" Happiness is a Voyage................"

Happiness is a Voyage ..........

We convince ourselves that life will be better once we are married, have a baby, then another.

Then we get frustrated because our children are not old enough, and that all will be well when they are older.

Then we are frustrated because they reach adolescence and we must deal with them. Surely we’ll be happier when they grow out of the teen years.

We tell ourselves our life will be better when our spouse gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when we can take a vacation, when we finally retire.

The truth is that there is no better time to be happy than right now.

If not, then when?

Your life will always be full of challenges. It is better to admit as much and to decide to be happy in spite of it all.

For the longest time, it seemed that life was about to start.
Real life.

But there was always some obstacle along the way, an ordeal to get through, some work to be finished, some time to be given, a bill to be paid. Then life would start.

Finally we came to understand that those obstacles were life.

That point of view helped us see that there isn’t any road to happiness.

Happiness IS the road.

So, enjoy every moment.

Stop waiting for school to end, for a return to school, to lose ten pounds, to gain ten ounds, for work to begin, to get married, for Friday evening, for Sunday morning, waiting for a new car, for your mortgage to be paid off, for spring, for summer, for fall, for winter, for the first or the fifteenth of the month, for your song to be played on the radio, to die, to be reborn… before deciding to be happy.

Happiness is a voyage, not a destination.

There is no better time to be happy than… NOW!
Live and enjoy the moment.

" I Believe...................."

I Believe..........


For you my friend...

I believe - that we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

I believe - that no matter how good a friend is they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I believe - that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I believe - that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

I believe - that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I believe - that you can keep going long after you can't.

I believe - that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I believe - that either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I believe - that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I believe - that money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I believe - that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time! .

I believe - that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe - that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I believe - that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I believe - that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I believe - that no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief. (TRUE!!!)

I believe - that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

I believe - that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I believe - that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.

I believe - that your life can be changed in a matter of hour's by people who don't even know you.

I believe - that even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you, you will find the strength to help.

" To All My Friends Who Are............."

To My Friends Who are.............


To My Friends Who Are........... SINGLE
Love is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it eludes you. But if you just let it fly, it will come to you when you least expect it. Love can make you happy but often it hurts, but love's only special when you give it to someone who is really worth it. So take your time and choose the best.

To My Friends Who Are............ NOT SO SINGLE
Love isn't about becoming somebody else's "perfect person." It's about finding someone who helps you become the best person you can be.

To My Friends Who Are............ PLAYBOY/GIRL TYPE
Never say "I love you" if you don't care. Never talk about feelings if they aren't there. Never touch a life if you mean to break a heart. Never look in the eye when all you do is lie. The cruelest thing a guy can do to a girl is to let her fall in love when he doesn't intend to catch her fall and it works both ways...

To My Friends Who Are............ MARRIED
Love is not about "it's your fault", but "I'm sorry.
"Not "where are you", but "I'm right here."
Not "how could you", but "I understand."
Not "I wish you were", but "I'm thankful you are."


To My Friends Who Are............ ENGAGED
The true measure of compatibility is not the years spent together but how good you are for each other.


To My Friends Who Are............ HEARTBROKEN
Heartbreaks last as long as you want and cut as deep as you allow them to go. The challenge is not how to survive heartbreaks but to learn from them.


To My Friends Who Are............ NAIVE
How to be in love: Fall but don't stumble, be consistent but not too persistent, share and never beunfair, understand and try not to demand, and get hurt but never keep the pain.


To My Friends Who Are............POSSESSIVE
It breaks your heart to see the one you love happy with someone else but it's more painful to know that the one you love is unhappy with you.


To My Friends Who Are............ AFRAID TO CONFESS
Love hurts when you break up with someone. It hurt seven more when someone breaks up with you. But love hurts the most when the person you love has no idea how you feel.


To My Friends Who Are............ STILL HOLDING ON
A sad thing about life is when you meet someone and fall in love, only to find out in the end that it was never meant to be and that you have wasted years on someone who wasn't worth it. If he isn't worth it now he's not going to be worth it a year or 10 years from now. Let go.....


TO ALL MY FRIENDS.......
My wish for you is a man/women whose love is honest, strong, mature, never-changing, uplifting, protective, encouraging, rewarding and unselfish.

" Are You Ready For Love ?............"

Are You Ready for Love?.......
(By Gillis Triplett )


Everyday men and women enter into relationships and marriages hoping for the best. Only to be astonished when they realize that the person responsible for ruining their marriage or sabotaging their relationship was the man or woman in the mirror. They were unprepared for love… but they had no idea.

Are you ready for love?

Find out by taking this critically appraised self-examination.

Examine Yourself…
When it comes to love, sex, relationships and marriage, most men and women take the position, “Ready or not, here I come!” They will dive into a relationship or marriage with little or absolutely no preparation. At best they are drawing straws. At worst they are rolling the dice. The statistics prove that the majority of men and women who gamble at love will eventually lose. Don’t wager with your love life.

This examination entails fifteen key tests to help you and a potential mate determine if you are actually ready for love


1. Do You Know What True Love Is?
“I love you!” “I love you to!” Most people who express those heart felt words have no idea what True Love is. Men and women who claim they have been in love three or more times in their life. They met someone, fell in love, broke up with them and repeated that sequence of events with numerous lovers. One man said, he had been in love with eight different women. He married and divorced four of them. What they didn’t know about love is that True Love never ends. If what they had were True Love, it wouldn’t have ended.


2. Are You Able To Forgive?
You are not ready to be in a relationship until you are able to forgive those who have offended or hurt you. If you are the type of person who can hold a grudge or harbor resentment or hard feelings, pull yourself off the market! You are a danger to yourself and to your potential mate.


3. Have You Examined Your Flesh?
Men and women who were sexually active in times past, dreadfully, many of them contracted sexually transmitted diseases. But because they were classified by medical science as being asymptomatic, (which means they had no symptoms) they had no idea of their alarming dilemma. Some countless heart-gripping horror stories of husbands and wives who ended up infecting their spouses with…


• HIV/AIDS
• (HPV) Human Papilloma Virus
• Gonorrhea
• Hepatitis B
• Herpes Simplex Virus
• Chlamydia
• Syphilis
• Trichomoniasis


If you were sexually active in the past and have not taken a battery of tests for sexually transmitted diseases, pull yourself off the market. Even if you have no symptoms to speak and even if you practiced safe sex, GET TESTED! If you fail or refuse to do so, you are guilty of jeopardizing the physical safety of another human being. God forbid, but what if you did contract the HIV/AIDS virus, Chlamydia or HPV but are asymptomatic?


4. Have You Learned The Art of Communication?
We are literally inundated with books, DVDs, CDs, therapists and marriage counselors attempting to help troubled couples learn how to talk to each other. An art they should have learned prior to saying, “I do!” Here’s what they didn’t learn before exchanging wedding vows, but you must:

• Proper listening skills
• How to respect another person’s opinion or point of view
• Talking and communicating non argumentatively
• Admitting when you are wrong
• Saying, “I’m sorry,” when the moment requires
• How to disagree honorably
• How to speak the truth in love
• When to remain silent
• How to diffuse tense moments


5. Do You Respect The Differences of The Sexes?
This should be a no-brainer! However, many men and women enter into relationships and marriages with no concept that male and females are different species. They either fail or refuse to honor our (male – female) uniqueness. If you only see things from a man’s perspective or from a woman’s point of view, you are not at all ready for love. And you won’t be ready until the day comes when you can respect the differences of the opposite sex without grumbling, bickering or backbiting.


6. Are You Harboring ill Feelings Toward The Opposite Sex?
Once a woman who had been molested as a child and blamed the entire male gender for her traumatic experience. In spite of her openly detestable view of all men, she insisted on seeking a husband.


Being that she is an attractive woman, she will no doubt find a man who doesn’t comprehend the magnitude of her bitterness. The divorce courts have a constant stream of couples who split for no other reason than one of them held on to deep-rooted animosity against the opposite sex.


If you are harboring ill feelings toward the opposite sex, you must resolve your issue(s) before dating, courting or entering into a marriage covenant. By not doing so, you make yourself become the prime ingredient in a recipe for marital failure. Like mishandled sulphuric acid, your ill feelings will eventually spill over and burn your spouse,


7. Do You Have A Temper?
If you are prone to temper tantrums, explosive bursts of anger or harmful emotional outbursts, please pull yourself off the market! Make no mistake about it; you are not ready for love! Your disposition will surely be your courting or marital demise.


8. Do You Have Soul Ties?
A soul tie is when you have feelings for an ex boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, fantasy lover or past sex partner. If you long for a person, secretly wish you were with them, fantasize or daydream about them, or think about them sexually, pull yourself off the market! You are not ready to be in love with another person until you sever that soul tie.


9. Do You Have Any Unresolved Issues?
Issue such as……

• Unforgiveness
• Drug/Alcohol Addictions
• Secret Sins
• Child Support
• Criminal Issues
• Pornography Addictions
• Paternity Fraud
• Psychological Issues
• Baby’s Momma Drama
• Divorce issues
• Jealousy Issues
• Current Relationship Issues
• Control issues
• Abuse Issues
• Manipulation Issues

If so, pull yourself off the market until you get them resolved. Unresolved issues almost always come back to haunt you.


10. Do You Have Unrealistic Marital Expectations?
More spouses have ended up in the divorce court because they held on to unrealistic expectations before they married. For example, he expected they were going to have sex everyday, two and three times a day. Or, she expected that her husband was going to worship the ground she walked on and treat her like she was the Queen of Sheba and Princess of Monaco.


When things don’t turn out as they dreamed or fantasized, these people become disappointed and eventually abandon, defraud or divorce their spouses. The way to insure that you don’t have unrealistic expectations is to talk to happily married couples. Ones who have been married for ten years or more. Find out from them the ebb and flow and various nuances of the married life. No offense, but you cannot obtain this vital information from single people, disgruntled couples or from bitter divorcees.


11. Do You Have A Strong Spiritual Foundation?
Every marriage will face challenges, but the ones that stand the test of time are the ones in which both spouses are rooted and grounded in the Word of God and prayer, If your spiritual foundation is unstable, put the brakes on love and get your footing firmly established.


12. Can You Recognize The Numerous Pre-Marital Pitfalls and Love, Sex and Relationship Booby Traps?
If not, you must pull yourself off the market immediately! There are too many snares for you to take a chance and hope that things work out for the best, Pervasive snares such domestic violence, sexually transmitted diseases, paternity fraud, dating abuse, marital fraud, stalking and spousal murder.


Don’t take the path traveled by most men and women, which is to stick their heads in the sand and act is if these things don’t exist.


One of the prime reasons divorce and domestic violence is, they knew nothing about the snares, booby traps and pitfalls until it was too late! Can you recognize when a potential mate is wearing a mask?


Can you identify the various sex traps? Are you able to discern when someone is attempting to lure you into an abusive relationship?


Are you able to identify paternity fraud predators or females shopping for disposable dads? If you cannot, you are not properly trained to reign in the area of love, sex, relationships or marriage.



13. Do You Understand And Honor The Marriage Covenant?
In a society rift with divorce and children born to single mothers, many men and women have a distorted view of the marriage covenant. Before you proceed with love, getting an understanding of the marriage covenant is a must for both you and any potential spouse. The best place to acquire this vital information is in pre-marital training.

14. Have You Taken Any Pre-Marital Training?
This is a critical step to having a successful and vibrant a marriage. People who skip or reject this training process are not serious about having a love that lasts. At minimum, here are the areas that must be covered:

• Understanding what True love is
• Understanding and honoring the marriage covenant
• Communications
• Conflict resolutions
• Understand a man’s needs
• Understanding a woman’s needs
• The dangers of being unequally yoked
• The duties of the husband
• The duties of the wife
• Recognizing love, sex and relationship booby traps
• Recognizing pre-marital pitfalls


15. Are You Willing To Participate In Pre-Marital Counseling?
A person who is not willing to engage in pre-marital counseling with a potential spouse is literally a walking time bomb. Their unwillingness or refusal clearly reveals that makes them a dangerous person. Never proceed with marriage plans with a person who is unwilling to participate in pre-marital counseling. Never!

" Do I Really Know You?........."

Do I Really Know You?.........


How well do we know someone? I learned it is the quality and depth of a relationship, not the quantity of time that counts. Never base how well you know someone on how long you have known them. Perhaps you know someone from the past for several years who comes in and out of your life, or someone from the present for a few years.

Many people make the error of thinking they know a person based on how long of a tie they have with someone, and not based on the quality of character and knowledge about each other that enhances a relationship a great deal. Do you really know that certain someone you once knew several years ago? Perhaps one day you rekindle a friendship with someone from the past, and you think you may know them based on length of time.

Never trust time, people change and time changes people. Always take the effort and time to get to really engage and know someone once again, before judging on length of time of knowing a person. Ask questions, clarify, and ask again if needed in order to get to know someone a little better. If the person refuses to clarify a simple, but not too personal question about themselves to help you better understand them as individuals, then there may be a problem.


If you ask the same question several times only to clarify your relationship with this person, and your question is brushed off as not important, you may want to think hard regarding your value to this other individual and the value of your relationship. Always be careful and cautious letting down your guard until you really know someone; people are just human and capable of making many mistakes and incorrect judgments.

" Make Our Life More Meaningful..............."

25 suggestions to add to your life.......

---

[]

1. Start off each day with 'azkar al-istiyqaz' (waking up supplications), thanking Allah for waking up in good shape.


2. Put Allah (swt) and then Prophet Mohammad (saw) before anything else in your life.


3. Broaden your horizons-learn 5 New verses from the Quran, travel to pray the Fajr in the mosque to brighten your day, take up a booklet having azkar-alsaba7 (morning supplications) and read them.


4. Pray Salat Al-duha (after sunrise) and also the remaining 4 obligatory salaat of the day.


5. If someone says something mean to you, just shrug it off and dismiss it in a friendly, laidback manner, and pray that Allah shall forgive him or her. They will probably get the message that they're not triggering your anger and they will stop.


6. When you get angry, remember Allah, and how short and worthless life is to waste in being Angry.


7. Remember that you can never have too many friends, but you can have few quality friends that help you fulfil the purpose of your creation (i.e live for Allah.)


8. When you're happy, try to share your happiness with others thank Allah for that, and pray its continuation.


9. When something bad or embarrassing happens to you, just think that it could always be worse, remember the reward of patience, and thank Allah that it's not worse than it is.


10. Do something extra of goodness once in a while, like feeding a poor person, or caressing an orphan's head.


11. Never stop believing that you can win Allah's love and thus work for it. Then you can win the love of Allah's slaves.


12. Spend some time thinking of Allah's amazing creation.


13. Always love those who love Allah unconditionally. This way you will ensure that you live for Him, love for Him, and hate for Him (those who are enemies of Him)


14. Find the righteous ways to express yourself, and if you think that what you are about to say shall cause no benefit, maintain silence (this is tough!)


15. Every now and then, give yourself a break. play sports, give time to your family, friends, but always remember Allah and watch that He is watching you (Ihsan).


16. Pray for blessings to come to your enemies, and pray Allah to guide them to the right path.


17. Show love to your parents and always obey them (except orders that are against Islam, which they’ll never do) especially to your mother as Junnah is under the feet of your mother.


18. Smile to everyone, to all brothers and sisters, for your smile makes a big difference to them and you are rewarded.


19. Forgive, forget and smile.


20. Tears are not for women only... tears are for all human beings with feelings remaining in them. Don't restrain your tears when remembering Allah.


21. When people criticize your actions and effort, revise your actions and see if they please Allah or not. If they do, then ignore those criticism and remember how the Prophet(s) and the Sahaba (ra) were criticized, made fun of and even physically harmed, so have patience.


22. Read the Quran daily and try to have a schedule for completing it every month (or as much as you could) as long as you open the Quran daily, and read with observing, try to understand and traansform them into action, not just passing your eyes through the words.


23. Don't let popularity go to your head, for it never lasts and you may lose from it more than gain.


24. Never look down on anybody, for they may be better than you in Allah's eyes.


25. After praying the salaatul Isha and before going to bed ask yourself whether you have gained some points for the day or are you loosing. Make repentance for things you have done wrong and think of ways to improve yourself in the following day.

" Choices and decisions............."

Choices and Decisions..........

"Truth" and "falsehood" have no voice.
Hold on tight to your freedom of choice
Neutralize your selfishness and pride.
Let your duty towards yourself decide
And admit shortcomings, error and weakness
Which are tied to our character and uniqueness.

It is never too late to change direction,
To revise and modify choice and rejection
Crossing the desert on a sick camel is not wise
The risk is too big; being ashamed no one can advise
When we realize that we made a wrong decision
By following a path which goes against our vision.
If our choice does not rest on a solid foundation
We just have to say no or make a modification.

" Letting Go................."

Letting Go...........



One of the most painful things we have to do in our lives is Letting Go.


Sometimes it is Letting Go of things...material things which mean a lot to us, because of sentimental value.


It may mean Letting Go of feelings. When we hold sadness inside, and try to mask it with only a show of happiness, it is better to feel the sadness so it washes through us then Let it Go. A good cry can be cleansing.


One of the best things to do in our lives is Letting Go of anger and hurt caused by others. We need to find it in our hearts to forgive lovingly. The anger and hurt we hold inside only poisons us, and causes us to allow that person or persons to control our feelings. I have heard of people who have been hurt far worse than I could ever imagine, yet they found it in their hearts to forgive, with love, and let go. They found a freedom within that allowed them to soar like an eagle. I have found peace by forgiving others who have hurt me, and I pray they have found peace within themselves.


Sometimes, we have to let go of someone we care for very deeply, when we realize that person does not care for us in the same way. Maybe it is best to leave them remembering us with whatever kind of feeling they do have for us. It may not be possible to hide our own deeper feelings for that person, which could make their life uncomfortable. Letting Go may be the best gift we can give them because they may realize how we feel, yet care enough not to want to hurt us.


Even when we know a relationship is not right, on both sides, or one person has a doubt about it, it is hard to let go of something that seems secure. We often accept less than the best because we can’t bear to let go.


There are occasions when we feel something wonderful for someone, but we don’t express it for fear of being rejected. Sometimes our feelings will be rejected. Yet, what if we withhold it from the one person who could very well be that One Special Someone in our lives and they too have been afraid to express their true feelings, or don’t even realize their true feelings yet! How sad that we may miss The Best for fear of Letting Go of the expression of those feelings.


Whatever the reason, or situation, it is never easy to Letting Go.

" Wonderful Little Girl......................"

Wonderful Little Girl............


There came a frantic knock at the doctor's office door,
A knock, more urgent than he had ever heard before,

"Come in, Come in," the impatient doctor said,
"Come in, Come in, before you wake the dead."

In walked a frightened little girl, a child no more than nine,
It was plain for all to see, she had troubles on her mind,

"Oh doctor, I beg you, please come with me,
My mother is surely dying, she's as sick as she can be."
"I don't make house calls, bring your mother here,"
"But she's too sick, so you must come or she will die I fear,"

The doctor, touched by her devotion, decided he would go,
She said, he would be blessed, more than he could know.
She led him to her house where her mother lay in bed,
Her mother was so very sick she couldn't raise her head,
But her eyes cried out for help and help her the doctor did,

She would have died that very night had it not been for her kid.
The doctor got her fever down and she lived through the night,
And morning brought the doctor signs, that she would be all right,
The doctor said, he had to leave but would return again by two,

And later he came back to check, just like he said he'd do.
The mother praised the doctor for all the things he'd done,
He told her she would have died, were it not for her little one,

"How proud you must be of your wonderful little girl,
It was her pleading that made me come, she is really quite a pearl!

"But doctor, my daughter died over three years ago,
Is the picture on the wall of the little girl you know?"

The doctors legs went limp for the picture on the wall,
Was the same little girl for whom he'd made this call.
The doctor stood motionless, for quite a little while,
And then his solemn face, was broken by his smile,
He was thinking of that frantic knock heard at his office door,
And of the beautiful little angel that had walked across his floor

"We only have One Mom, One Mommy,
One Mother in this World, One life.
Don't wait for the Tomorrow's
to tell Mom, you love her"
~Author Unknown~

"To the world you might just be one person,
but to one person you might just be the world."
~Author Unknown~

WONDERFUL MOTHER

M-O-T-H-E-R

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold;
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,

Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"

A word that means the world to me.

~By Howard Johnson~

I LOVE YOU MOM!

" Love Will Keep Us Alive..............."

Love will keep us alive...........

(written by : Dr.Maithri (pronounced MY3), and he is a medical doctor living in Melbourne Australia. He return to Swaziland for several months in April of 2009, but now working in Swaziland........A country of southeast Africa between South Africa and Mozambique.
Swaziland is a country with the highest prevalence of HIV in the world (42%). 10% of its population are orphaned children.
It serves as a vivid microcosm of the most emergent and under-recognised humanitarian crisis of our generation: the cycle of poverty and HIV infection.
........log in to his blog..........http://soaringimpulse.blogspot.com/.......come and share his beautiful stories......I'm so touched by this beautiful soul tht he shared with these people....may God bless this kind heart )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~oOo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The hospital I worked in during my stay in Swaziland sits atop the beautiful and very steep Lebombo Mountains. In this part of the world people often have to walk 40 kilometers or more in order to see a doctor.


As you can imagine there are many people in the community who are simply too sick or too poor to get to a hospital. This is where home-based care comes in. The home-based care team consists of several nurses who jump into a small truck/van every morning and travel out to the community to tend to the health needs of the truly destitute.

Before I went out with the team I used to buy potatoes and carrots and apples to give to the people we met - because health care in Africa is often just as much about the provision of food as it is about medicine. I would always make sure I also bought a bag of sweets to give to the beautiful children we would meet out in the community. I have learned that sweets are one of the great unifiers in the human world - we might look different and speak different languages - but most of us - especially the young ones - love sweets!

One day we stopped at one of the 15,000 orphan-led households in Swaziland. Inside the hut we found a beautiful little girl with huge brown eyes. Her name was Tanzile. I gave her a sweet from my bag and she said something back to me in Si-swati, the native language, which the nurse next to me translated:

"She wants another one doctor - to give to her little sister."

I said "of course" and gave her another. After we had tended to a man with tuberculosis a bit further down the road, we passed by Tanzile's house to say goodbye. To our surprise she seemed to be holding on to that extra sweet I had given her.

I remember saying to the nurse "this little darling is clever - she has taken two for herself. If I was her I'd probably have asked for the whole bag!" But after the nurse had asked her some more questions this is what we learned:

Tanzile is 7 now. Two years ago when she was five her mum and dad both died of HIV/AIDS like so many have in this country. At the time of her parents tragic death, she was separated from her baby sister who was three at the time. Tanzile has not laid eyes on her since. But ever since that time, whenever Tanzile receives anything from anyone, including food, - she refuses to accept it, unless they give her two. Two carrots, two toys, two sweets - one for her and one for her baby sister (who in all likelihood didn't survive.)

In fact, in the little mud hut where she lives, we found a pile of old things which she has been collecting to give to her sister one day.

My friends, people sometimes look at faces of African children or kids in the developing world and think that they are somehow different than our kids - that somehow they dont feel pain or sadness or love. But that is not true. Their pain is deep. And so is their love.

I can still remember the nurse trying to convince her that "if someone gives you food Tanzile, you must accept it - even if it is only one piece and not two - for your own health and safety." And it was so hard for us to keep the tears from our eyes as she shook her head defiantly. Her hope and her love was all that she had. It mattered more than anything else.

When I returned home that day, I was shocked to find that this was not an isolated story but others in the hospital knew of orphans just like Tanzile - waiting with a little pile of things in their hut, for their sibling or their parent who they havent seen in so long.

I think of that old Eagles song - "when we're hungry, love will keep us alive."
I pray that for Tanzile's sake and the other beautiful children like her that it will.

" Gifts From The Heart..........."

Gifts from the heart.......... According to legend, a young man while roaming the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher. After a four-day journey he presented the water to the old man who took a deep drink, smiled warmly and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a happy heart. Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He spat it out, saying it was awful. It apparently had become stale because of the old leather container. The student challenged his teacher: "Master, the water was foul. Why did you pretend to like it?" The teacher replied, "You only tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of loving-kindness and nothing could be sweeter." I think we understand this lesson best when we receive innocent gifts of love from young children. Whether it's a ceramic tray or a macaroni bracelet, the natural and proper response is appreciation and expressed thankfulness because we love the idea within the gift. Gratitude doesn't always come naturally. Unfortunately, most children and many adults value only the thing given rather than the feeling embodied in it. We should remind ourselves and teach our children about the beauty and purity of feelings and expressions of gratitude. After all, gifts from the heart are really gifts of the heart.