Volume 49. Putting Them All Together - Three Examples from Our Readers.
The following examples were submitted in response to last week's challenge. What challenge was that, you ask? Here it is again...

Just for fun, knowing full well you would never do this in real life, review the "Structure of Magic" Presuppositions 1 - 29 from the last several newsletters and write one of each of them. Tie them together thematically, as if you are telling a therapeutic metaphor. Send in your finished work to this website. The first 5 people to send their completed "homeplay" will get a free Ericksonian language pattern CD. With your permission we will post them on line.

These are published exactly as written. I've not made any comments or corrections. See if you can follow what the writers are doing and which presuppositions are being used. (You'll find this task very easy in Marianne's example as she was kind enough to number them.) I think you'll find them as delightful as I did. Many thanks to our contributors, Shelton Hill, Marianne Macdonald, and Venus Uzynski Brown; your CDs are on their way.

        Well done!
        -Doug O'Brien

I wonder what John Lennon would have said in your situation. What would he say? His wonderful, melodic voice lives on in the music he made. Everyone knows the sound of that voice. Great voices tend to live on into the future. I have heard that great voices can have a profound effect on the lives of people. While remembering the voice of John Lennon you may be moved to remember how he lived. Your former challenges may seem small compared to his. This first thought is a powerful step toward change. The more you realize how hard his life was the more you see how small your challenges are. Nothing is as powerful as a physical example of success. After looking at an example of success, you can t help but look at others again and again. Each time you review these examples of success, you realize how successful you can be. Even those who may have challenges can be successful. Start each day knowing that success waits for you. Become a seeker of success. Go looking for success. REJOICE in the fact that challenges are merely the path to success. If you had thought this way before, you might have realized all the successes you have already achieved. You should find this easy to do now! People who have faced challenges have the ability to do this. Have you faced challenges? Aren t you ready to find the successes? It s all a matter of choice, isn t it? You can make a choice, can you not? It is wonderful to look back on some of the choices John Lennon made. What is amazing is that even after his passing he inspires so many. Did you know that millions of people are still inspired by John s voice every day? Remarkably, you are one of them!

I met Sarah Ulmer a while back (1). She has won a gold medal for track cycling (2) - inevitably a woman with the ability to achieve her goals (3). Every one may want to become the best at something (4), but only children who are focused and disciplined can achieve it. (5). People like Sarah who have achieved this success are interesting to talk to. (6) While you listen to their story, you can learn lessons for yourself. (7) The old you is now learning skills to create a new you (8). First find out how they started out, next how they carried on to be where they are today. (9). I found out that the bigger the commitment to the goal, the greater the success. (10). One of the first lessons she learnt as a child was that as soon as she stopped trying, her performance went backwards. (11) She also needed to put training at the top of her priority list too. (12). Each time she replaced training with something like watching the TV, she needed to replace the training session with renewed vigour. (13) Just taking the time to practice, however, was not all that was needed. (14) She was taught that to start being a winner, she needed to look inside, where the process of change was already beginning.(15) When you change your thinking you can transform you whole life. (16) Her coach often said at the start of a training session, when you depart from here, a part of you will come back in a new state. (17) Your EXCELLENT insights can be used to make the changes you want . (18). If you had listened to your school friends and gone out partying, you wouldn t be in the wonderful position you are in now (19) If you should want to party, you can do that all you want when you have achieved your goal . (20). Her first coach then got pregnant and she had to get a new one (21). Sometimes Sarah asked herself Will you ever be good enough? (22). Didn t you want to enjoy life, rather than just working so hard all the time? (23) Who cares whether you win a gold medal or not? (24) Even her best friend had once said, I wonder if you are not wasting your life in pursuit of something unachievable. (25)

I m not sure what order the last four were in, because I couldn t download the correct file.It seemed to be the last one, with one missing.

It was an enormous amount of pressure on her throughout her teenage years (cleft sentence). However she realized what she wanted and looking back had no regrets about the hard slog. (tactive verbs and adjectives). What Sarah wanted to achieve was achieveable (pseudo-cleft sentence). Fortunately she made it all pay off in the end and luck had no part in her Olympic triumph. (commentary adjectives and adverbs)

        Now, you know Don Quixote de la Mancha tilted at windmills. He was in love with the lovely Dulcinea. Some people thought she was a prostitute in real life. Many of them thought they knew her, but really, none of them did.
        Unlike Casanove, the real lovers throughout history are artists who can see into the heart of their Beloved. It is these true lovers who fight for their Beloved who earn love in return. Yet, even now, people laugh at them for their vision.
        In former times, it was the same way. However, in another second, all of that could fade away. Because the more people learn to love themselves, the less they will hurt others.
        As soon as you come to understand this, the better off you will be. You too, could also love like Don Quixote and change back again into the kind of person you used to be. And you'll learn, truly learn, that you can return to a point in time before you caused all this pain. If you will just open your eyes, you will even figure out how to do it
.         You may stop and start again, yet you can still proceed to become the new person you already are anymore. Whenever you hear the change jingle, you can become the person you know inside you want to be.
        Every time you come and go, or enter or leave a room, you will watch your past dissolve. You will ABSOLUTELY know for sure you've done it every time you open your eyes.
        If you had known all this before, you wouldn't need to know it now. And if you should wonder, truly wonder, if it's all true, you will be even more sure of it NOW.
        And when you go back home, you will be satisfied with who you've become. Now, how will that help you live happily ever after? Aren't you curious, even yet, what lies deep inside your mind? Do you wonder if IT REALLY MATTERS? Do you not wonder if it does not matter at all?
        It is so pleasant to begin to consider the possibilities now. What is so comfortable about it all is the way it makes you smile. Are you pleased, now, to know that you realize how aware you are? Luckily for you, Dulcinea is even still your won true love.

The End