Coming up short, continuing on

03.01.2009 // Miscellaneous, Motivation, Short Stories // jcbrady // No Comments

A man on the sidewalk asked me for a light. He had a fresh cigarette dangling in his mouth. I saw him from afar and considered crossing to the other side of the street because he seemed strange. When I looked him in the eyes, he looked like one of the happiest people I’d seen in a long time.

I said “Sorry, I don’t have a light” and continued on.

I imagined what  Dr. Wayne Dyer would say to this man. Wayne might have been inspired by the joy in the man’s face and said “Ya know smoking’s hard, why do you do it?”

Wayne would have probably had a full conversation with the man and maybe even left an impression, causing him to look at his addiction in a new light. However, it’s usually not my way to start giving advice to a stranger on the street, sidewalk, whatever. I continued on.

A few minutes went by as I went on my walk. I hit a crosswalk and noticed on the ground was a bright red lighter. This bright red lighter was the exact thing the stranger just asked me for. What an odd coincidence I thought and continued on.

After a few seconds, I felt the urge to go back for that lighter. Imagine if it worked and I actually was able to give it to the guy. I could then have a conversation with the man about the difficulties of smoking. I went back and picked the lighter up off the ground. I flicked it and it didn’t work.

Figures, I said and tossed it aside on someone’s lawn. I proceeded to walk to the end of the street. Instead of going around the block like I’d planned, I decided to go back the way I came so I could get that lighter.

I thought about how I would give it to the man on the sidewalk.  It would be my way of pointing out the difficulties of smoking, we’d have a laugh about the fact it didn’t work, then I’d continue on.

Maybe the man would get pissed off at me and want to kick my ass. Hmmmm, I guess you never know how someone’s going to react. In any case, I would approach him with caution knowing I had my ammo in my pocket, the little red lighter I found.

I continued on to the place he was, the but the man was gone. The best that I could do was leave the red lighter standing on it’s end on the sidewalk. Better than nothing, maybe my message would be found. Somehow though, it didn’t feel quite like it would be.

Glad I have the means to blog about this experience and let any of you struggling smokers out there know that there’s an excellent bit about why smoking is more difficult than not smoking in the disc Making Your Thoughts Work for You by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer; Byron Katie

Buy it off this link and you’ll be doing me the favor of donating a couple bucks. So if you or anyone you know is interested in quitting smoking or any other addiction for that matter, you should give this one a try.

On the flipside, I also felt inspired to write 3 alternative endings to the above (true) story:

• I leave to go for a walk down the same street the next day, but this time I take a lighter with me. The man is there but already smoking a cigarette. I pull out a green lighter and light it in front of him. He laughs and says, “Need a smoke, it’s my last one” “No thanks I would say, glad that it’s your last one” and continue on.
• The man is actually at the bus stop and I see him get on the bus. Omnisciently speaking, The bus driver would ask the man to extinguish his cigarette. The man throws it on the ground and stomps it out. Then the bus driver points to a sign that says fine for littering $50. The man picks it up and comes his direction to throw it away but there is only a recycling bin (no trash). The bus driver says you’ll have to hold on to your own cigarette butt. He puts the stinking ashed cigarette in his pocket and comes to realize that smoking really is more difficult than not smoking.
• Considering the “stranger danger” scenario, I approach the man with a lighter and flick it. The man pulls out a gun and a knife and says “choose which way you want to die”. I point to the cigarette in his mouth and say “Not that way”.

If you have some more ideas for how things could pan out in this situation, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

A Penny in the Sink – A short story by JC Brady

02.22.2009 // Miscellaneous, Motivation, Short Stories // jcbrady // 2 Comments

Here is a short story that is 1 page long and it’s about finding or creating abundance in your life. Download it here.

You can distribute this story to as many people as you like and you can even add your own links to it. All I ask is that you keep the document in tact, that means all words and links. Thanks and enjoy!

Wayne laughed about his father’s fascination with pennies. It always seemed so petty to pick up a penny off the ground. To his father, pennies were a symbol of prosperity and finding them would always remind him of that.

“I’m one penny wiser,” his father would say before he picked it up and took it with him.

Now that his father had passed away, Wayne often thought about him and his habit of picking up pennies. Every time he saw a penny lying on the ground he thought of his father.

This time, Wayne stood in a public restroom and wondered if his father would have picked up the penny from the dirty sink that someone had spit in. He laughed about it and shrugged it off, figuring that his father probably would have shrugged that one off too.

He drove away and began to amuse himself imagining how far his father would actually go to become one penny wiser. Would he really have picked that penny up, washed it off and taken it home? What if it was in the toilet, would it be a symbol of abundance at the bottom of a used toilet? Probably not.

At dinner that night, his meal was $9.01. Wayne didn’t have a penny and it made him think about that one in the sink. Again he laughed, at the thought of it. With a smurk, the cashier pulled a penny from her drawer and gave it to Wayne.

“Thanks”, he said.

It was no big deal, but again he imagined having that penny from the sink he found earlier that day. He laughed at the idea of how obsessive compulsive it would be to go driving back there to that public restroom and see if it was still there. How funny it would be if he actually did that.

He could have driven back to that gas station right then, but he didn’t. Would his father have gone back for it? No, his father would have picked it up out of the sink, washed it off and taken it home. His father wouldn’t be in his predicament, he joked with himself.

When Wayne arrived home his wife brought up their money situation. It was never a good thing when she talked about money. They both wanted abundance in their lives but Wayne was always behind the 8 ball when it came to money.

If his father was watching him, he’d  say that Wayne was never willing to do what it took to make money. His father wouldn’t have told Wayne that, but it was true. When it came to creating prosperity, something was always too hard or too awkward. Wayne could always find an excuse not to follow through with his plans to make more money.

When Wayne thought of his father again, he knew he had to go back for the penny in the sink. It hit him like an epiphany and he wasn’t going to waste any time getting it. He ran out the door, jumped in his car, and sped off toward that gas station.

Everyone was driving too slow, all the stoplights were red, his car couldn’t accelerate fast enough. Then he laughed at himself again. A few minutes ago he was debating about going back for the penny and now he’s irritated he can’t get there fast enough. Wayne exhaled and reminded himself to relax.

When he got to the gas station he parked and went to the public restroom. He opened the door and stared at the sink, the penny was gone. Someone else had taken the penny and it had become their symbol of prosperity instead of his. After some disappointment, a wave of realization flooded over him.

Wayne decided right then and there that next time, the next penny he finds would be his symbol of prosperity. He would do whatever it took to get that penny if he was able to determine it was rightfully his. Even if it was at the bottom of a toilet, it would be his. It would be worth getting because prosperity was worth having even if it meant sacrifice.