Canfield Jack - A cup of chicken soup for the soul : stories to open the heart and rekindle the spirit

Thinking: The talking of the soul with itself.

Plato

The stories in this book were chosen to make you think: think about yourself, think about your family, think about your friends and think about love; for it is with love that all great things are accomplished.

It is with love and heartfelt gratification that we dedicate this book to our wives, Georgia, Patty and Karen, and to our children Christopher, Oran, Kyle, Elisabeth, Melanie, Jamie, Christine and Michael. Your wisdom, caring, love and support have allowed us to express ourselves fully and soulfully.

Simply Said Roberta Tremblay 22

Beattitudes Grace McDonald 24

I "Heard" the Love Paul Barton 26

A Father's Love Author Unknown 28

One Moment Please Barry Spilchuk 32

2. ON PARENTS & CHILDREN

Making Jeffrey's "Best Day!" Frank Cooper 36

From the Heart of a Joyous Child Donna McDermott 38

A Christmas Toast Kelly Ranger 40

The Bigger the Better Barry Spilchuk 42

More Gas Cari Morrison 44

He's Not My Stepfather! Jayne Kelley 46

Two for the Price of One Bariy Spilchuk 48

In the Eye of the Beholder Tammy Litchfield Najjar 50

To My Grown-Up Son Author Unknown 52

Unconscious Freedom From This Little Light of Mine 56

Prime Time From This Little Light of Mine 60

3. OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

Blind Ambition joJin Kananj 64

Special Orders From This Little Light of Mine 66

Out of a Jam Edgar Bledsoe 68

Nothing Could Stop This Man Jeff Yalden 70

Thanks ... Again! From The Speakers Library of Business 71

Barriers Gilda Radner 74

The Qualities of Survival Charlie Plumh 76

My Mascot Hedy J. Dalin 78

C.O.D.Courage On Demand Maureen Corral 82

The Obstacle in Our Path Brian Cavanaugh 84

4. ON REMEMBERING

On Your Marc ... Denise Sasaki 88

Oh, How I Loved Her Hanoch McCarty, Ed.D 90

X CONTENTS

Merry Christmas, Jennifer Sarah, Mom and Dad Furrow 92

Merry Christmas. Love, Jennifer Fr. Howard Gorle 94

A Child's Wisdom Alice Cravens Moore 96

Reminder Marilyn L. Teplitz 98

My Own Personal Hero Nancy Richard-Guilford 100

Big B Paula Petrovic 102

The "Calling Card" Stei^e Kendall 104

My Father Carl Lciuis 106

Timely Departure Barry Spilchuk 108

The Legacy Bonnie J. Thomas 112

5. ON ATTITUDE

Don't Punish Every Mistake Colin Powell 118

Total Support! Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen 120

Great Expectations Barry Spilchuk 122

My First Kiss, and Then Some Mary Jane West-Delgado 126

Service with a Smile Michael T. Burcon 130

Dylan Helps Out Nancy Richard-Guilford 132

Something to Look Forward To Barnj Spilchuk 134

Giving from the Heart Dee M. Taylor 136

Rock Concert From This Little Light of Mine 138

Hold Your Tongue From God's Little Devotional Book 140

6. EVERYDAY HEROES

A Very Belated Thank You Laurie Pines 144

One for the Team Kim Noone 146

My Daddy Is Magic! John Samiquist 148

A Day at the Lake Kevin Toole 150

Welcome Home Amy Ciibbison 152

Charity of Poor People Mark Victor Hansen 154

Information Please Molly Melville 156

A Friend in Need Man/ Joy Long 158

Unfinished Business Mike Lynott 160

Making Change Elder Featherstone 162

Living Example From God's Little Devotional Book 164

7. ECLECTIC WISDOM

His Mysterious Ways Don Bell 168

Dream Weaver Ronald D. Eberhard 172

Ministering Angel From Ladies' Home Journal 174

Passing the Test N. Gayle Fischer 176

And She Did It with Grace! Glen DeVuono 178

Wrong Number? Lin Hardick 180

The Luckiest Catch From Ladies' Home Journal 182

Pass It On! Chrystle White 186

Second Chance Joanie Nietsche 188

God Would Have Wanted It That Way! Douglas Paul Blankenship 190

Breaking the Silence Bariy Spilchuk 192

More Chicken Soup? 195

Who Is Jack Canfield? 197

Who Is Mark Victor Hansen? 198

Who Is Barry Spilchuk? 199

Contributors 200

Permissions (continued) 209

Acknowledgments

This book is the first mini-offspring of the successful Chicken Soup for the Soul series. It has taken the love and labor of many for the better part of a year to deliver this book to you. We would like to thank the following people for their contributions, without which this book would still be just an idea:

Peter Vegso and Gary Seidler at Health Communications, for continuing to share our vision and giving us their full support and encouragement.

Our wives and our children who constantly support us with their love, emotional support, story editing, evaluating and never-ending belief in us and the dream we all share of touching people's souls and teaching them how to love.

Patty Aubrey, who was the main flag-waver for this project from the start. Patty, we love you! Her constant challenge to us was to make this a great book. We feel we have met her challenge.

Nancy Mitchell, who has become a one-person resource-bank of valuable insight into what our readers want and what our legal department needs in order to satisfy the hundreds of permissions necessary to give this book its integrity and focus. Thank you, Nancy. We love you.

Heather McNamara, who oversaw every aspect of the editing, writing, compiling and completion of this book. Her dedication to the project and her willingness to always go the extra mile made this book possible.

Kim Wiele, whose insistence that all the stories be from the heart, kept us focused and on track.

Veronica Valenzuela, Julie Knapp, Ro Miller and Anna Maria Flores for doing all the things necessary to help us stay on track. We appreciate all of their efforts.

Lisa Williams, for keeping Mark balanced and on track.

Mary Jo Racine for the countless hours spent researching and typing new stories.

Aimee Kunkel, for her "whatever-it-takes" attitude to help us bring this project to a conclusion in record time.

Trudy Klefstad at OfficeWorks for her computer support and Internet expertise.

Christine Belleris, Matthew Diener and Mark Colucci, our editors at Health Communicationsworking with these friendly professionals has been a wonderful and pleasing experience.

Our love to Karen Spilchuk for reading every story and giving it her loving and honest opinion.

Jamie, Crissy and Mike Spilchuk for helping get the book ready for its final stages by numbering pages and searching for author histories. We love you.

Paul Barton, Barry's number one mastermind partner, who kept challenging him to go for it and do whatever it took to bring this project to fruition on time.

Sharon Ro, Brenda Rose, Marci Shimoff, Robyn Kalama, Sandy Rifkin and Mary Peterson who kept us in alignment with our vision.

Ann Taylor, Dennis Smith and Don Hull of Crawford & Company their belief in our vision has been a blessing.

Bernie and Lynn Dohrmann and the 7,000 graduates of the Income Builders International Free Enterprise Forum. This is where we met as a team to envision and create this new work of love for our readers.

Valerie Gill, for her unconditional love and support of us and our project. She phoned all over North America to ensure we had new and loving stories to give to our audience.

Scott Clark, Master DJ at MIX 100.5, Dave McLellan and John Tollesfrud of the North Bay Nugget, Linda Holmes of MCTV and Wolf Hess of CBC Radio for the amazing amount of media exposure they gave us to kick-off this project.