L’ll Abner

Shared By Carla

Many years ago a young lady who was attending a seminar shared an interesting story with me. Apparently she and two or three of her girlfriends went and tried out for a place in a stage play. She got the starring role while her girlfriends were not even picked for the supporting cast. Opening night she said she was really excited but afterwards became very disappointed when her girlfriends never came out and supported her. She was explaining the situation to an elderly friend of her fathers named Hap. He wrote her a letter and she gave me a copy with her permission to share it with others. Read it carefully and think.

Dear Ann,

Once upon a time there was a fellow by the name of Al Capp who wrote a comic strip called “L’ll Abner.” Many years ago he had some characters in his strip who lived in a town near Dogpatch. They were the town bums, the n’er do wells, the failures whose whole aim in life was to pass judgement on others. Their criticism and ridicule became so vehement that in time the rest of the people in the town became acutely conscious of it. “The boys down at the stable,” as they were called because that’s where they spent most of their time, soon set the social standards of the town. Nobody could do anything without their sanction.

Because they lived within the structure of their crummy little world, they would laugh and point their fingers at anyone and everyone who tried to be better than they were. As a result the people feared the ridicule of the boys down at the stable so much that they stopped trying. Soon everybody became bums and the town died.

In every social structure, Ann, whether it be family, town, county or state, there are “The boys down at the stable.” They are the jealous ones. They are too scared to try something different. They show their ignorance by laughing at those who do. Learn to recognize them Ann, for what they are. Don’t let them hurt you. It takes a certain amount of toughness to succeed. One has to rise above those who would tear you down so that they can laugh and say, “I told you so!”

There are too many of us who love you and want you to make it. I could put myself at the top of the list. You aren’t going to fall flat on your face as they would have you. You are going to do a superb job. Remember this show is only a small step in the direction of greater things you will do, many of which are beyond your wildest dreams. All you have to do is want to. One of the things I like about you best is that you always give it hell for try.

The show will be a success because of you and others like you who try. There are only winners in the cast. The losers are gathered down at the stable laughing and hoping for your failure. If we could dig down deep inside them, I’m sure we’d find they want to win also, but are too scared to try, and they attempt to cover up their own failures as human beings by laughing at others. In a sense I’m sorry for them. Their guilt must make them very unhappy people.

Much love,

Hap

 

From the Files of Bob Proctor

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “CD- The Success Principles: 30 Day Audio” course. If you see a bit of CD- The Success Principles: 30 Day Audio Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/105RsrC

Personal Reflection

Shared by Carla

It’s About The People

These days I find that I don’t bother to read the colorful ads in the Sunday newspaper. I also don’t have the desire to wander through the mall or the fancy furniture stores to see what lovely things they have that I may want.

When I was a young bride, I wanted all the fun, glitzy stuff, like fancy china, sterling silverware, a big house and a cool car.  I forget why I wanted them.  I think it may have had something to do with insecurity and the wish to “keep up with” our friends or society’s expectations.

Over the years I’ve lost that desire, and now I have no need to acquire things just for the sake of having them.  Now my focus is to have a fun, safe, comfortable place for people to gather and enjoy each other.  The focus is on the relationships, not the stuff.

The bottom line is that it’s always about the people. Family, friends, colleagues and the world community are what life is about.  I can have all the wealth in the world, but if I don’t share love, respect and time with others, I have nothing.

So this month I’m reflecting on what’s really important to me.  It’s always the people, and my goal every day is to show love, caring and compassion, and put more thought, time and energy into reinforcing those connections.

 

By Sandra Abell

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “DVD- Discover Your SOUL Purpose” course. If you see a bit of DVD- Discover Your SOUL Purpose in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/15fIXKa

The Terror Barrier

“Shared by Carla”

The first ten years of my stay here on Planet Earth were spent in Owen Sound, Ontario. I can vividly remember the hot summer day I was taken by an older member of my family to Harrison Park where there was a fine swimming pool. The older kids were going up the ladder and jumping or diving off the high diving board. They were having a great time. Wanting to be accepted by the older kids, I too went up the ladder, reluctantly, but I climbed it.

I will never forget the terror that gripped my mind and body when I looked down. Their coaxing did absolutely no good. There was no way I was going off that board. I climbed back down the ladder.

That was the first time in my life that I can recall coming up against the Terror Barrier. I not only lost out on the excitement and thrill that would have been gained by jumping. I lost a little self-respect also.

If you think hard enough, you will recall the first time you came face to face with the Terror Barrier. You either stepped through it to freedom or back into bondage, imprisoned by your own fears.

I continued to step back from anything I truly feared until I was twenty-six years of age. Then with the encouragement of a caring person, I said “no more” and I have been free ever since.

The Terror Barrier comes up in front of us every time we attempt to make a major move in life, into an area we have never traveled before.

I have sold businesses in Canada, the U.S.A. and England for years and I could not even guess at the number of times I have sat with men and women who come right up to that barrier wanting to go ahead but not being able to. These were people who could have succeeded and wanted to, but didn’t.

Is that Terror Barrier holding you or your business back? Do what I did and crash through. The compensation is incredible.

Bob Proctor

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “DVD- The Success Principles LIVE!” course. If you see a bit of DVD- The Success Principles LIVE! in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/WvB3wI

The Baggy Yellow Shirt

“Shared By Carla”

The baggy yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away. “You’re not taking that old thing, are you?” Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt. “I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!”

“It’s just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom. Thanks!” I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object. The yellow shirt became a part of my college wardrobe. I loved it. After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned.

The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois. But that shirt helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 15 years earlier. That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When Mom wrote to thank me for her “real” gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely. She never mentioned it again.

The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad’s to pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom. The shirt!

And so the pattern was set.

On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad’s mattress. I don’t know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp. the yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added character.

In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois. As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job. I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read, “So use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up.”

I tried to picture myself wearing God’s armor, but all I saw was me wearing the stained yellow shirt. Slowly, it dawned on me. Wasn’t my mother’s love a piece of God’s armor? My courage was renewed.

Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother. The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer.

Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station. A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet. Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words “I BELONG TO PAT.”

Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters. Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, ” BELONG TO PAT’S MOTHER.” But I didn’t stop there. I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington, VA. We enclosed an official looking letter from “The Institute for the Destitute,” announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds. I would have given anything to see Mom’s face when she opened the box. But, of course, she never mentioned it.

Two years later, in 1978, I remarried. the day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend’s garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head. It felt lumpy. I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt. Inside a pocket was a note: “Read John 14:27-29. I love you both, Mother.”

That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses: “I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t fragile like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me.”

The shirt was Mother’s final gift. She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig’s disease. Mother died the following year at age 57.

I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I’m glad I didn’t, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets to wear to art class.

Patricia Lorenz

Patricia Lorenz is an internationally-known inspirational, art-of-living writer and speaker and the author of six books. She is one of the top contributors in the country to the Chicken Soup for the Soul books with stories in 26 of the Chicken Soup books so far. She’s had over 400 articles published in numerous magazines and newspapers; is a contributing writer for fifteen Daily Guideposts books; four dozen anthologies; and an award-winning newspaper columnist.

Patricia Lorenz has been a single parent since 1985. She raised two daughters and two sons, lives in Largo, Florida, loves her empty nest and the freedom to follow her dreams while she’s still awake. You can visit her website at: http://www.patricialorenz.com/ or email Patricia at: patricialorenz@juno.com

The Three Requisites

“Shared By Carla”

Sometime today or tomorrow or next month, in practically every commercial office and manufacturing plant in the world, an important executive will sit back in his or her chair and study a list of names on a sheet of white paper.

Your name may be on it.

A position of responsibility is open and they are face to face with the old, old problem – “Where can I find the person?”

The faces, the words, the work, the impressions of various people will pass through their mind in quick review. What is the first question they will ask concerning each?

“Which person is strongest on initiative, which one can best assume responsibility?”

Other things being equal, that is the person who will get the job. For the first requisite in business as in social life is confidence in yourself – knowledge of your power. Given that, the second is easy – initiative or the courage to start things. Lots of people have ideas, but few have the confidence in themselves or the courage to start anything.

With belief and initiative, the third requisite follows almost as a matter of course – the faith to go ahead and do things in the face of all obstacles.

“Oh, God,” said Leonardo da Vinci, “you sell us everything for the price of an effort.”

Certainly no one had a better chance to know than he. An illegitimate son, brought up in the family of his father, the misfortune of his birth made him the source of constant derision. He had to do something to lift himself far above the crowd. And he did. “For the price of an effort” he became the greatest artist in Italy – probably the greatest in the world – in a day when Italy was famous for her artists. Kings and princes felt honored at being associated with this illegitimate boy. He made the name he had no right to, famous for his work alone.

“Work out your own salvation,” said Paul. And the first requisite in working it out is a knowledge of your power. All the ages behind you have bequeathed you stores of abilities which you are allowing to lie latent. Those abilities are stored up in your sub-conscious mind. Call upon them. Use them. As Whittier put it – “All the good the past has had remains to make our own time glad.”

Robert Collier
From The Book of Life

Featuring Recent Posts WordPress Widget development by YD