2017-26 - Do What You Can…

Have you ever been in a place where you have told yourself, I could have made it… If only?!

If only the board was a little friendly, if only the examiner gave me a little more marks, if only I had studied this one topic, if only I had access to more resources like magazines, classes, question papers, answer booklets and so on…. 

Well I guess there will always be such reasons, some we give to others and some we give to ourselves. The thought is that there shall always be ones, the ones that can hold us back from our pursuit. But there is a larger question to be asked. What if not?

Does that still affect the larger picture? Does that change your goal or do you still want to go ahead and do it?

The only thing that matters is whether your goals or stronger or your reasons?!

~ Theodore Roosevelt

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

2017-25 - Life is...

A friend's grandfather came to America from Eastern Europe.

After being processed at Ellis Island, he went into a cafeteria in lower Manhattan to get something to eat. He sat down at an empty table and waited for someone to take his order. Of course nobody did.

Finally, a woman with a tray full of food sat down opposite him and informed him how a cafeteria worked.

"Start out at that end," she said. "Just go along the line and pick out what you want. At the other end they'll tell you how much you have to pay."

"I soon learned that's how everything works in America," the grandfather told a friend. "Life is like a cafeteria. You can get anything you want as long as you are willing to pay the price. You can even get success, but you'll never get it if you wait for someone to bring it to you. You have to get up and get it yourself."

~ Brian Cavanaugh

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"Don't just bargain for success. Pay the price!"

~ Israelmore Ayivor

2017-24 - Love knows no bounds…

One day, his wife, who had very long hair asked him to buy her a comb for her hair to grow well and to be well-groomed.

The man felt very sorry and said no. He explained that he did not even have enough money to fix the strap of his watch he had just broken. She did not insist on her request.

The man went to work and passed by a watch shop, sold his damaged watch at a low price and went to buy a comb for his wife. He came home in the evening with the comb in his hand ready to give to his wife.

He was surprised when he saw his wife with a very short hair cut.

She had sold her hair and was holding a new watch band.

Tears flowed simultaneously from their eyes, not for the futility of their actions, but for the reciprocity of their love.

~ Edgar Allen Poe

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"There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved."

~ George Sand

2017-23 - Don't judge…

Once on my way to meet my newly wedded husband, I had to travel thru a park full of bridges, each one different, in length, or in height. I was to meet him somewhere near the middle of the park and had to cross many of these bridges to get there.

As I neared our meeting point, I noticed that the last bridge I would have to cross was a rope bridge, a bit higher than the rest. I was a bit nervous being the only one crossing over, and about midway got a bit scared by the swaying. I noticed my husband waiting for me at the end of the bridge and called out to him to come and help me. He shouted back saying he was doing something more important which he could not drop that I should learn to manage my way.

I felt bad, but with tears streaming down my face, I somehow managed to cross the bridge. There I saw my husband… holding the end of the broken bridge.

~ Author Unknown

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Things are not always as they seem.

~ Phaedrus

2017-22 - More Smiles...

The other day, I found myself shuffling along Faneuil Hall in Boston, side-stepping the crowd that converged around a clown providing a comedy routine. I was feeling rather low this day. Maybe the bumper-to-bumper traffic had something to do with my disposition but it certainly could have been better than what I was showing. In fact, it was more of a frown than a happy face.

"Did you drop something?" a voice gushed out of the clear blue. I looked around to see who it belonged to and it happened to be the clown. I didn't know where to turn and instinctively glanced at the pavement below. The clown looked at me and said, "You dropped your smile."

I may have ignored him but since others were watching, I decided to play his game. I reached to the ground and picked up a handful of air, putting it smack dab on my face. In place of the grimace, appeared that all elusive smile. To tell you the truth, it took a clown's quip to change my mood and set me on my merry way.

Not enough people, myself included, are smiling these days. We're living in a serious world where laughter and levity are foregone conclusions these days.

So, here's the deal, folks. If a yawn can take on a contagious effect, perhaps the same is true of a smile. Maybe, just maybe, if enough people smile, perhaps it will cause a ripple effect. Not only that, but curious people will be wondering what there is to be smiling about and you can tell them this. "You're not fully dressed without a smile."

I dropped my smile that day in Boston and a clown reminded me to pick it off the ground. My disposition changed in a nanosecond and I suddenly wore a happy face.

~ Tom Vartabedian

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

~ Mother Teresa