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{Straight From the Heart}   *A Smiling Lesson*  5/3/00
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Welcome to "Straight From the Heart!"

If you enjoy this free daily email service, I encourage you to 
forward it on to family and friends. If this has been passed along to 
you and you want to join the list, just send a blank email to:  Thunder27@aol.com
I appreciate any feedback or constructive criticism, so feel free 
to write me (Michael T. Powers) and let me know what you think!

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I received a number of responses on the organ donor story yesterday...
While I don't usually pass along responses, (Due only to the lack of 
time on my part to do so), I wanted to share one of them.  
If you haven't signed the back of your driver's license yet, 
please take a few seconds and do so now...
Michael
***********
Hi Michael,

Just thought you might be interested in this tidbit...  My brother in 
law passed away suddenly this last month at the tender age of 52.  It 
was a real shock for my sister and all of us but what I wanted to 
share is that he was an organ donor.....even with his massive heart 
attack he was able to help 40 people with his body....of course we 
know it was just a shell and he is smiling in heaven right now.

Smiles and Happy Thoughts,
Carol M
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A Smiling Lesson

By:  Shery Ma Belle Arrieta


"Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles. 
What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for 
each other?" -- Johann Kaspar Lavater

Ever since I started commuting to and from work, I discovered that
I have been smiling a lot. I smile at the person beside me on the bus. 
I smile at the person across me on the jeepney. I smile at the security 
guard in my office building. I smile at the janitor I see mopping the 
floor in the hallway. I smile at the cashier in the mall. 

The smiles are not so much as flirty but rather an impulse I have developed
simply because I learned that if I smiled at someone, I get a smile back. 
I learned it from an old woman I didn't even know.

I was once seated beside her on my way to work one morning. She had kind
eyes and I could tell that it was her first time to visit the city. She kept
looking out the window and oooh-ing and aahhh-ing at the tall buildings.
She was with her granddaughter who was seated across the aisle.

I was trying to read a book then but I stopped every so often because she
kept leaning over my seat. I was about to ask her if she wanted to trade 
seats when I stopped and just stared at her. I saw wonder in her face. Her
eyes were wide and shining, and her mouth was stretched in a wide smile. 

She was oblivious to my stare because her eyes were fixed on something 
that was outside the window. That something was a section of the skyway 
that was still under construction, I found out when I turned my gaze outside
the window. It was her first time to see cars and buses go up the ramp and
onto the skyway. 

I have been seeing the same buildings, the same roads, the same ramps for 
a long time that I  felt envious that she found something so simple and
mundane to smile about.

When I turned to look at her, she was looking at me, the smile gone from her
face. I wanted to see her smile again. I was unsure of what to do. Finally,
in the breadth of a second, I risked a smile at her. That's when I saw the 
sun shine on her wrinkled face. She smiled back at me.

We then spent the rest of the trip talking and smiling at each other. 


©2000 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta
iamshery@msc.net.ph

Send Shery an email and let her know what you thought of her story!

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A little bit about Shery:

Shery is a writer living in the Philippines. She publishes three ezines,
one of them is the daily Positive Quotes where stories like the one you just 
read appears. Shery is also the author/creator of the special and free
Mother's Day ebook, MOTHERS: Recollections, Stories and Poetry. It is
available for free download at her site, the e-Writer's Place starting 
May 14 (http://webmarketingspecialists.com/ewriter). You can email her
at mailto:  iamshery@msc.net.ph

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Thought For The Day:

"I would rather fail in the cause that someday will triumph than triumph in a 
cause that someday will fail."
(Woodrow Wilson)

Verse for the Day:

"Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ."
2 Corinthians 2:14


Kid's Thought for the day:

"Lunch tastes better out of a Batman lunchbox, than out of a brown 
paper bag."

Parent's Thought For The Day

"Gentleman, try not to become men of success.  Rather, become men of 
value.."
(Albert Einstein)

Coach's Thought For The Day

"The player who won't be advised, can't be helped."


Deep Thought For The Day:

"Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?"
(Steven Wright)

  _
/_/\/\    MICHAEL T. POWERS
\_\  /    THUNDER27@aol.com   http://members.aol.com/Thunder27/index.html
/_/  \    "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
\_\/\ \   Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body I live for the Son
   \_\/   of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Galatians 2:20	



Video Imagery (Michael's Video Production Business)

"I thought of you first after my family sat down to watch the video 
we gave them. They loved it, to say the least!  Within thirty 
seconds my mom was crying and my dad did too.  They said it was 
the best Christmas gift we could have given them!!  You did such 
a beautiful job!  They were so suprised and so touched---they 
really, really, really loved it.  Thanks for helping to make it so 
special to us all.  My mom mentioned how the songs were perfect for 
the video too!  Thanks again!"
         
Kelli  (RKaGe@aol.com)    College Station, TX 

Let me make you a video from your pictures or home movies!
Check out the web page for Michael's video production business!
 Video Imagery 
http://members.aol.com/Videoimg/index.html