SwiftVets.com

[oasis]

Hello,

Remember, you reap what you sow, what you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

One day a teacher asked her students
to list the names of the other students in the room
on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they
could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish
their assignment, and as the students left the room,
each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of
each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed
what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list.
Before long, the entire class was smiling.
"Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that
I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know
others liked me so much." were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again.
She never knew if they discussed them after class
with their parents, but it didn't matter.
The exercise had accomplished its purpose.

The students were happy with themselves and one another.
That group of students moved on. Several years later,
one of the students was killed in Vietnam and
his teacher attended the funeral of that special student.

She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before.
He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends.
One by one those who loved him took a
last walk by the coffin.
The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who
acted as pallbearer came up to her.

"Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked.
She nodded: "yes." Then he said:
"Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former
classmates went together to a luncheon.
Mark's mother and father were there, obviously
waiting to speak with his teacher.

"We want to show you something," his father said,
taking a wallet out of his pocket.
"They found this on Mark when he was killed.
We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two
worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously
been taped, folded and refolded many times.

The teacher knew without looking that the
papers were the ones on which she had listed
all the good things each of Mark's classmates
had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that,
" Mark's mother said. "As you can see,
Mark treasured it."

All of Mark's former classmates started
to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly
and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer
of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in
our wedding album."

"I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her
purse and showed her frazzled list to the group.

"I carry this with me at all times, " Vicki said and
without batting an eyelash, she continued:
"I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried.
She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would
never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we
forget that life will end one day. And we don't know
when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for,
that they are special and important.

Tell them, before it is too late...

_________________
unknown author
_________________
-Oasis

Please donate to the.. RED CROSS

[blue9t3]

Sometimes words look awkward,
I call thoughts like that "jewels", I do what I do not for me , life is to short , I hope I can "punch out" with a smile on my face.
_________________
MOPAR-BUYER