Acts of Kindness By Patricia C Behnke

We do not always know how those little acts of kindness have left an imprint on those around us.

We forget in the every day bustle of our lives to remember the little things we do are often the ones that remain unforgettable.

Sometimes little acts of kindness can become giant deeds to the recipient and can make all the difference in the world. And we may not even have realized what we have done.

When I was eighteen I decided I knew everything there was to know in the world and graduated from high school with a brick, not a chip, on my shoulder and a mental block the size of a cement block.

By the time of my graduation open house, I think my mother had actually stopped speaking to me. I had rented an apartment in Ann Arbor, 30 miles from my parents, and had gotten a job as a clerk typist for a large corporation. Now in my mother’s world a daughter didn’t do this kind of thing. I was supposed to live at home and work or go to college and receive my Mrs. Degree.

But I had no use for college or for anyone’s advice and believe me, when I’d made up my mind on something, my family had learned in a mere 18 years, to leave me alone.

Enter my high school government teacher. He was the only one who took a few moments to try and talk to me.

“You’re far too smart to not go to college,” he told me at my open house. He had practically pushed me into a chair in my parents’ living room and he sat on the ottoman at my feet. “You’ll not be happy as a clerk typist.”

He refused to let me protest and tell how worldly I was having grown up in a town with a population of 1,200. I still lived across the street from the old hospital where I had been born.

Because he took those few moments with me, I began to reevaluate. I kept remembering his words. They weren’t a command or a question, but a statement. And because he had bothered with me at all, I began to open my mind to other possibilities. By the following January I was enrolled in college and within 4 years was back substitute teaching at my alma mater.

And my mother was speaking to me again.

When my mother contracted double pneumonia four years ago, I wasn’t sure when I should go back to Michigan. She had a 50/50 chance for survival and my brothers and sister-in-laws didn’t know what to tell me.

One of my sister-in-laws went to the doctor and said, “Her daughter is in Florida. When do we tell her to come?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Now.”

I arrived within 24 hours with my mother still trying to pull out of it and still conscious. She nearly pulled the IV out of her arm reaching for me when I walked into her room.

I never thanked that doctor for his act of kindness. He probably has no idea what it meant to me to arrive at my mother’s bedside while she still knew I was there.

I never thanked my government teacher either. And I don’t know how to reach him now.

But I can thank the friend who took the time this weekend to listen to me and offer advice. It only took a few minutes of his time, and he probably doesn’t even know how important it was to me, but it provided me with a lifeline. He knows who he is, and I appreciate his kindness.

Those acts of kindness need not be with someone we know. A simple smile, a grateful word, a slowing of our pace to let someone else go first in line at the grocery store. We probably do many of these things unconsciously, but try to consciously help someone and the benefits are tremendous.

Not only does the recipient benefit from those precious few moments, but also we can leave our own lives for a moment and think of someone else for a change.

It’s better than aspirin as a reliever of pain.


source
-----------
Do you believe that there is a super natural being always telling us what really make us happy & peace? yes, there is..act of kindness that we see in every person we meet..

jerome pagalan
http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/



Search Engine Optimization and SEO Tools

A 'Yes' Face by Charles Swindoll

During Thomas Jefferson's presidency he and a group of travelers were crossing a river that had overflowed its banks. Each man crossed on horseback fighting for his life. A lone traveler watched the group traverse the treacherous river and then asked President Jefferson to take him across. The president agreed without hesitation, the man climbed on, and the two made it safely to the other side of the river where somebody asked him: "Why did you select the President to ask this favor?" The man was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the President of the United States who had carried him safely across. "All I know," he said, "is that on some of your faces was written the answer 'No' and on some of them was the answer 'Yes.' His was a 'Yes' face."


"The most significant decision I make each day is my choice of an attitude. When my attitudes are right there's no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme and no challenge too great." - Charles Swindoll

SOURCE


BE ON THE SAME TRACKS OF SOME SUCCESSFUL INDIVIDUALS - LEARNED FROM THEM... THEY HAVE A GOOD ATTITUDE TOWARDS LIFE & IT BROUGHT THEM TO THEIR LIVES THEY WANTED NOW








jerome pagalan

http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/

GRAPES

The combination of crunchy texture and dry, sweet, tart flavor has made grapes an ever popular between meal snack as well as a refreshing addition to both fruit and vegetable salads. American varieties are available in September and October while European varieties are available year round.
Grapes are small round or oval berries that feature semi-translucent flesh encased by a smooth skin. Some contain edible seeds while others are seedless. Like blueberries, grapes are covered by a protective, whitish bloom. Grapes that are eaten as is or used in a recipe are called table grapes as opposed to wine grapes (used in viniculture) or raisin grapes (used to make dried fruit).

Health Benefits

Grapes contain beneficial compounds called flavonoids, which are phytonutrients that give the vibrant purple color to grapes, grape juice and red wine; the stronger the color, the higher the concentration of flavonoids.
These flavonoid compounds include quercitin, as well as a second flavonoid-type compound (falling into the chemical category of stilbenes)called resveratrol. Both compounds appear to decrease the risk of heart disease by:

• Reducing platelet clumping and harmful blood clots
• Protecting LDL cholesterol from the free radical damage that initiates LDL's artery-damaging actions

Grapes and products made from grapes, such as wine and grape juice, may protect the French from their high-fat diets. Diets high in saturated fats like butter and lard, and lifestyle habits like smoking are risk factors for heart disease. Yet, French people with these habits have a lower risk of heart attack than Americans do. One clue that may help explain this "French paradox" is their frequent consumption of grapes and red wines.

Protection Against Heart Disease

In a study in which blood samples were drawn from 20 healthy volunteers both before and after they drank grape juice, researchers found several beneficial effects from their juice consumption.
First, an increase occured in levels of nitric oxide, a compound produced in the body that helps reduce the formation of clots in blood vessels. Second, a decrease occurred in platelet aggregation, or blood clotting, by red blood cells. Lastly, researchers saw an increase in levels of alpha-tocopherol, an antioxidant compound that is a member of the vitamin E family, and this increase was accompanied by a 50% increase in plasma antioxidant activity.
These findings confirmed the benefits found in an earlier study, where researchers found not only an increase in blood antioxidant activity, but also discovered that grape juice protected LDL cholesterol from oxidation, a phenomenon that can turn LDL into an artery-damaging molecule. (Although LDL is often called the "bad" form of cholesterol, it is actually benign and only becomes harmful after it is damaged by free radicals or "oxidized."
Additionally, investigators have found that phenolic compounds in grape skins inhibit protein tyrosine kinases, a group of enzymes that play a key role in cell regulation. Compounds that inhibit these enzymes also suppress the production of a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict, thus reducing the flow of oxygen to the heart. This protein, called endothelin-1, is thought to be a key contributing agent in the development of heart disease.
A study published in the journal Hypertension sheds new insight on the mechanisms of action through which resveratrol inhibits the production of the potent blood vessel constrictor, endothelin-1 (ET-1). Resveratrol appears to work at the genetic level, preventing the strain-induced expression of a gene that directs the production of ET-1. Normally, ET-1 is synthesized by endothelial cells (the cells comprising the lining of blood vessel walls) in response to free radicals formed as a result of strain or stress. Resveratrol prevents the expression of ET-1, at least in part, by significantly lessening free radical formation, thus preventing the production of the agents that, in turn, activate the signaling pathways that control the creation of ET-1.


SOURCE
-------------
That is why we have grapes...so try to eat as many as you can..

jerome pagalan
http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/

If You Really Pay Attention

Listen To Reading!

When I was a little bitty kiddy, about five, my Dad began a process … anytime somebody came and said something to us, my dad would say, "You remember what he said, honey girl?”  I would tell my father what the person said until I got so good at it that I could repeat verbatim even long presentations of what the person had said.

And he did this all the time.

Finally, one day there was this old gentleman, Richard Thompson. I still remember his name, he lived across the street.  And every time my Dad started to mow the lawn, there came Mr. Thompson. And so I would stand out there.

Dad says, “You might come and listen to this man, honey girl.  He’s pretty interesting.”  And so I listened to him, and then my dad would say, “What did you hear him say?” And I would tell him.

Well, eventually I was repeating all the stories he liked to share with my dad verbatim.  I knew them all by heart.

And my Dad says, “You’re getting pretty good at that.  But did you hear his heart?"  And I thought, what?  So I went around for days with my ear to people's chest trying to hear their hearts.

Finally my Dad created another learning situation for me by asking my mother to read an article from the newspaper.  He says “Well, I guess if you want to understand that article, you have to read between the lines."

I thought, "Oh, read between the lines. Hear between the words."

So the next time I listened to Mr. Thompson’s stories, I tried to listen between the words.  My Dad said, “I know you know his story, but did you hear his heart?” And I said, "Yes.  He is very lonely and comes and shares his memories with you again and again because he’s asking you to keep him company in his memories."

It just came out of me.  In other words, my heart echoed his heart.

And when you can listen at that level, then you can hear not only the people. If you really pay attention, you can hear what the Universe is saying.

--Paula Underwood, clan mother of the Turtle clan, Iroquois nation

SOURCE

--------------

FORTHE MOUTH SPEAKS WHAT FILLS IN THE HEART

http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/

The Interview With God

"Come in," God said. "So, you would like to interview Me?"

"If you have the time," I said.

God smiled and said:

"My time is eternity and is enough to do everything;

what questions do you have in mind to ask me?"

"What surprises you most about mankind?"

God answered:

"That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.

That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.

That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present,

    such that they live neither for the present nor the future.

That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived."

God's hands took mine and we were silent for while and then I asked:

"As a parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children to learn?"

God replied with a smile:

"To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.

To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.

To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others.

    All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group on a comparison basis!

To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.

To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love,

    and that it takes many years to heal them.

To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.

To learn that there are persons that love them dearly,

    but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.

To learn that money can buy everything but happiness and salvation.

To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally different.

To learn that a true friend in someone who knows everything about them and likes them anyway.

To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others,

    but that they have to forgive themselves."

I sat there for awhile enjoying the moment.

I thanked Him for his time and for all that He has done for me and my family, and He replied:

"Anytime. I'm here 24 hours a day. All you have to do is ask for me, and I'll answer."

People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did,

but people will never forget how you made them feel.

source

---------------

Try to learn to what God wanted us to learn !

http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/

http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/