The Original Chicken Soup Magazine Website


This domain was the original Chicken Soup Magazine website. In 2008, Bill Rouhana, Amy Newmark, and Robert Jacobs bought Chicken Soup for the Soul from Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen the creators of the overwhelmingly popular book series and online magazine with the same name.

The new owners created a new website: www.chickensoup.com/. Although the their mission is the same, "changing the world one story at a time", the new owners have expanded way beyond the original bookstore moving into a offering a line of pet food for cats and dogs, a weekly half-hour series, which will air on the CBS Network, along with more than 250 books including new releases and featured titles. Go check out the new website.

Recently I discovered that the domain for the original website, ChickenSoupMagazine.com, was available. I decided to buy it with the goal of recreating some of its content from archived pages and to point visitors to the Chicken Soup for the Soul's new site. I definitely didn't want someone else purchasing the domain and re-purposing it for something that had nothing in common with the original Chicken Soup for the Soul website.

I mentioned what I was planning to do with the Chicken Soup Magazine website to some of the folks I work with and several of them were familiar with the original website. We all work for a company that creates customized websites, as well as other web and mobile development. Right now my team is working with a site that is helping people learn how to stop drinking. It is a different approach than the typical rehab program or 12 step total abstinence programs most people associate with AA. Instead, for those who qualify after an initial consultation, they prescribe two different craving-fighting medications and a guide to begin coaching you through their online program at your own pace. I was amazed that this program made no demand of their clients to stop drinking. On the homepage it says: Drink Less, or Not At All – It’s Your Choice!. I have a friend who has a drinking problem and decided to show him the site (lifebac.com) with the hope he might try it. My friend entered the program and a year out he has reduced his alcohol intake to just a beer or two when we get together. He's really been able to turn his life around. But I digress.

Just want to say that working on this Chicken Soup Magazine site was fun and certainly not quite as demanding as my regular job. Since the site will not be exactly as you remember it, please be indulgent.

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PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PAGE CONTAINS SELECTIVE ARCHIVED CONTENT FROM THE ORIGINAL SITE.

Now let's take a nostalgic stroll back to before 2008 when each issue of ChickenSoupMagazine.com was bringing readers entertaining and informative stories, helpful tips, indispensable advice, and a slice of humor, in addition to those great Chicken Soup stories.

 

I recently came across ChickenSoupMagazine.com while researching the healing nature of sports, particularly golf, and stumbled upon an incredibly insightful post about the practical design of women's golf clubs. The article detailed various aspects such as weight distribution, grip size, and shaft flexibility, which significantly impact performance and comfort. This information was not only practical but also inspiring, showcasing how tailored equipment can enhance the healing and therapeutic benefits of sports. ChickenSoupMagazine.com beautifully combines heartfelt stories with practical advice, making it a valuable resource for anyone looking to enrich their lives through sports and other meaningful activities. [Karin Madsen]

 

Content from CIRCA 2005-2007

Welcome to Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine's Web site.

Kick your shoes off, get comfy and have a look around our Web site.

Of course, you can subscribe now to Chicken Soup magazine, essential reading for today's Chicken Soup lover!

Take advantage of our great subscription offer where you can get five gift subscriptions for only $5 each when you buy yourself a one-year subscription, or 10 gift subscriptions for only $5 each when you get yourself a two-year subscription!

We look forward to having you as a Chicken Souper!

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About Us...

Chicken soup's medicinal value is known worldwide.

For centuries, the smell of this wonderful concoction of steaming potage would fill a house as mother or grandma would make it. Just that smell made you instantly feel better.

Millions around the world also know Chicken Soup as the powerful name of the book series that inspires, heals hearts, helps mend a rift, makes you want to reconnect with an old friend or get back on track to fulfill your dreams.

Now, we're adding to the powerful book series by introducing Chicken Soup for the Soul, the magazine!

It's a unique guide filled with articles, tips, ideas, people, places, things and much, much more! It includes those great stories you love from the books.

The magazine will be much more than just stories.

You'll find out how to contribute to the magazine, about our submission guidelines for stories and articles, previews of upcoming issues, special subscription offers, sponsor offers made especially for Chicken Soup magazine readers, answers to our most frequently asked questions, and tons more.

Perhaps no other time in recent history has there been a greater need for a magazine that re-affirms our faith in the basic goodness of the human condition.

The explosion of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® brand is compelling evidence that people want to be uplifted with narratives and feature articles that strengthen their faith and inspire them to change.

Thanks for visiting with us to learn more about Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine!

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Making A Difference

What does it mean to make a difference?

We all like to read about people who are making a difference. It gives us encouragement and that's why Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine's focus is on people who make a difference.

How these people are taking on challenges, locally, nationally, and even globally will infuse your spirit. You'll see the effects they are having and exactly what they're doing to make a difference.

People make a difference every day by taking on challenges, whether in their own backyards or on the other side of the world. They willingly give of their precious time to tackle issues and make the world a better place.

Whether in their homes, communities, government, schools, or at work, people who are making a difference are giving of themselves unselfishly to make our communities better, and this inspires us.

In each issue of the magazine, we'll tell you a story about someone who is undaunted in his or her efforts to make a difference.

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On Love

Love is butterflies in the pit of your tummy.

But that's not the only type of love. The Greeks have four distinctive words for four different types of love but in the English language; we only have one. Yet it manifests itself in many ways.

Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine is dedicated to love, especially trying to decipher what it means to say, I love you to someone.

Love is when someone helps an elderly neighbor rake her leaves or when a sibling gives his brother or sister the last sip of his soft drink. It's a whole lotta' love to let Great Aunt Trudy kiss you on the cheek with her bright red lipstick that won't wash off for days. Examples of love are all around us.

For some people, it's frightening to say, I love you while others can roll it off the tongue without pause. That's why Chicken Soup magazine will explore this and all things related to showing love and saying it whether the words are I love you, or I care about what happens to you, or even I think you're pretty cool.

And in each issue, we will give you a love story. Sometimes it will be romantic love, and other times we'll tell you about sacrificial love or the unconditional love we get from children and pets. We'll also explore what those four Greek words mean in English and how they apply to love.

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Home Front

Home is where the heart is.

And sometimes, with everything there is to do around the house, your pumper needs a little help.

There's Parenting 101 versus Household Upkeep 101, which is just another way of saying we all have to deal with both living and living space. That's why Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine has a dedicated section called Home Front to help you with anything related to house and home.

We will address both inside your four walls and outside them. The help you'll get from this section will be both emotional and substantial.

Inside, we'll give you tips on how to create a reading room for your children, how you can quickly and easily organize a cluttered closet, or explain why your pets prefer to be fed by hand rather than having to eat from their bowls. Other features will help you with things like how to un-guilt yourself for a Saturday spent on the couch vegging-out or preparing a bubble bath.

Outside, Home Front will give reasons for why the type of tiller you select for your backyard garden can affect how strong your plants will grow. Maybe you need help with deciding the best house plants, pots and soil for your sun room or some ideas for a themed back yard cookout. We've got all this and more in Chicken Soup magazine.

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Memories

Our minds are full of memories.

They shape us. Memories drive us; make us who we are, and affect our decisions. Memories make us laugh and cry. They help us through bad times and add to the good times.

When I was a child

We've all said that once or twice. Reminiscing is a major part of anyone's life. Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine recognizes this and so we have dedicated a special place in each issue for musing over things from the past.

You'll read about how we pass along memories, which are parts of ourselves, to children and grandchildren, family and friends.

In this section, we'll offer you articles on how to preserve your precious memories which almost always include photographs. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words so we'll give you ideas and tips on how to preserve your memories in the form of scrapbooks or computer slide shows. We'll even explain how to transfer your still photographs into videos or DVDs to show your family and friends.

It was said by Charles Baudelaire, the 19th century French poet, translator, and literary and art critic that memories are the fire that burns eternal in our souls.

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Special Moments

It's when your baby took his first step.

Or when your puppy spun around in circles dancing with delight because you just walked in the door. And when your daughter married the man of her dreams and she picked him because he's just like her dad.

A special moment can be something as simple as sitting on the porch and chatting with Mom or Granddad.

In each issue, Chicken Soup for the Soul magazine will give you glimpses of what makes a special moment. We'll tell you stories about people who have shared with us a particular event or moment in time that changed their lives for the better.

It is in this section of the magazine that you will also get those fabulous Chicken Soup stories which warm your heart and make you reach for the tissue box or re-energize you to continue chasing your dreams.

It is our goal to make you want to say, Yeah! and Hooray! or to simply sit quietly and reflect on your own special moments.


STORIES

Sage Advice from the Stepfather of the Bride

Resident humorist, Ernie Witham, reveals secrets to marital bliss.

Christy and Carl are getting married.

Christy's my stepdaughter, a beautiful, intelligent and seemingly normal young woman who started channeling Martha Stewart about six months ago and has now color coordinated everything within six square blocks of our house, including Sam, our mauve-and blush-colored cat.

Carl's the lucky young man and soon-to-be-former surfer. It'll be an intimate affair. In wedding terms that means taking approximately the same number of people who usually attend a professional sporting event and doubling it, the theory being that some family members, especially those still incarcerated, won't show up.

Truthfully, though, I haven't had to worry too much about the intricacies of the event. Oh, occasionally, I'm asked whether I think yellow roses create a more spiritual aura than white, but I just smile and tell Christy how beautiful she is and how beautiful the wedding will be and how even the cat has finally started coming out of the hall closet again. This usually earns me a peck on the cheek and the opportunity to slip away before the Greatest Weddings of the Twenty-First Century video starts up again.

My only wedding responsibilities will be to keep the DJ sober and to impart a few words of wisdom to the young couple during a tearfully tender toast.

I've never made a toast before. I did have to stand up once at a company Christmas party and apologize for giving Leslie, the new guy who took over the mailroom, a scented bath loofah, but other than that my public speaking career has been limited.

However, I have learned six important rules of survival that I hope will be of some help during the tricky transition part of marriage known as the post-honeymoon or what-the-heck-was-I-thinking phase.

1. Be careful choosing pet names for each other. Remembersome wild and crazy night at the state fair you could end up thinking, Hey! Matching tattoos would be cool!, only to wake up the next morning with snoogly-woogly little pookey bear etched onto your butts.

2. You should both learn some standard marriage-saving responses as soon as possible, like: Wow, you make dinner really fun, dear. I've never had meat loaf that bounces. Or: Thank you, honey, for sharing the excruciatingly minute details of the groin pull injury that kept you out of the all-star game. I'll never forget it.

3. Try to master the subtle differences in personal hygiene. Facial foundation and bath oil beads are just as important as athlete's foot ointment and nose hair clippers, though I'm not really sure why. Also, Kleenex and toilet paper are two different products and, yes, they should match the bathroom décor, which will, unfortunately, be determined by the discriminating tastes of the people you invited to the wedding.

4. Speaking of décorone partner's couch may be another partner's excuse to rent a Dumpster. That's why they invented beige. Nobody likes it, but at least it's not plaid. Wall hangings must also be a compromise. Japanese art prints aren't really all that bad, especially if you light them with a red neon Budweiser sign.

5. Learn to share your space. Your first apartment may be rather small, in that people are always mistaking it for a phone booth. Learn to give a little. Be willing to part with at least one pair of shoes for every concert-logo T-shirt and funny-slogan hat relegated to Goodwill.

6. Finally, there will be occasional bumps on the road to marital bliss. But, it's better never to go to sleep angry with each other, especially if you have a waterbed and just received three sets of Ginzu knives at the reception. Instead, analyze both points of view, apologize, kiss and make up. After all, the only alternative is to go running home and guess whatyour rooms have already been converted into entertainment centers.

So good luck, God bless and have a wonderful life. Now, if you'll excuse me, the DJ's lying under the keg again

 

Reader's Story

A reader recognizes that learning to share kindness may be the best lesson of all.

Just in Case

By Teresa Jerger

I was packing lunch for my two children and myself when I suddenly began to doubt my sanity. It was so early in the day it was still dark outside, and I was making sandwiches. I thought about just sending lunch money and getting an extra half hour of sleep. Being a single mom, I needed all the shut-eye I could get.

So why was I adding this stress to my life? It's all because of genetics.

I remember my grandmother telling me how, many years ago, she packed leftovers for my grandfather's lunch. He loved them but always seemed to come home starving. Finally after much questioning, he confessed he had been giving away half his lunch to a co-worker who had none of his own. From that day forward, my grandmother always sent extra just in case.

With five kids in school at the same time, my mom didn't have time to pack lunches. We ate cafeteria food, which was fine with us. In the world of our elementary school, it was not cool to bring your lunch from home.

There was an exception to the no-pack rule, however. As a punishment, we were forced to bring our own lunch for however many days my mom chose to keep us in the depths of nerdom.

My time in purgatory came in third grade. I had broken the rules. For four days, my noontime repast consisted of a cheese and mustard sandwich, a bag of chips and one lonely cookie. By Friday my mom relented. And although I still brought my lunch from home, she packed it for me.

That afternoon I opened my lunchbox to find my favorite egg salad sandwich, a nectarine and a whole giant jellyroll with a note taped on top: Just in case you want to share.

To my 10-year-old eyes, that jellyroll looked big enough to feed the world. I was in heaven as I offered slice after slice to my friends. It was the best lunch of my life.

As I continued packing lunch for my kids, I thought about the sacrifice it took for my grandparents to share what little food they had in the midst of the Depression. And that my mother continues to do the same. To this day, Thanksgiving at her home always includes at least two guests who are down on their luck. None have left her home without a few bucks in their pockets and a grocery bag full of leftovers just in case they want to share.

I emptied my own packed lunch on the table and divided it between the children, then made two more sandwiches. Although our grocery budget was tight and there was little room for extras, I knew because of my grandmother and mom there were others who had much, much less. By sharing the little we had, I was carrying on a tradition that started more than 70 years ago a lesson of kindness that I could pass on to my own kids.

As I dropped a package of ramen noodles into my purse for my new noon meal, my son and daughter skidded into the kitchen, grabbed their lunches and headed for the door. I packed extra today, I called out. Just in case.

 

"To Be There for My Kids"

Cookie Lee

"I also remember having only one birthday party as a child; my parents were always too busy working."

My mother and father emigrated from China to America in 1948. My brother and I were born soon after, making us both the first American-born members of our family. Upon coming to America, our parents worked extremely hard to make a living, and, as such, sacrifices were made to ensure a better life for all of us.

Our father worked seven days a week, and our mother would work all day. I remember waving good-bye to my mother every morning as she drove off to work, then I walked to school alone with a house key dangling on a chain around my neck. After school, I would come home to an empty house. When my mother finally came home, she had to clean and prepare dinner and didn't have time to help me with my homework or play with me. Looking back, I realize that this helped mold my independence and resourcefulness, because I had to figure out how to do things on my own. But at the time, I was resentful. In the mid-1950s, everyone else's mother stayed home and went to the PTA meetings and school field trips, and I didn¹t want to be different. I also remember having only one birthday party as a child; my parents were always too busy working. I vowed that when I became a parent I would do things differently.

Since making a living was always a struggle for my parents, education was very important to them. My father believed that you could use education to make your life better. He would always say, People can take away your house or your possessions, but they can never take away what you have learned. I had high expectations of myself as well, so I worked all through high school and was able to put myself through college. I did my undergraduate work at University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Davis in business management and design, and then later went to Northwestern to get my MBA in marketing and finance.

I was determined to be successful and make my own money so that I could make my own choices. I went on to work as a marketing manager for major corporations, such as Johnson and Johnson, Hunt-Wesson and Revlon Cosmetics, then as a director of marketing for Mattel Toys. These jobs were very demanding, and I often wouldn't get home until midnight. While I enjoyed the success and challenge, I really wanted a family, and I didn't see how I could have children when I was working so many hours.

In between my hectic schedule, I decided to take a jewelry beading class for fun. I really enjoyed it and made jewelry just for myself. When I wore it, people asked about the jewelry and where I got it. They were surprised and impressed that I had made the pieces of artwork....

 


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