Tuesday, May 31, 2016

2016-22 - A Special Teacher

Years ago a John Hopkin's 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 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 couldn't." And then, thinking back over the years, she said amusingly, more to herself than to her questioners: "I loved those boys...."

~ Author Bits & Pieces - June 1995 Economics Press
___________________________________________________________

“The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional
love and acceptance.”


~ Brian Tracy
___________________________________________________________

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

2016-21 - The Most Beautiful Flower

The park bench was deserted as I sat down to read beneath the long, straggly branches of an old willow tree. Disillusioned by life with good reason to frown, for the world was intent on dragging me down. And if that weren't enough to ruin my day, a young boy out of breath approached me, all tired from play.

He stood right before me with his head tilted down and said with great excitement, "Look what I found!"

In his hand was a flower, and what a pitiful sight, with its petals all worn - not enough rain, or too little light. Wanting him to take his dead flower and go off to play, I faked a small smile and then shifted away. But instead of retreating he sat next to my side and placed the flower to his nose and declared with overacted surprise, "It sure smells pretty and it's beautiful, too. That's why I picked it; here, it's for you."

The weed before me was dying or dead. Not vibrant of colors: orange, yellow or red. But I knew I must take it, or he might never leave. So I reached for the flower, and replied, "Just what I need." But instead of him placing the flower in my hand, he held it mid-air without reason or plan.


It was then that I noticed for the very first time that weed-toting boy could not see: he was blind. I heard my voice quiver; tears shone in the sun as I thanked him for picking the very best one. "You're welcome," he smiled, and then ran off to play, unaware of the impact he'd had on my day.

~ Author Unknown
 __________________________________________________________________

“The best vision is insight.”

~ Malcolm Forbes

__________________________________________________________

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

2016-20 - The farmer and the nobleman…

He was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. The farmer saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy the farmer had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.

'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

The farmer’s son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from a reputed medical school in London, and went on to become renowned throughout the world.

Years later, the same nobleman's son, who was saved from the bog, was stricken with pneumonia.


Who saved his life this time? The farmer’s son.
___________________________________________________________

What goes around comes around.”

~ Anonymous
___________________________________________________________

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

2016-19 - A young woman…

was sitting at her dining table, worried about taxes to be paid, housework to be done and to top it all, her extended family was coming over for festival lunch the next day. She was not feeling very thankful at that time.

As she turned her gaze sideways, she noticed her young daughter scribbling furiously into her notebook.

“My teacher asked us to write a paragraph on “Negative Thanks Giving” for homework today.” said the daughter.

“She asked us to write down things that we are thankful for, things that do not make us feel good in the beginning, but turn out to be good after all.”

Curious, the mother peeked into the book. This is what her daughter wrote:

“I’m thankful for Final Exams, because that means school is almost over.

I’m thankful for bad-tasting medicine, because it helps me feel better.

I’m thankful for waking up to alarm clocks, because it means I’m still alive.”

It then dawned on the mother, that she had a lot of things to be thankful for!

She thought again…

She had to pay taxes but that meant she was fortunate to be employed.

She had housework to do but that meant she had a shelter to live in.


She had to cook for her many family members for lunch but that meant she had a family with whom she could celebrate.

_____________________________________________________

“You're going to go through tough times - that's life. But I say, 'Nothing 
happens to you, it happens for you.' See the positive in negative events.”

~ Joel Osteen
_____________________________________________________

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

2016-18 - When all else fails…

A man who meets a guru on the road asks, “Which way is success?”
The bearded sage doesn’t speak, but instead points to a place in the distance.

The man, thrilled by the prospect of quick and easy success, rushes off in the appropriate direction. Splat!

He limps back, bruised and stunned, assuming he must have misinterpreted the message. He repeats his question to the guru, who again points silently in the same direction.

He obediently walks off once more. This time the splat is deafening. And when he crawls back, he is bloody, broken, and irate. “I asked you which way is success!” he screams at the guru. “I followed the direction you indicated! And all I got was splattered! No more of this pointing! Talk!”


Only then does the guru speak: “Success is that way. Just a little after the splat.”

~ This is an excerpt from a book “Believe You Can – The Power of a Positive Attitude” by John Mason
_______________________________________________________________________

“Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.”

~ Arnold H Glasow
_______________________________________________________________________