Vicky Advani

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80’s 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 to 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 arm, 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.’

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really friendly. So I asked, “Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!”

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call “The Law of the Garbage Truck.” He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you.

Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the street. The bottom line is that successful people don’t let garbage trucks take over their day.

Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so…

“Love the people who treat you right. Forgive the ones who don’t.”

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Monica married Hitesh this day. At the end of the wedding party, Monica’s mother gave her a newly opened bank saving passbook. With Rs.1000 deposit amount.

Mother: ‘Monica, take this passbook. Keep it as a record of your marriage life. When there’s something happy and memorable happened in your new life, put some money in. Write down what it’s about next to the line.

The more memorable the event is, the more money you can put in. I’ve done the first one for you today. Do the others with Hitesh.When you look back after years, you can know how much happiness you’ve had.’

Monica shared this with Hitesh when getting home. They both thought it was a great idea and were anxious to know when the second deposit can be made.

This was what they did after certain time

- 7 Feb: Rs.100, first birthday celebration for Hitesh after marriage
- 1 Mar: Rs.300, salary raise for Monica
- 20 Mar: Rs.200, vacation trip to Bali
- 15 Apr: Rs.2000, Monica got pregnant
- 1 Jun: Rs.1000, Hitesh got promoted
….. and so on…  

However, after years, they started fighting and arguing for trivial things.They didn’t talk much. They regretted that they had married the most nasty people in the world…. no more love…Kind of typical nowadays, huh?

One day Monica talked to her Mother:

‘Mom, we can’t stand it anymore. We agree to divorce. I can’t imagine how I decided to marry this guy!!!’

Mother: ‘Sure, girl, that’s no big deal. Just do whatever you want if you really can’t stand it. But before that, do one thing first. Remember the saving passbook I gave you on your wedding day? Take out all money and spend it first. You shouldn’t keep any record of such a poor marriage.’

Monica thought it was true. So she went to the bank, waiting at the queue and planning to cancel the account.

While she was waiting, she took a look at the passbook record. She looked, and looked, and looked. Then the memory of all the previous joy and happiness just came up her mind. Her eyes were then filled with tears. She left and went home.

When she was home, she handed the passbook to Hitesh, asked him to spend the money before getting divorce.

The next day, Hitesh gave the passbook back to Monica. She found a new deposit of Rs.5000.

And a line next to the record: ‘This is the day I notice how much I’ve loved you thru out all these years. How much happiness you’ve brought me.’

They hugged and cried, putting the passbook back to the safe.

I don’t know how much they saved .I believe the money did not matter any more after they had gone thru all the good years in their life.

“When you fall, in any way, 
Don’t see the place where you fell,
Instead see the place from where you slipped.
Life is about correcting mistakes.”

Little girl and her father were crossing a bridge.

The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter,

‘Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don’t fall into the river.’

The little girl said, ‘No, Dad. You hold my hand.’

‘What’s the difference?’ Asked the puzzled father.

‘There’s a big difference,’ replied the little girl.
 
‘If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go.

But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.’

In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond.

So hold the hand of the person who loves you rather than expecting them to hold yours…

This message is too short……. but carries a lot of Feelings.

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed. The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised. That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble. 

Moral of the story: If you don’t give your hundred percent in a relationship, you’ll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent.. This is applicable for any relationship like love, employer-employee relationship etc., Give your hundred percent to everything you do and sleep peacefully.

An ingenious example of speech and politics occurred recently in the United Nations Assembly that made the world community smile.

A representative from India began: ‘Before beginning my talk I want to tell you something about Rishi Kashyap of Kashmir, after whom Kashmir is named. 

When he struck a rock and it brought forth water, he thought, ‘What a good opportunity to have a bath.’ 

He removed his clothes, put them aside on the rock and entered the water. 

When he got out and wanted to dress, his clothes had vanished. A Pakistani had stolen them.’ 

The Pakistani representative jumped up furiously and shouted, ‘What are you talking about? The Pakistanis weren’t there then.’ 

The Indian representative smiled and said, ‘And now that we have made that clear, I will begin my speech.’ 

And they say Kashmir belongs to them… … … … …

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.
A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, ‘Nothing, I just helped him cry.’
(This one is for each of you - be a soul mate to anyone and everyone….we need you and your empathy/compassion…)

 *********************************************

Teacher Debbie Moon’s first graders were discussing a picture of a family.

One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested that he was adopted.
A little girl said, ‘I know all about adoption, I was adopted..’  ‘What does it mean to be adopted?’ asked another child. ‘It means’, said the girl, ‘that you grew in your mommy’s heart instead of her tummy!’
(This one is for all mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and ‘moms at heart’….’teachers,’ need I go on?)

 *********************************************

On my way home one day, I stopped to watch a Little League base ball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was. ‘We’re behind 14 to nothing,’ he answered with a smile.
‘Really,’ I said. ‘I have to say you don’t look very discouraged.’
‘Discouraged?’, the boy asked with a puzzled look on his face…
‘Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t been up to bat yet.’
(This is for all my sports-minded friends…)

 *********************************************
An eye witness account from New York City, on a cold day in December, some years ago:
A little boy, about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.
A lady approached the young boy and said, ‘my, but you’re in such deep thought staring in that window!’
‘I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,’ was the boy’s reply.  The lady took him by the hand, went into the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for he boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly
brought them to her.
She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel.
By this time, the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes.

She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him.. She patted him on the head and said, ‘No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.’
As she turned to go, the astonished kid caught her by the  hand, and  looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked  her, ‘Are you  God’s wife?’

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door. 

SON:   “Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
DAD:   “Yeah sure, what is it?” replied the man.
SON:   “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD:   “That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.
SON:    “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD:    “If you must know, I make Rs.100 an hour.”
SON:     “Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down.
SON:   “Daddy, may I please borrow Rs.50?” 

The father was furious, “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs.50 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.

“Are you asleep, son?” He asked.
“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy.
“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier” said the man.
“It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here’s the Rs.50 you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you daddy!” He yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

“Why do you want more money if you already have some?” the father grumbled.

“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.

“Daddy, I have Rs.100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?
Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.

It’s just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We  should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.