Lynda ~~~~~ CREATE YOUR OWN LUCK A free weekly online newsletter dedicated to helping you attract more good fortune into your life, love, and work.
By Azriela Jaffe, author of "Create Your Own Luck, Eight Strategies to Attract Good Fortune Into Your Life, Love, and Work ( Adams Media Inc., October 2000) <http://www.createyourownluck.com>
Issue #40, 6/14/01 Theme: You can not know good luck or bad luck at any one moment in time
***A LUCK-BUILDING STORY***
This story is one of my favorites; it appears in an edited version in my Creating Luck book. If you haven't already read it, I must share it again, and if you already have, I find it always to be a good reminder of creating luck principles, no matter how many dozens of times I have read it.
This story happened in the days of Lao Tzu in China, and Lao Tzu loved it very much:
There was an old man in a village, very poor, but even kings were jealous of him because he had a beautiful white horse. Kings offered fabulous prizes for the horse, but the man would say,
"This horse is not a horse to me, he is a person. And how can you sell a person, a friend?"
The man was poor, but he never sold the horse.
One morning he found that the horse was not in the stable. The whole village gathered and said,
"You foolish old man! We knew that someday the horse would be stolen. It would have been better to sell it. What a misfortune!"
The old man said,
"Don't go so far as to say that. Simply say that the horse is not in the stable. This is the fact; everything else is judgement. Whether it is a misfortune or a blessing I don't know, because this is just a fragment. Who knows what is going to follow it?"
People laughed at the old man. They had always known he was a little crazy. But after fifteen days, suddenly one night the horse returned. He had not been stolen, he had escaped into the wild. And not only that he had brought a dozen wild horses with him.
Again the people gathered and they said,
"Old man, you were right. This was not a misfortune, it has indeed proved to be a blessing."
The old man said,
"Again you are going too far. Just say that the horse is back ... who knows whether it is a blessing or not? It is only a fragment. You read a single word in a sentence - how can you judge the whole book?"
This time the people could not say much, but inside they knew that he was wrong. Twelve beautiful horses had come.
The old man had an only son who started to train the horses. Just a week later he fell from a horse and his legs were broken. The people gathered again and again they judged. They said,
" Again you proved right! It was a misfortune. Your only son has lost the use of his legs, and in your old age he was your only support. Now you are poorer than ever."
The old man said,
"You are obsessed with judgement. Don't go that far. Say only that my son had broken his legs. Life comes in fragments and more is never given to you."
It happened that after a few weeks the country went to war, and all the young men of the town were forcibly taken for the military. Only the old man's son was left because he was crippled. T he whole town was crying and weeping, because it was a losing fight and they knew that most of the young people would never come back. They came to the old man and they said,
" You were right, old man - this has proved a blessing. Maybe your son is crippled, but he is still with you. Our sons are gone forever."
The old man said again, "You go on and on judging. Nobody knows! Only say this, that your sons have been forced to enter the army and my son has not been forced. But only God, the total, knows whether it is a blessing or a misfortune."
YOUR WEEKLY CREATING LUCK ASSIGNMENT:
Perhaps you are fretting right now about a perceived bad luck event, or a disappointment you are cursing. Remember this story. Since you are not God, and you can not know what the future brings, you really have no way of knowing at this minute in time, that this so-called bad luck is really bad luck at all. Decide today that whatever is, is for the best, and determine to find a way to fulfill that truth.
FAVORITE LUCK-BUILDING QUOTE
"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorns have roses. It's all in how you look at it."
LETTERS FROM YOU SHARED WITH PERMISSION ( KEEP THEM COMING, I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!)
From: "Jaime" <jaime@joynet.com.au>
Hi, Azriela, (hope you and yours are well) For those people who need to be encouraged...
Luck is always there - providing "you let go and let God" If you have the belief/certainty that everything will come right - it does. We create what happens to us - in partnership with The Universe. We attract what we think and expect. I have lost count of the times The Universe has "come to the party" and given me what I needed. Today was the latest gift. For the last few weeks, the toilet cistern had been playing up and I had been asking it ( I talk to everything!!) and The Universe not to let it escalate, as my money was committed elsewhere. Lunchtime, on this public holiday, it gave a ghastly gurgle and disgorged volumes of water into the bowl. I sighed and spoke out loud. "I'm going to need Ken or Peter ( my plumber friends) over here." Exactly five minutes later, a car filled with yelling, waving children crunched over the new gravel drive and out from amongst them stepped Ken. "We're out for a holiday drive and a ball game. Found ourselves out your way, so thought we'd stop in and say hello." I grinned and waved to the sky. "Thank you, " I said.
From: "RANDY C BLAIR" <rcblair@mindspring.com>
My own divine intervention story from 1980, begins with a defective seatbelt which would not move when I tried to pull it out to fasten it. I tugged several times and finally decided to drive without it. I was with a new girlfriend who was quite religious. Just before pulling out of the parking lot, I tugged one more time on the seatbelt and it pulled free and I was able to fasten it. Less than a mile down the road I was rear-ended by a speeding teenager who was racing one of his friends. My car was totaled as it skidded to a stop on its side. My girlfriend and I were both perfectly fine and we unbuckled ourselves and climbed out the window. When the ambulance arrived the driver asked how we were and proclaimed we should look a lot worse off. He couldn't believe we weren't even scratched.
I replaced the car with an identical one and got the license plates DOG KNHT, which is THNK GOD spelled backwards. A few months later a recall was issued for faulty seatbelts on the exact model car I owned. I have always thought of that day as the luckiest of my life. Maybe it was all those driver training classes we had to take, or maybe it was common sense, or maybe it was GOD but regardless of the reason, I'm alive today because I was lucky I tried to fasten my seatbelt one last time.
FREE CREATE YOUR OWN LUCK BOOK:
This newsletter is facilitated by me, but it should not be entirely written by me. Let's create a community where we can learn from each other. Send me your own create your own luck stories -- favorite parables, or true stories that demonstrate the principles of luck building, luck busting, or luck blocking. If I use your story as the featured piece in the newsletter, I will send you a free book, so include your mailing address. Mailto: azriela@mindspring.com
Want to purchase a book? Available now! Order "Create Your Own Luck" at your local bookstore or at http:www/amazon.com. Only $8.95 plus shipping. Such a deal!
ANOTHER FREE NEWSLETTER
I am also the editor of the Entrepreneurial Couples Success Letter ( ECS), a free biweekly newsletter dedicated to helping entrepreneurial couples and families build a thriving business, marriage, and family at the same time. Subscribe ECS - mailto:azriela@mindspring.com
PLEASE REFER THIS NEWSLETTER
Please forward this newsletter to all you know who could benefit and encourage them to sign up! Mailto:azriela@mindspring.com, with "subscribe create luck" in the subject. I also appreciate you recommending this newsletter on your favorite ezines and in your online chats. The more subscribers we have, the more luck we can create, together! We're hovering around 3000 and not moving up from there. Can you help us spread the word? I hope so.
May good fortune smile on you today!
***** OTHER BOOKS BY AZRIELA JAFFE ****** Visit http://www.amazon.com to order
"Honey, I Want To Start My Own Business, A Planning Guide For Couples" (HarperBusiness 1996) (now out of print, order from me).
"Let's Go Into Business Together, Eight Secrets for Successful Business Partnering", expanded edition. (Career Press 2001.
"Starting from No," Ten Strategies to Overcome Your Fear of Rejection and Succeed in Business" (Dearborn,1999)
"Two Jews Can Still be a Mixed Marriage, Reconciling the Differences Regarding Judaism in Your Marriage" (Career Press 2000)
"Heartwarmers, Award-winning Stories of Love, Courage, and Inspiration" ( Adams Media 2000 AND 2001)
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beating Debt" ( MacMillan 1999)
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Flying and Gliding ( MacMillan 2000)
***** Don't want this newsletter anymore? I'm sorry to hear that. Mailto: majordomo@azriela.com with unsubscribe createluck-list in the body of your email message. Have trouble getting off the list? Don't worry - a real human being - me - will help you. Mailto:azriela@mindspring.com