Chicken Soup for the Soul: Reader's Choice 20th Anniversary Edition Read online

  Contents

  Introduction, Amy Newmark

  Eliminate the Negative, Accentuate the Positive, Georgia Shaffer

  ~Epiphanies~

  Living by the Light of a Smile, Sophfronia Scott

  The Smile, Hanoch McCarty

  My Wakeup Call, Susan Elizabeth Smith

  My Epiphany, Angela Sayers

  Ask for Help, J. Fullerton

  Friends of Bill W., Please Come to the Gate. . ., Jim C., Jr.

  Sticks and Stones, Janet N. Miracle

  Two Little Words with a Big Impact, Linda O’Connell

  The Room Decorated with Love, Jane McBride Choate

  Entering the Thankful Zone, Jeannie Lancaster

  The Living Room, Brittany Perry

  The Play’s the Thing, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer

  Joining the Family Business, Megan C. Hjelmstad

  Résumé of the Heart, Kathleen Swartz McQuaig

  ~Attitude Adjustments~

  I Am Me and I Am Okay, Annabel Sheila

  My Declaration of Self-Esteem, Virginia Satir

  Lunch with David, Emily Parke Chase

  Lunch with Grandma, Teri Batts

  The Tipping Point, Joseph P. Guerrero

  Success — Who Can Judge? Tom Lagana

  Fearing the Scar, Aletheia D. Lee

  Because He Loved Me, Ginger LeBlanc

  Good Morning, Grandma, Marcia Rudoff

  Mushy Face Is No Disgrace, Robert Tell

  Detours, Lynne Leite

  A Season to Be Strong, Penelope Vazquez

  An Honors Class for Remedial Dieters, Sally Willard Burbank

  The Honors Class, Jennie Ivey

  The Rescue of a Worrywart, Michele Ivy Davis

  Two Things Not to Worry About, Source Unknown

  Moving Forward, Catina Noble

  Dancing in the Rain, Jeannie Lancaster

  ~Great Advice~

  Memory Lane, Susan Yanguas

  Don’t Take It Personally, Janey Konigsberg

  Healthy Changes Ahead, Donna Finlay Savage

  The Tiny Waist of the Fifties, Carole A. Bell

  World Traveler, Nancy B. Gibbs

  The Window, George Target

  Lawn Chair Living, James C. Magruder

  Power Lounging, Gregg Levoy

  How I Learned to Read a Chicken Soup for the Soul Book, Linda A. Lohman

  What My Mother Gave Me Before She Died, Brad Meltzer

  A Smart Choice, Sarah Winkler

  Just One Drink, Chris Laddish

  Just One More Minute, Mommy, Ritu Shannon

  Be Careful What You Wish For, Mimi Greenwood Knight

  Messages of Love, Patricia Gallegos

  To Read When You’re Alone, Mike Staver

  Chicken Soup to the Rescue, Carol Commons-Brosowske

  Valentine’s Day Ambush, Kathleene S. Baker

  Losing Boomer, Timothy Martin

  When It’s Time to Say Goodbye, Bobbie Jensen Lippman

  It Wasn’t My Fault, Maisha C.

  It’s Never Your Fault, Hattie Frost

  ~Motivation~

  Matters of the Mind and Heart, Liz Graf

  Follow Your Dream, Jack Canfield

  My Own Goal Board, Jeanette Hurt

  Glenna’s Goal Book, Glenna Salsbury

  Treasured Time, Janet N. Miracle

  Confessions of a Morning Person, Mimi Greenwood Knight

  Redemption of a Hack, Lori Phillips

  Writing My Story, Ava Pennington

  What Saralee Said, Theresa Sanders

  Just Show Up, Saralee Perel

  Good Morning, Birdie, Dominique Young

  Cereal Killer, Rebecca Hill

  Good Enough to Eat, Valerie D. Benko

  It’s a Dog’s Life, Ginny Dent Brant

  The Happiness Committee, Debbie Acklin

  First Class Attitude, Mandie Maass

  ~Doing Good~

  Made a Difference to That One, Jennie Ivey

  One At A Time, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

  The Little Things, Carol Goodman Heizer

  It Couldn’t Hurt, Sandy Ezrine

  Always a Teacher, Jacquie McTaggart

  I Am a Teacher, John Wayne Schlatter

  Knowing They Are Loved, Judythe Guarnera

  I Like Myself Now, Everett Shostrum

  Worship Together, Nancy B. Gibbs

  A Guy Named Bill, Rebecca Manley Pippert

  Really Growing Up, Kevin Michael Nastu

  Broken Wing, Jim Hullihan

  Coach Perry, Michelle Duplessis Prudhomme

  Heaven’s Very Special Child, John and Edna Massimilla

  The Gift of Giving, Beverly F. Walker

  Never Too Poor to Give, Drema Sizemore Drudge

  Hugging Day, Rebecca Waters

  It Can’t Happen Here? Jack Canfield

  ~Amazing Connections~

  I Was Prepared, Tracy Fitzgerald

  Newfound Heroes, Carol Howard

  Postcard from My Past, Robert B. Robeson

  The Postcard, Rocky Bleier with David Eberhart

  The Infinite Worth of a Nickel, Hana Haatainen Caye

  The Nickel Story, Hana Haatainen Caye

  A Cherished Book, Linda Kaullen Perkins

  The Flop Artist Writer, Patricia Lorenz

  A Match Made in Heaven, Annmarie B. Tait

  Tea for Two, Terri Elders

  Meet Our Contributors

  Meet Our Authors

  Thank You

  About Chicken Soup for the Soul

  Reading List

  Introduction

  Storytelling has been mankind’s most effective way of passing on wisdom, advice, and culture throughout history. It is the best way for us to learn things. Most successful self-help authors or motivational speakers use storytelling to illustrate their points and deliver their messages in a way that resonates with people.

  Our books are primarily composed of stories written by ordinary people who have had extraordinary experiences. These people unselfishly share their stories with our readers. Sometimes they even reveal deeply personal moments in their lives that they have never shared with anyone before, not even their families or friends. Our contributors write the stories for two reasons: 1) to share their stories with strangers who may benefit from hearing of someone else’s experience, and 2) because writing the stories helps them — it is therapeutic to get stories onto paper. Writers tell us that even though their story wasn’t chosen for one of our books, it was still a great experience putting it on paper.

  I love our approach because we give our readers 101 personal, revealing stories from different people in every book — and that way everyone is likely to find an approach that works for them, or a story that causes a shift in their attitude, or a story that provides them the support they need during a challenging time. Our books are like portable support groups, with your peers eagerly sharing their stories and offering to help you.

  Picking stories that will influence people’s lives is a big responsibility. We get e-mails and letters all the time from people telling us that we have stopped them from committing suicide, reassured them that they are doing the right thing in their personal lives, given them a friend when they thought they were all alone, caused them to pick up the phone and call an estranged relative or friend. They tell us that our stories have inspired them to change their jobs, embrace a volunteer activity, try again to reach a long-ago abandoned goal, or have reinvigorated their lives.

  We’ve been publishing our books and changing lives one story at a time since 1993. As part
of our twentieth-anniversary celebration, we asked our readers to write about how their favorite Chicken Soup for the Soul stories affected them. You’ll find the stories in pairs in this volume — a new story written just for this book, followed by the story or poem that the reader found so inspiring in one of our past 250+ titles.

  The stories that you’ll read cover the whole gamut of Chicken Soup for the Soul’s history, from the very first Chicken Soup for the Soul, which has sold more than eight million copies in the U.S. and Canada, to books you may have never seen that are focused on specific topics. It’s interesting that my own favorite comes from a book called Chicken Soup for the Soul: Hope & Healing for Your Breast Cancer Journey that we created with Dr. Julie Silver of Harvard Medical School. No one in my family has ever had breast cancer, but this story is a standout for me because I feel that it applies to all of us.

  In “Eliminate the Negative, Accentuate the Positive,” Georgia Shaffer writes about what happened when she had a recurrence of her breast cancer. A friend drove her to chemo one day but spent the entire time talking about people who had died of cancer. As Georgia says:

  “I learned the hard way that I needed to protect myself as much as possible from contact with that kind of negative or thoughtless person . . . I had never realized that just like the weeds in a garden rob the flowers of vital moisture, nutrients and sunlight, so too the ‘weeds’ in my life were robbing me of the vital energy I needed to fight cancer and heal. I could not afford to allow interactions with negative people to steal the few resources I had left . . . I needed to eliminate the negative as much as possible and then accentuate the positive. Like the flowers in my garden turn toward the sun, I decided to focus on the loving, beautiful connections in my life.”

  I am so busy in my job as publisher, author, and editor-in-chief of Chicken Soup for the Soul that I too have found that I need to focus on the people who can cast sunshine into my own life. I don’t have as much time as I would like for interaction with family and friends, so I want to make the most of the time that I have outside the office.

  And when I am at the office, one of my jobs is to introduce you to the positive people who write for us. They give us stories that are empowering and uplifting, encouraging our readers to look within themselves for the keys to being happy, productive, and purposeful. I love stories from people who have been through enormous challenges and yet have maintained a positive attitude, filled with gratitude for the good things they still have.

  In this book, you’ll meet one of our favorite contributors of all time, twenty-year-old Angie Sayers, who bravely wrote about her terminal cancer and changed many lives, including that of Susan Smith, who used Angie’s example to overcome her panic disorder. You’ll meet Sophfronia Scott, who learned from a story in the original Chicken Soup for the Soul about the power of smiling to change her life, even in impersonal New York City. It changed her life, and I happen to see Sophfronia now and again and can report that she is always smiling.

  You’ll also read one of the classic self-esteem boosters that we published, by Virginia Satir, and discover how it helped Annabel Sheila turn her life around after a divorce. And you’ll read about Tracy Fitzgerald, whose story gives me chills. One night, Tracy read a story in Chicken Soup for the Military Wife’s Soul and mentally prepared herself in case she ever got “the phone call” and learned her husband had lost a limb in Afghanistan. She got the phone call the very next morning.

  You’ll read about a woman who was reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption twenty-three years earlier, all because of a connection made in one of our stories. You’ll read about the medevac crewmember who read a story in Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul and realized that he was reading about one of the soldiers he saved in Vietnam, who went on to win four Super Bowls.

  The list goes on. We have enjoyed a wonderful trip down Memory Lane putting this volume together for you, and we are gratified to see the effect that our stories have had on so many lives.

  As Jack Canfield says, “There are essentially two things that will make you wise — the books you read and the people you meet.” We hope to make you doubly wise — by reading our books and by meeting hundreds of new people through them, so that their life experiences become part of your life experience and wisdom.

  Mark Victor Hansen says, “Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” We wish you happy reading and an enjoyable journey through these powerful stories, and we hope that we contribute to your strength, self-confidence and success, whatever your endeavors.

  ~Amy Newmark

  Eliminate the Negative, Accentuate the Positive

  I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

  ~Abraham Lincoln

  One chilly January day twenty-two years ago, I sat in an examining room, waiting for the results of yet another biopsy. Six months earlier, at the age of thirty-eight, I had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and had a mastectomy and reconstruction. But a suspicious rash had appeared on my reconstructed breast and I was waiting to hear the results of the lab report.

  My doctor entered the room with a look of concern. “Georgia,” he said, “I’m sorry but it’s a recurrence of breast cancer.”

  My head started to spin and I felt that familiar awful ache in the pit of my stomach.

  But my feelings were not exactly like the first time I was told I had cancer. There was no shock. There was no numbness. There was no denying what was happening. It was serious and I knew it.

  Although I can’t recall everything the surgeon said that day, I do remember what happened when he left the room. His nurse, Vickie, who was only a few years younger than I was, looked over at me with deep concern.

  My eyes met hers and I burst into tears. “I don’t want to die. My son is only nine years old,” I sobbed. “I want to live to see him graduate from high school.” I started rocking back and forth and kept repeating, “I just want to see my son graduate from high school.”

  Vickie didn’t tell me I would see my son Kyle graduate. She didn’t tell me I wouldn’t. She listened, held me tightly and handed me one tissue after another.

  I don’t know how long I stayed in that examining room, but I do know that she stayed with me and she ached with me.

  During the days that followed, I discovered I had a slim chance of being alive in ten years. My only hope for long-term survival was chemotherapy, radiation and a bone marrow transplant.

  I had all those treatments. When they were complete, my cancer was in remission, but I was a mere shell of a person. As Kyle said years later, “Mom, you were a ghost in a shell.”

  Through my experience with cancer, I learned the powerful impact of one caring person. Whether that person is a doctor’s assistant like Vickie, a counselor, a friend or a relative — it’s one person who can make a positive difference.

  The harsh reality is that I also became painfully aware that some people are not positive and life giving. Rather, their negative or thoughtless interactions are draining and, in some cases, toxic.

  For example, one day a “friend” took me to a chemotherapy treatment. For the 50-minute drive, she told me one painful story after another about people who had faced cancer. At one point I asked, “Can we talk about something besides cancer?”

  She did. For five minutes. And then the litany began again.

  After previous treatments, I had never gotten sick. After that treatment, I was sick for two days.

  I learned the hard way that I needed to protect myself as much as possible from contact with that kind of negative or thoughtless person. At the very least I had to distance myself from certain people and acquire the ability to say no. This was especially difficult because I had been taught to be kind to everyone. I had never recognized the importance of setting clear boundaries with some people. I had never realized that just like the weeds
in a garden rob the flowers of vital moisture, nutrients and sunlight, so too the “weeds” in my life were robbing me of the vital energy I needed to fight cancer and heal. I could not afford to allow interactions with negative people to steal the few resources I had left.

  In a perfect world, everyone gathers around cancer survivors and supports them in the way they need to be supported. Since this isn’t a perfect world, I needed to make two changes. I needed to eliminate the negative as much as possible and then accentuate the positive. Like the flowers in my garden turn toward the sun, I decided to focus on the loving, beautiful connections in my life. I chose to truly appreciate and treasure the people who cared for me and doted on me. I know I would not be here today without all the support I received.

  Seventeen years later, I called Vickie the nurse and asked to meet with her.

  “Vickie,” I said when we met, “I want to thank you again. You have no idea of the impact that your warmth and compassion made in my life.” Tears of gratitude streamed down my cheeks.

  She looked at me and shook her head in amazement. “You just never know, do you? I had no idea what that meant to you that day.”

  Like Vickie, many people give us a hug, make an affirming comment or lend a helping hand and never think about it again. They don’t realize that it makes all the difference to us as cancer survivors when we sometimes wonder how we’ll make it through another day. It’s that positive nurturing connection, that heart-to-heart connection, that not only will counteract all those sterile needles or machines we have to face, but will continue to warm our hearts years later even on the chilliest of winter days.

  ~Georgia Shaffer

  Epiphanies

  Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.

  ~John Milton

  Living by the Light of a Smile

  Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

  ~Thích Nhat Hanh

  I moved to New York City after college. I quickly learned that smiling, for the most part, was not a good thing. A smile attracted unwanted attention, especially from men who equated it with an invitation and who would send catcalls my way as I walked down the street. Being an inexperienced young woman, I didn’t know how to deal with such behavior. I felt annoyed, harassed, and powerless. Eventually I cultivated a kind of neutral expression that I wore every time I went outside. If I smiled at a stranger it was forced, a polite return of a smile. My true smile came out only with my loved ones.