The power of purpose

There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson. And as she stood in front of her fifth grade class on the very firstday of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same.

But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise.

Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around."

His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."

His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."

Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and was ashamed of herself.

She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found rhinestone bracelet with some ofthe stones missing and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed, how pretty the bracelet was. She put it on and dabbed some of the perfume on her wrist.

Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive.The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her pets.

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs.Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life. Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had.

But now his name was a little longer. The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.

The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met a girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did.

And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."

Faith

A group of working adults got together to visit their University lecturer. The lecturer was happy to see them.

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. The Lecturer just smiled and went to the kitchen to get an assortment of cups - some porcelain, some in plastic, some in glass, some plain looking and some looked rather expensive and exquisite. The Lecturer offered his former students the cups to get drinks for themselves.

When all the students had a cup in hand with water, the Lecturer spoke: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal that you only want the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all you wanted was water, not the cup, but we unconsciously went for the better cups."

"Just like in life, if Life is Water, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold/maintain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change.""If we only concentrate on the cup, we won't have time to enjoy/taste the water in it."

"Faith gives us a new vision of the world. Without it we see only the darker side of life. We are still slaves. It is faith which liberates us and makes us see the Spirit of power and love at work in our lives."

The Other Side of Coin

Check out this link

http://www.ekincaglar.com/coin/flash.html

Teamwork

Attitude

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck..

One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?

That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back,you've watered them.

For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house"

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots.

But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them.

Perfect Peace

There once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them.

One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.

The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell, in which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.

But when the King looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest ... perfect peace.

Which picture do you think won the prize? The King chose the second picture.

Do you know why? "Because," explained the King, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace."

Trust

TRUST is a very important factor for all relationships. When trust is broken, it is the end of the relationship. Lack of trust leads to suspicion, suspicion generates anger, anger causes enmity and enmity may result in separation.

A telephone operator, received a phone call. She answered, "Public Utilities Board." There was silence. She repeated, "PUB." There was still no answer. When she was going to cut off the line, she Heard a lady's voice, "Oh, so this is PUB. Sorry, I got the number from my Husband's pocket but I do not know whose number it is."

Without mutual trust, just imagine what will happen to the couple if the telephone operator answered with just "hello" instead of "PUB".

Mark of Faith

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

Goodness.. 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 they 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 GOD even!

YES. This happened in Hyderabad, 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 retarded.

What did they teach this world? Teamwork? Humanity? Equality among all? . . . . . . . . ???? Successful people help others who are slow in learning so that they are not left far behind.

Mera Desh Mahan

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever - widening thought and action -
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
"GEETANJALI" - RABINDERANATH TAGORE

The Original Version:
jahan nirbhay chit ho mastak ooncha
gyan ho badhaheen
jahan manuj manuj mein bhed nahi
ho vaani satyaseen
jahan poornata ke shikhar sparshhit bahu ho chir vistrit
jahan shudh gyan ki nirmal dhara maru mein na hoti vileen
Antaryami antar ko tum itna karo vishal,

jage, jage, jage, apna desh mahan

Priorities in life

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 glasses of wine...

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes." The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your God, family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions - things that ifeverything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.The sand is everything else - the small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. "Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend."

7 Principles of an Eagle

Eagles were the symbol of almost all conquerors, be it Caesar or Hitler the reason is!! Read on.....

• Eagles fly alone at a high altitude and not with sparrows or mix with other smaller birds like geese. Birds of a feather flock together. No other bird goes to the height of the eagle. Eagles fly with eagles. Never in a flock. Even when Moses (Old Testament Bible) went to commune with God on the mountain, he left the crowd at the foothills.

Stay away from sparrows and ravens. Eagles fly with eagles.

• Eagles have strong vision, which focuses up to 5 kilometers from the air. When an eagle sites prey- even a rodent from this distance, he narrows his focus on it and sets out to get it. No matter the obstacle, the eagle will not move his focus from the prey until he grabs it.

Have a vision and remain focused no matter what the obstacle and you will succeed.

• Eagles do not eat dead things. He feeds on fresh prey. Vultures eat dead animals but not eagles. Steer clear of outdated and old information.

Do your research well always.

• The Eagle is the only bird that loves the storm. When clouds gather, the eagles get excited. The eagle uses the wings of the storm to rise and is pushed up higher. Once it finds the wing of the storm, the eagle stops flapping and uses the pressure of the raging storm to soar the clouds and glide. This gives the eagle an opportunity to rest its wings. In the meantime all the other birds hide in the leaves and branches of the trees. We can use the storms of our lives (obstacles, trouble, etc) to rise to greater heights.

Achievers relish challenges and use them profitably.

• The Eagle tests before it trusts. When a female eagle meets a male and they want to mate, she flies down to earth with the male pursing her and she picks a twig. She flies back into the air with the male pursuing her. Once she has reached a height high enough for her, she lets the twig fall to the ground and watches it as it falls. The male chases after the twig. The faster it falls, the faster he chases until he reaches it and has to catch it before it falls to the ground, then bring it back to the female eagle. The female eagle grabs the twig and flies to a much higher altitude pursued by the male until she perceives it high enough, and then drops the twig for the male to chase. This goes on for hours, with the height increasing until the female eagle is assured that the male eagle has mastered the art of picking the twig which shows commitment, then and only then, will she allow him to mate with her!

Whether in private life or in business, one should test commitment of people intended for partnership.

• Eagles prepare for training. When about to lay eggs, the female and male eagle identify a place very high on a cliff where no predators can reach; the male flies to earth and picks thorns and lays them on the crevice of the cliff, then flies to earth again to collect twigs which he lays in the intended nest. He flies back to earth picks thorns and lays them on top of the twigs. He flies back to earth and picks soft grass to cover the thorns, and then flies back to pick rugs to put on the grass. When this first layering is complete the male eagle runs back to earth and picks more thorns, lays them on the nest; runs back to get grass and rugs and lays them on top of the thorns, then plucks his feathers to complete the nest. The thorns on the outside of the nest protect it from possible intruders. Both male and female eagles participate in raising the eagle family. She lays the eggs and protects them; he builds the nest and hunts.The people who love us do not let us languish in sloth but push us hard to grow and prosper.

Even in their seemingly bad actions they have good intentions for us.

• When the Eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. When he feels weak and about to die, he retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on his body until he is completely bare. He stays in this hiding place until he has grown new feathers, then he can come out.

We occasionally need to shed off old habits & items that burden us add no value to our lives.

The 7 Deadly Desi Sins

Christianity condemns the 7 deadly sins of Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth.

But, in India, we have our very own desi set of demons to battle with!

False formality

Why is it that every time someone offers us something to eat/drink our automatic reaction is no, thank you? It's true! Think back to all the times your host offered you snacks, or a second helping of dessert - "No, ThankYou" is the prompt reply even though you might be dying to stuff your face with one more gulab jamun. The same goes for when an older relative gives you money on festivals or birthdays - no matter how broke you are and that money could probably bailyou out of a life-threatening situation - the answer is still a polite no.

The funny thing is that all we need is a little prodding and voila! The dessert plate (or purse) is full again.

Fibbing

Few have mastered the art of fibbing as well as we Indians have. 'kaam hojaayega', 'haan haan zaroor aayenge' , 'will be there in five minutes' are just some of the white lies we pepper our conversations with on a day-to-daybasis.

The fibbing is so intrinsic that when the plumber says he'll be there at 3, you know he won't turn up before 7. Or when the vegetable vendor claims the lauki is fresh, it's probably 3 days old. Why just blame individuals though, the government itself subjects us to the biggest organised tall-tale session of them all - Elections.

Bad manners

The extent to which we incorporate bad manners in our everyday life is so deep that we don't even consider them to be rude. Cutting in line is one such habit. Try standing in a line (if it exists) at a McDonalds counter. Not only will you have at least 5 people cut before you, they do it so blatantly that you start wondering whether you're the one who's cutting instead of them!Spitting and urinating in public is almost like a birthright for mostIndians.

Sometimes it happens so unashamedly that you feel more embarrassed than the spitter or urinater themselves! The same goes for scratching private parts openly. Staring and pointing is like second nature to us. Not only do we not discourage our children when they do it, we make sure that anyone who doesn't fit our idea of a 'normal human being' gets the dose. The victims includebut are not limited to people who are overweight, disabled, dressed differently, of 'other' sexual orientation.

Disregard for time

Procrastination, laziness, showing up late, arriving unannounced - it's alla basic disregard for ones own as well as other people's time. A flexible attitude towards deadlines is one of the worst things we're taught from the beginning. "I'll speak to your teacher," is a common reassurance mothers offer their indolent children who haven't finished their homework.

Even in offices, soft targets like internal presentations are hardly considered sacrosanct as they are in other parts of the world. IST - Indian Standard Time is a well-known phenomenon the world over.

You call someone over at 8, they show up at 10. It doesn't matter if the entertainment they hired is paid by the hour or that the appetisers will be obsolete since it'll be dessert time by the time the guests finally arrive. But why just blame guests? We do it ourselves don't we? 'I don't want to bethe first one to show up' or 'We told them we had to go to another party before theirs' are common excuses we cook up.

Plagiarising

You can't dissociate India with Bollywood. And with plagiarism as its foundation (even the name Bollywood is a rip-off of Hollywood!) the entireHindi film industry is a manifestation of our rip-off tendencies. But it's not just limited to films.

Several of our business ides like the ongoing mall mania and imax theatres are direct lift offs of phoren ideas. There is nothing original about them.We also copy their fashion trends (and conveniently ditch our own), slangwords and abuses, cuisines, heck we even copy their problems and crises like incessantly worrying about loneliness and depression - hello! We live in acountry with a population of over 1 billion! You can't be lonely if youtried!

One-upmanship

Although 'keeping up with the Jones'' is a concept that exists in the Westas well, it was probably invented in India! Competing with neighbours overwho has the bigger car, better house, fancier vacation or brighter child has been an age-old fixation in India.

The one-upmanship transcends into more obscure territory like taking credit for other people's ideas, being aggressive and unreasonable just to show weare right and even in important issues like the person we marry (my fiancé has a double major!)

Double standards

Where does one begin! We drop our pants at the first opportunity for sex but expect our wives to be virgins. We complain about how dirty the neighbourhood is but promptly dump the garbage outside. We scoff at the saas-bahu serials but they have the highest TRP ratings. We bitch about how our parents are so old-fashioned that they can'tunderstand your male friend is only a friend but swiftly change tracks and jump to our own conclusions when we see two people of the opposite gender together. We profusely thank our hosts for a lovely evening but the minute we're out,the gossiping and criticism begins.

Belittling others is usually a defence mechanism to cover up ones own flaws which is basically what double standards are all about.

The Pretty Lady & Two monks:

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were travelling together.They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river.There they found a pretty lady stuck at the damaged bridge who couldn't cross the river on her own. The young monk offered to carry the pretty lady across the river on his back. The lady accepted.

The old monk was shocked by the move of the young monk. "How can big disciple brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought the little monk. But he kept quiet.

The young monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they had crossed the river, the young monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her.

All along the way for several miles, the old monk was very unhappy with the act of the young monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about the young monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the young monk had no inclination to explain his situation.

Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the old monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the younger monk. "How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite."

The young monk looked surprised and said, "I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?"

This very old Chinese zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate and make us angry. Sometimes, they even cause us lot of hurt or make us bitter.

But like the old monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the "unpleasant memory" with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony.

Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go the baggage of the "unpleasant memory/feelings".

We should let it go immediately after the unpleasant event is over. This will help in removing the agony.