Enkahnz Shared (Story)-The miracle of $1.11

Enkahnz: Tess was a precocious eight year old when she heard her Mom and Dad talking about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very sick and they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment complex next month because Daddy didn’t have the money for the doctor bills and our house. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and it was looking like there was no-one to loan them the money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful Mother with whispered desperation, “Only a miracle can save him now.”

Tess went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes. Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall’s Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door. She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good.(Enkahnz)

Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter. That did it!
“And what do you want?” the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. “I’m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen in ages,” he said without waiting for a reply to his question.

“Well, I want to talk to you about my brother,” Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. “He’s really, really sick… and I want to buy a miracle.”

“I beg your pardon?” said the pharmacist.

“His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?”

“We don’t sell miracles here, little girl. I’m sorry but I can’t help you,” the pharmacist said, softening a little. “Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs.”(Enkahnz)

The pharmacist’s brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, “What kind of a miracle does you brother need?”

“I don’t know,” Tess replied with her eyes welling up. “I just know he’s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can’t pay for it, so I want to use my money.”

“How much do you have?” asked the man from Chicago. “One dollar and eleven cents,” Tess answered barely audibly. “And it’s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to.

“Well, what a coincidence,” smiled the man. “A dollar and eleven cents – the exact price of a miracle for little brothers.” He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said, “Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”

That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specialising in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place.

“That surgery,” her Mom whispered. “was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?”

Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost… one dollar and eleven cents … plus the faith of a little child.read more(Enkahnz)

Enkahnz Shared (Story)-Positive Thinking

Enkahnz: Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”

He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”(Enkahnz)

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested.

“Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.”(Enkahnz)

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?”

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked. Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”read more(Enkahnz)

Enkahnz Shared (Story)-A friend for life and death

Enkahnz: Elderly living alone find peace in Tommy’s promise to fulfil their last ritesThe red, bulging bundle makes a soft splash, unfurling as it hits the surface of the rolling sea.

“Rest in peace, uncle,” whispers a volunteer.

She watches; the weight of the cremated ashes and bones pulls the cotton-fabric coffin into the murky depths of its watery grave. A coterie of flowers emerges from the sinking package, leaving a colourful trail in its wake. There are no tears, but it is a briny farewell, nonetheless.

On this balmy Tuesday, six strangers who died alone are being buried in the waters off the eastern coast of Singapore. Funeral director Tommy Yu conducts the sombre ceremony on a rented bum boat.

For nearly four decades, Tommy has been performing last rites for people without next-of-kin, regardless of their religion. His selfless service to the poor does not stop there. He also cremates and buries those estranged from family, who leave the world neglected and forgotten.(Enkahnz)

Along with volunteers, Tommy does this work under the banner of Love & Unity Volunteers Establishment (LUVE), which he founded in 1986. Each year, Tommy gives free funeral services to as many as 30 elderly across Singapore, paid for out-of-pocket or from donations to LUVE.

The sobering process starts with a call from a social worker to Tommy. He picks up the deceased, cleans and dresses them in a new outfit, before delivering them to the crematorium. There, he sees off the dead, and later collects and prepares the remains, before taking them to their final resting place.

“When a person lives until 70 or 80 years old, when he or she passes on, would they have no friends? Not even family?” asks Tommy. “This kind of poverty is such that even their friends and family don’t wish to acknowledge them.”read more(Enkahnz)

Enkahnz Shared (Story)-When Nothing Seems to Work

Enkahnz: I’m A.M. and I have depression and anxiety disorder, or what I call, D+A. This has been my reality for the past three and a half years.

The dysphoria started when I was 16. There was a ceaseless cloud of malaise and suicidal thoughts. Anxiety attacks were quotidian. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Or rather, I didn’t want to admit that I had depression and anxiety disorder.

I was averse to the idea of seeking help as I was reluctant to acknowledge my condition. I hated that it was a part of me. Thereafter, I started dealing with my condition through unhealthy ways, suffocated by everything around me — people, commitments, and school. I began isolating myself socially and retreated into a bubble. All I could remember was crying myself to sleep just to escape the melancholy, which grew worse with each night. The year 2016 was also the time of my ‘O’ Level examinations, which compelled me to supress every single emotional baggage and personal issue. This denial and self-negligence was the start of everything unpleasant.(Enkahnz)

By Junior College, I could no longer deny that D+A was present in my life. So I reached out for proper treatment. Initially, it felt like everything was finally going in the right direction. But I was mistaken.

My treatment entailed medications, counselling and therapies. Juxtaposed with the expectations of recovery, my condition got worse. Every visit to the psychiatrist and psychologist only resulted in higher doses of antidepressants which ironically made me feel worse. I was locked in a suicidal state and my short-term memory significantly degraded temporarily due to the use of anti-anxiety pills. It was a living hell. I was brought to the Emergency Room of IMH twice, missing out on school.

By 2018, I was desperate to get better. I got increasingly frustrated and disappointed at myself for being this way. I thought being able to get help for it was all that there was to it. I lived each day hating the mess that I had become. I remembered walking around feeling the weight of the “grey cloud” on me everywhere I went. I remembered crying a lot. I questioned if this sort of life was worth the struggle.(Enkahnz)

Ultimately, I just got tired and gave up on the pursuit of recovery. Nothing had worked, everything was bleak. At the time, I felt D+A was going to cling on to me for as long as I lived. So I stopped my medication, I stopped therapies and I stopped counselling sessions. I decided to just let it take over my life, until that one panic attack, the worst that I’ve had. I realised that I was, once again, back to square one.

I decided to give treatment one last try and agreed with my psychiatrist to take a six-week break from school just to focus on myself, and on treatment. I remember feeling angry at myself for turning into this mess.

With this epiphany, I started setting goals for myself, I slowly started to venture out doing things that I really love and enjoy. I eventually decided that I needed to be on a path where I would feel a sense of fulfilment and press that restart button which I’ve been searching for all along. Hence, I started on this journey to fight D+A head on.

I left Junior College in the middle of my ‘A’ Level year, dropped important involvements in 2018 and really started doing things that I love. I decided to start studying things that would make my heart feel fulfilled and leisure activities that would make my heart beat in excitement. I started doing all these things alongside receiving treatment.

I’m not saying that I’m totally off the hook with D+A. I still do have panic attacks in crowds when I’m alone. I still panic sometimes whenever I have to take the train alone during peak hours without blasting music into my ears and I still do panic when I enter a crowded cinema by myself. I am still on medication and have bouts of depression from time to time. However, life in general has never been better. I do feel a huge improvement in my condition and I’m not even sure if it’s the medications or if it is because I’ve decided to set D+A to be a separate thing from myself. Perhaps medication and therapy have their limits when it comes to me. Maybe all I needed was to take baby steps in doing the things that I love. Maybe all I needed was effort to put my focus into fighting against it instead of running away incessantly, expecting treatments to work on their own.read more(Enkahnz)

Enkahnz Shared (Story)-The Little Mouse

Enkahnz: Once upon a time, there was a Baby Mouse and Mother Mouse. They lived in a hole in the skirting board in a big, warm house with lots of cheese to eat, where they wanted for nothing. Then, one day, Mother Mouse decided to take Baby Mouse outside of their home. Waiting outside for them was a huge ginger tomcat, licking its lips and waiting to eat them both up.

“Mother, Mother! What should we do?” Cried Baby Mouse, clinging to his mother’s tail. Mother Mouse paused, staring up into the beady eyes of the hungry cat. But she wasn’t scared because she knew exactly how to deal with big, scary cats. She opened her mouth and took in a deep breath.(Enkahnz)

“Woof! Woof! Bark bark bark!” She shouted, and the cat ran away as fast as he could.

“Wow, Mother! That was amazing!” Baby Mouse said to his mother, smiling happily.

“And that, my child, is why it is always best to have a second language.”

Moral: It’s always good to have a second language.read more(Enkahnz)

Enkahnz Shared (Story)-The Frog in Hot Water

Enkahnz: Once the frog fell in a vessel of the hot water. The Water was still on a gas stove. The frog still did not try to jump out of the vessel, instead just stayed in it. As the temperature of the water started to rise, the frog managed to adjust its body temperature accordingly. As the water started to reach the boiling point, the frog was no longer able to keep up and manage its body temperature according to the water temperature.

The frog tried to jump out of the vessel but with water temperature reaching its boiling point, the frog was not able to bear it and couldn’t make it. What was the reason that a frog couldn’t make it? Will you blame the hot water for it?(Enkahnz)

Moral: The frog couldn’t make it due to its own inability to decide when it had to jump out. We all need to adjust according to the situations but there are times when we need to face the situation and take the appropriate action when we have the strength to do so before it’s too late. Walk out before you need to jump.read more(Enkahnz)

Enkahnz Shared (Story)-The Obstacle In Our Path

Enkahnz: The Obstacle in Our Path (Inspirational Short Stories)
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid himself and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.

Many people loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

A peasant then came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to push the stone out of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.(Enkahnz)

After the peasant went back to pick up his vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been.

The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King explaining that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.



Moral of the story:
Every obstacle we come across in life gives us an opportunity to improve our circumstances, and whilst the lazy complain, the others are creating opportunities through their kind hearts, generosity, and willingness to get things done.read more(Enkahnz)

Enkahnz Shared (Story)-Your good deeds could change the world

Enkahnz: “Every Sunday morning I take a light jog around a park near my home.  There’s a lake located in one corner of the park. Each time I jog by this lake, I see the same elderly woman sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage sitting beside her.

This past Sunday my curiosity got the best of me, so I stopped jogging and walked over to her. As I got closer, I realized that the metal cage was in fact a small trap. There were three turtles, unharmed, slowly walking around the base of the trap. She had a fourth turtle in her lap that she was carefully scrubbing with a spongy brush.(Enkahnz)

 ‘Hello,’ I said. ‘I see you here every Sunday morning.  If you don’t mind my nosiness, I’d love to know what you’re doing with these turtles.’

She smiled. ‘I’m cleaning off their shells,” she replied. “Anything on a turtle’s shell, like algae or scum, reduces the turtle’s ability to absorb heat and impedes its ability to swim. It can also corrode and weaken the shell over time.’

‘Wow! That’s really nice of you!’ I exclaimed.

She went on: ‘I spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping these little guys out. It’s my own strange way of making a difference.’(Enkahnz)

‘But don’t most freshwater turtles live their whole lives with algae and scum hanging from their shells?’ I asked.

‘Yep, sadly, they do,’ she replied.

I scratched my head. ‘Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent? I mean, I think your efforts are kind and all, but there are fresh water turtles living in lakes all around the world. And 99% of these turtles don’t have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells.  So, no offense… but how exactly are your localized efforts here truly making a difference?’

The woman giggled aloud. She then looked down at the turtle in her lap, scrubbed off the last piece of algae from its shell, and said, ‘Sweetie, if this little guy could talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world.'”read more (Enkahnz)