This morning I was thinking of today as a day I have to go to work and spend all day away from loved ones. How awful that made me feel. As I drove to work I was thankful that I had a good job. I was thankful that I have been put in another situation to help a handful of people be happier than they were yesterday. I hope I accomplish that today. I know my purpose in life is to connect with those that cross my path in the best way I can and encourage them. Inspire them to create for themselves happiness as I have. Instead of worrying of the time I have to spend somewhere away from where I want to be I am thankful for the opportunity for God putting me where he wants me to be.

There is so much to do. I only have a day to do it in. I always leave myself open to the possibilities. Every possibility in the world to inspire. I smile and laugh all day as much as I can. I know our lives are surrounded by reasons to be upset or unhappy. I know that tragedy seems to follow our existence and our first inclination is to complain about it. We always seem to look at the negative in the situation when we could certainly forgive, appreciate, love and hold on to the positive in everyone we come across. I know it is easier said than done. There is always a time and place for everything in life. There are seasons where we will have the opportunity to say yay or nay. Sometimes over thinking a solution is unhealthy when we make a rash decision and all we had to do was relax, back up and focus. Release all the tension and be calm.

Our minds are clouded with the worries of the world. We follow the trend and stand in line to jump off the cliff just because everyone else is suppose to do so. We are creatures of habit and do not realize that all we have to do is wait, focus and relax. Why are we followers and not leaders? Why cant we laugh and love. As a generalization WE makes up a large percentage of the masses. How many of us can honestly say we forgive, laugh, smile, hug, touch, cry, feel joy, give joy, give love. Are we caught up in our lives running around so fast pretending that we have it under control we medicate ourselves to forget. We desensitize ourself from our loved ones. We become addicted to the easy way out we do not work for what we love. We expect it in a pill. Then we seek help elsewhere for other things. When all along we had it within. We have that power we gave away and lost a long time ago. We have the capability for so much inside ourselves. we lost that key to our own soul. The soul that is God given. God like.

We are our creators child. He took a piece of him and created us. Call him what you want. God, Christ, Creator, The Big Man, Mr Energy, The Universe. there is a being. Something larger than us. Something that gives off energy and gives life. there is a spark in every being not even scientists can explain and we doubt it is there. We become what we call agnostic because we do not believe or not believe. We just exist and we think that is enough. We are thankful to ourselves. When did we lose our innocence?  We tend to blame everyone else and not take responsibility. We continue to do what we do and in our minds are waiting for that apology. The apology doesn't materialize so it justifies our transgressions. We find excuses, we make our family suffer because we think they owe us something, We have become lazy and we teach our children that laziness. We do not struggle to find peace instead we create chaos with our excuses. When does this cycle end? When do we venture on our own with our heads held high contributing to the world in a positive way. When do we break a sick cycle that seems to travel from parent to child. generation to generation.

Just Read.

Everyday I wake I am so thankful. I wake knowing I have another opportunity to create for myself an amazing life. I want to maximize my time left here on this wonderful planet that so many of us take for granted. We are such an amazing species. We have the freedom to love and be good. We have the power to create and be thankful. We have the gifts to transform our world into a beautiful place to live.

Sadly as we look at our media we do not see the latter. At least not as the main story. We see death destruction and tragedy. Where is all the positive re-enforcing subject matter? Is this sensationalizing of human tragedy now entertainment. It is like we are watching a movie and we know it is all fake. The news is more graphic than the R rated movies on the big screen. Hollywood cannot write a better script than our actual lives. We experience all the drama as it unfolds before our very eyes. We are so used to it we watch the television and view on the internet like it is a regular thing. It is a regular thing. We become more diseased with all of the negativity and it causes us to manifest a destiny for ourselves that is bleak to say the least. We pass this down to our children and they.....you know the rest.

Where do we stop this vicious chain or revolving door? We decide to feel joy. We decide for ourselves that in our hearts and minds we are happy. We pass all the negativity and look for a smile in our day. We build on that and multiply it. I find myself falling into the trap because around me it is so overwhelming the amount of people I know always complaining bitching and moaning for the shitty lives and situations. How someone owes them something and they are to blame for their unhappiness. We sit in front of the mirror figuring out ways to destroy our lives. We lose confidence in that joy we were born with. As children we always found a way to keep that joy intact. We always played. We always laughed and were silly. We would always come up to our parents after they came home from a hard days work wanting that love and affection and our loving parents that we adored so much would send us away because they are too tired for love. WHAT? Is that ridiculous? Too busy to love? But we do it as well. We do not break that cycle. I tried my hardest to be a good father. A good person. I am sure I can say I failed in some respects based on the the standard I set for myself. But I am blessed to have raised strong children. Strong in character. Even when they saw me at my weakest they reminded me of how strong I am and that I taught them well.

Lessons from our children as they become adults. I am not too proud to tell you I am learning from my children who school me everyday on how to be a great human being. I see them grow and progress. I see them figure out life. I am still learning. I am still happy. I feel joy. I have so much love to give. I have TODAY. When I wake up tomorrow. I will be so grateful for the gift of a new day. I will be thankful that my life has been given a new day for a new start. A new and wonderful opportunity to be fruitful in my quest to feel that wonderful joy. Gods Joy.

Negatively Influenced

I can tell you that creating a positive life takes positive thoughts and hopes and dreams. In order to have a joyous life you have to feel joy. Etc....... It is easier said than done. Creating and magnificent life takes work. It takes the breaking of bad habits of negative thoughts. Daily negative routines. Constant barrage of bad sadness in our minds. Being around those negative people in our lives. Most of these people are in our own households. Some are around us like flies. We cannot seem to run from them. I know that most of you have issues with that when you read my advice. I know I have these issues. I have family and special people in my life that are always so negative and full of drama. All I can manage to do is hope that my positive example helps them realize. Every once in a while I lose my mind and speak my mind. Speak how I hate this and that what they are doing. I get so wrapped up in the drama I become just like them. I worry about all the crap that is going on. Instead of being a positive influence on them I add to their misery. Misery loves company. I have to check myself daily. I have to avoid these circumstances if I am not ready to be in front of it. I have to be ready mentally and emotionally for it. I can be weak and get caught up right in it. We have to train ourselves to stay on our course. We have to maintain that joy. In order to continually create a wonderful happy and joyous life we have to stay POSITIVE.

I watched myself dismantle. I fell apart at the seams. I encouraged the negativity. I added to the despair. Why? Because to begin with I went against my first instinct to stay away from the negativity. We have to listen to that inner voice. I know there are some moments where we have to take a stand. Or we think we have to say our peace. Just make sure when the peace is delivered it is peaceful. And when the term saying your piece doesn’t involve yelling or screaming that peaceful word to another. Saying your peace is just that. Expressing your love and concern over a certain matter and then finding a solution if need be.

So can we co-exist with family and friends who are negative 24/7? Yes I believe we can. We have to be very strong and full of love and light. We have to be that beacon of light and hope that they can rely on. If we are who we aspire to be in our joy then they can be as they are and feel very comfortable knowing that you are a pillar of strength. They can eventually stand beside you and celebrate their change and through your inspiration for them to create a better life. Things will change. 

Today Is NOT Yesterday

As I sit here contemplating what to write as to be so smart and witty I wonder why sometimes I do this. I try and look through the other side of my words to the person that reads my writings. Why are they reading my thoughts? Are they getting any kind of comfort or re-assurance of something? Is for entertainment? I wonder why you are here.

Then I ask myself many more questions as I continue to write and suddenly realize....I am not writing for you or them. I am writing for me. I am writing because I need to. I need to let this shit out. I need to make sure that I am an open book. I need to be thankful for all that I have in my life from the smallest bit of joy. I need to let others know that the most important piece of pour lives we need to be thankful for is our joy. Our happiness. All the material things in the world cannot measure up to the joy few of us have in our lifetime. Pure joy. To me pure joy is being completely being happy where you are at in life.

 I look at the news and see that 80 some children were murdered from an unhappy person at their summer camp. What drives a person to such depths? Before and after that report there were other murders and missing mother’s daughter’s babies killed husbands shot in war families and towns being wiped out in the name of their God. And so on and so on. I turn on the TV and listen to 5 minutes. That is all it takes for me to go crazy with ugly thoughts. So I change the channel. Same thing on the next one. I turn off the TV. I stop myself from asking the same question. What is the world coming to? I do not want to waste time worrying about the impending catastrophe. 2012. If I waste my time worrying over 2012 and tonight was my last night to live because I was not aware that there was a banana peel waiting for me at the top of the staircase. I want to enjoy my life for the time I am so privilege to have. I want to enjoy this moment loving my family. I want to dream big. I want to love. I want to create artwork that makes me happy. I want to bring together colors that give life. Shapes that inspire thoughts of joy. I want to trigger that smile in someone where there was sadness. I want to inspire because paying back for the love that was bestowed my way by a community of artist had the love to share with me. To accept me as a brother. To call me an artist like them. To show me the gift that I suppressed most of my adult life. To help me realize that we are all artists at our core with the power to CREATE our lives as we want.

 I give back by writing to you the person reading this. I want to tell you how easy it is to be happy. How easy it is to make a choice. Make the conscious choice to turn off all the negative in your life and quit making excuses. We all know we have tragedy in our lives. We all know to expect death. Disease. Horrific situations we have to endure at some point. This is to be expected. Trauma is something that will ultimately be a part of our life. This we cannot control. We cannot control the actions of others. We can control our internal actions. We can control the decision we make to hate love cry mourn anger....we can control our emotion. Humans are resilient. We are strong. We have the capacity to calm in the face of adversity. We have the strength to feel joy again after our time of mourning for a loved one. We have the power to avoid falling apart when a tragedy occurs. We have the might in our character to bounce back and be positive and SEE ourselves stronger. Challenge yourself daily to find love in your daily journey. Challenge yourself to reach out to someone every day and encourage, inspire and love. Keep life simple.

Go to a children’s hospital and visit the terminal children dying from cancer and see how they are filled with joy and love. How can they feel that way with such physical odds? How can they love? Ask them. Tune out the negative and enjoy today. TODAY. Today is special because we have a chance to right yesterday’s wrong. Today we have a chance to feel joy. It is a new day.