I have been thinking a lot about friendship during this holiday season. Several years ago I wrote an article titled, “Life Is All About Relationships” which you can view here, and this year particularly I found that to be true.

For the very first time this year, I was without any family for the holidays, and deep down, even though I had spent a wonderful weekend with all my children and grandchildren in Portland earlier in the month, I thought I would be terribly lonely. However, thanks to many friends, I had a lovely holiday!

As I wrote over 300 Christmas letters, I sent up arrow prayers for each person and family, thanking God that they were a part of my life. My favorite Christmas decoration is a beautiful wooden nativity set, handcarved with no faces, which was a gift from a precious friend. As I decorated my tree, all filled with butterflies, I thought of al the special people who gave me those decorations, each one a blessing in my life. As cards and gifts arrived from around the world, I was deeply touched that each person specially thought of me, and my heart was full!

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Holiday Special

Red Plate and CARE Packages for the Home or Red Plate and CARE Packages for the Workplace for $40.

Order now through December 31 and receive both a Red Plate and a copy of either CARE Packages for the Home or CARE Packages for the Workplace for $40 (plus $14 shipping/handling). Save over 20% with this special package. Order before December 19 to guarantee Christmas delivery.

The Red Plate and book will make a special holiday gift for family, friends, and coworkers.

To order, visit www.barbaraglanz.com/products/traditions.php3. or
Visit www.barbaraglanz.com/ideas for more about the tradition of the Red Plate.

KEEPING AN OPEN MIND

I am on an airplane from Atlanta (via Sarasota, FL,which is home) to San Diego, CA. The bad news is that the whole trip will take 12 hours door to door. The good news is that I got upgraded to first class. One of the “deals” I make with myself is that on the way to a presentation, I must do business reading, but on the way home, I can do anything I choose (that is possible on an airplane, of course! 😉

On this flight I have been catching up on my professional reading and have finished three issues of “Speaker” magazine, a publication of the National Speakers Association. This year the theme is “Keep It Real,” and I am deeply impressed with the quality of the articles and the practicality and cutting edge, “no BS” nature of the writing.

One of the quotations that especially struck me was from Aristotle: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” What an interesting way to express the idea of keeping an open mind!

How often do we perceive ideas through the filter of what we deem “acceptable” and summarily discard them rather than “entertaining” them to see what might be of value? A dear friend of mine believes strongly that aliens are watching what is going on in our world and are waiting to come to earth to help us. I must admit that at first I thought he was a bit “wacky”..and yet, because I care about him, I have worked to stay open- minded enough to read the channeled messages he forwards to me from an anonymous source, and interestingly, I have learned from them.

Although I still do not believe there are aliens watching us, I certainly am willing to admit the possibility of that thought-something that years ago I would have dismissed as “science fiction.” Thinking about Aristotle’s quotation, it makes me wonder if the more sheltered and insulated (Aristotle’s idea of uneducated?) we are, the less we are willing to allow ourselves to think about the POSSIBILITY that our deeply held beliefs may not be true after all.

I think the explosion of communication and the phenomenon of the internet have opened new worlds of thought to all of us, and the end result is that we have many more choices in terms of our foundational beliefs. Learning about other cultures and entertaining new ideas broadens us if we allow ourselves to listen, not necessarily changing our beliefs, but in fact, perhaps making them even stronger through considering other alternatives.

On the other hand, we may decide that we DO accept the new thought, and that is the ultimate aim of all education – to give us enough information to make wise choices. I pray that as I continue to learn and grow, I may be willing to listen to new thoughts and ideas without immediately judging them as “wrong,” whether it be in my business or my personal life. Even though Aristotle lived hundreds of years ago, his wisdom is still applicable today!

To learn more about Barbara’s work and life, go to www.barbaraglanz.com.

If you would like to see a copy of the article Cathie mentioned, please visit http://barbaraglanz.com/articles/support/5minutes.pdf.

Visit www.barbaraglanz.com/articles for more inspiring articles.

I am deeply impressed by the ministry of Guideposts, and I encourage you to go to www.guideposts.com to see the breadth of what they are doing to make a difference in this world. They reach 80,000 people a day! Dr. Peale’s most well-known book, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” is still a best-seller, and it was first published in 1952.

My favorite ministry is called “Comfort Kits for Kids.” Any hospital or pastor can request these darling little treasure boxes to take to children who are ill or in the hospital. Since this is such a frightening and lonely time for children, these little kits bring them lots of love and joy. Guideposts hopes to give away over half a million of these kits in the next couple of years.

Most people know the little magazine titled “Guideposts;” however, they also have many other wonderful publications and pamphlets based on the concepts of positive thinking and God’s love that they distribute free to prisons, the military, hospitals, retirement homes, and any place where people need hope.

They also have a prayer ministry that allows people to call in 24 hours a day and reach a live person to pray with them, or they can write their request online and receive an almost immediate reply. This whole ministry functions with volunteers.

Even though I had some trepidation about this being my first time to emcee a group, it was one of the most affirming experiences I have ever had. I was deeply honored to be with the caring staff of Guideposts and to feel a small part of their life-changing ministry of love. The other blessing was to get to know the guests for the weekend whose lives, resources, and influence are making a difference in many ways in this hurting world.

If anyone needs a Master of Ceremonies now, I am ready and willing! 😉 You can learn more about my work and how to contact me at www.barbaraglanz.com.

Weekly Question and Answer

How can I create loyal employees and customers?

Click on the link to watch Barbara answer this question!

For more ways to thank your employees and customers this holiday season, why not consider purchasing a copy of The Simple Truths of Appreciation at the special November rate of $12 for the book or $15 for the book with DVD? For more details, visit www.barbaraglanz.com/products/books.php3#appreciation.

Another way to show your customers, employees, friends, and family members how much you care is by sending a “Red Plate.” Read more about this wonderful tradition by visiting Barbara’s “Idea of the Month” section at http://barbaraglanz.com/ideas/.

A friend sent me this email and I want to share it with all my friends and readers.

When the thirteen colonies were still a part of England, Professor Alexander Tyler wrote about the fall of the Athenian republic over two thousand years previous to that time:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequences: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.”

Alexander Tyler

My question to us all is — Are we going to let this happen to the United States of America? My hope is that we have broken the bonds of apathy with the number of people who voted in this election. Yet did they vote only for the candidate who promised “the most money from the public treasury?” If so, we need to be ever vigilant so we do not become dependent and, as history has so often recorded, revert back to governmental bondage.