Small Ways to Shape the World

By Jackie O'Donnell

How can you bring about a more peaceful, just world? This little book offers simple ideas which anyone can carry out-- some comfortable, some more challenging. It’s both a supplement to Small Things Count!—Simple Ways to Live Christ’s Love Each Day and an introduction to the power each of us has to make a better world simply by living our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jackie O'Donnell
• Release date: Jun 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9781452311906

Jackie O'Donnell

I admit it. I’m addicted to writing. It’s a compulsion I’ve had ever since I first held a pencil and could make words appear on pieces of butcher paper from the roll my parents wrapped bread and other goodies in at our family bakery in San Jose, CA. It continued through third grade, when I won a prize from the school bank for a little masterpiece called “It’s Fun to Save.” It drove away the lonesomes of not being able to play with other kids because polio left me less than agile, and it led to several notebooks containing imaginary escapades of my mom, my dog, my wheelchair, and me. As a senior in high school I won the Creative Writing award for the year—but earned only a B in the class because I wanted to write what I wanted to write, not what was necessarily assigned.When I began college I decided writing was not going to feed me, and I loved the thought of teaching others how to communicate in writing. Teaching was a natural fit. For many years I taught high school English, that universally hated subject. Those years gave me happy fulfillment and lifelong friends in the form of colleagues and ex-students. I count among my blessings “kids” who are now in education, politics, on both sides of the law (one in prison, one a District Attorney), corporate executives, trades people, the famous and the slightly infamous. Keeping in touch with these people, along with experiences I had growing up as a person with a disability, gave me food for thought. . . and for writing. Much of what I write, then, deals with how people treat each other.In 2005 my son, Brian, vacated the nest to begin his own life. Deeply saddened by this, his father and I set out the following day to turn his bedroom into a guest room and buy new living room furniture. When Brian asked why we didn’t do all this stuff while he was still home, I could only tell him my hopes that he’d drop by often to see whatever else we were up to. When he’s a parent of a teenager, he’ll understand. Meanwhile, my husband, Frank, and I are content to make a life of our own while enjoying the man our son has grown up to be.Life is good. Life brings surprises. Life exists to be written about and shared.

Book preview

SMALL WAYS TO SHAPE THE WORLD

By

Jackie O’Donnell

For Gwyneth and the next generation of beautiful butterflies

Small Ways to Shape the World

Copyright © 2009 by Jackie O’Donnell

All rights reserved

Smashwords Edition 1.0, October 2009

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may

not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share

this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each

person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase

it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to

Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting

the hard work of this author.

Visit the author, sample her writing, and read her daily blog at http://www.JackieODonnell.net and . http://www.smthingscount.com.

Other works by this author:

Paperback: Small Things Count—Simple Ways to Live Christ’s Love Each Day

(Order at www.SmThingsCount.com).

E-books: Visit the author’s Smashwords profile page (https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JackieOD) or her website (http://www.jackieodonnell.net/book-previews) for details

Small Things Count—Simple Ways to Live Christ’s Love each Day

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