Kindness

A poor boy was selling goods from one door to another to pay for his studies. One day he found that he had only one dime left, and he was hungry. While approaching the next house, he decided to ask for a meal. 

But when a young woman has opened the door, he only dared to ask for a glass of water. She looked at him and understood, that probably the boy is hungry. So she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it and then asked, how much did he owe her. The woman replied: „You don‘t own me anything. Mother taught us never to accept pay for a kindness“. „Then I thank you from the bottom of my heart“, – he said and felt that now is stronger not only physically, but his faith in God has grown as well. The boy‘s name was Howard Kelly.

Many year have passed. One day that woman became seriously ill. Local doctors could not help her, therefore they sent her to a big city, where her rare disease would be studied by specialists. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he entered her room in the hospital, he immediately recognized the woman, that showed kindness to him, when he was poor. The doctor was determined to do his best to help her recover from her disease.

The stuggle was long, but together they managed to overcome her illness. After some time the woman received a bill for her treatment. She was worried that the amount to pay would be so significant, that it would take the rest of her life to pay for it. Finally, when the woman looked at the bill, she noticed words that were written on the side of the bill. The words were: „Paid in full with a glass of milk“.

Letting go of the past

Once there was a free bird. She floated in the sky, catching midges for lunch, swam in the summer rain trickles, and was like many other birds. 
But she had a habit: every time some event occurred in her life, whether good or bad, the bird picked up a stone from the ground to memory. Every day she sorted out her stones, laughed remembering joyful events, and cried remembering the sad ones.
A bird always took the stones with her, whether she was flying in the sky or walking on the earth, she never forgot about them. The years have passed, and free bird got a lot of stones, but she still kept on sorting them, remembering the past. It was becoming more and more difficult to fly, and one day a bird was unable to do this. 
The bird that was free some time ago, could not walk on the earth, she was unable to make a move by her own. She could not catch midges anymore; only rare rain gave her the necessary moisture. But a bird bravely endured all the hardships, guarding her precious memories.
After some time a bird died of the starvation and thirst. And only a pitiful bunch of worthless stones reminded of her for a long time.