|
______________________________________
*The Canoe* ______________________________________ If you enjoy this free email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join the thousands of HeartTouchers.com readers around the world by sending a blank e-mail to: HeartTouchers-subscribe@myinjesus.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/Archives Be sure to check out our brand new inspirational list just for teenagers! Heart4Teens.com To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: Heart4Teens-subscribe@myinjesus.com or visit: http://www.Heart4Teens.com ____________________________________________ The Canoe by Al Batt Tom loved water. He loved drinking it, he loved swimming in it and he loved boating in it. He even loved taking baths when he was a small boy. That is not a natural thing for a boy, but Tom loved water that much. When he was in high school, he took a class in woodworking. He was good at it. He bypassed the normal projects and decided to build a canoe. He had dreamed of having his own canoe for as long as he could remember dreaming. Tom daydreamed in class. He imagined himself floating over the water in his wonderful new canoe. But it had to be his canoe. He needed to build it entirely by himself--the whole canoe. For some reason, this was very important to Tom. He even cut down the tree that he would make the canoe from. It took him the entire school year to build the canoe. He put much thought, time and effort into its construction. Tom completed the building project unscathed, without the loss of a single finger. I considered it a smashing success any time I completed a project in industrial arts class with all my body parts intact. Yes, Tom came out of the experience in good shape, but the canoe came out even better--it was a masterpiece. It was a thing of beauty and a joy to behold. The canoe was perfect. To Tom, it was the best canoe in the world. Why, he even carved the paddles. Tom took the canoe to a local lake and tried it out. Tom had high expectations for the maiden voyage of the world's best canoe, but it was even better than he had imagined. It sliced through the water like magic. Each stroke of the paddle was a miracle. The canoe floated through the water like a cloud in the blue sky. There was no other canoe like this one. After about an hour on the lake, Tom loaded the canoe onto his pickup and headed home. He had wrestling practice. He drove home about as happy as a person could be. He was floating in the air just as beautifully as the canoe had floated in the water. Tom pulled into the driveway of his home. He pulled the canoe from the pickup. Then he heard the telephone ring. He placed the canoe--the world's most perfect canoe--on the drive behind his old pickup and rushed into the house to answer the phone. He talked on the phone for a bit, changed his clothes, grabbed a bite to eat and then hopped into his old pickup. His thoughts were on his wrestling practice as he backed out of the drive. It was right then when Tom heard the awful crunching sound. He had backed over his perfect canoe--the best canoe in the whole world. The canoe that he had built completely with his own two hands. The canoe that had taken a good year of his life to build. The canoe that he had spent only an hour in on the water. The neighbors say that on a quiet night, they can still hear Tom's screams. Tom continued to wrestle and continued to love the water. He wrestled at the Naval Academy. He spent a lot of time on ships and boats. Tom still canoes, but he has never owned a canoe since the incident. He has never thought of building another canoe. He knows that no matter how good a canoe he would build, it would not come close to the canoe he backed the truck over. That canoe became like the great fish that got away. It gets better all of the time. In Tom's memory, any flaws the canoe might have had have vanished. Time heals all wounds and canoes. The canoe is gone, but it lives on in Tom's memory. I once was in the company of two friends while one lamented the fact that he had broken a mirror that morning and now he would be cursed with seven years of bad luck. The other friend commented, "That's nonsense. My Uncle Jim once broke a mirror and he didn't have seven years bad luck." The worrier breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Really?" "Yup, really. He died the same day he broke the mirror." Bad things do happen in life. That's why we need good memories. Tom thought he was making a canoe, but he was building memories to last a lifetime. Al Batt, © 2004 SnoEOwl@aol.com Write Al and let him know your thoughts on his story! ******* Al Batt is a husband, father and grandfather who lives on a farm near Hartland, Minnesota. He is a writer, speaker and storyteller. He writes a newspaper column. He does a regular TV and radio show, contributes to many magazines and newspapers, and is an avid birder. Al Batt 71622 325 St. Hartland, MN 56032 SnoEowl@aol.com _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "A blind man who sees is better than a seeing man who is blind." Verse for the Day: "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear."--Matthew 13:16 Kid's Thought For The Day: "Little crayons still make bright marks." Parent's Thought For The Day "If men had babies, maternity leave would be in the bill of rights." Coach's Thought For The Day "Success is how high you bounce after you hit bottom."--General George S. Patton Writer's Thought For The Day: "You can't clobber any reader while he's looking. You divert his attention, then you clobber him and he never knows what hit him." --Flannery O'Connor Deep Thought For The Day: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. He had a pretty good winter, too." _________________________________________ Have you been to the HeartTouchers.com website lately? If you like what you see and would like to have your own professional looking website, visit the link below. Bizstudio has been a wonderful service for HeartTouchers.com and with 395,000 visitors in the past three years, the website has been a tremendous tool in helping us to "Touch Lives, One Email at a Time." Although I had no prior experience building a website, I was able to create and build the HeartTouchers.com site easily utilizing Bizstudio's online editor. It includes an Online Site Editor, Unlimited Updates, Unlimited Pages, Professional Themes, Pre-Programmed Features, E-mail Accounts, and free Search Engine Submission. If I could do it with no prior experience you can too! Check it out at this link: http://www.bizstudio.com/main/home.htm?bpn=A16435 _________________________________________ MICHAEL T. POWERS www.HeartTouchers.com "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business Dear Michael, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever! Love, Trisha Silverhill, AL Let me make you a video from your photos! Check out my video production business by visiting: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery ___________________________________________ Would you like to see your story in HeartTouchers.com? Writer's guidelines can be found on our Web site here: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/guidelines/ __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm _________________________________________ The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but please do not cut and paste the stories to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! ___________________________________________ Reading Books, Changing Lives! For those of you who would like to purchase the books from the HeartTouchers.com bookstore via your credit card, you can now do so! You can now order a number of different autographed best-selling inspirational books for the same price you would get them in the store, the shipping to you is paid for, and you are helping change the lives of teenagers and those they come in contact with! And best of all, every penny from the book sales are going to youth ministry! http://www.HeartTouchers.com/books _________________________________________________ A number of people have written to us asking what an EBook is, since our book is being offered in both print and EBook versions. An EBook is a book that can be downloaded and read right on your computer. The advantage of ordering the EBook is that is costs less, $6.95 (No other charges), as compared to $13.95 + shipping and handling for the print book. Plus you can download the EBook and begin reading the stories in a few minutes! EBooks are read via Acrobat Reader, which is software that most of you already have on your computer. And if for some reason you don't, it can be downloaded free of charge at the web site. So for those of you who don't want to wait for the print book to be delivered, check out this web site to order the EBook version of Heart Touchers. http://www.booklocker.com/bookpages/michaeltpowers01.html |
 |
|
Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
|