Handwriting on the Wall
By: Author Unknown

A weary mother returned from the store,
Lugging groceries through the kitchen door.
Awaiting her arrival was her 8 year old son,
Anxious to relate what his younger brother had done.

“While I was out playing and Dad was on a call,
T.J. took his crayons and wrote on the wall!
It’s on the new paper you just hung in the den.
I told him you’d be mad at having to do it again.”

She let out a moan and furrowed her brow,
“Where is your little brother right now?”
She emptied her arms and with a purposeful stride,
She marched to his closet where he had gone to hide.

She called his full name as she entered his room.
He trembled with fear–he knew that meant doom!
For the next ten minutes, she ranted and raved
About the expensive wallpaper and how she had saved.

Lamenting all the work it would take to repair,
She condemned his actions and total lack of care.
The more she scolded, the madder she got,
Then stomped from his room, totally distraught!

She headed for the den to confirm her fears.
When she saw the wall, her eyes flooded with tears.
The message she read pierced her soul with a dart.
It said, “I love Mommy,” surrounded by a heart.

Well, the wallpaper remained, just as she found it,
With an empty picture frame hung to surround it.
A reminder to her, and indeed to all,
Take time to read the handwriting on the wall

TRUE WEALTH IS WHAT IS LEFT AFTER ALL MATERIAL THINGS ARE GONE

Giving When It Counts
By: Author Unknown

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital,
I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from
a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery
appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old
brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and
had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
The doctor explained the situation to her little brother,
and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his
blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment
before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes, I’ll do it if
it will save her.”

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his
sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning
to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.
He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice,
“Will I start to die right away?”.

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he
thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his
blood in order to save her.

Beautiful Pearls
By: Author Unknown

Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl.

One day when she and her mother were checking out at the
grocery store, Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace priced at
$2.50. How she wanted that necklace, and when she asked her
mother if she would buy it for her, her mother said, “Well,
it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of money.
I’ll tell you what. I’ll buy you the necklace, and when we
get home we can make up a list of chores that you can do to
pay for the necklace. And don’t forget that for your
birthday Grandma just might give you a whole dollar bill,
too. Okay?” Jenny agreed, and her mother bought the pearl
necklace for her.

Jenny worked on her chores very hard every day, and sure
enough, her grandma gave her a brand new dollar bill for her
birthday. Soon Jenny had paid off the pearls. How Jenny
loved those pearls. She wore them everywhere, to
kindergarten, bed and when she went out with her mother to
run errands. The only time she didn’t wear them was in the
shower. Her mother had told her that they would turn her
neck green!

Now Jenny had a very loving daddy. When Jenny went to bed,
he would get up from his favorite chair every night and read
Jenny her favorite story.

One night when he finished the story, he said, “Jenny, do
you love me?”

“Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you,” the little girl said.

“Well, then, give me your pearls.”

“Oh! Daddy, not my pearls!” Jenny said. “But you can have
Rosy, my favorite doll. Remember her? You gave her to me
last year for my birthday. And you can have her tea party
outfit, too. Okay?”

“Oh no, darling, that’s okay.” Her father brushed her cheek
with a kiss. “Good night, little one.”

A week later, her father once again asked Jenny after her
story, “Do you love me?”

“Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you.”

“Well, then, give me your pearls.”

“Oh, Daddy, not my pearls! But you can have Ribbons, my toy
horse. Do you remember her? She’s my favorite. Her hair is
so soft, and you can play with it and braid it and
everything. You can have Ribbons if you want her, Daddy, the
little girl said to her father.

“No, that’s okay,” her father said and brushed her cheek
again with a kiss. God bless you, little one. Sweet dreams.”

Several days later, when Jenny’s father came in to read her
a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and her lip was
trembling. ” Here, Daddy,” she said, and held out her hand.
She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She
let it slip into her father’s hand.

With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and the
other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box. Inside
of the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls. He had had
them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to give up the
cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing.

So it is in life. It isn’t necessarily true that everything
expensive is good, but sometimes you need to trust in
yourself, to know who to trust and to know when to give
something up as something better is coming along.

Mother’s Day Rose
By: Author Unknown

A man stopped at a flower shop to order some flowers to be
wired to his mother who lived two hundred miles away. As he
got out of his car he noticed a young girl sitting on the
curb sobbing.

He asked her what was wrong and she replied, “I wanted to
buy a red rose for my mother. But I only have seventy-five
cents, and a rose costs two dollars.”

The man smiled and said, “Come on in with me. I’ll buy you a
rose.”

He bought the little girl her rose and ordered his own
mother’s flowers.

As they were leaving he offered the girl a ride home.

She said, “Yes, please! You can take me to my mother.”

She directed him to a cemetery, where she placed the rose on
a freshly dug grave.

The man returned to the flower shop, canceled the wire
order, picked up a bouquet and drove the two hundred miles
to his mother’s house.

Late for Dinner
By: Author Unknown

Jack took a long look at his speedometer before slowing
down: 73 in a 55 zone. Fourth time in as many months. How
could a guy get caught so often?

When his car had slowed to 10 miles an hour, Jack pulled
over, but only partially. Let the cop worry about the
potential traffic hazard. Maybe some other car will tweak
his backside with a mirror. The cop was stepping out of his
car, the big pad in hand.

Bob? Bob from Church? Jack sunk farther into his trench
coat. This was worse than the coming ticket. A cop catching
a guy from his own church. A guy who happened to be a little
eager to get home after a long day at the office. A guy he
was about to play golf with tomorrow.

Jumping out of the car, he approached a man he saw every
Sunday, a man he’d never seen in uniform. “Hi, Bob. Fancy
meeting you like this.”

“Hello, Jack.” No smile.

“Guess you caught me red-handed in a rush to see my wife and
kids.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Bob seemed uncertain. Good.

“I’ve seen some long days at the office lately. I’m afraid I
bent the rules a bit -just this once.” Jack toed at a pebble
on the pavement. “Diane said something about roast beef and
potatoes tonight. Know what I mean?”

“I know what you mean. I also know that you have a
reputation in our precinct.”

Ouch. This was not going in the right direction. Time to
change tactics.

“What’d you clock me at?”

“Seventy. Would you sit back in your car please?”

“Now wait a minute here, Bob. I checked as soon as I saw
you. I was barely nudging 65.” The lie seemed to come easier
with every ticket.

“Please, Jack, in the car.”

Flustered, Jack hunched himself through the still-open door.
Slamming it shut, he stared at the dashboard. He was in no
rush to open the window. The minutes ticked by. Bob
scribbled away on the pad. Why hadn’t he asked for a
driver’s license?

Whatever the reason, it would be a month of Sundays before
Jack ever sat near this cop again. A tap on the door jerked
his head to the left. There was Bob, a folded paper in hand.
Jack rolled down the window a mere two inches, just enough
room for Bob to pass him the slip.

“Thanks.” Jack could not quite keep the sneer out of his
voice.

Bob returned to his police car without a word. Jack watched
his retreat in the mirror. Jack unfolded the sheet of paper.
How much was this one going to cost? Wait a minute. What was
this? Some kind of joke? Certainly not a ticket. Jack began
to read:

“Dear Jack,

Once upon a time I had a daughter. She was six when killed
by a car. You guessed it — a speeding driver. A fine and
three months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his
daughters. All three of them. I only had one, and I’m going
to have to wait until Heaven before I can ever hug her
again. A thousand times I’ve tried to forgive that man. A
thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to
do it again. Even now. Pray for me. And be careful, Jack,
my son is all I have left.

- Bob”

Jack turned around in time to see Bob’s car pull away and
head down the road. Jack watched until it disappeared. A
full 15 minutes later, he too, pulled away and drove slowly
home, praying for forgiveness and hugging a surprised wife
and kids when he arrived.

Life is precious. Handle with care.

What Do You Perceive As The Seven Wonders Of The World?
By: Author Unknown

A group of students was asked to list what they thought were the present “Seven Wonders of the World.” Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes:

1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids
2. Taj Mahal
3. Grand Canyon
4. Panama Canal
5. Empire State Building
6. St. Peter’s Basilica
7. China’s Great Wall

While gathering the votes, the teacher noticed that one quiet student hadn’t turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there were so many.”

The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.”

The girl hesitated, then read, “I think the ‘Seven Wonders of the World’ are:

1. to see
2. to hear
3. to touch
4. to taste
5. to feel
6. to laugh
7. and to love.”
Axel “The Wizard Of Wealth” Says : “true wealth Is whats left over after all of your money and other possessions are stripped away ………. Money Is only another energy and easy to attract and those seven above are priceless and no amount of money can buy them all back once you have …………lost them.

Have Some Coffee
By: Author Unknown

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.
Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in
work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for each of you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup.  But you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other’s cups. Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it.”

So, don’t let the cups drive you.. enjoy the coffee instead!

We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.

Leading Change

Leadership is about change. If you need no change, you need no leader. In times of change, people seek out more and better leaders. Those successful sought-out leaders embrace the following thought: “The best reformers the world has ever known are those who began with themselves.”

Mahatma Gandhi said, “We must be the change that we envision.” Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

The following comments are about personal change:

1. One person cannot change another person.
When I started as a young leader, I thought that a leader could change the people; and boy, did I work at it. I said, “All right, I’m going to give them thoughts, ideas, and principles; and I’m going to change people.”

After several years, I awakened to the thought that the only person who can change himself or herself is himself or herself. You can change yourself, but I cannot change you. You see, I am responsible to you but I am not responsible for you; and there is a world of difference between those two. I am responsible for teaching you good leadership, I am responsible for sharing things that can help add value to your life; but you are the only one who can take responsibility to change yourself, and that is what this whole article is about.

2. Most people need to look at the way that they look at change.
How many times have you heard somebody say, “I sure hope things will change.” The only way things will change for me is when I change. It has nothing to do with hope. You can’t just say, “Well, I just hope things will change around me,” and expect results. The only way that things will change for me is when I change.

I have also heard this before, “I don’t know why I’m this way.” Well, you are the way you are because that is the way you want to be. Let’s expose it for what it really is.

3. When you make the right personal changes, other things begin to turn out right.
So when people say, “I’d like things to turn out better for me, I’d like things to turn out right, I’d like things to turn out better in the organization, or in my family,” I say to them, “Start by making personal changes.”

by Dr. John C. Maxwell

Here Are Some Examples:

Years ago, a young mother about to go out with her husband prepared to feed their baby before they left. The husband became impatient as she started her daily routine of mashing vegetables through a strainer. Tired of him standing over her with the car keys in one hand and the other hand on the door knob, she turned the task over to him. Within a few minutes, the strainer, peas, carrots, and bowl ended up in his lap. As he changed clothes, he reasoned that there must be a better way to prepare baby food and that there must be a lot of frustrated parents who didn´t enjoy the monotony of straining fruit and vegetables three times a day. Soon, they began discussing the idea of designing machinery to strain the food in a factory and sell it already prepared.

Fortunately, the young father and his dad owned a small canning plant, but it was difficult to sell the older man on the concept. One mistake that harmed a child would destroy everything it had taken them a lifetime to build.

And what about the expense of marketing surveys, developing and financing new machinery, packaging, getting stores to accept the products, and getting parents to buy something totally new at a price that would be both affordable and profitable? You’ve been through this in your own organization or family when someone comes up with an idea that colors outside the lines! I see you’re nodding affirmatively.

The risk was enormous, but in the end, they went forward with their idea because it filled a need they understood first-hand. They had the skills and experience. And the market was so vast that the positive benefits far outweighed the negative factors. One year after Dan Gerber dumped the strainer of cooked vegetables into his lap, the Gerber Products Company introduced its first five baby foods to the market. The point of the story is that, so often, an idea becomes a goal when we realize it meets a need in our own lives and the lives of others. Our motivation to achieve this goal is dependent upon how strong our need is and whether or not we have the determination, optimism and toughness to follow through our ideas to fruition.

Consider the following:

- The outboard motor was invented by Ole Evinrude because he couldn’t row the boat fast enough on a Wisconsin lake to keep his girlfriend’s ice cream from melting.

- The Automatic Dishwasher was invented by a woman whose housekeeper kept breaking her fine china when she washed it by hand.

- The ice cream cone was invented by a waffle vendor who ran out of plates to serve his waffles.

- The Polaroid camera was invented by Edward Land because his daughter wanted to see the pictures she took with her camera right away, rather than wait.

- And the hot dog was invented by a German immigrant whose silk gloves used to serve bratwurst in his restaurant were taken home by his patrons. His solution was to split a bun, and serve the bratwurst that way. Yes, necessity is the mother of invention.

This week think about what problem or need you have that you might solve with an innovative idea, product or service.

Find out How You Can Best Change You

Red Marbles by:
Author Unknown

During the waning years of the depression in a small Idaho community, I used to stop by Mr. Miller’s roadside stand for farm fresh produce as the season made it available.

Food and money were still extremely scarce and bartering was used extensively.
One day Mr. Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me.

I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily appraising a basket of freshly picked green peas. I paid for my potatoes but was also drawn to the display of fresh green peas. I am a pushover for creamed peas and new potatoes.

Pondering the peas, I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between Mr. Miller and the ragged boy next to me. “Hello Barry, how are you today?”
“H’lo, Mr. Miller. Fine, thank ya. Jus’ admirin’ them peas.. sure look good.”

“They are good, Barry. How’s your Ma?” “Fine. Gittin’ stronger alla’ time.” “Good. Anything I can help you with?” “No, Sir. Jus’ admirin’ them peas.”
“Would you like to take some home?” “No, Sir. Got nuthin’ to pay for ‘em with.”
“Well, what have you to trade me for some of those peas?”
“All I got’s my prize marble here.” “Is that right? Let me see it.” “Here ’tis. She’s a dandy.” “I can see that. Hmmmmm, only thing is this one is blue and I sort of go for red. Do you have a red one like this at home?”
“Not zackley … but almost.” “Tell you what. Take this sack of peas home with you and next trip this way let me look at that red marble.” “Sure will. Thanks Mr. Miller.”
Mrs. Miller, who had been standing nearby, came over to help me. With a smile she said, “There are two other boys like him in our community, all three are in very poor circumstances. Jim just loves to bargain with them for peas, apples, tomatoes, or whatever. When they come back with their red marbles, and they always do, he decides he doesn’t like red after all and he sends them home with a bag of produce for a green marble or an orange one, perhaps.”

I left the stand smiling to myself, impressed with this man. A short time later I moved to Colorado but I never forgot the story of this man, the boys, and their bartering.
Several years went by, each more rapid than the previous one. Just recently I had the occasion to visit some old friends in that Idaho community and while I was there I learned that Mr. Miller had died. They were having his viewing that evening and knowing my friends wanted to go, I agreed to accompany them.

Upon arrival at the mortuary we fell into line to meet the relatives of the deceased and to offer whatever words of comfort we could. Ahead of us in line were three young men. One was in an army uniform and the other two wore nice haircuts, dark suits and white shirts … all very professional looking. They approached Mrs. Miller, standing composed and smiling by her husband’s casket. Each of the young men hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, spoke briefly with her and moved on to the casket. Her misty light blue eyes followed them as, one by one, each young man stopped briefly and placed his own warm hand over the cold pale hand in the casket. Each left the mortuary awkwardly, wiping his eyes.

Our turn came to meet Mrs. Miller. I told her who I was and mentioned the story she had told me about the marbles. With her eyes glistening, she took my hand and led me to the casket.

“Those three young men who just left were the boys I told you about. They just told me how they appreciated the things Jim “traded” them. Now, at last, when Jim could not change his mind about color or size … they came to pay their debt.”

“We’ve never had a great deal of the wealth of this world,” she confided, “but right now, Jim would consider himself the richest man in Idaho.” With loving gentleness she lifted the lifeless fingers of her deceased husband. Resting underneath were three exquisitely shined red marbles.