Monday, September 24, 2012

DOOM AND GLOOM???????

Doom and Gloom
The Great Depression was one of the most discouraging economic
times in world history. From 1929 throughout the 1930s, it was the
most widespread and devastating period of time for the entire world.
People were unemployed in the U.S. to the tune of 25 percent, and
some countries had 33 percent unemployment.
There were soup kitchens with long lines of people just happy to
have a little bread and a bowl of soup. People were very capable of
working, but unable to earn a living because jobs weren’t available. As
the world eventually started rebounding from the Great Depression,
it wasn’t long before World War II threatened. Tough times? You bet
they were. World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history.
It is estimated that the worldwide death toll from that war was around
seventy million—both from fighting and from war-related diseases.
So, we have always been affected by doom and gloom. Still, people
thrive, even in the face of disasters. Keep it all in perspective.
Some Things Never Change
In a very old book I picked up while on vacation in Ireland,
The
Recreations of a Country Parson
, published around 1863 in Scotland, a
pastor in a small Scottish community discusses his life and times. I am
very impressed by the simplicity of things and by the appreciation of
little things such as “. . . a sunshiny day, a mossy green carefully mown
lawn, lilacs, oak, horse-chestnut and hawthorn trees, a horse, a stable
and a pig.”
This religious man appreciates all of the little things while preparing
text for his Sunday sermons at his little parish church. He talks about
horse carriage rides of some distance to catch a train that will carry
him some one hundred fifty miles on a weeklong holiday. I suddenly
think about our cell phones that allow us to speak across the globe in
a split-second from anywhere we may be. I think about our Internet
that allows us to conduct in mere seconds vast amounts of research that
would otherwise take us weeks to uncover. I realize that now we can
prepare foods in minutes that would have taken all day to prepare in
the 1860s. Still, the parson’s life holds an attraction we may never know,
a simplicity we have totally lost in our 300-mile-per-hour world that
appears to be going even faster every day.
In the book, the author explains some of the principles the people
held dear in 1860—principles we should still hold dear today, even
though their lives differed so much from ours. As I read, I thought
about life with no radio, television, cars, planes, ATMs, or Starbucks.
And once again, I ask: Do we really appreciate the life with which we’ve
been blessed?
A passage of the book reads:
"I have been writing down some thoughts, as I have said, for the sermon
of next Sunday. Tomorrow morning I shall begin to write it fully out. Some
individuals, I am aware, have maintained that listening to a sermon is
irksome work; but to a man whose tastes lie in that way, the writing of
sermons is most pleasant occupation. It does you good. Unless you are a
mere false pretender, you cannot try to impress any truth forcibly upon the
hearts of others without impressing it forcibly upon your own. All that you
will ever make other men feel will be only a subdued reflection of what you
yourself have felt. And sermon-writing is a task that is divided into many
stages. You begin afresh every week; you come to an end every week. If you
are writing a book, the end appears very far away. If you find that although
you do your best, you yet treat some part of your subject badly, you know
that the bad passage remains as a permanent blot: and you work on under
the cross-influence of that recollection. But if, with all your pains, this week’s
Do We Really Appreciate Each New Day?
21
sermon is poor, why, you hope to do better next week. You seek a fresh field:
you try again."
—Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd

(FROM THE NEW BOOK BY JOHN PAUL CARINCI: AN ALL-CONSUMING DESIRE TO SUCCEED

Thursday, September 13, 2012

What Will You Be Remembered For?

What Will You Be Remembered For?
I am doing a great deal of research for what will become my eighth
book. This new endeavor came about by sheer accident. Lately, I like
a good challenge when writing a new book. Maybe I like to write
outside my comfort zone every so often. Well, this is what is currently
challenging me. I actually put the book I was writing on hold for the
sake of the new, more challenging one.
It all started quite innocently while surfing eBay for what I call
treasure gems, be they autographs, old magazines, historical finds, or
whatever. Well, this particular time, I came across a diary from 1923 in
Hagerstown, Maryland. I was intrigued by the year, and by the fact that
a girl or woman had written the diary, which covered the entire year of
1923. Almost three hundred sixty pages were written out by hand in
pencil, and fairly neatly, too.
Well, I won the auction for the diary, and as I began reading all
about this unknown girl and became more intrigued, I decided to base
a novel loosely on her and her times, revolving around a good mystery,
of course.
What really caught my eye while reading the diary was how many of
her family members passed away or became sick, and how many times
she herself was very sick, during that year. Her father and a few relatives
died between the ages of 46 and 68. I researched some children of that
period who died at age ten or younger.
When I tried to research her last name, _________________to find out her
true identity, I realized that many people are forgotten far too quickly
after their passing. It took four hundred hours of research to find the
dairy writer’s first name; the fact that she was twenty-one at the time;
the names of her father, mother, brother, husband, and son. I was able
to secure obituaries for all of them except her. I became consumed with
finding out who this woman had been and who she became later in life,
as her words in the diary intrigued me.
What I took away from my research was this:
• Every day should be lived as if it is your last on earth.
• Family and friends should be ultra-important in your life and
should be seen regularly.
• We should reflect often on our lives and thank God every day
for all the blessings we have.
• And last, we should strive to improve the state of humankind,
if only in some small way, and look to be remembered for many
years after we pass on.
In 1923, there were no televisions—only radios and Victrolas. Movies
at a theater were a huge treat. Dancing was very big and enjoyable for
this twenty-one-year-old and her friends. Much enjoyment was derived
from canoeing, taking a ride in a 1920 Ford that would often break
down, and sitting with a boyfriend on a two-seated swing in the yard.
Miss ____’s days were filled with visiting and entertaining many
relatives and friends, and cooking and baking pies and cakes for them
was routine. You see, Miss _______led a very busy life in those days, as
I realized that many people in that time period did. Life was so very
unpredictable in 1923, that it was as if they were chasing after as much
as possible before it could slip away.
"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another
person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have
lighted the flame within us."
—Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), Theologian and physician
There is a great lesson in this story. It shows how fortunate we are
to be alive in the current period of time. You see, when Miss Bloom got
sick, as she did several times that year, the doctor had to make many
house calls over the course of the ten days it took her to recuperate.
Routine sicknesses that don’t set us back at all today robbed many of
their lives in those days. I was happy to see that Miss ______ did live to
get married in her early twenties and had a son and a grandson, who
were very prominent attorneys and who, in turn, made huge impacts on
the world around them.
Miss ____ quotes a great poet, James Russell Lowell: “Be noble,
and the nobleness in others will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”
And she intrigued me further with another quote: “Boast not thyself of
tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
My message echoes hers: Pack as much as you can into this life with
which you have been blessed!
(from my book)
http://www.amazon.com/All-Consuming-Desire-Succeed-John-Carinci/dp/160037994X/ref=la_B004ZAAJUM_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347590240&sr=1-2

Thursday, September 6, 2012

--Mother Teresa QUOTES

--Mother Teresa QUOTES (from my books)
"Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
...
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it."
--Mother Teresa

“I see God in every human
being. When I wash the leper’s wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord
himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?”

--Mother Teresa
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Being-Different-success-ebook/dp/B002C75GY4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297550537&sr=1-1

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

QUOTES THAT CAN HELP YOU

“For a long time it seemed to me that real life was about to begin, but there was always some obstacle in the way. Something had to be got through first, some unfinished business; time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
-Bette Howland

“The brick walls are there for a reason. Right? The brick walls are not
there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how
badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people
who don’t want it badly enough.”
—Randy Pausch
From my new book: An All-Consuming Desire To Succeed
http://www.amazon.com/John-Paul-Carinci/e/B004ZAAJUM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Quotes That Stand Out

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experiences behind him.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Be happy. Talk happiness. Happiness calls out responsive gladness in others. There is enough sadness in the world without yours.... never doubt the excellence and permanence of what is yet to be. Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness.... Your success and happiness lie in you.... The great enduring realities are love and service.... Resolve to keep happy and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.
Helen Keller
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them—every day begin the task anew.
Saint Francis de Sales
Nothing can withstand the power of the human will if it is willing to stake its very existence to the extent of its purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli