"CANCEL CANCEL" -Zig Ziglar on negative thoughts!!!
Motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.
Today, Kelly, the girls and I spent the day with the Chang family. they had their house decorated with wreaths on the door, decorations up their stairs, a tree with the star on top, stockings hung and a Christmas towel in the bathroom.
They served us an amazing brunch braised potato slices, muffin pan baked egg rounds, bacon, to die for bread pudding and mimosa. Early dinner was Sausage spaghetti, Cesar salad and fruit. Dinner last night was a Korean noodle dish, rice, home-made Kim Chee and out of the oven chocolate chip cookies.
I am inspired by the way they live, with minimalized organization of their not so big house. I want to copy inviting guests and creating recipes so I can enjoy similar long conversations of “who we are”.
We value our Heritages. We are committed to raising healthy, confident, kind and honest children. We all have difficulties in our lives and share how lucky we are to be away from past dishonest people in our lives. We enjoy pursuing a life of helping others.
We are greatly influenced — whether we like it or not — by those closest to us. It affects our way of thinking, our self-esteem, and our decisions. Of course, we are our own person, but research shows that we're more affected by our environment than we think.
A quote-drawing of Mt. Fujii, personally drawn and signed by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki when we had him for lunch at our house, hangs in our Mercer Island living room. Dr. Suzuki, the world famous violin teacher of the Suzuki Talent Education writes, "Man is a child of his environment."
While it's ideal to be closely surrounded by positive, supportive people who want us to succeed, it's also necessary to have our critics. According to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, "Tell Me What I Did Wrong: Experts Seek And Respond To Negative Feedback," novices have a preference for positive feedback, but experts want negative feedback, so that they can make progress.
And the more successful I become, the more criticism I'll face. Glenn Llopis over at Forbes wrote about how "6 Types Of People Build Your Mental Toughness," including doubters, critics, and the envious. Without them, we'd never sharpen our skills or develop tough skin.
It takes a while to develop this mental toughness
I want to continue networking to spend time with relatives friends and new acquaintances who inspire me similarly. I will also continue my resolve to "bring out the best" in myself and help others who want to do the same.
![FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS B...]()
FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS BY THE GRANDGIRLS
Here's one of my memories about meeting the cute guys at the Thanksgiving conference when I was a senior in high school in 1955:
Our Japanese immigrant parents regularly set up youth conferences and sports activities for their children to meet other young Nisei. My grandpa and parents often gossiped about wayward children who dated and married someone outside the Japanese community (of course) discrimination played a role.
Thanksgiving, 1955, I was 16, living in Ontario, an eastern Oregon farming community with about 5,000 population.
The annual Japanese Methodist Northwest Youth conference held every Thanksgiving weekend drew about 100 youths from Spokane, Tacoma, Portland, Seattle and Ontario. Last year, my friends came back from Spokane with pictures, wrote letters and talked about the cute guys they met.
The 1955 conference was scheduled for Tacoma. I was excited to attend. My family was poor, so I believe our church must have paid my way.
I borrowed a suitcase and packed my only party dress. I wore my one Pendleton skirt, cashmere sweater with matching socks and saddle shoes. Margaret, Reverend Fujimore and I boarded the Union Pacific passenger train in Ontario, heading west. Six hundred miles later, we got off at Tacoma, WA on Puget Sound.
Margaret and I were assigned to the Shintani house with Patti Warashima from Spokane. The latter is now a famous Seattle sculptor and taught at the University of Washington art department. Roger Shimomura did the conference graphics and became a nationally-known artist and retired as a University of Kansas professor.
My Ontario friend was later a national JACL queen. She drew a lot of attention from the boys. She is currently a high-end San Francisco fashion designer.
I don’t remember the religious messages, but I do remember Frank from Tacoma, along with Spencer and Gary from Spokane. For most of the three days, we noticed each other and played coy; ending up exchanging addresses and corresponding for a while after the conference.
After completing college and getting married, I began life in Seattle. I was hired by the UW Library Special Collection in 1970 to document the Nikkei experiences in the Pacific Northwest.
I found similar social experiences spanning the generations in my own family. There are the YPCC (Young People’s Christian Conference) photos in 1930. My dad, Sago Miyamoto is in one of the pictures from a Tacoma gathering. Hana Masuda, wife of Min Masuda PHD who began the Japanese Collection in 1970, told me stories of the fun she had at these conferences.
Going forward to 1980, our daughter, Lynette, is in one of the photos of the GYOP (Group of Young People) conference when her Seattle Methodist church youth made the reverse trip from my 1955 trip in 1980 - to Ontario from Seattle.
Each young people’s conference was highlighted with social events. Non-Methodist local youths came to the skating parties and the Saturday night dance after the concluding banquet.
At the dances, the guys were on one side of the church gymnasium and the girls on the other. Mostly, we girls sat and waited for the guys to come all the way across the room to ask us to dance. Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” or Eddie Fisher’s “Dungaree Doll” were the most popular. Once in a while, two girls would get up and dance on their own.
I met and danced with Chuck Kato at the 1957 Portland conference. Seventy years later, in the 1990s, Chuck was one of the four founders of our Japanese Cultural and Community Center’s Omoide (Memories) project and writing group, documenting and preserving stories of our heritage values for the children of the future.
Religion remains a strong cornerstone for creating community and connections. I am thankful for this 2018 holiday season, bringing back memories for a fulfilling life. We invite you to come to our Omoide program, each third Saturday of the month—except next month (December) –to share your memories with us as well! Just contact as at JCCCW.org
This was sent to me this morning. Although I don't immediately relate to the horse and rider, it does remind me of the sunsets outside our southwest facing windows this last few weeks.
I like the thoughtful expression of how I like living my life!!!
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