Category: Inspiration

Every day I trawl Facebook and some other social media sites to find posts worthy of sharing. Very often I find one that stands head and shoulders above the rest. This is one such story.

I love this story from Katharine Hepburn’s childhood; in her own words.

“Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus.

Finally, there was only one other family between us and the ticket counter. This family made a big impression on me.

There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. The way they were dressed, you could tell they didn’t have a lot of money, but their clothes were neat and clean.

The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly jabbering about the clowns, animals, and all the acts they would be seeing that night. By their excitement you could sense they had never been to the circus before. It would be a highlight of their lives.

The father and mother were at the head of the pack standing proud as could be. The mother was holding her husband’s hand, looking up at him as if to say, “You’re my knight in shining armor.” He was smiling and enjoying seeing his family happy.

The ticket lady asked the man how many tickets he wanted? He proudly responded, “I’d like to buy eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets, so I can take my family to the circus.” The ticket lady stated the price.

The man’s wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, the man’s lip began to quiver. Then he leaned a little closer and asked, “How much did you say?” The ticket lady again stated the price.

The man didn’t have enough money. How was he supposed to turn and tell his eight kids that he didn’t have enough money to take them to the circus?

Seeing what was going on, my dad reached into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill, and then dropped it on the ground. (We were not wealthy in any sense of the word!) My father bent down, picked up the $20 bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket.”

The man understood what was going on. He wasn’t begging for a handout but certainly appreciated the help in a desperate, heartbreaking and embarrassing situation.

He looked straight into my dad’s eyes, took my dad’s hand in both of his, squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill, and with his lip quivering and a tear streaming down his cheek, he replied; “Thank you, thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family.”

My father and I went back to our car and drove home. The $20 that my dad gave away is what we were going to buy our own tickets with.

Although we didn’t get to see the circus that night, we both felt a joy inside us that was far greater than seeing the circus could ever provide.

That day I learnt the value to Give.

The Giver is bigger than the Receiver. If you want to be large, larger than life, learn to Give. Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get – only with what you are expecting to give – which is everything.

The importance of giving, blessing others can never be over emphasized because there’s always joy in giving. Learn to make someone happy by acts of giving.” – Katharine Hepburn

These twelve short stories are all very good stories and make us think twice about the daily happenings in our lives as we deal with others!!

1. Today, I interviewed my grandmother for part of a research paper I’m working on for my Psychology class. When I asked her to define success in her own words, she said, “Success is when you look back at your life and the memories make you smile.”

2. Today, I asked my mentor – a very successful business man in his 70s what his top 3 tips are for success. He smiled and said, “Read something no one else is reading, think something no one else is thinking, and do something no one else is doing.”

3. Today, after my 72-hour shift at the fire station, a woman ran up to me at the grocery store and gave me a hug. When I tensed up, she realized I didn’t recognize her. She let go with tears of joy in her eyes and the most sincere smile and said, “On 9-11-2001, you carried me out of the World Trade Center.”

4. Today, after I watched my dog get run over by a car, I sat on the side of the road holding him and crying. And, just before he died, he licked the tears off my face.

5. Today at 7AM, I woke up feeling ill, but decided I needed the money, so I went into work. At 3PM I got laid off. On my drive home I got a flat tire. When I went into the trunk for the spare, it was flat too. A man in a BMW pulled over and gave me a ride. We chatted. And, then he offered me a job. I start tomorrow.

6. Today, as my father, three brothers, and two sisters stood around my mother’s hospital bed, my mother uttered her last coherent words before she died. She simply said, “I feel so loved right now. We should have gotten together like this more often.”

7. Today, I kissed my dad on the forehead as he passed away in a small hospital bed. About 5 seconds after he passed, I realized it was the first time I had given him a kiss since I was a little boy.

8. Today, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling. I chuckled and asked,”Why?” She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.” I chuckled again and asked “And why do you want to save the planet?” “Because that’s where I keep all my stuff,” she said.

9. Today, when I witnessed a 27-year-old breast cancer patient laughing hysterically at her 2-year-old daughter’s antics, I suddenly realized that, I need to stop complaining about my life and start celebrating it again.

10. Today, a boy in a wheelchair saw me desperately struggling on crutches with my broken leg and offered to carry my backpack and books for me. He helped me all the way across campus to my class and as he was leaving he said, “I hope you feel better soon.”

11. Today, I was feeling down because the results of a biopsy came back malignant. When I got home, I opened an e-mail that said “Thinking of you today. If you need me, I’m a phone call away.” I t was from a high school friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years.

12. Today, I was traveling in Kenya and I met a refugee from Zimbabwe. He said he hadn’t eaten anything in over 3 days and looked extremely skinny and unhealthy. Then my friend offered him the rest of the sandwich he was eating. The first thing the man said was “We can share it.”

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

I am glad I have ‘you’ to send these to.

These are worth passing on. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!

One of my principle concerns with the current scene is the rapidly escalating speed with which human rights are being trampled. The lack of peace in certain regions is proof positive that these principles are actually valid and needed, more than ever.

This trend needs to be reversed. The entrance point is educating people that they do have rights. Hence this post and the request you share these posts so more people are aware of and insist upon their rights so that we can live in a peaceful society.

Watch the video and if you think so too, please share it!

Do you know it is a fundamental right of yours to have your own opinion? You would not think so from the way some people (including the government) try to belittle you for disagreeing with them but it is.

One of my principle concerns with the current scene is the rapidly escalating speed with which human rights are being trampled. The lack of peace in certain regions is proof positive that these principles are actually valid and needed, more than ever.

This trend needs to be reversed. The entrance point is educating people that they do have rights. Hence this post and the request you share these posts so more people are aware of and insist upon their rights so that we can live in a peaceful society.

Watch the video and if you think so too, please share it!

Do you know it is a fundamental right of yours to have your own opinion? You would not think so from the way some people (including the government) try to belittle you for disagreeing with them but it is.

How do you control people?

Most dictators—and would-be-dictators—know the answer is “fear.”

In this startling 18-minute video message to citizens who participated in rallies in at least 15 countries, to protest the global movement towards totalitarianism, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asks some important questions about the COVID crisis and “global coup d’état” that he sees unfolding around the world.

It is, he says, orchestrated by a nexus of powerful forces: by Big Data, by Big Telecom, by Big Tech. By the big oil and chemical companies and a global public health cartel led by Bill Gates and the World Health Organization—all of whom see the series of crises we are currently facing as an opportunity to make more money and grab more power.

Fear makes us tolerant to the erosion of our civil liberties. It makes us tolerant of censorship to the point where we stop asking questions and stop voicing our grievances.

The answer, he says, is to keep talking, keep asking questions and keep insisting on the rights that every human being is born with.

WATCH A Message From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: https://www.facebook.com/organicconsumers/posts/10158244771444934

READ The transcript of the video: https://www.organicconsumers.org/blog/international-message-hope-for-humanity-rfk-jr

https://www.facebook.com/organicconsumers/posts/10158244771444934

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation’s history as any of the other 32 Presidents
preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he
left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than
their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have
been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an ‘allowance’ and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, “You don’t want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn’t belong to me.. It belongs to the American people and it’s not for sale.”

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor
on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, “I don’t consider that I have done
anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise.”

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency,
resulting in untold wealth. Today, too many in Congress also have found a way to become
quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale (ie. Illinois ).

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, “My choices in life were either to
be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference!”