2009 Spring Magazine Life

            What would you do? ... You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?
            At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:
            'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'
            The audience was stilled by the query.
            The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'
            Then he told the following story:
            Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allow ed to play, it would give him a much needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.
            I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'
            Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt.. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart.. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.
            In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?
            Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.
            The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over..
            The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates.
            Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!'
            Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!'
            Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball, the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'
            Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third! Shay, Run to third!'
            As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!' Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team
            'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'..
            Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
            AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:
            We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, when but it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.
            If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.
            We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.' So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?
            A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

            You now have two choices:
            1. Delete
            2. Forward

May Your Day Be A Shay Day

This is one of the nicest mails I have seen and is so true:

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received." I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section. The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section," my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed "How is it that? There's no work going on here?" I asked. "So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked. "Simple," the angel answered. "Just say, "Thank you, Lord." "What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked. "If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world. "If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. "And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."

Also ...."If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day. "If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 700 million people in the world. "If you can attend a church meeting without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world. "If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare. If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you are unique to all those in doubt and despair."

Ok, what now? How can I start? If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and if you want, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

Attn: Acknowledge Dept.: Thank You Lord!

"Thank you Lord, for giving me the ability to share this message, and for giving me so many wonderful people to share it with.


A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference each of them had made.	She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First, she told each of them how they had made a difference to her, and the class.	Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon, imprinted with gold letters, which read, “Who I am makes a difference.”

	Afterwards, the teacher decided to do a class project, to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community.	She gave each student three more blue ribbons, and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom, and report to the class in about a week.

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company, and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt.	Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said, “we’re doing a class project on recognition, and we’d like for you to go out, find some one to honor, and give them a blue ribbon.	Later that day, the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had a reputation of being kind of a grouchy fellow. He told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius.

The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon, and give him permission to put it on him.	The boss said, “well, sure.” The junior executive took one of the blue ribbons and placed it right on his boss’s jacket, above his heart.	And then he asked, offering him the last ribbon, “Would you take this extra ribbon, and pass it on by honoring somebody else?”

The teenager who gave me these is doing a school project, and we want to keep this ribbon ceremony going and se how it affects people.”	That night, the boss came home and sat down with his 14-year-old son. He said, “the most incredible thing happened to me today.”	I was in my office, and one of my employees came in and told me he admired me, and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius.

Imagine! He thinks I am a creative genius! Then he put a blue ribbon on me that says, “Who I Am Makes a Difference.”	He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor. As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about who I would honor with this ribbon, and I thought about you. I want to honor you.	My days are hectic and when I come home, I don’t pay a lot of attention to you. I yell at you for not getting good enough grades and for your messy bedroom.

Somehow, tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me.	Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You’re a great kid, and I love you!”	The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn’t stop crying. His whole body shook.

He looked up at his father and said through his tears, “Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote a letter to you and Mom, explaining why I had took my life, and I asked you to forgive me.	I was going to commit suicide tonight after you were asleep. I just didn’t think that you cared at all.	The letter is upstairs. I don’t think I’ll need it after all.”

His father walked upstairs and found a heartfelt letter full of anguish and pain.		The boss went back to work a changed man. He was no longer a grouch, but made sure to let all of his employees know that they made a difference.

The junior executive helped many other young people with career planning, one being the boss’ son, and never forgot to let them know that they made a difference in his life.	In addition, the young man and his classmates learned a valuable lesson:	“Who you are DOES make a difference.”

Please know that I think you are important, or you would not have received this in the first place.

Together with up to five assistants, Mueller painted all day long from sunrise to sunset.

The picture appeared on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, as part of the town's Festival of World Cultures.

He spent five days, working 12 hours a day, to create the 250 square meter image of the crevasse, which, viewed from the correct angle, appears to be 3D.

He then persuaded passers-by to complete the illusion by pretending the gaping hole was real.

'I wanted to play with positives and negatives to encourage people to think twice about everything they see,' he said.

'It was a very scary scene, but when people saw it they had great fun playing on it and pretending to fall into the earth.

'I like to think that later, when they returned home, they might reflect more on what a frightening scenario it was and say:

Mueller, who has previously painted a giant waterfall in Canada , said he was inspired by the British 'Pavement Picasso' Julian Beever, whose dramatic but more gentle 3D street images have featured in the Daily Mail.

Many people today believe that Easter has always been a time-honored tradition in the United States that dates back as far as

the establishments of the early settlers...not true! In fact Easter wasn’t that big of a deal in America until after the blood shed of

the Civil War because a majority of the early settlers were Puritans or members of a Protestant church.

After the Civil War Presbyterians devastated by the havoc of war found comfort in the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

thus giving birth to a tradition that is now celebrated in nearly every home in America.

Even though the American Easter tradition originally was based on the religious beliefs of Christians, today many Americans

Jewish High Priests accused Jesus Christ of blasphemy and under the order of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus was

crucified by the Romans. Three days later it was said that Jesus was resurrected from the dead on what Christians refer to as

Easter Sunday. Traditionally in Christian churches Easter is celebrated beginning with a special service, followed by a dinner

featuring lots of games for children. Adults hide Easter eggs, children dressed in only their best with a basket in tow search for

Not all Americans are Christians, yet they do recognize the Easter holiday placing a special emphasis on the Easter Bunny.

Children are told the tales of how an aged rabbit hops around spreading the joy of Easter leaving a trail of colored eggs, candy

Children go to bed anxiously waiting to rise the next morning to see just what the Easter Bunny has in store for them. Adults have small gatherings inviting family and friends for a cook out, an Easter egg hunt or simply to spend time together. No matter what the reasoning, businesses love to see the holidays roll around and Easter is one that is looked forward in the retail industry! It’s estimated that American consumers spend over 1 million dollars on Easter candy every year and that nearly 20 billion jellybeans are produced just for Easter. (Source: Everythingeaster.com)