How Company Policies are made

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done round here.

And that, my friends, is how company policies are made.Lovely Thoughts for Lovely People Just Like You

Mantra For Happines

The mantra For Happiness

A great emperor asked his wise men to give him a mantra that could be used in any dangerous,fatal situation. Clueless, eventually they went to a Sufi mystic who gave them a piece of paper and said, “This should not be opened unless there really is
danger and there is no more hope!”


The king put the piece of paper under the diamond of his ring.

There were many moments when danger approached, but the Sufi had emphatically said, “Unless you feel this is really the last hope – that nothing can be more dangerous
– do not open it!” Many dangers came and went, but the king always felt that he could face it,and that he was not yet at the end of his tether.

Finally, death approached, and the king had still had not opened the piece of paper. His wise men pleaded,“Please open it. We want to see what is there.” But the king said, “It is now irrelevant what is there; the mantra has worked upon me. Ever
since I received this mantra, I have not felt any danger at all.

Whatsoever the danger was, I have felt still more was possible, and I have remained unperturbed.”

The king continued, “That Sufi is a wise man. I am not concerned about what he has written.”

After the king died, his wise men hastened to open the ring and pull out the paper. There was nothing written on it; it was a blank piece of paper. But the advice worked; the mantra worked.


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Its Upto You

one song can spark a moment

one flower can wake a dream

one tree can start a forest

one bird can herald spring

one smile brings a friendship

one handclasp lifts a soul

one star can guide a ship at sea

one word can frame a goal

one vote can change a nation

one sunbeam lights a room

one candle wipes out darkness

one laugh can conquer gloom

one step must start each journey

one word must start each prayer

one hope will rise our spirits

one touch can show you care

one voice can speak with wisdom

one heart can know what`s true

one life can make a difference

you see..

it's up to you

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Life is a journey take it easy

A mother passing by her daughter's bedroom was astonished to see the bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then she saw an envelope propped up prominently on the center of the bed. It was addressed, "Mom." With the worst premonition, she opened the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:



Dear Mom: It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new boyfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Dad and you. I've been finding real passion with Ahmed and he is so nice-even with all his piercings, tattoos, beard, and his motorcycle clothes. But it's not only the passion Mom, I'm pregnant and Ahmed said that we will be very happy. He already owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. He wants to have many more children with me and that's now one of my dreams too. Ahmed taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and trading it with his friends for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Ahmed can get better; he sure deserves it!! Don't worry Mom, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know your grand children.



Your daughter, Judith



PS: Mom, none of the above is true. I'm over at the neighbor's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my report card that's in my desk center drawer. I love you! Call when it is safe for me to come home.



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Most Amazing Inspirational Quotes

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Famous Friendship Quotes

"A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past,
A road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world".

~ Lois Wyse.


The best possession one may have is a true friend.

~ Unknown.



Old friends pass away, new friends appear.
It is just like the days.
An old day passes, a new day arrives.
The important thing is to make it meaningful:
a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.

~ Dalai Lama.


"A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should".

~ Unknown.

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Cherish each hour of this day

I have found if you love life,
life will love you back.

Arthur Rubinstein


To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act
is better than a thousand heads
bowing in prayer.

Mahatma Gandhi


Cherish each hour of this day
for it can never return.

Og Mandino


Be master of your petty annoyances
and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things.
It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out
it's the grain of sand in your shoe.

Robert Service


There is no failure
except in no longer trying.

Elbert Hubbard


If a person is confident enough in the way they feel,
whether it's an art form or whether it's just in life,
it comes off - you don't have anything to prove;
you can just be what you are.

Clint Eastwood


When life's problems seem overwhelming,
look around and see what other people are coping with.
You may consider yourself fortunate.

Ann Landers


Every morning, when we wake up,
we have twenty-four
brand new hours to live - what a precious gift.

Thich Nhat Hanh


Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.
You fight for it, you strive for it, insist upon it
and sometimes even travel around the world
looking for it.
And once you have achieved a state of happiness,
you must never become lax about it,
you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming
upwards into that happiness forever.

Elizabeth Gilbert
(extract from Eat, Pray, Love)


Some stories don't have a clear
beginning, middle and end.
Life is about not knowing, having to change,
taking the moments and making the best of it,
without knowing what's going to happen.
Delicious ambiguity.

Gilda Radner


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Ten Rules for Being Human

Ten Rules for Being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better a place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

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The Hot Water Bottle

The Hot Water Bottle
A True Story By Helen Roseveare, Missionary to Africa

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died, leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive; as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator).

We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in.

Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical climates). 'And it is our last hot water bottle!' she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways.

'All right,' I said, 'put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.'

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died.

During prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. 'Please, God' she prayed, 'Send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon.'

While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, 'And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?'

As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say 'Amen?' I just did not believe that God could do this.

Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything; the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home.

Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there on the verandah was a large 22-pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly-colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the weekend.

Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the.....could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out. Yes, a brand new, rubber hot water bottle. I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could.

Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, 'If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!'

Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully-dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted!

Looking up at me, she asked, 'Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?' 'Of course,' I replied!

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator.

And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it 'that afternoon.'

'Before they call, I will answer.' (Isaiah 65:24)


Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive. There is no cost, but a lot of rewards. Let's continue praying for one another.


Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless my friends reading this. I ask You to minister to their spirit. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self doubting, release a renewed confidence to work through them. Where there is tiredness or exhaustion, I ask You to give them understanding, guidance, and strength. Where there is fear, reveal your love and release to them Your courage. Bless their finances, give them greater vision, and raise up leaders and friends to support and encourage them. I ask You to do these things in Jesus' name. Amen

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Paying Attention to Our Habits

Paying Attention to Our Habits
There was a fire one night at a convent and several nuns who lived on the fourth floor were trapped. They were praying for divine providence to show them a way out of the fire when one of the sisters screamed, “We need to take off our robes, tie them together, and climb down to safety.”
Later as they were recounting the event to reporters, they were asked if they were afraid that the crude rope might not hold up. “Oh, no,” they said, “Old habits are hard to break.”

Then there’s the story of the touchstone. It tells of a fortunate man who was told that, if he should find the “touchstone,” its magical powers could give him anything he wanted. It could be found, he was informed, among the pebbles of a certain beach. All he need do is pick up a stone – if it feels warm to the touch, unlike the other pebbles, he has found the magical touchstone.

The man went immediately to the beach and began picking up stones. When he grasped a pebble that felt cold, he threw it into the sea. He continued This practice hour after hour, day after day, week after week. Each pebble felt cold. Each pebble was immediately tossed into the sea.

Then, late one morning, he happened to take hold of a pebble that felt warm, unlike the other stones. The man, whose consciousness had barely registered the difference, tossed it into the sea. He hadn’t meant to, but he had formed a habit, and…old habits can be hard to break.

Most of my habits are more like routines. I wake up earlier and earlier, the older I get. When I arise, I say my morning prayers. I think about exercising and, unfortunately, lie down again until that thought passes. I check my emails. I give Sweetie (our dog who we treat as a child) a back rub and then make some breakfast. Most days I make my plan for the day – the people I need to call or visit – the reading I must do – the thank you notes I want to write — which usually goes out the window by about 10:30 am. Late at night, (and I’m not proud of this,) I love to watch movies. I’m a big fan of Netflix.
My routines are fairly predictable. But what I call routine is more like a series of habits, some of which work well for me and some I should perhaps look at a bit more closely.

In fact, any behavior that I repeat, I reinforce. If I repeat it often enough, it becomes habit. Soon I don’t even think about it – old habits are hard to break. Even good ones.

A Spanish proverb says: “Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.” The metaphor works well for “bad” habits. They first entice, and then ensnare us like a cobweb. And if we continue in the behavior, the web grows stronger and can be as difficult to break as a steel cable.

Fortunately, some habits can work in our favor. Such as patterns in the way we live our lives. Or positive attitudes and healthy ways of thinking. Our habitual attitudes and behaviors can either help us or hinder us.

The truth is this: we form our habits, then our habits form us. So we ought to pay attention to the habits we’re forming.

As part of our preparation for the High Holidays, we can consider whether or not there is a particular behavior or attitude we would like to make into a habit. Once we identify it, we can reinforce it by repeating it at every opportunity.

If there is something we wish to change, we can substitute a different attitude or behavior and repeat the new one every chance we get.

When it comes to habits, practice may not make perfect. But practice will certainly make permanent. Our habits will form us. So it is helpful to form the habits we want to integrate into our lives and let them mold us into the person we want to be.

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Humility is not thinking less of yourself

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. Rick Warren

A Humble Spirit In his own eyes, Mike was the most popular guy around. "A lot of women are gonna be totally miserable when I marry," he boasted to his date.

"Really?" she said. "And just how many women are you intending to marry?" (Maybe you knew guys like that.)

But I like the story of a young woman who wanted to go to college. Her heart sank, however, when she read the question
on the admission form that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No" and returned the application form expecting the worst.

To her surprise, she received this letter from the college:

"Dear applicant: A study of the admission forms reveals that this year our school will enroll 1,452 new leaders. We would like to accept you because we feel that it is imperative that they have at least one follower."

Sometimes a little bit of humble pie goes well with a rich meal.

Actually, what passes for conceit in many people is often just a plea for attention. A poor sense of self may cause one to want to be the prominent star in every constellation.

Humility, on the other hand, does not require that one shine less brightly than others, simply that all be given opportunity to shine.

There is a story about the great 19th century African American educator Booker T Washington that exemplified the power of a simple and modest spirit.

It is told that one day when Washington, then a professor at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, happened to pass the mansion of a wealthy woman as he walked to work.

The woman did not recognise him and called out, "Hey you! Come here! I need some wood chopped!"

She was a product of her southern post-Civil War culture and simply perceived him as a black man who was there to do her bidding.

Without a word, Dr Washington peeled off his jacket, picked up the axe and went to work. He not only cut a large pile of wood, he also carried the firewood into the house and arranged it neatly by the fireplace.

He had scarcely left when a servant said to the woman, "I guess you didn't recognise him, ma'am, but that was Professor
Washington!"

Embarassed and ashamed, the woman hurried over to Tuskegee Institute to apologise.

The great educator respectfully replied: "There's no need to apologise, madam. I'm delighted to do favours for my friends."

The professor may have taught one of his greatest lessons that day. It was a lesson about astronomy: he taught that every star can shine without one out-shining all the others.

It was a lesson about peace: he taught how self-interest must often be set aside for the good of the whole. It was also a lesson about spirituality: he taught about the power of a meek and humble spirit in a world where aggression is too often confused with strength.

It is a lesson we are still learning.

"Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves." Henry Ward Beecher

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Life in A Nut Shell

The highest aim in life - to know God and do His will!
The most enriching good habit - complimenting others.
The most destructive bad habit - worry.
The greatest joy - giving.
The greatest loss - loss of self-respect.

The most satisfying work - helping others.
The ugliest personality trait - selfishness.
The most endangered species - dedicated leaders.
Our greatest natural resource - our youth.
The ugliest look - a frown.

The greatest "shot in the arm" - encouragement.
The greatest problem to overcome - fear.
The most effective sleeping pill - peace of mind.
The most crippling failure disease - excuses.
The surest way to limit God - unbelief.

The most powerful forces in life - love.
The most dangerous piranha - a gossiper.
The greatest Life-Giver - the Creator.
The world's most incredible computer - the brain.
The worst thing to be without - hope.

The deadliest weapon - the tongue.
The two most power-filled words - "I can".
The greatest asset - faith.
The most worthless emotion - self-pity.
The most beautiful attire - A SMILE!

The most prized possession - self esteem.
The most powerful channel of communication - PRAYER.
The most contagious spirit - enthusiasm
The most urgent need - SALVATION.
The greatest attribute of Jesus - obedience.

The GREATEST - GOD.

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