CAN YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE?

No, I don’t want your money! What I mean is, can you spare some time to reflect and look at what’s going on in your life that needs to change, and then do whatever it takes to make that happen? Here's an example. I constantly rushed around and became so accustomed to being stressed out that stress became my “normal.” Monday through Friday I left the house an hour early to make a commute in congested traffic that shouldn’t have taken more than twenty minutes. By the time I arrived at work I was so keyed up the mood was set for the day and I couldn't slow down. Year after year my husband and I both worked ourselves into a state of exhaustion until one of us realized we had to take a vacation before the pace we were keeping had a negative impact on our health. It was a wake-up call that brought me to my senses and sprung me into action. I booked our flight to Kauai, a car, and rented a condo in Poipu Beach. The next morning I informed my boss when we were going and I arranged for a temp to cover me in my absence. I was so firm when I told her our plans I didn't get any resistance.

The morning of our departure the airport shuttle came for us fifteen minutes late and freeway traffic was making such slow progress I was sure we wouldn’t make it to the airport in time. My heart pounded until we arrived. After we checked our bags and passed through security we went to a restaurant for breakfast. I kept checking my watch, impatient to board the plane. My husband’s cell phone rang—a business call—life as usual. 

 ~

We arrived! My husband knew the way to Poipu Beach and drove us directly to the condo. On the way, I drank in the sunlight, awed by the deep red soil and lush vegetation. Ancient mountains in the distance dotted the countryside. Kauai is a paradise where papaya trees grow alongside the road and tropical flowers bloom everywhere. By the time we drove beneath the tree tunnel I knew we were almost at our destination.


I was anxious to get settled and felt it took the clerk much too long to check us in. Our internal clocks were operating from totally different perspectives. The condo was beautifully furnished and had a spectacular ocean view. I opened the sliding glass door and the breeze caressed my face. The sound of breaking waves and the rustle of palm trees embraced me and felt like a soothing balm. Tropical birds sang, “padda pah pah, padda pah pah.”

Almost in a trance, I settled back on the couch and said to my husband, “I remember this; now I remember this feeling. I haven’t felt this way since the last time we were here.” My shoulders relaxed and the nervousness poured from my body like running water, replaced by a feeling of inner peace and well-being. I’d surrendered to island time. I was being mindful and living in the moment.

 ~

Two characters in Good Fortune, Michael Hamilton and Wu Chow, are over-achievers. They focus only on work and neglect the rest of their lives. When Michael gets laid off he's completely lost and doesn’t know how to process what's happened. Several weeks later when he meets Jennie Greene at a bookstore and invites her to coffee, they talk about themselves and Jennie is such a good listener he makes a confession.

             “Until a few weeks ago I was an executive at an advertising firm. My job dominated my life. Now I don’t know what to do with myself and all this free time.” He adds, “I was so busy I didn't even allow myself time off to take a real vacation. Work became my identity.”

Later, at his friend Eric Brewer’s house, Michael talks to his wife Susan, a licensed therapist. Susan listens as he expresses his feelings about losing his job and his frustration with his situation. Susan says:

           “I don’t want to make you feel worse. Look, the important thing to recognize is, by driving yourself to achieve in school and business, you were so driven to succeed that you didn’t leave yourself enough time to develop your personal life. What have you got without your career that defines who you are now?”

“Nothing,” he admitted. He averted his eyes for a moment. “It’s depressing, but I don’t know what to do and I’m feeling kind of lost. Everything I was—or thought I was—is gone.”

 ~

Wu’s circumstance is the mirrored image of Michael’s, exactly the same but opposite. He has a wife and sons and manages Good Fortune family restaurant. His job is secure and even though he can make his own schedule, instead of taking time off to be with his family he chooses instead to work long hours and neglect them as the excerpt below reveals.

Anna and the boys spent a lot of time without him despite the fact the restaurant was so successful he no longer had to prove himself to anyone. Instead of celebrating his achievement with his wife and children, he imposed pressure on himself, believing only he was qualified to run things at the level he wanted. He forgot his father’s lesson: “Learn to delegate authority to others. They will appreciate the opportunity to earn your trust.”

At night he played host in the dining room, networked parties, and bought customers drinks. He put in so many hours at work he rarely, if ever, was home for dinner anymore.

Wu’s father, Tong, waits patiently for the right moment to confront him. When it finally comes he says:

“For years I have watched you work tirelessly in your effort to amass more and more money for the future, never seeing what it cost you in the present. You achieved affluence years ago. Nonetheless, you have felt driven to accumulate a greater fortune without realizing the irony of your endeavor to obtain what you already have.”

Michael and Wu both have to make life altering decisions and change their priorities. They each have important life lessons to learn while they embark on personal journeys and discover how to overcome difficult challenges. Tong's gentle wisdom will guide them in totally different ways.  Please read Good Fortune and find out what happens.

When facing your own life challenges, I wish you success in reaching your goals toward good fortune.

Leslie Bratspis, Author
Good Fortune

Good Fortune is available on Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes&Noble.com,  Nook & Smashwords.com 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Fortune-Leslie-Bratspis/dp/1611700280/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334187175&sr=1-1
http://www.rp-author.com/bratspis
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12242462-good-fortune

https://twitter.com/#!/LeslieBratspis

KEEP GOING WHEN FACED WITH OBSTACLES

The tale of GOOD FORTUNE commences during the 1994 California recession when companies were downsizing and unemployment was high. This sounds familiar doesn't it--as if it were today's news. The plight of my character, Michael Hamilton, is one I can personally identify with. I know how he felt when he got laid off because in December of 2008 this happened to me. The first thing I did after dusting myself off and squaring my shoulders was apply for unemployment benefits. Each week I forged ahead with a positive attitude, responded to ads, went on interviews and sent out resumes. I had great qualifications as an administrative assistant and expected I'd be employed as one soon, but I just couldn’t get hired. After a few months, like Michael, my self-confidence slipped and I became humiliated and discouraged. I managed to get hired as a cashier but after 4 months of standing all day on a very thin mat my knees became inflamed and I couldn't do the job anymore. I reapplied for unemployment and continued searching for jobs. I was determined not to give up and as good fortune would have it, I finally got hired at a job I really like that also allows me the time I need to keep writing. I'm currently working on my second novel, so everything worked out in the best possible way. While I was unemployed I kept myself motivated by editing my manuscript. I accomplished my goal of finishing GOOD FORTUNE and getting it published. Having the time to do this was something positive that kept me focused and stopped me from giving up. I felt a sense of accomplishment and this enabled me to keep going.

While writing about Michael’s emotions when he unexpectedly finds himself out of work I was easily able to draw upon my own experience. Michael goes through various stages of self-doubt and humiliation because he’s been a respected executive for 12 years and suddenly he’s sending out resumes and competing for jobs against much younger inexperienced applicants. Over lunch, he voices his woes to his best friend, Eric Brewer.

“You know, you're lucky to have a good job.” Again, he ran fingers through his hair. “Going on job interviews at my age sucks. Twenty applicants show up for one lousy opening. Most of them are kids compared to me. Hell, I’m twice their age. I feel old and . . . well . . . useless. Like my time has come and gone and there’s no future for me anymore.”

“Bullshit. You've got experience, those kids have got acne.”

Unfortunately, Eric’s attempt at humor doesn't help because Michael is forty-one and knows his age works against him. While he may have more experience and be better qualified, employers are cutting back and don't want to pay the kind of salary he's accustomed to. This makes younger job seekers more appealing. After a morning jog, he takes a shower and has an honest dialog with himself. Outside of his 12-year position at the advertising firm he admits he has limited work experience and concedes his only option right now is to sell shoes again as he did when he was in college. His aspirations of opening his own business—something completely different from advertising—is going to have to wait. He knows he has to find a job soon and selling shoes is something he can do now.

Can I do it? Can I go from being an experienced professional back to a shoe salesman? Even though it would only be temporary, it’s humiliating. He rinsed his hair and applied conditioner. I know the drill: “Take a giant step backward to advance toward your goal.” Okay, my pride is injured, but I can’t let that stop me. I can do this, I have to.

. . . Above the bathroom sink, steam misted the mirror blocking his reflection. He used the corner of his towel and rubbed a circle in the middle; his reflection stared back at him. It was apparent his recent setback had taken its toll because his face looked slightly older. He noticed a certain edge to his expression that wasn’t there before, enhanced by the small worry lines that had begun to form between his eyebrows. Well, there was nothing he could do about that. Since he would be interviewing soon, he hoped his life experience and maturity would count in his favor.

How many people currently have had the same experience where without warning their job gets taken away from them and everything they’ve invested years in building disappears? The national unemployment rate varies but I think it stays somewhere around 9%. It’s been on the news how a corporate executive finds himself delivering pizzas for minimum wage and tips to keep his house out of foreclosure and he’s grateful for the work. Another scenario on TV depicted how an unemployed executive had all his furnishing in storage and was homeless. For months he was staying in hotels while going on job interviews and paying the bill with frequent flyer miles he’d accumulated from his former high-power position. His unusual story caught national attention and fortunately, someone offered him a job.

For those of you reading this who are struggling and uncertain which direction your life is going, try to keep your intent strong and stay focused on your goal. Don’t give up when faced with obstacles. Keep an open mind and heart and you will find the way through them to success. Where you land may be completely different from what you expected or wanted, so be flexible and open to change; embrace it with all you’ve got.

During this holiday season, now more than ever, I wish you and yours good fortune.

Leslie

THE POWER OF SYNCHRONICITY

One of GOOD FORTUNE’s recurring themes is being open to accepting messages from the unexpected. In my novel, Michael Hamilton receives important guiding messages in forms ranging from fortunes to a symbolic dream, a voice in the wind, and a vision. His pragmatic mindset has to change so he is not only able to accept the information as it comes to him in unconventional ways, but he is then able to apply it to his present life situation in order to expand the vision of what he wants to achieve, and go for it.

I’ve experienced this many times in my own life, and I'd like to share one example. It has to do with how we moved from southern CA to Gig Harbor, WA. About 10 years ago we accidentally started receiving emails addressed to someone else. The sender had the same email moniker as ours but from a different server—we had AOL and she had EarthLink. Somehow, the signals got crossed in cyberspace and we were receiving her outgoing messages to friends, and their responses. I wrote an email informing her of the situation and suggested she alert EarthLink her account was compromised. She wrote back thanking me, and thus began an online friendship.

Over several years we learned a lot about each other, exchanged photos and became friends. She has lived in SeaTac her whole life so when I mentioned we were looking for a place to move by the water, and she knew we vacationed regularly in Monterey California, she suggested we take a trip to Gig Harbor. We flew to SeaTac to meet her and she introduced us to her real estate agent friend who grew up near Gig Harbor. Prior to this, we had never even heard of Gig Harbor. We liked what we saw and soon began taking steps to relocate.

Our lives were changed dramatically in a most unusual way that began at the instant our emails crossed and connected us with a complete stranger who, became my friend, and through our connection, we moved to a place we'd never heard of. Her response was, “Of course! I'm only the messenger.” She never doubted our friendship was meant to be and we had connected for a reason. If you are open to receiving help in whatever form you attract it, don’t be surprised when your energy draws it directly to you.

Carl Jung termed this type of phenomenon synchronicity which is defined as: a connection of two or more psycho-physic phenomena. This concept came to Jung by a patient's case that was not responding to treatment. Her rationalism was blocking her progress and holding her back. One night, she dreamt of a golden scarab. The next day during her psychotherapy session, an insect hit against Jung's cabinet window. Jung caught it and discovered it was a golden scarab; a very rare presence for that climate. The concept of synchronicity was born.

 

Wishing you good fortune,

Leslie Bratspis

POETRY AND VISUALIZATION

Poetry is a way to express thoughts and emotions in a way that might not otherwise be possible, and poems come in many forms. By doing a little surfing around I found a website listing 55 formats. Some of the better known ones are free verse, rhyme, haiku, sonnet, ballad, couplet, and limerick. Each has its own distinct characteristics and style. So what about visualization? How can this influence the writing of poetry?

Visualization is a powerful tool and technique for creating whatever you want—whether it be floating on a cloud or walking along a tropical beach with the person of your dreams. It’s a way of achieving a state of complete relaxation and freeing your mind of unnecessary chatter. This is a good thing to do before you meditate. In relation to poetry, visualization is a way of fine-tuning your senses to a heightened state of observation. Then, when you write poetry, the words will emerge from a place deep within your soul. Some people think you must follow the rules of grammar and punctuation but I prefer to say there are no rules or mistakes when writing poetry. Just write what comes out in whatever form it takes and let the words flow without criticism.

In the prologue of GOOD FORTUNE, Grandfather teaches his young grandson, Tong, about poetry. Here is a short excerpt :

            “The villagers viewed Tong as a well-educated man, tutored by his grandfather, a respected scholar in his own right, having earned the reputation of being a gifted poet. Grandfather passed on his talent with words to his ten-year-old grandson, teaching him to see using more than his eyes.

            “You’re a fine student, Tong. You have learned history and mathematics, but now I think you’re ready to discover there is more to knowledge than just the basic fundamentals,” Grandfather announced one wet afternoon.

“What else is there to learn, Grandfather?”

“How to write poetry.”

“Poetry? Why is that important?” Tong tilted his head and frowned.

“Anyone can memorize facts and theories, but writing poetry is an art that teaches you lessons with the words you write.”

“I don’t understand.”

“An artist expresses himself with brush strokes on paper and the colors he mixes. It’s the same with a poet who chooses what words to use to paint a verbal picture.”

Here I’d like to interject that a similar metaphor could be used in relation to composing music. The notes on the page are the equivalent of words to a poet, and a painter’s brush strokes. Grandfather’s lesson continues when he suggests that he and Tong take a walk in the rain. They don their raincoats and boots and as they walk down the muddy village road, Tong observes the sights and smells of the damp earth, smoke from a chimney, cooking food etc. When they arrive at the village inn, a dog is rummaging through the garbage out back in search of a bone.

“What do you see, Tong? Look around and tell me,” Grandfather said.

“I see muddy footprints, a hungry dog, and a rainbow.”

“Good. Now close your eyes and tell me what you see.”

“That’s silly, Grandfather. How can I see with my eyes closed?”

“Just do as I say.”

Tong sighed. “All right.”

With his eyes squeezed tight he heard the sound of splashing mud as townspeople walked down the lane, and he almost imagined he could see their sloshing feet leave impressions in the wet ground. The dog found his bone, and Tong heard him chewing it as well as the low growl emitting from his throat when someone came too close. In his mind he could see the dog clearly. The scent of the warm, moist earth filled his nostrils and made him feel happy, so happy that he saw the rainbow.

“I can see, Grandfather. My eyes are closed, but I see the dog and the rainbow and the mud. I see everything.”

“That’s good, very good.” Grandfather nodded and was pleased with his clever grandson. “Before you open your eyes, memorize what you see so you can write about it.”

Back home, Grandfather handed Tong a sheet of rice paper. “I want you to compose a short poem about our walk today and your observations. Two lines only.”

This assignment presented a challenge. Tong had to think long and hard about what to write. Two sentences didn’t give him much to work with. Although this sounded like a simple assignment, in reality it was quite difficult. He took his time and when he was ready, he picked up his brush, moistened it, and ran the bristles across the ink block. The Chinese symbols he wrote were in Kaiti simplified form:

Grandfather, you taught me to see with closed eyes.

I saw a rainbow and tall grass reaching for the sun.

Thus, Tong received his first lesson in visualization and writing poetry. Grandfather taught him to “see” with his eyes closed, and then write about it. When I wrote this section I visualized the characters and every detail around them. I wrote it as prose, but the visualization was so intense I saw everything clearly in my mind’s eye and all I had to do was type as fast as I could to capture the words on paper. Whether you want to write a poem, a journal entry or a novel, first try visualizing and see what happens.

KINDNESS: A POEM BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

Before I explore another of GOOD FORTUNE's lessons, I want to share a poem with you that beautifully expresses how personal sorrow leads to compassion and ultimately, kindness. I believe its words demonstrate how Tong's sorrow over the loss of his beloved Mei-li affected him so deeply that compassion defined him in every aspect of his life.

To learn more about Naomi Shihab Nye's poems, go to:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_4_3?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=naomi+shihab+nye&sprefix=nao

Yours in good fortune,
Leslie

Kindness Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment like salt in a weakened broth. What you held in your hand, what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness. How you ride and ride thinking the bus will never stop, the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever. Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road. You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night with plans and the simple breath that kept him alive. Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.  You must wake up with sorrow. You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and      purchase bread, only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say it is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.
	Naomi Shihab Nye from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

GOOD FORTUNE is available on Amazon.com and Kindle.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Fortune-Leslie-Bratspis/dp/1611700280/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317860335&sr=1-4

KINDNESS OUTLASTS SUFFERING: TONG'S COMPASSIONATE NATURE

"All the peace and happiness of the whole globe,
the peace and happiness of societies,
the peace and happiness of family,
the peace and happiness in the individual persons' life,
and the peace and happiness of even the animals and so forth,
all depends on having loving kindness toward each other."
Lama Zopa Rinpoche

            Tong’s compassionate nature came from two prongs. First, when he was a young boy his grandfather taught him the fundamentals of reading and writing, mathematics and history. But his lessons reached beyond the scope of basics; he also taught Tong to write poetry, for his mind to see with closed eyes, and to teach others in need whenever he encountered them.

One day Grandfather instructed Tong: “At least once in his lifetime, a man of conscience finds himself in the position of being a teacher to one in need of guidance. When faced with this duty, he is obliged to respond. Always remember, you are intimately connected from the moment you realize you have met one who is in need of a teacher and it is you who holds the knowledge they seek.”* Then Grandfather elicited a promise from his young grandson to honor his teaching throughout his adult life.

            The second prong that defined Tong’s compassion was the lingering sorrow over the death of his wife. From a place of suffering, Tong was able to comprehend the pain of others, to respond with compassion and honor his grandfather’s teaching. He practiced compassion by aiding people he encountered who needed his gentle wisdom and guidance.
            The Dali Lama tells us compassion is defined as wanting others to be free of suffering. All sentient beings suffer. By extending our help, compassion can be defined as the highest spiritual motivation. In the realm of good deeds toward our fellow man, kindness outlasts suffering.

*GOOD FORTUNE page 84

To read a sample of GOOD FORTUNE or to purchase a copy please follow the link below. It is also available at BarnesandNoble.com and Smashwords.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Fortune-Leslie-Bratspis/dp/1611700280/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317430047&sr=1-1

Yours in good fortune,
Leslie