After A While

Friendship

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books.

I thought to myself, 'Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday?
He must really be a nerd.' I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.
His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him
He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes . My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, 'Those guys are jerks. ' They really should get lives. ' He looked at me and said, 'Hey thanks!' There was a big smile on his face.
It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.

As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.
He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends and He said yes.

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, 'Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!

He just laughed and handed me half the books. ver the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd.
He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak. Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.
Boy, sometimes I was jealous!

Today was one of those days.
I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, 'Hey, big guy, you'll be great!' He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. 'Thanks,' he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began 'Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends.. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story.'

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. 'Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable.' I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth. Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse.
God puts us all in each others lives to impact one another in some way.
Look for God in others.

'Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.'

There is no beginning or end.. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift.

Little Things in Life

Too often we don't realize

what we have until it is gone

Too often we wait too late to say

"I'm sorry... I was wrong."

Sometimes it seems we hurt the ones

we hold dearest to our hearts

And we allow foolish things to tear

Our precious lives apart

We always hurt the one we love

The one we shouldn't hurt at all

We always take the sweetest rose

And crush it till the petals fall

We always break the kindest heart

With a hasty word we can't recall

We often forget to act with right

To the one we love most of all

Too often we listen to others word

Putting away trust to our beloved

Suspicious and doubts then arise

At last we have to pay the price

Far too many times we let

Unimportant things into our minds

And then it's usually too late

To see what made us blind

So be sure that you let people know

How much they mean to you

Take that time to say the words

Before your time is through

Be sure that you appreciate

Everything you've got

And be thankful for the Little Things

In Life that mean a lot...

Thank you My Friend

Thank you, friend,

for all the things that mean so much to me

For concern and understanding

You give abundantly.

Thanks for listening with your heart;

For cheering me when I'm blue;

For bringing out the best in me;

And just for being you.

Thanks for in-depth conversation

That stimulates my brain;

For silly times we laugh out loud;

For things I can't explain.

For looking past my flaws and faults;

For all the time you spend;

For all the kind things that you do,

Thank you;

thank you,

friend.

(By Joanna Fuchs)

Decide What You Want

In the summer of 1984, a young sky diver's parachute failed to open fully. The young man fell and slammed into a dry lake at 60 miles per hour. He broke almost every bones in his body and the doctors thought that the young man could never leave the hospital bed ever. When they told him the bad news, the young man sank into a deep despair.

While lying in the bed, the young man got an unexpected visit from another patient, whose spinal cord has been severed in a bad automobile accident. The older man could never walk or life a finger again in his whole life. In spite of his condition, the older man was always cheerful.

'I certainly wouldn't recommend my condition to anyone else,' said the older man. 'I do not want anyone to pity me either. I am happy that I can still read and listen to beautiful music. I can also talk to people. There are others in much better condition than me but they do not enjoy their life.'

These words gave hope to the sky diver that he decided not to give up and quit. He focused not on what he has lost but more on what he could do with what he has left. He started thinking of what he could gain by not giving up. He concentrated on what he wanted to do and that ambition kept his attitude positive and gave him hope.

To the amazement of the doctors, in one year, the sky diver managed to walk again and without a trace of a limp.

We all have dreams for a reason. And if we decide exactly what we want in life and go after it as hard as we can, we would surely achieve our dreams. If you cannot decide, that is what makes you go around in circles.

Rocky

There are times when a scene in a movie moves and leave you with an everlasting impression. One of the movies is the scene where Rocky Balbao was confronted by his son , Robert, who was against him fighting for the last time with heavyweight champion Mason Dixon.

Walking out of an Italian restaurant, Robert blamed Rocky for all his failures in life.
Much calmer than he was when he first started out as a club fighter and debt collecter in Rocky I, Rocky tried his best to understand his son. Disappointed with Robert's perception of him, Rocky taught Robert a lesson about life :

You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you that you are no good.
When things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow.
You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit.
It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
It's about how much you can take and still keep moving forward!
That is how winning is done!

Listening Well

Like most young people, I felt unsure of myself and I was afraid that people would judge me each time we met. Actually, others were also worrying about how I would judge them.

From that day on, instead of thinking that others were judging me, I now recognized the need people have to make a connection and to share something about themselves. Thus, I discovered a world of people I never would have known otherwise.

On a train going home, I began talking to a man everyone was avoiding because he was weaving and slurring his speech as if drunk. It turned out that he was recovering from a stroke.

He had been the train's engineer and long into the night he revealed to me the history beneath every mile of the railway track. As the morning sun began to show itself, he grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes. 'Thank you for listening. Most people would not bother.' Actually, he did not have to thank me. The pleasure was all mine.

Each encounter became an adventure. Each person, a new lesson in life. The wealthy, the poor, the powerful and the lonely, all were as full of dreams and doubts as I. And each had a unique story to tell, if only I had the ears to hear.

How often to allow such opportunities to pass us by. The girl who everyone thinks is stuck up, the boy with the odd clothes: those people have stories to tell, as surely as you do. And like you, they dream that someone is willing to hear.

Like people first, asks questions later. See if the light you shine on others is not reflected back on you a hundred fold.

A Walk to Remember

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.'

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.

Who Could Wish For More

Even by standards of long ago, it was a primitive place.
There were no electricity and the roads were not paved. The houses there did not have any plumbing. A dirt road heads to the mountain, while another heads down to the creek.

Lacking electricity, we went to bed early and rose each morning while dew was still on the grass. Kerosene lamps were cleaned early morning by the gossiping women and children were sent to the well or small river to get fresh water.

The best time would be in summer. Hummingbirds with tiny wings fluttering so fast were feeding from the flowers. To avoid the mid afternoon heat, the women would draw window shades and spread blankets on the floor for a nap. In the fields, the herds crowded under the shade of spreading trees. Everything seemed to stand still in the afternoon, and yet you could hear small sounds..bees buzzing, birds whistling nearby the porch. You could walk to the hen house and watch a hen perform the mystery of laying an egg.

As the sun was falling, men drifted back to their own houses hot and tired. They took their bath from the water that we, kids, had hauled up earlier from the river. Asdusk deepened, you could see fireflies flying towards the kerosene lamps, just waiting to be caught and bottled by us. As twilight changed to night, an owl's hoot can be heard from nearby. I was not afraid of owls at that time.

As the 4 of us sat on the porch 1 night, we saw a shooting star. Someone said, 'Make a wish!'I did not know what he meant at that moment. I did not know anything that I would wish for.

Give Your Best Shot

Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.

This is one of the earliest lessons my dad ever taught me.
He used to say this repeatedly to all of us :

"If you are not going to do it properly, then don't do it at all.
It's not a question of winning or being the No 1.
It's more about putting your heart and soul in what you are doing; making sure that you have given it your best shot."

What I Need

I thought I knew all the answers

The way My life should go

And when I say my prayers

I would tell God so..

At times, It seems like God did not listen

And I thought God did not care

But looking back at it now

It's plain to see that God has always been there...

I had prayed for strength

But I got pain instead to make me strong

I had prayed for courage

But I was given fear to overcome..

I had prayed for faith..

Until my empty heart brought me to my knees

I do not always get what I want

As God gives me only what I need

It's not as easy as it seems

And sometimes it hurts so much

Especially when nothing seems to go my way

Or when nothing seems to work

They tell me that to get better

I must go with the flow

Accepting that sometimes

The answer to a prayer is 'No'

 I had forgotten the lesson

That everytime I had a door slammed in my face

In time, a better one was opened in its place

Oh, I don't get what I want

But I get what I need....

Moving Thoughts

Never Too Late

At the age of 19, I was in my second year of college and not sure what my major should really be. I was currently enrolled in liberal arts, not very exciting. All along I had in the back of my mind the desire to be just like the stewardess I had observed 2 years prior.

I decided to embark on the application process to the airlines. I pursued this painstaking process for 3 years and back then, there was no computers, no email, and all forms were obtained by hand typed letters and the mail service.

To my surprise I received 5 requests to be interviewed. Every airline interview I undertook I was well versed in the airline, their "stewardess" colors, their routes, etc. I made sure when presenting myself at an interview that I was dressed in their colors to look as close to being one of their own.

Letter after letter came stating "thank you but we regret to inform you the position has been filled" came to my mailbox. Year after year I continued my pursuit until I finally realized I must lack something that prevented my acceptance.

This was a devastating reality. I stopped sending out applications and pushed my deepest desire, my passion deep down inside me and went on with what life was to bring to me without the airlines. My future careers, from the age of 21 through 50, all held one common denominator; Customer Service related duties.

Whether I was a receptionist or in management, I always dealt with the public. During this time period, at the age of 31, I had my first child, a set of identical twin boys. Two years later I had my third son.

One year later I was divorced. Life was hard. I was financially devastated, overwhelmed with massive responsibilities, and three beautiful sons who made it possible for me to endure all of it. I reminded myself every morning to keep my faith in God and myself that I could be successful in anything I pursued, but the reality of my suppressed desire to fly was still ever present.

Unfortunately my responsibilities as a mother came first and not what I personally wanted to fulfill for myself. They WERE my life, and so it went on. The twins grew up, graduated from high school and left for college. 

When my third son was approaching high school graduation, in the Spring '05, I was currently unemployed from a company that did not understand compassion for their customers. It was all black and white style of business for them. I couldn't endure this cold environment anymore. In November '04, I left.

In January '05, I watched a T.V. program called "Airline" that depicted the everyday happenings of Southwest Airlines travelers. They profiled a Flight Attendant (not "Stewardess" anymore) that was a 50 year old widow, living alone since all her children were grown and had left home. She said she loved working with people and needed to get out of the house, her name was "Billy".

She said she had seen an advertisement for a Southwest Airline open house for flight attendants. She decided to attend and see what the position entailed. After going through the extensive application process, to her surprise, she was hired and sent to training.

Because of her exuberance and excitement for the job I realized that she was the same age as I was and if she could get in - so could I! And so it began again. I pursued a locally based airline so that I did not have to relocate. It took three months for this airline to have an open house in my area but I was ready to go. This open house took two hours and no matter what they said about any of the "torture" I would experience performing this job, I didn't care.

I knew from the time I decided to go the open house I was going to be a flight attendant. I knew I wouldn't fail and this was it. At the end of the open house we were told we would receive a call within the next two days, if they wanted to see us again for a second interview. I received one. One week later I was back doing the infamous "airline interview" but I wasn't nervous this time. I knew the path I had traveled through life had prepared me for this endeavor.

They once again told us we would receive a phone call within the next two days, if they had chosen us for training. My phone call came the next morning at 9 a.m. This was the end of March '05 and I was in training in Memphis, TN on April 9, 2005. Enduring a three week training program, which included a massive amount of studying, (which I hadn't done in 30 years) evacuations, testing, and watching fellow classmates being sent home one by one kept your emotions strung out so tight you felt like a rubber band ready to snap.

On top of all of this, we lived in a hotel but the special bond that was created between us all who survived this torture still lives. While in training, on April 26th, I turned the young age of 51 and on April 27th, I took my final exam - in uniform and passed. Graduation is a very special event and our bond with our trainers is embedded in our hearts forever.

They make graduation very memorable and special for every class. I am still a flight attendant and have been enjoying every minute for the past 5 years. I realize that I had made the right choice by leaving a job I hated with a passion to pursue a "last" career that would fulfill me and I could say I truly loved.

When I arrived at my home airport, my three sons and my mother were all lined up waiting for me and each one was holding a red rose. They were there to show me their enduring love and support for a woman (their mother and daughter) who took the biggest risk of her life to pursue her dream (at 50), who believed in herself strong enough to try, and to see her in uniform for the first time; the uniform she had been waiting a lifetime to wear.

A true story about the life of Denice B. - Flight Attendant, for life

Mothers and Daughters

What is it about mothers and daughters?
What had made the relationship between mothers and daughters so volatile? Going from love to anger and back again to love?

Daughters often complain that 'My mother is always criticizing me' and mothers would respond by saying that 'Each time I open my mouth, my daughter takes everything as criticisms.

There seems to be a special kind of intensity between the two because talking can be the glue that holds a relationship together or the explosive that can blow it apart. That is why when you are having an amiable talk with your mother, suddenly without warning, you can find yourself wounded by bits from an exploded conversation.

Mother's opinions matter so much to a daughter. A small comment or just a look (without any words) can fill a daughter with hurt and anger. But in reality, the mother who has spent years watching out for her child cannot avoid giving comments as they believe that the 'adult' daughter is incapable of doing the right thing.

Mothers and daughters search for themselves in each other as if finding sameness affirms who they are. After her mother's death, one woman finds that she cuts onions and held the knife exactly like her mother used to do. The woman finds this comforting because it meant that her mother is still with her.

Sameness, however, can also make us cringe 'I sound just like my mother' is usually said with distaste. A mother says: 'My daughter can certainly turns my day black in a millisecond'. This can be true as daughters often treat their mothers more roughly than they would treat anyone else. A mother, in reality, may seem to devalue a daughter's choices because she doesn't understand the life that her daughter chose.

Reframing is often the key to dissipating anger. If a daughter can recognize that a criticism actually expresses concern, a mother should acknowledge that concern truly implies criticism and she will hold her tongue.

Be Happy

If you are not happy, what's the use of having all the money in the world?
Be contented with what you have and who you are.

When you age, you realize that a lot of things that you are upset about when you are young are actually quite trivial. When you let all that go, you will be happier.

Life's Lesson 2

Every once in a while, life hands you a moment so precious, so overwhelming, that you almost glow. When you experienced one of those moments, write it down and present it to another person, so that it might provide him/her a road map in his/hers journey in life...

Here are some of the lessons learnt from life :

* Pray not for things... but for wisdom and courage

* Never take action when you are angry

* Always enter a room with purpose and confidence.

* Do Not discuss business in elevators, you never know who may overhear you.

* Never pay for work before it's completed.

* Be willing to lose a battle in order to win the war

* Do Not Gossip

* Beware of the person who has nothing to lose

* When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail.

* Do Not spread yourself too thin. Learn to say 'No' politely and quickly

* Do Not expect life to be fair

* Never underestimate the power of forgiveness

* Instead of using the word 'Problem', try substituting it with the word 'Opportunity'

Listening

When someone talks, listen and hear them out.
Put yourself in his/her's shoes.
Remember that there are always differences in backgrounds among us. even between members of the same family. Each person sees things from his or hers perspectives.

A first born child and one who has been an only child for a long time (and has been the center of attraction all the while) will worry at the thoughts of having a new additional member in the family. Child number two who has entered into a ready made family of three- with a sibling in the middle of it will view and expect things differently. Always try to reserve judgment until all facts are in.

Do not assume anything. What is being said might not seem important to you, but it is important to the speaker, or he would not have taken the time to say it. A good way to hurt someone's feeling is to ignore, even unintentionally, what he or she has to say. Take the time to listen, there's no such word as 'too busy' especially when it comes to those who are very close to you. There might not be a 'next time'..

The Choice

At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children,the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: "When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?"

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. "I believe,that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child."

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?" Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning."

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart. The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the base loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be
next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chances to win the game ? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!" Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him
circled the bases toward home.

All ! were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay"

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third! Shay, run to third!"

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, "Shay, run home! Run home!" Shay ran to home,stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

"That day", said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face,"the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world".

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the "natural
order of things." So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

What goes around

He almost didn't see the old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so .. was he going to hurt her? He didn't look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fear can put in you.

He said, "I'm here to help you, ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car where it's warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson."
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack,skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt. As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn't thank him enough for coming to her aid. Bryan just smiled as he closed he trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him.

Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and! God knows there were plenty who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.

He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, "And think of me." He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.

A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her! wet hair. she had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn't erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered
how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.

After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin. There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: "You don't owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of
love end with you." Under the napkin were four more $100 bills. Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day.

That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard..
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low,"Everything's gonna be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson."

There is an old saying "What goes around comes around."

One for the Heart

A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups. And set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy.

'Mister,' he said, 'I want to buy one of your puppies.'

'Well,' said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, 'These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money.'

The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer.

'I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?' 'Sure,' said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. 'Here, Dolly!' he called.Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight.

As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up..

'I want that one,' the little boy said, pointing to the runt. The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, 'Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would.'

With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers.

In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe.

Looking back up at the farmer, he said, 'You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands.'

With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and picked up the little pup. Holding it carefully he handed it to the little boy. 'How much?' asked the little boy. 'No charge,' answered the farmer, 'There's no charge for love.'

The world is full of people who need someone who understands.