Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "The Journey: A Calendar Book"

Our thought for January 17th comes from "The Journey: A Calendar Book" and reads, "Volunteer".

According to the "American Heritage Desk Dictionary", a volunteer is "someone who performs or gives services of his own free will" (1981).  From the time I was a little boy volunteering was a large part of my weekly activities, without my knowing it.  I was very active in church growing up and as such found myself standing alongside childhood friends in the junior choir every Wednesday after school from 3:00 - 4:00.  Our choir leader was a young woman who was known to all, and continues to be known to all, as Ms. Barbara.

Ms. Barbara taught by example to be sure.  Weekly we would haul in Ms. Juanita's 1965 white and black Mustang convertible as well as Ms. Barbara's 1965 burgundy convertible Ford Galaxy and traipse down to the "old folks home" as it was called then, and sing for the residents, volunteering our time and talents to brighten the day of the elderly.

Ms. Barbara was as well the church secretary, a job which she continues to this day. As time went on I and my best friend who lived only a block, began showing up at the church office and volunteering for any odd jobs Ms. Barbara saw needed to be completed;  sharpening the pencils kept in the pews for offering envelops, stripping the fellowship hall floors and re-waxing them, organizing can goods in the food pantry.

These "random acts of kindness" followed me throughout adolescence into adulthood.  How much positivity comes my way each year when I spend Christmas Day traveling to St. Louis and volunteering at the Salvation Army's soup kitchen.  What I gain in "awareness" is worth more than any monetary payment I could possibly be given.

Again, the readings in my "Daily Guide to Success" calendar books are not intended to tout me, but are tangible activities, events, thoughts and realities which I have found to bring positivity and peace in my life and have had a major impact on bringing about personal success in my life.  If you don't think you volunteer, look back at your weekly activities.  You may be surprised.  If you know you don't volunteer, find something you can work the time in your busy schedule to help with in your community.  Volunteer.  It's worth your time and energy.

Keep looking up.  :)  AJ

​

Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "A Man's Daily Guide to Success"

The posting from our "Daily Guide to Success" series for January 16th takes me back many years...."Fly a kite in the springtime" (James, 2012).

When I was a child every year for my birthday from my "Mamaw" Williams I could count on getting a kite. My birthday is March 15th and the windy month of March was perfect for kite flying.

Whether Mamaw knew or not that her gift was much more to me than a boy's "funtime..." I know not, but the freedom I realized while flying my "warriors of the sky" was liberating.

Still today I often purchase a kite in the spring and find time to attempt to set it free. Our lives are analogous to this very act. How difficult it can be to get off the ground when we fall. How often do we find ourselves losing the strength we need to stay afloat when we are flying high. But with a positive attitude and persistance we can reach our goal of personal success.

Try flying a kite this spring. Set yourself free....and...

 keep looking up. :) AJ

Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "A Graduate's Daily Guide to Success"

January 15th's daily reading supports yesterday's reading, "Read Tuesdays with Morrie" directly....

"Apply the principles of Tuesdays with Morrie to your life" (Allen James, 2012).

 

Tuesdays with Morrie, in my eyes, is an outstanding book about youth and wisdom, life and death, having and giving, holding on and letting go (www.bonnernetwork.pbworks.com).  The initial response I usually get from students when I present them with the question, "What is the main theme of Tuesdays with Morrie?", is "Death".  They then embark on a lengthy philosophical discussion about death and dying.  Not inappropriate for college freshmen and sophomores who expect the instructor is hoping to get their take on the topic of death and dying.

 

However;  I maintain the main theme to be found in Tuesdays with Morrie is just the opposite, LIFE and LIVING! 

 

Anyone who reads Tuesdays with Morrie is going to immediately identify a multitude of insights throughout the book.  Morrie’s story and the wonderful friendship the two men in the book developed is endearing.  Morrie speaks clearly, even as his body withers.  He gives voice to the viewpoint of a person who grapples with a confining, terminal condition. 

 

However; I have also found myself feeling guilty about how I have handled LIFE and LIVING/DEATH and DYING throughout my adult life after observing the way it is approached in this book.  When I was around 12 years old, I was helping my mother clean out the "root cellar", or in this case an old larger closet in the back of the house where she kept the jars of tomatoes, beets, green beans, and jellies canned during the summer for us to enjoy during the winter.  As we sat there in the floor of the "root cellar", I looked over at my mother, with whom I had a relationship of admiration, mutual respect, and true compassion, and said to her, "Mom, when I grow up don't worry about anything.  I'll be here to take care of you at the end of your life", or words to that effect anyway.  She just looked at me and smiled, straightening the flock of brown hair which always fell heavy upon my forehead due to my left part and the style which my military father always found suitable to me.  I truly always thought I would be there to take care of my parents, if and when the time came. 

 

Yet at the end of her life, as she lay at 62 years of age in a hospital bed weakened by and dying of lung cancer, I was starkly reminded of my LIFE and LIVING choices and how they directly affect our DEATH and DYING reality.  Now, 18 years later, here was Mom, unable to care for herself in the most basic sense of the word.  And because of my blindness, I had not able to help her as much as I wanted.  People told me many times my loving her was sufficient, it must have helped in some way. 

 

I visited my mother during my spring break from teaching that March, which also fell during my birthday.  I spent the entire time at her bedside taking care of her daily needs, allowing my guilt to be turned into some other emotion, anything but guilt.  One afternoon when it was just she and I in the room, I was overcome with the feeling of finality;  it finally hit me my mother would be leaving this dimension long before I or anyone else could have expected.  Out of my selfishness my mother opened her unconditional loving arms out to me, as if she was reading my mind.  I crawled up in the hospital bed next to her, sobbing as she held me tight, giving ME support and giving ME understanding when it should have been I supporting and giving to her.  But it was due to this moment I felt totally at peace with this finality.  I was given the chance to do what most do not get to do;  share with my mother what her LIFE and LIVING had meant to me and how much her LIFE and LIVING had determined who I was then and who I would become in the future.  I got to say my "goodbye" to my mother, thus quelling the expectation I had had for years of how I would NOT be able to handle my mother's death when it finally arrived.  Still her reminder came;  HER sharing with me just how much my LIFE and LIVING was etched into her own person, as she said, "You always said you were going to be here to take care of me when I got to the end of my life".  

 

Many tell me it was inadequate to just say I love you and hug her, but Morrie made me think differently.  He cherished all the love he received from the constant stream of family and friends who visited him throughout his ordeal. 

 

Maybe, just maybe, I did all I could. Beyond this, Morrie voices many wonderful ideas about living and Mitch’s responses are great as well.  The main message Morrie gives Mitch about LIFE is open up to love, give to your community, and find purpose in life.

 

Apply the principles of Tuesdays with Morrie to your life, and keep looking up.  :)   AJ  

Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "A Graduate's Daily Guide to Success"

 

 

 

 

From "A Graduate's Daily Guide to Success", the thought for January 15th,

 

"Read Tuesdays with Morrie".

 

Mitch Albom's book, Tuesdays with Morrie is a wonderful example of how powerful the written words of others are in building our personal success and positivity, while at the same time provides us with nutrition spiritually and intellectually to do the same.  I loved the book when I first read it and think you will as well.

There are very few books I've read in my life which really leave a lasting impression on me, and I've read many, many books; however; when I find one which leaves a positive imprint on me and builds, not destructs, my psyche I return to it for much needed support when time allows.  Tuesday's with Morrie is one such book.

"Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it" (Albom, 1997).

For Mitch Albom, this individual was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years prior.

Maybe, like Mitch, you've lost track of such a mentor, the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn't you like to see touch base with this individual who affected you in such a large way again, ask the bigger questions which may still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger, while providing affirmation to him/her as to how their influence touched your life?

Mitch Albom had this second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they had back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live.

 

 

Read Tuesdays with Morrie, and as always, keep looking up.  : )  AJ

Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "The Journey: A Calendar Book"

​Today's reading from "The Journey: A Daily Calendar Book".... Cultivate a best friend.

The operative word here is "cultivate". Friends come and go throughout our lives...however those relationships we "cultivate"...as in keep the weeds clear of....water as needed...make sure the foundation is kept free of bugs....those are friends regardless of the years that pass. Those are the relationships which pick up just where they left off...strong and sure...making personal success much easier to reach.. Keep looking up. :) AJ

Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success"

The January 10th reading from "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success" is a statement made by Phil Collins whom most of us recall as the English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor and writer, best known both as drummer and vocalist for English rock group Genesis and as a solo artist;

"In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn" (Collins, 1999).

Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "The Journey: A Calendar Book"

The thought placed on the page of ALL calendar books for January 9th may appear at first glance to be mundane or not pertinent to personal success or positivity in any way, however; when the reader does as is intended with Allen James' Calendar Books (which is give each reading thought....to process it in your own mind and search for its pertinence making application to your own life) its necessity is clear, "Wash your hands before you eat".

Of course there's the obvious fact washing your hands before you eat prevents the spread of bacteria and assists in keeping you alive so you have the opportunity to even strive for personal success...as well, the statement, "Wash your hands before you eat" reinforces what seems to be a theme in many of the "Daily Guide to Success" series readings, this being the application of life lessons.

Although it can be attributed to "old age" and it would appear we complete the cycle of life by becoming what we as youth detested, how many times do we hear adults talk about the fact young people have no manners? Then we blame the parents for not instilling manners into their children as they did "back in the day" and place the responsibility on teachers to do so.

Recalling the African saying, translated of course, "It takes a village" (despite popular belief it was not former First Lady and U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton who coined the phrase), we all must to our part to teach children to be respectful of others as well as themselves; the very foundation of how personal success is begun.

Keep looking up. : ) AJ