Julie and New Beginnings

By Kennon Callahan

Julie and New Beginnings is a love story that begins with an amazing invitation.
It is the true story of how my life long love found me. Dr. Kennon L. Callahan is a best selling author and speaker. This is his 25th book. It shares an extraordinary series of New Beginnings with good fun and good times, wisdom and common sense, love and hope, peace and joy. The book shares ways you can enjoy New Beginnings in your life. You will discover warm insights, much fun, deep thought, great joy, and a good deal of laughter and happiness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781734104721

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 by Dr. Kennon L. Callahan, Ph. D.

Julie and New Beginnings.

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America.

Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of this book in any form or transmitting by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information, contact Dr. Kennon L. Callahan, Ph. D.

PMB 280, 381 Casa Linda Plaza, Dallas, Texas 75218

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Callahan, Ph. D., Dr Kennon L.

Julie and New Beginnings.

1. Life. 2. Hope 3. Leadership 4. Peace 5. Family 6. Title

2019

eBook ISBN 978-1-73410-472-1

19   20   21   22   23

Contents

Opening

Dedication

Picture of Julie, One Year Old, August 9, 1939

  1. The First Beginning

  2. Original Grace

  3. An Encouraging Spirit

  4. Gifting

  5. Informal

  6. Communicating

  7. Deciding

  8. Peace

  9. Trust

10. Life

A New Beginning

Picture of Julie, Cuyahoga Falls High School Graduation, June 1956

The Author

A Word from Julie and Ken

The Library of Books

Helpful, Key Resources

Picture of Julie and Ken, Blue Ridge Mountains

Opening

Dear Family and Friends,

In recent times, I have had the fun and the honor of sharing these new books with you.

Julie and New Beginnings

Gifts of God Possibilities for Something New

Freedoms Grassroots Hope

Living in Hope

Living in Peace

Living in Grace

These books confirm that God blesses us with remarkable persons, new beginnings, gifts, freedoms, hope, peace, and grace. I encourage you to live a life filled full with new beginnings, gifts, freedoms, hope, peace, and grace.

In Julie and New Beginnings, you will discover Julie. Her New Beginnings will encourage you to grow and develop a whole, healthy life. You will discover New Beginnings for you. Your life will be richer and fuller as you take advantage of these New Beginnings.

I invite you to enjoy the New Beginnings for your life.

I want to thank all the persons with whom Julie and I share this wondrous life. Your compassion and wisdom, your insights and excellent suggestions have contributed much to our lives and to the development of this work.

We are grateful to be sharing this new book through the gifts and competencies that the staff has brought to the publishing of Julie and New Beginnings. The staff team for this book has been a joy with whom to work. It is an honor to share with them in bringing this work to the world. Thank you for your gifts, creativity, and your excellent contributions.

Sara Huron is serving as the Editor of Julie and New Beginnings. She has contributed to the editing of several of my Twelve Keys books. Her wisdom and insights, her experience and knowledge have been most helpful. She brings much creativity in developing the clarity and excellence of the books.

Sara Huron is an executive coach and organizational change consultant. She brings depth of experience and broad perspective to her consulting work. She is wonderfully respected in business and not-for-profit worlds. She is the Founder and President of Wide Margins. Sara is a long-time, good friend with Julie and me.

Please note that the spacing, capital letters, bold type, and some spelling choices are the responsibility of the author. Further, note that the theological, philosophical, and life-encouraging suggestions are my own. I am grateful to Julie, my mentors, my near family, my close friends, and my colleagues for their wisdom across the years.

You are welcome to be in touch with us.

Julie and I look forward to conversations with you.

Our cell phone is 214 649 7390.

Our email address is [e-mail]

Julie and I wish for you and yours

wonderful lives of generous joy,

quiet peace, and

happy New Beginnings.

May your lives be filled with overflowing hope.

ROMANS 15:13

God bless you all.

KEN AND JULIE CALLAHAN

NOVEMBER 2019

Dedication

This new work is dedicated to:

Julie McCoy Callahan

We shared our first date together on the fifth Saturday of January in 1954. Julie invited me to the Square Dance at her church. We had a grand time. We dated more. We went steady. We became engaged. We married on August 11, 1956.

On August 11, 2019,

we celebrated our sixty-third Wedding Anniversary.

Julie is the most amazing person I know. She is blessed with compassion and love, wisdom and common sense, joy and hope. She is a most peaceful person.

She has held several extraordinary positions across the years. Perhaps, among the best, was her twelve years as administrator of Anesthesia Research at Emory University Medical School in Atlanta, Georgia.

Then, when my writing, consulting, and speaking became so busy, she was gracious and kind to suggest she would give leadership to the administrative areas of our collective work. She has advanced the work immeasurably.

Julie is the gifted mother of two remarkable sons and the gentle grandmother of three excellent grandsons. We enjoy many family and friends together. She has shared her wisdom and insights with all twenty-four of the previous books. She has been of equal help with this new, twenty-fifth book.

In recent times, we are enjoying our trips in our Airstream Classic Trailer. Julie is a legend in Airstream circles for hitching up our Toyota Tundra to our 30-foot Classic Airstream, and for driving solo our rig across country, and for going solo on Caravans, when I have had to be somewhere else, helping a group of people.

Julie is God’s wondrous gift to me. I give thanks to God each day for the life we share together. She is my best friend. We are blessed to be husband and wife together, and to share this life together.

Gratefully,

DR. KENNON L. CALLAHAN, PH. D.

NOVEMBER 2019

Julie, at one year old, August 9, 1939

1

The First Beginning

The First Beginning is a New Beginning.

The First Beginning leads to New Beginnings.

The Day

Thursday….

Morning….

Between first- and second-period classes….

Cuyahoga Falls High School….

The whole school is rushing.

From one place to the next.

To our lockers.

Leaving books.

Getting books.

We are all heading to our second-period classes.

Greeting one another.

Chatting.

Laughing.

Having fun.

Enjoying life.

Encouraging one another.

We are a good school. We are a happy school.

It is Thursday. We are one day away from the glorious week end.

She stopped me in the hall.

We had never met.

We had never been introduced.

We had never talked.

Noise and bedlam abounding.

Confusion and excitement all around.

The First Beginning

She called me by name.

She introduced herself.

She invited me.

Ken,

I am Julie McCoy.

My church is having a Square Dance a week from Saturday night.

I invite you to come and go with me to the Square Dance as my date.

Her voice was steady and enthusiastic.

Her spirit was warm and inviting.

She was encouraging and confident.

She shared a pleasant, attractive spirit.

Her smile was gentle and peaceful.

I was quietly amazed.

In that time, girls did not invite boys on dates.

It was simply not done. Let alone with someone with whom you had never spoken.

We had never spoken until that very moment.

What a way to begin.

With an encouraging spirit, I said, Let me get back to you.

The class bell rang for our second-period classes, interrupting our conversation. We hurried to our classes.

The conversation continues

I was on the Varsity Debate Team.

I knew we had a Debate Tournament that Saturday. I did not know where it would be held.

If it was to be across the state of Ohio, I would not get back in time. If it was nearby, I would be able to go to the Square Dance with Julie.

I found Mr. Heinz, our Debate Coach and the Speech Teacher of our High School.

He assured me the Debate Tournament was in Akron, just across the Cuyahoga River.

I would be back in plenty of time.

Mr. Heinz helped me to find Julie’s phone number. The ringing of the class bell had not given me time to learn it from Julie.

It turned out that Julie was in Mr. Heinz’s study hall. She sat near his desk.

With a hall pass, I would leave my study hall in another part of the school. I would come to Mr. Heinz’s study hall so he and I could confer on the best strategies for the coming debate of each weekend’s tournament.

She had noticed me.

She had known my father. He was Sergeant on the Police Force, and, among many things, was in charge of the School Crossing Patrols. Julie had come to know of him when she earlier went to Grant Grade School.

My younger brother was in her sophomore class, and she knew something of him. And, I learned much later that she had taken her Yearbook and looked through her sophomore class; then, the junior class; then, the senior class.

She saw my picture.

She knew of me.

She knew me on sight.

The Square Dance was at her church in nearby Akron, Ohio. Julie and her mother had participated in the church since Julie was a young baby. Most all of the people in the congregation were her mother’s age. There were no persons in the congregation Julie’s age. If she wanted to go to the Square Dance with a partner near her age, she would have to invite him.

She chose me

I have a saying:

Decisive events

change our lives and shape our destinies.

Decisive persons

change our lives and shape our destinies.

I know that all relationships have a First Beginning. The way the First Beginning happens shapes the relationship to come.

All that has happened…. all that has come and gone…. all that has grown and developed…. has happened because of Julie’s invitation to me to be her date at the Square Dance at her church.

She invited me on Thursday, January 21, 1954.

Our First Date was on Saturday, January 30, 1954.

We celebrate the anniversaries of both dates.

On Thursday, January 21, 2019,

we celebrated the sixty-fifth anniversary of Julie’s invitation,

our First Beginning.

On Saturday, January 30, 2019,

we celebrated the sixty-fifth anniversary of our First Date.

Our First Date

We gathered at Julie’s church. We were the youngest couple there. An excellent grouping had gathered. It was one of their most successful outings. We danced. The Square Dance Caller was excellent. We had a number of squares. The attendance for the dance was excellent. There was a good turnout.

We danced with one square; then, with another square. The music was enjoyable. The refreshments were generous. Julie and I came to know one another. We shared about our interests and our families.

Mostly, we enjoyed the fun of square dancing with one another. Julie and I had a wonderful time together. This was an enjoyable, very pleasant First Date.

I looked forward to inviting Julie on a Second Date. We had a good time. This turned into a Third Date. We enjoyed a Fourth Date. We fell in love.

In beginning ways, we fell in love on our First Date. Our love with one another continued to be confirmed and strengthened with each new date. We came to both like and love one another.

There followed DeMolay formal dances, Rainbow formal dances, formal Proms at the high school, homecoming dances, concerts, ball games, outings at Water Works Swim Park, picnics at the Portage Lakes, worship services at our two churches, family get-togethers, parties with friends, movies, and more.

We enjoyed one another’s company, our friendship, and our love.

The phrase is, You can never make a first impression a second time. Really, the phrase is best stated:

You can make a first impression the first time.

Our First Date was our First Beginning. This First Beginning has shaped our lives together ever since. We are blessed of God with this First Beginning.

Julie is the First Beginning, Gift of God with me