Jump on the Soul Train

It’s been about three weeks since I last posted on my blog and there are really no excuses.  No justifications.  I’ve been busy, and writing took a backseat. Sounds a little crazy, given that writing is the same as breathing for me. However, in order to write well one must live well. We do write what we know, after all. Sometimes life is less about pondering and scribbling and more about engaging and living. This has been my focus for the last fortnight and a half: engagement.

With that said, a lot of changes have occurred since we last shot the breeze.  You may or may not know that I work for a law firm as a Paralegal. I am also a writer (obviously), and a Top Notch Creator. I have a lot of different interests, but the endless cycle of 9 - 5 has really begun to take its toll on me. Add to it, the fact that I am sick of working in the legal field, and you’ve got yourself a Toxic Cocktail with a multitude of dream-killing side effects.

Salute the Short!

Every so often I will bang out a short, concise little blurb, and today be one of those days, mon! 

Short of the day:

Compassion

We all get it for the most part. We dig it, compute it, and have a pretty decent handle on what it means. Compassion is the thing you do when someone you know is hurting. You reach out to them, feel their pain or understand their plight, and offer up a nugget of wisdom, love, or even a good swift kick in the butt (hey, we all need one from time to time). Compassion is the tool we humans use to help guide others out of darkness and into the light, preferably where a giant sun, a white sandy beach, and a cold Corona awaits. 

Oh, and a hammock. No good fantasy is complete without a hammock.

Perhaps this is why "compass" lingers so casually inside our word, like an inconspicuous ninja ready to kick out the kindness. Through love, consideration, and relate-ability, we lead our friends, family, and even foes, away from dank and dirty mindsets on to new horizons. 

When it comes to life, it's easy to lose the way, but our fellow hominids are here to help us out. Never be afraid to reach out to someone who is hurting, and never be afraid to ask another for assistance. Often times we forget the importance of self-compassion and heap all our love and joy onto others. Remember that we all deserve love and acceptance, especially in our darkest hour. 

Compassion is a vehicle for wisdom. Through it we experience the great diversity of life.

Who am I, or Who I am?

Who am I?

Who the heck am I?

Who in hell am I?

 

Who dat?

It’s a pretty typical question, and one that everyone, at some point in their lives, has asked themselves. Identity is an integral part of human nature. Even as kids, we focus soul-hard on the idea, trying to figure out who we are, where we stand, and what we’re doing on this crazy and colorful planet. Philosophers have spent entire lifetimes trying to divine an answer to this question, each pulling out his or her own personal conclusion—Plato had his Cave, Aristotle, his logic, and Freud, his mother.  Curie had her science, Dickinson, her prose, and Earhart, her courage. These philosophers and innovators were perceptive, but they were also artists, and their work emerged by virtue of one very important element: a novel impression of life. 

Little Miss Alignment

I’m sure some of you are familiar with the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters created by Roger Hargreaves. They are fabulous books that teach kids about the many different personality traits that run through the human race. My daughter has several of the books, as well as a few hard plastic and soft plush dolls. Her favorite characters are Mr. Bump and Little Miss Daredevil.

My favorite character is Little Miss Alignment.  She's a great--

Wait... You've never heard of her?

Well, I guess I can understand that, because she's not really a Little Miss character, at least not one created by Hargreaves. Little Miss Alignment is the side of humanity that governs balance and symmetry. She is the voice of truth, that soft whisper that gently reminds us to listen to our gut and clear our heads. 

IT'S BACK... Plug-a-way Friday is Here!

Yep, it's that time of the month again! Plug-a-way Friday has arrived. That means I'll be raising hype about new chizz, because new chizz is fun and often times delicious. Incidentally, I'm super excited about this month's plug because it involves one of my favorite things in the whole wide world:

FOOD

Which happens to be the best thing since sliced bread... Oh wait, bread is a food... 

Man, now I feel like a real loaf.

Hmm...all this talk about bread is making me hungry. 

*digs around in drawer for carbohydrates* 

Okay...

Carb craze mollified. I'll bring on the food-dom now.

Doing the Double Red Flag Wave

This post is about something I, and much of the world, like to call the "Little Red Flag". You know, it's that weird vibe you get when something isn't quite kosher, the gut instinct that tells you to forget about exploring the basement, chuck the flashlight, and get the hell out. You may have heard Dory from Finding Nemo make reference to it...

I actually have a great story about the Little Red Flag and why it's important to listen when it starts to wag. Ready? Here goes...

Power Struggle

Photo by Wilfred Paulse

"Your choice has bearing on every event that occurs in your life, even those it seems you did not consciously motivate.”

- Marve Atchison, White Daughter

There's an article circulating on Facebook right now about a kid named Brian Hoeflinger, an 18 year old who had graduated high school in Toledo in 2013. He was out with friends partying after graduation, decided to drive home intoxicated, and got into an accident that, unfortunately, took his life. His family has since created an organization called "Brian Matters". It was established to teach kids the dangers of drunk driving. This particular story struck a chord with me because it reminds me of an analogy I use in my novel White Daughter to explain how negative events create positive consequences. In the book, I recount the story of a little girl who is hit and killed by a drunk driver. Rather than persecute the man who killed her, the mother of the child decides to institute an organization to help alcoholics get clean, demonstrating that profound results can emerge from dire circumstances. Although the details differ slightly here, the thing I like most about Brian's story is that his parents have chosen to focus on the fact that his death resulted from choice. They do not shy away from this truth, which is something that really resonates with me. In retrospect, death always arrives from choice. We might one day choose to walk across the street at the exact moment a person runs a red-light, ending up in a collision that ultimately leads to our demise.