What Do You Perceive As The Seven Wonders Of The World?

A group of students was asked to list what they thought were the present "Seven Wonders of the World." Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes:

1. Egypt's Great Pyramids
2. Taj Mahal
3. Grand Canyon
4. Panama Canal
5. Empire State Building
6. St. Peter's Basilica
7. China's Great Wall


While gathering the votes, the teacher noticed that one quiet student hadn't turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many."


The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help."


The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the 'Seven Wonders of the World' are:
1. to see
2. to hear
3. to touch
4. to taste
5. to feel
6. to laugh
7. and to love."


The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.


The things we overlook as simple and ordinary and that we take for granted are truly wondrous!

A gentle reminder - that the most precious things in life cannot be built by hand or bought by man.

A Little Bit of Kindness

There are times in our life when we don't take action because we feel the action is too little, that it wouldn't make a difference. However, sometimes the smallest gesture can make a huge impact on someone's life. There are many different ways we can show kindness to others, and it doesn't have to be in a big way.

The simplest of things may make the difference. A smile, a door being held open, a handwritten note, a kind word, the list can go on and on.

I was recently reading some of Aesop's fables and came across the story of The Lion and The Mouse. While this story has been around for a long time, it still has wisdom in its words. Below is the story:

One day a Lion was asleep when a little Mouse began running up and down his back; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him.

"Please don't," cried the little Mouse: "forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?"

The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him that he lifted up his paw and let him go.

Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, he pulled with all his might, but the ropes were too strong. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight, in which the Lion was, went up to him, and with his sharp little teeth gnawed away the ropes, setting the Lion free.

"You once laughed at me," said the mouse. You thought I was too little to do you a good turn. But see, you owe your life to a poor little mouse."

While you may think the story is far fetched, the point I found in reading the story is not the size of the action that is important, but the difference that a small action made.

By Catherine Pulsifer, © 2007

The Wisdom of Einstein

Knowledge: The Search for the truth and Knowledge is one of the finest attributes of a man, though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least.

Authority: To punish me for my contempt of authority, fate has made me an authority myself.

Truth: It is difficult to say what truth is, but sometimes it is easy to recognize a falsehood.

Cooperation: A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are based on the labors of other people, living and dead and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

Wisdom: Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

Greatness: There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks.

Happiness: A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.

Fame: With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.

Life: Life is sacred, that is to say, it is the supreme value, to which all other values are subordinate.

Ageing: I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don't have to.

Praise: The only way to escape the personal corruption of praise is to go on working.

Problems: Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.
Relativity: An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.

Goals: One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can barely achieve through one's greatest efforts.

Racism: The only remedies against race and prejudice are enlightenment and education. This is a slow and painstaking process.

Solitude: I lived in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

Value: Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.

Imagination: When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.