The mayonnaise jar & the coffee....

When things in ur life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in
a day r not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar & the coffee...

A professor (Pro) stood b4 his philosophy class & had some items in
front of him. When the class began, he picked up a large & empty
mayonnaise jar & fill it with golf balls.

After sumtime jar was full. So the professor then picked up a box of
pebbles & 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.

The pro next picked up a box of sand & poured it into the jar. Of
course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked if the jar was full.
They agreed.

The pro then produced 2 cups of coffee from under the table & poured
the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space
between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the pro, as the laughter subsided, "I want u to recognize
that this jar represents ur life. The golf balls r important things, ur
God, family, ur children, ur health, ur friends, & ur favorite passions
things that if everything else was lost & only they remained, ur life
would still be full.

The pebbles r other things that matter like ur job, ur house, & ur car.
The sand is everything else the small stuff.

"If u 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 u spend
all ur time & energy on the small stuff, u will never have room for the
things that r important.

Pay attention to the things that r critical to ur happiness. Play with
ur children. Take care of the golf balls 1st, it really matter. Set ur
priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand & inquired what the coffee
represented.
The pro smiled. "I'm glad u asked. It just goes to show u that no
matter how full ur life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups
of coffee with a friend."

Tell them before it is too late...........

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took! the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list.
Before long, the entire class was smiling.

"Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much." were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed! them after class with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends.

One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin.
The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.


As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her.
"Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes."
Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times.

The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached! into her purse and showed her frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times, " Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important.

Tell them, before it is too late...

Stories that aren't mine.....

I am going to post some stories which I just love, and though they aren't mine, I am posting them because they are great, so great that a pure blue tear might roll out of your eyes while reading them. The first one follows...........

There were once 2 brothers who lived on the 80th level. On coming home one day, they realized to their dismay that the lifts were not working and that they have to climb the stairs home.

After struggling to the 20th level, panting and tired, they decided to abandon their bags and come back for them the next day. They left their bags then and climbed on. When they have struggled to the 40th level, the younger brother started to grumble and both of them began to quarrel. They continued to climb the flights of steps, quarreling all the way to the 60th floor.

They then realized that they have only 20 levels more to climb and decided to stop quarreling and continue climbing in peace. They silently climbed on and reached their home at long last. Each stood calmly before the door and waited for the other to open the door.

And they realized that the key was in their bags which was left on the 20th floor

This story is reflecting on our life...many of us live under the expectations of our parents, teachers and friends when young. We seldom get to do the things that we really like and love and are under so much pressure and stress so that by the age of 20, we get tired and decided to dump this load.

Being free of the stress and pressure, we work enthusiastically and dream ambitious wishes.

But by the time we reach 40 years old, we start to lose our vision and dreams. We began to feel unsatisfied and start to complain and criticize. We live life as a misery as we are never satisfied. Reaching 60, we realize that we have little left for complaining anymore, and we began to walk the final episode in peace and calmness.

We think that there is nothing left to disappoint us, only to realize that we could not rest in peace because we have an unfulfilled dream ...... a dream we abandoned 60 years ago.

So what is your dream?

Follow your dreams, so that you will not live with regrets .