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WITandWISDOM(tm) - July 28, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: To be sensitive is to feel the thoughts and hearts of others as only you would want yours felt. - Author Unknown Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://users.adelphia.net/~mrs.carol ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: When I was a young writer with a very uncertain income, I went into a quiet park to contemplate a serious problem. For four years I had been engaged but didn't dare to marry. There was no way of foreseeing how little I might earn in the next year; moreover, we had long cherished a plan of living and writing in Paris, Rome, Vienna, London--everywhere. But how could we go three thousand miles away from everything that was familiar and secure, without the certainty of some money now and then? At that moment I looked up and saw a squirrel jump from one high tree to another. He appeared to be aiming for a limb so far out of reach that the leap looked like suicide. He missed--but landed, safe and unconcerned, on a branch several feet lower. Then he climbed to his goal, and all was well. An old man sitting on the bench said, "Funny, I've seen hundreds of 'em jump like that, especially when there are dogs around and they can't come down to the ground. A lot of 'em miss, but I've never seen any hurt in trying." Then he chuckled. "I guess they've got to risk it if they don't want to spend their lives in one tree." I thought, A squirrel takes a chance--have I less nerve than a squirrel? We were married in two weeks, scraped up enough money for our passage and sailed across the Atlantic--jumping off into space, not sure what branch we'd land on. I began to write twice as fast and twice as hard as ever before. And to our amazement we promptly soared into the realm of respectable incomes. Since then, whenever I have to choose between risking a new venture or hanging back, those five little words run through my thoughts: "Once there was a squirrel --" And sometimes I hear the old man on the park bench saying, "They've got to risk it if they don't want to spend their lives in one tree." By James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 128-129. http://isbn.nu/0842315691 Source: A Dose of Inspiration, http://www.quietstones.com/mydailydose ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Exercise I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them. The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country. Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5000 per month. My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. Now she's 97 years old and we don't know where on earth she is. The only reason I would take up exercising is so that I could hear heavy breathing again. I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there. And last but not least: I don't exercise because it makes the ice jump right out of my glass. You could run this over to your friends but why not just e-mail it to them! Source: Cybersalt Digest, http://www.cybersalt.org/ ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: One night at McChord Air Force Base, I was dispatched to check out the security fence where an alarm had gone off. The fence was at the end of the base runway. When I got to the scene, I found a raccoon was the culprit, so I ran around and flapped my arms to scare the animal away. Suddenly an air-traffic controller came over the public-address system and announced loudly, "Attention to the airman at the end of the runway. You are now cleared for takeoff." Source: Cybersalt Digest, http://www.cybersalt.org/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: As the official taster for Dreyer's/Edy's Grand Ice Cream, John Harrison has sampled about 200 million gallons of the stuff in the past 23 years. For some, this is a dream job; for Harrison, it was destiny: His great-grandfather, grandfather and father were all in the industry. His tongue is insured for a million dollars, and he takes good care of its 9,000 taste buds. That means no drinking, smoking or caffeine, no very spicy, hot or other cold foods. As he says, "I'd rather eat all the ice cream I want than a jalapeno pepper any day." Source: Copyright © June 2005, The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved., http://www.readersdigest.com/