Help on the coldest, snowiest & Iciest day of the year.

The Hero Living Next Door

It was a wintry mix and icy this morning!  I knew it would be this way, but I was driving on the roads anyway.  I had two important appointments.  Luckily, the roads weren’t too bad yet.  And, not long after beginning my journey, I came to a stop at a traffic signal where I read a sticker on the back window of the car in front of me.

“I hope something good happens to you today.”

The chill left my body as I read.  It was chased away by the smile widening on my face.

“A post-prophetic statement!  It already has!” I whispered as if there existed someone near me listening.  There was not one other person there in my car.  Happily, there was one good person at my door earlier this morning.

Harry Pupper was barking while doing his very best Lassie impersonation to let us know there was someone at our front door about 7:30 am.  We were at a loss as to who it could be.

“Who would be out in this frightful arctic-blast-storm?”  I said to my wife as Harry was acting as “Lassie-the-hero” to prompt us forward. Upon their arrival at the front door Sue carefully held Harry with one hand and turned the deadbolt with the other, so they could be greeted by a real-life hero.  Our next-door neighbor, Chris Hand.

“Would you like me to put some salt on your driveway?”  Chris asked with a friendly smile on his face.

“That would be very kind of you!  Thank you for thinking of us!” She answered.

Chris then went about spreading salt on our front steps, sidewalk and driveway, while we enjoyed the comfortable warmth of our home. Shortly thereafter, I left our house and benefited from his goodness by enjoying an ice-free glide down toward the road and my appointments.

Now I’m back inside my home and the arctic blast is blustering away out there!  The wind is howling, the snow is blowing and it feels as if it is -17 below freezing outside!  And, my car is tucked comfortable into its garage spot, outside the ravages of the raging, perhaps once in a life-time storm.

“Stop looking for heroes on television and look at your neighbors to find real heroes!”  I read in an advisory commentary a couple of weeks ago.

This morning I was reading the sky outside. It was a wintry mix and icy early this morning and it’s much worse now!  I knew it would be this way, but I was out driving on the roads anyway.  I had two important appointments.  Luckily, the roads weren’t too bad yet.  And, not long after beginning my journey I came to a stop at a traffic signal where I read a sticker on the back window of the car in front of me.

“I hope something good happens to you today.”

The chill left my body as I was reading.  It was chased away by the smile widening on my face as I thought of my neighbor-hero, Chris Hand.  He’s a retired US Marine and my personal, neighborhood, hero as well.

 

Be the HERO that your children already believe you are. - Blake Brewer

The Legacy Letter

“We all have three things in common.”  Blake Brewer said as he began speaking to around fifty fathers who had gathered together for dinner in Wright’s Barbeque.  The menu and meal had been specially planned for this gathering.  It was a gathering for one specific purpose.

“Be the hero your children already believe you are.”  Blake continue before he went on to identify the three things we all have in common.

“We all have a super power.”  Blake said.  “The words we use can either destroy our children or build and fortify them.”  Then, he revealed our second commonality.

“All of us will have a last day on this planet.”  Blake said quietly, as if he had a specific reason and experience for saying so.

You see, Blake was on vacation with his father and mother in Hawaii not too long ago.  It was a special get away for them and they were having the time of their lives.  Blake remembers feeling extra close to his father as they walked down the trail toward Hanauma Bay to snorkel together.

They were in the bay’s water for some time before Blake noticed he could no longer see his father.  The waves and their swells had become increasing large and swimming through them was very tiring.  Blake was tired himself.  He was also worried.

He was so worried that he swam over to a large rock formation where he climbed to the top.  He hoped he could see his father from this high perch.  He was right.  He looked out and found his father a couple of swells away.  His father was calling for help!

Blake saw his father’s mouth calling out, he couldn’t hear him over the crashing waves, and decided to jump in to try to rescue him.  He remembers wondering if he had enough strength left to be his Dad’s hero.  He jumped in anyway, just as he saw his father go down under the water.

Moments later Blake reached his father.  His Dad was a large man, who had played college football as a tight end with Terry Bradshaw as his quarterback.  Blake is a tall man himself, so he was able to wrap his long arms around his father so he could begin to tow him toward the shore.

Not long after he started his final swim for the day, a life guard approached the two men.  The combined strength of Blake and the guard allowed all three men to arrive on the beach.  Two of them arrived well.  One, Blake’s father, had expired.

It was the expiration of a joyful vacation as well.  And, Blake and his mother spent the next couple of days mourning their loss in a hotel room, while he wondered if he could have done more.  Fortunately, his father had done more!

He had written Blake what he now calls his Legacy Letter.  He had no idea of its existence until his mother quietly handed it to him in that same hotel room.  It was the culmination of a change in Blake, that would also be the beginning of a change for millions of men and the identification of the third thing we all have in common.

“None of us want to have any regrets about our family on our last day!”  Blake said with palpable emotion, to those gathered together in Wright’s Barbeque.

The entire room, down to every man, was touched by Blake’s passion.

“Your words have the power to call your children to greatness!”  Blake said right before he challenged all of us to be one of the million men he is working to inspire to write a legacy letter to their children.

“It will cut through the noise. It will penetrate their hearts.  It will make every heart who reads it ‘return-to-able!’”  Blake counseled.

“We all have three things in common.”  Blake began.

The One Million Man Legacy Letter Challenge then began in earnest for us as well, as we all began to outline our own personal legacy letters.

If you’re one in a million please join us by going to: 

https://www.legacyletterchallenge.com/

“Please send me a Friend.” – A girl’s letter to Santa

Letter to Santa

A teen-aged-girl stopped at Santa’s Letter Box, picked up a blank letter to Santa and walked in the door.

“Do you have a pen I could borrow?”  She asked with a little apprehension.

“Sure!”  I replied, while handing her the pen from my pocket.  Then, I watched her lean over the counter and write her heartfelt letter to Santa, with hope radiating from her face.  As soon as she finished writing her letter she folded it once.  She folded it twice.  She folded it a third time, just to ensure its contents would remain unseen by all eyes; other than Santa’s.

“Thanks!”  She said while walking back to the door from which she entered.

She walked through the door, continued forward down three steps, turned left and then faced the bright red North Pole Post box, where she deposited her letter.  Finally, she patted the top of the hope-filled-box three times before smiling optimistically.  The young girl turned away and walked down the Christmas adorned street.

At the end of the day I too walked to Santa’s Box, being one of Santa’s Helpers, I gathered all of the letters from the box, brought them inside and began to place them in Santa’s folder, so each one of them could be answered before Christmas.  Only one of them had the girl’s careful folds.  

Those folds piqued my interest, so I opened it and read, “Santa, will you please send me a friend for Christmas?”  The sincere request reminded me of another earnest question asked of me many years ago.

“Is Santa real?”  My daughter Kilee once asked me as a young girl.

 “Yes!” I responded.  “But not the way you think.  I’m Santa for you and you too can be Santa for others.”

Kilee’s eyes brightened when she learned this magical secret.  She immediately went about taking her role as Santa, for others, very seriously.  And, she continues to do so today as a mother, daughter, sister and friend.

Friendship is the greatest gift one person can give to another.  A genuine gift of friendship is much different than posting messages to people you know, or know of.  Creating strong personal ties can only be done face to face with an ear attuned to listening.  It ends loneliness.

A lonely, teen-aged-girl stopped at Santa’s Letter Box, picked up a blank letter to Santa and walked in the door.

“Do you have a pen I could borrow?”  She asked with a little apprehension.

“Sure!”  I replied, while handing her the pen from my pocket.  Then, I watched her lean over the counter and write her heartfelt letter to Santa with hope, that her loneliness would end, radiating from her face.  As soon as she finished writing her letter she folded it once.  She folded it twice.  She folded it a third time, just to ensure its contents would remain unseen by all eyes; other than Santa’s; and his helpers.

By combining all of our helper eyes and ears we will make the words, “He knows when you are sleeping.  He knows when you’re awake.  He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake” be real.

Be good for goodness sake.  End someone’s loneliness by being Santa for them. 

“Sometimes I Sprinkle cards in seatbacks.” - Hailey

Sprinkles

The rain had stopped in the early afternoon.

“A good rain always makes the city seem cleaner and softer.”  I said to myself as I waited outside my hotel for an ordered ride to the airport.

It was the day after Thanksgiving and I was expecting a heavy travel day.  That meant more people on the sidewalks.  It would also mean more traffic; not just shopping traffic.  I had visions of miles and miles of cars jockeying for position to drop their friends and family members at the air terminal.  But it was not to be!

The traffic on Grand Central Parkway was unexpectedly light and the cars dropping passengers at terminal four were sort of sprinkled around, with plenty of room at the curb for more.

“No double parking in the drop off zone!  I can’t believe it!” I said to myself.

The trip to my airline had already been sprinkled with surprise.  And, there was another wonder to come once I was in the air.

The flight was comfortable and the people, both passengers and flight crew, were friendly and helpful.  The crew, sprinkled around the cabin, rained personalized attention on all the passengers.  They seemed to be genuinely happy to be there. Happy to bring a smile to those they were there to serve.

One such, noticeable, smile appeared on the faces of a young couple seated across the aisle.  And, their smiles broadened as they paused their entertainment and looked at what appeared to be a card. One of them had pulled it from the seatback in front of her.  They talked softly to each other while glancing around, as if they were looking for an answer.  The answer they were looking for soon appeared as all of the passengers began to disembark.

“Did you give us this?”  The woman across the aisle asked Hailey, the Delta Flight Attendant who’d been serving us so attentively.

“Yes.”  Hailey replied.  “I like to sprinkle holiday cards around the plane this time of year.  It means a lot to me to be able to brighten travel for our guests.” 

She had succeeded in her efforts!  The joy she had hoped for was displayed on the faces of that couple.

“Thank you!”  They said as they picked up their bags and began to walk toward the exit. Their steps were visibly lighter, even with a late-night arrival.

“Joy, purposely sprinkled! It’s refreshing, just like the earlier rain.”  I whispered quietly, as I said thank you to Hailey and followed the happy couple onto the waiting jet bridge.

The rain had stopped in the early afternoon.  But the sprinkles continued on my flight.

“A good rain always makes the city seem cleaner and softer.”  I said to myself as I waited outside my hotel for an ordered ride to the airport.

A little, purposeful, sprinkle of kindness has the ability to make everyone’s life more joyful.

After all, who doesn’t like sprinkles on their cupcakes as well as in their airplane seatback?

“Finding opportunity is a matter of believing it’s there.” – Barbara Corcoran

Believing it’s There

“You know me!”  He said.

I do know him!  He has a knack for finding opportunity.  It’s something I’ve watched him find over a period of more than twenty years.  At first, I thought he was just lucky.  But, when that luck seemed to be following him around like a pair of tight jeans I had to wonder.  Was there something beyond luck happening here?

This wondering necessitated a lengthy process of observation and comparison.  No.  I didn’t become some kind of weird groupie or anything of that sort!  I just spent the time and effort to become a close friend.  Because I wanted to be more like him.  And, the simple recognition of a need to find something, that wasn’t overtly visible, was in itself, an important nugget of discovery.

The people you associate with, your friends and collogues, will guide the trajectory of both personal success and belief.  Because I was spending more personal time with my admired person, his ways of thinking and acting started to naturally rub off on me.  Being with people means you’ll become like them.

Being like another person is more than simply dressing like them.  It also means their patterns of living will become yours over time.  These patterns will affect important lifestyle choices such as the places you frequent, what you do professionally, who you marry, behavior, what you do with your leisure time and how you think.  Of all of these impacts, and others I haven’t named here, perhaps the most important is how you think.

This was graphically confirmed to me one day by a ten-year-old boy who spoke of his reverence for one particular teacher in his church.  He said, “He teaches us more than just information, he teaches us how to think.”

His simple comment communicates a profound principle.  The art of thinking is more than just an ability to remember and rehearse events and facts.  The act of thinking is also woven into the fabric of belief.  People create what they think.  And, the creation process is multifaceted.

Creation is a mingling of the physical and the mental.  The two are fully integrated.  They are not divisible.  Barbara Corcoran, a businesswoman, investor, syndicated columnist, and television personality, was speaking of this principle when she said, “Finding opportunity is a matter of believing it’s there.”

She didn’t know it at the time, but she was describing the guy who started me on this process of discovery.

“You know me!”  He said.

I do know him!  Now I know him much better than I did, because a lengthy process of observation and comparison. Now, these many years later, he still has a knack for finding opportunity.  It’s something I’ve watched him find over and over again.  And, as I said, at first, I thought he was just lucky.  But, when that luck seemed to be following him around like a pair of tight jeans I had to wonder.  Was there something beyond luck happening here?

Believe there is.

Believe there is a path for you to follow. 

Believing it’s there is the first step!

“My brother just called and said he has a modeling gig!” – Nancy Hatcher

Even When Broken

Nancy was enjoying the warmth of The Gallery.  It was a cold day, but as always, she was wearing a bright smile.  She also felt the need to have a conversation, even though she had just finished a phone call.

“My brother just called and said he has a modeling gig!” Nancy said with a sparkle in her eye.

Her brother, Dean Martin (no, not the famous singer), had been diagnosed with cancer a couple of years ago.  His physicians tried to attack it without surgery, but it soon became apparent that they could only save his life by performing a radical procedure.  In the end, the doctors removed one of his legs, hip and a large part of his torso.  In all, he lost just about one third of his body.  That would destroy all of the joy and hope for some people, but not for Dean.

“Dean hasn’t lost his sense of humor in any way!”  Nancy continued.  “I just don’t know how he does it.  But, it’s clear that the doctors couldn’t cut that part of him away!”

When Dean is out in public, people are drawn to him because he’s so different physically.  And, by the time they walk away they realize they were drawn-in by his character and personality.  That’s what allows him to reach others in a such a unique way.  This exceptional combination of inimitable physical distinction with indominable personality has made him a applied teacher.

“People can look at me and immediately see that I’m broken.”  Dean says.  “I think at first they’re shocked.  But, when they see I’m open and approachable about my brokenness, they relate to me almost immediately.”

People can empathize with Dean because every living person feels broken in one way or another.  And, when another person sees that Dean’s broken condition is generally far worse than what they’ve faced, they want to know how he’s been able to deal with it so positively.

“He is happy!”  Nancy says.  “He’s taught me that no matter what may happen to my body I can still live a happy life!”

And, happy he is!  Losing a third of his body changed Dean’s life in many good ways.

“I never saw myself as a teacher, as a source of inspiration, before cancer and my subsequent surgery.  Now I know that teaching, inspiring others, is my greatest talent.  It has brought me indescribable joy.  It has brought me a realization of fulfillment.  Even though I’m really only two thirds full!”  He laughed.

Nancy was enjoying the warmth of The Gallery.  Now we were both enjoying the warmth of Dean’s inspiration!  It was a cold day, but as always, she was wearing a bright smile.  She also felt the need to have an intimate conversation.

“My brother just called and said he has a modeling gig!” Nancy said with a sparkle in her eye.

And, what a model he is!  He teaches that all of us are broken in some way.  Sometimes it’s apparent to others and sometimes it’s not.  

“What matters is that we know one important thing. Even when one is broken, they can be happy and completely fulfilled; no matter the size of their tank!”  Dean chuckled.

“Tennis balls and tasty morsels”

Keeping a Constant Stare

“What would he want more?”  That was the question that kept turning and turning.  It turned likes the wheels of a vehicle driving past.  The kind of wheels that a dog like Harry Pupper just can’t ignore.  They seem to have an otherworldly grip on him.  He just has to give chase.  He can’t help himself!  It doesn’t matter how many times he’s been told no for his own good.

“What would he want more?  What would have the ability to capture his attention with the same kind of power?”  Those are the two questions I asked myself continually over, a seven-year period; a sum of his whole life.  

After all, the sum of anyone’s life adds up to what they pay attention to; what has the power to keep a hold on their eye.  For Harry, there are two things that can keep his constant stare.

The first?  Tennis balls and a buddy to throw them.

For some reason Harry has always struggled with stairs.  He fears them.  Even after lots of practice going up and down stairs, he is so nervous, as be begins, that he fails to fully commit to the climb.  That causes him to stumble on most occasions.  And, when the stairs are slippery to little paws, because they’re finished in a glossy wood, he freezes.  Well, maybe that’s a bit dramatic.  Let’s just say he simply refuses to climb them.  Until he one-day-realized that his beloved tennis balls are in a room just past the top of those scary stairs.

Knowing his play-balls are slightly beyond that staircase isn’t enough alone to inspire his courage to climb.  It takes a special combination of tennis balls with a buddy, he knows will be willing to throw the balls for him to chase, to confirm his resolution.  When this special combination is in place, he’s able to keep a constant stare.

It is his change in personal focus, what he wants more, that gives him the courage to climb stairs without help or additional encouragement.

The second?  Tasty treat morsels combined with specific direction.

“Off the road.”  I say, when a vehicle approaches.  “Quiet.”

He knows the words and their meaning.  But, the words alone are not enough to capture his attention.  The passing wheels are too demanding!  It takes a special combination to hold his stare.

So, I say the words while reaching into my pocket to withdraw a tasty morsel.  Harry hears the sound of the rustling bag. His eyes focus on the movement of my hand.  He sits, quietly, with an intent stare, knowing.  All signs indicate that his desire will soon be fulfilled.  So, he lets the rolling, attention requesting wheels, to roll on past without a second thought.

Attention requesting, really demanding, wheels have the ability to roll over little dogs.  They have no mercy and do not yield. That means Harry’s life is a constant contest of competing desires.  As it is for you and me.  Successful living requires keeping a constant focus on the Harry Pupper inspired, two simple questions.

“What do you want more?”  And, “What has the ability to capture your attention with the same kind of power as those seemingly otherworldly enticements?”  Whatever they are.

These are powerful, life changing, questions that, when asked and answered concurrently, allow a little dog, and people, to fix their focus on what they really want in life; to keep a constant stare.