Archives for December 12, 2017

The Boy & The Apple Tree

A long time ago, there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come and play around it everyday.

He climbed to the treetop, ate the apples, and took a nap under the shadow. He loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him. Time went by, the little boy had grown up and he no longer played around the tree every day.

One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad. Come and play with me, the tree asked the boy. I am no longer a kid, I do not play around trees any more the boy replied.

I want toys. I need money to buy them.
Sorry, but I do not have money, but you can pick all my apples and sell them. So, you will have money.
The boy was so excited. He grabbed all the apples on the tree and left happily.
The boy never came back after he picked the apples. The tree was sad.
One day, the boy who now turned into a man returned and the tree was excited.
Come and play with me the tree said.
I do not have time to play. I have to work for my family. We need a house for shelter. Can you help me?
Sorry, but I do not have any house. But you can chop off my branches to build your house.
So the man cut all the branches of the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy but the man never came back since then.
The tree was again lonely and sad.
One hot summer day, the man returned and the tree was delighted.
Come and play with me! the tree said.
I am getting old. I want to go sailing to relax myself. Can you give me a boat? said the man.
Use my trunk to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy.
So the man cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the man returned after many years. Sorry, my boy. But I do not have anything for you anymore. No more apples for you,
the tree said. No problem, I do not have any teeth to bite the man replied.
No more trunk for you to climb on.I am too old for that now the man said. I really cannot give you anything,
the only thing left is my dying roots, the tree said with tears.
I do not need much now, just a place to rest. I am tired after all these years, the man replied.
Good! Old tree roots are the best place to lean on and rest, come sit down with me and rest. The man sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with tears.
This is a story of everyone. The tree is like our parents. When we were young, we loved to play with our Mum and Dad. When we grow up,
we leave them; only come to them when we need something or when we are in trouble. No matter what, parents will always be there and give everything they could just to make you happy.
You may think the boy is cruel to the tree, but that is how all of us treat our parents. We take them for granted; we don’t appreciate all they do for us, until it’s too late.

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One day, there was a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet and a sign that read: “I am blind, please help”. A creative publicist was walking by him and stopped to observe he only had a few coins in his hat, he dropped a few more coins in his hat and without asking for his permission took the sign, turned it around, and
wrote another announcement. He placed the sign by his feet and left.

That afternoon the creative publicist returned by the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins. The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was him who had re-written his sign and he wanted to know what did he write on it? The publicist responded: “Nothing that was not true, I just rewrote your sign differently”. He smiled and went on his way. The blind man never knew but his new sign `read: “TODAY IS SPRING AND I CANNOT SEE IT”.

Change your strategy when something does not go your way and you’ll see it will probably be for the best. Have faith that every change is best for our lives.

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Jerry is the manager of a restaurant in America. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude.

He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood. I always choose to be in a good mood.

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life.” “But it’s not always that easy,” I protested. “Yes, it is,” Jerry said “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It’s your choice how you live your life.”

Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business: left the back door of his restaurant open one morning and was robbed by three armed men. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Want to see my scars?” I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared?” I asked. Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me. I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I need to take action.”
“What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything.”

‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it.

The only thing that is truly yours that no one can control or take from you-is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.

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Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS. From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease?

To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over
5 Crore children start playing tennis,
50 Lakh learn to play tennis,
5 Lakh learn professional tennis,
50,000 come to the circuit,
5000 reach the grand slam,
50 reach Wimbledon,
4 to semi final,
2 to the finals,
When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD Why me?.
And today in pain I should not be asking GOD Why me?
Be thankful to GOD for 98% of good things in life.

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As a young Scots boy, Andrew Carnegie came to America and started doing odd jobs. He ended up as one of the largest steel manufacturers in the United States.

At one time he had 43 millionaires working for him. Several decades ago, a million dollars used to be a lot of money; even today it is a lot of money. Someone asked Mr. Carnegie how he dealt with people? Andrew Carnegie replied, “Dealing with people is like digging gold: When you go digging for an ounce of gold, you have to move tons of dirt to get an ounce of gold. But when you go digging, you don’t go looking for the dirt, you go looking for the gold.”

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