Mouse Trap

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 neighbours came to sit with her around  the clock.

 To feed them, the  farmer butchered thepig.

 
 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.

  SEND THIS TO EVERYONE  WHO HAS EVER HELPED YOU OUT AND LET THEM KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THEY  ARE.

  REMEMBER,,,,

 EACH OF US IS A VITAL  THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY;

  OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN  TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

 
One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a friend and I consider.

 

"Never take some one for granted, Hold every person Close to your
heart because you might wake up one day and realize that you have
lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones."

Remember this always in life. 

ROBOT CADDY

A man goes to a public golf course.

He approaches the man behind the counter in the pro shop and says, "I would like 18 holes of golf and a caddie."

The man behind the counter says,

"The 18 holes of golf is no problem, but all of the caddies are out on the course. What I will do for you is this: We
just received 8 brand new robot golf caddies. If you're willing to take one with you out on the course and come back and tell me how well it works, your round of golf is on me today."

The golfer obviously accepted the man's offer.

He approached the first tee, looked at the fairway and said to himself, "I think my driver will do the job."

The robot caddie turned to the man and said, "No sir. Use your 3 wood. A driver is far too much club for this hole."

Hesitantly, the golfer pulled out his 3 wood, made good contact with the ball, and the ball landed about 10 feet to the right front of the hole on the green.

The golfer, delighted, turned to the robot and thanked him for his
assistance.

As the golfer pulled out his putter he said, "I think this green is gonna
break left to right."

The robot then again spoke up and said, "No sir. I do believe this green
will break right to left"

Thinking about the last time the robot corrected his prediction, he decided again to listen to the machine.

He made his putt and birdied the hole thanks to the robot and his advice.

But his luck didn't end there. His entire game was the best game he ever played, thanks to the assistance of the new robot golf caddie.

Upon returning to the clubhouse, the man behind the counter asked, "How was your game ?" The golfer stated, "It was, by far, the BEST game I ever played. Thank you very much for letting me take one of your robots.

See you next week.

A week passed, and excited, the golfer returned to the pro shop.

Upon entering, he turned to the man behind the counter and said, "I would like 18 holes of golf and one of those robot golf caddies, please."

The gentleman from behind the counter turned to the man and said, "Well the 18 holes is no problem. However, we had to get rid of the robots. We had too many complaints."

Confused, the golfer cried, "COMPLAINTS? Who in the heck could've complained about those robots? They were incredible"

The man sighed and said, "Well, it wasn't their performance.

It was that they were made of shiny silver metal, and the sun reflecting off them was blinding to other golfers on the fair way. "

The golfer said, "So then why didn't you just paint them black?"

The man nodded sadly and replied, "We did. Then four of 'em didn't show up for work, two filed for welfare, one of them robbed the pro shop, and the other is running for President."

 

"I Know I Shouldn't, But . . ."

A couple of weeks ago, my niece Denise was in the hospital with a serious liver problem and complications. A nurse walked into her room and found Denise crying. It seems that several doctors had been standing outside Denise's hospital room, talking softly. Phrases Denise overheard included "Done all we could" and "Nothing else we can do for her." Thus Denise's tears.

 

The doctors were talking about a different patient down the hall. Because they were out of earshot of that patient's room, they thought they could get by with whispering in the corridor rather than walking to a staff lounge to talk about the patient's condition.

 

They knew better, but they still whispered in the hallway. And their behavior hurt someone.

 

It's the same in writing. We often know better, yet we ignore our better judgment. If we are lucky, nothing bad happens, but often it does. 

 

We send an angry email when we know we should let time pass and either talk to the other person or craft an unemotional message. That angry email causes another one and another until the situation careens out of control.

 

We put in writing something we know we should say in person. The reader takes the written message the wrong way, and a working relationship turns sour.

 

We take the easy way out when we know we should edit a wordy memo introducing a new policy. Because of the unedited memo's length and thickness, no one reads it. That important new policy might as well be locked in a secret vault. 

 

We write a silly remark about padding a client's bill, hoping it will be read as a joke. But the auditor and eventually the newspaper reporter don't see it that way.   

 

In all these situations, we know better. We just need to listen to that still, small voice that says "I know I shouldn't." And then we need to add "so I won't."

 

As for the doctors on Denise's hospital floor, the nurse chewed them out good. Then a hospital administrator came to talk with Denise about whether she wanted to file a complaint. Always a cheerful, gentle woman, she said no. She was discharged from the hospital and looked brightly ahead to a possible liver transplant.

 

Sadly, Denise died on 05^th June 2008 at the age of 40. This reminder to do the right thing is in her memory.

 

The "Want to!"

I remember the night in Chandigarh when our son, Ananya, was just five years old. We were staying with relatives and it was his bedtime. When I looked at the living room floor, I knew we had a problem. Toys were all over the place. "Ananya," I said, "you need to pick up all those toys before you go to bed."

 

"Daddy," he said, "I'm too tired to pick up my toys."

 

My immediate inclination was to force him to clean up the room. Instead, I went into the bedroom, laid down, and said, "Ananya, come here. Let's play Humpty Dumpty."

 

He climbed up on my knees and I said, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." And he fell. Ananya laughed and said, "Let's do it again." Well, after the third "fall," I said, "Okay, but first go pick up those toys."

 

Without thinking, he ran into the living room and in ninety seconds he finished a job that could have taken half an hour. Then he jumped back on my knees and repeated, "Daddy, let's do it again."

 

"Ananya, I thought you were too tired to pick up those toys." He answered, "I was, daddy, but I just wanted to do this!"

 

We can finish any job when we have the "Want to!"