my care2
make a difference

community & fun

shares

share your passions, stories, inspirations, and more

Happy New Year!
Dec 24, 2008
Myspace Comments
Myspace Comments
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , , , , ,
Posted: Dec 24, 2008 9:54am
Best Wishes!
Dec 15, 2006

Wishing You a very Special Holiday Season, Filled With Love Hope & Joy!
Courtesy of MsTags.com
Courtesy of MsTags.com




May 2007 Be The Best - and all the years left to come!

Courtesy of MsTags.com
Courtesy of MsTags.com
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , , , ,
Posted: Dec 15, 2006 9:09am
Friendship Faery
Nov 9, 2006
Shared with me from Inge, and from me to you!
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , ,
Posted: Nov 9, 2006 7:45pm
.::Friends::.
Nov 3, 2006

(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , , ,
Posted: Nov 3, 2006 11:44am
Never Forget Just How Speial You Are!
Oct 16, 2006
From Inge to me, and from me:
(1) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , ,
Posted: Oct 16, 2006 6:20pm
It Depends on How You Look At things
Oct 8, 2006
From Artisina P. to me - and from me to you!

+++++++++++++++


One day a father and his rich family took his young
son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose
of showing him how poor people can be. They spent a
day and a night in the farm of a very poor family.
When they returned from their trip, the father asked
his son, "How was the trip?"

"Very good, Dad!"

"Did you see how poor some people are?" the father
asked.

"Yeah!"

"And what did you learn?"

The son answered: "I saw that we have a dog at home,
and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the
middle of the garden, while they have a creek that has
no end. We have imported lamps in the garden, and they
have the stars. Our patio reaches to the front yard,
they have a whole horizon."

When the little boy finished, his father was speechless.
His son added, "Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor
we are!"

Isn'it it true that it all depends on the way you look
at things? If you have love, friends, family, health,
good humor and a positive attitude toward life, you've
got everything!

You can't buy any of these things. You can have all the
material possessions you can imagine, provisions for
the future, etc., but if you are poor of spirit, you
have nothing!
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , ,
Posted: Oct 8, 2006 6:28pm
Stevie
Oct 8, 2006
Artisina P. shared this with me and I could only think to share it with you as well...

__________

I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about hiring Stevie.  His placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy. But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and wasn't sure I wanted  one.  I wasn't sure how my Customer would react to Stevie.

He was short, a little dumpy with the smooth facial features and thick tongued speech of Down syndrome.  I wasn't worried about most of my trucker  customers because truckers don't generally care who buses tables as long as  the meat loaf platter is good and the pies are homemade.

The four wheeler drivers were the ones who concerned me; the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded truck stop germ"; the pairs of white shirted business men on expense accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to be flirted with.

I knew those people would be uncomfortable around Stevie so I closely watched him for the first few weeks. I shouldn't have worried.

After the first week, Stevie had my staff wrapped around his Stubby little finger, and within a month my truck regulars had adopted him as their official truck stop mascot. After that, I really didn't care what the rest of the customer's thought of  him.  He was like a 21-year-old in blue jeans and Nikes, eager to laugh and  eager to please, but fierce in his attention to his duties. Every salt and  pepper shaker was exactly in its place, not a bread crumb or coffee spill was visible when Stevie got done with the table.


Our only problem was persuading him to wait to clean a table until after the customers were finished. He would hover in the background, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, scanning the dining room until a table was empty.  Then he would scurry to the empty table and carefully bus dishes and glasses onto his cart and meticulously wipe the table up with a practiced flourish of his rag.  If he thought a customer was watching, his brow would pucker with added concentration.  He took pride in doing his job exactly right, and you had to  love how hard he tried to please each and every person he met.
 

Over time, we learned that he lived with his mother, a widow who was disabled  after repeated surgeries for cancer.  They lived on their Social Security benefits in public housing two miles from thetruck stop.  The Social worker, which stopped to check on him every so often, admitted they had fallen between the cracks. Money was tight, and what I paid him was probably the difference between them being able to live together and Stevie being sent to a group home.

That's why the restaurant was a gloomy place that morning last August, the first morning in three years that Stevie missed work.  He was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester getting a new valve or something put in his heart. His social worker said that people with Down Syndrome often had heart problems at an early age so this wasn't unexpected, and there was a good chance he would come through the surgery in good shape and be back at work in a few months.

A ripple of excitement ran through the staff later that morning when word came that he was out of surgery, in recovery and doing fine.  Frannie, my head waitress, let out a war hoop and did a little dance in the aisle when she heard the good news.  Belle Ringer, one of our regular trucker customers, stared at the sight of the 50-year-old grandmother of four doing a victory  shimmy beside his table.  Frannie blushed, smoothed her apron & shot Belle  Ringer a withering look.  "We just got word that Stevie is out of surgery and  going to be okay."

"I was wondering where he was.  I had a new joke to tell him.  What was the  surgery about?" Frannie quickly told Belle Ringer and the other two drivers  sitting at his booth about Stevie's surgery, then sighed.

"Yeah, I'm glad he is going to be OK", she said. "But I don't know how he and his Mom are going to handle all the bills. From what I hear, they're barely getting by as it is."

Belle Ringer nodded thoughtfully, and Frannie hurried off to wait on the rest of her tables.  Since I hadn't had time to round up a busboy to replace Steve and really  didn't want to replace him, the girls were busing their own tables that day until we decided what to do.

After the morning rush, Frannie walked, into my office.  She had a couple of paper napkins in her hand a funny look on her face. "What's up?" I asked.

"I didn't get that table where Belle Ringer and his friends were sitting cleared off after they left, and Pony Pete and Tony Tipper were sitting there  when I got back to clean it off" she said. "This was folded and tucked under  a coffee cup."
She handed the napkin to me, and three $20 bills fell ontomy  desk when I opened it.  On the outside, in big, bold letters, was printed "Something For Stevie." "Pony Pete asked me what that was all about," she said, "so I told him about Stevie and his mom and everything, and Pete looked  at Tony and Tony looked at Pete, and they ended up giving me this." She handed me another paper napkin that had "Something For Stevie" scrawled on its outside. Two $50 bills were tucked within its folds.


Frannie looked at me with wet, shiny eyes, shook her head and said simply "truckers."

That was three months ago.  Today is the first day Stevie is  supposed to be back to work. His placement worker said he's been counting the days until the doctor said he could work, and it didn't matter at all that it was a holiday.  He called 10 times in the past week, making sure we knew he was coming, fearful that we had forgotten him or that his job was in jeopardy.

I arranged to have his mother bring him to work, met them in the parking lot and invited them both to celebrate his day back.  Stevie was thinner and paler, but couldn't stop grinning as he pushed through the doors and  headed  for the back room where his apron and busing cart were waiting.

"Hold up there, Stevie, not so fast," I said.  I took him and his mother by  their arms.  "Work can wait for a minute.  To celebrate you coming back, breakfast for you  and your mother are on me." I led them toward a large corner booth at the
rear of the room.  I could feel and hear the rest of the staff following  behind as we marched through the dining room.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw booth after booth of grinning truckers empty and join the procession.  We stopped in front of the big table.  Its surface was covered with coffee cups, saucers and dinner plates,  all sitting slightly crooked on dozens of folded  paper napkins.  "First thing you have to do, Steve, is clean
up this mess," I  said.  I tried to sound stern. Stevie looked at me, and then at his mother, then pulled out one of the napkins.   It had "Something for Stevie" printed on the outside.  As he picked it up, two $10 bills fell onto the table. Stevie stared at the money, then at all the napkins peeking from beneath the tableware, each with his name printed or scrawled on it.  I turned to his mother.
"There's more than $10,000 in cash and checks on that table, all from truckers and trucking companies that heard about your problems.  Welcome Back!!!

Well, it got real noisy about that time, with everybody hollering and shouting, and there were a few tears, as well. But you know what's funny?
While everybody else was busy shaking hands and hugging each other, Stevie, with a big, big smile on his face, was busy clearing all the cups and dishes off the table.  Best worker I ever hired.
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , , , ,
Posted: Oct 8, 2006 8:21am
A Blue Ribbon For You......
Sep 30, 2006
From Artisina to me, and from me to you!
A Blue Ribbon For You......
A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in High School by telling them the difference each of them had made. She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time.First, she told each of them how they had made a difference to her, and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon, imprinted with gold letters, which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference." Afterwards, the teacher decided to do a class project, to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a Community.She gave each of the students three more blue ribbons, and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony.Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom, and report to the class in about a week.One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby Company, and honored him for helping him with hiscareer planning.? He gave him a blue ribbon, and put it on his shirt.Then he gave him two extra ribbons and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like for you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person, to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened."Later that day, the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down, and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemedvery surprised.The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon, and would he givehim permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure." The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket, above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you take this extra ribbon, and pass it on by honoring somebody else. The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school, and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people." That night, the boss came home to his 14-year-old son, and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office, and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me, and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius.? Imagine! He thinks I am a creative genius! Then he put a blue ribbon that says, "Who I Am Makes a Difference", on my jacket above my heart.? He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor.? As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon, and I thought about you. I want to honor you. My days are hectic and when I come home, I do not pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school, and for your bedroom being a mess. Somehow, tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me.? Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life.? You're a great kid, and I love you!" The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he could not stop crying His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote a letter to you and Mom, explaining why I had took my life, and I asked you to forgive me.? I was going to commit suicide tonight after you were asleep. I just did not think that you cared at all. The letter is upstairs. I don't think I need it after all." His father walked upstairs and found a heartfelt letter full of anguish and pain. The boss went back to work a changed man. He was no longer a grouch, but made sure to let all of his employees know that they made a difference. The junior executive helped several other young people with career planning, and never forgot to let them know that they made a difference in his life...one being the boss' son. In addition, the young boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson,"Who you are DOES make a difference".You are under no obligation to pass this on to anyone.... not to two people, or to two hundred. As far as I am concerned, you can forget it and move on. On the other hand, if you want, you could send it to all of the people who mean something to you, or send it to the one, two, or three people who mean the most. On the other hand, just smile and know that I think that you are important, or you would not have received this in the first place.? Who you are does make a difference, and I wanted you to know that. Isn't this a wonderful story? I'm passing the blue ribbon to you, for who YOU are does make a difference, too. May GOD BLESS YOU. Have an awesome day, and know that someone has thought about you today! A prayer for today: Lord, Thank you for my friends and family who really do make a difference to me.
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , ,
Posted: Sep 30, 2006 7:43pm
Friendship Ball
Sep 23, 2006
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting 
From Ian to me - & from me to you! Have a great weekend everybody!
(0) | () | | send green star | flag as inappropriate
Visibility: Everyone
Tags: , ,
Posted: Sep 23, 2006 9:02am

 
 
 
Content and comments expressed here are the opinions of Care2 users and not necessarily that of Care2.com or its affiliates.

Author

Moon Seeker
female , committed relationship
Pahrump, NV, USA
Shares by Type:
All (202) | Blog (188) | Alert (2) | Recipe (1) | Message (11)

Showing shares tagged with: friends [show all]
ads keep care2 free
SHARES FROM MOON'S NETWORK
Dec
24
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Hope and despair By CAROLE BRODSKY 12/24/2009 Ukiah Daily Journal Paul Dolan reflects on the worldWhen one thinks of Paul Dolan, one generally thinks of wine. Dolan and his partners - the Thornhill family - took their com...
Dec
22
by Road L.
(1 comments  |  discussions )
Road LessTraveled sent you an eCard from Care2! Click on the following link to view your eCard, or paste it into your browser: http://www.care2.com/send /pickup/1355-31912-99173- 1605 This Care2 eCard was sent December 22, 2009 and will be available ...
Dec
21
by Road L.
(0 comments  |  discussions )
  It is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out what's actually  ;in this bill, they will revolt. Congress and President Obama have no choice but to do better for health care than...
Dec
18
(0 comments  |  discussions )
By CAROLE BRODSKY 12/18/2009The Ukiah Daily Journal "I picked the name because my vision is for girls to learn how to be themselves," explains Toby Cox, founder of 2bU Clothes Closet, a new nonprofit providing fashion-forward clothing...
by Road L.
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Please note news story at;  http://www.care2.com/news /member/901507364/1333901 THESE ARE FIGHTING WORDS--Keith Olbermann on Perversion of Health Care Bill US Politics & Gov't  (tags:&n bsp;healthcare, obam a, ethic...
Dec
17
by Road L.
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Joe Lieberman can only hold reform hostage if we let him video:http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=8vS6kIbJu64&a mp;feature=player_embedde d Tell President Obama and Congress not to let Joe Lieberman gut health care reform. We're counting on them to fig...
by Road L.
(1 comments  |  discussions )
Dear Friends, Copenhagen's last-ditch summit to stop catastrophic global warming isfailing; only massive public pressure can save it. Sign the giant petition below - it may be the largest in history:  With three days to go, t...
Dec
15
by Road L.
(0 comments  |  discussions )
Please note Care2 news story by clicking on link below.. Thanks! Overlooked 150 Year Old Household Cleaner a Remedy for Swine Flu Health & Wellness  (tags : healthcare, h ealth, illness,swine flu, prevention,&nb. ..
Dec
13
by Mari B.
(1 comments  |  discussions )
    Wanted to let you all know about a free way to help save the planet at Facebook. This APP Allows you to play games and donate to causes. Even if you do not play the games you get a login bonus each day that you can use to help save th...
Dec
11
(0 comments  |  0 discussions )
Bioneers Plenary: Jensine LarsenJensine Larsen, formerly a freelance journalist covering indigenous movements in South America and Southeast Asia, is the founder of World Pulse Media, a global media source covering world issues through women's eyes, a...

Copyright © 2009 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved