Inspiration 365 Days!

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest! if you must; but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow;
You might succeed with another blow.

The smile that you send out returns to you.

— Indian saying

Sixteen years ago I learned an important life lesson, in the back of a New York City taxi cab.

I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by mere inches! The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was actually friendly!

On their 50th wedding anniversary, everyone were pestering Mary and George to tell their secrets to such a long marriage. The couple were grinning all the time, but they weren’t talking. They were quite happy simply sitting side by side and holding each other’s hand.

“Mary, come on now. Tell us your secrets,” urged Ruth, Mary’s good friend. “Give all the youngsters here a hint. Help them look forward to their own 50th anniversaries.”

“Yes, yes. Help us out. Please do tell,” everyone agreed.

Mary finally relented, “There isn’t any secret. Really.” Everyone was disappointed. Then Mary continued, “I did make a vow to myself on wedding day though.”

Heart lived in a very secured house with an unbreakable lock.

One day, the cocky Crowbar came to visit Heart.

“If you can open the lock, you can come in,” Heart told Crowbar.

“No problem. I’ll meet you in a jiffy,” Crowbar sounded confident. Being strong, he thought he could break open the lock in no time. But no matter how hard he chiseled and hammered, the lock wouldn’t budge.

His friend Saw who came with him couldn’t bear it any longer, “Oh, come on! You can’t even break a little lock. Why don’t you step aside and let THE man do it?”

During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz.

I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

Before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

Bill, a billionaire, just got himself a new 2008 Rolls Royce Phantom. Naturally, he wanted to find an outstanding chauffeur to drive his new car.

Many of the finest drivers in the world wanted to fill the post as Bill was willing to pay handsomely for the job. After a series of vigorous interviews and tests, his staff finally came up with four candidates for Bill to choose.

You are stuck in a traffic jam, impatient and frustrated, until a policeman runs off a sequence of pliés, arabesques and pirouettes right in front of your car.

It is bound to bring a smile to your face. At least that is the hope of police chiefs in the western Romanian city of Timisoara, who have sent their officers to ballet classes in the hope of helping them to manage the traffic with more grace and ease, and to encourage a reduction in road rage.