The Cost of a Miracle

An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no one to loan them the money. When she heard her daddy say to her tearful mother with whispered desperation, 'Only a miracle can save him now', the little girl went to her bedroom and pulled her piggy bank from its hiding place in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Clutching the precious piggy bank tightly, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the local drugstore.

She took a quarter from her bank and placed it on the glass counter. "And what do you want?" asked the pharmacist. "It's for my little brother," the girl answered back. "He's really very sick and I want to buy a miracle." "I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist. "His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?" "We don't sell miracles here, child. I'm sorry," the pharmacist said, smiling sadly at the little girl. In the shop was a well-dressed customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "How much do you have?". "One dollar and eleven cents.” "Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man, he said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need."

That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specialising in neuro-surgery.  When asked how much the surgery would cost, Dr. Armstrong told that parents that he would tell the cost only after the operation. The operation was a success and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again and doing well. "That surgery," her mom whispered, "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost? " she asked with a nervous voice. The father was still as he knew he could not afford whatever the cost was. The doctor smiled and said as he packed his equipment “One dollar and eleven cents ... plus the faith of a little child.”

~ Sometimes being generous may act like a miracle but it also requires the other side to be having a selflessness nature, something for humanity. ~

ICE CREAM SUNDAE

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 a Double ice cream sundae?” the little boy asked.

“Forty 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 Single Sundae of ice cream?” he inquired.

By now, more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing very impatient.

“Thirty-five cents,” the waitress was intentionally sounding rude.

 The little boy counted his coins again and ask “What about the single-plain ice-cream?”

 “Thirty cents,” she brusquely replied.

 The little boy again counted his 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 left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry. As she wiped down the table, there placed neatly beside the empty dish were five cents . She realized, he couldn’t have the sundae because he had to have enough money to leave her a tip.

 ~ Sometimes perceptions are not correct and it becomes too late for realization. It’s good to be important but is also important to be good ~

PUT THE GLASS DOWN

...A Psychologist walked around a room while teaching Stress Management to an audience.

 As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "Half empty or Half full" question.

 Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?"

 Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

She continued, "The Stresses and Worries in Life , are like that Glass of Water...Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And If you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything."

Remember to put the Glass Down.

 
~ Sometimes it’s better to drop things than holding it for long ; getting detached from things is equally important, if you know what from…~

THE CREATION OF A TEACHER

The Good Lord was creating teachers. An angel appeared to Him and said, "You are taking a long time to figure this one out."

 

"Yes," said the Lord, " but have you read the specs on this order?"

TEACHER:

 … must stand above all students, yet be on their level

... must be able to do multiple things not connected with the subject being taught

... must communicate vital knowledge to all students daily and be right most of the time

... must have more time for others than for herself/himself

... must have a smile that can endure through pay cuts, problematic children, and worried parents

... must go on teaching when parents question every move and others are not supportive

... must have 3 pairs of eyes…

 The angel looked incredulous, " Three pairs of eyes...on a standard model?"

 The Lord nodded His head, " One pair can see a student for what he is and not what others have labelled him as. Another pair of eyes is in the back of the teacher's head to see what should not be seen, but what must be known. The eyes in the front are only to look at the child as he/she 'acts out' in order to reflect, ‘I understand and I still believe in you’, without so much as saying a word to the child."

The angel came closer to have a better look at the model and ran his finger over the teacher's cheek.

"Well, Lord, " said the angel, “your job looks fine but there is a leak. I told you that you were putting too much into this model.  You cannot imagine the stress that will be placed upon the teacher."

The Lord moved in closer and lifted the drop of moisture from the teacher's cheek.  It shone and glistened in the light.

"It is not a leak," He said, "It is a tear."

 "A tear? What is that?" asked the angel, "What is a tear for?"

 

The Lord replied with great thought, " It is for the joy and pride of seeing a child accomplish even the smallest task. It is for the loneliness of children who have a hard time to fit in and it is for compassion for the feelings of their parents. It comes from the pain of not being able to reach some children and the disappointment those children feel in themselves. It comes often when a teacher has been with a class for a year and must say good-bye to those students and get ready to welcome a new class."

 "My, " said the angel, " The tear thing is a great idea...You are a genius!!"

 The Lord looked sombre, "I didn't put it there."

 ~ the greatest power is of knowing something and even more is in understanding ~

Who Packed your Parachute?

Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb survived thanks to his parachute.

 

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. Your plane was destroyed!"

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.

 "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a cabin crew member." Plumb thought of the many hours the crew member had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

 

~ Small things matter a lot, we many a times forget to recognize this. The greatest thing in life is not how big the fame is but how many lives are touched by~

Learning from Own Obituary

Learning from Own Obituary

 

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 newspapers 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 was speechless. He was troubled and grieved in his heart. 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. He travelled from place to place promoting the causes for peace.

His name was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered today by the great Nobel Prize. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honouring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.

 

~ It is the quality of life we live that matters the most to us but what matters to others is the impact we create ; sometimes we don’t even realize about it ~

Greedy King Midas

Greedy King Midas

We all may be knowing 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 worth 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.

 

~ Distorted values lead to tragedy, Sometimes getting what we want may be a bigger tragedy than not getting what we want.. Greatest happiness is always in what we already have… ~

Best Friends

Best Friends

 

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand “Today my best friend slapped me in the face”.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone “Today my best friend saved my life”.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?” The other friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

 

~ It does not matter what you have in life but who have and keep up in life ; the real treasure, so build it carefully~

A House of 1000 Mirrors

A small, happy little dog learned of this place(A House of 1000 Mirrors) and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house.

He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door.

When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

~ A conclusion upon any situation is influenced by our own decisive perception, many a times not rational & apt, indeed illusionary too. ~

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Change Your Weakness into Strength

A 10-year-old boy decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.

The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move. “Sensei,”(Teacher in Japanese) the boy finally said, “Shouldn’t I be learning more moves?” “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.

This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. “No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue.” Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament.

He was the champion. On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

“Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?”

“You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defence for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”

The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

~ Determination changes a weakness into strength and no defeat is final until we quit or refuse to fight back.    One’s mastery is in continuity of actions, even if repetitive   ~

Too much of self-Pride can be destructive

                                                   

Too much of self-Pride can be destructive

Once there lived a hungry, bad lion who ruled a far-away jungle. He scared the animals in the forest and ordered them to bring him food everyday. In return, he promised he would not kill any one of them and would keep all animals safe from his fangs. The smaller and helpless jungle animals had no choice but to agree. One day, a young deer went to the lion’s den to give his offering. The young deer brought the lion a huge meat enough for a feast. The bad lion was still not satisfied that he craved for more. The bad lion wanted to taste the deer’s meat and eat him whole. The wise young deer thought of better ways to escape from the bad lion. He said that on his way to the bad lion’s den, he met another mighty lion.

“Not far from here, I met a mighty lion and he claimed to be the King! And this mighty lion said he wants to meet you my lord!” the deer said.

The furious bad lion said, “So do I! I want to know the impostor!” The young deer took the bad lion to a river and said, “Meet the mighty lion, my lord.” The angry bad lion immediately jumped to the river attacking its reflection. The bad lion didn’t know that the water was deep and got drowned. The young deer ended the rule of the bad lion in the jungle.

~ Too much of self-pride can be destructive. Don’t berate others, the real power is how strong we are mentally, and what kind of presence of mind we have. It sometimes turns a disaster into a discovery. ~

The Crossed Painting on the street

The Fence

                                                 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 didn’t 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 won’t matter how many times you say I’m 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.

Troubles Tree

                                                  Troubles Tree

Once upon a time a businessman hired a carpenter to help him to restore an old farmhouse. The carpenter had a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pickup truck refused to start. While the businessman drove the carpenter home, the carpenter sat in stony silence.

On arriving, the carpenter invited the businessman in to meet his family. The businessman was reluctant to enter being aware of the bad day that the carpenter have had, still to keep his heart, he reluctantly entered the house. As they walked toward the front door, the carpenter paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of some branches with both hands. As he opened the door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.

Afterward he walked the businessman to the car. They passed the tree and the businessman’s curiosity got the better of him. He asked the carpenter what was so magical about the tree that transformed his character?. "Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, troubles don't belong in the house with my wife and the children. So, I just hang them(troubles) up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them (troubles) up again." Then he smiled and said, "Funny thing is, when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before."