Chicken Soup

My intentions were good.  Tom is at a meeting and I was cleaning off the coffee table.  Books , magazines and newspapers seem to gather there by some magnetic force.  As I unpiled the stack, I came across a Chicken soup for the Soul book that I had picked up at the library book sale a couple of weeks ago. I have always enjoyed these books , and found them uplifting.  But this one was different.  It was written in memory of the 9-11 disaster.  I had read the first story and found it so devastating that I was unable to read further.  So the book was buried beneath the coffee table rubble.  As I thumbed through the book reading quotes, my heart smiled at the wise words written in introduction of the individual stories of that tragic day.  I still am not able to endure the memories recited in the book, but would like to share some of those quotes. . . . 

No act of kindness, no matter how small , is ever wasted.    Aesop

 I cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do.. . Jana Stanfield

You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. . . Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I  cannot do interfere with what I can do. . .Edward Everett Hale

I expect to pass through this world but once;any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. . .  Etienne DeGrellet

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment to improve the world.. . Anne Frank

When in despair, I remember that all through history, the ways of truth and love have always won.  There have been tyrants and murderers, but in the end they always fall.  Think of it . Always.  . . Mahatma Gandhi

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is.  . . Albert Einstein

Cultivation of tolerance for other faiths will impart to us a true understanding of our own.  For me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree.  . . .  Mahatma Gandhi

Perhaps best of all, this ageless wisdom came from a  New York  eldercare facility

At times like these, we need a hand to hold.  Lena, age 101

It'll feel better when it quits hurtin'.  Ernest ,age 78

At first, I just wanted to pull the covers over my head.  Later , I decided to bow my head. Bernice,age 75

The more I see how people hate, the better I like dogs. .Bill , age 97

War and sin. . .to my way of thinking, they're one and the same.  And both carrode the soul.. . Vera, age 88

We need to look to God in prayer.  My knees don't work anymore, but I'm kneeling in my heart just the same.  . . Marie,age 93

I lost a brother in WWI.  I lost a son in WWII.  I saw grandnephews serve in Korea, a granddaughter nurse the wounded in Vietnam and a great -grandson board a ship for the Persian Gulf. And I can only shake my head in disappointment. . just as God must be doing. When will mankind learn?  . . Lucy, age 100

Need I say more. .May I be so bold as to just send each of you a hug. .  sf