Irena Sendler: A True Hero

Irena Sendler: There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.)

Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises..

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irenakept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize .....

She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming instead.

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The Lesson Of R.U. Darby (true story)

An uncle of R.U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the gold-rush days, and went west to dig for gold and get rich. He staked his claim and started digging with a pick and shovel. It was hard work but he was determined to find gold and after weeks of digging he was rewarded with the discovery of gold.

He needed machinery to go deeper so he quietly covered the mine and went back to his family in Maryland to raise the money for machinery. After telling his family and some neighbors about the strike, the money was raised, and he and R.U. Darby headed back to Colorado to work the mine.

The first car of ore was mined and shipped to the smelter. The results proved that they had one of the richest mines in Colorado. A few more cars of the ore would pay off all the debts and then would come huge profits.

Needless to say the hopes of R.U. Darby and his uncle were very high but then the vein ran out. They drilled on for a while but never found anymore gold. Finally they decided to quit.

They sold the equipment to a junk man for a few hundred dollars. The junk man checked out the mine and brought in an expert who told him that the vein should continue on. He told the junk man that he wouldn’t doubt that the vien continued only a few feet past where they had stopped drilling.

Sure enough after the man who had bought the equipment started drilling again, he found gold just three feet past where R.U. Darby had stopped. He ended up bringing out millions in gold because he knew better than to give up before seeking expert advice.

R.U. Darby paid back every penny of the borrowed money to his family and neighbors and latter did find much wealth himself, selling insurance. He said that the owed his success to the lesson he learned through that one mistake. He would always remind himself “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say ‘no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”

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A Carrot, An Egg, And Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up; she was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ‘ Tell me what you see.’

‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, mother?’

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

‘Which are you?’ she asked her daughter. ‘When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

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