Do Your Christmas Shopping Early: The Blessings Bottle

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Remember, it’s not about whether the glass is half full or half empty — it’s about the value of the glass. The glass of your life is always valuable, because we can fill it up with opportunities to love and be loved.

As we continue to face tough times in our nation and our world, let’s help each other to remember all the blessings that God sends us every day through others who touch us with their selfless love.

I know you have heard all that before. But it’s easy to forget those kind pick-me-ups, such as the way someone smiled at the grocery store or how a family member went the extra mile to let us know how loved we are.

It’s important to remind ourselves of how special every single person we meet is and how much they make a difference. Remember, too, that we have the opportunity to give all that love back.

Becoming thankful

But how exactly do we remind ourselves of all that long after we are done reading this column or when the Sunday church bells have long faded into the chaos and the catastrophes of the week?

That’s where the blessings bottle project comes in.

First, go rummage around your house for an old vase or glass jar that you have always liked but that doesn’t get enough use. Or take a trip to your local St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. You will find all kinds of forgotten yet beautiful bottles sitting up on top of the shelves; usually it will only set you back a buck or two.

Each week between now and Christmas, you and your family will write down one blessing you have to be grateful for on a piece of paper and put in the jar.

Think of blessings that go beyond having the fanciest car on the block, or being the best-dressed person at work. You should probably shy away from anything having to do with hitting the lotto, too.

Try to focus on things like how people came to help you last week when you were sick or remembering the people who celebrated with you on your birthday. Or maybe the way somebody picked you up the last time you were down.

If you keep up with it, you should have at least a dozen or so in there within the next few months.

Then on Christmas day, after all the other presents are opened, take down the jar and start reading all the wondrous ways that you have been blessed, and it will be the greatest Christmas gift of all.

If you want, then you can empty it out and start all over to get ready for Easter.

Then keep the glass out somewhere for the rest of the year in plain sight where it will be a permanent pick-me-up.

Eventually you will get into the habit of realizing just how much you have to be thankful for. Once you do it will totally transform your head, your heart and the way you look at life.

In fact, you will become so enthusiastic and grateful about your life that you will probably start being a real pain to all those negative people out there who insist on being angry and ungrateful.

And as the old saying goes, “You should be so lucky!”

September 23, 2011 · Posted in Culture and Values, Economy, Faith and Inspiration, Health and Wellness  
　　　　

LOVE DIDN’T DIE ON 9/11

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A few years ago I struck up a conversation with a man sitting next to me on a plane. We started talking about work, family and the standard friendly fare people engage in while trapped next to each other for an hour or so with nowhere else to go.

           

He told me about his daughter, all grown up now and a financial analyst who lived in Denver happily with her husband and two children of her own.  But only a few years ago she narrowly escaped with her life from her office in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

 

Bringing up 9/11 reminded me of a story I wrote a few years earlier about one of America ’s greatest unknown heroes, a man named Rick Rescorla, who saved so many lives that fateful day in the Towers.

 

Rick was a war hero, whose quick thinking and altruistic leadership saved and comforted scores of men in one of the war’s first major battles of the Vietnam conflict in a place called the Ia Drang Valley, where American forces were surrounded and up against insurmountable 10-1 odds.  Over 300 American soldiers and almost 3000 Vietnamese lost their lives in a couple of days.  Lt. Rescorla left Vietnam with a Silver Star, a Purple Heart, and Bronze Stars for Valor and Meritorious Service for his incredible efforts to save lives in a place where so many were lost. 

 

After the war, Rescorla went to work for Morgan Stanley as head of security for their Trade Center offices, and it was a job he didn’t take lightly.  For years he racked his brain trying to think of all the things that could possibly ever go wrong in the towers and all the ways he could get people out safely in those situations.  His biggest concern was terrorism.

 

Before the first Trade Center bombing in ’91 he rightly predicted the towers were vulnerable to a bomb detonated in the basement.  And prior to 9/11, he told his superiors that the next time it would be a plane filled with gas.

 

So he prepared.  He ran the employees through drill after drill until they knew how to get out of that building in their sleep.  He prepared contingency plans for his contingency plans.

 

Then on the morning of the attacks, as the Port Authority instructed everyone to stay put, he led a civilized charge out the door with a bullhorn in hand telling people to get out, no matter what they heard from anyone else.  His well-laid plans worked like clockwork, getting over 2700 of Morgan Stanley’s employees out alive, all except Rick and several of his security detail who went back to help others.

 

As I told the story to my traveling companion, tears began to stream down his face.  He revealed that his daughter worked in the South Tower in the offices of Morgan Stanley, and on the morning of the attacks when the first plane hit the North Tower, the force of the explosion was so intense it shattered the window in her office showering her with glass and debris sending her and her colleagues running for cover, and running right into Rick Rescorla.  My traveling friend’s daughter was one of those very lucky people, along with almost every employee of Morgan Stanley, who got out alive, thanks to Rick. 

 

When I first told Rick Rescorla’s story back in 2001, I knew there were thousands of people thankful for Rick’s diligence, preparedness and dutiful courage.  But there was no way to know then the true ramifications of his actions, not until this moment when I saw them in the flesh. I heard and felt the joy Rick’s devotion and sacrifice made possible pouring out of this grateful father’s heart, as he told me of the wonderful life and the beautiful family his daughter was blessed with since then.

 

As we reflect this year on the anniversary of 9/11 let’s remember that in every tragedy, there is an opportunity – in our families, our communities, in our nation and our world –to reach out to love in extraordinary ways. The ripple that results will be more amazing than any of us can ever dream of.

September 11, 2011 · Posted in Culture and Values, Faith and Inspiration