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"

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.)