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    Gratefully Disappointed: Learn Through Forgiveness
    Gratefully Disappointed: Learn Through Forgiveness
    Gratefully Disappointed: Learn Through Forgiveness
    Ebook76 pages1 hour

    Gratefully Disappointed: Learn Through Forgiveness

    By Sabrina Umstead Smith

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Gratefully Disappointed is a walk through my life as a young girl growing up in East New York, Brooklyn navigating this thing called "life" learning who I am as a woman; appreciating my purpose as a human being despite a series of life altering disappointing events. I have learned that life's unpredictable events are the seeds that prepare us for Living!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateJan 7, 2016
    ISBN9781490760834
    Gratefully Disappointed: Learn Through Forgiveness
    Author

    Sabrina Umstead Smith

    Sabrina Umstead Smith is an experienced manager who has worked for top corporations. She's a self-starter who runs her own nonprofit. Sabrina gave her son a meaningful legacy through Erick's Place, a charity she founded to help chronically ill children and their parents/caregivers. She is the creator of Forgive4u, a program that defines the six essential steps to overcoming emotional roadblocks.

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      Book preview

      Gratefully Disappointed - Sabrina Umstead Smith

      © Copyright 2016 Sabrina Umstead Smith.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

      KJV

      Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by the Zondervan Corporation.

      Print information available on the last page.

      isbn: 978-1-4907-6087-2 (sc)

      isbn: 978-1-4907-6088-9 (hc)

      isbn: 978-1-4907-6083-4 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2015921382

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Trafford rev. 01/06/2016

      25180.png www.trafford.com

      North America & international

      toll-free: 1 888 232 4444 (USA & Canada)

      fax: 812 355 4082

      Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1     The Typewriter

      Chapter 2     Giving Back

      Chapter 3     Big Business: Corporate Union

      Chapter 4     Life Is Good

      Chapter 5     Love, Baby, Marriage

      Chapter 6     Fire Extinguishes

      Chapter 7     Birth and Relocation

      Chapter 8     Juggle, Juggle, Juggle, Shuffle, Shuffle, Shuffle

      Chapter 9     Death Revisited

      Chapter 10     Love, Remarriage, and Self-Hate

      Chapter 11     Death Again

      Chapter 12     Breakdown

      Chapter 13     Hidden Hurts Exposed

      Chapter 14     Forgiveness

      For my husband, Rosy; my son, Erick; my mother, Mattie; and my father, George.

      For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

      —Matthew 6:14 (KJV)

      Preface

      In the middle of the road of my life

      I awoke in a dark wood

      Where the true way was wholly lost.

      —Dante, Commedia

      O ver the years, I have had some pretty lengthy conversations with myself about this journey called life. What is my purpose? What contributions do I have for the betterment of my community, for this society, for this world? What is really important to me? I have discovered there is significance to my existence, our existence.

      During the spring of 2004, I enrolled in a course on leadership. This was my final course to complete my master’s program at the University of Pennsylvania. I enrolled in the course to gain insight to what makes a leader. Is there some alchemistic formula or even a twelve-step program that produces magnificent leaders? Do leaders have some preordained qualities, abilities, skills, or powers that sustain them as leaders? Is leadership part of the genetic code? Am I a leader? If I am a leader, what or whom do I lead? Who decides that one is a leader? A fair amount of questions, I would say. And with each of those questions, I am certain the answers can be spun a number of different ways. I am sure all leaders are human beings who put their socks on the same way I do—one at a time. What leaders do bring to the table are qualities from their unique personality types, diverse cultural backgrounds, which includes values and the environment where nurturing occurred. All these characteristics create and develop abilities to influence others. Leaders are human resources who are simultaneously enhancing their own leadership capabilities, leading themselves and others during crisis periods, dealing with conflicts between an organization’s leadership and their own personal leadership. Leaders are constantly developing new and improved strategies for success. In the pages that follow, we will traverse my personal journey in discovering my leadership qualities and lessons.

      Chapter 1

      The Typewriter

      G arry Wills in his book Certain Trumpets describes leadership as …reciprocally engaging two wills, one leading (often in disguised ways) the other following (often while resisting). There is always a struggle, often a feud; a tug of wills." I read this sentence a few times and traveled back to the following event from my teenage years. It was Christmas 1971: behold, underneath our magnificent white-branched artificial Christmas tree was a beautifully wrapped huge box with my name, Sabrina, on the gift tag. What could this be? I wondered. My excited, high-pitched giggling filled the room as I focused on that box, grabbing it and ripping the paper off. I saw the word royal boldly printed on the box. Wow! I screamed, my face stretching and contorting, with excitement, My very own brand-new Royal Electric typewriter. This was exciting since I loved to type. Having my own typewriter meant I could practice typing on my own time, not only in school. Years earlier, my mother convinced me I needed to have exceptional typing skills to secure a good job, which is probably why I received the typewriter as a Christmas gift.

      Not long after receiving that typewriter, on a warm summer evening, my mother came home from work and announced, Sabrina, you’re coming with me this evening to our block association meeting. Bring a pen and some paper because you’re going to be the secretary. Remember, I was a young teenager, fourteen or fifteen, with plans of my own that involved hanging out with my friends, engaging in fun teenager activities. It was my belief and understanding that adults were responsible for attending meetings to get things done, such as organizing the community. Besides, what possible contributions could a teenager make,

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