife,

Wills experience at the airport:

After his return from Rome, Will couldnt find his luggage in the airport baggage area. He
went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that his bags hadnt shown up on
the carousel.
She smiled and told him not to worry because they were trained professionals and he was in
good hands.
Then she asked Will, Has your plane arrived yet?

Clever kids:
A police officer found a perfect hiding place for watching for speeding motorists.
One day, the officer was amazed when everyone was under the speed limit, so he
investigated and found the problem.

A 10 years old boy was standing on the side of the road with a huge hand painted sign
which said Radar Trap Ahead.
A little more investigative work led the officer to the boys accomplice: another boy about
100 yards beyond the radar trap with a sign reading TIPS and a bucket at his feet full of
change.

Do you know any short but very funny stories? Please share below

Words of encouragement 27 comments

Category: Quotes

Life is full of challenges and obstacles. It is human nature, many times we know we should
not give up but we find it hard to stay positive and optimistic.
Words of encouragement can help to relieve stress and boost our morale. Below are my
favorite encouragement quotes, I hope these help to make you feel a lot more confident in
your ability to achieve your dreams.
Dont give up! Did you know that Thomas Edison tried over 2000 materials before he found
one that he could make the light bulb? At one point, there was a fire accident and his lab
was destroyed completely. He started rebuilding the lab the next day and kept going.
Abraham Lincoln is in our hearts, one of the greatest presidents but we rarely know that he
faced many failures and defeat throughout his life: born into poverty, twice failed in
business, lost eight elections and suffered a nervous breakdown.
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off
against
the
wind,
not
with
it.
Henry Ford

One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.
Col. Harland Sanders

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though
you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and
time
that
the
tide
will
turn.
Harriet Beecher Stowe

diamond

Unknown

is

merely

lump

of

coal

that

did

well

under

pressure.

I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and
more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.
James Cash Penney

A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.
Unknown

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didnt do than by
the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade
winds
in
your
sails.
Explore.
Dream.
Discover.
Mark Twain

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those
that
sang
best.
Henry Van Dyke

Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good
reason
why
it
will.
Dr. Robert Anthony

Extraordinary

struggles

bring

an

extraordinary

purpose

for

those

who

wait.

Brianna Gazvoda

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles
and
not
the
tears
that
roll.
Unknown

Only

your

real

friends

will

tell

you

when

your

face

is

dirty.

Sicilian Proverb

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the
beginning.
Ivy Baker Priest

It doesnt matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it
before; its important to realize that whatever youre doing, its your first attempt at it.
Wally Amos

If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh
start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the
staying
down.
Mary Pickford

He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had
failed.
William James

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully
upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
Alexander Graham Bell

Instead of giving myself reasons why I cant, I give myself reasons why I can.
Unknown

Take care friends and if you know some good encouragement quotes, phrases or poems,
please share with our fellow visitors!!!

True story: real winners dont give up! 71 comments

Category: Inspiring stories,True stories

This is a true story of a young woman who went through the most gruesome fire. When you
read her story, youll realize that your trials are absolutely nothing compared to what this
young girl went through.
It was September 25, 2000. Maricel Apatan was an 11-year old girl in Zamboanga. On that
day, this little girl went with her uncle to draw water.
Along the way, four men met them. They were carrying long knives. They told her uncle to
face down on the ground, and they hacked him on the neck and killed him.
Maricel was in total shock, especially that the men were their neighbors. She tried to
escape, but the men ran after her.
She cried, Kuya, wag po, wag nyo akong tagain! Maawa po kayo sa akin! (Dont kill
me! Have mercy on me!)
But they werent listening. With a long knife, a man slashed her on the neck too.
Maricel fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
When she woke up, she saw a lot of blood. She also saw the feet of the men around her, but
she pretended to be dead.
When they walked away, Maricel ran back home. But along the way, she saw that both her
hands were falling off. Because the men hacked them too. She cried but she kept running.
Sometimes, she would faint and fall to the ground. But shed regain consciousness and run
again.
When she was near her home, Maricel called her mother.
Upon seeing her daughter, her mother screamed in terror. She wrapped her bloodied child in
a blanket and carried her to the hospital.
Here was the problem: From her house to the highway, it was a 12-kilometer walk. It took
them 4 hours just to reach the highway.
When they arrived in the hospital, the doctors thought Maricel was going to die. But for 5
hours, they operated on her. It took 25 stitches to stitch together the long knife wound in
her neck and back.
Maricel barely survived. And she lost both of her hands.
Ironically, the next day was Maricels birthday. She was 12 years old.
But tragedy didnt end there. When they went home, they saw their home was gone. It was
ransacked and burned down by the goons.

Being very poor, Maricels family also didnt have P50,000 for their hospital bills.
But God sent many angels along the way to help them.
Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, a distant relative, paid for hospital bills and helped them bring
the criminals to court. They were sentenced to prison.
Today, shes staying with the nuns at Regina Rosarii with Sr. Eppie Brasil, O.P.
But this is the incredible miracle. Instead of staying down, Maricel kept running.
Instead of cursing God why she had no hands, she now uses her wrists in incredible ways
that will boggle your mind.

Maricel Apatan

Maricel was cited as the most industrious, best in computer, and most courteous in
the School for Crippled Children.
In 2008, she graduated from a course in Hotel and Restaurant Management. She even
received a Gold medal for Arts and Crafts.
In 2011, she finished her education to be a chef. Yes, a Chef without hands.
Nothing can stop this young lady from reaching her dreams.
Real Winners Dont Give Up!
More images about Maricel Apatan:

Maricel Apatan, a true winner!!!

The power of determination (true story) 25

comments
Category: Awakening,True stories


A true story about athlete Glenn Cunningham who was horribly burned in a schoolhouse fire
at the age of 8. Doctors predicted he would never walk again. Determined to walk, Glenn
would throw himself off his wheelchair and pull his body across the yard and along a fence.
Twenty-two months later, he took his first steps and through sheer determination, learned
to run despite the pain
The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned, pot-bellied coal stove. A little
boy had the job of coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room
before his teacher and his classmates arrived.
One morning they arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames. They dragged the
unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive. He had major burns
over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital.
From his bed the dreadfully burned, semi-conscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking
to his mother. The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die which was for the
best, really for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body.
But the brave boy didnt want to die. He made up his mind that he would survive.
Somehow, to the amazement of the physician, he did survive. When the mortal danger was
past, he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly. The mother was told that
since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body, it would almost be
better if he had died, since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his
lower limbs.
Once more the brave boy made up his mind. He would not be a cripple. He would walk. But
unfortunately from the waist down, he had no motor ability. His thin legs just dangled there,
all but lifeless.
Ultimately he was released from the hospital. Every day his mother would massage his little
legs, but there was no feeling, no control, nothing. Yet his determination that he would walk
was as strong as ever.
When he wasnt in bed, he was confined to a wheelchair. One sunny day his mother wheeled
him out into the yard to get some fresh air. This day, instead of sitting there, he threw
himself from the chair. He pulled himself across the grass, dragging his legs behind him.
He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot. With great effort, he raised
himself up on the fence. Then, stake by stake, he began dragging himself along the fence,
resolved that he would walk. He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all
around the yard beside the fence. There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in
those legs.
Ultimately through his daily massages, his iron persistence and his resolute determination,
he did develop the ability to stand up, then to walk haltingly, then to walk by himself and
then to run.

He began to walk to school, then to run to school, to run for the sheer joy of running. Later
in college he made the track team.
Still later in Madison Square Garden this young man who was not expected to survive, who
would surely never walk, who could never hope to run this determined young man, Dr.
Glenn Cunningham, ran the worlds fastest mile**!
Story Told By Burt Dubin,
Developer of Speaking Success System.
**On June 16, 1934, Glenn Cunningham ran the mile in 4:06.8 minutes, breaking the
worlds record. His effort portrays that whatever you want to create in your life is yours for
the making. As long as you desire it enough and allow your will to guide you, you can have
and be whatever your heart desires. The only one that can put limits on our personal will is
ourselves. Develop and encourage your will to create and all the forces of nature within and
without will help you bring your desire to pass.

Life Summary:

8 years old, was horribly burned in a schoolhouse fire. Doctors predicted he would
never walk again.

22 months later, took his first steps and through sheer determination, learned to run
despite the pain.

In high school, set records for the mile and later attended Kansas University.

While at Kansas, refused all scholarship money, preferring to pay his own way.

By sophomore year, ran the 1,500 meter race at the 1932 Olympics, but finished
fourth due to a severe cold.

By senior year, set a world record for the mile of 4:06.8 and held seven of the top 13
fastest recorded times for the mile.

In 1936, voted Most Popular Athlete by his fellow athletes.

He went on to earn a masters degree from University of Iowa and later a doctorate
from New York University.

While in New York, won 21 of 31 races at Madison Square Gardens and set an indoor
mile record there in 1938. His fastest mile time was 4:04.4 at a Dartmouth track meet
in 1938.

When the 1940 Olympics were cancelled, he retired from his running career and
taught at Cornell College in Iowa.

During World War II, he served two years in the Navy.

Spent the remainder of his life running the Glenn Cunningham Youth Ranch for
troubled kids in Kansas, USA. It is estimated that he and his wife raised around 9,000
kids on their ranch in the years until his death in 1988.

Glenn Cunningham Images:

Cunningham at 1936 Games.

Glenn Cunningham and Wife at Their Range.

More Reading:

Glenn Cunningham (Wikipedia)

The loser who never gave up! 24 comments

Category: True stories

When he was a little boy his uncle called him Sparky, after a comic-strip horse named
Spark Plug. School was all but impossible for Sparky.
He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He flunked physics in high school, getting a
grade of zero. He also flunked Latin, algebra and English. And his record in sports wasnt
any better. Though he did manage to make the schools golf team, he promptly lost the only
important match of the season. Oh, there was a consolation match; he lost that too.

Throughout his youth, Sparky was awkward socially. It wasnt that the other students
disliked him; its just that no one really cared all that much. In fact, Sparky was astonished
if a classmate ever said hello to him outside of school hours. Theres no way to tell how he
might have done at dating. He never once asked a girl out in high school. He was too afraid
of being turned down or perhaps laughed at. Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates
everyone knew it. So he learned to live with it. He made up his mind early that if things
were meant to work out, they would. Otherwise he would content himself with what
appeared to be his inevitable mediocrity.
One thing WAS important to Sparky, however drawing. He was proud of his artwork. No
one else appreciated it. But that didnt seem to matter to him. In his senior year of high
school, he submitted some cartoons to the the yearbook. The editors rejected the concept.
Despite this brush-off, Sparky was convinced of his ability. He even decided to become an
artist.
So, after completing high school, Sparky wrote Walt Disney Studios. They asked for samples
of his artwork. Despite careful preparation, it too was rejected. One more confirmation that
he was a loser.
But Sparky still didnt give up. Instead, he decided to tell his own lifes story in cartoons.
The main character would be a little boy who symbolized the perpetual loser and chronic
underachiever. You know him well. Because Sparkys cartoon character went on to become a
cultural phenomenon of sorts. People readily identified with this lovable loser. He reminded
people of the painful and embarrassing moments from their own past, of their pain and their
shared humanity. The character soon became famous worldwide: Charlie Brown. And
Sparky, the boy whose many failures never kept him from trying, whose work was
rejected again and again, is the highly successful cartoonist Charles Schultz. His
cartoon strip, Peanuts, continues to inspire books, T-shirts and Christmas specials,
reminding us, as someone once commented, that life somehow finds a way for all of us,
even the losers.
Sparkys story reminds us of a very important principle in life. We all face difficulty and
discouragement from time to time. We also have a choice in how we handle it. If were
persistent, if we hold fast to our faith, if we continue to develop the unique talents God has
given us, who knows what can happen? We may end up with an insight and an ability to
inspire that comes only through hardship. In the end, there are no losers with God. Some
winners just take longer to develop!
By CAPT J. David Atwater, CHC, USN

Charles Schulz (November 26, 1922February 12, 2000)

About Charles Schulzs cartoon:

The Peanuts Cartoon

Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by
Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in
reruns afterward.
The strip is the most popular and influential in the history of the comic strip, with 17,897
strips published in all, making it arguably the longest story ever told by one human being,
according to Robert Thompson of Syracuse University. At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600
newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21
languages.

Military Story: True Friend 59 comments

Category: Inspirational stories,Military Stories

Horror gripped the heart of the World War I soldier as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle.
Caught in a trench with continuous gunfire whizzing over his head, the soldier asked his
lieutenant if he might go out into the no mans land between the trenches to bring his
fallen comrade back.
You can go, said the lieutenant, but i dont think it will be worth it. Your friend is probably
dead and you may throw your life away. The lieutenants advice didnt matter, and the
soldier went anyway. Miraculously he managed to reach his friend, hoist him onto his
shoulder and bring him back to their companys trench. As the two of them tumbled in
together to the bottom of the trench, the officer checked the wounded soldier, and then
looked kindly at his friend.
I told you it wouldnt be worth it, he said. Your friend is dead and you are mortally
wounded.
It was worth it, though, sir, said the soldier.
What do you mean; worth it? responded the Lieutenant. Your friend is dead.
Yes, Sir the private answered. But it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still
alive and I had the satisfaction of hearing him saying, Jim, I knew youd come.

Many times in life, whether a thing is worth doing or not, really depends on how u looks at
it. Take up all your courage and do something your heart tells you to do so that you may
not regret not doing it later in your life. May each and every one of you be blessed with the
company of TRUE FRIENDS. A true friend is one who walks in, when the rest of the world
walks out. War doesnt determine whos right. War only determines whos left.

Military: A beautiful true love story 304 comments

Category: Inspirational stories,Military Stories,Motivational stories,True Love

One day, a young guy and a young girl fell in love.

But the guy came from a poor family. The girls parents werent too happy.
So the young man decided not only to court the girl but to court her parents as well. In
time, the parents saw that he was a good man and was worthy of their daughters hand.
But there was another problem: The man was a soldier. Soon, war broke out and he was
being sent overseas for a year. The week before he left, the man knelt on his knee and
asked his lady love, Will you marry me? She wiped a tear, said yes, and they were
engaged. They agreed that when he got back in one year, they would get married.
But tragedy struck. A few days after he left, the girl had a major vehicular accident. It was a
head-on collision.
When she woke up in the hospital, she saw her father and mother crying. Immediately, she
knew there was something wrong.
She later found out that she suffered brain injury. The part of her brain that controlled her
face muscles was damaged. Her once lovely face was now disfigured. She cried as she saw
herself in the mirror. Yesterday, I was beautiful. Today, Im a monster. Her body was also
covered with so many ugly wounds.
Right there and then, she decided to release her fianc from their promise. She knew he
wouldnt want her anymore. She would forget about him and never see him again.
For one year, the soldier wrote many lettersbut she wouldnt answer. He phoned her many
times but she wouldnt return her calls.
But after one year, the mother walked into her room and announced, Hes back from the
war.
The girl shouted, No! Please dont tell him about me. Dont tell him Im here!
The mother said, Hes getting married, and handed her a wedding invitation.
The girls heart sank. She knew she still loved himbut she had to forget him now.
With great sadness, she opened the wedding invitation.
And then she saw her name on it!
Confused, she asked, What is this?
That was when the young man entered her room with a bouquet of flowers. He knelt beside
her and asked, Will you marry me?
The girl covered her face with her hands and said, Im ugly!
The man said, Without your permission, your mother sent me your photos. When I saw
your photos, I realized that nothing has changed. Youre still the person I fell in love. Youre
still as beautiful as ever. Because I love you!

Author Unknown

Military Story: The Marines Father 36 comments

Category: Inspirational stories,Military Stories

A
nurse
took
the
tired,
anxious
serviceman
to
the
bedside.
Your son is here, she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times
before the patients eyes opened.
Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed
Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his
toughened fingers around the old mans limp ones, squeezing a message of love and
encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night
the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old mans hand and
offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine
move away and rest awhile.
He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of
the night noises of the hospital the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night
staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.
Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held
tightly to his son all through the night.
Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had
been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.
Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted
her.
Who was that man? he asked.
The nurse was startled, He was your father, she answered.
No,
he
wasnt,
the
I never saw him before in my life.
Then why didnt you say something when I took you to him?

Marine

replied.

I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his
son just wasnt here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his
son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed.
Author Unknown

Militarys love in sickness! 22 comments

Category: Military Stories

The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the attractive young woman with the
white cane made her way carefully up the steps. She paid the driver and, using her hands to
feel the location of the seats, walked down the aisle and found the seat hed told her was
empty. Then she settled in, placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her
leg.
It had been a year since Susan, 34, became blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis she had
been rendered sightless, and she was suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger,
frustration and self-pity. And all she had to cling to was her husband, Mark.
Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all his heart. When she first lost her
sight, he watched her sink into despair and was determined to help his wife gain the
strength and confidence she needed to become independent again.
Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take
the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to
drive her to work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city. At first,
this comforted Susan, and fulfilled Marks need to protect his sightless wife who was so
insecure about performing the slightest task. Soon, however, Mark realized the arrangement
wasnt working. Susan is going to have to start taking the bus again, he admitted to
himself. But she was still so fragile, so angry-how would she react?
Just as he predicted, Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus again. Im blind!,
she responded bitterly. How am I supposed to know where I am going? I feel like youre
abandoning me.
Marks heart broke to hear these words, but he knew what had to be done. He promised
Susan that each morning and evening he would ride the bus with her, for as long as it took,

until she got the hang of it. And that is exactly what happened. For two solid weeks, Mark,
military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how
to rely on her other senses, specifically her hearing, to determine where she was and how
to adapt her new environment. He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out
for her, and save her a seat.
Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday morning
arrived, and before she left, she threw her arms around Mark, her temporary bus-riding
companion, her husband, and her best friend. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for his
loyalty, his patience, and his love. She said good-bye, and for the first time, they went their
separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Each day on her own went
perfectly, and Susan had never felt better. She was doing it! She was going to work all by
herself.
On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying the fare to exit
the bus, the driver said, Boy, I sure do envy you. Susan wasnt sure if the driver was
speaking to her or not. After all, who on earth would ever envy a blind woman who had
struggled just to find the courage to live for the past year?
Curious, she asked the driver, Why do you say that you envy me? The driver responded,
It must feel good to be taken care of and protected like you are.
Susan had no idea what the driver was talking about, and again asked, What do you
mean?
The driver answered, You know, every morning for the past week, a fine-looking gentleman
in a military uniform has been standing across the corner watching you as you get off the
bus. He makes sure you cross the street safely and he watches until you enter your office
building. Then he blows you a kiss, gives you a little salute and walks away. You are one
lucky lady.
Tears of happiness poured down Susans cheeks. For although she couldnt physically see
him, she had always felt Marks presence. She was lucky, so lucky, for he had given her a
gift more powerful than sight, a gift she didnt need to see to believe-the gift of love that
can bring light where there is darkness.

Archive for the Touching stories Category

If a dog was your teacher 11 comments
Posted at 7:25 am in Life,Poems,Touching stories

If
a
dog
was
these are some of the lessons you might learn

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them

your

teacher,

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face,
to be pure ecstasy

When its in your best interest,

practice obedience
Let others know when theyve invaded your territory

Take naps and stretch before rising

Run romp and play daily

Thrive on attention and let people touch you

Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do

On warm days stop to lie on your back on the grass

On hot days drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree

When youre happy dance around and wag your entire body

No matter how often youre scolded,

dont buy into the guilt thing and pout,
run right back and make friends

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk

Eat with gusto and enthusiasm

Stop when you have had enough

Be loyal

Never pretend to be something youre not

If what you want lies buried,

dig until you find it
When someone is having a bad day,
be silent.
sit close by
and nuzzle them gently.
Author Unknown

The Story of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.

One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldnt go further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.
Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.

I came across this story somewhere

Untitled
This is from an old story, back in the 30s, in the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less.
A 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in
front of him.
How much is an ice cream sundae? the little boy asked.

Fifty cents, replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins he had. Well, how much is
a plain dish of ice cream? he inquired.
By now, more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing very impatient.
Thirty-five cents, she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins. Ill have the plain ice cream, he said.
The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished
the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry. As she
wiped down the table, there placed neatly beside the empty dish were two nickels and five
pennies. You see, he couldnt have the sundae because he had to have enough money to leave her
a tip.

The Touchstone
When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved.
But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few
coppers.
The book wasnt very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting
indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the Touchstone!
The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing
explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly
like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.
So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and
began testing pebbles.
He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were
cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he
threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet
he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold throw it into the sea. Pick up another.
Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day,
however, about midafternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He
threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed
such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one
he wanted came along, he still threw it away.
So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, its asy to fail to
recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and its just as easy to throw
it away.
- Author Unknown
Bits & Pieces, Economic Press
Get Up
Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mothers
womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its
body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges
of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its
offspring to the reality of life.
In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a newborn giraffe learns its
first lesson.
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself
directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable
thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling
head over heels.
When it doesnt get up, the violent process is repeated over and over
again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows
tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the
calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.
Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it
off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In
the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where
there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and
theyd get it too, if the mother didnt teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it.
The late Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized
biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles
Darwin.

Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional
people. He said, I write about people who sometime in their life have a vision or dream of
something that should be accomplished and they go to work.
They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years they get nowhere. But
every time theyre knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end
of their lives theyve accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do.
- Craig B. Larson
Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching from Leadership Journal

Hospital Windows
Video Version
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in
his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the
rooms only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs,
their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.
And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the
time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in
the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and
enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while
children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color
of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be
seen in the distance.
As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the
room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other
man couldnt hear the band he could see it in his minds eye as the gentleman by the window
portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to
find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was
saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.
The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him

alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world
outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man
asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such
wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not
even see the wall. She said, Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.
- Author Unknown
This Is Good
An old story is told of a king in Africa who had a close friend with
whom he grew up. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his
life (positive or negative) and remarking, This is good!
One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and
prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one
of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown
off. Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, This is good! To which the king
replied, No, this is NOT good! and proceeded to send his friend to jail.
About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of.
Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood,
set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed
that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than
whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.
As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for
his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. You were
right, he said, it was good that my thumb was blown off. And he proceeded to tell the friend
all that had just happened. And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad
for me to do this.
No, his friend replied, This is good! What do you mean,This is good? How could it be
good that I sent my friend to jail for a year? If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with
you.
- Author Unknown

The Fence
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told
him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the
boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his
anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was
easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didnt lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and
the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his
temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails
were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said you have done well, my
son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in
anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It wont
matter how many times you say Im sorry, the wound is still there. Make sure you control your
temper the next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later.
- Author Unknown

Shake It Off and Step Up

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmers well. The
farmer heard the mule braying or whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After
carefully assessing the situation, the farmer felt sorry for the mule, but decided that neither the
mule nor the well was worth saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what
had happened and asked them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out
of his misery.
Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling
and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a

shovel load of dirt landed on his back: he should shake it off and step up! This is what the old
mule did, blow after blow. Shake it off and step up shake it off and step up shake it off and
step up! he repeated to encourage himself.
No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought
panic and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up! You guessed it! It wasnt long
before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well!
What seemed like it would bury him, actually end up blessing him. All because of the manner in
which he handled his adversity.
- Author Unknown

Regret City
I had not really planned on taking a trip this time of year, and yet I found myself packing rather
hurriedly. This trip was going to be unpleasant and I knew in advance that no real good would
come of it. This is my annual Guilt Trip.
I got tickets to fly there on WISH-I-HAD airlines. It was an extremely short flight. I got my
baggage, which I could not check. I chose to carry it myself all the way. It was loaded down
with a thousand memories of what might have been. No one greeted me as I entered the
terminal to the Regret City International Airport. I say international because people from all over
the world come to this dismal town.
As I checked into the Last Resort Hotel, I noticed that they would be hosting the years most
important event the annual Pity Party. I wasnt going to miss that great social occasion.
Many of the towns leading citizens would be there.
First, there would be the Done family; you know, Should Have, Would Have and Could
Have. Then came the I Had family. You probably know old Wish and his clan. Of course,
the Opportunities family; Missed and Lost, would be present. The biggest family there
would be the Yesterdays.

There are far too many of them to count, but each one would have a very sad story to share. Of
course, Shattered Dreams would surely make and appearance. Its Their Fault family would
regale us with stories (excuses) about how things had failed in their life. Each story would be
loudly applauded by the Dont Blame Me and I Couldnt Help It committee.
To make a long story short, I went to this depressing party, knowing full well there would be no
real benefit in doing so. And, as usual, I became very depressed. But as I thought about all of the
stories of failures brought back from the past, it occurred to me that this trip and subsequent pity
parties COULD be cancelled by ME!
I started to realize that I did not have to be there. And I didnt have to be depressed. One thing
kept going through my mind, I CANT CHANGE YESTERDAY, BUT I DO HAVE THE
POWER TO MAKE TODAY A WONDERFUL DAY. I can be happy, joyous, fulfilled,
encouraged, as well as being encouraging.
Knowing this, I left Regret City immediately, and didnt leave a forwarding address. Am I sorry
for mistakes Ive made in the past? YES! But there is no way to undo them.
So, if youre planning a trip back to Regret City, please cancel all those reservations now.
Instead, take a trip to a nice place called: Starting Again. I like it so much that I made it my
permanent residence. My neighbors, the Been Forgiven and the Were Saved are so very
helpful. By the way, you dont have to carry around the heavy baggage anymore either. That load
is lifted from your shoulders upon arrival. But dont take my word for it, find out for yourself.
- Author Unknown

How Rich Are We?

One day a father and his rich family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose to
show him how poor people can be. They spent a day and a night on the farm of a very poor
family. When they got back from their trip, the father asked his son, How was the trip? Very

good Dad! Did you see how poor people can be? the father asked. Yeah! And what did
you learn?
The son answered, I saw that we have a dog at home, and they have four. We have a pool that
reaches to the middle of the garden; they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lamps
in the garden; they have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard; they have a whole
horizon. When the little boy was finished, his father was speechless. His son added, Thanks,
Dad, for showing me how poor we are!
Isnt it true that it all depends on the way you look at things? If you have love, friends, family,
health, good humor and a positive attitude towards life youve got everything! You cant buy
any of these things. You may have all the material possessions you can imagine, provisions for
the future, etc.; but if you are poor of spirit, you have nothing!
- Author Unknown

Puppies for Sale

A store owner was tacking a sign above his door that read Puppies For Sale. Signs like that
have a way of attracting small children and sure enough, a little boy appeared by the store
owners sign. How much are you going to sell the puppies for? he asked. The store owner
replied, Anywhere from $30-$50.
The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change. I have $2.37, he said. May I
please look at them? The store owner smiled and whistled, out of the kennel came Lady, who
ran down the aisle of his store followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging
considerably behind.
Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping puppy and said, Whats wrong with
that little dog? The store owner explained that the veteriarian had examined the little puppy and
had discovered it didnt have a hip socket. It would always limp. It would always be lame. The

little boy became excited. That is the little puppy that I want to buy. The store owner said, No,
you dont want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, Ill just give him to you.
The little boy got quite upset. He looked into the store owners eyes, pointing his finger, and
said, I dont want you to give him to me. That dog is worth every bit as much as all the other
dogs and Ill pay full price. In fact, Ill give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have
him paid for.
The store owner countered, You really dont want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be
able to run and jump and play with you like the other puppies.
To this, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled
left leg supported by a big metal brace. He looked up at the store owner and softly replied, Well,
I dont run so good myself, and the little puppy will need someone who understands!
- Author Unknown

Paid In Full
A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a
beautiful sports car in a dealers showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told
him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that
his father had purchased the car.
Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father
told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He
handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, and somewhat disappointed, the young
man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young mans name
embossed in gold. Angry, he shouted at his father and said with all your money, you give me a
Bible? and stormed out of the house.

Many years passed and the young man had become very successful in business. He had a
beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father now was getting old, and thought
perhaps he should go see him. He had not seen him since that graduation day.
Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed
away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and
take care of things.
When he arrived at his fathers house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to
search through his fathers important papers and saw the still gift-wrapped Bible, just as he had
left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages.
His father had carefully underlined a verse, Matt.7:11, And if ye, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father which is in Heaven, give
to those who ask Him? As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It
had a tag with the dealers name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had wanted. On the
tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL.
- Author Unknown

Dont Hope Decide!

While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those lifechanging experiences that you hear other people talk about -the kind that sneaks up on you
unexpectedly. This one occurred a mere two feet away from me. Straining to locate my friend
among the passengers deplaning through the jetway, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying
two light bags.
He stopped right next to me to greet his family. First he motioned to his youngest son (maybe six
years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated
enough to look in each others face, I heard the father say, Its so good to see you, son. I missed

you so much! His son smiled somewhat shyly, averted his eyes and replied softly, Me, too,
Dad!
Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe nine or ten) and while
cupping his sons face in his hands said, Youre already quite the young man. I love you very
much, Zach! They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.
While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half) was squirming excitedly
in her mothers arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning
father.
The man said, Hi, baby girl! as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her
face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little
girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.
After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, Ive saved the
best for last! and proceeded to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember
seeing.
He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed. I love you so much!
They stared at each others eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.
For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids that they
couldnt possibly be.
I puzzled about it for a moment then realized how totally engrossed I was in the wonderful
display of unconditional love not more than an arms length away from me.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my
own voice nervously ask, Wow! How long have you two been married? Been together
fourteen years total, married twelve of those. he replied, without breaking his gaze from his
lovely wifes face. Well then, how long have you been away? I asked the man finally turned
and looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile.Two whole days!

Two days? I was stunned. By the intensity of the greeting, I had assumed hed been gone for at
least several weeks if not months. I know my expression betrayed me, I said almost
offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace (and to get back to
searching for my friend), I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!
The man suddenly stopped smiling. He looked me straight in the eye, and with forcefulness that
burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me,
Dont hope, friend decide! Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand
and said, God bless! With that, he and his family turned and strode away together.
I was still watching that exceptional man and his special family walk just out of sight when my
friend came up to me and asked, Whatcha looking at? Without hesitating, and with a curious
sense of certainty, I replied, My future!
- Author Unknown

How Much Do You Make An Hour?

With a timid voice and idolizing eyes, the little boy greeted his father as he returned from work,
Daddy, how much do you make an hour? Greatly surprised, but giving his boy a glaring look,
the father said: Look, son, not even your mother knows that. Dont bother me now, Im tired.
But Daddy, just tell me please!? How much do you make an hour, the boy insisted.
The father finally giving up replied: Twenty dollars per hour. Okay, Daddy? Could you loan
me ten dollars? the boy asked. Showing restlessness and positively disturbed, the father yelled:
So that was the reason you asked how much I earn, right?? Go to sleep and dont bother me
anymore!
It was already dark and the father was meditating on what he had said and was feeling guilty.
Maybe he thought, his son wanted to buy something. Finally, trying to ease his mind, the father
went to his sons room.

Are you asleep son? asled the father. No, Daddy. Why? replied the boy partially asleep.
Heres the money you asked for earlier, the father said. Thanks, Daddy! rejoiced the son,
while putting his hand under his pillow and removing some money. Now I have enough! Now I
have twenty dollars! the boy said to his father, who was gazing at his son, confused at what his
son just said. Daddy could you sell me one hour of your time?
- Author Unknown

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The Power of Encouragement
Encouragement Video
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the famous 19th-century poet and artist, was once approached by an
elderly man. The old fellow had some sketches and drawings that he wanted Rossetti to look at
and tell him if they were any good, or if they at least showed potential talent.
Rossetti looked them over carefully. After the first few, he knew that they were worthless,
showing not the least sign of artistic talent. But Rossetti was a kind man, and he told the elderly
man as gently as possible that the pictures were without much value and showed little talent. He
was sorry, but he could not lie to the man. The visitor was disappointed, but seemed to expect
Rossettis judgment.
He then apologized for taking up Rossettis time, but would he just look at a few more drawings
these done by a young art student? Rossetti looked over the second batch of sketches and
immediately became enthusiastic over the talent they revealed. These, he said, oh, these are
good. This young student has great talent. He should be given every help and encouragement in
his career as an artist. He has a great future if he will work hard and stick to it.
Rossetti could see that the old fellow was deeply moved. Who is this fine young artist? he
asked. Your son? No, said the old man sadly. It is me 40 years ago. If only I had heard
your praise then! For you see, I got discouraged and gave up too soon.
- Author Unknown

A Special Teacher
Years ago a John Hopkins professor gave a group of graduate students this assignment: Go to
the slums. Take 200 boys, between the ages of 12 and 16, and investigate their background and
environment. Then predict their chances for the future. The students, after consulting social
statistics, talking to the boys, and compiling much data, concluded that 90 percent of the boys
would spend some time in jail.
Twenty-five years later another group of graduate students was given the job of testing the
prediction. They went back to the same area. Some of the boys by then men were still there, a
few had died, some had moved away, but they got in touch with 180 of the original 200. They
found that only four of the group had ever been sent to jail.
Why was it that these men, who had lived in a breeding place of crime, had such a surprisingly
good record? The researchers were continually told: Well, there was a teacher They pressed
further, and found that in 75 percent of the cases it was the same woman.
The researchers went to this teacher, now living in a home for retired teachers. How had she
exerted this remarkable influence over that group of children? Could she give them any reason
why these boys should have remembered her? No, she said, no I really couldnt. And then,
thinking back over the years, she said amusingly, more to herself than to her questioners: I
loved those boys
- Author Bits & Pieces

T IS THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

There was a man taking a morning wa lk at or the beach. He saw that along with the
morning tide came hundreds of starfish and when the tide receded, they were left
behind and with the morning sun rays, they would die. The tide was fresh and the
starfish were alive. The man took a few steps, picked one and threw it into the
water. He did that repeatedly. Right behind him there was another person who
couldn't understand what this man was doing. He caught up with him and asked,
"What are you doing? There are hundreds of starfish. How many can you help? What
difference does it make?" This man did not reply, took two more steps, picked up
another one, threw it into the water, and said, "It makes a difference to this one."

What difference are we making? Big or small, it does not matter. If everyone made a
small difference, we'd end up with a big difference, wouldn't we?

103 comments Links to this post

Monday, September 15, 2008

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED?

About a hundred years ago, a man looked at the morning newspaper and to his
surprise and horror, read his name in the obituary column. The news papers had
reported the death of the wrong person by mistake. His first response was shock.
Am I here or there? When he regained his composure, his second thought was to
find out what people had said about him. The obituary read, "Dynamite King Dies."
And also "He was the merchant of death." This man was the inventor of dynamite
and when he read the words "merchant of death," he asked himself a question, "Is
this how I am going to be remembered?" He got in touch with his feelings and
decided that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered. From that day on,
he started working toward peace. His name was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered
today by the great Nobel Prize.

Just as Alfred Nobel got in touch with his feelings and redefined his values, we
should step back and do the same.

What is your legacy?

How would you like to be remembered?

Will you be spoken well of?

Will you be remembered with love and respect?

Will you be missed?

35 comments Links to this post

Friday, August 15, 2008

THE MIDAS TOUCH

We all know the story of the greedy king named Midas. He had a lot of gold and the
more he had the more he wanted. He stored all the gold in his vaults and used to
spend time every day counting it.

One day while he was counting a stranger came from nowhere and said he would
grant him a wish. The king was delighted and said, "I would like everything I touch
to turn to gold." The stranger asked the king, Are you sure?" The king replied, "Yes."
So the stranger said, "Starting tomorrow morning with the sun rays you will get the
golden touch." The king thought he must be dreaming, this couldn't be true. But the
next day when he woke up, he touched the bed, his clothes, and everything turned
to gold. He looked out of the window and saw his daughter playing in the garden. He
decided to give her a surprise and thought she would be happy. But before he went
to the garden he decided to read a book. The moment he touched it, it turned into
gold and he couldn't read it. Then he sat to have breakfast and the moment he
touched the fruit and the glass of water, they turned to gold. He was getting hungry
and he said to himself, "I can't eat and drink gold." Just about that time his daughter
came running and he hugged her and she turned into a gold statue. There were no
more smiles left.

The king bowed his head and started crying. The stranger who gave the wish came
again and asked the king if he was happy with his golden touch. The king said he
was the most miserable man. The stranger asked, "What would you rather have,
your food and loving daughter or lumps of gold and her golden statue?" The king
cried and asked for forgiveness. He said, "I will give up all my gold. Please give me
my daughter back because without her I have lost everything wo rth having." The
stranger said to the king, "You have become wiser than before" and he reversed the
spell. He got his daughter back in his arms and the king learned a lesson that he
never forget for the rest of his life.

What is the moral of the story?

1. Distorted values lead to tragedy.

2. Sometimes getting what you want may be a bigger tragedy than not getting what
you want.

3. Unlike the game of soccer where players can be substituted, the game of life
allows no substitutions or replays. We may not get a second chance to reverse our
tragedies, as the king did.

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A CREED FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey . . .

I asked for health, that I might do greater things.

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things ...

I asked for riches, that I might be happy.

I was given poverty, that I might be wise ...

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God .. .

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things ...

I got nothing I asked for--but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I, among all men, am most richly blessed!

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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

MEANINGLESS GOALS

A farmer had a dog who used to sit by the roadside waiting for vehicles to come
around. As soon as one came he would run down the road, barking and trying to
overtake it. One day a neighbor asked the farmer "Do you think your dog is ever
going to catch a car?" The farmer replied, "That is not what bothers me. What
bothers me is what he would do if he ever caught one." Many people in life behave
like that dog who is pursuing meaningless goals.

Life is hard by the yard,

but by the inch,
it's a cinch.

--Gean Gordon

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

SMART Goals

If you ask most people what is their one major objective in life, they would probably
give you a vague answer, such as, "I want to be successful, be happy, make a good
living," and that is it. They are all wishes and none of them are clear goals.

Goals must be SMART:

1. S--specific. For example, "I want to lose weight." This is wishful thinking. It
becomes a goal when I pin myself down to "I will lose 10 pounds in 90 days."

2. M--must be measurable. If we cannot measure it, we cannot accomplish it.

Measurement is a way of monitoring our progress.

3. A--must be achievable. Achievable means that it should be out of reach enough

to be challenging but it should not be out of sight, otherwise it becomes
disheartening.

4. R--realistic. A person who wants to lose 50 pounds in~30 days is being

unrealistic.

5. T--time-bound. There should be a starting date and a finishing date.

Please comment your opinion on this and add something yours...

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Why are Goals Important? - Must read

On the best sunny day, the most powerful magnifying glass will not light paper if
you keep moving the glass. But if you focus and hold it, the paper will light up. That
is the power of concentration.

A man was traveling and stopped at an intersection. He asked an elderly man,

"Where does this road take me?" The elderly person asked, "Where do you want to
go?" The man replied, "I don't know." The elderly person said, "Then take any road.
What difference does it make?"

How true. When we don't know where we are going, any road will take us there.

Suppose you have all the football eleven players, enthusiastically ready to play the
game, all charged up, and then someone took the goal post away. What would
happen to the game? There is nothing left. How do you keep score? How do you
know you have arrived?

Enthusiasm without direction is like wildfire and leads to frustration. Goals give a
sense of direction. Would you sit in a train or a plane without knowing where it was
going? The obvious answer is no. Then why do people go through life without having
any goals?

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had
something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply,
"If I were any better, I would be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around
from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his
attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there
telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I
don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices
today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I
choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim
or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me
complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of
life. I choose the positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every
situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will
affect your mood. You choose to be in a good or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your
choice how you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my
own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life
instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a
restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint
by three armed robbers.

While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the
combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively
quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital
with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied,
"If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the
robbery took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,"
Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could
choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine.
But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces
of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I
knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I
was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they
waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told
them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I
learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.

THE BRICK
About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down
a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12 cylinder
Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old.
He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he
thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and
- WHUMP! - it smashed Into the Jag's shiny black side door! SCREECH..!!!! Brakes
slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot
from where the brick had been thrown. Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and
pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about and
who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam, he went on.
"That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you
throw it?"
"Please, mister, please. . . I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!" Pleaded the youngster.
"I threw the brick because no one else would stop!" Tears were dripping down the boy's
chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother, mister," he said. "He rolled off
the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the
executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's
too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling
lump in his throat. Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took
out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was
going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward
their home.
It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE -a long and
slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him
not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his
attention. . . Some bricks are softer than others. Feel for the bricks of life coming at to you.
For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has positive answers.

HAPPINESS
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit
up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was
next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their
jobs, their involvement in the military service where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up he would pass the
time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his life would be
broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water
while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of
every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city
skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in
exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the
scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the
other man couldn't hear the band he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the
window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths
only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his
sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the
window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was
comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to
take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for
himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased
roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse
responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, "Perhaps he
just wanted to encourage you."
Epilogue...There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own
situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you
want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can't buy.
"SOMETIMES TO FACE YOUR FUTURE YOU HAVE TO LET GO OF YOUR PAST."

LEARN TO LISTEN
Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly
At the prodding of my friends, I am writing this story. My name is Mildred Hondorf. I am
a former elementary school music teacher from DeMoines, Iowa. I've always supplimented
my income by teaching piano lessons--something I've done for over 30 years. Over the
years
I found that children have many levels of musical ability. I've never had the pleasure of
having a protege though I have taught some talented students. However I've also had my
share of what I call "musicically challenged" pupils. One such student was Robby. Robby
was 11 years old when his mother (a single mom) dropped him off for his first piano lesson.
I prefer that students (especially boys!) begin at an earlier age, which I explained to Robby.
But Robby said that it had always been his mother's dream to hear him play the piano. So I
took him as a student. Well, Robby began with his piano lessons and from the beginning I
thought it was a hopeless endeavor. As much as Robby tried, he lacked the sense of tone
and basic rythm needed to excel. But he dutifully reviewed his scales and some elementary
pieces that I require all my students to learn.
Over the months he tried and tried while I listened and cringed and tried to encourage him.
At the end of each weekly lesson he'd always say, "My mom's going to hear me play some
day." But it seemed hopeless. He just did not have any inborn ability. I only knew his
mother from a distance as she dropped Robby off or waited in her aged car to pick him up.
She always waved and smiled but never stopped in. Then one day Robby stopped coming to
our lessons. I thought about calling him but assumed, because of his lack of ability, that he
had decided to pursue something else. I also was glad that he stopped coming. He was a bad
advertisement for my teaching!
Several weeks later I mailed to the student's homes a flyer on the upcoming recital. To my
surprise Robby (who received a flyer) asked me if he could be in the recital. I told him that
the recital was for current pupils and because he had dropped out he really did not qualify.
He said that his mom had been sick and unable to take him to piano essons but he was still
practicing. "Miss Hondorf...I've just got to play!" he insisted. I don't know what led me to
allow him to play in the recital.
Maybe it was his persistance or maybe it was something inside of me saying that it would
be alright.
The night for the recital came. The high school gymnasium was packed with parents,
friends and relatives. I put Robby up last in the program before I was to come up and

thank all the students and play a finishing piece. I thought that any damage he would do
would come at the end of the program and I could always salvage his poor performance
through my "curtain closer."
Well the recital went off without a hitch. The students had been practicing and it showed.
Then Robby came up on stage. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair looked like he' run
an egg-beater through it.
"Why didn't he dress up like the other students?" I thought. "Why didn't his mother at
least make him comb his hair for this special night?"
Robby pulled out the piano bench and he began. I was surprised when he announced that
he had chosen Mozart's Concerto #21 in C Major. I was not prepared for what I heard
next. His fingers were light on the keys, they even danced nimbly on the ivories. He went
from pianissimo to fortissimo...from allegro to virtuoso. His suspended chords that Mozart
demands were magnificent! Never had I heard Mozart played so well by people his age
After six and a half minutes he ended in a grand crescendo and everyone was on their feet
in wild applause. Overcome and in tears I ran up on stage and put my arms around Robby
in joy. "I've never heard you play like that Robby!
How'd you do it?" Through the microphone Robby explained: "Well Miss
Hondorf...remember I told you my mom was sick? Well actually she had cancer and passed
away this morning. And, well....she was born deaf so tonight was the first time she ever
heard me play. I wanted to make it special." There wasn't a dry eye in the house that
evening.
As the people from Social Services led Robby from the stage to be placed into foster care, I
noticed that even their eyes were red and puffy and I thought to myself how much richer
my life had been for taking Robby as my pupil. No, I've never had a progege but that night
I became a protege...of Robby's. He was the teacher and I was the pupil. For it is he that
taught me the meaning of perseverance and love and believing in yourself and maybe even
taking a chance in someone and you don't know why. This is especially meaningful to me
since after serving in Desert Storm Robby was killed in the senseless bombing of the Alfred
P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in April of 1995, where he was
reportedly....playing the piano.

LOVE OF LIFE
It all started when I was 16 years old. While I was playing outside on my farm in
California, I met a boy. He was an average kind of boy who teased you and then you chased

them and beat them up. After that first meeting in which I beat him up we kept on meeting
and beating each other up at the fence. That only lasted for a little while though. We would
meet at the fence all the time and we were always together. I would tell him all my secrets.
He was very quiet he would just listen to what I had to say. I found him easy to talk to and I
could talk to him about everything. In school we had separate friends but when we got
home we would always talk about what happened in school. One day I said to him that a
guy I liked hurt me and broke my heart. He just comforted me and said everything would
be okay. He gave me words of encouragement and helped me get over him. I was happy
and thought of him as a real friend. But I knew that there was something else about him
that I liked. I thought of it that night and figured it was just a Friend kinda thing that I was
feeling. All through high school and even through graduation we're always together and of
course I thought of it as being friends. But I knew deep inside that I really felt differently.
On graduation night even though we had different dates to the prom I wanted to be with
him. That night after everybody went home I went to his house and wanted to tell him that
I wanted to see him. Well, that night was my big chance and all I did was just sit there with
him watching the stars and talking about what I was going to do and what he was going to
do. I looked into his eyes and listened to him talk about what his dream was. How he
wanted to get married and settle down. He said how he wanted to be rich and successful.
All I could do was to tell him my dream and cuddle next to him. I went home hurting
because I didn't tell him how I was feeling. I wanted to tell him so bad that I loved him but
I was too scared and frightened. I let my feelings go and told myself that someday I would
tell him just how I felt. All through college I wanted to tell him but he always had someone
with him. After graduation he got a job in New York; I was happy for him but at the same
time I was sad to see him go. I was sad also because I didn't tell him how I felt. But I
couldn't let him know now that he was leaving for his big job. So I just kept it to myself and
watched him go on the plane. I cried as I hugged him for what I felt was going to be the last
time. I went home that night and cried my eyes out. I felt hurt that I didn't tell him what I
had inside my heart. Well, I got a job as a secretary and then worked my way to a
computer analyst. I was proud of what I had accomplished. One day I got a letter with an
invitation to a wedding. It was from him; I was happy and sad at the same time. Now I
know that I could never be with him and that we could only be friends. I went to the
wedding the next month. It was a big occasion. It was a big church wedding with the
reception at a hotel. I met the bride and of course I talked to him too. I fell in love one more
time. But I held back so it wouldn't spoil what should be the happiest day in his life. I tried
to have fun that night but it was killing me inside watching him being so happy and me
trying to be happy covering up my sadness tears inside of me. I left New York feeling that I
did the right thing. Before I left on the flight, he came running out of nowhere and said his
good-byes and how he was very happy to see me. I came home and just tried to forget
about what went on in New York. I had to go on with my life. As the years went on, we
wrote to each other on what was going on and how he had missed talking to me. On one
occasion he never wrote back to me at all. I was getting worried as to why he hadn't written

anything for a long time after I had already written 6 letters to him. Well, just when
everything seemed hopeless and sad in my life, I got a note that said: "Meet me at the fence
where we used to talk about things". I went and saw him there. I was happy to see him, but
he was broken-hearted and sad inside. We hugged until we couldn't breathe anymore. Then
he told me about the divorce and why he hadn't written for a long time. He cried until he
couldn't cry anymore. Finally, we went back to the house and talked and laughed about
what I had been going and to catch up on old times. But in all of this, I couldn't tell him
how I felt about him. In the days that followed, he had fun and forgot about all his problem
and his divorce. I fell in love again with him. When it came time for him to leave back to
New York, I went to see him off and cried. I hated to see him leave. He promised to see me
every time he could get a vacation. I couldn't wait for him to come so I could be with him.
We would always have fun when we were together. One day he didn't show up like he said
he would. I figured that he might have been busy. The days turned into months and I just
forgot about it. Then I got a call one day from a lawyer in New York. The lawyer said that
he had died in a car accident going to the airpor, and that it took this long till everything
was settled. It broke my heart. I was shocked about what took place. Now I knew why he
didn't come that day. Again, I was broken-hearted. I cried that night, cried tears of sadness
and heartache. I asked questions: "Why did this happen to a kind guy like him?" I
gathered my things and went to New York for the reading of his will. Of course, things were
given to his family and his ex-wife. I finally got to meet her since the last time we met at the
wedding. She explained to me how he was and how he always provided. But he was always
unhappy. She would always try everything but she couldn't get him happy, as he was that
night at their wedding. When the will was read, the one thing that was given to me was a
diary. It was a dairy that of his life. I cried as it was given to me. I didn't know what to
think. Why was this given to me? I took it and flew back to California. As I flew on the
plane I remembered the good times that we had together. I started reading the diary and
what was written. The diary was started with the day we first met. I read on till I started to
cry. The diary told of him saying that he had fallen in love with me that day I was brokenhearted. But he was too afraid to tell me what he had felt. That is why he was so quiet and
liked to listen to me. It told of how he wanted to tell me so many times, but was too afraid
to say anything. It told of when he went to New York and fell in love with another. How the
happiest time he had was seeing me and dancing with me at the wedding. He said he
imagined it was our wedding. How he was always unhappy till he had no choice but to
divorce his wife. How the best time in his life was to read the letters written to him by me.
Finally, the diary ended when it said, "today I will tell her I love her". It was the day he
was killed. The day I was going to finally find out what was really in his heart. So the moral
of the story, If you love someone, don't wait till tomorrow to tell him/her. Maybe the next
day will never come at all..

THE OBSTACLE IN OUR PATH

In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and
watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest
merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about
getting the big stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of
vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to
move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally
succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the
road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from
the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the
roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand.
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION

During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a
conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one:
"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of
joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s,
but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.
Before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz
grade. "Absolutely," said the professor.
"In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your
attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say 'hello'.
"I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

BE PATIENT
This is a true story which happened in the States. A man came out of his home to admire
his new truck.

To his puzzlement, his three-year-old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny
paint.
The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy's hands into pulp as
punishment.
When the father calmed down, he rushed his son to the hospital. Although the doctor tried
desperately to save the crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the
boy's hands.
When the boy woke up from the surgery & saw his bandaged stubs, he innocently said, "
Daddy, I'm sorry about your truck." Then he asked, "but when are my fingers going to
grow back?"
The father went home & committed suicide.
Think about the story the next time u see someone spill milk at a dinner table or hear a
baby crying. Think first before u lose your patience with someone u love. Trucks can be
repaired. Broken bones & hurt feelings often can't.
Too often we fail to recognise the difference between the person and the performance.
People make mistakes. We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a
rage will haunt us forever.
Pause and ponder. Think before you act. Be patient. Understand & love.

ALWAYS REMEMBER
It takes a minute to have a crush on someone and it takes an hour to like someone and a
day to love some one but it takes lifetime to forget some one.
You meet some people in your life who change you for the better, REMEMBER them
kindly. And as for FRIENDS just be LOYAL -nothing more nothing less.
Its true that we don't know what we've got until we loose it but it is also true that we don't
know what we've been missing until it arrives.
When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed
door that we don't see the one, which opens to us.

There are things u love to hear but you would NEVER hear it from the
person from whom you would like to hear it but don't be DEAF to hear it
from the person who says it with HIS HEART

Never say GOODBYE when u still want to TRY, Never give up when u still fell u can take
it, never say you don't LOVE that person anymore when you can't let go

ALWAYS REMEMBER THOSE WHO SERVE

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year old boy entered a hotel
coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.
"How much is an ice cream sundae?"
"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the number of coins in it.
"How much is a dish of plain ice cream?" he inquired.
Some people were now waiting for a table and the waitress was a bit impatient.
"Thirty-five cents," she said brusquely.
The little boy again counted the coins.
"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.
The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy
finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and departed.
When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then swallowed hard
at what she saw. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five
pennies - her tip

MOTIVATION
A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200,
he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"
Hands started going up.
He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded
to crumple the dollar bill up.
He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to
grind it into the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went
into the air.
"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the
money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many
times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we
make and the circumstances that come our way.
We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen,
you will never lose your value. You are special - Don't ever forget it!