A Christmas Poem

Christmas Eve is finally here
And snow falls down in flurries
As I sit in my cubicle
While my wife's at home and worries.

There's much to wrap and prep and do
'Fore day darkens to night
And then still more to assemble
Before Christmas' dawning light.

It is no easy task to be
Santa's elves and aid-ers
When one is stuck at work all day
Pushing Yuletide tasks 'til laters.

But once I'm home and kids' in bed
We'll rush to get them done
And hope to get a few hour's rest
Before the morning fun.

Now if you find this story
Sounds a little bit like yours
Please heed this next advice
While wrapping up your chores.

The work you do this evening
Will quickly be undone
And may the gifts you chose with care
Bring hours of laughs and fun.

But there's a gift that's given
That's not among the wrapping
Please don't forget to think on it
Before you head to napping.

It is a gift of sacrifice,
Of unconditioned love;
'Tis the Savior's lowly birth,
A gift from God above.

So Remind yourselves and small ones
Of the gift that gave us reason
To follow suit and give our gifts
This holy Christmas season.

(An original poem by the Nice Guy)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

May you be reminded of
the true reason
for the season!

Writing Out a New Idea

I have been absent from the blogosphere these last couple of weeks as I have devoted my time, energy and focus to building my business with ACN. I have missed posting on my blog, but in those few moments I have had available over the last couple weeks where I could have posted something I struggled to come up with something of interest.

Last week I had a little time to visit one of my favorite sites, Writing.com, to see what has been going on in my absence. In my favorites folder I have a link to a writing contest called The Writer's Cramp where you are given a prompt and you have 24 hours to write a story of 1,000 words or less that fits the prompt and/or the requirements of the prompt. Thursday's prompt gave me a really good idea for a story, but I didn't have time to write it out for the contest.

The idea kept bouncing around in my brain until I sat down over the weekend and started pounding it out. It still needs some tweaking, but I liked what I put down. I shared it with my wife after I was done and, because I had written the ending in such a way as to leave it open for more, she was really curious as to what would come next. So we started tossing ideas back and forth about where it could lead and what could take place.

I have to laugh a little about the difference between my wife and I, though. While this first installment has tension and dramatic elements, I totally set it up for an action/adventure story. The first thing my wife says after telling me how good she thought what I had written was is that the main character needs a girl, that he needs to fall in love, and starts to outline how to make it a romance. I think I offended her a little bit when I laughed at that.

But that is what I love about my wife. She helps open my mind to aspects that I hadn't considered to reach a larger audience than what I would have reached on my own. Together, we came up with a really good character that can develop into a love interest for the main character without turning the story into a space-age Harlequin romance novel. She is a good strong character that will make a significant contribution to the story.

While developing the character, my wife initially pictured her as a green-eyed red-head, but we had to change her to a brunette for practical reasons and because another story I am working on already has a red-head. My wife has brown hair and green eyes so I told her that I would just pattern my character after her. She was a little unsure of that idea because she was afraid of seeing how I would describe her in print. "That's easy," I reassured her as we were fixing dinner. "She will be beautiful, strong, driven, capable, resourceful ... and she is always right ... at least in her mind." That last comment earned me an indignant punch in the arm. It is a good thing I waited until she put down the knife to throw in that last bit.

We have a lot of elements to the story put together, but we are still undecided on the main aspect of the overall plot. We agree that our main character will be trying to reveal some great secret or plot to break the antagonist's hold on the people, but we haven't decided yet what that will be. If you have seen the movie Serenity, elements of our plot are similar to theirs but we don't want to deal with populace-passifying drugs or Reavers.

I hope you will take a few minutes and read this first installment that I have given the simple title of Shore Leave and let me know what you think. Do you think the story has potential? Would you like to read more? What ideas do you have for the plot? What suggestions do you have for improving what has been written so far? I would love any feedback you can give me!

A Christmas Classic

In 1897, Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, a coroner's assistant on Manhattan's Upper West Side, was asked by his then eight-year-old daughter, Virginia, whether Santa Claus really existed. Virginia had begun to doubt there was a Santa Claus, because her friends had told her that he did not exist.

Dr. O’Hanlon suggested she write to The New York Sun, a prominent New York City newspaper at the time, assuring her that "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Here is the response to her inquiry which has become a Christmas classic:

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Terminated by the Tri-City Herald

I just wanted to post quickly to let any customers know that may visit that I am no longer delivering newspapers as I have been terminated by the Tri-City Herald as a substitute. The reasons given were both valid and ridiculous and my first inclination was to give you the whole truth about them and this situation, but I have decided not to. The reason for that decision is that I do not wish to turn my blog into a negative rant that will only stir up people further. I prefer a more positive focus that will hopefully bring light and joy to everybody's day.

So, farewell TCH customers. I am on to bigger and better things. I wish you all the best and hope that they will be able to find a suitable replacement for you as quickly as possible.

Choose To Live!

Unless you have had your head buried in the sand, I am sure that you have heard many debates over whether or not the U.S. was in a recession or not. Some said "Yes" while others didn't want to give it a stronger term than an "economic slowdown". The whole debate has served well to sell many newspapers and magazines and to drive people's stress levels up. Add to that the bank failures, home foreclosures and an unprecedented bailout plan that is going to cost the American taxpayers $700 billion and stress levels climb higher and higher. So, when the newspaper headlines officially announced that our great nation was in a recession, it was somewhat of a relief. At least now we can end the debate and get on with our lives.

Let me ask you a question, though. How did you feel when you read the newspaper or clicked on CNN this morning? Did it add to your stress and grumpiness or did you find something positive in it? When I read the official pronouncement of a recession, it didn't change my day one bit. Do you want to know why? Because my situation hasn't changed one bit. I still have a loving wife and wonderful kids. I still have my health and vitality. I still have a job that provides the majority of my income and a side job to supplement it; not to mention a recession-proof business that is endorsed by one of the wealthiest businessmen in the world. I still have my home and other comforts and conveniences that make life easier for me. I still have friends and acquaintances that I get to associate with. Life is still good!

I realize that not everybody has these things and there are people that are losing their jobs and their homes every day. It is an unfortunate situation that has caused a lot of people to become a victim of their circumstances and take a dismal view of life. But there are a few, a select few, who appreciate those things that really matter the most in life and choose a better outlook.

The following is a story that I have always loved which illustrates how we can choose to really live our life each day:

Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant.

The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'"

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Happiness isn't a booming economy, a home or a job - it is a choice. I hope each of you are choosing to live your life rather than allowing yourself to be victimized by your circumstances and allowing your life to pass you by because you are too busy grumbling about the recession and looking for someone to blame for it. (For more on who is really responsible for a recession, read my post "Are You In A Recession? I'm Not!" on The Millionaire Marathon Blog.) Find something good to focus on in each and every day rather than focusing on the bad. And once we have improved ourselves inwardly, we can change our circumstances for the better as well.

Choose to live today and every day to its fullest!