Tell them they're special

I’ve got work experience in the morning, exams at TAFE this week, loads of emails to catch up on, another week of training/aerobics at the gym ahead of me, more homework to do for the other course I’m doing, that bathroom needs more cleaning, got to ring the

Life is a never-ending list of things to do. How often do we get caught up in the "I’ve got this to do tomorrow", "I’ve got to get this done by the end of the week", "Ok just a sec, let me get this finished first" etc etc.

What about seizing the NOW?! What about leaving the house work for ten or twenty minutes so you can sit down and play with the kids? Or maybe just picking up the phone and ringing your Mum despite the fact you hung up on her yesterday? How about getting off the computer for a minute to go and give your partner a cuddle and tell them "I love you"? Or telling your son or daughter how special they are?

Life is too short to let everything bog us down and take for granted the people around us who we care about so much.

I received this email not long ago and it made me ask myself "Do I tell the people I care about how much they mean to me often enough?? And how special and important the are??"

Start of email:

To some special people. Too Busy for a Friend..

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much" were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Viet Namand his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. "Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "yes." Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Markwhen he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it." All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."
Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."
"I have mine too," Marilyn said "It's in my diary."
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group "I carry this with me at all times," Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again .

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Send this message on. If you do not send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful opportunity to do something nice and beautiful. If you've received this, it is because someone cares for you and it means there is probably at least someone for whom you care.

If you're "too busy" to take those few minutes right now to forward this message on, would this be the VERY first time you didn't do that little thing that would make a difference in your relationships?

The more people that you send this to, the better you'll be at reaching out to those you care about.

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

May Your Day Be As Blessed As You Are Special.

- End of email

So despite everything you’ve got to get done to keep your life running smoothly, don’t forget every now and again to take a bit of time out and spend quality time with the ones you love. Instead of being in a mad rush to complete your ‘to do’ lists, how about sitting down and completing an even better list – like writing down all the points you love about your Partner, Daughter, Son, Mum, Dad or Best Friend, and give it to them. See how they react. I bet there’s a great chance it will increase the positives in your relationship, and who knows, it could even be their good luck charm for the future ‘wars’ they battle.

So make sure you tell your loved ones how much they mean to you!

Sending out lots of warm fuzzies, Kylie *