Showing posts with label Brian Donovan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Donovan. Show all posts

2008-04-27

Learning How To Surf Life's Waves

I was reading the following story about the oldest woman alive to Grandma Bette just now, waking her up because the time change is still throwing me off. She's OK with me waking her up, telling me she looks forward to my calls.

Only a few years ago she was telling me she didn't know why she was still around. Now she happily retells how others tell her she is so blessed to have her children and grandchildren calling her all the time.

*The attention has given her reason to live.

The love I have for her is my motivation for creating the wealth to own a helicopter so I can visit her more often. She and I have named it, "The Bette". A pursuit of any goal, created from a place of great love, allows for great confidence in its manifestation.

The simple goal of wanting to stay alive is entirely possible, if given enough attention.

Jeanne Louise Calment, who died at 122 years and 164 days of age, lived to be the oldest person on record. Though her parents and siblings also lived to an advanced age, she outlived them all. An active woman, Calment continued to ride a bicycle until she was 100 years old and lived independently until she was nearly 110. At 114, she became the world's oldest actress, appearing as herself in the family film Vincent and Me.

Jeanne Calment's remarkable health presaged her later record. At age 85, she took up fencing. At 100, she was still riding a bicycle. Jeanne lived on her own until shortly before her 110th birthday, when her cooking caused an accidental fire in her apartment and it was decided that she needed to be moved to a nursing home. However, Jeanne was still in good shape, and was able to walk until a fall at age 114 years and 11 months.

Jeanne survived a hip operation in January 1990 to become the oldest verified surgery patient. Although she needed to use a wheelchair afterward, Jeanne remained talkative and received frequent visitors until her 122nd birthday, at which time it was finally decided that her health status had declined and warranted privacy.

Indeed, it was said by Jean-Marie Robine that this "allowed her to die", because the attention had kept her going.

Jeanne Calment died five months later. She reportedly attributed her longevity and relatively youthful appearance (for her age) to olive oil, which she said she poured on all her food and rubbed into her skin.[1]

She was the last recognized surviving person of the 1870s.

She was quoted as saying, "Ha, I was over the hill a hundred years ago".

Last night at a Hollywood party the stars I met were so down to earth, even playing ping pong with me in the basement of Tony's home, that I woke up more confident than ever that all of our limitations are entirely self-imposed.....And it being so terribly and tragically obvious how we limit ourselves so much every day.

**The attention we give to our thoughts and dreams keeps our hopes alive.

Before talking to Grandma I had spent an hour texting a student from last year who is going through a very rough time and literally ready to give it all up.

*I'm hoping and believing that this positive attention will give him a reason to live, and live large! Live all the way! I learned to surf yesterday, the day after a shark killed a triathlete nearby.

The more I face my fears, the more I do in life, and the more I become full of life....perhaps even full enough to give to others and encourage them to keep on living......and living large!

I'm not going to wait around for death to find me, nor am I going to sit around while others are living a walking death or experiencing a hell on earth like the Bra Boys, who raise more hell because of it.

Went to see the movie this afternoon with my best buddy Bri with his girl Tempani, who is from Australia and lived in Maroubra where the movie takes place.



The tattoo Koby has across his upper chest, "My Brother's Keeper", came right through the screen and into me. We are all our brother's keeper. And when we don't take the time to pay attention to this, we all suffer from the effects sooner or later.

Be they young or old, family or aquaintance, friend or even enemy.......and above all with ourselves; we have to keep each other alive, our hopes and dreams, higher standards for thinking and being.

In doing this for ourselves and each other, we keep the hopes and dreams of the world alive, and change the reality of the world.


Among the many incredible people I have met in the last few days (some pictured above like Tate Donovan, Steve Eckhodlt, Tony Horton) ...Scott Fifer has proven once again how powerful a dream in action is. After creating the Tunahaki project to help children in Africa who cannot yet help themselves, he is now working with Ewan McGregor on another project.

Don't tell me why things can't be changed for the better, I'm too busy throwing myself in an ocean of people who ARE busy changing things for the better. People who have the exact same number of hours in the day as we have, who live in the same ocean of possibilities we do, and who have exactly the same opportunities to give up and get off their boards.....but don't. Not even when life breaks their board with a devastating wave....they simply get a new one and head back out into the surf.....unafraid to learn from their mistakes and continue their learning of how to surf life's waves.
Are you seeing how simple it is to become successful, to achieve your dreams and make the world a better place? I do.....And I say let's do it together. Forget anybody who tells you you can't. Listen to those who tell you the truth, and that is you can.
Are you brave enough to believe it?

2008-03-31

One in a Million

There are some people that come around once in a lifetime. They are truly one in a million. My best friend Brian is one of them. We met in college and when he called the other day it felt as if we had just graduated yesterday.

He was the kind of guy who would say, "Let's have a party" at lunch, and by that evening have our house filled with every different type of college student, all getting along and all getting crazy.

My little sister (the beautiful blond in the picture) would get up on the coffee table with me and help lead everyone in "bouncing the house".

One party, Brian playing darts in the basement, could see the floor bouncing up and down so much he seriously thought it was breaking. He rushed upstairs and right into the cops, who were now making their second visit to our humble home.

He is so good and so honest (and doesn't drink so also very sober), that even the law smiled and just asked us to keep it quiet enough so that all of Cleveland couldn't hear us.

He has been off in Hollywood for the past ten plus years making others' lives better every day in so many ways: giving free acting lessons to inner-city kids, creating kids' shows like Mighty Me and projects for the handicapped, and making children laugh everyday as the voice for several cartoon characters on channels like Disney, Nickelodeon and Toon Disney.

Wherever he goes, life improves.

You can honestly say this about only one out of every million people in this world.

More importantly, can others say this about us?

I am one of many that can say this about this man. And I am proud to say that I have been instrumental in Brian Donovan becoming who he is, VERY important (I say this in jest). Every time he has an audition for a "dumb guy" role, he thinks of me. I'm so glad I can help :-)

Brian is Skip (red cap) in this episode of Wings....You're welcome buddy! And thanks for being the best you. It is making the world a much better place.






2007-07-23

Lose Sight of the Shore

My friend Georgia posted a picture of a broken heart, made from the repeated line, "If the heart is broken, shouldn't the pain run out?" I like her writes, and the only thing I could think of was something like, "The only response I can imagine is that the pain is needed for healing, once the broken-hearted decides they want the healing more than the hurting."

I have come to realize that life is often a reflection of choice; feeling like a victim or feeling enlightened, feeling poor and hopeless or feeling rich and empowered, and feeling heart-broken or believing you're learning how to attract only healthy relationships into your life.

This doesn't mean you have to run out and hand someone your heart, saying, "Go ahead. Stab it! It won't hurt me anymore." It just means learning how to identify the people that won't stab. And this may take more time for some and less for others. As passionate and risk-taking as I am, this is one area I'm in no hurry to put my heart into again.

So we're all in the same boat (boy I hope it's a big one or at least has a shower). While we're in it, lets have the courage to have faith in new oceans, ones we've yet to experience. Some of us may row faster and some slower, and that's OK. It's better than holding the oar in your hands and beating yourself over the head with it.

"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."
- unknown

By the way, I was living with my best friend Brian Donovan after college. He was miserable in his marketing job, as was I in my sales job. I found the above quote and wrote it down for him. The next day he packed up and headed for Hollywood. He and his roommate struggled every day for about seven years.

Now his voice (very cool and one I use at times while teaching) is heard all over the country, and best known as the voice of JETIX on Cartoon Disney. His roommate, Molly Shannon, went on to SNL and movie fame.

Neither wallowed in the brokenness of their lives. Neither should we. As Mary Katherine Gallagher would say..........

"SUPERSTAR!"
"DARE TO DREAM"

2007-03-10

Hell's Angels



Wake up feeling good. My Sofia is with me for the next 10 days over Spring Break. Feeling lots of love and of all the good I can do in the world with this great power I feel.

Start thinking that maybe some angels come from Hell. They survive hellish tortures in their human lives, rising from it even more loving, and more determined to spread all the good they can in the world. Hell wasn't hellish enough to kill their strong spirit.*

They are reborn as impassioned warriors to fearlessly fight hate with love, sadness with joy, and doubt with belief. Even though they will be often doubted and their intentions questioned, they will continue to do it anyway.

They are stronger and "badder" than the demons that seem to infect so many and cause them to make other's lives worse. Anyone in these angel's lives will be filled with an abundance of love, happiness, confidence and possibility.........Heaven exists inside of them and around them.

"When we are young
And covered in love,

We completely believe
We are gifts from above."

- from my poem, "The Artist in You"

Angels walk among us, around us, and in us. They take the shape of a good parent, a good friend, a good lover..............and the good love of a child.

The bell dings. Sofia is letting me know she has a boo-boo. "Dal mio cuore, ai miei labbri, a ti", (From my heart, to my lips to you" - as I touch my heart, kiss my fingers and then place it on her "owee"). Her boo-boo is healed. The angels inside us give us magical healing powers.

"Daddy I want to do my 'talk dwallings' (chalk drawings)."
"Go ahead Honey, do your chalk drawings."
"But I can't open the door."
"Yes you can, just solve your own problem."
"But I don't know how."
"Well, what do you know how to do?"
"Lift the stick."
"Then lift the stick.....Good Job! Now what 's next?"
"Swide the door."
"Yes, so slide the door."

"Oh! I did it! I did it!"
"Yes you did. See how smart you are?"
"Daddy I'm five now."
"And you're a smart five!"
"Yeah, I know Daddy" - (The confidence of her angel is speaking to mine, and I feel happy.)

"Shakespeare"
"Yes....yesssss I know Daddy." - (If Shakespeare could use 24,000 different words correctly in his body of work, my children and students can learn to use a few correctly in their speech ("yes" v. "yeah").

"Gwazie Papa."
"Prego Sofia. And Grazie a ti. Ti amo."

Hell's Angels aren't all bad.....we can play hopscotch, too.

*To read a great song/poem by "The Waterboys" called "Spirit", click here. It was sent to me by my best friend, Brian Donovan, who makes the world an incredible place for children with his "Mighty Me Training Camp", acting classes for inner city youth, and doing cartoon and anime voices such as "Jetix" on Toon Disney.)