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  In 1928, a happy, ambitious young student nurse was diagnosed with tuberculosis.  Her family sent her to a nursing home in Saranac Lake for several months of ‘curing’.  She was destined to remain in bed for twenty-one years!  Most people might have given up, but not Isabel Smith. She approached the threshold of death on several occasions, but she never ceased to pursue the art of living.  She read voraciously, loved to write letters, studied geography and taught other patients to read and write. From her bed she studied atomic energy with a fellow patient, a young physicist, and organized (read more…)

  Three young men were once given three kernels of corn apiece by a wise old sage, who admonished them to go out into the world, and use the corn to bring them good fortune. The first young man put his three kernel of corn into a bowl of hot broth and ate them. The second thought, I can do better than that, and he planted his three kernels of corn.  Within a few months, he had three stalks of corn.  He took the ears of the corn from the stalks, boiled them, and had enough corn for three meals. (read more…)

  In the fourth round of a national spelling contest in Washington, eleven-year-old Rosalie Elliot, a champion from South Carolina, was asked to spell the world “avowal”.  Her soft Southern accent made it difficult for the judges to determine if she had used an a or an e as the next to last letter of the word. They deliberated for several minutes and also listened to tape-recording playbacks, but still they couldn’t determine which letter had been pronounced.  Finally the chief judge, John Lloyd, put the question to the only person who knew the answer. He asked Rosalie, “Was the letter an (read more…)

  A young man once made an appointment with a well-published author.  The first question the author asked him was, ‘Why did you want to see me?’ The young man stammered, ‘Well, I’m a writer, too.  I was hoping you could share with me some of your secrets for success in writing.’ The author asked a second question, ‘What have you written?’ ‘Nothing,’ the young man replied, ‘at least nothing that is finished yet.’ The author asked a third question, ‘Well, if you haven’t written, then tell me, what are you writing?’ The young man replied, ‘Well, I’m at college right (read more…)