The Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said "you have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one." You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. Make sure you control your temper the next time you are tempted to say something you will regret later.

- Author Unknown

Hospital Windows

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."


- Author Unknown

The Story of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.

"If I fail, I try again, and again, and again..." If YOU fail, are YOU going to try again?

http://LifeWithoutLimbs.org

Nick Vujicic and his attitude serve as a great examples of the celebration of life over limitations.

The human spirit can handle much more than we realize.

"I LOVE LIVING LIFE. I AM HAPPY."

----------------------------------------

Think you've got it bad?

Need some encouragement?
Fallen down?
Can't find the STRENGTH to get back up?

Watch this video. It will help. Then share it with others.

----------------------------------------------------------------

"If I fail, I try again, and again, and again..."
If YOU fail, are YOU going to try again?

It matters how you're going to FINISH...
Are you going to finish STRONG?

We are put in situations to build our character... not destroy us.

The tensions in our life are there to strengthen our convictions... not to run over us.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Nick is thankful for what he HAS.
He's not bitter for what he does NOT have.

I have never met a bitter person who was thankful.
I have never met a thankful person who was bitter.

In life you have a choice: Bitter or BETTER?

----------------------------------------------------------------

PASSIVE VOICE

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

PASSIVE VOICE

View more presentations from tcher_joe.

Why do we call someone who loves reading books a bookworm

This question is quite intriguing in more ways than one.  Drawing the line and to be more precise, a person who loves books in its format and qualities or characteristics is called a Bibliophile.  Same thing as the term “Bibliophism” connotes, which obviously mean the addictive behavior of collecting books that a Bibliophile possesses. A person who loves to read books are the ones that are often called a “Bookworm”.

But what really is the associative or the common factor that brings about a book and a worm to define someone who loves to read?

If we are to observe more closely a person who is currently engaged in reading some pages from a book, it’s a sensible fact that this person is either absorbing or just browsing the contents of the material.  But nevertheless, the only thing that we can see moving is this person’s eyes, or we can sometimes hear him murmur the words that he reads.  Analyzing his overall actions, he is motionless or the movements that the reader executes are mostly few, slow and numbered.

This is where our worm enters.  The actuations or movements that our reader has exhibited are more likely to describe the characteristics of a worm.  According to experts, worm species varies on their movement characteristics.  Some worm species do not posses any muscle on its body and actually cannot move on its own.  Other species would need a certain force from others in order to move.

With these two motion-related factors, a common denominator allows us to bind both of their characteristics in terms of the amount of movement that they both execute.  The worm and a person who is reading both exhibit slow to no movement at all.  Thus, the word “Bookworm” which means a person who loves to read books.

Source: http://www.stumblerz.com/why-do-we-call-someone-who-loves-reading-books-a-bookworm/

Why do we call some people “black sheeps”?

Whenever we see someone in a pack of friends but he seems to not belong with them, we call that person a black sheep. Or when our favorite team has a player who doesn’t want to cooperate with the rest of the team. What about one of the siblings who doesn’t achieve any success and is a lazy bum unlike the rest of the family. Most families have at least one lazy person per family, that person is often called the black sheep. A black sheep is considered worthless, a normal sheep can produce wool that is useful. Nurturing a black sheep takes the same amount of time as a white one but the black wool has no value at all in the market. So raising a black sheep is a waste of time and often are considered  useless.

Black wool was useless because it could not be dyed. So uselessness of these sheep created an analogy with useless humans.

Source: http://www.stumblerz.com/why-do-we-call-some-people-black-sheeps/

Is it possible to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth

This is another confusing question that if initially taken in its literal sense, the practicality would be far impossible.  If taken in the nature of an English Idiom, these groups of words or phrases would actually mean anyone being wealthy or rich since birth.  The expression of “being born with a silver spoon in the mouth” is oftentimes used for persons with wealthy family backgrounds of someone who is economically stable, so to speak.

The idea of silver spoon as an adjective to describe the abundance of wealth that one possesses came as silver spoons in particular are very precious and considered expensive during those times.  It is believed these treasures are the most priced among the kitchen utensils.  There were also times that these silver spoons were listed as number one targets of burglars.  Being wealthy during those times coincided with the rich family’s healthy backgrounds as well.  The rich children being fed through these silver spoons were believed to acquire fewer illnesses as compared to the normal ones that are fed through other metal spoons.  The wealthy ones during those times enjoyed the silver spoon’s antibacterial effects.

Thus, a child or anyone to have been said to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth is definitely a wealthy and a lucky person considering that he will not exert all his efforts to be one for it is already given to him since the day he was born.  Even if the person is not worthy of it himself, it would also imply that he has a very wealthy and prosperous family background as well.  The best examples of which are those people belonging to the royal family or the descendants of kings and queens.  But if we are to literalize its meaning, it maybe possible that the person’s mom that you are referring to might accidentally swallowed a silver spoon while conceiving! (the swallowing part is less convincing, by the way…)

Source: http://www.stumblerz.com/is-it-possible-to-be-born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-your-mouth/

Why do we call New York The Big Apple

If you do a google search for the word “The Big Apple“, you will find out that first result talks about New York. But how come? Isn’t it supposed to show some big apple? Well for those of you that do not know New York is also called The Big Apple.

Back in 1940-1945, a guy named Robert Emmerich who used to play piano in the Tommy Dorsey Band, wrote an interesting song called “The Big Apple.” But it was not that New York got the name Big Apple right after that song, years passed and people forgot about the Big Apple. But there was on one person who did not forget it. And it was none other than the legendary reporter Walter Winchell. He did not forget the song because he loved the song so much that in his daily column and on the air he began referring to his beat, New York City, as “The Big Apple,” and with time it became popular, and even though people do not know or remember Robert Emmerich, they do refer to New York City as the Big Apple thanks to Winchell.

Source: http://www.stumblerz.com/why-do-we-call-new-york-the-big-apple/

Why do We Call a Coward “Yellow”?

Yellow has always been associated with treachery, cowardice, jealousy, and inconsistency. The medieval star of yellow color branded the Jews as having betrayed Jesus, the medieval yellow star was even continued by the Nazis. Also, Judas Iscariot (one of the most well-known traitors) is usually portrayed in medieval times wearing yellow garments.

In France, the doors of traitor’s houses are painted with bright yellow. Meanwhile, in Spain, Inquisition victims were forced to wear yellow as a symbol of treason and heresy. In America during the 1800’s, there was a popular expression “yellow-dog” to describe anything that was worthless. Even today, the color yellow is strongly associated with negative things.

For example, there is an expression “yellow-bellied coward” that persists in modern times. The combination of connotations associated with yellow (cowardice, treason) and the guts (heroism, stamina, grit) is apparent. A person with guts is known to have courage which leads to heroism. By associating yellow with the gut, the term “yellow-bellied coward” became a way of saying that a person lacks courage.

But why the seemingly strong dislike for the color yellow? Well, there are actually many theories. For example, in the 1890’s, Asians were seen as a “threat” and yellow was used to imply deceit. However, it is highly unlikely that the origin of using yellow to imply negative characteristics have racist undertones. The more likely source is the medieval medical belief that there are four humors (bodily fluids) within the human body.

The fluids are said to determine the mental and physical condition of a patient. If they are out of balance, they either got physically sick or mentally ill. The four fluids consisted of blood, black bile, the yellow bile, and the phlegm. The yellow bile can make you irascible, choleric, and sick. In addition, cholera (one of the most feared disease at the time) has a symptom wherein the person has yellowish diarrhea. It is easy to make the connection between yellow and inconsistency since then.

Other uses of the yellow color include using it as the symbol of quarantine. Victims of the yellow fever were isolated as not to contaminate the rest of the population. Also, there was a time of “yellow journalism” in 1895 wherein newspapers used sensationalism to attract readers. It is ironic the yellow, the color that is literally associated with everything cheerful (the sun, nature, flowers, etc) has become so negative especially if it is used metaphorically.

P/S: Especially dedicated to the coward (you-know-who) who was afraid for confrontation...Boohooo....!

Source: http://www.stumblerz.com/why-do-we-call-a-coward-yellow/