Do this while you're still alive....

I will share a very touching story about 'appreciation'...I adapted the story from the collections in my mini library. Although it is just a story in the book, It was happened to me recently...during my wedding day when I invited my form 5 Math's tutor and BM's teacher.

The story is like this....

On my wedding day, I invited My Math's teacher who was once insulted me in front of my mother and friends (whom also the person that keep my dream burning and flaming by his insultations until now ~ but I realized it was for good) by saying 'I have no hope for Azmy for this SPM ~ 99' " and my BM's teacher who keep 'her patience' with my 'naughty bad attitudes'.

By the end the ceremony these conversations occured...

• Azmy & Dk : Thank you Cikgu for coming...
• BM's teacher : (She started to cry...sobbing) Azmy & Dk,I feel very happy for both of you.Thanks for inviting me...After 8 years,only both of you still remember me. I heard a lot of your friends got married...but no one ever inform me. I knew the news from others only. I am very dissapointed...Thanks again and I love both of you.
• Azmy & Dk : Thank you sir for coming....
• Math's tutor : I am the one that should thank you Azmy...I still remember all my students. I praised them, teached them keenly but I never saw your ability. I heard now you're continuing your medical degree...I am proud of you. You're the one that still move on.I never got invited like this...never from my ex-student. Maybe I was wrong about you when you said, you will prove something to me in the future...and I still remember when I said nothing can be proven from you Azmy.Thanks Azmy...

Maybe some of you will say, I am creating fake stories...well, depends but I am not. You will never know the power of saying "Thank you teacher for what you have gave to me..." until years passes by.
Now let us go to the stories below...enjoy!!!

The Life Changing Gift of Appreciation By Barbara Glanz

In my keynote speeches and workshops, Care is an acronym I use for the elements of a caring,
creative, joyful workplace and home. The "A" in CARE stands for "Appreciation for ALL."
As I speak about appreciation, I use this quote by Albert Schweitzer:

"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another
human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light."

Then I ask my audiences to please shut their eyes and think about someone, who at some time in their lives, has rekindled their inner light. I leave the room in silence for several minutes, and it is always a profound experience as they remember the JOY they received from being appreciated by someone when they needed it the most.

Afterwards, I ask them to write down the name of the person they thought of and to commit to their own act of appreciation letting that person know in the next 72 hours that he or she was thought of. I suggest a phone call, a note, or even a little prayer if they are no longer living.

After one moving session, a gentleman came up to talk with me and thanked me for creating a new awareness in him. He said he thought of his eighth grade literature teacher because she was everyone's favorite teacher, and had really made a difference in all of their lives. He planned to track her down and let me know what happened.

One afternoon nearly two and a half months later I received a call from him. He was choked up on the phone he could hardly get through his story. He said that it had taken him nearly two months to track his teacher down, and when he finally found her, he wrote to her.

The following week he received this letter:

Dear John,

You will never know how much your letter meant to me. I am 83 years old, and I am living all alone in one room. My friends are all gone. My family's gone. I taught 50 years and yours is the first "thank you" letter I have ever gotten from a student. Sometimes I wonder what I did with my life. I will read and reread your letter until the day I die.

He just sobbed on the phone. He said, "She is always the one we talk about at every reunion.She was everyone's favorite teacher- we loved her! But no one had ever told her... until she received his letter.