Paradox, Humor & Change

I made this music player at MyFlashFetish.com.


Paradox, Humor and Change...

Life's three simple rules,

that keep you from simply going insane


Giving everything you have,

leaves you so exhausted and deflated.


Ripping marijuana plants out of children's homes,

gets you attacked and very hated.


Life is a mystery,

don't waste time trying to figure it out.


A warrior's life is about right action,

and not about appreciation.


Life is change,

know nothing stays the same.


And when the world is an ugly place,

Don't let it come inside and make you crazed.


Instead have a sense of humor,

especially about yourself and your foolish pride.


Then change the world by closing your eyes,

and playing the music you hear on the inside.


Play it so loudly,

until it drowns out the noise on the outside.


And one day,

depending on how long and loud you can play,

you will open your eyes,

to a more beautiful and brand new day.

- Adam Stuart (December 2007)


*Katie and I celebrating her new day, going from an "F" to an "A" on a science test a few weeks back.

It took all my morning, all my patience, all of my love and ability....she was crying in the beginning....but I have to think that giving all of yourself to others can mean something more than just being taken for granted and used, which is what I've experienced so much of in my past.

It can mean creating a better day. And with enough better days.....better lives. And with enough better lives.....a better world.

And that day is the today when we close our eyes and begin to play the beautiful music we hear inside....





DON'T BE AFRAID TO LIVE

YOU'VE GOT THE MUSIC IN YOU!













DON'T GIVE UP

THIS WORLD IS GOING TO PULL THROUGH!








When the night is falling, and you cannot find the light. When you feel your dreams are dying....Hold tight

**My children keep me going. I trust their love. And no, it's not my little gymnasts' home or any of my current students I've gone into to remove drugs. But life has picked me up, shaken me, and thrown me against the wall more than once these past few weeks. To tell you the truth, I want to give up, even in spite of the victories (including the class having the highest science growth again and going from the lowest scoring regular class to the highest).

It's just taken a lot more giving than getting......You can't keep driving the car without gas or oil, or the engine will blow. Giving unconditionally, to honestly give versus get, is the right thing to do, but it means being vulnerable to a world that can be very taking...

This whole world, can fall apart. It'll be OK, follow your heart. You're in harm's way, I'm right behind. Just say you're mine....

.....It's OK though, because I have the dreamer's disease.....and I can't stop dreaming of this world pulling through. Go back and look at the children's faces as you listen to the lyrics of the song, "You Get What You Give". Tell me it's not true, that if we stop dreaming, we start dying....



DON'T GIVE UP

YOU'VE GOT A REASON TO LIVE

ONE DANCE LEFT

WE ONLY GET WHAT WE GIVE

Kung Fu Fighting

I knew it was OK to be both a lover and a fighter........
(Brosden wearing my pirate hat when he came over to show me his presentation on Tiger Woods.)

ComPASSION

A Western Buddhist woman was in India, studying with her teacher. She was riding with another woman friend in a rickshaw carriage, when they were attacked by a man on the street.

In the end, the attacker only succeeded in frightening the women, but the Buddhist woman was quite upset by the event and told her teacher so. She asked him what she should have done – what the appropriate Buddhist response would have been.

The teacher said simply, “You should have very mindfully and with great compassion, whacked the attacker over the head with your umbrella.”

Be More Stubborner

"We always watch your shows", cried out an angry young child.

"Is that true?" asked her father.

"Yes!" replied the poor, miserable waif.

"Oh, my poor little Oliver Twist. At least half the shows we watch are yours, and we watch them together, don't we?"

"Why just today my moppet, we watched Curious Gary, oops, George."

"We watched The Blueberry Stained Bears. Oh, I'm sorry, the Berenstain Bears, like that makes more sense. What's a 'berenstain'?"

"I don't know Daddy. I'm only five." (still said angrily)

"Well, we shouldn't be watching any bear shows where we don't know what they are. No more funny bear shows in Dad's house!"

"Ouwr house. It's ouwr house!"

"Do you pay any of the bills? Why when I was your age I had a job, wife and three kids. That's why we need to watch Oliver. You need to learn how to 'pick a pocket or two'; start earning your keep around here."

"No you didn't. I'm going to call Gwandpa and Buscha (our Polish word for grandma) and ask them."

"Go ahead! Why they'll tell you that when I was five years old.......I was six!"

"Nooooooo. You'wre lying."

'What! What! Me! Lying! Nevah! Why I haven't told a lie since I was but a wee lad of five."

"In fact, let's just see exact-a-lee who the liar be....

"Here ye! Here ye! The court will now come to order. Presenting the honorable Judge Father O' Fatherhan! The evidence shows that in addition to the aforementioned shows, your wonderful, terrific, stupendous, floopendous, rooendous father watched America's Funniest Home Videos as well.

But if you say all you watch are his shows such as Oliver, David Copperfield, etc., then it is in the estimation of this court that this statement of yours shall become true.

In an effort to prevent such a pure wonderful child from being a liar, from this moment forward, no more of Sofia's shows shall be seen in This House of Stuart.

"No, Daddy. It's OK. We do watch my shows. But I still don't want to watch Olivwer again."

"That's Judge Father O' Fatherhan to you child!"

"No you'wre not. You'wre my Daddy."

"That's right. And as your daddy, I'll make sure you watch good shows, because I care about what goes into that wonderful head of yours. You may have gotten your stubbornness from me, but I owe it to you to be more stubborner, even if it means you don't like me for it."

"Well, I don't like that you'wre making me watch Olivwer."

"That's OK. You don't have to always like me."

"But I still love you, Daddy."

"You do? Why?"

"Because you'wre my Daddy. That's why."


We did sit down to watch Oliver together, and no, she didn't watch it right away. Instead, in her stubbornness, she read Dr. Seuss to her "daughter" (her web-kinz unicorn).

But she did "sing" the words to the melody of the songs in the movie as she read (We watched the 1968 musical version).

(A few days ago she and her brother and sister and I watched the 1948 version. When they asked why I liked shows in black & white I tried to convince them IT WAS in color and that they weren't eating enough carrots. They didn't buy it, or eat more carrots the next day. It also might have been because I didn't have any carrots :-(

So I allowed her to be stubborn, just not disrespectful, and in time she put hers "kids" to bed, telling them "mommy" wanted to watch the movie with "gwandpa".

During all of this, I didn't take or make any phone calls, or answer any text messages or emails. My entire focus was on her.

Sometimes I wonder what I'm missing "out there". By the time I put my children to bed, and if I haven't fallen asleep with them, it's usually too late to get back to anyone. And when I don't have them I'm up late getting the research and writing done I should have when I was with them.

But tonight as I watched Sofia fall asleep while I rubbed her belly, I realized whatever I'm missing "out there" can't compare to what I'm NOT missing "in here", what my children are not missing inside of them.

And inside the walls of my small two-story home, there are enough lessons, laughs and loving moments to last a lifetime.

I'm sure it will last even longer than that each time my children tell their children stories about how grandpa taught them and loved them when they were young.




And right now, that's most important to me.


One day these days of ours will end,
and with that thought this thought is penned.


When we are young and covered in love,
we completely believe we are gifts from above.


So on this day we have today,
we have to laugh and have to play.


We know this today is a precious gift,
it won't come again so we unwrap it swift.


I cover you in the love a good father should,
covering you in the preciousness of your childhood.

In the morning I wrap you in a gentle bear hug,
and at night we lay together in a night-time snug.


And on the day these days of ours ends,

there'll be no troubles, no worries, our love can't transcend.


- Adam Stuart
(written for Sofia, whose father has had 15 wonderful straight days of her presence in his home, and treasuring each one very much)

Now Who Does This Remind Me Of????

When I first saw this picture I started laughing.

Soon, I started getting an uneasy feeling in my stomach; a nagging thought that I know a kid who would actually do this ......

But why would my stomach hurt???

Oh No! It's because this kid reminds me of my own crazy, thrill-seeking son. As his father it worries me that he would want to try something like this.

Then it gets worse. This picture reminds me of myself! Now I understand why he tries these things.

When I drove my own parents crazy with worry, they said they were going to pray that I had a kid just like me.....

It looks like their prayers were answered. They must have been laughing hysterically for almost a decade now.

I quickly look around for my son to see where he is. Whew! He's sitting on the couch and watching, believe it or not, "What the Ancients Knew - The Greeks".

I lean over to kiss him and see he's taking notes on Pythagoras' theorem with a drawing he made labeled, "Zeus' Mount Olympus Death Ramp"....

.....the uneasy feeling has quickly come back.

I don't think we should educate crazy people. They become much too dangerous. Sure they may change the world by showing us the impossible is possible, but they may kill themselves doing it.

What channel has the mind-numbing cartoons?

Brosden Laughs

My son has many great gifts. He's smart and good-natured and athletically gifted. But his absolutely greatest gift is his ability to laugh. He sees the humor in things and drops to the ground rolling in laughter, infecting everyone around him.

Here are three pictures just from today, all at different times (awww, he just came up to see what I was doing and gave me a hug). I told him I was writing about what a terrible pizza-burning son he was (which is still in the sink if anyone's hungry).

Here he's practicing his baseball swing by hitting stones from the driveway. I pointed that he's hitting them in the direction of the road and asked what he'd do if he hit a passing car. He said "Run for it?"

Maybe I need a few more pages in that parenting book idea of mine :-)

Actually he grinned as he said it and then changed the direction he was hitting in. I pointed out that he was now hitting in the direction of the house next door.

Quick Laugh - Compromise in Marriage

Just saw a commercial for a new TV show that went something like this:

My wife wanted to get a cat.
I didn't want to get a cat.
So we compromised.
We got a cat.

Made me laugh and thought it might make you too, unless of course you're married and this seems to happen quite a lot to you. Then I guess it's not really that funny, and I apologize for putting it up in the first place. I feel for you brother......but it's still funny.