Sometimes peace and joy just takes a little horse sense

SOMETIMES PEACE AND JOY IS JUST GOOD  HORSE SENSE

So today’s post isn’t going to be very long for a couple reasons.  First, I have a lot of  things to “work” on  this morning and need to do some follow up things from yesterday.  You know life has a flow and sometimes  you just need to  get in synch with it if possible.  

Well here goes..”in no particular order.”  That phrase always  intrigues  me a bit.  For the words that follow it come out in a particular  order.   The next sentence is  not usually something  like  House the  into ran fast could as Sally.  You see there is a particular order to most thoughts and words.  Lately, I have been thinking  about my rambling style and have  decided  to clean it up a bit for the reader’s sake (but not too much).  

Okay getting to the two points here.  I read this quote yesterday and put it on Facebook with a photo.  It’s Mark Twain’s  quote but I like it a whole  lot because I have said a few things lately that haven’t  rolled  that smoothly off my tongue.  

“The difference between almost using the right word and using the right words only  the difference  between a lightening  bee and a lightening bolt.”  

Next I say a picture of a friend with some Clydesdale horses.   \Now these are magnificent  animals, impressive  it seems in size, choice of corporate beer to be associated with, and  a reminder that big can be beautiful.   Anyway  this picture reminded me of  a saying that a professor of mine once used when I asked  about his unwillingness to fight a committee decision.  He sai …”Well Jim  it’s a funny thing about  committees…they are kind of like  horses.  They are almost impossible to push so it’s better to lead them if you can.  However sometimes  you get further if you ride the horse the way it’s running.”  

well sometimes we would like  our lives to be different from what they are and sometimes we know that if we could get beyond just one horses \\ rear end so to speak, things would improve. Well maybe you can use the horse sense offered above.  try to lead ornever be afraid to take a chance on riding the horse the way it is running.  From time to time there is more peace and joy somewhere  down the dusty trail… which is where I need to get my day headed.

Thank each and everyone of you for reading loyally and if your aren’t reading loyally pass this link on  to someone  who might  enjoy it or if  you don’t like them so much pass it along to someone  who  you like to irritate.  Either way have a terrific Tuesday and  THANKS TO EACH  OF YOU  READING THIS. 

Giddy-up Yippee Ky A .

The Sound of Silence

THE LOUD SILENCE

Most adults attend  a lot of meetings on a regular basis.  In nearly  all “repeating meetings there are a few folks  missing from time to time.  Whether  we think about it or not this creates a  shift  in the group dynamic and while some folks will say the same things  they have been saying for  years, some people  will grow silent because one  of their allies is missing.  

So, a couple of years ago I started to listen for the silence.  That is … what isn’t being said in meetings…what we are afraid to talk about and the level of anxiety  being  both avoided and enhanced by the silence.  

On a personal basis I try to ask myself “what would I say if I felt exactly the opposite of this on this topic?”   That’s how I sometimes find  a bridgett a reasonable conversation.  Sometimes I can’t bring myself to ask that… but I’m trying  harder to do so.  

It really seems that if we are to find peace and joy in the group setting, it might be time to  ask what is it I’m not hearing?  /who am I not hearing from, and most importantly  how loud is the silence whena decision  is made.  Joyful decisions are  often made with a lot of noise and peaceful decisions usually come over time.  

Are we listening for the  chimes of peace and joy

Finding your tribe but not losing sight of things beyond

SEEING BEYOND CREATING PEACE AND JOY

What to the letters below spell?

N O R M A L

Well you probably  figured  that one out pretty  quick right?

These  letters spell 

Moral

Ram

Am 

Nor

Or

Oral

Loan

……and ON and a few more

Oh you thought  I meant what?  If you used all the letters right in a row?  Well sometimes life  gives you  a lot of parts that  line up one  way one time and  yet  you can make choices  to hep yourself or someone else by taking those things and lining them up in a different  way right?  

Also  what if i  had added an S  after the L above?  Would  you  have  imagined I was  talking about some group of people who fall somewhere  in the center of the spectrum of our  agreed  upon culture?  …well maybe..and look at  how many more words  the letters could spell then!

Like 

SOAR  which is what we all can do if we avoid the  trap of thinking all the letters had to belong to one and only one word.  Unfortunately we do it all the time  with religion,gender, disability, politics, wealth… and all kinds of other dualistic notions that there is  somehow a unified them and us.  Yes we have tribes who share some of our values and other  characteristics… but if I  had asked  you to identify the “best word”  in the list made up from the  letters… I doubt  there would be widespread agreement.  However, I felt no need to ask and felt no need to  compare —because  as http://www.sethsblog.com (I think that’s where  you find Seth Godin’s  blog) reminds us when we do tribal comparisons we tend to  compare the best in our tribe with the worst of the other tribe.  In the end this highlights divisions and  keeps us from seeing beyond  our current notions and pretty much  makes it  rare that we  value the differences that  could be combined to make more positive  things possible.

Well summing this all up…let your mind go beyond the expected or “normal” so  to speak and maybe you can discover  new combinations that bring  all types of  peace and joy.

Happy Valentine’s Day imagine this

 No I’m putting this video in all of my blogs today because imagine on a Valentine’s Day when everyone had a chance to participate in the big beautiful world out there all our brothers and sisters having a chance to lead full and productive lives that would be something that would be great and bring much peace and joy have a great day

Acceptance is not surrender

ACCEPTANCE IS NOT SURRENDER— It is recognition of CHANGE 

Well… for  most of my adult life… i felt acceptance  was the same as surrender  and to  be quite honest  that  often  turned  me into “A Rebel Without A “PAUSE”  I didn’t  listen  very well to the universe  and didn’t  quite frankly really understand either  grace or any other  sort of inner light.   What i understood was that  if I were true to my purpose and my purpose  was to enhance  the world somehow.. then  I should never  accept anything that moved me from my  chosen path.  (Notice I said “my”  chosen path)..

Well a few years back I finally  ran into a wall enough times and hard enough that my  view started to shift a little…. and thanks  to the words  of a  song penned by my friend Mac  and some words  I added because they fell into line, I put together this song.  

Well just because  you sing something doesn’t mean you learned it….with the possible exception of the alphabet song.  So it was this , and until a few  months ago it started to dawn upon me what the song was trying to teach me.

Life will change.  You can keep some things in some places for a little  while, but  you will eventually  be asked to accept that things have changed and you can keep your passion but you may have to use different tools and take different avenues than you  ever imagined.  There will be times when you are not quite sure  how or if you fit in your own life  at a given moment and that is  hard.  However, if you can understand  that there are new paths you  were meant to explore and  can do so with some  curiosity and hope…. things will be okay and you will be accepting  but not surrendering.  

So today I  am posting this idea of acceptance is not  giving up it is changing to stay connected  with  your dream or purpose.  

Anyway Thanks Mac …so many  years  ago for letting me  steal the best lines of your song and add  some that I needed.  Now I am sharing  this with  you folks  so that your  path to  peace and joy is a little  smoother if that’s what the  universe intended… otherwise know  that from time to  time life is just that way.

Compared to what?

COMPARED TO WHAT?

Well… I’m taking some time  this week  to work on  this song.  Big shock right?  Well it is another  effort  that  is growing from the seeds of the lyrics  provided by my brother and it sort of is designed to bring back memories of a simpler time.  

I suppose there was a simpler time and I suppose there were some more complicated times than right now too.  For example, during some of the  great world epidemics those had to be pretty complicated times and pretty scary.  

Anyway thinking about the past and  the future I wandered down the path of wondering “have  i already  had the best day of my life?  Well hell I didn’t keep a chart.  Like I know  I remember some  good things that happened on certain days.   However,  what happened five Tuesdays ago compared to what might happen four  Saturdays from now?  Really?  Why did i ask myself that question about  my best days ever?  

What I think is we have a  need to sort things out and compare them  to each other.  Seth Godin or #sethgodin for those who want to get some good info quickly talks about this sorting process and so do many  social observers.  They seem to be  on target when they observe we as creatures display  an need to do this and yet it may  not be that useful.  

Now i took this sorting idea and this comparison idea  and started  rolling it around  in my head.  Some questions  emerged.

Like… When the Fifth Symphony  came out were there people in the street saying  “Oh you think that opera we saw last week was good?  You should hear  this new symphony…the fifth I think… so what  was wrong with the fourth?  And when  that symphony went to the top of the  charts—what was at number two?  Did the composer of that spend the rest of their  life wondering about their self worth because they never topped that one?  Or instead  did they say to themselves….”wow that’s the best thing I’ve ever done and I am glad so many  people enjoy it?  

I guess what I’m  getting at is how much time to we worry about becoming  the bestow better at something that we  might enjoy greatly, however,  because we  compare our  effort to someone else we kill all the peace of joy the heck out of that activity?  How many seeds  do we leave unplanted because we are afraid the trees they might  grow won’t be the tallest or provide the best fruit.  What if they weren’t supposed to be the trees that provided fruit but the trees that were easier for kids to climb and  they provided great shade  for  picnics… but we were thinking fruit so we didn’t plant the seed?  

In the end  I will make you all a deal.  If you  can believe that  what i’m doing is  to make myself  better…but no better  than you… I will do the same and thence might be able to help each other  find  peace and joy in  our own growth.  

Have I had the best day of my life?  Not yet…but I’m working on it LOL….

Be kind to yourselves, be critical of yourselves…tha’s your call but don’t  use me as a yard stick or thermometer.

and get out  there and plant  some seeds today!

When a chair is not just a place to sit

IF IT’S NOT BROKE—DON’T FIX IT AND IF IT IS BROKE DON’T JUST FIX IT ENJOY IT By the end of Saturday-mixed with the beginning with Sunday my little corner of the universe was in ‘disrepair. “my Chair”—I don’t know how mediaeval this tradition is that a male adopts a chair in the cave/house/apartment and it is “his”…but it has happened in all of my lifetime and as far as I can tell it has been happening since cave dwellers selected that there big rock in the corner because there was a little rock to prop his feet up on nearby. Well, by the end of Saturday my chair was broken. It is one of these glider-rockers and kind of a minimal design which I like. Well. without sharing all the details one of the mechanisms that rely on a couple screws staying in place so that a roller thing stays in a hole hidden from view had finally worn out their screw holes and come loose thus, releasing the tension and letting the roller fall out of its appointed spot. Now I didn’t write all of this to explain chair engeneering so I’ll get to the point on that. I don’t see anyway in the world that the people who designed this couldn't predict this would happen eventually and the chair would “break.” Here’s what they didn’t imagine. They didn’t imagine that a blind guy would take an hour to figure out the mechanism and then have his daughter come into the project. They didn’t expect that sam daughter to figure out what the dad was talking about so quickly and they didn’t expect the daughter to have “tiny” hands. Now are they a little smaller than usual? Maybe, but for sewing in delicate spaces and fixing chairs that have been poorly designed they are just the right size. So at one point in the night we had fixed the chair the way it was designed. Now that was a mighty proud moment for a dad. Of course, the unknown source of the screw problem wasn't evident until I used the chair again and the screw fell out or a hole that was completely worn away so that it would not hold the screw in place no matter how cleverly we had managedto fix it.… But the repair had been completed insofar as we did it in the manner they intended and that was a great source of joy. Well…sort of—you see while moving the chair I accidentally knocked one of my guitars over and just in the perfect angle that broke apart it essentially the same what that It had broken about 5 months ago. So here it was ..Saturday night and my chair and my “songwriting” guitar were both broken and I had already decided I was far beyond my “complaining” time for that day… so I sat with the guitar pieces and glued away. Will it work? i believe it will..but like the chair it may be done…however. I don’t believe either is beyond repair. and here’s the peace and joy part. It may be that neither my chair or this good old guitar ever gets back itoriginal sound or function, it’s ok…. the joy has been in the effort. Sure you are going to have to throw outra few things in your life like our popcorn maker that randomly pops the top off spewing popcorn all over the kitchen like some type of Orville Redenbacher (sp) volcano. . but other things we might just be throwing away and with them a chance to learn with them. As an added bonus… if you decide to fix things…you have a justification for an expanded”junk drawer” because there are tow maintops of things in most junk drawers. the first is a group of objects that can only fix a particular thing and “maybe you'll have one of those again and then wow you had just what it took. Or the second type of thing that gets into the junk drawer —bits and pieces of materials that can fix about anything(duct tape, paper clips, the bread ties if you remember to throw them in if you hit the bottom of a loaf… and a crazy assortment keys.. from locks you might still have—-maybe. Oaky time to finish this up. i’ll write a whole post on my junk drawer someday…but for today there was a great joy in having my daughter work on the chair and fix it… There was a mechanize design flaw…. but she figured out a good solution. And as far as the guitar goes? Well if you worship a deity that has the power to bind”elmer’s” glue then give a few hail mary’s .. Either way life is good ..I have a chair that I will eventuallyfix or scrap (you know stuff for the junk drawer. but what will never change is my memory of how my daughter jumped in and fixed that chair..because even if it ends up being mostly a piece of firewood, the memory will always be perfect and that my friends is the source of Peace and Joy.. I will take forward. Have a great Monday…

Experimenting with new choices

CHOOSE A TIME AND PICK A TARGET

So who has absolutely nothing  to complain about?  Raise your  hand please…….. 

Oh yes… I know  I can’t see your hands unless this was Skype or YouTube Live….and since I’m  not so good at  seeing anyway  if you raised  your hand you are likely  just proving one of three things.  1. You don’t wear deodorant and their  are some reasons  why some people don’t  so don’t  get all judgmental—2. you wear deodorant —or  you are just showing off.  

The reality is that  everybody probably  has  something to  complain about.  

However—yes you can put  your  hands down—if you have a thing or two  that gets under your skin either  daily or  have a lot of little irritations (that’s me)—You know like how it takes  both hands to apply a band-aid but when you are applying  one to someplace  on one of your  hands you really only have one hand  to do it with…  

Okay  enough of this…here’s my  point.  A couple of days ago I noticed that I complained  about the same thing to  three people.  Now they listened politely and  provided empathy but none of them were the root of the complaint and I knew from the start none of them could create a solution.  IJUST WANTED TOCOMPLAIN.  some may call that venting and sometimes it is…bhowever when it’s three times  in the same day… perhaps you’re just saying I’m a negative person today?   

So now raise  your hand if you like to be around negative persons all day?  Not many hands I see…

So  here’s my “peace and joy” experiment.

From now on I’m going to pick a time in the day when I stop complaining completely…. and I’m going to “vent” to no more than two people about any given thing because they probably feel like targets whether that’s what  you intended.  

Yep.. I think that is an experiment worth  doing… and if you are going to give me something to complain about please make sure you offend me during the specified  complaining time for that day.  Also please feel free to ask—“are  you sure I’m eh right target for  this particular complaint?”  After all, I don’t  want to waste  one of my two venting on the wrong target.  

Yes there is a note of sarcasm there…but I’m serious about  setting a time  on the clock and promising  your tribe you are not going to complain after the appointed hour… and then try to pick the target of your complaining to a person who  might help  you think more about solutions than cheering along with your  reason for complaining…but most of all limit the times  you tell the story because then the complaint  is no longer  the  thing that gets remembered… it is that  YOU  get remembered as the one who complains about (insert a topic)  all the time.  

anyway before   you start complaining that I have rambled  on longer than needed.  My Complain cut off time today is 3:30 this afternoon Eastern Standard Time.  

and you are not one of my targets…but if you want to be placed  on the  target list for a date in the near future let me know….because  your business is important to us and  due to  unusually high call volume  your wait  time could be extended.  

Achieving Some Sort of Balance is a Step Toward P&J

Yesterday was an exceptional day.  Some parts were exceptionally  joyful and well some were let us just say not so much.  The reality isLife is like an amusement  park at times.  Sometimes you are  on that log ride and  you get to enjoy someone else getting soaked while  you barely get a refreshing splash and other  times  you happen to pick the bumper car that is just a little bit  slower than most soyou become the target of  not only your  group but of everyone who wants to get a real shot  at someone.  But maybe  most of all somedays  it is the roller coaster over and over ... and for me that was yesterday.  

Well I will spare you the goriest  details I had to fill  out an "online" document  that  could have taken about thirty minutes, however, it was not very well designed and  while you could tab forward to  some blanks you had to  manually  move to other  spaces.  This is always frustrating  for those of us who learned to type on a good ld Royal or Smith Carona .  --Those  are  actual typewriter brands but don't worry I'm not going to  get all historic on you lest I get accused of  referring  to tablets as my children have reminded me "no Dad not those tablets like Moses  brought down from the mountain--an iPad."  

Okay  back to my day of  achieving  balance.  There was a form from  hell and speaking of hell our big envelope from the tax preparer came and the results were  not quite as  nice as we had hoped....I guess we  are contributingg to the "wall fund" at higher rate than I had expected...so can I request my brick be placed somewhere nearSan Antonio so that when I go  to visit it there will be some other things to see?  

Well there was all that  and it took  a lot of time to absorb all the  disappointment of being so far behind schedule... 

Then just like the roller coaster my day reached the top of the  big hill and the phone rang.  It was  my friend   Peter (although  according to sources his friends call him Pete) and he and I had a great conversation about  all of his faults--not really it was about  spreading his message of work engagement, listening, supporting  one another and being passionate  about living.  You know finding some  Peace and Joy.  

Okay... then it's late afternoon and  I spent another hour complaining to various family members about the rotten part of my day...and then the roller coaster crested the  second  and more gentle hill.  and  I decided that  no amount of complaints were going to change  the rotten parts of the day and that before I went to sleep I was going to work hard to "finish"  a song written by my brother.  Now this is  one of his first  efforts to put a song down on paper and have me  record it...but lordy  did  it feel good to focus on something creative to cap off my day.   

As Jimmy V said in his ESPY speech  (you can Google it)  If  every day  you can laugh a little, be moved  to tears, and love a little then that's a good day... and that's  a day of achieving  balance.   So yesterday  turned  out to be a lesson in seeking  peace and joy for me.... so a word  of thanks goes out to the amusement park we call the  universe....

Oh  and the song?   Well of course  you can hear it.

Just know the video (like most always  with me is just something  I plaster on to make  these video files)  is just the moon....but in this case  it was  symbol  of an object I can see at the same time  he is seeing it in the sky... and that helps me sometimes...

Here we go... The Way  It is Today by Don Whalen with a little  help from yours truly...

Enjoy.

Hey what’s the big idea?

 So in order to keep learning things which I think is a essential part of both peace and joy I listen to some podcasts one of them is

Optimal Living  Daily —thanks Justin and #TheMinimalists —well  today’s podcast was about having technology help us think about or carry out or complbig ideas here’s the link for the podcast and then I will add my thoughts

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/optimal-living-daily-personal-development-minimalism/id1067688314?mt=2


 Over the past few months I have had some large ideas about some things that will be a part of everyone’s future one of those is automated vehicles we are starting to see more and more driver assistant parts in every car and some folks are scared so I’m hoping that this is a promise for opportunities where access to transportation has never been before
 In starting to investigate automated vehicles two things became abundantly clear that technology is not perfect but it is advancing rapidly and the biggest barrier to moving forward is plain and simple fear of change well fear of change is nothing new and probably the largest factor in not achieving peace and or joy so I decided that as a person with a disability who could benefit from this new technology I would do something about it  

Step one-- I decided to learn about as much is a person can learn without having engineering, robotics, or computer science sheepskin.

Step Two--I thought about  this  some  more.... and  started to build a  network of connections  (people)  who are probably smarter than me, however, could teach me a good deal about  this matter and would fall on both sides of the  "move ahead faster" or "slow down there Jack"  continuum.  

Step  three-- I thought  some more... and then considered the arguments from both sides of the  current  pile of solutions that need to be found so that I could appreciate the wisdom I was  likely to encounter in my  further research.

 Step four---I looked into my heart and  as someone with a disability who will benefit from  these advances-I DECIDED TO ACT INSTEAD OF JUST THINKING  SOME MORE...

Step Five--. I started to let a few  folks know I was  starting a blog aimed at  educating  people with and without  disabilities with regard to this matter and started that blog yesterday.... Do I know exactly  where that will go?  Hell No...but I know if it just stays in my head it is going nowhere.  So yesterday I launched the  blog.  "Wheels 4 All .


Since I'm sure I'll be  cross posting somethings enthuse two  blogs now... I won't make this a commercial for that blog  now..... because that  is not  what this blog is about.


 YOU SEE.....YES... this is a BIG IDEA  this is a big endeavor but it is also a big pay off and I hold in my hand the technology I can use to learn about the technology,  to communicate with the network, and that has the tools to help educate people about the facts regardless of the fears.  So I am choosing to do so and that will bring me peace and joy.   The bottom line is.... if you have a big idea let the tools you have help lead to the people you know and some you don't know yet help and don’t be afraid you can find some peace an  Joy as well.   If  you have a big idea and you want someone to help contact me because I believe in big ideas I believe that everything that has ever come into being came first from someone who said you know how to make the world better…?   Your big idea starts today!

 So I will leave you with that question how will you make the world better?… And can I help?   Yep I’m gonna

Super the bowl where is the big game?

WELL IT IS SUPER THE  BOWL  SUNDAY

I hope I didn’t  break any copyright  laws in the title.. I’m not going to say “The Big Game” because that  just brings up images of a Safari chasing  elephants  or Lions or Zebras in a jeep around a vast  open  space and trying to hunt something.  

Well.. in retrospect hunting for  peace and joy sometimes seem like chasing  something  around  just to get a glimpse of it and  being amazed  for that brief moment when it comes into view.  

Anyway… I started to wonder  what would  happen if the  people on safari would  just sit still a minute… how much  would they see?  And of course  what I mean by that is I wonder  if I could  learn to be still how much would I see?  How many  butterflies do I miss  speeding across the landscape trying to see a Hippo?  

Okay… that’s really the  only point I am trying to make today…. I miss a lot of little things I shouldn’t  because I’m waiting for the Big Game…. If I have ever treated  you (any reader of this)  poorly because I was looking  for something or someone else…. well  that’s an opportunity for some peace and joy that I probably  missed and am  working  on being more aware.  

enjoy the game….