What one man sees as an obstacle is a springboard to a wiser man. The event itself is neutral until it is labeled as either an obstacle or a springboard by the one affected.
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What one man sees as an obstacle is a springboard to a wiser man. The event itself is neutral until it is labeled as either an obstacle or a springboard by the one affected.
Patricia took her four year old daughter, Audrey, to the park as she does every Saturday morning. Audrey excitedly ran towards the slides while Patricia sat on one of the park benches. She whipped out her phone to check her “to do list” for the day and realized that she was yet to get her mother a Mothers Day gift.
Patricia went through a divorce in the past year and her mother was a great source of support for her especially during the initial stages of the divorce process. She wanted to show her appreciation by giving her mother a special gift this Mothers Day. She thought hard for ideas but nothing worthy surfaced. She turned towards Audrey, who was just then laughing with a playmate as they both ran around the field. “She looks so happy,” Patricia whispered pensively with a smile. In that moment Audrey had given her a special gift- the gift of a child’s happiness to its mother.
From this experience, she now knew what to get her mother. Hearing her children sing always brought her mother joy because it meant they were happy. Patricia decided she would send her mother a video of herself and Audrey singing the “You are my Sunshine” song. Her mother sang this song to Patricia as a child and loved it whenever little Patricia sang along.
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What can a four year old give her mother on Mothers Day? What can one give The Creator to show gratitude for the gift of life? Simply to be happy, to enliven our activity with joy. For what else can one give to HIM who has it all?
Describe what greatness means to you. This was Mr. Gutierrez’s assignment to his high school students. The students could be as creative as they liked, no restrictions were imposed except for the seven minute presentation time limit.
Zach knew exactly what he would present to his class. You see, Zach and his father have been volunteering at a local homeless shelter every Friday since he was 8 years old. He enjoyed helping people and realized that the more he served others the more it seemed as though everything in creation worked in his favor. This is greatness, he thought. And so, he began typing his presentation.
What is Greatness?
Greatness is Service. Nature gives freely out of love, take the sun for example, it gives its life giving rays and demands no compensation. Through service to others, we too act out of love and thereby obtain a direct connection to that same greatness which keeps the sun shining and our hearts beating. We do not own greatness but it always gravitates towards those who, like it, serve joyfully.
The beauty of greatness is that it excludes no one. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”
Video from KarmaTube
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.
The peasant learned what many of us never understand! Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.
Author- Unknown
In 1963 at the Rotary Track meet in Oregon, a high school student began something that would change the sport of High Jump forever. Since the formation of the sport, high jumpers generally leaped over the bar feet-first but on this day in 1963 Dick Fosbury did something different.
He was an average high jumper on his high school track team and knew he had no chance of clearing the 5 feet 6 inch bar at this track meet by imitating the then standard scissor-style technique where one foot clears the bar after the other in a scissor like motion. In order to lift his hips above the bar, he ignored the prevailing standard and did what was natural to him. He moved his shoulders back as he approached the bar and jumped over it backwards. He cleared the bar that day and from then on began working on perfecting his new technique.
Fast-forward five years… Dick Fosbury introduced his unorthodox technique to the track and field world at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico where he won the gold medal. His technique of jumping backwards, known as the Fosbury Flop, is now the standard technique used by high jumpers.
On a Sunday evening on July 15, 1838 before the senior class of Divinity College, Ralph Waldo Emerson said the following:
“Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those which are sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil. Friends enough you shall find who will hold up to your emulation Wesleys and Oberlins, Saints and Prophets. Thank God for these good men, but say, `I also am a man.’ Imitation cannot go above its model. The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator, something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man’s.”
We all benefit when each person gives expression and life to his individuality, whether it be in his work, speech, dress, or demeanor. Imitation of others is a debasement of the inimitable beauty which lies within every human being. As with Dick Fosbury, it might take years to refine and perfect one’s personal/natural style but this is time well spent because bringing forth the beauty unique to oneself is the only original contribution a man can make to his environment.