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~