GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.
GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.

存在

你说着 我听着 像海浪打着 沙滩烧着
你的忧伤大于快乐 连彩虹都只剩下一种颜色
我听着 你说着 像刀子划的 隐隐痛着
就因为爱没有规则 所以心痛了死了回不去了
但是我存在着 我一直存在着
和你一起的照片仍在我的手机上贴着
爱会永远永远 你说的
离开我的时候 却没舍不得
我真的存在着 我一直存在着
不管是疯的气的我受着我紧紧手握着
傻傻的陪着守着证明你值得
但我会笑着因为一切都值得

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

- Mother Teresa -

I Love My Garbage Man

I had been working much too long on this job. I guess things could have been worse. I certainly wasn't doing hard labor. But going door to door asking questions as a representative of the federal government wasn't the most satisfying position either.

It was August. It was hot. I had to wear a tie.

"Hello. My name is Bob Perks and we are doing a survey in this neighborhood."

"I'm not interested! Good bye!".slam, lock.

You can't imagine how many times I heard that. I finally caught on and began with "Before you slam the door, I am not selling anything and I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and the community."

The young woman inside the doorway, paused for a moment, raised her eyebrows as she shrugged her shoulders confused by my rude introduction.

"Sure. Come on in. Don't mind the mess. It's tough keeping up with my kids."

It was an older home in a section of the valley where people with meager income found affordable shelter. With the little they had, the home looked comfortable and welcoming.

"I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and family. Although this may sound personal I won't need to use your names. This information will be used."

She interrupted me. "Would you like a glass of cold water? You look like you've had a rough day."

"Why yes!" I said eagerly.

Just as she returned with the water, a man came walking in the front door. It was her husband.

"Joe, this man is here to do a survey." I stood and politely introduced myself.

Joe was tall and lean. His face was rough and aged looking although I figured he was in his early twenties. His hands were like leather. The kind of hands you get from working hard, not pushing pencils.

She leaned toward him and kissed him gently on the cheek. As they looked at each other you could see the love that held them together. She smiled and titled her head, laying it on his shoulder. He touched her face with his hands and softly said, "I love you!"

They may not have had material wealth, but these two were richer than most people I know. They had a powerful love. The kind of love that keeps your head up when things are looking down.

"Joe works for the borough." She said.

"What do you do?" I asked.

She jumped right in not letting him answer.

"Joe collects garbage. You know I'm so proud of him."

"Honey, I'm sure the man doesn't want to hear this." Said Joe.

"No, really I do." I said.

"You see Bob, Joe is the best garbage man in the borough. He can stack more garbage on the truck than anyone else. He gets so much in one truck that they don't have to make as many runs," she said with such passion.

"In the long run," Joe continues, "I save the borough money. Man hours are down and the cost per truck is less."

There was silence. I didn't know what to say. I shook my head searching for the right words.

"That's incredible! Most people would gripe about a job like that. It certainly is a difficult one. But your attitude about it is amazing." I said.

She walked over to the shelf next to the couch. As she turned she held in her hand a small framed paper.

"When we had our third child Joe lost his job. We were on unemployment for a time and then eventually welfare. He couldn't find work anywhere. Then one day he was sent on an interview here in this community. They offered him the job he now holds. He came home depressed and ashamed. Telling me this was the best he could do. It actually paid less than we got on welfare."

She paused for a moment and walked toward Joe.

"I have always been proud of him and always will be. You see I don't think the job makes the man. I believe the man makes the job!"

"We needed to live in the borough in order to work here. So we rented this home." Joe said.

"When we moved in, this quote was hanging on the wall just inside the front door. It has made all the difference to us, Bob. I knew that Joe was doing the right thing," she said as she handed me the frame.

It said: If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep the streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."
Martin Luther King

"I love him for who he is. But what he does he does the best. I love my garbage man!"

So how was your day? Did you give it your best? Or did your attitude get the best of you?

Whatever is your job does not determine the kind of person you are; It's your approach to life and the way you live it.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

The real winners in life are the people who look at every situation with an expectation that they can make it work or make it better.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.

Miracles sometimes do occur,
but one has to work terribly hard for them.

All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration. You may succeed in making another feel guilty about something by blaming him, but you won't succeed in changing whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy."

Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of someone else.

If I won't be myself, who will?

If we do not rise to the challenge of our unique capacity to shape our lives, to seek the kinds of growth that we find individually fulfilling, then we can have no security: we will live in a world of sham, in which our selves are determined by the will of others, in which we will be constantly buffeted and increasingly isolated by the changes round us.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

- Chinese Proverb -

There is no beginning or end.

Yesterday is history .
Tomorrow is mystery .
Today is a gift .

Dream what you want to DREAM ,
Go where you want to GO ,
Be what you want to BE .

Because you have only ONE LIFE and ONE CHANCE to do all the things you want to do...

To realize The value of a sister:
Ask someone Who doesn't have one.

To realize The value of ten years:
Ask a newly Divorced couple.

To realize The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize The value of one year:
Ask a student who Has failed a final exam.

To realize The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a still born.

To realize The value of one month:
Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realize The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize The value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to Meet.

To realize The value of one minute:
Ask a person Who has missed the train, bus, or plane.

To realize The value of one-second:
Ask a person Who has survived an accident.

To realize The value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who has won a silver medal
in the Olympics.

Time waits For no one.
Treasure every moment you have.
You will treasure it even more when you can share it with someone special.

Life itself is a miracle yet it's so frail.