I received an email in my mailbox that I found to be quite humorous here it is:
Comments Made in the Year 1955!
That’s only 54 years ago!

• ‘I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $20.00.’
• ‘Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won’t be long before $2,000.00 will only buy a used one.’
• ‘If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.
• ‘Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?’
• ‘If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.’
• ‘When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage.’
• ‘Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls.’
• ‘I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL of DAMN in it.’
• ‘I read the other day where some scientist thinks it’s possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas .’
• ‘Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they’ll be making more than the President.’
• ‘I never thought I’d see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.’
• ‘It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.’
• ‘It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.’
• ‘Marriage doesn’t mean a thing any more, those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.’
• ‘I’m afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.’
• ‘Thank goodness I won’t live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to congress.’
• ‘The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.’
• ‘There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.’
• ‘No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it’s too rich for my blood.’
• ‘If they think I’ll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.’

There is nothing more enduring than the human spirit. Our ability to adapt, survive, and thrive makes our journey here on earth an exciting one. If we engage life, life will engage us. Happy Friday!

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished a how much he had learned in seven years. – Mark Twain

This is the oldest, I have ever been, I think.

Anyone can become President (of the United States).

Never under estimate the spirit of the American people.

Happiness is circumstantial. Joy is existential.

Money can buy happiness but it cannot buy joy.

When you are filled with love there is no room for hate; and when you spill, only love comes out.

Life is about being selfish not selfless. Good or bad the self is there.

The purpose of life is to service to each other with the gifts with which we come.

There is  no beginning and no end only transformation.

Karma is real.

Dharma is destiny.

An entity that truly loves itself also loves that which sustains it.

Everything contains properties of it’s origin.

We come from God.

God is.

Love.

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Living from Greatness

Tao Te Ching, 25th Verse

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the Mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.
I call it great.
Great is boundless;
boundless is eternally flowing;
ever flowing, it is constantly returning.
Therefore, the Way [Tao] is great,
heaven is great,
earth is great,
people are great.
Thus, to know humanity,
understand earth.
To know earth,
understand heaven.
To know heaven,
understand the Way [Tao].
To know the Way,
understand the great within yourself.

ONLY A PERSON WHO RISKS IS FREE
by Author Unknown

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your ideas, your dreams,
before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the
greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing, do nothing,
have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change,
grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves;
they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.

Nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is going to be.—Joseph Campbell

It is the uncertainties of life that fuels the fire within. Can you imagine how monotonous and painful life would be if everything we desired was manifested with certainty and without challenge. At first the thought is, “just try me.” But Look at it, when there is no challenge, there is no excitement. Without excitement there is no enthusiasm. Without enthusiasm there is no meaning. If your favorite team knew it would win every game regardless of effort, how would they play? Would you want to watch that?

If your life was laid out for you and your only role was just to wake up, how would that feel? Now please don’t get me wrong, some easy wins are much needed sometimes and just as enjoyable. But they are meaningful because we struggle. So, as we are challenge today, express gratitude because it is through these challenges that we get to tap into our creative depth and it is through our creative expressions that we find meaning in life.

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye. —Buddha

Yesterday we had the privilege of lifetime, to be conscious of a pivotal point in the history of the world. Yes, it was that big!

On the surface we witnessed a man of African and American descendants assume the most powerful political position in the world. We witnessed the spirit of a nation rise over the circumstances of it fears. Yes, yesterday was that big. Congratulations world we are awake! At least, awaken to the reality that form and function are separate; that is, it’s unimaginative to think that because of the package, the content is no good. We lifted these anchors of prejudice and hope reigns.

So now here we are, the party is over, the clean up crew has served us well. It is time build; to answer a call placed by the man we have manifested to represent us to each other. You see, Barack didn’t work his magic. There was no charismatic voo doo (or obeah if you are Jamaican). In this day, at this time in our evolution, our collective consciousness created the way for Barack to emerge as the spokesperson for love, unity, and service with the latter being the manifestation of the former.

The call that Barack bellowed was to go and serve each other; that we are our brothers and sisters keepers—a knowing that struck me in the most profound way upon completion of my book Reminder to Self. I realized that all we have ever done, all we will ever do is serve each other. The teacher serves the student and the student serves the teacher; the parent serves the child and the child serves the parent; the President serves the people and the people, the President. Even disservice is service. We become resilient and develop survival mechanisms in the face of disservice. Eventually we leverage disservice for service (the disservice of slavery has now produced a President, arguably the leader of the free world.)

If what we have done has always been service, then a call to service is a call to consciousness. A call to mindfulness where we do what we have done with a new understanding. An understanding that the outcome of how we serve will affect our brothers and sisters. An understanding that we manifest joy or pain. That is, upon the many faces of the people we serve, we place a smiles or frowns; tears of joy or tears of pain. And we know that joy is better.

The call to service doesn’t require radical shifts necessarily, it simply requires responsibility. It requires that we release goodness of thoughts and deeds. And it requires that we begin right where we are. The journey of a thousand miles begin with one step but let me offer three. The first step is to be where you are. Magnify yourself if where you are is where you want to be. The second step is to know where you are. Get in to where you are or get out of it. Finally, the third step in your thousand mile journey is to begin where you are, it’s the only place from whence to start. If we consciously serve with our gift, talent and abilities, then we have answered the call of our new President.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
— Mahatma Gandhi: Was a political and spiritual leader of India

Yep, we’ve heard this one before in many forms; “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”–JFK. I won’t list all of them but you get the point.

There is a thing in me that wants to say hi to everyone with whom I come in contact, my spirit. But there is this thing in me that wants people to say hi first, my ego. So if someone makes eye contact with me, I politely smile and say hi–sometimes more. (Like to the guy who was using the a liquid that was the remnant of barley and hops from making beer as a de-icer, I said more, much more to him. I was curious. Smelled like crap but talk about recycling.) If someone doesn’t make eye contact, or breaks eye-contact before I get a chance to , I won’t say hi. I go along my way but I leave a void.

So I decided, the world is a nicer place when we greet each other. So let’s do it; a tip of the hat, a bow, a nod, a smile, an utterance, a compliment, go for it. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t want a kinder gentler world. Be the change you want to see.

Be well.

“Problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them.”–Albert Einstein

If you can’t figure it out stop trying. Don’t quit! Just stop trying. Redirect your attention to something else; nothingness, take a walk, go shoot some hoops, go play with your kids…

The really big idea in Einstein’s statement is, for example, that we can’t fight a war for peace. War begets war. Peace begets peace. More simply, sometimes we just gut stuck in a pattern of thinking that will not produce the progress we seek. This causes a creative congestion. Stop trying. Make the space for your divinity and allow the universe to provide guidance.

Be well.

I was going somewhere with my two-year old when:

She said, “Daddy, my feelings are hurt.”

Surprised by what I had just heard I said, “Oh honey I’m sorry. Why are your feelings hurt?”

She said, “Because.”

“Because what?” I asked.

“Because I said so.” she said.

There was a kind of pregnant pause. After laughing to myself, I didn’t know quite what to do.

Then she said, ” Can I have a Band-Aid for my feelings Daddy, can I.”

I said, “Yes baby, when we get home.”

And that was my profound dialogue with my two-year old. In my book, Reminder To Self, I write that we are all here to teach each other. In my soul I know this but I am often struck by lessons from unexpected places–and two-year olds.

By the time we got home her feeling weren’t hurt anymore. I doubt if she remembered why they were hurt in the first place. That dialogue could have been the mutterings of a two-year old but the lesson was pretty clear. Sometimes all we need is just a Band-Aid for our feelings; no stiches, no surgery, no couch; just a Band-Aid. And most people can put one on.

No Excuses Today!

Get it done or own up to it not getting done. If the dog ate your homework, why was it in his reach? If you got stuck in traffic, why did you cut it so close? If the baby kept you up all night–well, I feel ya.

A college professor told me once that, “Excuses only satisfy those who make them.” I have never forgotten that. When we makes excuses we surrender our power to live fully from our truest selves. Benjamin Franklin said, ” I never knew a man who was good at making excuses, who was good at making anything else.”

When you have an excuse for everything, you publish yourself as being without flaws. As Robert Holden said, “Permanently right people defend themselves against success by not admitting their mistakes.”

Be well.