
I grew up with practical parents and grandparents who had been frightened by the Great Depression in the 1930's.
A mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name for it...
A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones. Their best friends lived barely a wave away.
I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, apron, lawn mower in one hand, and dish-towel in the other.
It was the time for fixing things: a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.
It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that repairing, eating, reusing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more..
But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.
Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away...never to return. So.. While we have it... it's best we love it... And care for it.... And fix it when it's broken..... And heal it when it's sick.
This is true... For marriage.... And old cars.... And children with bad report cards..... And dogs and cats with bad hips.... And aging parents.... and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.
Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with.
There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special.... And so, we keep them close!
A man had 50 yard line tickets for the Super Bowl. As he sits down,
a man comes down and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to
him.
"No," he says, "The seat is empty."
"This is incredible," said the man. "Who in their right mind would
have a seat like this for the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event
in the world, and not use it?"
He says, "Well,
actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife,
but she passed away. This is the first Super Bowl we haven't been to
together since we got married in 1970."
"Oh...I'm
sorry to hear that. That's terrible. But couldn't you find someone
else, a friend or relative, or even a neighbor to take the seat?"
The man shakes his head. "No, they're all at the funeral."
If you ever testify in court, you might wish you could have been as
sharp as this policeman. He was being cross-examined by a defense
attorney during a felony trial. The lawyer was trying to undermine
the policeman's credibility...
Q: "Officer -- did you see
my client fleeing the scene?"
A: "No sir. But I
subsequently observed a person matching the description of the
offender, running several blocks away."
Q: "Officer -- who
provided this description?"
A: "The officer who responded
to the scene."
Q: "A fellow officer provided the
description of this so-called offender.. Do you trust your fellow
officers?"
A: "Yes, sir.. With my life."
To realize
The value of a sister/brother
Ask someone
Who doesn't have one.
To realize
The value of ten
years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.
To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.
To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a
final exam...
To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask
a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.
To realize
The
value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to
A premature baby ...
To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize
The value
of one minute:
Ask a person who has missed the train, bus or
plane.
To realize
The value of one-second:
Ask a
person
Who has survived an accident.
Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have.
You will treasure it
even more when
You can share it with someone special.
To
realize the value of a
friend or family member:
LOSE ONE.
The origin of this article is unknown..Remember ...Hold on tight to the ones you love!
A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little Old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had Cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but One day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said She would not recover.
In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took Down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was In the box. When he opened it, he found two knitted dolls And a stack of money totaling $95,000.
He asked her about the contents.
'When we were to be married,' she said, ' my
grandmother told me The secret of a happy marriage was to never argue.
She told me that
If I ever got angry with you, I should just
keep quiet and knit a doll.'
The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two Precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two Times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with Happiness.
'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?'
A Birth Certificate shows that we were born.
A Death Certificate shows that we died. Pictures show that we lived!
I Believe...
That
just because two people argue, doesn't
mean they don't love each
other. And just because they don't argue,
doesn't mean they do love
each other.
I Believe...
That we don't
have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
I Believe...
That no matter how good a
friend is, they may hurt you once in a while and you must forgive them
for that.
I Believe...
That true
friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.
I Believe...
That you can do something in an instant that will give you
heartache for life.
I Believe...
That
it's taking me a long time
to become the person I want to be.
I Believe...
That you should always
leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see
them.
A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.. 'Your son is here,' she said to the old man.
She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened.
Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent.. He reached out his hand.
The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile. He refused..
Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.
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 back of 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.
Friendship among Women:
A woman didn't come
home one night. The next morning she told her husband that she had
slept over at a friend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best
friends. None of them knew anything about it.
Friendship among Men:
A man didn't come
home one night. The next morning he told his wife that he had slept
over at a friend's house. The woman called her husband's 10 best
friends. Eight confirmed that he had slept over, and two said he was
still there.
Two old men, Abe and Sol, sit on a park bench feeding pigeons and talking about baseball. Abe turns to Sol and asks, "Do you think there's baseball in Heaven?"
Sol thinks about it for a minute and replies, "I dunno. But let's make a deal -- if I die first, I'll come back and tell you if there's baseball in Heaven, and if you die first, you do the same."
They shake on it and sadly, a few months later, poor Abe passes on. Soon afterward, Sol sits in the park feeding the pigeons by himself and hears a voice whisper, "Sol... Sol...."
Sol responds, "Abe! Is that you?"
"Yes it is, Sol," whispers Abe's ghost.
Sol, still amazed, asks, "So, is there baseball in Heaven?"
"Well," says Abe, "I've got good news and bad news."
"Gimme the good news first," says Sol.
Abe says, "Well, there is baseball in Heaven."
Sol says, "That's great! What news could be bad enough to ruin that?"
Abe sighs and whispers, "You're pitching on Friday."
A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Target. She must
have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image
of
innocence..
It was pouring outside. The kind
of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry
to hit the earth it has no time to flow
down the spout. We all
stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the
Target.
We waited, some patiently, others irritated
because nature messed up their hurried day.. I am always mesmerized by
rainfall. I got lost in the
sound and sight of the heavens
washing away the dirt and dust of the world.
Memories
of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a
welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.
The little
voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught
in 'Mom let's run through the rain,' she said. 'What?' Mom asked.
When his father’s business began to fail, James Michael Pratt left
college to return home and help out. From a young age, he’d been
taught the value of selflessness.
Even so, while his family
struggled to make ends meet as they continued performing charitable
deeds for folks throughout the community, Pratt began harboring
resentment and doubt about his father’s “do-gooder” principles. He
recalled to himself every “service’’ project they’d taken on over the
past few years. Finally, after the two had spent the better part of a
day unloading 100-pound grain sacks from the back of a truck, Pratt
turned to his father and said, “We’ve done a lot of things for free.
It’s no wonder we are always broke.”
“Things always come
back to you how you send them out,” his father reminded him.
“Dad, if so, where’s the money?”
“It’s not always about
the money.” His father tried to explain that helping people, doing a
good job, and keeping your word were more important than money. But
the younger Pratt was unconvinced.