Month: November 2014

Not so sunny Ft Lauderdale

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I arrived yesterday evening for one of my usual and frequent trips to Ft Lauderdale. It’s raining and cold.

Sixty degrees F breezy drizzle and not a soul around. Nice day for a walk alone in solitude.

Sixty degrees F breezy drizzle and not a soul around. Nice day for a walk alone in solitude.

So after breakfast and a workout I decided to take a long walk on the beach and had a wonderful lunch oceanfront at Casablanca Cafe. It was a nice change of pace from the dry California sunshine.

Today I’m grateful for the comfort of solitude. The peace, tranquility and clarity that comes from time alone. It’s refreshing to relax and be present with myself. The weather is definitely lending itself to tranquility. Tomorrow it is supposed to warm back into the mid seventies and I have plans with friends. So for now and this moment I will treasure the time to take care of me.

May you find peace in your day as well.

 

Toe tapping day

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I am so happy I posted that remix of Mama Cass last night. I hopped out of bed and played it as I poured my coffee. What a great tune to start the day. I have to admit I’ve hit replay on it about 10 times today. I’ve had a smile on my face and that tune in my heart all day.

All day brings me to now. The present moment is all I have. That tune in my heart has made each and every moment a great moment today. This present moment I am filled with gratitude for it. It being this very moment. Gratitude for now. Gratitude for myself. Gratitude for my house, dogs, I pad, dinner, blog, my breath…I could go one but you are smart and you get it.

Being free to be me. Being free to dance alone to the music. Being free to choose how I feel and what I am grateful for.

If you have a choice, and we all do, choose good. Good always works out better. Now go dance and go sing your song, even if nobody else sings along!

Make your own kind of music

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I remember the Mamas and the Papas from my very young youth in the 1960s. I remember the original version of this Cass Elliot (recorded by Mama Cass shortly after the break up of the group) song back to the days that I couldn’t even grasp the message. It’s message is so simple, so inspiring and so freeing. As I grew up the song and the group were but a faded memory.

Sometime in the mid 1990s, when I was  a young man of thirty who frequently found himself on the dance floors of circuit parties, I heard this song again. I actually heard this very remix, probably on a dance floor in LA. I was instanty in love with it as well as with everyone on the dance floor with me at that moment.

Since that time It has always held a place in my heart as I knew it was speaking to me. I did not yet know what my song was but knew I was going to sing it. So I took that to heart and sang what I could when I could. I ran into this tune again today, not only into it but the very remix that so moved me on that dance floor.

Mama Cass is trying to tell me something. I am grateful for the message. I post this now so that when I rise in the morning I can play it first thing to get me started and to remind me to sing my own song. To share that song as one other may hear it and be inspired. Even if another isn’t, I will be.

I share this with you in hopes Mama Cass will inspire you and free you to be you. It’s a long remix but it will get your feet tapping. Make your own kind of music today, share it with everyone you touch, as you never know when it may inspire another.

Enjoy life! It’s a good life!

SpoGratitude

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Its a beautiful morning in Palm Springs after an evening of laughter. Blue skies, seventy degrees and mountains to eleven thousand feet surround us.

Six of us are relaxing by the pool after a wonderful Breakfast at Elmer’s on Palm Canyon Drive. I’ll hang until about 1 then get on the road back to my husband and our furry six kids. The others here are going to take the Palm Springs Arial Tram from the desert floor up to about 8500 feet to take in the spectacular views.

http://www.palmspringsaerialtramway.us

As always I am thankful for the friendship of my fellow bloggers and today especially for MY NEW SPO SHIRT that Urspo not only made himself but gave me right off of his back yesterday upon his arrival.

Spo and Fearsome poolside in their Spo Shirts

Spo and Fearsome poolside in their Spo Shirts

Spo and Fearsome with Doug who is showing off his new Spo Shirt as well

Spo and Fearsome with Doug who is showing off his new Spo Shirt as well

May your day be blessed with laughter and love!

Bloggers make good friends

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Friends are there for each other. Friends are for fun. Friends don’t let friends wear white after Labor Day. Friends care. Friends comment on each other’s blogs. Friends laugh and friends cry. Friends inspire. Friends drive across the desert to meet friends in Palm Springs!!!

I met Dr. Spo (aka Urspo over at Spo Reflections) when I stumbled upon his blog many years ago and I started commenting. I was not yet a blogger but a lurker who occasionally commented. Eventually he commented back. I got to know a bit about him, Someone and the other bloggers who were commenting. I read about blogger meet ups. I participated in a world shirt tour and submitted my photo wearing the shirt he had made as bloggers world wide sent it to each other and sent in their photos.

Dr. Spo made me feel a part of. So much so that June 1,2014, with his inspiration, I started blogging and I love it.

A couple years ago I had the honor of meeting both he and Someone in Palm Springs. He has since visited me in San Diego when at a conference. Tomorrow evening I drive to Palm Springs to meet up and share some laughs with he and Someone (Harper’s Keeper over at Harper’s Valley).

I am full of gratitude for friends and this blogger community.

Urspo of Spo Reflections a friend and an inspiration.

Urspo of Spo Reflections a friend and an inspiration.

So tomorrow evening, if you have a moment to think of us, know that we will be feeling gratitude for our blogger friends as we drive down a dark desert highway with the cool wind in our hair.

Do we ever actually come back to the place we were before?

update:

Spo, if this is one of your pretty pretty boys you call friend… please bring him along…

…we could use a little poolside musical, ahem, entertainment…

Wisdom of Emerson

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 “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

All things have contributed to my advancement….

All things, yes this means all things good and bad. As I look back and remember happenings or circumstances that I perceived as bad at the time I can sometimes see the good. I can sometimes see the learning or the opportunity that arose from them. I need to dig deeper than the surface and recognize that everything that I have experienced has made me the man I am today.

If I can remember this and when an old memory pops into my head, I can deepen my gratitude. I must stop and acknowledge all memories good and bad. I must find gratitude for what each and every one of them has given me. The experience I have is mine and no one can take that away. If I am grateful for them all I will grow and heal. I, like Fearsome, will grow my soul.

A face I love

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Mitzi had her teeth cleaned today.

At 13 she is the oldest of the pack. With age comes a few strange bumps and she had one removed today, as did her 12 year old little brother Virgil. They are both doing well and recovering at the moment. Still sleepy from the anesthesia they have managed to eat dinner and cuddle here on the couch.

This moment is what I am grateful for today. An ordinary moment at home. All of us together, an episode of Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday on the DVR, take out pizza and six wonderful puppies to cuddle and interact with. Ordinary can be a good thing. A quiet stable everyday evening with the one I love and our “kids”.

An ordinary moment filled with contentment.

Did you have an ordinary moment today? Did you enjoy it? Savor it? Feel gratitude for it? I hope you did!

Mitzi after a day at the vet relaxing on the couch.

Mitzi after a day at the vet relaxing on the couch.