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WITandWISDOM(tm) - June 6, 2007 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: If a person has any greatness in them, it comes to light - not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of their daily work. - Beryl Markham ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: Catherine Marshall tells in one of her books about how devastated she was when, following a routine physical examination, she was informed that she had tuberculosis. She was not mentally prepared for that. No one ever is. She was ordered to bed 24 hours a day indefinitely. Fifteen months later, she had gained 15 pounds. After a year and a half in bed, there was no noticeable progress. It was at this point that tormenting thoughts began inundating her mind. Had she committed some unforgivable sin at sometime in her life? Had she wronged someone and needed to make things right with them? Was there something about her life so offensive to God that her prayers were being short-circuited? What could she do? She apologized to her husband for everything she could think to apologize for. She wrote acquaintances and purged her conscience. She prayed to God and asked what else she could do. What else could she do? Finally, one day she conceded defeat. She had run out of ideas. She had fought and struggled, and worried until there was nothing left. Standing by her bedroom window, she prayed. The prayer, recorded in her diary, was: "From this moment I promise that I'll try to do whatever you tell me for the rest of my life, insofar as you'll make it clear to me what your wishes are. I'm weak and many times I'll probably renege on this. But Lord, you'll have to help me with that too." That was the moment of surrender. She got out of the way. Within six weeks, her condition improved until she was taking walks, working in the garden, making jelly, and eventually resumed her "normal life." Catherine Marshall's story may be summarized in these words: God can, if we will let him. Larry Powell, Blow the Silver Trumpets, CSS Publishing Company, http://isbn.nu/9781556733147 Source: Illustrations, http://www.cybersaltlists.org ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: A guy in Paris nearly got away with stealing several paintings from the Louvre. However, after planning the crime, getting in and out past security, he was captured only two blocks away when his Econoline ran out of gas. When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied: "I had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh." ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: An 81 year old woman, an alumna of a fine school, was asked by a younger alumna to make a contribution to their school's fund raising campaign. The older woman said she'd be glad to make a gift. "That's wonderful! Would you like to make that into a pledge over three years?" "A pledge?" said the elderly woman. "Why, at my age I don't even buy green bananas anymore." ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Spell Checker I often have difficulty knowing how to spell a word. I am very thankful for Spell Checkers. However sometimes I am a worse speller than Spell Checkers expect and they can not figure out the word I am trying to spell. :o( I have discovered a tool that helps me with this problem. I type the word I am trying to spell into Google and search for it. Google performs the search and asks if I meant to use the word (the one I am trying to spell). So far it has always chosen the word I wanted when Microsoft Word 2003 could not. Google Search Page http://www.google.com