Once a poor man was refreshed by a wonderful tree. He was hungry and ate a juicy apple from the tree. Now he was tired and the tree helped keep him cool as he slept. When he woke up, he spoke to the tree. "I want to repay you in some way for helping me. But I have nothing! What can I do?" He thought for a moment and an idea floated into his mind. "I could give you a blessing! But you don’t need long life, you couldn’t be this big without having lived many, many years already. I can’t bless you with juicy ripe fruit, as you have an abundance of that already. Wait, I have it. I bless you that all the seeds from you will find homes in the rich soil and grow into wonderful trees, just as splendid as you are!"
And so the man went on his way, feeling satisfied and happy. As he looked back he saw the tree gently waving to him and all was good!
Yes, there is a recipe for enchantment in the above story. The recipe is simply to bless others, perhaps to thank them, perhaps just to warm their hearts. Your words can give hope and encouragement. You don’t formally need to use the word blessing to do just that! For instance: ‘May you do well on your job interviews!’ ‘May you get a good report from the doctor.’ ‘Have a great vacation and come back refreshed.’ ‘I’m looking forward to a great report on your dinner party. Your food always tastes so good.’
For this recipe to really simmer all month, keep stirring the pot by adding in one new blessing a day! A blessing gets to be added in once you have said it to someone.
May your pot fill to the top with good feelings, warmth and delight! Take full servings often as you can easily fill the pot back up–you know the SECRET (blessings).
The story was loosely adapted from a tale, Say Thank You With A Blessing. p. 103, from the book, The Bird of Paradise and Other Sabbath Stories by Steven M. Rosman, UAHC Press, New York, New York.
Wow, What a wonderful blessing and story. May I use this for my e-mail newsletter for the month of September as the Recipe for ENCHANTMENT? All my best, Dr. Barbara
I see you haven’t posted in a while but I thought it was cool that your name (Barbara Becker) is the same as my sister’s. We are also from NJ.
Dear Rhea, I’m glad we got to chat via e-mail and disappointed that we don’t seem to be related. However, I’m sure we can still relate! Hope to hear from you again soon.
Believe it or not, I’ve just finally rebirthed my blog! And next week I’m taking a Learning Annex course on using my blog so I’m all excited. I hope I can chat with many people around the world in an informal way that my website, http://www.enchantedself.com doesn’t afford! I’m dedicated to Positive Psychology and to living a life of meaning and delight. So let’s share and find ways to do that together. All my best, Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein
Guess what? I’m taking a wonderful blog course with the Blog Squad. My teachers are Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff. Here I am, a Positive Psychologist, teaching Positive Psychology to Women every day, and yet confused about how to fully use my own blog! So I would find myself writing and not writing, actually using procrastination, just like my clients might. Oh well, I am human also.
But, now that I have teachers things are so different! In my research and work on Happiness I have discovered over and over that we need mentors for happiness. Otherwise we are like a salmon that doesn’t know whether to swim upstream or downstream. Which way to go?
The way to go involves recognizing The Seven Gateways to Happiness and being motivated to walk through them again and again. And one of them is the Gateway of mentoring and being mentored.
If you come to my website, http://www.enchantedself.com you will see right on the front page that I have a conversation up that you can listen to on your computer all about the seven gateways. And if you write to me at encself@aol.com I will send you a free e report on The Seven Gateways to Happiness.
I hope you will sign up for my e-mail newsletter and my e-mail blessings. I want to hear from you and I want to share with you all I know about inspiration, happiness, well-being, motication, rejuvenation, replenishment, joy, self-esteem, staying healthy in mind/body/ and spirit. Can’t wait to hear from you on this blog and via e-mail! All my best, Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein, Positive Psychologist and Happiness Coach, author of many Happiness books, including: The Enchanted Self, A Positive Therapy; Recipes for Enchantement, The SecretIngredient is You!; DELIGHT, There Comes A Time in Every Woman’s Life for DELIGHT; and now my new book which has just gone to press, THE TRUTH, My Secret Diary, I’m Ten, I’m Smart and I know Everything!
Don’t forget to come to http://www.enchantedself.com