Struggle a Little - Then Fly !

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly, that he brought home.

One day a small opening appeared he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours. It struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.


So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but, it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and the body would contract. Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly.

The man acted with well-intentioned kindness but he didn't understand the consequences. The restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get through the tiny opening, were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been and we could never fly.

The Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said,"My son,the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Each person creates the inner peace or discord that flows out into the world. We cannot create world peace if we are riddled with inner conflict, hatred, doubt, or anger. We radiate the feelings and thoughts that we hold inside, whether we speak them or not. Whatever is splashing around inside of us is spilling out into the world, creating beauty or discord with all other circles of life.

When Forrest Gump met St.Peter

The day finally arrived : Forrest Gump died and went to Heaven. He stood at the Pearly Gates, met by St.Peter himself.


St.Peter said. "Well, Forrest, it's certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you. But I must inform you that the place is filling up fast, and we've been administering an entrance examination for everyone. The test is short and you have to pass before you can get into heaven. The questions are:

1) What days of the week begin with the letter T?
2) How many seconds are there in a year?
3) What is God's first name?"

Forrest said, "Well the first one- how many days in the week begin with the lettter "T"? That one's easy. That'd be Today and Tomorrow."
The saint's eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, "Forrest, that's not what I was thinking; but, I'll give you credit for that answer."

"How about the second one?" asked St.Peter... "How many seconds in a year?"
"Now that one's harder," replied Forrest,"but I thunk and thunk and guess the only answer can be twelve."
Astounded, St.Peter said, "Twelve? Twelve? Forrest, how in Heaven's name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?"
"Shucks, there's gotta be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd,..."
"Hold it," interrupted St.Peter. "I see where you're going with this, and I'll have to give you credit for that one, too.

Let's go on with the next and final question. Can you tell me God's first name?"
"Sure" Forrest replied, "its Andy."
"Andy?!" exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St.Peter. "OK, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name of Andy as the first name of God ?"
"That was the easiest one of all," Forrest replied.

"ANDY WALKS WITH ME,
ANDY TALKS WITH ME,
ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN."

St.Peter opened the Pearly Gates and said: "Run, Forrest, Run."

The 99 Club

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King and he asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?" The man replied,"Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."


The King was not satisfied with his reply and sought the advise of his most trusted advisor. The advisor said, "Your majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."
"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?", the King enquired. The advisor suggested that to know more about the club, he must leave a bag of 99 gold coins at servant's doorsteps.

When the servant found the bag and opened it, he let out a great shout of joy...So many gold coins. However, after counting them he wondered, "What could have happened to the last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!"

He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided to work hard to earn that extra coin and complete his collection. Soon, his life changed : he was overworked, horribly grumping, started complaining about trivial matters and he stopped singing while he worked.

When the King saw this, he asked his advisor about his servant's drastic transformation.

The advisor replied, " Your servant has now joined The 99 Club. It is a club for those people who have enough to be happy but they are never contented. They keep telling themseleves: "Let me get that one final thing and then I'll be happy for life."

We can be happy, even with little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt people around us: all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. That's what joining The 99 Club is all about."

Touching Lives

It was a sports stadium. Eight children were standing on the track to participate in the running event.
* Ready !
* Steady !
* Bang !!!

With the sound of toy pistol, all eight girls started running. Hardly have they covered ten to fifteen steps, one of the smaller girls slipped and fell down. Due to bruises and pain she started crying. When other seven girls heard this sound, stopped running, stood for a while and turned back, they all ran back to the place where the girl fell down. One among them bent, picked and kissed the girl gently and enquired 'Now pain must have reduced'. All seven girls lifted the fallen girl, pacified her, two of them held the girl firmly and then all seven joined hands together and walked together and reached the winning post. Officials were shocked. Clapping of thousands of spectators filled the stadium. Many eyes were filled with tears and perhaps it had reached the GOD even!

I haven't cooked up this story for my readers. YES. This actually happened in Hyderabad (India), recently! The sport was conducted by National Institute of Mental Health. All these special girls had come to participate in this event and they are Spastic children. Yes, they were mentally challenged. What did they teach this world?

Teamwork? Humanity? Equality among all !

Let's just not live for ourselves. Help others who are in need. Let's give them a reason to smile.

Get The Midas Touch

A group of researchers put some coins in the coin return slots of public pay phones and then watched the people who made calls to see if they would reach in to check if there was any change that someone before them forgot.

Whenever a person retrieved the coins from the money return slot, one of the researchers walked up to the person and said that they think that they left some money in the phone, by chance, notice any money in the slot? 97% of the people who took money from the coin slot said no, that they hadn't found any money in the phone. They lied.

With the next group of money grabbers, then the researchers changed thier approach.
Now, instead of asking the way they did before, when they asked the people who had taken the money out of the coin return slot if they had noticed any money in the slot, the researchers lightly touched the people on the arm or shoulder. Ready for this?

95% of the people who had been touched said that, yes, they had found some coins in the slot, and gave it to the researcher.

From 97% dishonesty to 95% honesty....
And the only variable was the touch on the arm.
Now why would that be?

Well, when we like people and when they like us, we touch them and they touch us... either with hugs, pats on the back, hand holding, ticking, high-fiving, wrestling, kissing, a quick rub, a massage... lots of different ways.
Sure... to show approval and to celebrate, we touch. Its just automatic... built into us. And we love it.

So, when the researchers touched the people they were studying while they asked them if they found any change in the coin slot, the people immediately felt more comfortable and closer to the researcher...Instantly closer. All because of a touch.

So, what's the lesson?

If you want to gain trust and familiarity, try a gentle and familiar touch and you will get your way and persuade others to your way of thinking a whole lot more often.
People will most definitely respond positively if a touch is innocent enough and not sleezy.

Attitude Determines Altitude

The story is told of a woman who during the war went to live with her husband in camp on the Mojave Desert.
She simply hated the place; the heat was almost unbearable, 125 degrees in the shade, the wind blew incessantly, and there was sand- sand everywhere.
Finally, in desperation she wrote to her parents in Ohio that she couldn't stand it another minute and was coming home.
Quickly came the reply by airmail from her father - just the two familiar lines:
"Two men looked out from the prison bars... one saw the mud, the other saw stars."
The daughter did some real thinking, not only with the intellect but also with her heart. She decided to stick to her post.
She made friends with the natives, learned to love the country, and eventually wrote a book about it.
The desert hadn't changed, but her attitude had. Because she listened with her heart to the words her father sent, a whole New World opened up to her.

So, the next time you have a problem -- at home or at work, big or small -- decide to manage your attitude toward it. Try changing your beliefs about the problem. When you change your beliefs, you also change the consequences of the situation.

Unlike some things in life, we can choose our outlook. Sometimes we just need a reminder that happiness can often simply be a result of choosing attitudes.