Trav­el­ing is a mind-expanding expe­ri­ence. In this series of blog posts, I would like to share with you some of my per­sonal expe­ri­ences as I have been lucky enough to travel to many places in the past.

Let’s start with Paris.

PARIS

The Champs Ely­see, (trans­la­tion Elysian Fields) would have to be a num­ber one like for just about any vis­i­tor to Paris. It’s just a wide street with restau­rants, stores, movie houses, and cof­fee bars, but — it’s the Champs Ely­see. It reeks of ambiance and charm and you remem­ber a stroll along it’s path­ways forever.

Then there is Mont­martre. Five hun­dred peo­ple in a square that would com­fort­ably hold fifty and every one a tourist, with the excep­tion of the dozens of street artists, car­ry­ing pen­cils in one hand and a book of pas­tel paper in the other. You might think that with a descrip­tion like that there was noth­ing to like but it is Mont­martre the area of Lautrec, and Van Gogh, and Gau­guin and it is a thrill to walk the streets in spite of the over­flow­ing tourist trade.

The Eif­fel tower, espe­cially at night when it fairly effer­vesces with light, would have to be high on my list and I’ve pho­tographed it many times try­ing to cap­ture this icon of France.

I love the left bank and Michel’s bak­ery for the crispi­est, and there­for to my taste, the best crois­sants in the world. Here also are the restau­rants and cof­fee houses you feel com­fort­able in, with prices that do not require a bank loan. I still recall, with a shud­der, an $85.00 menu price for a shrimp cock­tail at the Jules Verne restau­rant in the Eif­fel tower.
Also there is the Lou­vre to visit, the Seine to walk along, and the Ritz for a bowl of onion soup.

But per­haps most of all after train­ing over a hun­dred in the PDQ con­cepts, it’s just sit­ting at the out­side table of any of a hun­dred small bistros and sip­ping cafe au lait while watch­ing the pass­ing parade.

Have you been to Paris before? What was it like for you?

Up next: Oman!

I would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to thank every­one who has par­tic­i­pated in the For­give­ness Let­ter writ­ing excer­cise, and all of you who commented.

For those of you still hav­ing dif­fi­culty let­ting go, imag­ine what a Holo­caust sur­vivor had to go through. She’s an amaz­ing woman who knows a lot both about suf­fer­ing and for­give­ness. She painted her way into lib­erty by learn­ing how to for­give. I’ll tell you more about her shortly.

But for now, accept this new paint­ing as a hum­ble thank you from me to you.

A Quick Note to Those Who Asked:

For those of you who have sent in their ques­tions, I’ve already pre­pared some­thing about for­give­ness. As many of you know by now, for­give­ness is a pow­er­ful thing and I really believe that it can change your life. It changed a Holo­caust survivor’s life. See what I’ve put for you here and let me know what you think.

With thanks and appreciation,

Burt Gold­man
~The Amer­i­can Monk

All his life, a per­sonal friend of mine has been strug­gling to cope with his trou­bled past. One of three sib­lings, his child­hood was rid­dled with abuse by his irre­spon­si­ble father, a man who seemed to almost take delight in phys­i­cally and ver­bally assault­ing his family.

Now in his late 40’s, my friend, the youngest of his three sib­lings, has quite obvi­ously moved out, and escaped the phys­i­cal clutches of his abu­sive old man. His prob­lem, though, is that he can’t seem to shake off the ghosts of the past — his low self esteem and emo­tional dam­age have been caus­ing prob­lems with his health, rela­tion­ships, and even his career at a con­struc­tion firm.

But I knew he could be helped. So a few days ago, I called him up and asked him to write a sim­ple letter.

This let­ter, known as a ‘For­give­ness Let­ter’, would heal that stub­born emo­tional scar for good. It would wash away the sins of the past, and make him a new man. A fresh start, if you will.

After lis­ten­ing to my instruc­tions, he decided to give it a try. Here is what he wrote:

My Friend’s For­give­ness Letter

Dear Dad,

You must have had your hands full with me as a kid. Like, remem­ber the time me and Mitch got stuck in a tree while you and mom were out buy­ing gro­ceries? Or the day I got in a fight with that bully in fourth grade? You had to come and pick me up from school. I knew you’d be angry. And at times like those, you had every right to be.

But you were angry pretty often. Even at times you shouldn’t have been. Like on those nights you came home drunk, long after mom and the rest of us had cleared the din­ner table. You’d ask us where the food was, and you got pretty upset when we told you there wasn’t any.

I just want to say that I for­give you for that.

I also remem­ber the times you refused to pay for our school trips. So I sat at home when my class­mates went to places like the beach, the the­ater, the zoo. I’d see you going off to the dog races not long after that, telling us you’d come home with a big win­ner that night.

I feel no hatred towards you, and I for­give you for that too.

In fact, I bear no ill will for every­thing you did. The times you laid your hands on us and mom. The times you told us we were worth­less.  The times you for­got my birth­day.

I for­give you.

I know that deep down you loved us. Despite every­thing you did, you’d still take us out for hot dogs some­times. We went fish­ing. You gave us good advice. Told us to be true to our­selves. I even remem­ber the kisses you gave us before we went to bed.

But nobody’s per­fect. And I hope that after all we’ve been through, you’ve learned just as much as I have. I’m still here for you. Because no mat­ter what’s been said and done, you’re still my dad.

Yours Truly,

George

*Names changed to pro­tect identities

That, my friends, is a For­give­ness Let­ter, and it is more pow­er­ful than you could pos­si­bly imagine.

After writ­ing it, my friend told me he felt a gigan­tic weight lift­ing from his shoul­ders. Almost instantly, he felt bet­ter about him­self. He’s now more opti­mistic about his job, is start­ing to see all his old friends and the last I heard, he’s think­ing about going back into the dat­ing game!

Is it hard to believe that one sim­ple let­ter could really do so much? Prob­a­bly. That’s why I want you to try it for yourself.

You don’t have to be in as much pain as my friend for this let­ter to work. Maybe you had a small dis­agree­ment with a friend. Maybe you’ve been feud­ing with an in-law. Maybe you’re upset with your boss. It doesn’t mat­ter. No mat­ter how big or small the prob­lem is, the For­give­ness Let­ters will do won­ders for you.

How to Write Your Own For­give­ness Letter

So here’s how to write your very own For­give­ness Let­ter. Don’t worry, there are only 3 easy steps:

1. Accept Responsibility

Start with accept­ing respon­si­bil­ity for the rela­tion­ship with the per­son you’re writ­ing the let­ter to. Don’t vic­tim­ize your­self, and don’t blame the other per­son for get­ting you into the sit­u­a­tion you’re in now.

2. For­give them for all that they’ve done

This is the real meat of the let­ter. This is where you for­give the per­son for all that they’ve done. List out every­thing you for­give them for, if you feel like it. Stay sin­cere with every­thing you say, and try not to be sarcastic.

3. Wish them all the best

End your let­ter on a pos­i­tive note by wish­ing them well, and express­ing your hope for a bet­ter future.

So go ahead and give it a try. If you want, you can post open For­give­ness Let­ters here in the com­ments sec­tion of my blog. Or if you want to keep it pri­vate, just leave a com­ment let­ting me know how it worked for you.

I can’t wait to hear how for­give­ness has released you.

ps. It’s advis­able not to use the real names of those you will be talk­ing about.

As all of you may know by now, I enjoy paint­ing. In fact, along with the cre­ative stuff I do, to relax, I either med­i­tate, write, or paint. How­ever lately it’s been paint­ing that does it for me best, and I thought it would be nice to share some of my work with you all.

Once you view it, it would be nice to know what you do to relax and calm your mind besides med­i­ta­tion. Please leave a com­ment as I enjoy learn­ing from all of you, and do let me know which paint­ing is your favorite.

My Paint­ings

After­noon At The Museum

My lat­est cre­ation is right below. It’s called After­noon At The Museum. The size is three feet x eight feet.

SOJOURN AT THE SEA

I call this one SOJOURN AT THE SEA. Peo­ple com­ing to the ocean front on a warm sum­mer evening to look at the harbor.This paint­ing was inspired by a Van Gogh that I like.

WOMAN WITH SPINE

The four lights dimin­ish towards the right thereby bring­ing the eye in to look at a mod­ern abstrac­tion of my own that I call WOMAN WITH SPINE. This was painted by me after I heard Sarah Palin speaking.

NIGHT CAFE

The paint­ing below is inspired by another Van Gogh that is my favorite of all, titled NIGHT CAFE. It took me the longest to com­plete, some­thing like two weeks of pleas­ant work went into this one but you do get a kind of sense of futil­ity with every­one just sit­ting around wait­ing for some­thing to hap­pen and the waiter just loung­ing with noth­ing to do. Should he play some bil­liards, or bring some­one another brandy?

As I live in a place where it sel­dom rains, and never snows I thought a peace­ful snow scene would be nice. Look­ing at this one kind of cools me off dur­ing a hot sum­mer day.

Which paint­ing do you like? What do you do to relax besides med­i­ta­tion? Please do share your thoughts.

With thanks and appreciation,

Burt Gold­man
~The Amer­i­can Monk

PS — My Face­book group has been offi­cially launched and I invite you to become a mem­ber of it.