Life's Echo
============

A mother and her daughter were
walking on the mountains.
Suddenly, the daughter falls,
hurts herself and screams: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
To her surprise, she hears the voice repeating,
somewhere in the mountain: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Curious, she yells: "Who are you?"
She receives the answer:
"Who are you?"
Angered at the response,
she screams: "Coward!"
She receives the answer:
"Coward!"

She looks to her mother and asks: "What's going on?"
The mother smiles and says: "My daughter, pay attention."

And then she screams to the mountain:
"I admire you!"
The voice answers:
"I admire you!"

Again the woman screams:
"You are a champion!"
The voice answers:
"You are a champion!"

The girl is surprised,
but does not understand.
Then the mother explains:
"People call this Echo,
but really this is Life.

It gives you back everything
you say or do.
Our life is simply a reflection of our actions.
If you want more love in the world,
create more love in your heart.

If you want more competence
in your team, improve your competence.

This relationship applies to everything, in all
aspects of life.  

Life will give you back
everything you have given to it.

Author Unknown

Your gentle guidance has immeasurably influenced all that I have done,
All that I do, and all that I will ever do.
Your sweet spirit is indelibly imprinted on all that I have been,
All that I am, and all that I will ever be.
Thus, you are a part of all that I accomplish and all that I become.

And so it is that when I help my neighbor, your helping hand is there
also.
When I ease the pain of a friend, she owes a debt to you.
When I show a child a better way, either by word or by example,
You are the teacher once removed.

Because everything I do reflects values learned from you,
Any wrong that I right,
Any heart that I may brighten,
Any gift that I share, or burden I may lighten,
Is in it's own small way a tribute to you.

Because you gave me life, and more importantly, lessons
In how to live, you are the wellspring from which
Flows all good I may achieve in my time on earth.

For all that you are and all that I am, I thank you.

There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands
and the other high in the mountains.  The mountain people invaded the
lowlanders one day, and as a part of their plundering of the people, they
kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with
them back up into the mountains.
The lowlanders didn't know how to climb the mountain.  They didn't know
any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn't know where
to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain.
Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the
mountain and bring home the baby.
The men tried first one method of climbing and then another.  They tried
one trail and then another.  After several days of effort, however, they had
climbed only a couple of hundred feet.
Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause
was
lost, and they prepared to return to their village below.
As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby's
mother walking toward them.  They realized that she was coming down the
mountain that they hadn't figured out how to climb.
And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back.  How could
that be?
One man greeted her and said, "We couldn't climb this mountain.  How did
you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village,
couldn't do it?"
She shrugged her shoulders and said ,"It wasn't your baby."