I have nothing left

A man once telephoned Norman Vincent Peale. He was despondent and told the reverend that he had nothing left to live for. Norman Vincent Peale invited the man over to his office. "Everything is gone, hopeless," the man told him. "I'm living in deepest darkness. In fact, I've lost heart for living altogether."

Norman Vincent Peale smiled sympathetically.

"Let's take a look at your situation," he said calmly. On a sheet of paper he drew a vertical line down the middle. He suggested that they list on the left side the things the man had lost, and on the right, the things he had left. "You won't need that column on the right side," said the man sadly. "I have nothing left, period."

Norman Vincent Peale asked, "When did your wife leave you?"

"What do you mean? She hasn't left me. My wife loves me!"

"That's great!" said Norman Vincent Peale enthusiastically. "Then that will be number one in the right-hand column - Wife hasn't left. Now, when were your children jailed?"

"That's silly. My children aren't in jail!"

"Good! That's number two in the right-hand column - Children not in jail," said Norman Vincent Peale, jotting it down.

After a few more questions in the same vein, the man finally got the point and smiled in spite of himself. "Funny, how things change when you think of them that way," he said.

Motivational Quote: "Be sure that you appreciate everything you've got; and be thankful for the little things in life that mean a lot."

Inspirational Quote: "It is not what you have but it is how you think has a profound effect on your life."

Why Should I feel Bad?

Once, there was this guy, who was in love with a girl. She wasn’t the most beautiful and gorgeous but for him, she was everything. He used to dream about her, about spending the rest of life with her. His friends told him, “why do you dream so much about her, when you don’t even know if she loves you or not?  First tell her your feelings, and get to know if she likes you or not”.

He felt that was the right way.   The girl knew from the beginning, that this guy loves her.   One day when he proposed, she rejected him.  His friends thought he would take alcohol, drugs etc and ruin his life.  To their surprise, he was not depressed.

When they asked him how was it that he is not sad,  he replied, “‘why should I feel bad? I lost one who never loved me and she lost the one who really loved and cared for her.”

Moral:  True Love is Hard to Get.  Love is all about giving to other person without greed of gaining anything in return, if other person rejects it, its him/her who will be losing the most important thing in life. So never feel dejected.

A Soldier’s Story

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco.  “Mom and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me. “Sure,” they replied, “we’d love to meet him.”

“There’s something you should know,” the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.”

“No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us.”

“Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.”

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide.

The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn’t know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

Moral: The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don’t like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren’t as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. Thankfully, there’s someone who won’t treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.

Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!

We are all made to fly

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle." The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, " It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."

We are all made to fly -- to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling.


So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight !!!!!!!

Sharpen the Axe

Once there was a woodcutter who requested for a job with a merchant. Merchant gave him the job with a very good salary for which Wood cutter felt very happy. He decided that he will do his best in his job.

Merchant assigned his work area and the axe.  On the first day, with great enthusiasm, the woodcutter brought down 20 trees. Merchant was very impressed and gave him a "promising wood cutter" award. Very motivated by this, wood cutter worked harder the next day, and brought down 15 trees. On third day, he brought down 12 trees only. Every day his performance kept on decreasing. Wood cutter thought to himself “am I becoming weak” . One fine day he went to the merchant and confessed his problem that he has become weak and unable to cut more than 10 trees, a day.

Merchant asked him “when did you last sharpen your axe?”.
Wood cutter had never thought about this. He gave an excuse that “oh! I have been so busy cutting the trees and I never found time to sharpen the axe.”

Does it appear familiar to our life?
We become so busy in our schedules and activities that we forget that we need time to sharpen and invest in ourselves.

We tend to forget real important things of our life like sharpening our skills, taking time for our hobbies and interests, spending time with family, contribution to society etc which helps us to revitalize our energy. We get so much engrossed in our daily "To Do" activities and tracking lists and we are more worried about activities than anything else and not even the outcome of the activities. 

If we don't take time to sharpen the axe, our life will be similar to the woodcutter whose performance kept on reducing day by day. As human beings, we all need time to relax, indulge in hobbies, learn and grow.

Cheese


As dessert was served to the visiting guest, the hostess apologized for not having any cheese to go with the apple pie. Hearing this,her little son slipped down from his chair and left the room, then returned with a small piece of cheese , which he shyly placed on the guest's plate.

"Why, thank you, son," said the guest as he popped the cheese in his mouth, "You must have found the last piece! Where did you find it?" Flushing with pride, the little boy said, "Oh, it was in the mousetrap.