We are all connected

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife
open a package. What food might this contain?’ the mouse wondered – he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning :
There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!’
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said,
‘Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no
consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.’

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,
‘There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!’
The pig sympathized, but said, ‘I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there is
nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.’

The mouse turned to the cow and said,
There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!’
The cow said, ‘Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my
nose.’

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the
farmer’s mousetrap . . . alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house — like the sound of
a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took
his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.
To feed them, the farmer butchered the  pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t
concern you, remember – when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for
one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another in tough
times.

True Love

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80s arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry, as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch, and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.

On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health; he told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer’s Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, ‘And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are’? He smiled as he patted my hand and said, ”She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.’

I had to hold back tears as he left. I had goose bumps on my arms and thought, ‘That is the kind of love I want in my life’.

True love is neither physical nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be. The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

‘Life isn’t about how to survive the storm but how to dance in the rain.’

A Cold Winter!

It was autumn, and the Red Indians asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn’t tell what the weather was going to be.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared. But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea.

He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked ‘Is the coming winter going to be cold?’

‘It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,’ the weather man responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more Wood.

A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. ‘Is it going to be a very cold winter?’

‘Yes,’ the man at National Weather Service again replied, ‘it’s definitely going to be a very cold winter.’ The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. ‘Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?’ 

‘Absolutely, ‘ The Man replied. ‘It’s going to be one of the coldest winters ever.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, ‘The Red Indians are collecting wood like Crazy.’

This is how stock markets work!!!