For my friends and family...

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.
His father gave him a bag
of nails and told him that every time he lost his
temper, he must hammer a
nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the
fence. Over the next few
weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the
number of nails hammered
daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was
easier to hold his
temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his
temper at all. He told his
father about it and the father suggested that the
boy now pull out one nail
for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the
young boy was finally able to tell his father that
all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to
the fence. He said,"You
have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the
fence. The fence will
never be the same. When you say things in anger,
they leave a scar just like
this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it
out. It won't matter how
many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still
there."

A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends
are a rare jewel indeed.
They make you smile and encourage you to succeed.
They lend an ear, they
share words of praise and they always want to open
their hearts to us."