Lee Ellis's Blog, page 53
July 27, 2023
Fill in the Blank – Teachers
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July 26, 2023
Shout Out to Captured by Love Reader
One of the privileges of being an author is meeting amazing people who are reading stories like those in ���Captured in Love���. We met waiting for our airplane, and he is a retired army officer who was a helicopter pilot and had several hundred combat missions in the Iraq and Afghanistan war.
Grateful for his sacrificial service and support! ��#CapturedByLove
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July 25, 2023
The Latest Book Recommendation – “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work”
The Latest Book Recommendation from Lee���s Bookshelf ��� ���The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work��� by John Gottman Ph.D.
I (Lee) featured this book as an additional resource in my new book Captured by Love, but honestly, most of the principles are applicable for all interpersonal relationships. Drs. John and Julie Gottman are two of the most famous marriage researchers in the US.
This book provides a short summary of the key principles they have learned over the years. There are many great articles online that share insights from the Gottmans��� research. My wife Mary has attended several Gottman-based workshops and has used their concepts for many years. Reading about their laboratory observations of couples is quite enlightening.
In describing their Seventh Principle of Marriage, Dr. Gottman says that ���Creating Shared Meaning��� has a spiritual dimension that is important for a couple���s growth. In addition to the seven principles, this book shares the Four Horsemen that destroy marriages: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness, and Stonewalling. These endanger a marriage very quickly.
Please learn more about this book on the Goodreads website.
If you���ve read this book, please post your comments below.
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July 23, 2023
Historical Highlight for July 23, 2023
Historical Highlight for July 23, 2023 ��� ���POW/MIA Bracelets��� – here’s a short historical fact from the history of the Vietnam war and the POW experience shared in the new ‘Captured by Love’ book. In each of these nuggets of history are personal and professional lessons that can be applied today:
���Nearly five million people sported POW/MIA bracelets (including John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, and Sonny & Cher) between 1970 and 1973. They stood in solidarity with the ongoing tragedy of our downed warriors.
���The idea for the bracelets was the brainstorm of two southern California college girls���Carol Bates Brown and Kay Hunter���as a way to remember POWs and MIAs in Southeast Asia. In late 1969, television personality Bob Dornan (who later was elected to the US Congress) introduced them and several other members of VIVA (Voices in Vital America) to three wives of missing pilots. One of those MIA ladies was Carole Hanson, wife of MIA Steve Hanson (his bracelet on the next page). We have captured her story in this book.
���Dornan showed them a bracelet made by mountain people in Vietnam that he was wearing in honor of the POW/MIAs. This led to the idea to use bracelets as a way to garner public support for POW/MIA awareness, which was VIVA���s mission. A local engraver designed the bracelet, and VIVA member Gloria Coppin���s husband financed the first 1200 bracelets. They launched with great success, selling them at $2.50 each (raising approximately $12 million while also rousing public attention).
���These bracelets played an important role in the daily awareness of the POW/MIA plight. On average, there were 1,500 people wearing a bracelet for each POW/MIA. Typically, people wore them constantly and prayed for their bracelet partner daily. Most were silver, but copper ones were also available. In the stories here, you will read of one young lady who wore a bracelet of a stranger, James Bailey. Yes, Suzanne Long learned from his mom that they called him ���Bill.��� So, Suzy thought of, and prayed for, that stranger for many days and months���Oh won���t you come home Bill Bailey. And one day he did, and it did not take long before she was his wife���Suzy Long Bailey, bearing his name and his children.���
Purchase your copy of ���Captured by Love��� on the powromance.com website.
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July 21, 2023
Captured by Love Wisdom for Today, July 21, 2023
���Truly strong people have learned to embrace and balance their strength and their vulnerability. The gentleness of love, compassion, and empathy can���and should���exist side-by-side with the strength of confidence, courage, and resilience.��� ��� Roger & Jackie Ingvalson
Read more at www.powromance.com
#VietnamWar50th #WelcomeHome2023 #CapturedbyLove
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July 20, 2023
FAQ on Family Support in Captured by Love
A ���Captured by Love��� FAQ ��� ���When and how did you and your fellow POWs realize the full impact of the women and families��� contribution to your return home?���
Lee���s Answer ��� ���One thing that people don���t often consider is what our families and wives went through during that time. In many ways, they went through a much more difficult experience than we did as POWs. As POWs, we knew that we were alive and okay, but our families didn���t. My family knew that I was alive when I hit the ground in Vietnam, but they didn���t know whether I was alive or not for two years until they got their first letter from me. And it took two and half years before I got a letter from my family.
���So, they were carrying on at home in our absence. And they were told to keep quiet, at first, by the government. Finally, wives and families pushed back and opened up, thereby allowing the POW-MIA support to come on strong in the U.S. That made a huge difference to us, because it did result in better treatment and eventually a life in the Hanoi Hilton that was more normal.
���We came home in better condition mentally and physically, in large part, because of the strong support that we had back home as they took up our cause. And for that support we had during those years, I���ll forever be grateful.��� Read more at www.powromance.com
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July 19, 2023
Thank you Howard!
Special thanks to Howard Dayton���author, speaker, and radio personality���for your gracious endorsement of ���Captured by Love���. We���re thankful for friends like Howard who are helping us share these 20 couples��� stories! Get your copy – www.powromance.com
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July 18, 2023
Coaching Clip – Breaking the Habit of Independent-Only Thinking
Our ideas and ways of thinking are the best, right? Well maybe not. If we choose as leaders to be open to the values and opinions of your team and customers, we embolden others while taking our leadership to a more successful level! Watch and hear Lee���s advice as well as his highlight about a very special couple. Watch and hear Lee’s advice.
Read the entire blog on this topic – “The Leadership Balance of Independent Interdependence”
Amazon Bestseller! 20 Top Gun Romance Stories
Captured by Love��shares the real love stories of 20 Vietnam War POWs. Some had wives who started a movement that changed American foreign policy. Others came home and had to start over, while five single men met the loves of their lives.
Former POW Lee Ellis and love expert Greg Godek take you on a dramatic journey of faithfulness, passion, excitement, resilience, and practical love lessons from these couples.
New Amazon Bestseller in the Military Families and Survival Biographies & Memoirs
Order Your Copy on Amazon.comRead some sample stories
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July 16, 2023
Historical Highlight for July 16, 2023
Historical Highlight for July 9, 2023 ��� ���Humor in the Camps��� – here’s a short historical fact from the history of the Vietnam war and the POW experience shared in the new ‘Captured by Love’ book. In each of these nuggets of history are personal and professional lessons that can be applied today:
���Immediately after capture, humor was the farthest thing from our minds. We went from outright shock to survival mode, and it was usually several months before we had enough bandwidth and perspective to appreciate humor. But once it started it didn���t take much. It was clear that our psyches were looking for an escape from stress.
“Guys began telling funny stories from the past. Dry humor was a favorite. Then we began to look for funny ways to pull the chain of our captors. One fellow was tortured until he agreed to read political BS over the camp radio (the ���Bitch Box���). While reading an article about their communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, he pronounced his name as ���Horse Shit Mend.��� You could hear guys up and down the cell block in Little Vegas cackling. That was a huge morale booster during a dark era.
“After we moved into the Hanoi Hilton big rooms in 1970, we turned to humor often. I���ll never forget the night we celebrated Smitty Harris���s sixth year as a POW (shoot-down dates were very important anniversaries). A group of us got together and planned a ���This Is Your Life��� show honoring him. One of his earlier cellmates in our room knew about Smitty���s old girlfriend, ���Birdlegs Bradley.��� We got one of our tall, skinny mates to dress up with a black t-shirt wrapped around his head like a scarf, and some socks stuffed under his prison shirt to give him a feminine busty chest. When the emcee told her story and Birdlegs stepped out, the crowd went wild.
“Humor is a great survival mechanism, and we survived���and thrived���with our senses of humor intact. And, interestingly, humor also was a key player in many of our love stories.���
Purchase your copy of ���Captured by Love��� on the powromance.com website.
(Pictured: The group photo of all former Vietnam POWs attending the 2023 Memorial Day Concert in Washington D.C. along with country singer Trace Adkins and current military officers.)
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July 14, 2023
Captured by Love Wisdom for Today, July 14, 2023
���Each member of a strong couple takes on the leadership role when necessary, rising to the specific challenge. And when leadership is carried out with kindness instead of harshness, followers���and families���are inspired, and they thrive.��� – Wes & Faye Schierman
This quote if from the bestselling new book Captured by Love – Get Your Copy
#VietnamWar50th #WelcomeHome2023 #CapturedbyLove
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