A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor .
Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee .
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.
Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."
Don't let the cups drive you... Enjoy the coffee instead
Mother's love is countless and meaningful. Her virtuous of kindness is hardly repaid by any precious things in this world. Her deep parental kindness in bringing us up and the hardships she has gone through will never be repaid as they are priceless. In other words, her love for her child is endless and indescribable!
A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; When adversity takes the place of prosperity; When friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us; When troubles thicken around us; Still she will cling to us, andendeavour by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.
"A mother is one to whom you turn when you are troubled." - Emily Dickinson
Mothers Day Origin
Moms are the best things that ever happened in the world. On May 11th every year, we celebrate 'Mother's Day' as an opportunity to express our love, respect and gratitude to our mothers for all the things she has done for us. Alchemy Webmedia has tried to consolidate the origin, history, legends and stories of this very special day, just for you.
The roots of Mother's Day go back to the ancient festivals dedicated to mother goddess. In the ancient Greek empire, Rhea, the wife of Cronus, and mother of Gods and Goddesses, was worshipped and honored at this time every year in a spring celebration. In Rome too, Cybele, a mother Goddess, was worshipped, as early as 250 BC. It was known as Hilaria, and it lasted for three days, called the Ides of March, that is from March 15 to March 18. In more recent times, during the 1600s, England observed "Mothering Sunday", or the "Mid-Lent-Sunday, on the fourth Sunday in Lent. It was quite identical to the modern-day celebrations.
In England where small chapels of ease served the ordinary needs of the country parishioners, the people went on Mid-Lent Sunday to the 'Mother Church' of the parish, laden with offerings. The historians hypothesize that the Mother Church was substituted for Mother Goddess by the early church, who adopted the ancient Roman ceremonies in honor of Cybele to venerate Mother Mary. And this is why it became customary to visit the church on the day of baptism or on Mother's Day.
The custom began for those working away from homes to return to their homes on Mothering Sunday with small gifts, or, mothering cakes for their mothers. Back home they presented their mothers with a cake and little nosegays of violets and other wild flowers gathered in the hedgerows as they walked along the country lanes. Whole families attended church together and there was a dinner of roast lamb, or veal, at which mother was treated as queen of the feast. Everything was done to make her happy. The custom of Mothering Sunday became more widespread during the 19th century. Any youth engaged in such act of duty was said to go 'amothering'. They day was celebrated with a festive mood appropriate to that day. The prominent dish was called furmety. It was a dish of wheat grains boiled in sweet milk, sugared and spiced.
In the northern part of England and Scotland there had been a custom of having steeped peas fried in butter, with pepper and salt. Pancakes so prepared passed by the name of carlings. It was so popular that from it Carling Sunday became a local name for the day.
The mothering cake also went by the name of Simnel cake. This was a very rich fruit cake, the richer the better. For, the Lenten fast dictated that it must keep until Easter. First boiled in water and then baked, it sometimes had an almond icing. At other times the crust was of flour and water, colored with saffron. The word Simnel comes from the Latin Simila, which means high-grade wheat flour.
The customs of the Mothering Sunday in England started to decline with the changing pattern of the society following the Industrial Revolution.
In the United States, Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948) is credited with bringing in the celebration of Mother's day. Anna Jarvis intended to start a Mother's Day as an honoring of mothers. The idea itself was so great that it did not take long to be spread all over. Leaving aside the first observance, the official recognition that followed for the observance came in galore. The governor of West Virginia issued the first Mother's Day proclamation in 1910. Oklahoma celebrated it in that same year. It stirred the same way in as far west as the state of Washington. And by 1911, there was not a state in the Union that did not have its own observances for Mother's Day. Soon it crossed the national boundary, as people in Mexico, Canada, South America, China, Japan and Africa all joined the spree to celebrate a day for mother love.
The immense popularity of the Day led to foundation of Mother's Day International Association on December 12, 1912. Its purpose was to promote and encourage meaningful observances of the event across the world. It was in 1934 Postmaster General James A. Farley announced a stamp to commemorate Mother's Day. The stamp featured the famous painting "Arrangement in Grey and Black". The painting was a portrait of the mother of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, an English artist. It was brought in to the United States as part of an exhibit in the year 1934.
This is Serious!This incident happened recently in North Texas . A woman went boating one Sunday taking with her some cans of coke which she put into the refrigerator of the boat. On Monday she was taken to the hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit. She died on Wednesday.
The autopsy concluded she died of Leptospirosis. This was traced to the can of coke she drank from, not using a glass. Tests showed that the can was infected by dried rat urine and hence the disease Leptospirosis.
Rat urine contains toxic and deathly substances. It is highly recommended to thoroughly wash the upper part of all soda cans before drinking out of them. The cans are typically stocked in warehouses and transported straight to the shops without being cleaned.
A study at NYCU showed that the tops of allsoda cans are more contaminated than public toilets (i.e).. full of germs and bacteria. So wash them with water before putting them to the mouth to avoid any kind of fatal accident.
