We're all different ...

Yesterday I was cleaning out closets and cupboards in my mother's apartment. She has moved into a smaller living space - a one-room "bed-sitter" with no kitchen - in a friendly retirement residence.

I feel sorry for you, my mother commented the last time she was there. Surveying the half-empty closet and kitchen cupboards, she sighed: It's so much work.

Don't feel sorry - I'm not complaining, I told her.

And I'm not. In some ways, I'm actually enjoying it. It's a little like going through an old treasure chest. Occasionally I discover something that brings back memories.

Today I noticed a paper affixed to my mother's fridge with magnets. It has been there for years. So I decided to share it here. For me, it is a reminder to enjoy her and appreciate her, even though we are so very different... (I copied and pasted it from Yahoo! Answers , saving me the effort of typing it all over again.)

I'm Special

I'm special. In all the world there is nobody like me.

Since the beginning of time there has never been another person like me. Nobody has my smile. Nobody has my eyes, my nose, my hair, my voice. I'm special.

No one can be found who has my handwriting. Nobody anywhere has my tastes - for food or music or art. No one sees things just as I do.

In all of time, there has been no one who laughs like me, no one who cries like me. And what makes me laugh and cry will never provoke identical laughter and tears from anybody else, ever. No one reacts to any situation just as I would react. I'm special.

I'm the only one in all creation who has my set of abilities. Oh, there will always be somebody who is better at one of the things I am good at, but no one in the universe can reach the quality of my combination of talents, ideas, abilities and feelings. Like a full room of musical instruments, some may excel alone, but no one can match the symphony sound when all played together. I am a symphony.

Through all eternity no one will ever look, talk, walk, think, or do like me. I'm special.

I'm rare. And, as in all rarity, there is great value. Because of my great rare value, I need not attempt to imitate others. I will accept - yes, celebrate - my differences. I'm special. And I'm beginning to realize its no accident that I'm special. I'm beginning to see that God made me special for a very special purpose. He must have a job for me that no one else can do as well as I. Out of the billions of applicants, only one is qualified, only one has the right combination of what it takes.

That one is me. Because... I'm special.

-Author Unknown