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May is designated as "Military Appreciation Month" and here at Chicken Soup for the Soul we are proud to support military families � the unheralded heroes of the armed services!

In our book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Military Families: 101 Stories about the Force Behind the Forces , we share stories from service members and their families about pride and patriotism, heartache and joy, and of course, a few miracles.

We also LOVE that royalties from the book benefit the USO!

Here is a quick look at a couple of my favorite stories from the book. Enjoy!

"Getting on Base" by Heather Gillis
When Heather Gillis’s husband sold his private medical practice and joined the Air Force, Heather didn’t know what to expect. “We were entering a whole new world,� Heather shares. “I learned quickly that if I didn’t get out there and meet people, I was never going to make friends in my new military world.� Thanks to locking her keys in her car, Heather met and became quick friends with her neighbor. From there, Heather got involved in the community at the base and made many great friends. “The neighbors and friends I meet become a part of my military family,� Heather says.

"Like a Dandelion" by Lauren B. Stevens
By the time Lauren Stevens was twelve, she had lived in four states and three countries because of her father’s Air Force transfers. “Home,� she says, “was wherever my family resided at the time.� And she loved it! “Military life taught me discipline and resilience, exposed me to different cultures, and provided my family a lifetime of memories,� Lauren shares. She likens herself and other military children to dandelions. “We thrive wherever our ‘seeds� land and make friends with ease, deeply rooted in the shared experience of military life,� Lauren writes. “We blossom and thrive in new environments before being swept away in the wind of our military parents� move to new stations.�


Amy Newmark

Forgiveness is one of the best tools we have at our disposal to create a better life for ourselves. It really is an amazing tool... you can transform your life in just one one second � just by deciding to put the past in the past, where it belongs!

In our new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Forgiveness Fix we have a collection of stories that show you how to look beyond the hurt and use the power of forgiveness to move forward.

Here are previews of two of my favorite stories from the book that show how you can use forgiveness to create a better life for yourself:

Let family back in
In "There for Each Other" Lauren Magliaro describes how her father and his younger brother were estranged for many years, not even talking to each other when they attended family functions. But when Lauren’s father was hospitalized with a life-threatening brain aneurysm, his brother showed up to help the family, and whatever had transpired between them was put in the past. Lauren’s father recovered, and the two brothers enjoyed twenty more years together until Lauren’s uncle tragically died at age 58. Lauren says, “Though devastated at the loss of his brother, my dad was there for my uncle’s wife and three grown sons, the same way my uncle had been there for me and my mom two decades earlier. I miss my uncle every day, especially seeing him and my father together. They always reminded me of the importance of forgiveness, and that all things are possible with love.�


Make sure you understand what lay behind a hurtful action.
One of the best ways to find forgiveness is to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and try to understand his or her motivation and circumstances. It took years, but in her story, "No Fault," Christy Heitger-Ewing eventually got over her feeling of abandonment after her mother’s suicide—by recognizing her mother’s mental illness. She began attending a support group and came to realize that her mother was in agonizing emotional pain and that it wasn’t her fault that she died. As Christy sees it, “She didn’t choose to become inflicted by a chemical imbalance that messed up her brain any more than a cancer patient signs on to have cancer cells ravage her body.� Christy was able to stop feeling hurt and instead feel gratitude for the forty-six years that she had with her mother.


Amy Newmark

Miracles happen every day to people from all walks of life. From medical miracles to answered prayers, to divine intervention, these stories will deepen your faith and give you hope � that good things do happen to good people.

In our book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Believe in Miracles , we have 101 true stories from ordinary people who have had extraordinary experiences, their lives forever changed by a miracle.

Here are previews of two of my favorite stories from the book that show you how to find the miracles in your life:

Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need.
In her story "The Rosary in Mom's Purse" Gloria Caviglia was trying to get her two children back to college, prepare her eighth-grade classroom for another year of teaching, and take care of her terminally ill mother. Hospice assured them that she was receiving the correct doses of medication but her mom was in terrible pain.

Gloria couldn’t understand why God would let her mother suffer this way. Nevertheless, she and her husband needed to leave to take one of their children to college, so off they went in her mother’s car. Her son had pointed out that her mother’s purse was in the car before they left, but for some reason Gloria decided to leave it there.

As they drove home after the drop-off, Gloria asked her husband to stop at the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY. There she found a shrub covered with rosaries in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Gloria wished she had a rosary with her, so that she could pray for her mother and leave it with the other ones. Then she remembered her mother’s purse in the trunk of the car. Her mother always kept religious items in there. Maybe there was a rosary.

Sure enough, there was a rosary and Gloria prayed with it, asking for her mother’s pain to be taken away so that she could die in peace. Gloria’s mom died three months later, to the surprise of the medical professionals never having needed pain meds again.

Look for signs from the people you’ve lost.
In Jan Bono's story "I Asked for a Sign" she and her fiancé were sitting on a rock at the beach, watching the sea turtles, and discussing a very difficult topic—his terminal disease. He asked Jan to make sure she brought some of his ashes to this spot on this beautiful tropical island. Jan promised but said she needed something from him too; she needed him to send her a sign from the other side, something so big and amazing and specific that she couldn’t miss it.

Two years later, Jan was back on that island with a small pouch of his ashes. “I’m here,� she said. “Now bring me some turtles.� Then she read him a long love letter and when she looked up there were two turtles right in front of her. They rolled on their sides, their fins lifting clear of the water as if they were saluting.

Moments later, a yellow butterfly came and circled just above Jan’s head before disappearing into the trees. Jan thought all she needed to make her day complete was a hummingbird even though hummingbirds were not indigenous to that island. Instead, seconds later, a red-crested cardinal fluttered to the sand at the end of her beach towel and paraded back and forth in front of her. Then the signs kept coming. On the way out of the parking lot, a car came out of nowhere and cut in front of her with a license plate that read “LCB.� That was the nickname her fiancé had called her—LCB for Little Cuddle Bear. Back at the hotel, she found four pennies in the parking lot between the car and the room.

The ultimate sign came when Jan visited one of the many art galleries near the hotel. They had a wall with an enormous photograph from the area. When Jan sat down to look at it, she couldn’t help but squeal, because it was a photo of the very rock she had sat on earlier that day when she released the ashes into the water. Jan had fulfilled her promise by bringing her love’s ashes back to this island, and he had come through for her—with numerous definitive signs.


Amy Newmark

It's so true... we never stop needing our moms. They always know the right thing to say and the right thing to do. And somehow, like magic, they do it all!

In our new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Magic of Moms, you'll find 101 stories of gratitude, wisdom and miracles lovingly collected from the Chicken Soup for the Soul library.

Here are previews of two of my favorite stories from the book where we see the magic of our moms:

Moms show us how to be of service to others.
In John Dorroh's story “Mom’s Secret Mission� John tells us that his mom would disappear every Christmas Eve for a few hours and he never knew why. It was only after her death that he learned where she had gone. A man wrote to him and explained that John’s mother had come to their house every Christmas Eve for the past seven years, dressed as Mrs. Claus and bringing gifts for the whole family.

Moms are always there when we need them.
Tiffany Mannino, in her story “Never Too Old to Want My Mommy,� recalls the day that she told her mother she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother helped her through every step of her treatment and Tiffany says, “She was attending to my every need, both physically and emotionally, but who was attending to her needs?� She adds, “I know what my mother would say if I asked her that question. She would say, ‘That’s just what you do when you are a mother.’�


Amy Newmark

In 2007 my life changed. Our last child was going off to college and we were looking for our next business venture. Chicken Soup for the Soul was for sale and we were interested. As we evaluated the business, one of my jobs was to read 100 of the old Chicken Soup for the Soul books to understand “the product.�

I remember laughing and crying so much that I had to change my two-week contact lenses every week because I was ruining them with my tears. Those 100 books, containing 10,000 real-life stories from real people, became my crash course in Chicken Soup for the Soul advice and wisdom. That was the beginning of a new life for me. Now, 12 years later, I’ve read and edited tens of thousands more stories in the 165 new books I’ve published.

Everyone tells me I’ve changed. I feel different: more relaxed; more compassionate and less judgmental; more grounded and grateful for everything that I have; and way more knowledgeable about what makes people tick. I truly believe that reading Chicken Soup for the Soul stories has helped me through a lot of challenges—my mother dying, my father getting dementia, my cancer treatment, and now, COVID-19 and the way it’s affecting my family, friends, and colleagues � plus the damage it’s doing to our business because most bookstores are closed.

Here in the epicenter—the NY metro area—we’re plugging away making new books for the future. In the meantime, because we can all use a little Chicken Soup for the Soul, we decided to make our iconic book, the one that started it all, free as an e-book. You can download it wherever you like to get your ebooks. You’ll get all the classic stories from the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book, plus 20 bonus stories from 20 of today’s best-known motivational speakers and authors.

Stay home if you can, and stay safe. We hope the stories in this book will make everything just a little bit better for you.


Amy Newmark

With most bookstores closed and people staying home, our book business is under siege. But we’re plugging away making new books for the future. In the meantime, because we can all use a little Chicken Soup for the Soul, we decided to make our iconic book, the one that started it all, free as an e-book. You can download it wherever you like to get your ebooks. You’ll get all the classic stories from the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book, plus 20 bonus stories from 20 of today’s best-known motivational speakers and authors.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: All Your Favorite Original Stories Plus 20 Bonus Stories for the Next 20 Years contains not only new stories from Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and me, the editor-in-chief and publisher of Chicken Soup for the Soul, but also other powerful and inspiring stories from MK Asante, Reverend Michael Beckwith, Gabrielle Bernstein, Kris Carr, Deepak Chopra, Lori Deschene, Eric Handler, Darren Hardy, Robert Holden, Tory Johnson, Mastin Kipp, Nick Ortner, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Anthony Robbins and don Miguel Ruiz.

One of my favorite classic stories in the book is the one about the man and the starfish. This story comes in various versions, but basically it’s about a man who was walking down the beach and saw a man in the distance, leaning down, picking something up, and throwing it out into the water. He did that over and over again. Picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.

When the man got closer he realized the man was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach. He said to him, “There must be thousands of these starfish. You can’t possibly save them all.�

And the man leaned down, picked up another starfish, threw it in the ocean, and said, “I made a difference to that one.�

This is our little way of helping out. We so appreciate all our readers during normal times, and while we sit here eagerly waiting for things to get back to normal in the book business, we figured we might as well share some inspiration with all of you. We love that this original Chicken Soup for the Soul book embodies the hope, comfort, and inspiration that we all need right now. Even if you are super busy right now, working on the frontlines or educating your children at home, please download your free copy of the book. You can read it later if you can’t get to it today.

Stay home if you can, and stay safe. We hope this free ebook will make things better for you, one story at a time.


Amy Newmark

Little did we know when we sent this book to the printer earlier this year that the world would soon be turned upside down. Our new normal is anything but normal.

Yet here we are trying to make the best out of a very tough situation. We hope this new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter Is the Best Medicine: 101 Feel Good Stories, our first-ever collection of laugh out loud stories, will lighten the burden and inspire hope.

Here are previews of two of my favorite really funny stories from the book that are sure to put a smile on your face:

Technology can be truly scary.
In her story "Home Alone" Jennifer Clark Vihel was in her bathroom, with her very noisy fan going. But even so, she heard the intruder pounding on her bathroom door and could even see its shadow through the crack at the bottom of the door. Her dogs were outside and she was home alone. Jennifer armed herself with the only “weapon� she could find in the bathroom, a hair clip with a sharp metal point. She was afraid to turn off the fan because that would alert the intruder to her presence, but when she hadn’t heard the intruder pounding on the bathroom door for five minutes, Jennifer mustered her courage. She opened the bathroom door, armed with her hair-clip “dagger.� She was going to make a dash for her cell phone and call for help. And that’s when she found the intruder—her robot vacuum, silent now and stuck under the low crossbar of a chair.

Laughing at yourself is just as good as chocolate.
In Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow's story "Round Trip" she was on one of her many diets and for once she was doing great, having gone a whole month without chocolate. She even made her sister her accountability partner so she’d have to admit it if she cheated. But then one day Elynne was running an errand from work and as she walked down a main street in Chicago she stopped at a light right next to a Fannie May candy store. Elynne cracked; she pushed that revolving door, already tasting the delicious chocolate in her mind. But, as she tried to enter the store, the revolving door wouldn’t stop and she found herself right back on the sidewalk where she had started. Why? Because her sister had coincidentally been passing by at the exact moment that Elynne lost her resolve and had rushed into the door behind her and kept it turning. Elynne says, “We laughed so hard that my need for a chocolate fix passed� for the moment.�


Amy Newmark

We are so excited about our new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Listen to Your Dreams. This is the third book we have done on dreams and their power to help you improve your life. Because here is what happens. During the day you're busy and distracted and you can't focus on your innermost thoughts and knowledge. But at night, while you are sleeping, your subconscious can get your attention, and say, "hey, here's what you need to think about or process or decide."

Here are previews of two of my favorite stories from the book that show ways you can use your dreams for personal transformation. Enjoy!

Dreams can give you courage.
In Rebecca Radicchi's story "Turned Messenger" she had a recurrent dream in which a tidal wave was roaring straight at her and she stood there frozen, watching it approach. Finally, after years of this nightmare, Rebecca decided to analyze it. She realized something very important: “Those colossal waves had never actually overtaken me. Not once.� Rebecca understood that no matter what kind of awfulness came at her, she would prevail.

She says, “From then on, I viewed those walls of water as a gift. They reminded me to balance out my feelings with facts. They encouraged me to deal with challenges by facing them. And they reassured me that no matter what comes, I’ll never be overcome.�

Dreams can save your life.
Have you ever had a premonition that something bad was about to happen? Perhaps you changed your day to avoid that bad event, or you warned someone else. In Marya Morin's story "Hush" she had so many dreams and premonitions that came true that her parents warned her not to tell anyone. Her story concerns her discovery of her gift as a young child, and her later reluctance to tell the man she was dating about it, until they were about to have a tire blow out on a mountain road. She screamed at her date to stop moments before their front tire exploded.

As they sat in the car on the shoulder of that treacherous road, trembling, she confessed that she had dreamed the night before about the tire and the ravine they would plunge into. Marya says that unlike her parents, “He expressed no fear or distaste—only relief for saving our lives and sympathy for the many omens I’d never disclosed to anyone.� They’ve been married for decades now.


Amy Newmark

I know it seems early to be talking about Christmas but with the way things are these days I feel like we all need as much holiday cheer as possible! And with Thanksgiving just around the corner, the shift into high gear for Hanukkah and Christmas is not far behind.

The 101 inspiring stories in our new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Is in the Air, is sure to kickstart your holiday spirit!

Here is a preview of two of my favorite stories about the joys of the holiday season:

It helps to remind yourself why you’re doing all this work.
In the story "Doing Dishes" Melody Groves surveyed the pile of dirty dishes filling her sink and counters after a holiday event, all left for her to wash by herself. Her busy children and grandchildren had already gone back to their homes. But as she grumbled and worked she started to think about how each glass and plate was used: the football-shaped glass that her eight-year-old grandson loved, the spoon her eleven-month-old grandchild had used for applesauce, the remnants of the chicken her husband had so carefully and proudly cooked just right. Before she knew it, the dishes were done and Melody had reviewed a lot of happy memories. In the course of emptying the sink she had realized how full her life really was.

If you see a need, fill it.
In her story "Around the Tree" Crescent LoMonaco heard that one of her brother’s friends couldn’t afford a Christmas tree, and she was horrified. The newly divorced mother of three was already facing a slim Christmas. Crescent’s first instinct was to get that struggling mom a tree. She followed that impulse and went shopping for the perfect tree, complete with a stand, decorations, lights, and even an extension cord. She and her husband dropped off the tree anonymously in the family’s driveway. Later that day, her brother called to say that his friend had told him she had a Secret Santa who had provided a tree for them. She was so happy and appreciative, and said it really felt like Christmas. Crescent says, “Thinking back, it wasn’t about the tree. What I loved about the tree and what I wanted so much for that family was the family time. The tree was just the backdrop.� And she’s right; whether you’re gathering around the perfect cut tree, artificial tree, or decorated avocado tree, it’s the gathering that matters. The tree is just an excuse for the good stuff.


Amy Newmark

Life begins again at 60, right? Well, it does if you have the right attitude! As a person over 60 I am so excited to share with you our new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Age Is Just a Number. This is a fun read for dynamic, active men and women in their sixties, seventies, eighties, and even nineties who prove the adage that age is just a number!

Here is a preview of two of my favorite stories about how your senior years can be the best part of your life:

1. It’s never too late to try that new thing.
In her story "Realizing a Dream" Beverly Burmeier's new normal is the constant pursuit of her dreams. She describes taking a beginner trapeze class in her seventies and being the oldest participant by a number of decades. But she did well, flying through the air and catching the trapeze with ease, then dropping onto the safety net like a pro. Her instructor was so impressed he taught her some additional tricks.

Beverly says, “This was truly a dream come true. But I learned more than how to fly on a trapeze that day. I learned that it’s never too late to try new things. Now I’m not afraid to step out of my comfort zone with activities such as ziplining, hang gliding, parasailing, paragliding, Flyboarding, and skydiving. I’ve traveled worldwide to fascinating places including Antarctica, India, Nepal, Cuba, and seven countries in Africa.�

2. It’s time to confront your fears and surprise yourself!
Confronting your fears at any age makes you proud. Sometimes you even surprise yourself with what you’re capable of doing. That was the case for Barbara Bartocci in her story "Going the Distance" after experiencing a major change in her life—a divorce after 30 years of marriage. Her younger brother Rob had been through a divorce himself, so he knew what she needed. He encouraged her to drive all the way from Kansas City to his waterfront vacation condo two hours north of Seattle. She would have the place to herself on weekdays and he and his girlfriend would join her on weekends.

Barbara was nervous about making the 1,800-mile drive by herself, but she did it, even camping outdoors along the way. And then she found herself enjoying the solitude at the condo and the time to do whatever she wanted, whether it was biking for hours, reading novels until two in the morning, or sitting on the peaceful deck sipping coffee.

Barbara says, “It felt less like an ending and more like a beginning.� When she returned to Kansas City after a few weeks, she says, “I carried with me the memory that in camping and driving to Seattle, I had done something way outside my comfort zone. If I could do this, perhaps I could navigate my new life.�


Amy Newmark