Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, and where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn't hear the band, he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Then a sinister thought entered.
Why should the other man alone experience all the pleasures of seeing everything while he himself never got to see anything?
It didn't seem fair.

At first thought the man felt ashamed. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him sour. He began to brood and he found himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window.

That thought, and only that thought, now controlled his life.

Late one night as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window groped for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room he never moved, never pushed his own button, which would have brought the nurse running in.

In less than five minutes the coughing and choking stopped, along with that the sound of breathing. Now there was only silence -- deathly silence.

The following morning the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths. When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take it away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.

The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate to describe such wonderful things outside the window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you."

Epilogue. . . .

You can interpret the story in any way you like. But one moral stands out:
There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.

A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each made.

Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California, she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time.  

First she told them how the student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read,
"Who I Am Makes a Difference."

Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community.

She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results,see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.

            One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning.  

He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said,
"We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened."

Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow.  

He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius.

The boss seemed very surprised.  

The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permisson to put it on him.  

His surprised boss said,
"Well, sure."

The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart.  

As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said,
"Would you do me a favor?  
Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else?  
The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."

That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down.  

He said,
"The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius.  
Imagine. He thinks I'm a creative genius.  
Then he put this blue ribbon that says
'Who I Am Makes A Difference'
on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor.  

As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you.
I want to honor you.

"My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention to you.  
Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me.  
Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life.  
You're a great kid and I love you!"

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying.  

His whole body shook.  

He looked up at his father and said through his tears,
"I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me.
Now I don't need to."

You are under no obligation to send this on to two people or to two hundred.  
As far as I am concerned, you can move on to the next message.  

But if you have anyone who means a lot to you, I encourage you to send them this message and let them know.

You never know what kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a person.  

Send it to all of the people who mean anything important to you,
or send it to the one or two people who mean the most.
Or just smile and know that someone thinks that you are important, or you wouldn't be reading this in the first place.

Remember that!