Chicken Soup for the Beach Lover's Soul (26 page)
This time, dinner was not at a gilded restaurant with gold-rimmed china and tinkling crystal goblets. This time, it was on a modest deck at a beach house on Long Beach Island at the New Jersey seashore.
And this time, the cast of characters included our three daughters, our two sons-in-law, and seven very noisy, sunburned grandchildren.
It was not Paris, and it surely was not the Paris restaurant.
But it was just as magnificent a milestone.
Maybe it was the sight of the ocean from the deck of the rented house our daughters were sharing for one golden week at this glorious stage of their own lives.
Maybe it was the intoxicating smell of salt air mixed with charcoal from the well-used grill on this deck where Michael, the family gourmet-chef, was anointing fresh fish with his secret sauce.
Surely it was the spectacle of a fiery red sun setting over the bay and the sound of Danny's shrieks of delight as he chased his cousin Emily around the deck with the abandon of a four-year-old in love with life itself.
Definitely it was because I was holding tiny Baby Carly in my arms, protecting her from the stiff breeze and loving every moment my hands could touch her cloud-soft skin.
We sat on chairs that had seen better days, exhausted from the sun and surf, wrapped in jeans and sweatshirts, barely able to summon up the energy to move.
One of our daughters told a hilarious tale of a long-forgotten childhood escapade, and we laughed until our sides hurt.
Our “dinner service” was not the china and crystal of that Parisian restaurant, but the economy-brand supermarket paper plates and plastic forks that define summer at the beach.
And when Michael announced that his epic meal was ready, we ambled over to a picnic table to sample his artistry: the catch-of-the-day bluefish, the steaming corn, the grilled veggies that Michael insisted would nullify the calories yet to come from a decadent chocolate layer cake.
We all ate too much that night, and laughed more than we had all summer, and fussed more than was prudent over little tykes with sand in their hair.
NEW JERSEY
Cape May
NEW JERSEY
Cape May
Chocolate icing coated Zay's hands, face, and sweatshirt. Hannah was staring at the moon, insisting that it was far too early for a young woman of ten to go to bed. And little Sam had fallen asleep on his grandfather's lap, still clinging to the shells he'd collected in his little yellow pail. Jonah was at perfect peace, asleep on the deck, clutching his “blanky.”
There were no finger bowls, no French pastries, no doves that night.
But there was something far more precious.
There was a family at the beach, seizing one glorious day and night from the jaws of time, distance, and the frenzy of modern life.
And that made Paris pale by comparison.
Sally Friedman
“I hate to say it, but . . . do you think it is time to throw
in the beach towel until next summer?”
Reprinted by permission of Stephanie Piro.
©
2004 Stephanie Piro.
Jack Canfield is the cocreator and editor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which
Time
magazine has called “the publishing phenomenon of the decade.” The series now has 105 titles with over 100 million copies in print in forty-one languages. Jack is also the coauthor of eight other bestselling books, including
The Success Principles:
How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
,
Dare to Win
,
The
Aladdin Factor
,
You've Got to Read This Book
, and
The Power of Focus: How to
Hit Your Business and Personal and Financial Targets with Absolute
Certainty
.
Jack has recently developed a telephone coaching program and an online coaching program based on his most recent book
The Success
Principles
. He also offers a seven-day Breakthrough to Success seminar every summer, which attracts 400 people from fifteen countries around the world.
Jack has conducted intensive personal and professional development seminars on the principles of success for over 900,000 people in twenty-one countries around the world. He has spoken to hundreds of thousands of others at numerous conferences and conventions and has been seen by millions of viewers on national television shows such as
The Today Show
,
Fox and Friends
,
Inside Edition
,
Hard Copy
, CNN's
Talk Back Live
,
20/20
,
Eye to Eye
, the
NBC Nightly News
, and the
CBS
Evening News
.
Jack is the recipient of many awards and honors, including three honorary doctorates and a Guinness World Records Certificate for having seven books from the Chicken Soup for the Soul series appearing on the
New York Times
bestseller list on May 24, 1998.
To write to Jack or for inquiries about Jack as a speaker, his coaching programs, or his seminars, use the following contact information:
The Canfield Companies
P.O. Box 30880 ⢠Santa Barbara, CA 93130
phone: 805-563-2935 ⢠fax: 805-563-2945
E-mail: [email protected] or
visit his website at
www.jackcanfield.com
In the area of human potential, no one is more respected than Mark Victor Hansen. For more than thirty years, Mark has focused solely on helping people from all walks of life reshape their personal vision of what's possible. His powerful messages of possibility, opportunity, and action have created powerful change in thousands of organizations and millions of individuals worldwide.
He is a sought-after keynote speaker, bestselling author, and marketing maven. Mark's credentials include a lifetime of entrepreneurial success and an extensive academic background. He is a prolific writer with many bestselling books, such as
The One-Minute
Millionaire
,
Cracking the Millionaire Code
,
How to Make the Rest of Your Life
the Best of Your Life
,
The Power of Focus
,
The Aladdin Factor
, and
Dare to Win
, in addition to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Mark has made a profound influence through his library of audios, videos, and articles in the areas of big thinking, sales achievement, wealth building, publishing success, and personal and professional development.
Mark is the founder of the MEGA Seminar Series. MEGA Book Marketing University and Building Your MEGA Speaking Empire are annual conferences where Mark coaches and teaches new and aspiring authors, speakers, and experts on building lucrative publishing and speaking careers. Other MEGA events include MEGA Info-Marketing and My MEGA Life.
As a philanthropist and humanitarian, Mark works tirelessly for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, March of Dimes, Childhelp USA, and many others. He is the recipient of numerous awards that honor his entrepreneurial spirit, philanthropic heart, and business acumen. He is a lifetime member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, an organization that honored Mark with the prestigious Horatio Alger Award for his extraordinary life achievements.
Mark Victor Hansen is an enthusiastic crusader of what's possible and is driven to make the world a better place.
Mark Victor Hansen & Associates, Inc.
P.O. Box 7665 ⢠Newport Beach, CA 92658
phone: 949-764-2640 ⢠fax: 949-722-6912
www.markvictorhansen.com
As the president of Chicken Soup for the Soul Enterprises and a #1
New York Times
bestselling coauthor, Patty Aubery knows what it's like to juggle work, family, and social obligationsâalong with the responsibility of developing and marketing the more than 80 million
Chicken
Soup
books and licensed goods worldwide.
She knows because she's been with Jack Canfield's organization since the early daysâbefore
Chicken Soup
took the country by storm. Jack was still telling these heartwarming stories then, in his training programs, workshops, and keynote presentations, and it was Patty who directed the labor of love that went into compiling and editing the original 101
Chicken Soup
stories. Later, she supported the daunting marketing effort and steadfast optimism required to bring it to millions of readers worldwide.
Today, Patty is the mother of two active boysâJ. T. and Chandlerâ exemplifying that special combination of commitment, organization, and life balance all working women want to have. She's been known to finish at the gym by 6:00 AM, guest-host a radio show at 6:30, catch a flight by 9:00 to close a dealâand be back in time for soccer with the kids. But perhaps the most notable accolade for this special working woman is the admiration and love her friends, family, staff, and peers hold for her.
