Friday, June 10, 2011

Forgive

If you are able to feel hurt, you are also able to heal that hurt. When someone has angered you, or frustrated you, annoyed you, offended you or made you feel hurt in some other way, you too have been an active participant in that hurt. That's not to say that what they did was right or that it is excusable. It wasn't and it isn't.
Still, your best strategy is to get past it. The hurt you feel is all yours to the extent that you've chosen to experience it. So make the choice to stop experiencing it.


Forgiveness is far more beneficial for you than for the person you are forgiving. So by all means practice it! The longer you delay your forgiveness, the more you are victimized by the original transgression.


No matter how ill intentioned are the actions of another toward you, your forgiveness signals that you are not willing to participate in your own victimization. It's a powerful strategy. Forgive, and make your life more positive, productive, joyful and fulfilling.

-- Ralph Marston

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Want To Be Married Within A Year? Sit In The Wishing Chair!

As I was watching "America's Got Talent", I was reminded of my trip to Seattle several years ago. It was such a beautiful city. I visited all the tourist attractions, including Pikes Place, Space Needle, Seattle Aquarium, but the most memorable place for me was Smith Tower. The view from the observation deck of this building was breathtaking, with views of Mt. Rainier, and the Olympic and Cascade Mountain ranges. Plus, it's the closest view in town of Safeco Field, the Colman Ferry Terminal, and Pioneer Square. This view out did the view from the Space Needle!

The crown jewel of the Smith Tower is the legendary 35th floor Chinese Room. The room’s name derives from the extensive carved wood and porcelain ceiling and the elaborately carved blackwood furniture that were gifts to Mr. Smith from the Empress of China.

The observatory’s furnishings include the famed Wishing Chair. The chair, product of the skill of a Chinese carver and quite likely the skill of an early day virtuoso publicity man, incorporates a carved dragon and a phoenix, which when combined, portends marriage.


Hence the chair came with the sentimental legend that any wishful unmarried woman who sits in it would be married within a year. Some validity to the claim was noted, or at least implied, when Smith’s daughter was wed in the observatory a year following her visit to the building’s opening.

Of course, I had to sit in the chair, as I was a unmarried woman. LOL. I'm sorry to say, I did not marry within a year of sitting and wishing in this "Wishing Chair". No harm in trying, I guess! Maybe I did not wish HARD enough! Check it out if you are ever in Seattle.