Too often we feel alone. But there is always someone ready to take our hand. There is a beautiful story of an overworked nurse who escorted a tired, young man to her patient's bedside. Leaning over and speaking loudly to the elderly patient, she said, "Your son is here."
With great effort, his unfocussed eyes opened, then flickered shut again. The young man squeezed the aged hand in his and sat beside the bed. Throughout the night he sat there, holding the old man's hand and whispering words of comfort.
By morning's light, the patient had died. In moments, hospital staff swarmed into the room to turn off machines and remove needles. The nurse stepped over to the young man's side and began to offer sympathy, but he interrupted her. "Who was that man?" he asked.
The startled nurse replied, "I thought he was your father!" "No, he was not my father," he answered. "I never saw him before in my life." "Then, why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"
"I realized he needed his son and his son wasn't here," the man explained. "And since he was too sick to recognize that I was not his son, I knew he needed me."
Do not undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Do not set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.
Do not take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Do not let your years slip through your fingers by living in the past, nor in the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.
Do not give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Do not be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Do not shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give love; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly.
Do not dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope; to be without hope is to be without purpose.
Do not run through life so fast that you forget not only where you have been, but also where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
One man began a speech to his fellow college alumni with the statement, "Some of you are successes, and some of you are failures -- only God knows which are which!"
There are many kinds of successes; many kinds of winners; and which is which may not at first be apparent.
Esther Kim is a true champion with a heartwarming story. Last week she competed against her childhood friend, Kay Poe, in the US Olympic Trials for her sport -- Taekwondo. Esther lost the match, but she went on to win all her other fights, which still qualified her for the finals. Her friend Kay also won her successive matches. But in her last fight before the finals, disaster struck. Kay dislocated her knee and went down in great pain. Her knee was reset as she lay in agony on the mat. All the while, her friend Esther encouraged her from the sidelines to finish the fight. Courageously, Kay finally stood up and, on one good leg, concluded the match for a win.
For her part, Kay is buying Esther a ticket to Sydney, Australia, so she can watch and cheer from the stands. "This was our dream, going to the Olympics," Esther said. "IT'S SO HARD. I have cried about it." But Esther discovered something important. "I gave her my dream," she said, "but for the first time ever, I feel like a champ."
Esther Kim won a victory far greater than one fought on the mats. She won a victory of the spirit, which qualifies her as a true champion.
As Kay Poe's father remarked, "The champions aren't always the ones who have all the medals." No, sometimes they are cheering from the sidelines. For success and winning is often about victories won in the hidden recesses of the heart. And any of us who will fight and win such a victory will know the meaning of the word "success."
P.S. Someone once said, "Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it."
