The New Dawn is Life's Eraser

I'm not the best artist in the world...






But I do like to draw.






It's fun and pleasurable and allows me to express my feelings.






This drawing is from a scene in "Meet Joe Black" that moves me every time I see it (click "Saying I Like You So Much" and look at the first picture).







I know I'm not the best artist now that I can be in the future with practice.




The only problem is that I make lots of mistakes now.







Some of which make what I'm trying to draw look terrible.






That's why I make sure I have an eraser...and always have it near me...




........making my children laugh because I have to put it in my bandanna so I won't lose it.








So I make a lot of changes.....sometimes having to close my eyes and remind myself of Thomas Edison's 10,000 mistakes in trying to invent the light bulb.







The point is to not give up.







And the same is true in life.


Every dawn of every new day is life's way of giving us an eraser.





Even when some of our mistakes look so bad they us the "Hee-bed-a-geebies" (as King Julian from Madagascar would say).




We always have the choice when we wake up to see the mistakes of the yesterdays before,



and choose to not make the same mistakes in our new todays.










We do this picture-by-picture.....







... day-by-day.....








...dream-by-dream.....



.....erasing the mistakes of the past......

.....making small improvements every day....





...believing in ourselves...









...until we create the masterpiece in our lives we dream of...








(As much fun as my children have taking pictures of me and I have hamming for them, I can see them all growing up to be either professional photographers or professional paparazzi; sorry future celebrities :-)

Happy Valentine's Day to YOU

To you, my friends, who power the world and create goodness in it with this most mighty and majestic of all emotions, LOVE. We all have it. Some of us have so much of it we are like the great Zeus standing atop Mount Olympus, passing bolts of love and appreciation around the world. We can do this because we have great love for ourselves inside of ourselves, and feel great.....And the world is much, much better for it.

Others are at the bottom of the mountain, complaining about the lack of love in their lives and feeling lonely, especially on this day. Involved in codependant relationships, playing the ineffectual roles of the rescuer, the dominator, and the victim. I've been there, in this dark and lonely place.....and it is terrible. For three years after my separation and divorce I lived as a hermit in a cave at the bottom of the mountain, waiting for someone to come in and love me, just like so many of us do.




It wasn't until recently that I realized as long as I continued to wait for someone else to love me I would never have long-lasting love in my life. As you'll read below, love never comes from outside of yourself. And no matter how much or how many another(s) love you, you will never see it because you do not love yourself. That is why this MUST be a Happy Valentine's Day to YOU. What follows below has changed my life and I feel compelled to share it with you.

It doesn't matter how much love you give out either. Giving out love can make you a great lover, and it still won't matter in the end. It's more than just being with the wrong person. I've placed woman on top of the mountain while worshiping her from below, working hard to meet her every need, and ending up with a heart attack at age 35, all in the name of love. But this was just giving away my power to another who couldn't appreciate it. Love can kill, and if it doesn't kill you physically it certainly can do it emotionally, making us unavailable, unwilling, and/or unable to trust in love again. (see Patty Boy Blemur)


I've survived motorcycle wrecks, being stalked by a mountain lion, attempted muggings, stopping child abuse by confronting abusive parents, tackling a man pulling a gun on me, etc........but the thing that has come closest to actually killing me both physically and emotionally has been love... or woman.....or loving a woman.

Actually it's been loving someone more than I loved myself, putting all my love into trying to make another happy, which literally nearly drained the life out of me by attacking my heart. After four days of tests and being confined to a hospital bed the doctors were amazed I had no permanent damage, telling me I was "very lucky and had been given a wake-up call" (working three jobs, going to school at night, sleeping two nights a week, etc).

So love, no matter how great, DOES NOT conquer all, because you can't make another happy, only they can do that for themselves. But love for yourself does conquer yourself, and what you'll read below was the missing key to gaining control over my own thoughts, my own happiness and my own self-love. There, I've figured it out. It's sorted. It's the lack of love that can kill you, lack of love for yourself.


I really wish someone would have shown this to me years ago. If the lessons I've learned so far in my short but adventurous life are meant to be passed on, then pass on I will. For those of you who need this, I pass it on with love. For those of you who don't, please pass it on to those you know that do. Love IS amazing, mighty and majestic. Let's all make this wonderful world a more loving place by loving ourselves more, THEN passing it on outside of ourselves.

I am a human being being human, in the process of becoming what I am truly meant to become, as we all are. I want to live fully while I am still alive (see Live Out Loud, Completely!) and make others' lives better as our paths cross, beginning with each and every one of the children who call me "Dad".

Thanks TJ for passing this on to me. I now pass it on to all of you.


RELATIONSHIPS AND ROMANCE - by Louise Hay

Hunting for love doesn’t always bring the right partner because the reasons for wanting love are unclear.


We think “Oh, if I only had someone to love me my life would be so much better.”

Change this to “Oh if I only had myself loving myself my life would be so much better.”

There’s a big difference between the need for love and being needy for love.

When you are being needy for love it simply means you are missing love and approval from the most important person you know, yourself.

You may become involved in codependent relationships that are ineffectual for both partners.

You can never create love in your life by talking about or thinking about being lonely.

Feeling lonely and needy just pushes people away.

You cannot heal a relationship in your life by talking about or thinking about how awful it is now.


This only puts the attention on the problem and not the solution.

You want to turn your thoughts away from the problem and create new thoughts that will produce a solution.

Arguing for your limitations is just resistance and resistance is only a delay tactic.

It’s another way of saying “I’m not good enough to have what I’m asking for.

THE FIRST RELATIONSHIP TO IMPROVE IS THE ONE I HAVE WITH YOURSELF.

When you are happy with yourself then all your other relationships improve too.

A HAPPY PERSON IS VERY ATTRACTIVE TO OTHERS.

If you're feeling a lack of love, THEN YOU NEED TO LOVE YOURSELF MORE.

No criticizing, no complaining, no blaming, no whining AND NO FEELING LONELY

***** It’s your choice to feel lonely.

It means being very content with yourself in the present moment, and choosing to think thoughts that make me you feel good now.

There is no one way to experience love, for we all experience love in different ways.

For some of us to really experience love we need to feel love, being hugged and touched.

For others we need to hear the words “I love you”.

For others we need to see a demonstration of love, like a gift of flowers.

Our preferred way of feeling love is often our most comfortable way of demonstrating love.

WORK ON LOVING YOURSELF NON-STOP.

Demonstrate to yourself the wonderful ways you are now loving myself. Treat yourself to romance and love. Take yourselfself out to dinner and a movie, bubble bath and massage.

Show yourself how special you are.

Pamper yourself. Surround myself with plants, colors, textures, scents, etc.
Candles, music, drawings......

As you grow in an inner sense of love and romance, the right person to share your growing sense of intimacy will be attracted to you like a magnet.

If you want to go from loneliness thinking to fulfillment thinking then you need to think in terms of creating a loving mental atmosphere within you and around you.

Let all your negative thoughts about love and romance just fade away and fill your thoughts with love. ************************

Think of sharing love and approval and acceptance with everyone you meet.

When you are able to contribute to the fulfillment of your own needs, then you WILL NO LONGER BE CODEPENDENT ON ANOTHER.

It has to do with how much you love yourself.

When you truly love who you are, you stay centered, calm and secure, and your relationships at home and work are wonderful.

You will find yourself reacting to various people and situations differently.

Matters that were once desperately important won’t be that important anymore.

New people will enter your life, and perhaps some old one will disappear.

This can be scary at first, but also WONDERFUL, REFRESHING and EXCITING! (SEE "Saying I Like You So Much" for a father's advice to his daughter on finding real love and really living)

Once you have this clear in your mind and you know what you want in a relationship, you will then be ready for a healthy, intimate relationship.

To do this though you must go out and be with people. No one is going to appear at your doorstep. Go to support groups, night classes, etc.

>This enables you to connect with people who are like minded or involved in similar interests.

It is amazing how quickly you can make new friends.

Be open and receptive, and the universe will respond to you for my highest good.

Think happy thoughts and you will be a happy person, and everyone will want to be with you. All your current relationships will improve. *****



POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS FOR LOVE (say these in first person)

I WILL ALLOW THESE AFFIRMATIONS TO FILL MY CONSCIOUSNESS, KNOWING THEY WILL BECOME TRUE FOR ME, AND I WILL PRACTICE THEM OFTEN AND WITH JOY.

FROM TIME TO TIME I ASK THOSE I LOVE, “HOW CAN I LOVE YOU MORE?”

I CHOOSE TO SEE CLEARLY WITH EYES OF LOVE.


I LOVE WHAT I SEE.

I DRAW LOVE AND ROMANCE INTO MY LIFE AND I ACCEPT IT NOW.

LOVE IS AROUND EVERY CORNER, AND JOY FILLS MY ENTIRE WORLD.

I REJOICE IN THE LOVE I ENCOUNTER EVERY DAY.

I AM COMFORTABLE LOOKING IN THE MIRROR AND SAYING, “I LOVE YOU. I REALLY LOVE YOU.”

I NOW DESERVE LOVE, ROMANCE AND JOY, AND ALL THE GOOD THAT LIFE HAS TO OFFER ME (and wants to offer me).

I AM SURROUNDED BY LOVE. ALL IS WELL.

I AM IN A JOYOUS, INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP WITH A HEALTHY PERSON WHO TRULY LOVES ME.

I AM ATTRACTIVE AND EVERYBODY LOVES ME.

I AM GREETED BY LOVE WHEREVER I GO.

***** I ATTRACT ONLY HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

I AM ALWAYS TREATED WELL.

*** I AM VERY THANKFUL FOR ALL THE LOVE IN MY LIFE.

I FIND IT EVERYWHERE.

Saying "I Like You So Much"

I really have come to believe that life is not just a series of random events. Things do happen for a reason. The thoughts that I'm writing right now came to me for a reason and you're reading them right now for a reason: to receive a message, for insight, a chance to laugh, or to plant a seed for future growth or perhaps send it to someone you think could use it. We all attract thoughts, things, people and circumstances into our lives with the thoughts we think, over and over and over. "What gets your attention eventually gets you." - Joel Olsteen

For proof of this look at 1993's historically accurate and research-proven "Groundhog Day"

("No it's not true." - Eddie Izzard
"Yes it is true." - Eddie Izzard)

I think this movie does express a universal truth. If we mainly think about how we can take from others and take from life then others and life will take from us; our happiness, dreams, real love, etc. And we end up repeating the same day again and again, day after day.

However, if we dominate our thinking with new thoughts about achieving our dreams ("Our longing is our calling" - Louise Hay) and on what we can give to others and to life then others and life will give to us. The first question I ask my students at the beginning of each school year is "What will you do that will last forever? What will you give to the world that will be so wonderful, that it will make the world so much better, that it will be remembered long after your death?" (see "The Importance of Genius")

I hadn't thought about the movie "Meet Joe Black" (1999) in a long time until the other day. I kept hearing the words of one of the beginning scenes in my head again and again, and it wouldn't leave me alone. This happened to Bill (Anthony Hopkins) as "Death" rented space in his head before taking over Brad Pitt's body (easy ladies, he's still "Death").

The day after having someone move into my head and start talking to me I saw Harold Loyd's "The Kid Brother"(1927) and heard those same thoughts again. The next day it was during Gary Cooper's "The Cowboy and The Lady" (1938) that I kept hearing lines from "Meet Joe Black" being said in my head. Last night, as if by some great coincidence, on a channel I never watch or turn to when I'm looking for something to help me sleep, "Meet Joe Black" was on. Scary!

Realizing death is at his doorstep, Bill has thoughts he feels compelled to share with his daughter before it's too late. She's in a relationship that her father feels she's settling for. This father has found success in all areas, including still being wonderfully in love with his wife Joan who has passed away, just as my grandmother still writes "Bette loves Jim" on the crossword puzzles she does every day.

Maybe this is a message for me. Maybe it's a message for you. Maybe this is a message for someone you know. Or maybe this is my way of sharing wisdom with my own daughters when they're older in case I'm not given the opportunity to do it in person. Our thoughts can last forever in the written word, even if we can't.

This is the father-daughter conversation between Bill and his daughter Susan:

Do you love Drew?...It's not what you say about him it's what you don't say....There's not an ounce of excitement, not a whisper of a thrill. This relationship has all the passion of a pair of titmice. I want you to get swept away. I want you to levitate. I want you to sing with rapture and dance like a dervish...Be deliriously happy or at least leave yourself open to be.

I know it's a cornball thing. But love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say fall head over heels and find someone you can love like crazy who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head and listen to your heart.

I'm not hearing any heart. Because the truth is honey there's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. But you have to try, because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.

Stay open. Who knows? Lightening could strike.

Later that morning Susan meets Joe in a coffee shop for the first time. She resists what she's feeling for him until he says "I don't know. Lightening could strike." She confesses that what he said was so right it was scary. He tells her he was thinking that he doesn't want her to be his doctor because "I like you so much". She says she doesn't want him to be her patient because "I like you so much".



And that's how it starts.





And how lightening strikes.




May we all find another we like so much that lightening strikes........