“Who Says You Can’t Teach an Old Dog a New Trick or Two”

A very wealthy businessman in a small Midwest town had signs printed and placed all around town. The signs stated that if any person living in the town that owed debts, came to his office on a specific day between the hours of 9am and 12pm, he would pay off their debts.

His offer was the talk of the town, but very few people believed he would honor his word. They figured there must be a catch somewhere. When the day arrived, the business man was sitting in his office at 9am. By 10am, no one had come. At 11am, a man was pacing up and down outside his office, but was very hesitant to come in. Finally he found the courage to open the door and poke his head inside. He asked, “Is it true that you will pay off a person’s debt?”"That’s right,” the rich man replied. “Are you in debt?” “Yes I am,” the caller answered. “Do you have the bills and statements to prove it?” The visitor produced the bills and statements and the business man wrote out a check to cover all of the man’s debt. Just before noon, two more men came and had their debts paid off. People outside still could not believe it, but before they could act the time had run out.

Life is about taking risks, without risk there can be no reward, but even more so in life if we do not ask we will never be available to receive. When we learn to trust our self we learn to trust others – those who do not trust others have failed to trust themselves.

 There is a great saying from the bible:

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek; and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

Matthew 7:7-8

In Calgary, Alberta a 26-year-old mother stared down at her 6 year old son, who was dying of terminal leukemia. Although her heart was filled with sadness, she also had a strong feeling of determination. Like any parent, she wanted her son to grow up & fulfill all his dreams. That was no longer possible. The leukemia would see to that. But she still wanted her son’s dream to come true.

She took her son’s hand and asked, ‘Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?’

Mommy, ‘I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up.’

Mom smiled back and said, ‘Let’s see if we can make your wish come true.’ Later that day she went to her local fire department in Calgary, where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Alberta. She explained her son’s final wish and asked if it might be possible to give her 6 year-old son a ride around the block on a fire engine.

Fireman Bob said, ‘Look, we can do better than that. If you’ll have your son ready at seven o’clock Wednesday morning, we’ll make him an honorary Fireman for the whole day. He can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine yards! And if you’ll give us his sizes, we’ll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat – not a toy – one-with the emblem of the Calgary Fire Department on it, and a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots.’ ‘They’re all manufactured right here in Calgary, so we can get them fast.’

Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy, dressed him in his uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting hook and ladder truck. Billy got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station. He was in heaven.

There were three fire calls in Calgary that day and Billy got to go out on all three calls. He rode in the different fire engines, the Paramedic’s’ van, and even the fire chief’s car. He was also videotaped for the local news program. Having his dream come true, with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him, Billy lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible.

One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept – that no one should die alone, began to call the family members to the hospital. Then she remembered the day Billy had spent as a Fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition.

The chief replied, ‘We can do better than that.  We’ll be there in five minutes. Will you please do me a favor? When you hear the sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you announce over the PA system that there is not a fire?’ ‘It’s the department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to his room?’ About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the hospital and extended its ladder up to Billy’s third floor open window——– 16 fire-fighters climbed up the ladder into Billy’s room. With his mother’s permission, they hugged him and held him and told him how much they LOVED him.

With His dying breath, Billy looked up at the fire chief and said, ‘Chief, am I really a fireman now?’

‘Billy, you are, and The Head Chief, Jesus, is holding your hand,’ the chief said.

With those words, Billy smiled and said, ‘I know, He’s been holding my hand all day, and the angels have been singing.’

He closed his eyes one last time.

In our day-to-day life we have many opportunities to give little gifts to others that will enhance their day and make their life a little bit better. These little gifts are the gift of love. Love is kindness, patience, generosity, courtesy, humility, forgiveness and honesty. Fireman Bob took the time to be kind (to openly and willingly receive Billy’s moms wish and act upon it), he took the time to be patient (to take the time to really listen to Billy’s mom’s need and act upon it), he took the time to be generous (to act and give of his time to have Billy’s uniform made), he took the time to be courteous (he acted in a respectful manor to the pain Billy and his mother were going through), he took the time to be humble (he set his own intentions and needs aside and acted to fulfill the needs of Billy and his mother), he took the time to forgive (he forgave life for taking this young boy at such an early age and acted without resentment or anger) and he took the time to be honest (he took action and fulfilled his commitments to Billy, his mother and to himself) – and it was Fireman Bob’s willingness to act that emotionally pulled at our hearts as we read this story because we all know it is within us too – to be channels of love – all we have to do is find the time and the willingness to give it away.

Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.
Eckhart Tolle

In Scott Peck’s book ‘A Road Less Traveled’ he states that we as people are innately lazy. And it’s this laziness that may explain why we want and at times expect others to fulfil our deepest needs and desires. We want our spouse to give us the love we seek so that we can feel loveable. We want our children to give us the appreciation we seek so that we can feel appreciated. We want our friends to give us the acceptance we seek so that we can feel accepted. But why then, when we finally get these gifts from others is the feeling so short lived?

Why is something still missing? Well, from my understanding, we can only accept from others that which we first believe to be true of ourselves and if we are lacking that internal belief in the first place it is because we haven’t done the work necessary to have obtained it, whether it is love, appreciation, acceptance or whatever. Yes the truth is – we haven’t done the work – YET!

So how do we go about actually obtaining the needs we so deeply desire? Well first off we need to take action; if we want to feel love we must be willing to give love away – unconditionally without any expectation of getting anything back. It must be a gift! Now I know this may be hard to comprehend to start, because far too often we have been trained to blame others for our predicaments and feelings, but if you take a moment and look back over your life you will find that the times when you felt the most love was when you were giving love away to someone else, the times when you felt the most appreciated was when you were appreciating someone else and the times when you were feeling most accepted was when you were accepting others.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao Tzu

So the next time you are feeling really good stop and take a moment to see what it is that you are giving away and once you accept this little skill as the truth – you will find that you will have more control over your life and with that control come self respect and with self respect come self love – so it’s all good.