Inspiring Short Stories 3

Digging A Well

A man wanted to dig a well to water his farm. After digging for some time in a place recommended by water-diviners, he found no water and got disgusted. He had dug only about fifteen feet.

Along came another man who laughed at him for digging there, and pointed to another place. The farmer went over to that spot and dug and dug, for about twenty feet. Still no water, and very tired, he finally took the advice of an old neighbor who assured him there was water at yet another place.
After he had given up that one too, his wife came out and said, "Where are your brains? Does anyone sink a well that way? Stay in one place and go deeper and deeper there!"
Next day, rested, the farmer spent all day on one hole and found abundant water.

Put the Glass Down
by Author Unknown

A lecturer was giving a lecture to his student on stress management.
He raised a glass of water and asked the audience, "How heavy do you think this glass of water is?" The students' answers ranged from 20g to 500gm.
"It does not depend on the absolute weight. It depends on how long you hold it. "
"If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance.
It is the exact same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
"If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, we will not be able to carry on; the burden becoming increasingly heavier."
"What you have to do is to put the glass down, rest for a while before holding it up again."
We have to put down the burden periodically, so that we can be refreshed and are able to carry on. So before you return home from work tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it back home. You can pick it up tomorrow.Whatever burden you are having now on your shoulders, let it down for a moment if you can. Pick it up again later when you have rested... Rest and relax.Life is short, enjoy it!!

The Trouble Tree ....
by Author Unknown

The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farm house had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire had caused him to miss an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pick-up truck refused to start.
As I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. When we arrived he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked to the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tanned face was wreathed in smiles; he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss.
Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed by the tree and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
"Oh, that's my trouble tree," he replied. "I know I can't help having troubles on the job, but one thing's for sure, they don't belong in the house with my wife and children. So, I just hang them on the tree when I come home in the evening and then I just pick them up again in the morning."
"Funny thing, though," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to pick 'em up, there ain't nearly as many as I remembered hanging there the night before."

'Conditional Love'

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam.
He called his parents from San Francisco. "Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've got a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring with me."
"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."
"There's something you should know," the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mined and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."
"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."
"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."
"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.
A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide.
The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

Author Unknown

 THE OAK TREE AND THE REEDS

There is an old fable in which the mighty oak tree which stood for over one hundred years finally was blown over by a storm. The tree fell into a river that floated it downstream until it came to rest among the reeds growing along the riverbank. The fallen giant asked the reeds in amazement, "How is it that you were able to weather the storm that was too powerful for me, an oak tree, to withstand?"
The reeds replied, "All these years you stubbornly resisted the winds that swept your way. You took such pride in your strength that you refused to yield, even a little bit. We, on the other hand, have not resisted the winds, but have always bent with them. We recognized the superior power of the wind and so, the harder the wind blew the more we humbled ourselves before it."

A Gift Of Love

"Can I see my baby?" the happy new mother asked. When the bundle was nestled in her arms and she moved the fold of cloth to look upon his tiny face, she gasped. The doctor turned quickly and looked out the tall hospital window. The baby had been born without ears.
Time proved that the baby's hearing was perfect. It was only his appearance that was marred. When he rushed home from school one day and flung himself into his mother's arms, she sighed, knowing that his life was to be a succession of heartbreaks. He blurted out the tragedy. "A boy, a big boy ... called me a freak."
He grew up, handsome for his misfortune. A favorite with his fellow students, he might have been class president, but not.
He developed a gift, a talent for literature and music.
The boy's father had a session with the family physician.
"Could nothing be done?"
"I believe I could graft on a pair of outer ears, if they could be procured," the doctor decided.
Whereupon the search began for a person who would make such a sacrifice for a young man. Two years went by.
Then,"You are going to the hospital, Son. Mother and I have someone who will donate the ears you need."said the father.
The operation was a brilliant success, and a new person emerged. His talents blossomed into genius, and school and college became a series of triumphs.
Later he married and entered the diplomatic service.
"But I must know!" He urged his father, "Who gave so much for me? I could do enough for him."
"I do not believe you could," said the father, "but the agreement was that you are not to know ... not yet."

The years kept their profound secret, but the day did come ... one of the darkest days that a son must endure. He stood with his father over his mother's casket. Slowly, tenderly, the father stretched forth a hand and raised the thick, reddish-brown hair to reveal that the mother had no outer ears.

"Mother said she was glad she never let her hair be cut," he whispered gently, "and nobody ever thought Mother less beautiful, did they?"

Take Hold of Every Moment
by Author Unknown
 A friend of mine opened his wife's underwear drawer and picked up a silk paper wrapped package: "This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package."He unwrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box. "She got this the first time we went to New York , 8 or 9 years ago. She has never put it on. Was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is it." He got near the bed and placed the gift box next to the other clothing he was taking to the funeral house, his wife had just died.
He turned to me and said:
"Never save something for a special occasion. Every day in your life is a special occasion."I still think those words changed my life.
Now I read more and clean less.
I sit on the porch without worrying about anything.
I spend more time with my family, and less at work.
I understood that life should be a source of experience to be lived up to, not survived through.
I no longer keep anything.
I use crystal glasses every day.
I'll wear new clothes to go to the supermarket, if I feel like it.
I don't save my special perfume for special occasions, I use it whenever I want to.
The words "Someday..." and "One Day..." are fading away from my dictionary.
If it's worth seeing, listening or doing, I want to see, listen or do it now.I don't know what my friend's wife would have done if she knew she wouldn't be there the next morning, this nobody can tell. I think she might have called her relatives and closest friends. She might call old friends to make peace over past quarrels. I'd like to think she would go out for Chinese, her favorite food. It's these small things that I would regret not doing, if I knew my time had come. I would regret it, because I'd no longer see the friends I would meet, and the letters...that I wanted to write "one of these days". I would regret and feel sad, because I didn't say to my brother and sisters, son and daughters, not enough times at least, how much I love them.

ONE HOUR OF TIME
A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

"Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" replied the man.

"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?"

"That's none of your business. What makes you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.

"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?" pleaded the little boy.

"If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour."

"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed.Looking up, he said, "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?

"The father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you're being so selfish. I work long, hard hours everyday and don't have time for such childish games."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy's questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

"Are you asleep son?" he asked.

"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, may be I was too hard on you earlier," said the man."It's been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here's that $10.00 you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you daddy" he yelled.Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man.

"Why did you want more money if you already had some? " the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.

"Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?"
--- Author Unknown

ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD ...

While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench near a playground. "That's my son over there," she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.
"He's a fine looking boy," the man said. "That's my son on the swing in the blue sweater." Then, looking at his watch, he called to his son. "What do you say we go, Todd?"
Todd pleaded, "Just five more minutes, Dad. Please? Just five more minutes." The man nodded and Todd continued to swing to his heart's content.
Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his son. "Time to go now?"
Again Todd pleaded, "Five more minutes, Dad. Just five more minutes." The man smiled and said, "Okay."
"My, you certainly are a patient father," the woman responded.
The man smiled and then said, "My older son Tommy was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with Tommy and now I'd give anything for just five more minutes with him. I've vowed not to make the same mistake with Todd.
"He thinks he has five more minutes to swing. The truth is ...
I get five more minutes to watch him play."

Life As A Jewel


One afternoon Guru Nanak and his company were resting on the banks of the Ganges at Patna. Mardana was idly inspecting a stone he had picked up along the road, thinking of the vast throngs who had come to hear the Guru.
"Master," said Mardana, "you teach a way for every person to find liberation. But many of those who listen still seem to spend much of their time in conflict, and in seeking out excitement and other idle pursuits. Why do they waste away their lives so?"
"Most people don't recognize its value," replied the Guru, "although human life is the dearest treasure on this earth."
"Surly everyone can see the value of life," said Mardana.
"No," said Nanak. "Each man places his own value on things according to what he thinks. A different man with different knowledge will place a different value. That stone you found in the dirt will make a good example. Take it to the marketplace and see what you can get for it."
Puzzled, Mardana took the stone to the marketplace and at a stall that sold sweets asked what the vendor would trade for it.
The man laughed. "Go away, you're wasting my time."
He next tried a produce seller. "I have paying customers to wait on," said the grocer.
"I'll give you an onion for it just to get you out of here."
Mardana tried several more shops with no better response.
Finally he came to the shop of Salis Raj, the jeweler. Salis Raj's eyes opened wide when he saw the stone. "I'm sorry," he said, "I don't have enough money to buy your gem. But I will give you a hundred rupees if you will let me look at it a while longer."
Mardana hurried back to the Guru to tell him what had happened.
"See," said Guru Nanak, "how when we are ignorant we mistake a valuable gem for a worthless stone. If someone had told you its value before you knew what it was, you would have thought they were crazy. Such a jewel is human life, and whatever you've traded for it, that is what is yours."

COINS WITH TWO HEADS

Once upon a time, there was a general who was leading his army into battle against an enemy ten times the size of his own.

Along the way to the battle field, the troops stopped by a small temple to pray for victory.

The general held up a coin and told his troops, "I am going to implore the gods to help us crush our enemy. If this coin lands with the heads on top, we'll win. If it's tails, we'll lose. Our fate is in the hands of the gods. Let's pray wholeheartedly."

After a short prayer, the general tossed the coin. It landed with the heads on top. The troops were overjoyed and went into the battle with high siprit.

Just as predicted, the smaller army won the battle.

The soldiers were exalted, "It's good to have the gods on our side! No one can change what they have determined."

"Really?" The general show them the coin--both sides of it were heads.

Faith & Works

There was an old man who operated a rowboat for ferrying passengers between an island and the mainland. One day a passenger noticed that he had painted on one oar the word "Works," and on the other oar the word "Faith." Curiosity led him to ask the meaning of this.

The old man replied, "I will show you," dropping one oar, rowing only with the oar named "Works." Of course, the boat just went around in circles. Then he switched oars, picking up "Faith" and dropping "Works." And the little rowboat went around in circles again—this time in the opposite direction.

After this demonstration, the old man picked up both oars "Faith" and "Works," and rowing with both oars together swiftly coursed over the water. He looked at the passenger and said, "You see, that is the way it is in life as well as in rowing a boat. You got to keep both oars in the water, otherwise, you’ll just go in circles."


The Boy & the Orange

During the darkest hours of the Civil War a tall, thin man with very long legs and a frowning wrinkled face walked along a Washington street. His eyes were fixed on the pavement; his lips were moving and he looked crossed.
There was a ragged young urchin standing barefoot on the curb, his dirty hands clutched behind him, his lips twisting and his big eyes fixed on a pile of oranges in a vendor’s cart. The vendor’s back was turned while he made change for a customer. The tall man passed the boy, stopped suddenly, plunged his hand in his pocket and bought a large orange. He gave it to the boy and went on.
The boy was grinning and had already sunk his teeth into the orange, when a passerby asked him if he knew who gave him the orange. The boy shook his head. "That was President Lincoln," he was informed. "Now, hurry and go thank him."
The boy ran, caught the tails of Lincoln’s long black coat, and as the stern face turned sharply toward him, the boy shouted, "Thank you, Mr. President!’
Suddenly that frowned face beamed into a beautiful smile. "You’re welcome, boy. You wanted to steal that orange while the man’s back was turned, didn’t you? But you wouldn’t because it wasn’t honest. That’s the right way. I wish some men and women I know were more like you."