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 Salesforce integration support, as well as other web and mobile development. Right now my team is working with a site, LifeBAC, 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, LifeBAC prescribes two different craving-fighting medications to work alongside a LifeBac 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 LifeBac with the hope he might try it. He was intrigued with the anti craving medication Baclofen which is the front-line treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in France and Australia. The way it works is a person starts off at a low dose of baclofen. Users may drink normally while the LifeBAc coach makes follow-up calls to check for reductions in alcohol cravings and drinking. Gradually the dose is increased until an effective dosage is reached that makes the user completely and effortlessly indifferent to alcohol. Sounds amazing. Obviously, everyone’s reaction to baclofen is unique to their own biology and lifestyle. 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.

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....