All You Need Is Love — it's a common cliché and a popular iconic song. But it's more than that. Love is powerful and beautiful. Love is a miracle that can happen when you least expect it — in new relationships and in old ones, at any age and any stage of life. And really, who doesn't love a good love story? I know I do!

That's why our team was so excited to put together our new book. Chicken Soup for the Soul: All You Need Is Love. The book is filled with stories of love, happiness and second chances.

Here's a sneak peek at two of my favorite stories from the book:


Don't turn down that blind date.
In Janeen Lewis’s story, "Miracle Meeting," Janeen's fellow teacher said there was someone she should meet, Janeen was flat out not interested. It was the son of a fellow teacher, one who Janeen had never met because she had died in an automobile accident before Janeen started working at the school.

Janeen’s teacher friend kept asking, and Janeen kept saying no. She was dating someone else and it was going fine. But then that man broke up with her. And Janeen wondered if she would ever find the right man.

The next school year came, and Janeen was living in a new apartment. Winter came, and one wintry February morning Janeen was scraping her windshield and talking to an attractive, friendly guy who lived in her building. The subject of where she worked came up… and that’s when Janeen learned that this eligible young man, who was indeed of great interest to her, was the blind date she had been turning down for more than a year.

Eventually they got married, and Janeen changed her last name to Lewis from her maiden name, which was Miracle.

When love doesn’t die.
In her story, "Roses in Winter," Christine Trollinger loved the miniature rosebush that her husband Gene bought for the little spot of dirt in front of their house. And he loved to take care of the bush and pluck a rose for Christine every now and then. Unfortunately, the bush died right at the time that Gene learned his cancer had come back. He bought her another one, which stayed alive but failed to bloom all summer. Happily, it finally started blooming in October.

That December, Gene entered the hospital for what would be the last time. Christine says, “Through those dark days, the little blooming rosebush gave me comfort as I returned home each evening from the hospital.” The day before he died, the weather turned cold and the roses began to die. Those dead blossoms only made Christine’s pain worse.

It snowed the day of Gene’s funeral, and the rosebush was covered. But that night, when the outdoor lights turned on, Christine saw a miniature rose peeking through the snowdrift, looking as good as if it were June and not December. That little rosebush has survived 15 years now, and it continues to cheer up Christine. And last winter, on the anniversary of Gene’s death, that rosebush bloomed once again in a snowstorm.



Amy Newmark