Focusing on What You CAN do

"When all is said and done, more is said than done." - Lou Holtz

My older sister shared some great advice with me as we grew up. One time she said some people think about what they're going to do, some plan out what they're going to do, some talk about what they're going to do, and some people actually do what they're going to do.

I took her advice yesterday, and only focused on what I could do about the events in my life, and did them.





Like helping my crazy daughter prepare for her math test....













.....While still cuddling.


Reading from the the wonderfully rebellious and brilliant mind of Shel Silverstein, hoping to inspire the rebelliousness and brilliance inside of each student ~ awakening the spirit that will allow them to create Bigger and Better beliefs.





Taking time to steal a bite of pizza from my son's lunch



Then teaching in the voice of Scottish late night talk show host Craig Ferguson, making some kids fall out of their chairs - which is kool - but James couldn't stop laughing at all, until mortally threatened by fellow students - student losing life in my class - NOT COOL! (and reason why I'm holding my head in picture above)


Appreciating Amanda's parents gift of appreciation.

And although failure IS NOT an option, failing to learn to laugh and let go also IS NOT an option (thank you to all reminding me of this ~ I tend to go to the edge of my limits a little too hard and a little too often ~ and your comments and actions have been.....enlightening).

I just feel that when things are "too bad", they are too bad to allow to be. Someone spoke to me about doing a movie "about me". No - what I do is NOT about me. And what have I really done? When there are no more Aisa's on the street and Patrice's in the hospital come see me. Just give it 20 or so years to see if I've really made a difference in anyone's life.

And out of respect for our differences versus our similarities, my older sister and I are as different as night and day - she's extremely conservative, does thing by the book, and follows all the rules of God and man (great line from "Legends of the Fall")

As a school psychologist, she believes change happens slowly over time. I believe it happens the instant you make the real decision to change. I love teasing her with this joke:

How many psychologists does it take to screw in a light bulb? One - but it takes a long time, it's very expensive, and the light bulb has to want to change.

I agree with the light bulb/person having to want to change, but preach "change your life in 24 hours" to my students, teaching them how at 9-11 years of age to begin the day focusing on an area of their lives they could improve in, and having improved in it by the time they begin the next day.

If you've seen the movie, "Legends of the Fall", she's Alfred and I'm Tristan. However, we appreciate each other's differences fully, and when people see us together they think we're married (I carry her things, her arm is locked in mine, etc).

We don't all have to think the same. We don't all have to be the same. But we all have to live in the same world. Even in our differences a love and appreciation can exist between us that transcends philosophical, religious, race, political.....whatever other "differences" you can think of that separate instead of unite.

It's time to unite us. Unite the clans! (William Wallace, speaking to my ancestor, Robert the Bruce, part of the Stuart family that ruled Scotland and eventually England, as spoken in the movie Braveheart).

Maybe reincarnation is real (I have no idea - only that I am here NOW as some guy named Adam). If reincarnation does happen, then I am definitely not here to be in another movie or have 1 or 1 million people say what a grand fellow I am (well, I'll take one, the Just ONE :-)

I know I am here to be real this time, not seem real. One of my ancestors even wrote a bible - the King James Bible - do I or anyone I'm related to impress you as someone who could write a bible? I have tattoos, drive a motorcycle, have challenged God and don't get along with his son (the most lucid dream I have ever had).........I think the Stuarts are still trying to learn from the Wallaces.

Our names do not matter. Whether this is our one and only life or our 100th, does not matter. We are here NOW. We are not among the 160,000 that WERE NOT given this day. It's time to live, and it's time to learn. Sit quietly, listen to your inner guides, and FEEL what it is you have to change, and change your life in 24 hours. (see the three "video clips from the "Defending Your Life" movie on my MySpace front page - on left all way down to the bottom)

"There the rainstorm,
came over me
And I felt my spirit break

I had lost
all of my
belief you see

and realized
my mistake

but TIME
threw a prayer
to me

and all around me
became still

i need love
LOVE'S DIVINE
please forgive me
now i see that i've been blind

give me love
love is what i need
to help me know my name

through the rainstorm
came sanctuary

and i felt my spirit
fly

i have found
all of my
reality

i realize what
it takes

cause i need love
love's divine

please forgive me
now i see
that i've been blind

give me love
love is what i need
to help me know my name

don't bend
don't break
show me how to live
and promise me
you won't forsake

cause love
can help
to know my name

well i've tried to say
there's nothing wrong

but inside
i've felt me
lying all along

but the message here
was plain to see

BELIEVE ME

cause i need love
LOVE'S DIVINE

please forgive me
now that i see
that i've been blind

give me love
love is what i need
to help me know
my name

don't bend
don't break
show me how to live
and promise me
you won't forsake

cause love
can help me know
my name

SEAL ~ Love's Divine


*****Whatever your gift is, please believe in it and yourself enough to develop it - and give it to the rest of us, who need it to believe in ourselves, to be inspired by and learn from, and live this life, this TODAY ~ FULLY!

Half My Life Ago

(This is from a post I did for UCF)

Last night I realized that half-my-life ago I was an undergrad in college. I am now twice-my-then age attending overgrad school. This pseudo-epiphany hit me as I was working out in the rec center after class. I rarely feel old, even with the big 4-0 smiling at me in waiting repose from the month of May.

But being in the gym with everyone else half my age, I tend to feel old. Last night was different; I felt good, energized, and comfortable in my surroundings. And I shouldn't have felt that way at all. I arrived late for class from a tutoring job after work and just as I was far enough away from my car to go back and get the umbrella, yet still too far from the building trying to rescue me, the rain gods dumped a huge bucket of water over my head in a practical joke.

To make matters worse, I had to assure my professor I had completed my tutoring tour of duty on Thursdays and would no longer be late to her class, while the a/c began to claim my skull in an icy death grip.

To make matters worser, I was so out of it driving the short distance from the parking garage to the gym, I didn't realize I was doing it spy-style, without my headlights on. The campus police are good, and of good character. The officer graciously informed me that without my secret agent badge and decoder ring, I would have to drive with my lights on from now on.

To make matters even more worser, they got just plain worsest; I forgot to bring my ID to the gym. (Yes these are actual words, in a dictionary I just made up....If my ancestor King James (Stuart) can have his own Bible (The King James Bible), I can have my own dictionary. These are the rules that I also just made up ;-)

I think it was after producing verification that I was myself (thanks Lauren, you're kool) the universe decided I had earned the golden "Lord of the Rings" ring, and when I put it on I was sent back 20 years to a time when "these were the best years of my life".

As I worked out I realized, that just like in the Underworld (college), I had made friends and even a best-friend-for-life out of my classmates here in the Overland (grad school). And just as my professors saw potential in me when I was but a wee-wizard lad, my professors today see greatness in me as a budding super special sorcerer.

Before taking off the ring and giving it back to some guy named Gollum, I had one last vision of a time half my life ago. I remember lying down watching an ant crawl up a blade of grass, and then back down. Then it crawled up another, then another and another. I continued watching the ant do this until the sun was directly above my head....and then I had an epiphany.......I've got to stop drinking before noon.