WHAT REALLY MATTERS

It has been said that a few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win.

All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned around and went back; every one of them.

One girl with Down's Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said: "This will make it better." Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes.

People who were there are still telling the story. Why? Because deep down we know this one thing:

What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What matters in this life is helping others win, even if it means slowing down and changing our course.

Pass it on...we need to change our hearts.

A LITTLE EXTRA LOVE

The little girl who lives next door had been a problem for a long time. She is the type of child who says "NO" when you tell her it is time to go home, or blatantly defies you when you tell her to stop doing something.

She lives with her grandmother who has, over the course of the 8 years we have been neighbors, decided on several different occasions that she wasn't interested in being friends with us, so I had no way of knowing what was going on at home.

Last year, when this little girl was 5, her Grandmother kept her home from kindergarten feeling she wasn't ready yet. This year at age 6 she went off to kindergarten. Three days after school began she came to call for my daughter in the middle of the school day. I asked why she wasn't in school and she responded, "Because my age was ready but my act wasn't."

I inquired further, wondering what she could possibly have done to get tossed from school after three days of kindergarten. She may have been something of a problem, but certainly the school system couldn't have expelled her, could they? That's when she told me that she was "bad" and had to take "bad pills." I told her that I didn't think she was "bad."

Her entire face brightened and she looked at me with wonder and said, "Really?" Then she wrapped her arms around me and told me she loved me. Suddenly I realized this poor child's problem. She had been convinced in her short life that she WAS bad. What reason does a 6 year old child have to behave well if it isn't expected of her?

Before that moment I had frequently been impatient with her behavior, but I vowed that from that day on she would get only love and patience from me. She went back to school a few days later and has had no further problems. I know, because I ask every time I see her how school is, what she is learning, and does she have fun at recess.

My new found caring has worked out well. She seems to listen better to what I say, perhaps because of the love in my voice. She comes over now not only to call for my daughter, but to show me her new Halloween costume, or ask if she can play with the kittens. She is not afraid of my authority and I am free to genuinely care for her.

It is my hope that over her life she will meet many people who will realize she needs something extra, something she doesn't seem to be getting at home, and she will blossom into a spirited, but well behaved, child.

The next time you encounter a child whose behavior is frustrating to your patience, think about what that child's life experience may be and give that child a little extra love and attention. You never know.

--- Copyright © 2000 D.L. Miller

THE BIRD FEEDER

Last fall I hung outside my window a bird feeder. Now not knowing the first thing about wild birds, I assumed that as soon as I hung this bird feeder outside, a multitude of beautiful birds would be swooping to my new addition. Days, weeks and months went by; NO BIRDS.

I asked so many people what to do? What was I doing wrong? "Nothing" most of them replied. "Just wait." So I waited and waited and waited trying everything possible, to attract these birds.

I cleaned off the deck, I changed the feed, I washed the feeders, I even made the cat go out the other door! But nothing seemed to work. So......I waited, "with patience and hope."

Two (2) months later, on a Saturday afternoon, I FROZE! What to my eyes had appeared on the bird feeder but the most beautiful bird I have ever seen in my life! All of a sudden HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS OF BIRDS WERE APPEARING FROM EVERYWHERE!

What a beautiful lesson I learned from this little creature. "Patience and hope" and "things" will attract the beautiful things in life. I never realized how much patience I really do have and how much I do rely upon "hope" to sort out the questions in my heart.

So I keep hoping and waiting, waiting and hoping. I will try to use this "little lesson" with so many other things in my life. I guess "patience is a virtue" after all.

--- Copyright © 1999 Gina Wehmann