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M arch 2023
C harting O ur O wn C ourse
Why We Should Avoid Surrendering to Luck
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, bringing with it the supposed luck of the Irish. Of course, it’s easy to look at Irish history and ask yourself: What luck have the Irish ever had? For that reason, many people believe the term was originally ironic. Others think it refers to the adeptness of 19th-century Irish immigrant miners in the U.S. — which American miners insisted on attributing to luck rather than skill. The idea of Irish luck has since been reclaimed, but the phrase is wrought with derision. Problematic history aside, luck is a popular idea. Many people love four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, and other symbols of good fortune that accompany St. Patrick’s Day. Others carry lucky trinkets, cross their fingers, and buy scratch-off tickets in hopes of hitting it big. But is luck real? To a certain extent, I suppose it is. Fortuitous circumstances do befall us. In January this year, a plane crash in Nepal killed all 72 occupants. Undoubtedly, the people on board did nothing to deserve that fate, and it’s an example of horrible luck. Meanwhile, a surprising number of people have won large sums in the lottery more than once. Besides spending extraordinary amounts of money, luck seems to be the only explanation. Since luck exists, the question becomes how important a role it plays in our lives. Some say you make your own luck, but I think that’s contradictory. If you create luck, it’s simply not luck anymore. Your decisions created the circumstances for a positive or negative outcome.
I think allowing luck to play more than a happenstantial role in life is a dodge. It’s a way we pass the buck and forgo taking responsibility for our choices. Rather than wait for fate to toss us whatever it may, I think a much better option is to determine what we want and devise an actionable plan to get there. Bad luck could still befall you along the way, but it’s much better than sitting around waiting for something to happen. As a family law attorney, I regularly help people while they’re in the process of reformulating and reorganizing their lives. Despite the chaos, I encourage them to ask themselves what opportunity this change of circumstances presents. There is almost always one. For example, many clients didn’t request the dissolution of their marriages — it was thrust upon them by their spouses. You might consider that bad luck, but I don’t. After all, spending your life with someone who doesn’t want to spend it with you is a terrible sentence. When that’s the alternative, you have nothing but opportunity available. Those circumstances give you every reason to chart a better course and rescue your fate from the tempest. Doing so takes an approach far different from surrendering to luck. It requires intentionality, vision, and dogged determination to see it through — and the result is all that more rewarding. –Michael Manely 1
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V an G ogh R eincarnated ? ONE-EARED RESCUE DOG BECOMES MASTER PAINTER
When a one-eared shelter dog in Connecticut struggled to find a new family last year, one of his caretakers had a wild idea: Why not teach him to paint? With help from TikTok and peanut butter, the aptly named Van Gogh became a social media star. “I’d seen TikTok videos of other dogs creating paintings, so why not Van Gogh?” Jaclyn Gartner, the founder of Happily Furever After Rescue, told The Washington Post. “He certainly had the name and the ear for it.” To leverage what she calls Van Gogh’s “fast and creative tongue,” Gartner covered small canvases in dollops of paint, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and slathered them in peanut butter. Then, she presented the treats to the boxer-pit bull mix. He quickly licked the canvases clean, creating his “art” along the way. According to the Post, Van Gogh’s first few paintings flopped — just like the work of the human artist Vincent Van Gogh, who didn’t become famous until after he died in 1890. This star rose thanks
to Jo Van Gogh, the wife of his brother Theo, who advocated for his work after both Theo and Vincent passed away. You could say that Gartner was dog Van Gogh’s Jo because, like the original painter’s, the pup’s art staged a
comeback! After his first “art show” drew just two guests, Gartner started auctioning off his paintings online. His abstract work like “Peacock Swirl” and a rendition of human Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” quickly raised more than $3,000 for Happily Furever After Rescue. As his reputation soared on social media, Van Gogh also found his forever home with shelter volunteer Jessica Starowitz. He now spends his days painting and lounging on the couch. You can follow his exploits on Instagram under the handle @officialvgdog.
B ack on T rack Why Craig Spooner Loves His Work
Paralegal Craig Spooner dreamed of attending law school but found himself sidetracked while attending the University of Northern Florida. As he studied for his degree in criminology and law enforcement, he says he became “interested in the dynamic of offenders and rehabilitation. I fell in love with talking to inmates who wanted to change.” He believed the prison system could offer more and worked as a guard for three years. But Craig eventually realized that changing the prison system was far more challenging than he’d realized. “That’s when I got back on my original path to work in law and make a difference helping people,” Craig says. After moving to Savannah and spending a few months at a personal injury firm, he says, “I fell in love with legal work, drafting the documents, and discovery. I felt like that’s what I should have been doing the whole time.” Craig has been a quick study since joining The Manely Firm in July. “Everything is so detail- oriented, and every case is so different,” he says. “I feel like I’m getting my hands in many different pots. My favorite part is the exposure I’m getting to so many different attorneys, learning their strategies, and understanding how it all works.”
While he thinks the intricacies of the cases are thrilling, Craig also finds fulfillment in helping people. “Some of our clients are in a really bad spot; there might be domestic violence or kids involved. Helping to guide them through the process and transition into the next phase of their lives gives me satisfaction.” Craig was born in England and moved to the U.S. with his mother when he was 16. He later gained his citizenship by serving in the U.S. Navy but tries to return to England once a year. Craig is a health-conscious vegetarian who loves to ride his bike and walk to work every day. “My knees don’t allow me to play soccer anymore,” he says, but he’s interested in becoming a referee or assistant coach. He’s also a huge fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars and tries to catch in-person games as often as possible. “Everyone here has a common goal,” Craig says of The Manely Firm. “You feel that energy when you look around the room. The people here are compassionate, integrity-minded, and easy to talk to. It’s a really good group of people and a nice culture.”
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“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” – M other T eresa
S tronger T ogether
S t . P atrick ’ s D ay F rozen D og T reats
What We’ve Learned About Relating to Others
Inspired by BeaglesAndBargains.com
“You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific Islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that is poured into your cup by a South American … before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. American culture endorses a myth of rugged individuality, but when we stop and reflect, we’ll see that we’re social creatures and rely upon each other for our existence. The above quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. gets at the heart of the matter — we’re all interconnected and survive thanks to each other. The “Relating to Others” module in The Manely Firm’s Compassion Integrity Training (CIT) taught us that by investing in the happiness of others, we’re investing in our own. The training used an example of a teacher who gave each student a balloon representing their happiness. Each child wrote their name on the balloon, and the teacher set them free in a room before telling the students to find theirs. As you can imagine, it was chaotic and took a very long time. But they performed the exercise again. The teacher told her students this time, “If you find someone else’s happiness, take it to them.” Within minutes, every student was satisfied. She showed her class that when we each only look out for ourselves, everyone suffers. We aim to bring that mindset into our work at The Manely Firm. Everyone tends to extend empathy and generosity toward those we love, but CIT teaches how to extend that same grace to people we don’t know as well. Doing so requires recognizing our common humanity. Attorneys have taken an oath to execute the law faithfully, and the ideals of our legal system say that justice should be meted out impartially. Everyone at The Manely Firm is responsible for ensuring those standards are upheld. CIT has taught us how to see the commonality in us all through lessons on forgiveness, gratitude, impartiality, and concern. We now empathize more than ever with our clients and hope to provide them daily with the compassion they deserve.
I ngredients
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2 cups baby spinach
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1 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 cup water
3 pears, peeled and chopped
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Ice (optional)
1 cup chopped celery
D irections 1. In a blender, add spinach and water and blend until smooth. 2. Add all remaining fruit and vegetables. Blend for about 1 minute until smooth. 3. Pour the mixture into a silicone mold or ice cube tray. 4. Freeze for 3 hours or overnight until firm. Pro Tip – You can also freeze half of the mixture and the rest can be enjoyed as smoothies right away. If you are making a smoothie, add a bit of ice to the blender before serving and blend just enough to break the ice apart. Pour right into your pup’s bowl!
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211 Roswell St. NE Marietta, GA 30060 (866) 687-8561 www.allfamilylaw.com
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The Role of Luck
Meet Van Gogh, the Painting Dog Meet Paralegal Craig Spooner! Learning to Relate to Others St. Patrick’s Day Frozen Dog Treats
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The Best St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations in America
F eeling the L uck of the I rish ? CHECK OUT AMERICA’S BEST ST. PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATIONS
As we inch closer to the beginning of spring, nature around us is coming back to life. Soon, the grass and trees will return to their typical green hue if they haven’t already. Luckily, you don’t need to wait until April to see an abundance of green again. On March 17, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and people across the country will dress in green to honor the occasion. Certain cities in the U.S. go big for St. Patrick’s Day. If you’ve never attended a St. Patrick’s Day parade or celebration, maybe this is the year. Here are three cities with St. Patrick’s Day celebrations worth checking out. Chicago, IL Nobody does St. Patrick’s Day quite like Chicago, Illinois. The entire city gets a makeover! This year, on March 11, Chicago will host its St. Patrick’s Day parade, which includes dyeing the Chicago River a beautiful shade of emerald green. They’ll start tinting the river around 9 a.m., and the color will fade within six hours, so make sure you get there early! Chicago’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade
is also one of the biggest in the country. You’ll see floats, Irish step dancers, and much more. New Orleans, LA Once Mardi Gras concludes, all eyes are on St. Patrick’s Day in New Orleans, Louisiana. The city hosts a parade on March 11, and it’s always quite a spectacle. You’ll see the makings of Irish tradition everywhere, including cabbage, onions, and potatoes, so keep your head on a swivel. You can also head to the Irish Channel neighborhood on March 11 to attend an all-day block party. Plenty of green beer will be available at this event, so come ready to celebrate! New London, WI Let’s say you want to do something slightly toned down but still exciting for St. Patrick’s Day. Then, you’ll want to check out New London, Wisconsin, for one of the country’s most unique St. Paddy’s Day celebrations. Leprechauns will change the city signs from New London to New Dublin. The city also puts on an Irish funeral parody in its annual downtown parade.
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