| Prior Date | Archive Index | Next Date |
|
WITandWISDOM(tm) – September 1, 2004 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense. - Rabbi Harold Kushner Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://www.kalama.com/~carola/ ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: We live in downtown Flint, Michigan. It's really not the kind of place where folks chat over the backyard fence and swap garden produce and gossip. On the street in downtown Flint, people don't usually speak to you until you speak to them. Sometimes they don't speak to you even when you do speak to them. Sometimes what people say when they do speak to you makes you wish you hadn't spoken to them. But sometimes the sun of humanity breaks through the clouds of anonymity even here in Flint. That happened this week. Lois and I were out on doing a couple errands. One of them was to get gas in the van. The station was busy and we had to wait to get a pump. I had to drive away and circle the block until a space opened up. I pumped the gas, paid the attendant inside and started back to the car when a man who was walking toward the store said, "Good morning, do you like fresh sweet cherries?" The man was a stranger but I do like cherries. "Yes!" I said. He gestured for me to follow him. He was on the other side of the pump and he was driving a refrigerated produce truck. He opened a side door and lifted the lid on a case of dark cherries. "Try some." I did and they were good. I told him so. "Where are you from," I asked. "Traverse City". I remembered speaking at a camp near Traverse City and driving to the watch the sun set through beautiful countryside. Cherry orchards were common and out by the roadside farmers set up little stands and sell the fruit in mid-summer when the cherries were ready. My mouth watered at the memory. "Would you like to try some?" "Sure, how much?" I said. He dismissed my question with a grunt and a wave. "Just a minute," he said. "Wait here." He ran into the gas station and came out with a plastic bag and began to fill it with fruit. I thought it was a sales tactic. While he was filling the bag I told him that I managed a training center where we are feeding three meals a day to over two hundred people. I thought we should exchange information because we commonly buy large amounts of fresh fruit. Surprised, he said, "You feed two hundred people a day? Well, here," he said, and he put the lid on the case and handed it to me. "Take the whole thing." "Thank you. How much to I owe you." "Enjoy them," he said and then he got in his truck and drove away. According to Scripture God sends angels to minister to the saints. Last week he sent a man from Traverse City right here to Flint. Flint, where people don't always make small talk at the gas station. The man came bearing gifts, dark, cold, sweet cherries, a huge case of them-- just for me. It's times like this that I am encouraged to know that God loves me and he likes me too. The stranger from Traverse City drove away without getting my information or asking my name. I stood and watched him go surprised because he never asked me to buy any. He didn't tell me his name or the name of his company. He just saw my delight in the taste of the cherries, loaded me down with a case of them, and drove quietly away. I wondered why. I've been thinking on that for nearly a week. When you have something as sweet and as good as those cherries you just want people to taste them and you want to see the delight in their face. That's true in Traverse City. That's true in Flint. I haven't traveled the world, but I am sure that's true from Baghdad to Brussels. When you have something good you want others to enjoy it. "O taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8) Submitted by R. P. Cly ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: My father is a skilled CPA who is not great at self-promotion. So when an advertising company offered to put my father's business placard in the shopping carts of a supermarket, my dad jumped at the chance. Fully a year went by before we got a call that could be traced to those placards. "Richard Larson, CPA?" the caller asked. "That's right," my father answered. "May I help you?" "Yes," the voice said. "One of your shopping carts is in my yard, and I want you to come and get it." Source: Laugh & Lift, http://www.premiumhealth.com/laughlift/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. - Robert Frost (1874-1963) American poet Source: Quotes of the Day, mailto:rheamo@centurytel.net?subject=Subscribe_Quotes_of_the_Day ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: The Money Race Instead of calling it a presidential race, it should be called a money race. The amount of cash being raised by candidates today is a little frightening. If you're curious how much your neighbors, boss or relatives are donating, go to Fundrace. Enter an address or name to find how who is donating to whom. You can also see how much each candidate spends in hotel and airline bills. To Visit This Site, Go Here: http://www.fundrace.org Copyright 2004, The Kim Komando Show. All rights reserved. Kim Komando's Cool Site of the Day http://www.komando.com/newsletter.asp NOTE: In case you haven't heard, Microsoft began making the Service Pack 2 download available to users of XP Professional last week. It |