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SSA Blog #66
By Michelle
Drew April 13 2006
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About
our Sponsors...
I
come to the SSA column more often than anyone, and for many
reasons. The most obvious is that I write the column. Anoother reason
that I visit frequently is to view and try out our sponsors. The
program we use for ads is Google. While I am not a fan of advertising
per se, I have come to realize that I simply could not afford to
spponsor this website myself. Given that it was ncessary to use
advertising, I am relying on Google to have good ads to my readers. So
of course I click often and visit the sponsors. What I have found, much
to my own surprise, that there are services and products that I have
found and used here on the SSA site. I do keep an eye out, but if there
are ads that you find disturbing, please let me know. At the moment,
only ads for tobacco products are blocked, and I am not seeing a
problem there.
SO....Given
all that, do click on a sponsor ad. Internet services, and marketing on
the internet is the newest success and the way of the future.
Some great information and products are out there for YOU...
A Word From
Michelle
Hello everyone - What a week. For
many, like myself, it is income tax,
Passover and
Easter in the same week. After
all of the preparations and celebrations it is over. But
it is the harbinger of a
wonderful season, especially here in New England. It's Gardening
Season. Get out and plant. It's
been a looooong winter!
All
Good Thoughts
When you take
a risk and step out of the norm, you run the risk and
sometimes you
fail. But you only fail if you give up.
J Peterman
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Norman MacEwan
If fifty
million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France
Inspirational
Reading
TAKING CHANCES,
MAKING CHANCES
Lecturer Charles
Hobbs sometimes tells about a woman who lived in
London over a
century ago. She saved what little money she could
working as a
scullery maid and used it one evening to hear a great
speaker of her
day. His speech moved her deeply and she waited to
visit with him
afterward. "How fine it must be to have had the
opportunities you
have had in life," she said.
"My dear lady,"
he replied, "have you never received an opportunity?"
"Not me. I have
never had a chance," she said.
"What do you do?"
the speaker asked.
She answered, "I
peel onions and potatoes in my sister's boarding
house."
"How long have
you been doing this?" he pursued.
"Fifteen
miserable years!"
"And where do you
sit?" he continued.
"Why, on the
bottom step in the kitchen." She looked puzzled.
"And where do you
put your feet?"
"On the floor,"
she answered, more puzzled.
"What is the
floor?"
"It is glazed
brick."
Then he said, "My
dear lady, I will give you an assignment today. I
want you to write
me a letter about the brick."
Against her
protests about being a poor writer, he made her promise to
complete the
assignment.
The next day, as
she sat down to peel onions, she gazed at the brick
floor. That
evening she pulled one loose, took it to a brick factory
and asked the
owner to explain to her how bricks were made.
Still not
satisfied, she went to a library and found a book on bricks.
She learned that
120 different kinds of brick and tile were being
produced in
England at the time. She discovered how clay beds, which
existed for
millions of years, were formed. Her research captivated
her imagination
and she spent every spare moment learning more. She
returned to the
library night after night and this woman, who never
had a chance,
gradually began to climb the steps of knowledge.
After months of
study, she set out to write her letter as promised.
She sent a
36-page document about the brick in her kitchen and, to her
surprise, she
received a letter back. Enclosed was payment for her
research. He had
published her letter! And along with the money came a
new assignment -
this time he asked her to write about what she found
underneath the
brick.
For the first
time in her life she could hardly wait to get back to
the kitchen! She
pulled up the brick and there was an ant. She held it
in her hand and
examined it.
That evening, she
hurried back to the library to study ants. She
learned that
there were hundreds of different kinds of ants. Some were
so small they
could stand on the head of a pin; while others were so
large one could
feel the weight of them in one's hand. She started her
own ant colony
and examined ants underneath a lens.
Several months
later she wrote her findings in a 350-page "letter."
It, too, was
eventually published. She soon quit her kitchen job to
take up writing.
Before she died,
she had traveled to the lands of her dreams and had
experienced more
than she ever imagined possible! This is the woman
who had never had
a chance.
Some people wait
for opportunity to come knocking. Here is a person
who sought it
out, proving again that we can be more than victims of
mere circumstance.
If given a
chance, will you take it? If given no chance, can you make
one?
This reading is
found in Steve Goodier's popular book RICHES OF THE
