Chicken Soup for the Soul and MORE magazine

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This past January, at a Yes to Success seminar with Debra Poneman, we spent some time writing down goals and accomplishments that we wanted to achieve in one month, one year and five years.  We also listed 100 things to do before we kicked the bucket.  I wrote “be in a major magazine” and “publish a story in Chicken Soup for the Soul” as two of the things I wanted to accomplish.  What I really meant for the magazine goal was to publish an article, but as it turned out, Andrea Atkins from MORE magazine did an article on “I Didn’t Know I Had It In Me” for the November issue.  MORE flew out two photographers from NY to do a photo shoot at the Barefoot Ski Ranch in Texas the day before the Nationals.  Despite two hours of pictures and several runs up and down the lake, to my surprise, they selected a picture of me sitting on the boat instead of standing on the water:

I’ve always loved the Chicken Soup for the Soul books and years ago, I casually said to myself, “I’d like to get a chapter published.”  But I never wrote down the goal, nor did I actively pursue it.  It wasn’t until the Yes to Success seminar that I put it in black and white in front of me.  I finally visited the Chicken Soup for the Soul website and browsed through their upcoming books.  “Find Your Happiness” was the title of an upcoming book and the deadline for submissions was a short time away.  I sat down and wrote.  Less than an hour later, I was done writing.  I gave it a quick once over and hit the send button.

In early July, I received an email that I nearly deleted because I didn’t recognize the sender and didn’t pay attention to the subject line.  It was from the editor:

July 8, 2011

Dear Karen,

Your story “The Best Years of Life Are Still Ahead  ” has made it to the final selection round for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Happiness. Only a small percent of the submitted stories have made it this far. The vast majority of stories in this “last round” will appear in the book, but we do not make the final decisions until about a month before the publication date.

As you can see, the story did make it to the final round when I received a box of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Find Your Happiness books:

So today, it’s your turn. Start your list of 100 things you’d like to accomplish, do or achieve.  Share some of those in the comments section.  And along the way, let me know what you check off that list.

 

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Tags: Inspirational Stuff by DeafMom
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Sponsor Spotlight: ZVRS

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Meet ZVRS, one of my barefoot sponsors.  I love my Z-20 videophone.  I really, really love it.  Because you see, for years and years, the phone was my enemy.  The phone was the big barrier that prevented me from connecting with people over long distances.  In high school, my father would answer the phone and handle conversations for me.  Nothing’s more embarrassing than having your father relay a call.  “What time do you want Jim to pick you up to go ice skating?”

When ZVRS came out with the Z-20, I fell in love with it right away.  The phone gives me the option of using the phone attached to it or a headset.  As a writer, I often spend an average of an hour interviewing someone for a story.  For instance, I recently interviewed two skiers for an upcoming story in The Waterskier magazine.  While they talked together on speaker phone, I put the Z-20 on mute and typed my notes.  The interpreter gives me tons of valuable information that I simply can’t get from a captioned phone– expression, voice inflection, role shifting, and intensity.  If a caller on the other end laughs, the interpreter shows me just how intense the laughter is, whether it’s a simple chuckle or an outright belly laugh. This beats a typed-out “laughing” that I used to experience using other relay systems.

In the course of working on a book with the two-time World Barefoot Champion, Keith St. Onge, we spent hours and hours on the phone.  During one of our marathon calls, the interpreter had a puzzled look on her face.  “Sounds like water…”  she signed.  And then a a-ha look.  “A toilet flushing.”  She tried hard to contain a surprised look on her face.

“Keith, are you in the bathroom?” I inquired.

“Sheesh!  I thought you were deaf?!”

Ah, the interpreters do a great job conveying those little bits of information, don’t they?

A big thank you to ZVRS for the barefoot water skiing support!  If you are interested in a videophone, contact me at kputz (at) zvrszs.com.

 

 

 

 

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Tags: Barefoot Sponsors, Barefooting by DeafMom
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You Were Born to Stand Out

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“Mom, can I write all over the wall in my bedroom?”

My daughter, Lauren, came up with this idea of writing inspirational quotes and pieces from her favorite songs all over her bedroom wall.  After a short discussion, I told her to go for it.  I forgot to consult the hubby on this one.  He was a little taken back when he first stepped in her room and found her writing on the wall, (Do you know how hard it is to paint over permanent marker!!) but after reading some of the inspirations, he agreed it was a good thing.

Lauren didn’t do the project by herself, she invited others to share their bits of inspiration too.  So of course, my favorite quote went up on the wall.  The kids know it well, I’ve been preaching it to them for several  years now:

“Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out.”

— From the movie, “What a Girl Wants.”

From the time that I first lost my hearing in elementary school, I tried hard to fit in, blend in, and fly under the radar.  I became the Queen of Bluffing– learning how to laugh at the right moment and nod along in conversation– without understanding a thing. I developed elaborate strategies to get through the school day.  “I was spacing out, what’s the homework?” I’d ask the student next to me.  In English class, the teacher had us read paragraphs from a book– I’d count the number of students ahead of me, watch each of them like hawk to see where they finished each paragraph and then when it was my turn, I knew where to start reading.  If there was a discussion, I made sure to chime in with my opinion first, because I couldn’t follow the conversation and I didn’t want to say something that was already said.

That’s why I always say that going deaf was a blessing. That was the process of learning to accept myself and embrace myself.  That’s when I stopped trying so hard to fit in, and began to celebrate standing out.  God gives each one of us unique gifts and a journey that is like no other, so why would we want to live someone else’s life?

When my own kids started sporting hearing aids, we picked some “stand out” colors so that there was no mistaking the ornaments perched in their ears.  Lauren and I picked out matching earmolds one year– pink glitter for her and blue glitter for me.  And to my surprise, even after all my efforts of getting my kids comfortable with being deaf and hard of hearing, they still went through their own journey of wanting to fit in, blend in and fly under the radar.  The wild colors were replaced with plain, clear earmolds.  Hair grew over their ears.  I had to learn to back off as a mom and let them experience that.  Soon enough, they became comfortable again in standing out.

Our kids were born with a different ability, as Lee Woodruff says in her book, Perfectly Imperfect.

And we should celebrate that difference. But you’ve got to get into a place where you’re really comfortable being deaf/hard of hearing before you can celebrate that difference.  And therein lies the challenge– getting folks comfortable in their own skin.  I think back to my elementary and teen years– I spent way too much time trying to be a poor imitation of a person who could hear instead of the best “me” I could be.    At a recent closing plenary, I shared my journey and the “You were born to stand out,” quote.

One parent came up to me afterwards.  “I’ve been telling my kid how ‘normal’ he is and that he’s just like everyone else.  He’s miserable being ‘different’ and wants desperately to fit in with others. I’m going home today with your message– and I’m going to celebrate him instead!”

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Tags: Inspirational Stuff, Raising Deaf/HH Kids by DeafMom
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