A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word. The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her he asked, “Darling, what do you see.” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. She humbly asked, “What does is mean Father?”

He explained that each of them faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

My mother used to ask me what is the most important part of the body. Through the years I would guess at what I thought was the correct answer. When I was younger, I thought sound was very important to us humans, so I said, “My ears, Mommy.” She said “No-Many people are deaf. But you keep thinking about it and I will ask you again soon.”

Several years passed before she asked me again. Since making my first attempt, I had contemplated the correct answer. So this time I told her, “Mommy, sight is very important to everybody, so it must be our eyes.” She looked at me and told me, “You are learning fast, but the answer is not correct because there are many people who are blind.”

Stumped again, I continued my quest for knowledge and over the years, Mother asked me a couple more times and always her answer was, “No. But you are getting smarter every year, my young child.”

Than last year, my grandpa died. Everybody was hurt. Everybody was crying. Even my father cried. I remember that especially because it was only the second time I saw him cry. My Mom looked at me when it was our turn to say our final goodbye to Grandpa. She asked me, “Do you know the most important body part yet, my son?”

I was shocked when she asked me this now. I always thought this was a game between her and me. She saw the confusion on my face and told me, “This question is very important. It shows that you have really lived in your life. For every body part that you gave me in the past, I have told you was wrong and I have given you an example why. But today is the day you need to learn this important lesson.” She looked down at me as only a mother can. I saw her eyes well up with tears. She said, “Son, the most important body part is your shoulder.”

I asked, “Is it because it holds up my head?” She replied, “No, it is because it can hold the head of a friend or a loved one when they cry. Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometime in life, my son. I only hope that you have enough love and friends that you will always have a shoulder to cry on when you need it.”

Then and there I knew the most important body part is not a selfish one – it is a sympathetic to the the pain of OTHERS.

Softly falls the light of day, as our campfire fades away.

Silently each scout should ask, have I done my daily task?

Have I kept my honor bright? Can I guiltless sleep tonight?

Have I done and have I dared, everything to be prepared.

Listen Lord, oh listen Lord, as I whisper soft and low.

Bless my mom and Bless my dad, these are things that they should know.

I will keep my honor bright, the oath and law will be my guide.

And mom and day this you should know, deep in my heart I love you so.

Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words.

Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions.

Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits.

Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character.

Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your Destiny.

Someday’s I contemplate my motivation

I sit above myself – and look down in awe.

Thoughts trip out, unguided, undirected;

My passion seems, at times, my greatest fault.

Somedays I even find myself admiring

Those gentle souls whose days are filled w/ peace

Why does it seem my hearts always requiring

Controversy and risk for release?

What would I have missed if I were quiet?

What love and wonder, would’ve passed me by

If instead I always remained silent?

Why walk when you have enough energy to FLY

Impullsive? Maybe Safe? I’m not that kind

I’m proud that I am LOUD and SPEAK my MIND!

It takes a MINUTE to have a crush on someone,

An HOUR to like someone and

A DAY to love someone -

But, it takes a LIFETIME to forget someone.

I keep my paint brush with me wherever I may go, in case I need to cover up. So the real me doesn’t show.

I’m so afraid to show you me, Afraid of what you’ll do – that you might laugh or say mean things.  I’m afraid I might lose you.

I’d like to remove all my paint coats, to show you the real, true me.

But I don’t want you to try and understand, I need you to accept what you see.

So if you’ll be patient and close your eyes, I’ll strip off all my coats real slow.

Please understand how much it hurts to let the real me show.

Now my coats are all stripped off, I feel naked, bare and cold

And if you still love me with all that you see, You are my friend, pure as gold.

I need to save my paint brush, though, and hold it in my hand.

I want to keep it handy, in case somebody doesn’t understand.

So please protect me, my dear friend and thanks for loving me true,

But please let me keep my paintbrush with me until I love me too.

~Bettie B. Youngs

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice,

You have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way,

You are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem,

You have failed me.

Strange as that may seem, Listen! All I ask is that you listen.

Don’t talk or do — Just hear me.

Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get you both Dew Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.

And i can do for myself;

I am not helpless.  Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.

But when you accept as a simple fact that I feel what I feel, no matter how irrational,

Than I can stop trying to confince you and get about this business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling.

And when that’s clear, the asnwers are obvious and I don’t need advice.

Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind htm.

perhaps that’s why prayer works, sometimes, for some people — becuase God is mute, and he doesn’t give advice or try to fix things.

God just listens and lets you work out for yourself.

So please listen, and just hear me.  And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn — and I will listen to you.

The face of an angle is all that is here,

One beautiful freckle equals my terrified tear.

Not ready to leave but has to go,

Wants to go back but God says no.

Living your life is a scary thought,

I guess it’s something that can’t be fought.

A mother, a father, a sister, and friends,

A meaningful life that suddenly ends.

An angel is what she was meant to be,

Now just think of all she can be

Looking over her family night and day

Saying I love you in her own special way

In the night we sleep, in the day we cry,

She watches us all from her star in the sky

~Lyndsie Chlowitz

(Dedicated with love to Sabrina)

I’d like to be the kind of friend that you have been to me;

I’d like to be the special help that you’ve been glad to be.

I know I’m blessed for only God can make a friend like you;

You know just how to cheer me up whenever I feel blue.

Could I but have one wish fulfilled, this one only would it be,

I’d like to be the kind of friend, you’ve always been to me.