Spring Into a New You!

I love fall, winter and spring. The rebirth of the world is intoxicating. The grass pushing up through the moistened soil, the leaves flowering and covering the bare arms of trees…ah, you just don’t get better than that.

So, I’ve been on a push lately and it is something that will be familiar to those who know me well. A few years ago a friend of mine asked me if I knew what “The Secret” was. I told her I did not. Well, she was kind enough to show me what “The Secret” was and from that point on, whenever I used the principles of this “Secret” life has been prosperous and great.
If you have not heard of seen or read about The Secret, I encourage you to do so. It has truly changed my life and by reviewing the documentary now and then, I have been able to keep the attitude of gratitude up. Yes, when I start to get down or doubt myself I watch the movie again. Sometimes I just play it in the background on my computer when I write.
I am not going to tell you all about The Secret but I will tell you this. What you think you become-Bhudda and your life, every life is a direct result of The Law of Attraction. That’s your carrot. Now go out and get the rest of the info.

Over the past month some extraordinary things have happened. The first, and most inspiring for myself is the fact that this month I have quadrupled the amount of money made from freelance writing. It is not so much the money but the fact that in this “tough” economic time I am making more money than I ever have and enjoying myself while I am doing it. All of a sudden articles that felt like such a burden to write are fun and exciting. I dare to say that I am addicted to writing and I love it!!

My day job has become so incredibly easy that I am starting to wonder if they should really pay me as much as they are. Not to mention, I received a raise and more responsibility and the job has become easier. Wow! How does that work?

My love life has suddenly become the rewarding, fulfilling thing that I’ve longed for it to be. I am in love and there is no stress coming from the source of that love. I am confident and sure that my love is returned and the future is bright.

Exercise and healthful eating are not chores anymore. I am eager to get on my Gazelle and have started craving grapefruits. What has caused all of this positive change? Applying The Secret. It is not magic. In fact, it is plain and simple common sense. Get the info and apply it.

Detroit: Fourth Most Miserable City….Maybe It’s Not The City

A new survey by Forbes states that Detroit is the fourth most miserable city in the nation. Misery is present, with that I agree, but it is not the city. Individuals make up cities and what we have in the Detroit metropolitan area are miserable people. The city has nothing to do with it. People choose misery. Cities don't.

We humans do something very strange when something negative crosses our paths. We latch on and say “Oh no, I've got something worse than that!” I was absolutely amazed at the comments made in forums in response to the Miserable Cities survey. The majority of the comments were from people who were upset that their city was not number one or higher up on the list. I was dumbfounded as I read through the comments. By the way, if you EVER read comments posted after a news story…..don't do it when you are having a really good day because you are probably going to get mad.

So, here is my thing. I live about 35 minutes from Detroit and even though I grew up there, the place scares me. However, over the past few years I have taken classes at the University of Detroit Mercy,even though there are several universities in-between here and there, and I tutored students at a high school in a Detroit neighborhood that was more blight than anything else. I am no saint or angel and I flinch if I make a wrong turn in Detroitbut I know that very now and then I have to do something positive to combat the negative thoughts I have of the city. In May I am moving to Salt Lake City because I want something different. It is not lost on me that Salt Lake City is a place and once I get there happiest will not magically appear it is something that I will have to create for myself.

Earlier today I watched a film on You Tube about Detroit. A guy was going through the city showcasing the ruins and talking about how leftist governments ran the city into the ground. I completely agree that an entitlement mentality is what ran the city and the rest of southeastern Michigan into the ground, however that is not the fault of the government. That is the fault of each person living in the region.

Here is the challenge, and this is something that I struggle with everyday myself. No matter how miserable you think your town, city or state is take it upon yourself to personally make your little space in the world happier. If your city is miserable then you need to do something about it. Forget about “help” from your neighbor, your government or any agency. Sit down and think about what you can do to make things less miserable in your city. Don't worry about what the government, your family, boss or coworkers are doing. Ending misery is completely doable and absolutely up to you.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank

Who Cares What John Mayer Thinks?

I have no idea who is on the cover of People or what celebrity is doing what at any given time. I do enjoy movies, music and sports but I leave it at that. I enjoy these endeavors and don’t seek moral guidance from the athletes, actors or musicians that I admire. Their job is to entertain and in my book, if they are doing that, we are okay. If they say or do something that is not terribly intelligent, I give them a pass just as I would myself, you or anybody else.

I kept on seeing headlines about John Mayer being a racist in my Internet travels so after a couple of Facebook postings, Yahoo and even CNN headlines, I decided to check the story out. First of all, I really don’t believe that comments determine whether or not someone is a racist. We all have our prejudices and to say that we have none is on the verge of impossible. Should we hold that against people? I don’t think so. The only time being prejudice is a problem is when you:

A. Cause harm to someone or their property in the name of hatred of what or who they are.

B. Don’t change your thinking once there are exceptions to whatever prejudice notion you have in your mind.

Being prejudice is to be human. It is not always about race or religion or gender. You could be prejudice about weight, politics, etc. At the end of the day, as long as you are not hurting anyone, I believe it is your choice to be prejudice. I personally don’t recommend it but you don’t have to listen to me. That is the beautiful of being an individual.

Now, as far as John Mayer goes, he is a guy with a guitar who writes songs and sings for a living. He gave an interview where he said some things that may have come out the wrong way and some people may have been offended. While that is unfortunate, I don’t think that he should be crucified and have to offer up tearful apologies.

Here is what I don’t get. People who are in the limelight are people with fame and money but they are still people. They make mistakes, say things that might be offensive and do things we might not agree with. My closest friends and family do those things all the time and I at time, I get very angry with them. However, when John Mayer says something, it causes me no anger. I like some of his music and will continue to listen to it without thinking that I’ve betrayed my race or anything like that.

Race is an ugly, hot button topic. It need not be because as more and more research is done it is clear that we are more alike than different. There are some differences between races genetically but even those differences become skewed if we dig enough. For example, during an insomnia riddled evening I took time to learn about the Sentinelese people who live on an island off the coast of India. The pictures of the people I saw looked like African and immediately my mind classified them as such. However, their DNA says that they are definitely Asian. This is a very simplified example of why race is such a sham. The differences in race continue to fold back into one another and become very similar. If we dig deep enough, those little slight difference seem to become less and less. In my mind, that says that if you go far enough back in time, the first person may have features from all of us. Drawing me to believe that there is a human race with many colors and shapes and well now, aren’t we lucky to have that? Okay, off the soapbox…

So, my conclusion is, let John Mayer say what he wants and stop being so sensitive. Words spoken by some guy you never met really shouldn’t cause outrage in your heart. The guy sings and plays a guitar. He is not making comments and shoving his doctorate degree in your face. He is doing an interview for Playboy, a magazine built on boobs.

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding about ourselves."

Get Out Those Boot Straps!

Over the past few days I have watched farmers in India toss tomatoes on the ground, read senseless bickering in posts that were supposed to be responses to a mild earthquake that hit Illinois this morning. What these events and so many more have in common is that the senseless bickering and the tomatoes on the ground were both inspired by reactions to governments. The farmers think that the government should do something because the price they get for the tomatoes they grow is lower than what they spend growing them. The silly bickering that followed a posting about and earthquake turned into a democrat-republican brawl. I am always baffled about how much people expect their government to do for them. At the end of the day, how much of what the government does really trickles down and affects us on a day-to-day basis?

I don't know about you but my days and evenings are completed without ever seeing a government official. Life is as good as I want it to be and the things that I cannot change, I do not worry about. You may think, “Well, now how is anything ever going to get better if we don't fit to change it?” My response to that is by taking care of myself, looking out for neighbors and maintaining a positive attitude does make things better. Exercising and eating a well balanced diet makes more of an impact on health care reform in this country than bickering about social health care or whatever it is they are battling it out about on Capital Hill. What I do is going to make more of an impact than whatever bills are passed.

Self-governing is what this country was built on. Individuals, cities, towns and states used to take care of themselves, which in turn, takes care of everyone else. If you see a neighbor struggling to get out of a snow bank, you help them. If you see a neighbor falling off their front porch in a drunken stupor, you might help them but help is not what you are giving them. When someone does not take care of himself or herself and you have to prop him or her up, you are giving them a crutch. Well, here is a newsflash. We've got bootstraps. Pull yourself up on your own accord and add to the community instead of leeching off of it. Get on the treadmill instead of going to McDonald's five times a week. If you work a low paying job and don't have enough money work it every single minute that they will allow you to. Don't throw some huge party and go out every night after you get your tax refund.

Like attracts like, trust me friends. My life is great but not because everything is perfect everyday because believe me it is not. I love my life because no matter what happens I know that the storm will blow over and no matter how tired I am I will keep going until I have what I want and need to survive. That coupled with the fact that I know for certain that anything I can't handle will be carefully considered and figured out by God keeps me in good spirits. I say all of this to make the point that what you do is so much more important than anything that goes on in the government. The decisions you make day to day are what will create the environment you live in. Not bills and laws. Put down the crutch. Let's pull out those good ole bootstraps and get back to where we need to be.

"There were others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps." James Joyce

New Year’s Resolution: Still Going Strong!

Last year after I returned from what I can only call an epiphany that took me to Utah, I woke up in a peaceful state of disorientation. I had been to the mountain top and God did have something to tell me. It was just one word and he uttered is as a stared down on the Wasatch Valley. Write. It wasn’t an answer I needed to question or something that had not been whispered in my ear several times before but this time, I decided that I would not make excuses or think of reasons why I could not write. I would find ways to write and whatever sacrifices had to be made, I would do that.

That morning I decided to quit an incredibly stressful low paying job for a job that paid nothing. Sitting in my home in front of my computer would not generate much if any income but I had to be there if I wanted the Muse to show up and give me the goods. My goal was to finish my novel before 2010 and my resolution for the New Year was to write when and wherever I could. So far I’ve entered a text novel competition, have an entry for an essay contest, entered Lives Lived in contest and have been writing freelance articles (the only part of all my efforts that is bringing in money, but oh well) and have branched out into different genres.

It is February and I am going strong, loving the fact that I have made this commitment to the thing I love and am supposed to do. When I am not working my other job I write. Before work, after work and in-between everything else, I write. It would be safe to say that my life is my work and work (writing) is my life. It may sound odd to some but to be honest, I have never been happier than I am right now. I feel like God has his hand on my shoulder.

The quote of the day, possibly the year is: “The indispensible first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.”

Happy Hockey Day in Canada!

One of the things I admire most about Canada is their national passion of hockey. I don’t believe the United States has anything that binds our society the way that hockey binds Canadians together. Sure, the United States has baseball, but I did not even know what Cooperstown was until about three years ago. Not to mention, the U.S . has a large fanfare for football and basketball and a number of other sports. I mean, I guess variety is good, but I can walk into a bar in Canada, mention hockey and have instant friends. It doesn’t matter what I look like or where I am from. My love for hockey is enough glue to connect me to others.

There is a huge misconception that hockey is only played by those hailing from the European persuasion. Well, let me tell you something. That is a view held in the United States. Around the world people strap on skates and find their way to ice, grab an empty can, tennis ball, puck and sticks and they play hockey. I personally, will tell you that there have been days when Hockey Night in Canada was the only thing I had to turn to. Ron Maclean and Don Cherry have carried me through some tough times. Harry Neale and Bob Cole, along with Maclean and Cherry taught me hockey and for that, I am eternally grateful.

What is Hockey Day in Canada? The best darn celebration of a national sport I have ever seen. Maybe they’ve got something like this somewhere else but I have no knowledge of it. One hour in to the show I have cried tears of joy over a story about an 80 year old woman who’s 83 year old husband drives her an hour every Saturday to play hockey, sniffled my way through a tale of an aboriginal girl who plays on several hockey teams, helps care for her sick sister and dreams of getting a scholarship to Harvard, smiled at the new Canadians from around the world who have gathered in Ottawa to get some free lessons on the national game and listened to how P.J Stock traveled to ten cities around the world in ten days to donated equipment to kids so that they too could come to the common meeting ground that is hockey. That was a mouthful, a total run on sentence, but that was how it felt as I was watching it. Hockey Day in Canada is truly breathtaking.

Well, we are moving on to the story of Devon Troke, a boy in Whitehouse who has had five heart surgeries but still is not giving up on his dreams of being a goalie. My eyes are full. I’ve got to go, but before I do, the Sidney Crosby commercial with the interview of him as a TimBits player saying, "Wouldn't it be amazing to wake up everyday and do the thing that you love?"... yes Sid, that is living the dream. A qoute that Sid the Kid might like: "The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.” Tom Bradley. Oh how true. No matter what your dream is.

This is Where I Live

Once again I’ve decided to blog. I rather enjoyed blogging about novel writing and was happy to share the experience but I know that writing is not everyone’s cup of tea. Most of my friends do not spend hours reading and writing and following my travels through literary land probably got a wee bit boring for most. I know, it is my thing and you all care about it, but don’t necessarily want to share in the boring details. I can handle that. However, there is a place everyone needs to go.

If you’ve ever encountered me in a working environment or checked my status on Facebook you know I love positive quotes. Although some think it is hokey or silly or they just don’t care for the positive vibes, overall I would say that people appreciate them. On New Year’s Day an old client from my former job came into my present job and asked to see me. The first thing she said was “I have one of your quotes! I’m so glad you are still doing this.” The “doing this” is printing off quotes, cutting them into little strips and giving them to anyone who will take them. It doesn’t seem like much and really, it is not but then again, maybe it is.

Everyday I ask people how they are doing and I really want to hear the truth. Unfortunately, too many times I hear grumbles and moans and sighs. Hey, I am not saying that not so great things never happen to me because they absolutely do. In fact, there have been a few times I have taken a moment to say, “Really???? Can this really be happening to ME?” I am not passing judgment; we’ve all been there. However, some of us are there all of the time and quite frankly, its old folks. As long as you are drawing breath, you’ve got a whole hell of a lot to be thankful for. Circumstances can be changed if you want something different, go out there and get it.

So here is what this blog is going to be about. Most days, hopefully everyday, I am going to post a quote, some happy story or inspirational tale to help keep spirits high. There is so much good in the world. I want everyone to know that. You will find out exactly how much every time you come to the Happiest Place on Earth. Gratitude is the best attitude.

So here is the thing....I am very, very happy right here in my little world.