Three years ago I was asked by Francine Lazarus, Ed.D. who was a teacher at an elementary school in the Tampa, Florida, area, if I would come to speak for their teacher inservice day at the beginning of that school year. Her husband is an executive with Publix Supermarkets in Lakeland, and when I spoke for all their managers, each of them was given a copy of “The Simple Truths of Service Inspired by Johnny the Bagger®.” Francine was so taken with Johnny’s story that she decided to use that as a theme in her classroom and wanted the other teachers in the school to be inspired as well.
Last year I heard from Francine that she had been promoted to be the principal of her OWN school, Bellamy Elementary. She decided to use “Service from the HEART” and Johnny’s story as the annual theme for her whole school. These are some of the ideas she has shared with me of what they are doing: Barbara,
Congrats on your well-deserved honor! I’m very proud of you and you looked SO beautiful 🙂 I’ve shared the information with my faculty/staff so they know about the person who inspired the idea for our school theme this year.
Things have really taken off with Johnny and “The Simple Truths of Service!” There are HEARTS all over the school and every day the teachers e-mail me with new ideas…I’ll take some pictures for you.
We’re thinking of ordering those rubber bracelets that the kids wear with a HEART of Service message on them for the students to give out in the community when they want to recognize Service from the HEART. During Pre-Planning, each team of teachers adopted their own “Personal Signature” and brainstormed ways to bring their idea to life throughout the year. My music teacher is teaching David Roth’s song about Johnny, “A Little Something More” (I ordered the CD at Maythelightmusic.com) to the teachers on 8/30, and we’re going to put a special heart of service “thought” for parents in the weekly bulletin that goes home every Friday.
Everyone loves the books and the Johnny pads. Everyone says this theme has much more meaning and importance than themes like “Wild About Learning… or Dive into Learning.” From Johnny, our students will learn to be caring citizens while adopting an “above & beyond” work ethic!
Barbara, thank you so much for the work that you do…It TRULY makes a difference!
Bellamy Takes Education To HEART With A HEART Of Service!
Francine Lazarus, Ed.D.
Principal
Bellamy Elementary School
To order “The Simple Truths of Service” book, the DVD of the story of “Johnny the Bagger®”, and the DVD, “Service from the Heart”, click here
For more information about “Johnny the Bagger®” and Barbara’s presentations on “Service from the Heart”, go to www.barbaraglanz.com
10 Tips to be Healthy and Happy
10 Tips to be Healthy and Happy from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, “Eat, Pray, Love:”
1. Take a walk.
2. Write something.
3. Read something.
4. Don’t eat too much.
5. Spend some time in silence.
6. Stretch.
7. Send a message of love to someone.
8. Drink water.
9. Mess around in the garden.
10. Floss
I would add as number 11. “Spend some time with someone you love.” These are the little guys I love to spend time with, even if only on Skype!
Owen and SImon all dressed up for my Speaker Hall of Fame Award Banquet!
Almost all these tips are things that can be done during a work day, so please share them with your colleagues. Taking care of oneself is the first way to have a more passionate, productive workplace!
To learn more about Barbara’s work to help create workplaces of joy, go to www.barbaraglanz.com.
Trip to Turkey
TRIP TO TURKEY — September 6 – 12, 2011
The impetus for this trip was the wedding of my second cousin, Heather Howard, on September 9. 2011. I joined my aunt, Joan Anderson , and my cousin, Loralyn Willis, and her husband, Fred, in Istanbul at the Taksim Life Hotel, and we spent the five days we were there having fun together.
Standing in Taksim Square
September 6-7 – Travel
I left Sarasota for Tampa at 9:15 am, my flight to JKF left at 12:05, arriving at 2:55, and then my Delta flight to Istanbul left at 4:50 pm, arriving in Istanbul at 10:15 am September 7 (3:15 am EST!) I took a cab with some of Heather’s friends and arrived at the hotel early afternoon. We were so impressed driving into the city with all the beautiful landscaping along the medians – lovely patterns of flowers, hanging baskets from poles, and much greenery. With all the domes, minarets, and spires of the skyline, we found it a beautiful city to enter.
CPAE Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech ~ August 2, 2011
On August 2, 2011, I was honored. thrilled, and humbled to be inducted into the CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame in Anaheim, California, at the National Speakers Association convention. There are only 120 members in the world, including Art Linkletter, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, Og Mandino and Ken Blanchard. The current members select and vote for the new members, thus the name “Council of Peers Award of Excellence”. Just five people are chosen each year. This year’s amazing recipients were Chad Hymas, Victoria Labalme, Mike Rayburn, Dan Thurmon, (and me)! All my children and two of my grandchildren were there and many, many precious friends, so it was truly a “night to remember!” This is the speech I gave when I accepted my award:
In late June our Mastermind group met at the farm home of Jolene and Keith Brown in West Branch, Iowa. Even though I had grown up in a small town in Iowa and had many friends who lived on farms, I had never spent several days actually living on a farm. The experience was an eye-opener for each of us “city folks” and taught us some important lessons about hard work, community, and values.
Sometimes there are moments in all our lives when we look back and realize we HAVE done something right! Erin, our youngest daughter, took us on a rocky journey from her thirteenth birthday onward. Although she had a genius IQ and nearly every talent and gift you can imagine, she suffered from self-esteem issues as well as an addictive personality.
Coupled with a fiercely independent spirit (she told us several years ago that when Dad and I told her, ”No,” that was the green light!) and a risk-taking approach to life, we wondered if she would even LIVE to be 30! Yet, through it all (and there are stories you would be hard put to believe), I believed in her and prayed for her and supported her.
Today she is a lovely young woman with two college degrees and a wonderful job in fashion design. Those of you who know Erin or who have prayed for her over the yeas will be particularly touched by the words below, and those of you who don’t, can relate, I’m sure, since all families and relationships have their battles and their triumphs, their ups and their downs, their laughter and their tears, their fears and their hopes.
Barbara is enjoying her wonderful birthday cruise on Princess Cruises. Her voyage began in Denmark, then sailed on to Norway, next was Berlin. After enjoying some time at sea, they will be visiting St. Petersburg – Russia, Helsinki – Finland, Stockholm – Sweden, ending back in Copenhagen -Denmark. What a beautiful adventure. Bon Voyage!
Touring Amsterdam
A speaker friend, Lenora Billings-Harris, and I spent the day sightseeing in Amsterdam on Sunday after the Global Speakers Symposium ended. We began with a canal tour.
Lenora and me on the boat
Our sightseeing boat
Of course all the streets are very narrow, and since so many people bike, there is always a very narrow bike path on one side of the tiny streets which leaves even less room for cars. The canals, which are about 3 meters deep, were built in the 17th century, and as the city grew, they were built in semi-circles out from the center. One of the most interesting things about the canals was that in the 1960’s they finally built short fences on some of the canals (although the ones outside my windows have nothing between the street and the water). The guide told us that still at least one car a week goes into the canal!
Amsterdam is 1 ½ meters below sea level, so most of the houses are built on piles. (Schipol Airport is also below sea level…..) The reason the houses are so narrow is that they were taxed on their WiDTH, so they were all built long to the back. There are many different kinds of interesting gables, often indicating the wealth and status of the owners, and I was intrigued with the large hooks at the top of each gable. Because the houses and the stairways were so narrow, all the furniture had to be brought in through the windows, so the hooks were the first form of moving equipment! I took many pictures of the charming rows of house fronts along the canal, many former mansions.
Note the hooks at the top of the buildings
This was one of the most narrow buildings we saw.
We saw wonderful sights like the largest floating Chinese restaurant in the world, the “house with 1000 windows,” the “Crazy Jack” Tower, so-called because the clock could never keep the right time, and hundreds of house boats—some lovely with little floating gardens and others that looked barely afloat! Interestingly, they all have gas, water, and electricity.
Two different kinds of houseboats
After our canal ride, we went to the Van Gogh Museum, and since Lenora shares my penchant for shopping, the first thing we hit was the Museum gift shop….and then lunch in their garden cafeteria. The museum itself was very crowded, but we were able to see most of Van Gogh’s amazing work. I did not know that he only painted for ten years and then became ill and despondent and shot himself. Sadly, his work did not become famous until much after his death. There was also a traveling Picasso exhibit at the museum which we found quite interesting. He is so famous for his cubism that I was not aware of the many other kinds of work he did.
On our way back to the hotel, we HAD to stop at the Hard Rock Café for gift t-shirts and an empty Heineken beer bottle in Dutch!
Hard Rock Cafe of Amsterdam
The Heineken Brewery
We dropped off our purchases and then did a quick walk through of the Red Light district. My children had warned me NOT to go into a coffee shop ;-), so I had to at least take a picture in front of one.
A "coffee shop" in Amsterdam
Even though I had been there many years before, it was still a bit shocking to see all the girls in the windows, dancing, seducing, and nearly nude, and of course even the shop windows and all the “toys” available brought color to our cheeks! Interestingly, there were all sizes, ages, and nationalities of women – someone for everyone, I guess.
A typical shop in the Red Light District
That evening Nicolette and Jelle entertained us in their lovely home. We were deeply touched to see that Nicolette had a framed American flag that had flown on a battleship in her living room. Their garden was extraordinary (we loved how many of the homes had small gardens either in their front or back yards), and they were the most gracious of hosts.
See earlier blog posts on other parts of the trip. To learn more about Barbara’s work, go to www.barbaraglanz.com.
“Barbara touches every soul she comes into contact with. She leaves you with a sense of joy and motivation to implement one or many of her simple, quick, and FREE ideas on showing appreciation for others. Our leaders knew they could immediately return to their work environment and raise the bar on recognition and appreciation of their staff. Thank you, Barbara, for spreading your contagious enthusiasm!”
Jed Liuzza, SVP/Chief Human Resources Officer
Oklahoma University Medical System
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. - Washington Irving -
