As artists we create a life of art. A life of creativity and wonderous imagination. As humans we are artists at our core. We create a life that is wonderous. We create happiness and joy. We create a masterpiece. We also create hatred, sadness and unhappiness. We can also create the opposite based on the decisions we make. We then complain and worry about the reprocussions of our choices in life and then we spend most of our time with regret. Then we base our whole life on insecurities. We are not good enough to have a meaningful life. We are creators of a body of work called our life. We can actually create the life we want. Any situation we feel we are passionate about. We can actually live our deepest desires. I am not talking about material posessions but more meaningful ideas. I am imparting to you the wisdom that was given to me over a lifetime of people in my life who can see beyond our existence. Only now I have realized that dream they had for me and their loved ones. I only now realize that the description of what these wise people were teaching me was something very powerful. Only a small portion of the history of humanity was and is aware of this special power all humans have since birth. It is something we all practive daily. It is something we all know and use. We all have the knowledge of this power in our being. We all can create for ourselves and masterpiece of life. And yet we distract ourselves with our daily routine. Our daily bitching and moaning of how our lives are shit. We complain of how others have it better. How come they have what I want? What makes them special? We are all special. Some of us get it and some of us dont. some of us have it and do not appreciate and some of us had it and did nto appreciate it and now it is gone. Some of use always envy others and put ourselves down like i said before. WE have to own the idea and feeling that we are all powerful and able to create a life we passionately desire. Be happy and appreciate what you have for whatever capacity you have. Be happy for the ability to choose to be happy. no body is twisting your arm to be sad unhappy or bored with life. no body is holding a gun to your head to be unhappy. and if someone is holding a gun to your head to be unhappy they still do not have control you choose to be happy and filled with joy even in the darkest of hours. even in the final moments i would rather coose to feel joy before my physical existence expires and that way i won the battle in the mind to the end so to speak. I can carry this joy to my next life of ............

I am bored and sick of unhappiness. it is so played out. Crying over bullshit. Being sad over everyday stuff. I go over and over what makes me unhappy. complain to others and make them sick of hearing about it. boo hooing to them. eventually they get tired of it and it wears them down and then you have just created a life of distraction for them they cannot focus on their happiness and joy because you have filled their head up with your bullshit. so it is an ongoing cycle. families are the worst for doing this. We create a world that is false. we act like our problems are worse then the next person. our degree of pain and how we internalize it is not the same as the next person. Yet we try to convince our loved ones that our life is so bad. And that we had it so rough. in reality we had the opportunity to experience life the way we did and we should have used those experiences to strengthen our character and move forward stronger and more powerful because we overcame that adversity.  what is so wrong with choosing to be creating a fulfilling life for ourselves. What is wrong with wanting to be filled with joy all day long. What is wrong with wanting to love. Love all day long. Love who you say is the enemy. have compassion for that person that always is sad. give more love to your children parents that cousin that lives alone or that friend that calls you and you never call back. what is wrong with reaching out and letting your love be contagious? does it take too much effort on your part? are you in your comfort zone in life. do you like waking showering shitting go to work come home eat sleep and then the same all over again? is it comfortable to you to just be less than average? Step out of your comfort zone and reach out to who is really you. we are all from love. it took a real understanding creator and a loving creator to create such beautiful masterpieces of humanity. we are pure love at our core and yet we destroy that with all of our fear, craziness and hatered. hatred towards what? fear?

Keep That Smile No Matter What

It is not easy smiling in the face of adversity. We can surely create our lives to give us joy by being ultra happy all the time. Reality is that the world around us can be overwhelming. The News we see reported is very bleek at times. One or two positive stories here and there. The newscasters and reporters smile when the ugly story is told. That gives you an adea right there that they are so used to the crap they tell. Sad stories to them are ratings. I try not to watch the reality of this world.

What is ironic is the true reality of this world is actually a positive one. People are generally nice and loving. We humans have a desire to be loved and admired by others. We want acceptance and appreciation. We want to be cared for and spoiled emotionally. We yearn for that motherly love. Our instinct as children is to seek out nurturing. As we mature through our formative years we are trained and learn what our environment teaches us. If our environment is negative and harsh then we adapt and conform naturally to protect ourselves from dissappointment. Children who are around violence since birth will grow to accept and think it is normal for them. Children who are nurtured and loved, cared for and protected will feel compelled to express that love forward. It is true that dramatic experiences do shape the character of an adult. We carry the memories throughout our lives. They surface when certain emotions are triggered by similar situation or experience. Then we regress to that moment in time. Some of us our strong and find strength from that experience. We learned to use these triggers to rise above. Some of us never blink. Eventually everyone faces their so called demons. We all make peace with our rights and wrongs.

The question is how do we keep smiling through the pain and discomfort in the journey we experience. Our life is full of experience. We love. We loose. We cry laugh and experience so many emotions. We experience physical and emotional pain. We survive. We live short and long lives. We say hello to new loved ones and say hearfelt goodbyes to passing loved ones. How do we stay upright? How do we deal and face our reality? How do we keep our reality a positive happy one? Maybe the secret to this joy is in us and always has been. Go back to what I wrote earlier. We were children with the instinct to love and be loved. That is at our core and who we really are. That is what dominates our being at birth. We are loving souls. If there is birth in life than for certain there will be death. Acceptance of this truth is key to moving foreward. It does not matter who or what we are. We are all connected to this truth. Everyday is a gift of a new start. A new beginning. Yesterday was a time to be thankful for whatever the experience. Was a moment spent with a loved one for the last time? We need to be thankful for everyday we live as to not have a regret. I understand there are many people in this world that led painful experiences and horrible hardships. I would not want to try and assume what they went through. I could not even begin to guess how why or how they reacted and internalized the experience. I think of the holocaust survivors. Before they were taken and rounded up....Did they have positive experiences? Loving families. Day to day joy? Were they uprooted from a family unit and everything changed from one day to the next? Yes I imagine so. The majority were murdered. Did they have regrets? I cannot even imagine the answer.

Whatever happens tomorrow...I do not know. Today I called my mother and told her I love her. I painted my masterpieces. I fell in love. I am a grandfather. I raised wonderful children. I do not have regrets and if there was something I have not acheived before my last breath it was something I must have not wanted bad enough or gave it enough passion to create in my life otherwise it would have happened. I am responsible for the task at hand for as long as I can see and feel this hand. I have a few things I want to do still. But for now giving thanks for what I have and have had is good. looking forward and taking the step towards those goals are grand. If I reach that point of success...wonderful. If I go to bed for the last time before that time then my life was complete.

So today I smile. Take a deep breath before I sleep and give thanks.

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.