Discover the Magic of the Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

'Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.' Henry James.

What are the most beautiful words in the English language? The answer to this subjective question will obviously vary from person to person depending, as it does, on the meaning, the sound, the context, and the connotation of the word or words in question.

'Words strain,

Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,

Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,

Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,

Will not stay still.'

T.S. Eliot, 'Four Quartets'

And yet if you scan the works of the most fastidious and discerning writers you will find certain words that are almost universally accepted as 'beautiful'.

'You can stroke people with words.' F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'The Crack-Up'

Here is Part 1 of my list of 'beautiful' words. Are there any words you would remove from or add to this list? Let me know what you think.

autumn
beloved
blandishments
blossom
butterfly
cadence
caress
carol
champagne
chime
crimson
crystal
darling
dawn
delicious
delight
desolate
dream
dulcet
dusk
echo
eglantine
enchant
eternal
ethereal
glistening
goblet
golden
gossamer
harmony
harvest
idyllic
languid
languorous
laughter
love
lullaby
lustrous
magic

Email your suggestions for 'The Most Beautiful Words in The English Language' to: assignmentsplus1@aol.com

Gerard McLoughlin is the author of '15 hours To A Powerful English Vocabulary'.

To view this course, please visit http://www.assignmentsplus.com/vocabularycourse1.html

Alternatives for Business Travelers

"I'm coming home. I've been away too long. Been away so long. I'm coming home" ? Ian Thomas, in Coming Home

I still recall my road warrior days. It seemed like every other week, I was hopping on a plane for Orlando or Vancouver or Palm Springs or Washington or Chicago or Toronto.

It might not be Rome, Paris, and Monte Carlo, but Washington, Toronto and Orlando are pretty classy places. I went to crucial meetings. I was an important person. I was a frequent flyer.

However, after a while, all the towns begin to look the same. One airport hotel looks amazingly like another. Surely the taxi driver in Washington and the taxi in Orlando were twins separated at birth. I was yearning to just stay put. I had had enough of hotels and restaurants

Traveling sounds glamorous until you have to do it over and over and over. Especially when you have a family, you want to spend some time at home between the episodes of jet lag. Comfort becomes a much bigger deal, and you want every place to feel like home.

You just can't do that in a hotel. Not in a Marriott. Not in a Sheraton. Not in a Hilton.

I wish I knew then about two other options.

Private Vacation Homes (or rental villas)

Private vacation homes, known also as holiday homes or villas are essentially houses that rent on a weekly basis. They are not much help for fly-in meetings. For those, only an airport hotel will do.

But if you plan to be in town for the better part of the week, there is nothing like kicking back in your own private home ? a rental home, of course.

"Hotel rooms are cramped; a villa is spacious with room to walk about. Hotel rooms have a TV and desk in the bedroom; a villa has surround sound TV and stereo with comfortable couches and chairs in various parts of the home. A hotel has a public pool; a villa has a private pool," says Florida villas rental agent Stewart Granville. "It's private. It's comfortable. It's like a home away from home."

Mr. Granville notes that a vacation home rental also serves as an office away from home, with one room dedicated to the office. "In a villa, you don't have to sit on your bed when you type those memos. And what a great way to entertain business contacts."

Mr. Granville specializes in villas in America's vacation heartland: Orlando, Florida. Business travelers often bring their family along to enjoy Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and other famous theme parks. The family plays while the business traveler works. When the meetings are over, they all head for Disney together, perhaps for another week. With family in tow, a private rental home makes much more sense than a crowded hotel room.

Bed and Breakfasts

Bed and Breakfasts are also an option. Although they do not offer the same privacy and space as villas, they are warmer and more homey than a hotel. And like a hotel, they rent by the night, not by the week.

Is a bed and breakfast for you? If a relaxing atmosphere is more important to you than room service, a bed and breakfast is for you, yes. They are comfortable and relaxing, so the business traveler can walk confidently into his meeting free from stress and worries.

Bed and Breakfasts are growing more popular for weekend getaways in the country, but most major urban centers have bed and breakfasts right in the heart of the city...and these are ideal for road-weary business travelers.

So forget about room service and the mint on the pillow. For a stay of several days, the business traveler can rent a spacious, private vacation villa. And for just a night or two, it's a warm and comfortable bed and breakfast.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is a freelance writer, and an online and offline publicity specialist. Contact him at: mailto:info@thehappyguy.com

or visit his website at: http://www.thehappyguy.com

For Florida vacation villa rentals: http://www.lastminutevillas.net

For Orlando vacation home rentals: http://www.orlandovillaowners.com

The Fountain of Light Exercise

An etheric body, also known as the aura, surrounds every human being. This energy field is thought to be made up of you're the emanations of your life force, what the Middle Eastern religions call Prana, the Chinese call Chi and the popular religions call the Soul. An entire New Age cottage industry has sprung up around the idea of taking electromagnetic pictures of these phenomena using Kirilian or electromagnetic photography. Psychics and Channelers take cues from the colors revealed in these photographs to diagnose and interpret physical, spiritual and emotional conditions.

The most prominent element of Etheric Body, or soul-structure as it is also known, is said to consist of the aura itself, which is said to typical extend about three feet around the physical body in all directions. This resembles a bubble of light that is typically sealed by a slightly thicker membrane that preserves the autonomy of the entity. Imagine a soap bubble filled with light and you get the idea. Some people have larger, more expansive auras, and often you can recognize these people by the way they seem to mysteriously fill their room with their presence. Others have very tall auras that seem to extend as far as six feet above their head. This elongation of the aura, towards the skies and the realms of the ascended masters, saints and the angels is a goal of many devoted Buddhists, Christians and spiritual seekers.

All of the chakras play important roles in maintaining the health of the aura, but the chakra directly involved in communication with angels is the Crown Chakra. Above the Crown Chakra, hovering about six feet above your head is thought to be the source of what is usually called the Higher Self, the Divine Imagination, the Holy Guardian Angel, or the center of Christ Consciousness. This is usually seen as a small Sun or ball of shining light that emanates rays down through the Crown Chakra. In order for this to happen the crown chakra has to be open to receive what the Buddhists call enlightenment.

One way to understand the Chakra system is to imagine that there is a string of multicolored Christmas lights connected from your base chakra up through your body to the crown of your head. Connected to that is an extension card that further plugs into this power source about six feet above you. The idea is to send light up those bulbs by plugging into your energy source. That ball of light six feet above your head is what talks to other souls on your behalf, and also to the angels. It sends messages to your chakras that in turn deal with issues of survival, sexuality, communication, your ability to give or receive love, self-expression, second sight and the ability to receive divine guidance. If you manage to plug into this higher source and light up all your chakras, you are said to have awakened your Kundalini.

The ball of light known as the Higher Self, the Divine Imagination or the center of Christ consciousness relates very strongly to the Heart Chakra, which is seen as a pinpoint of light and the 3rd Chakra. The 3rd chakra is used as a kind of bellows to energize the heart chakra each time you take a breath inside your body. Energizing the 3rd and 4th chakras, by controlling the breath is though to open the Crown Chakra so that it can receive the light and wisdom of the messages sent from the higher self to the physical body. This pathway forms a kind of circuitry that energizes and strengthens your connection to your higher self and the angels.

To open your Crown Chakra I suggest you try the following simple basic exercise:

? Breathe in and as you do, imagine the white sunny ball of fierce bright light that I am going to call the Higher Self Sun hovering about six feet about your head.

? Now imagine that there is another sunny ball of yellow light glowing in your upper tummy (your solar plexus.).

? As you breathe out imagine the Higher Self light shooting a Star Trek-like sharp focused beam of light, straight down through the crown (the very top of your head to energize this ball of light that is in your solar plexus.

? For the next ten breaths, imagine energy shooting up from your solar plexus area to the Sun above your head as you inhale, and the energy shooting back down with each exhale. Imagine your entire stomach area filled with a brilliant, honey-colored, warm golden light.

? Now imagine your heart's center as a small pink pinpoint of light. Each time you breathe in, your solar plexus reaches for that energy from the Higher Self in the sky.

? Now when you breathe out, the super-charged solar plexus chakra sends energy back up towards your heart center. The pinpoint of light in your heart is like a small shining star that gets brighter and larger with each breath. You are feeding the heart's center, using the solar plexus chakra as a conduit for the energy from the higher self.

? With each breath that you breathe out, this pinpoint of light in your heart chakra grows brighter and brighter and larger and larger?. until it starts to resemble a little fountain.

? This fountain shoots white light upwards, higher and higher, until releases a spray of light that falls from the crown (the top of your head) to your feet. Every time you breathe out, your body is showered in a spray of rainbow colored lights. Imagining a fountain of diamonds is always good.

? By now, each time as you breathe, the following sequence should be taking place: you inhale and send solar plexus energy up through the crown of your head to the Higher Self Sun six feet above your head. You exhale and the Higher Self sends energy downwards to the solar plexus which sends energy to the heart's center which explodes in a fountain of light that circulates to the top of head, showers to your feet and back up again.

? With each breath, you are now rinsing yourself with holy light from the Higher Self. This is an efficient way of opening your chakras and increasing your receptivity to messages from your higher self and the angels.

(Editor's Note: The Sevenfold Journey by Selene Vega and Anodea Judith is a great resource for working with your Chakras and the energies they represent.)

Samantha Steven's articles have been published in many high-standing newspapers and she has published several books. If you wish to buy Samantha's books about metaphysics click here http://www.insomniacpress.com/author.php?id=110 You can meet Samantha Stevens at http://www.psychicrealm.com where she works as a professional psychic. You can also read more of her articles at http://www.newagenotebook.com

Why There Will Always Be High Paying Sales Jobs

With the dot.com revolution crushing once solid business models on an almost daily basis, the question surely crosses one's mind "am I next?".

Selling is one of the oldest professions on the planet. We get paid to have fun doing what others find difficult, confusing, or just plain hard. Everyday someone's life is being made easier by new a technological innovation. And everyday another company figures out how to sell its product directly to its customer's through a web browser. It's tempting for our minds to see this pace of innovation, and wonder if professional salespeople will be innovated out of their jobs. I assert that the answer to this lies within each individual salesperson. Because the answer to this question is both a challenging Yes and secure No.

The challenge is and has always come from new innovations. You will be challenged by more, new, and greater innovations coming at you and your customers everyday, every hour, and every minute. What was good enough to get you where you are today, is no longer enough to keep you there. There are things that you can be very secure in knowing. One thing is that everything is changing. Master that, and you have secured the future.

A salesperson serves two masters - the customer and the producer. Once we accept that things will always be changing as a constant in our lives, it is easy to see the constant need for professional salespeople. Our role in serving our dual masters is simple - create more value for them than can be provided through a web browser. And we will rightly get paid handsomely when we add significant value.

A salesperson has always played two primary roles that add tremendous value. One is convenience. Convenience for the customer is helping the customer get her exact needs met when she wants them. Taking all of the potential ways, ideas, options, components, products, services, or properties that could meet her needs, and showing her which ones will now. Convenience for the company is getting the 8, 27, or 335 customers that she needs that year to grow the business and make a profit for the owners and shareholders. If the owners were to wait for the phone to ring without a salesperson, the company would be out of business in a flash.

The other role that the professional salesperson has always played is that of an advisor, or a broker of expertise. Helping a customer to understand complex applications of new products, new technology, new business service models, cannot be easily communicated through text, pictures, audio, or video. It is rightly a relationship grounded in face-to-face human dialogue and interaction. It is a give and take of the needs and desires of the customer and the capabilities and products of the producer.

What we do then is provide value to our customers and producers by providing convenience and expertise. As long as there are complex products being dreamed up by bright-minded innovators, and human beings with needs whom make purchasing decisions, there will be professional salespeople.

So who's most at risk? Industries for which the information about a product is relatively known and stable have progressively seen the need for the professional salesperson disappear. Today you go buy your groceries at a large supermarket, or maybe you have them delivered by WebVan. Years ago you would have gone to a market or bazaar in the center of town and haggled over the price of a few eggs or chickens with owner selling them. Now many producers of products and services with a stable knowledge components are going delivering that knowledge directly to the buyer, and bypassing the salesperson. Car buying is a prime example. People have despised the process of buying cars for years. The whole caricature the car salesman in our society has created a burdensome image that the professional salesperson has had to bear in all his social dealings with others. The major car companies are already planning on new business models where you shop for your car on the web, pick colors, features, and negotiate a price and financing. The dealership of the tomorrow is simply a place for taking a test drive and later picking up the completed custom built vehicle. If your business has a stable knowledge component, it will go directly to the customer. The only question is, how soon?

Constant change is a major source of security for us then. If we master change, we are in a position to offer tremendous value to people. There will always be new ideas, new products, and new services. When ideas, products, and services are new, they are often raw or seemingly complex by their very nature. In this environment the professional salesperson can be a real hero.

What about face-to-face sales calls? Will broadband Internet capabilities eliminate the need to visit our customers or for our customers to visit us in person? Have you noticed that a dog knows when you are scared of him? If you act scared, a barking dog will become more aggressive towards you. If you act unfazed and unafraid of that barking dog he will most often try to intimidate you from a safe distance. 55% of all communication comes through in our physiology. How we breathe, gesture, sit, stand, move, twitch, and blink all serves to communicate to another person, or even an animal. 37% of our communication is in the tonality of our voice. How fast or slow you speak, the pitch of your voice, the volume?.. You may notice that you can read this sentence aloud as a statement or as a question, can't you. And the tonality is different in either case, imparting a very understandable meaning to whom you are speaking with. The words that we choose to communicate with, represent only 7% of all communication. Only 7%. This is why many people have a difficult time with the traditional classroom based teaching style of the American school system. With 93% of human communication coming through nonverbal forms, can broadband eliminate the need for in-person meetings? (look at all of the dot.com entrepreneurs congregating along US 101 in Silicon Valley)

When we succeed in recreating the fine sensory awareness of human sight, hearing, feeling, smell, and taste, then we will no longer need to go anywhere to meet anyone. We will be able to stay plugged into in our little pods, providing resources for the machines to feed off of, like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix. Until that day humans have a high need to use their full sensory awareness, receiving and communicating 90%+ of their thoughts and emotions through nonverbal means.

We still have sales calls to make, and we still have customers who want us to make them. Just as the telephone made the job of selling easier, so will the Internet for those who learn how master it, and not let it master them.

Shamus Brown is a Professional Sales Coach and former high-tech sales pro who began his career selling for IBM. Shamus has written more than 50 articles on selling and is the creator of the popular Persuasive Selling Skills CD Audio Program. You can read more of Shamus Brown's sales tips at http://Sales-Tips.industrialEGO.com/ and you can learn more about his persuasive sales skills training at http://www.Persuasive-Sales-Skills.com/

The PR And Marketing Expert Has A Smattering Of Knowledge Regarding Nearly Everything And Is Certain

PR, that is public-relations, leads the way to effective advertising; opening the channel of communication and allowing the advertising to be acceptable. Public-relations is really all the different ways of communicating that enable society and individuals and groups and organizations to better function and more understandably communicate with each other. Marketing is composed of the different forms of communications, such as words and pictures on music and shapes and colors that make a person or group more willing to receive a communication that communication usually being an advertisement. In the advertisement is to induce a consumer to purchase a good or service. The more a public-relations and marketing expert knows about various goods and services, the better that person is that marketing, advertising and selling them.

To be good at PR marketing, advertisement, and sales person must be good at counseling. And they must be good at counseling, whomever is providing the good and service, as well as whomever is purchasing it. In order be good at marketing, one must be good at researching evaluating establishing goals setting priorities designing programs and implementing all the activities necessary to get a product or service from the producer and provider to the consumer.

To be good at public-relations marketing, advertising and sales; you need to be good, professionally good at writing, speaking, art, management, psychology, philosophy, sociology, political science, economics, and the basic principles of science and engineering and physics. And in the final analysis, one must be able to achieve the goal. That is a sale and a payment as a result that sale, no matter what. That's about all there is to it.

Copyright 2005 by Jody Hudson www.JodyHudson.com and www.Kate-Jody.com

Jody Hudson has been a realtor in America and Delaware for over 35 years.

Five Ways To Build Super-Strong Relationships With Your Children

One of the questions I ask in parenting presentations is "How do you show your children you love them?"

Participants usually cite verbal and physical ways of showing affection as the most common means of showing love. These ways work well for children of certain age groups and children with those relational preferences, but how do you relate to a child or young person who becomes a 'conversational clam' or one who doesn't like physical closeness?

Conversely, it is easy to miss the relational signs of children if their ways of relating fit outside our frame of reference. I remember Michael, behaviourally the most challenging child that I taught, would meet me in the car park each morning and carry my bag to the staffroom door. He would bid me farewell and we would spend most of our contact time jousting with each other. The bag-carrying was just Michael's way of saying that he liked me. His relational preference was through acts of service, which is similar to mine so we were on the same wavelength.

According to Gary Chapman author of Five Languages of Children there are five different ways to develop a connection (show them you love them) with children. As you read them consider your preference and the preferences of children in your family or immediate confines:

1. Acts of affirmation, praise and recognition

The best way to develop a relationship with some children is through your praise, affirmation and recognition. Let them know they are wonderful, that their efforts at home hit the mark and their behaviour is appreciated and they will know you think the world of them. This is obviously easy for some children who naturally do well or behave appropriately but what of those children who are NOT 'affirmation magnets'? We need to try something else?

2. Acts of service and shared activity

Some children just want to share an activity with you. When you come home from work they may pester you for a game or want to join you in whatever you are doing. As toddlers these children want to be attached to their mum and dad's hips as they go about their usual business. You cook, they want to cook. You mow the lawn they want to join you. These children will often do things for you to show they care so they do special jobs 'just for you' (particularly when they have been less than perfect) or want you to join them in an activity or a game. As teenagers they may share an interest such as sport with a parent rather than participating together in an activity itself. These children also love to have their parents to themselves for a time.

3. Talking and attention

Some children just love to talk or be the centre of attention. They love one-on-one time but they can rattle on forever rather than actually engage in an activity with a parent. Far from being 'conversational clams' these children usually don't mind telling you about their day or about any social problems they may be having. They also like to hear about your personal life or how you may have handled the highs and lows of life. Yes, they can close up during adolescence but you may just have to find the right forum such as a car or coffee shop for them to talk. Parents who travel a great deal can stay in touch with these children through the internet or via the telephone. In many ways these 'talkers' provide easy access for relationships as long as we make the effort.

4. Gifts and mementoes

Some children like more tangible evidence of your regard so small mementoes or gifts are the way to their hearts. I am not talking big expense here but these 'tangibles' love their parents to bring something home from work (a pad, pen or poster can work wonders) or a little treat every now and then. Some teenage 'tangibles' can be quite demanding on their parents financially as they may ask for big ticket fashion items but remember that it is the thought not the item that counts with this group.

5. Physical closeness and affection

Some children just can't get close enough to their parents. As young children they love to be picked up and toddlers can give parents little space. Cuddles on the couch and physical play are de rigeur for these kinaesthetic types. Some older boys love to skylark and play very physical games with their fathers, which can be their way of saying, "You're OK." So you need to go along with these affectionate types and realise a touch on the shoulder or a hand on the arm can be more potent than words of praise. This can be challenging if you are physically reserved yourself or your children move into adolescence and you feel awkward about giving them a hug. Sometimes a squeeze on the arm or a quick rub of a teen's back as you greet them is a powerful reminder that you love them.

Most children will have a preference for two of the above methods just as most parents will have one or two preferred ways of relating to others. If you love to chat then holding conversations with like-minded children will be a breeze but how will you relate to those children who prefer more physical ways or even a memento?

If you are frustrated and think that you just can't get through to your child it may be worth checking the way you relate. If talking doesn't work then maybe try a little memento from time to time or suggest a game, a cup of coffee together or just a story. To steal a line from an 80's American sitcom ? 'Different strokes for different young folks.'

Michael Grose is a leading parenting educator and specialises in healping busy parents raise confident kids and resilient young people.

He is the author of six books and over 300 columns in magazines and newspapers across three contintents. He also gives over 100 presentations a year.

For more great ideas to help you raise fantastic kids that other people rave about and really love the job of parenting visit http://www.parentingideas.com.au . While you are there subscribe to Happy Kids, Michael's free email newsletter and receive a free report Seven ways to beat sibling rivalry

Hemorrhoids Treatment - A Variety of Options

A variety of options exist for hemorrhoid treatment including surgery, herbal remedies, and hemorrhoid creams that provide temporary relief of symptoms. While prevention is the best hemorrhoid cure, treatment of hemorrhoids is critical to avoid more serious complications.

You can temporarily relieve the discomfort with a topical hemorrhoid cream, which is easily applied to the surface with an applicator such as a cotton ball or cotton swab, or with the fingertips. Hemorrhoid cream contains active ingredients that go directly to the problem and provide soothing relief. For bleeding hemorrhoids, an especially mild hemorrhoid treatment cream may be used to bring immediate relief and not cause further harm to already damaged tissues.

While herbal supplements are not to be considered a hemorrhoid cure, many sufferers find relief with an herbal hemorrhoid treatment. Herbal ingredients found to be beneficial include Japanese pagoda tree, horse chestnut, and butcher's broom.

Soaking in a shallow bath can also soothe the pain and swelling. Medicated pads available commercially contain witch hazel, which is a natural astringent that can help alleviate pain and reduce swelling. Some people are sensitive to astringents and the analgesics contained in hemorrhoid cream, so caution should be exercised when using these products.

Surgical hemorrhoid treatment is performed in several different ways. For internal hemorrhoids, ligation is the treatment of choice. The hemorrhoid is bound with a rubber band, cutting off the blood supply. The hemorrhoid will eventually dry up and fall off. Ligation is usually performed in a doctor's office and requires no special preparation. Another option is injecting a hardening agent into the base of internal hemorrhoids to cut off circulation, which causes the hemorrhoid to shrivel up. A hemorrhoidectomy is a surgical procedure recommended for unusually large and bothersome internal hemorrhoids.

Online version of the above article is located at http://www.mzeen.com/hemorrhoids-treatment/hemorrhoids-treatment-article.html

For more resources realated to Hemorrhoids Treatment, please visit http://hemorrhoids-treatment.mzeen.com/