Annie (By Leah Curtin, R.N., in "Nursing Management Magazine)

Dr. Frank Mayfield was touring Tewksbury Institute when, on his way out, he accidentally collided with an elderly floor maid. 
 To cover the awkward moment Dr. Mayfield started asking questions, "How long have you worked here?" 
 "I've worked here almost since the place opened," the maid replied. 
 "What can you tell me about the history of this place?" he asked. 
 "I don't think I can tell you anything, but I could show you something." 
 With that, she took his hand and led him down to the basement under the oldest section of the building. She pointed to one of what looked like small prison cells, their iron bars rusted with age, and said, "That's the cage where they used to keep Annie." 
 "Who's Annie?" the doctor asked. 
 "Annie was a young girl who was brought in here because she was incorrigible - which means nobody could do anything with her. She'd bite and scream and throw her food at people. The doctors and nurses couldn't even examine her or anything. I'd see them trying with her spitting and scratching at them. I was only a few years younger than her myself and I used to think, 'I sure would hate to be locked up in a cage like that.' I wanted to help her, but I didn't have any idea what I could do. I mean, if the doctors and nurses couldn't help her, what could someone like me do? 
 "I didn't know what else to do, so I just baked her some brownies one night after work. The next day I brought them in. I walked carefully to her cage and said, 'Annie I baked these brownies just for you. I'll put them right here on the floor and you can come and get them if you want.' Then I got out of there just as fast as I could because I was afraid she might throw them at me. But she didn't. She actually took the brownies and ate them. 
 "After that, she was just a little bit nicer to me when I was around. And sometimes I'd talk to her. Once, I even got her laughing. One of the nurses noticed this and she told the doctor. They asked me if I'd help them with Annie. I said I would if I could. 
 So that's how it came about that every time they wanted to see Annie or examine her, I went into the cage first and explained and calmed her down and held her hand. Which is how they discovered that Annie was almost blind." 
 After they'd been working with her for about a year - and it was tough sledding with Annie - the Perkins institute for the Blind opened its doors. They were able to help her and she went on to study and became a teacher herself. 
 Annie came back to the Tewksbury Institute to visit, and to see what she could do to help out. At first, the Director didn't say anything and then he thought about a letter he'd just received. A man had written to him about his daughter. She was absolutely unruly - almost like an animal. 
 He'd been told she was blind and deaf as well as 'deranged.' He was at his wit's end, but he didn't want to put her in an asylum. So he wrote here to ask if we knew of anyone - any teacher - who would come to his house and work with his daughter. 
 And that is how Annie Sullivan became the lifelong companion of Helen Keller. 
 When Helen Keller received the Nobel Prize, she was asked who had the greatest impact on her life and she said, "Annie Sullivan." But Annie said, "No Helen. The woman who had the greatest influence on both our lives was a floor maid at the Tewksbury Institute." 
 Post Script: History is changed when one person asks, "What can someone like me do"? 

Pride by C. S. Lewis

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves.  The essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride.  Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison.  It was through pride that the devil became the devil.  

Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind.  If I am a proud man, then, as long as there is one man in the whole world more powerful, or richer, or cleverer than I, he is my rival and my enemy.  As long as you are proud you cannot know God.  

A proud man is always looking down on things and people, and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.  The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small dirty object.  It is better to forget about yourself altogether.

ATTITUDE MATTERS!

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. As he manoeuvred his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged. It's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away.. Just for this time in my life..."

Oh Yea Ignorant Generation!

Today I literally felt like weeping for our lost generation.

I was discussing global perspectives with a born again fresh graduate from University of Nairobi.

When I asked his opinion about the latest developments in the Middle East, the young man told me it doesn't concern him at all.

That kind of apathy coming from a graduate was sad enough but for a born again Christian to tell me what happens in the Mid East (read Israel) is of no consequence to him almost made me shed a tear.

The developments in Israel is the roadmap to Christ's Second Coming. 

Bible Prophesy is hinged upon what takes place in Israel.