> One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other
> students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each
> name.
>
> Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each
> of their classmates and write it down.
>
> It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and
> as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
>
> That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a
> separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that
> individual.
>
>
> On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire
> class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I
> meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much,"
> were most of the comments.
>
> No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they
> discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter.
> The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with
> themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
>
> Several years later, one of the students was killed in
VietNam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She
> had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so
> handsome, so mature.
>
> The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him
> took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the
> coffin.
>
> As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to
> her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes." Then he
> said: "Mark talked about you a lot."
>
> After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a
> luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak
> with his teacher.
>
> "We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of
> his pocket "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you
> might recognize it."
>
> Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook
> paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The
> teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she
> had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about
> him.
>
> "Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see,
> Mark treasured it."
>
> All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled
> rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer
> of my desk at home."
>
> Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."
>>
> "I have mine too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary"
>
> Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her
> wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. "I carry this
> with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she
> continued: "I think we all saved our lists"
>
> That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and
> for all his friends who would never see him again.
> The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will
> end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
> So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special
> and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
>
>
> And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Forward this message on. If you do not
> send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful opportunity to
> do something nice and beautiful. But its upto U to fwd this one.
>
> If you've received this, it is because someone cares for you and it means
> there is probably at least someone for whom you care.
>
>
> If you're "too busy" to take those few minutes right now to forward this
> message on, would this be the VERY first time you didn't do that little
> thing that would make a difference in your relationships?
>
> The more people that you send this to, the better you'll be at reaching
> out to those you care about.
>
> Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others
> comes back into your own.
>
> May Your Day Be Blessed As Special As You
>
