Gratitude

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.”

There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.” Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see…

When your life seems full of troubles, it seems difficult to maintain an attitude of gratitude, doesn’t it? All we see are our problems, like a blackened storm cloud casting a dark shadow over our lives.

And the times when everything just seems to be going smoothly? We often take these precious moments for granted too, don’t we? Caught up in the bliss, comfort, and familiarity of it all, we can simply forget to be thankful.

Simply put, gratitude is a habit. It’s a way of looking at the world and all the good things in it with a feeling of appreciation, regardless of whether or not your current situation is to your liking.

One day, a professor entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin. The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down, as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers. To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions–just a black dot in the center of the paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following: “I want you to write about what you see there.”

The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task. At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams, and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students. All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet.

After all had been read, the classroom silent, the professor started to explain:

“I’m not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot — and the same thing happens in our lives. However, we insist on focusing only on the black dot — the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend. The dark spots are very small when compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your eyes away from the black dots in your lives. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a life filled with love!”

Once upon a time ...

A farmer planted a peach tree in fertile soil.

Underneath the peach tree there lived a big earthworm, called a night crawler. It went through the soil by digging tunnels, and then using those tunnels to travel. It came up, usually at night and sometimes on wet rainy days, to eat the rotting leaves laying on top of the ground. It helped recycle the leaves by eating them and then turning them into castings to fertilize the soil. It went deep into the ground if the weather above was too hot or too cold.

Now the peach tree grew fast. Every Spring, it woke up. It had to bloom, grow leaves and bigger branches, and finally when it was old enough, have fruit by Summer. Else the farmer might chop it down.

Then in the Fall when it got colder, its leaves would change color and fall onto the ground. It was dormant all Winter long.

As the peach tree grew, it found out how difficult it was to grow its roots directly into the hard dirt. It looked for an easier way. So it began to grow its roots into the tunnels the night crawler had made. As the tree grew, its roots also grew, and soon the night crawler's tunnels were plugged shut.

The night crawler could not come up for food. So, in order to stay alive and keep from starving, it had to dig more tunnels. It did not like to do this, because, night crawlers are sort of lazy.

And the peach tree didn't like shedding its leaves each Fall just before the cold Winter.

But do you know what?

They were both helping each other, and by doing this, they were actually helping themselves.

The peach tree had to shed its leaves which the earthworm ate and the earthworm's castings fed the peach tree.

And the earthworm had to dig more tunnels which allowed the peach tree to grow bigger so that in the Fall there were plenty of good leaves (and maybe a peach or two that the farmer missed) for the earthworm to eat.

"And they lived happily ever after."

This is a story: about how what you do may unknowingly help the people around you. It is also a story about gratitude, hard work and working together.

One young man went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the initial interview, and now would meet the director for the final interview.

The director discovered from his CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent. He asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "no".

" Was it your father who paid for your school fees?"

"My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.” he replied.

" Where did your mother work?"

"My mother worked as clothes cleaner.”

The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

" Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?"

"Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Besides, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.

The director said, "I have a request. When you go home today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back home, he asked his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to her son.

The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother winced when he touched it.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fees. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his education, his school activities and his future.

After cleaning his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, when he asked: "Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered," I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

“I know now what appreciation is. Without my mother, I would not be who I am today. By helping my mother, only now do I realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done on your own. And I have come to appreciate the importance and value of helping one’s family.

The director said, "This is what I am looking for in a manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life.”

“You are hired.”

A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop an "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying our children instead?

You can let your child live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch on a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your child learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealers showroom and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. AS Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. On the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study.

His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box Curious but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Holy Quran. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, “with all your money you give me a Holy book?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book.

He never contacted his father again for a long long time. Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family but realized his father was very old and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day.

Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care things. When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father's important papers and saw the still new Holy Quran, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Holy Quran and began to turn the pages, AS he read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Holy Quran. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation and the words PAID IN FULL.

Moral: Do not miss life’s blessings just because they don’t come packaged as we expected.

A lady worked as a janitor in a company for many years.

Now being a janitor is a pretty thankless job, which many of us might consider as a "dirty" job or at least pretty far down the totem pole. In other words, probably not a whole lot of fun.

It happened the company changed owners. Within a few days, the new owner wrote a personal thank you card to every employee in the company. He had his assistant go around and hand them out.

When this lady received and opened her card, she burst into tears. She asked if she could be excused from work. Thinking she was sick, she was allowed leave for the rest of the day.

What the story was - they found out a few days later - she had never received even a verbal thank you from the previous owners and management - much less a personal card.

And she had worked there 20 or 30 years !

So she was really touched when the new owner sent her a card of appreciation.

And ... she had been thinking the change of ownership was probably a good time to quit.

And ... she was planning to let them know that very day.

Which she didn't. Because the little time, the little extra effort of the owner to send a little business thank you card, helped the lady change her mind.

Once upon a time there was a shy and quiet octopus. He nearly always went about on his own because, although he wanted to have lots of friends, he was too self-conscious.

One day, the octopus was trying to catch a very slippery oyster. Before he knew it, he had tied himself into one massive knot, and he couldn't move. He tried with all his strength to wriggle free, but it was no good. In the end, despite the great embarrassment he felt at being seen in such a tangle, he had to ask for help from the passing fish. Many fish swam past, ignoring him, but one very kind little fish offered to help to untie all those tentacles from all those suckers.

The octopus felt heartily relieved when he was finally set free, but he was so shy that he didn't dare talk to the fish and make friends with him. He simply thanked the fish, and quickly swam off. Later, the octopus spent the whole night thinking that he had wasted a great opportunity to make friends with that very kind little fish.

A couple of days later the octopus was resting between some rocks, when he noticed that everyone around was hurriedly swimming past. He looked into the distance and saw an enormous fish coming over to feed in that area. The octopus quickly hid; then, peeping an eye out from his hiding place, he saw that the huge fish was chasing the kind little fish who had untied him. That little fish really needed urgent help, but the big fish was so dangerous-looking that no one dared to go near. The octopus, remembering how the little fish had helped him, felt that he had to do whatever he could to come to his aid.

Without hesitating, the octopus shot out from the rocks, like a ray. He put himself right in the path of the giant fish, and before the fish could do anything about it, the octopus had shot out the biggest jet of ink of his life. He grabbed the little fish, and swam off back to hide in the rocks. Everything happened so fast that the big fish had no time to react. However, he soon recovered from the surprise. Off he went to the rocks, looking for the octopus and the little fish. Now he really wanted to gobble them down!

Soon, though, he began feeling a terrible itch; first in his gills, and then in his fins, and then all over his body. It turned out that this giant fish had a very artistic nature, he adored colours; and the octopus's dark ink had given him a terrible allergy!!

So the big fish swam away, irritated all over.

As soon as he was gone, all the fish who had been hiding came and congratulated the octopus for being so brave. Then the little fish told them all how he had helped the octopus a few days earlier, but he had never known anyone be so grateful that they would end up doing something so dangerous. Hearing this, the other fish discovered how nice the shy octopus was, and everyone around was keen to be the friend of such a brave and honourable octopus.

A teacher in New York decided to honour each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each made. Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California, she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told them how the student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, “Who I Am Makes a Difference.”

Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgement ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honoured whom and report back to the class in about a week.

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honoured him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, “We’re doing a class project on recognition, and we’d like you to go out, find somebody to honour, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened.”

Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, “Well, sure.”

The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss’s jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, “Would you do me a favour? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honouring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people.”

That night the boss came home to his 14 –year old son and sat him down. He said, “The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I’m a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon that says “Who I Am Makes A Difference” on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honour. As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honour with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honour you.

“My days are really hectic and when I come home I don’t pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life, You’re a great kid and I love you!”

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn’t stop crying. His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, “I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn’t think you loved me. Now I don’t need to.” 

- Helice Bridges

Once upon a time there was lonely women Meena who is Blind. Because of that many of his son's friends in his school abused him in his school as “ Son of a Blind “.

Because of that his son was always angry with his mother and hate her. But his mother alone educated him . She was working as maid servant in many families after her husband death give education to her only one son.

Her son Debu never liked her mother because she was blind.

Despite of so much difficulties Debu get a good job in Kolkata after completing his graduation .

Debu married with his college’s girlfriend Maya after getting the job and forget his mother completely.

Debu never comes back in village's home after his marriage and ignored his mother completely as she was blind. Debu never wanted to listen the voice of “Son of a blind”.

Meena always pray for his son happyness. After some years Meena got the news that he became grandmother.

Meena came to Kolkata to see her granddaughter.

When she reached her son’s house his son speaks her to go back in her village’s home as he didn't want to hear the voice of “Son of a Blind.

Her mother's returned from her son's house and she was very unhappy and she lose her mind completely, on her way and she got an massive accident and died on spot.

Police came and after investigation they informed Debu about his mother's death.

Debu came immediately to meet his mother.

Police inspector gave him a letter which they found from her mother body. Debu read the letter which is as follows” My son you hate me because I am Blind but I was not a inborn Blind , when you very small then a piece of rod entered in your both eyes during you were playing and you were Blind and I sacrifice my eyes for you so that you see the World.”

Debu started crying then and speak himself that “ My mother never came back, she show me light and I ignored her, he repented”.

Our parents are always valuable for us we have to take care of them in their needs .

We should never ignore them. If we ignore them God will ignore us also.

Anna was a 9-year-old girl from the small village.  She finished attending elementary school till 4th grade at her village.  For the 5th grade onwards, she will have to get an admission in a school at a city nearby.  She got very happy knowing that she was accepted in a very reputed school in a city.  Today was the first day of her school and she was waiting for her school bus.  Once the bus came, she got in it quickly.  She was very excited.

Once the bus reached to her school, all students started going to their classes.  Anna also made it to her classroom after asking fellow students for direction.  Upon seeing her simple clothing and knowing she is from a small village, other students started making fun of her.  The teacher soon arrived and she asked everyone to keep quiet.  She introduced Anna to the class and told that she will be studying with them only from today.

Then the teacher told the students to be ready for the surprise test now!  She told everyone to write down the 7 wonders of the world.  Everyone started writing the answer quickly.   Anna started to write the answer slowly.

When everyone except Anna had submitted their answer paper, the teacher came and asked Anna, “What happened Dear?  Don’t worry, Just write what you know as other students have learned about it just a couple of days back”.

Anna replied, “I was thinking that there are so many things, which 7 I can pick to write!”   And, then she handed her answer paper to the teacher.  The teacher started reading everyone’s answers and the majority had answered them correctly such as The Great Wall of China, Colosseum, Stonehedge,  Great Pyramid of Giza, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Tajmahal, Hanging Gardens of Babylon etc.

The teacher was happy as students had remembered what she had taught them.  At last the teacher picked up Anna’s answer paper and started reading.

“The 7 Wonders are – To be able to See, To be able to Hear, To be able to Feel, To Laugh, To Think, To be Kind, To Love!”

The teacher stood stunned and the whole class was speechless.  Today, a girl from the small village reminded them about the precious gifts that god has given us, which are truly a wonder.

Moral:  Value what you have, use what you have, trust what you have.  You don’t always have to look away to find an inspiration.  God has given you all the strength to reach your goals.