How Do You Spell Success?

A person who is illiterate can look at a word without knowing what it means. Perhaps he can recognize the shape of some of the letters; perhaps she even knows that certain of these shapes are representative of certain sounds; still, the veil cannot be pierced. Each written word (‘success’, for example) becomes an arcane mystery like Egyptian Hieroglyphics before the discovery of the Rosetta stone. There is a code that enables a person to see and understand the meaning of a word, but, for the illiterate, it is a secret and undiscovered code.

For most people, success (the actuality…not the word) may as well be an arcane secret. Success might as well be a word written in Hieroglyphics. Like the illiterate person who can look at the written word ‘success’ and not know how to translate it into their spoken language, the average person can look at the ideal of success and not know how to translate it into their day-to-day life or reality.

It is a shocking and sad fact that about 20% of people over the age of 15 (or almost 1 billion adults) remain illiterate and cannot discern the secrets of written language, cannot see the word success and read it or translate into a spoken word; but it is even more shocking that over 90% of people are in the dark when it comes to being able to discover the secret of applying the word—success. They can look at the word and read it; they can even say it; however, they are unable to translate it into a meaningful and applicable message.

These people are also functionally illiterate. The word success has no real meaning.

It may as well be another word, any other word…like ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ (from the song in the movie ‘Mary Poppins’). It can be read; it can be said; but it has no meaning. It is nonsensical.

It may even be fun to say it, but it has no real meaning. This is how the word success is for most people…it is fun to say (it sounds nice to the ear), it is repeated over and over again (like a song lyric), but it has no real meaning.

Close your eyes. How do you spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Now, what does it mean? Define it. Achieve it.

Close your eyes. How do you spell success? What does it mean? How do you define it?
How do you achieve it? 

Some people imagine success means having more.
I imagine that success means enjoying more.

Some people imagine that success is defined as greater accumulation.
I imagine that success is defined as greater contribution.

Some people imagine success is achieved by doing more.
I imagine that success is achieved by becoming more.

Some people imagine that it is spelled succe$$.
I imagine that success is spelled with 3 ‘c’s (see below).

Clarity, Constancy and Congruency of ideal, purpose, belief, passion, intent, thought and action are necessary to create (spell) success.

This is how I spell success...

Sincerity is genuineness and authenticity. You are you; you are true.
Unique is distinctness and exclusivity. You are special; you are one of a kind.
Clarity is lucidity and preciseness. You are clear; you know what you are about.
Constancy is fidelity and persistence. You stay the course; you persist.
Congruency is harmony and accordance. You are whole and holistic in word and deed.
Excellence is quality and worth. You give or produce value.
Spirit is strength and élan. You know that the inner reality creates the outer reality.
Service is benefit and sacrament (to make sacred). You are a gift and you offer you.

Success is the ideal you define; it is the purpose you live; it is the way you walk through life; it is the passion that drives you; it is the joy that you derive from each day; it is the gratitude you feel and express for the gift of life and the opportunity to be, do and have that which you aspire to; success is the way you become. To be successful is to be self-actualized. You don’t have success. You don’t do success. You be success.

Those are some of my thoughts on success. I’ll leave you with some other thoughts from some successful folks.

"People are anxious to improve their circumstances but unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound." –James Allen

“What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”—Bob Dylan

"If money is your hope for independence and success, you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability." –Henry Ford

"Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others." –Danny Thomas

"The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life." –Charles Schwab

"Someday I hope to enjoy enough of what the world calls success so that someone will ask me, "What's the secret of it?" I shall say simply this: "I get up when I fall down." –Paul Harvey

"If you want to be successful, it's just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing." –Will Rogers

"There are only two real requirements for success in life. The first requirement is deciding exactly what you want. Most people never get to that point. They never decide exactly what they want in life, and because of this they simply go around in circles. The second requirement, after a person has decided what he wants, is determining the price he's going to have to pay to get it and then resolving to pay that price.” -H. L. Hunt

All of the above may be insightful and even, perhaps helpful and inspirational; but the most important thing of all is this…what are your thoughts on success??????

What is your ideal? What is your belief? What is your purpose? What is your passion? What exactly is your intent?

What is your passion? What is your purpose? What are you idealizing? What are you becoming? To what end do you journey through life? Each day? Each moment?

Answer these questions and you will know and have success. You will have found the key to translate the previously indecipherable and inapplicable to your life. Success will now have real meaning. 

Top Ten Reasons People Do Not Succeed

I’d like to be able to tell you, like some motivational speakers I’ve heard say, that there is no reason why you cannot succeed, but the sad truth is that there are many valid reasons why people do not achieve any great measure of success in life. In fact, there are so many reasons why people fail to achieve the success they imagine they want that I could not possibly list them all; so I present only the top ten for you to ponder.

#10 Lack of opportunity. This is not, for you who are reading this, a valid reason.

Perhaps it is possible to say that a child born into extreme poverty, with severe handicaps, in a small impoverished third world country, does not have, and may not ever have, the opportunity to succeed; but this is not you. The mere fact that you are reading this puts you into a privileged group of people with boundless opportunity to create a successful, prosperous and fulfilling life. If you ever think, or are tempted to say, that you did not have the opportunity, then you are making up excuses, not providing a legitimate reason, for your failure to create a successful and fulfilling life.

The cold hard truth is not that you do not have (or have not had) the right opportunity; it is that, when the many opportunities that have already come your way were open to you, you were not the right person to take advantage of these opportunities. Right now, all around you, opportunities abound. You may like to pretend that they are not the right opportunity for you, but the reality is that you are not the right person for whatever opportunity is right in front of you. Fortunately, whenever you want to, you can become the right person in the right place at the right time for the right opportunity. Yes, whenever you want to finally and definitively decide to choose success, it is right there just waiting for you to say yes.

#9 Bad influence. Here are two tough but enlightening questions for you…

First: Who are you hanging around with - winners or losers? Many people suffer from being in the wrong peer group. There is a perverse comfort in hanging around with other losers, but it will do you no good to associate with people who affirm paucity and struggle or who have adopted the societal groupthink of mediocrity. Winners hang around with winners so that they can mutually affirm their own right to success. If you are really determined to create a successful life, then you will need to learn to choose your friends and associates carefully.

And second: From whom did you receive your basic education and/or fundamental attitudes about life? I know that it is likely that your parents loved you and that your teachers were probably well-intentioned; but, be honest with yourself… if they really knew how life works, then why were they not successful? Did you pick up a bunch of inappropriate information about how life works and are thus subconsciously programmed to be, to do and to have less than you deserve? If you truly desire to be successful, it is probable that you will have to re-program your mind to expect success.

#8 Fear. This is the big crippling inhibitor that prevents many from succeeding.

The primary fear that stops many from even attempting to achieve outstanding success is the fear of failure. This is truly ironic. People do not attempt great things for fear of failing; yet the simple choice to not make the attempt actually guarantees failure. So you shoot and miss. Big deal. Every shot not taken misses the goal. Babe Ruth may have been the home-run-king of baseball, but he also struck out more than any other player. Do you imagine that when he stood up at bat that he was focused on the fact that he was the strike-out-king of baseball? Everybody fails sometimes. Winners know that they will fail often. Some extremely successful people that I have interviewed have told me that the only reason they were able to achieve more success than others is simply because they failed more others or were more willing to accept the possibility of failure than others.

Strangely enough, the second biggest fear that prevents people from attempting to go for the gold is the fear of success. They may fear that success will change them and change their values. They may fear that success will cause them to lose their friends. The fear of success then, when clearly seen and understood, is the fear of change. This is another of those infamous good news/bad news things. The bad news is that, yes, success will change you. It will change your values, your perspectives, your lifestyle and your attitudes. It is also likely that your unsuccessful friends will drift away from you; because they will seek comfort and reassurance that their own choices are ok by hanging out with other losers, instead of winners like you. That’s the bad news. The good news is that your values, perspectives and lifestyle will change- for the better; and you will end up hanging around with new successful friends. You’ll be ok with that. In fact, you might be deliriously happy about it.

#7 No faith. Belief — that big lurking monster in the closet. I could give a week-long seminar on belief and how it shapes your reality.

I will, in this case, keep it short and simple. Much of what you believe does not serve you and has been imposed on you to keep you enslaved. You need to adopt some fundamental new beliefs about life, about yourself and about success. If you do not adopt these beliefs, you will not likely succeed; and, if by some chance, you do manage to create some measure of success, you will probably find a way to sabotage that success by losing it or by being unable to enjoy it.

Here are those basic core beliefs: 1. You deserve success. 2. The universe and/or whatever you choose to call divinity desires your success and is all set up to provide you with the success you envision and desire. 3. Success is not related to morality or spirituality. It is not morally superior to be poor and it is not spiritually pure to forsake material success. 4. It is your own method and quality of thinking that will bring you success or failure, not how things are in the world around you.

Have faith. It can move mountains. But be very careful where you place your faith. Have faith in yourself. Have faith in your ability to create a self-designed destiny. Have faith in your right to have the success you desire.

#6 Lack of education. Most folks, even the highly educated, don’t have the right knowledge or information to succeed.

I believe, quite strongly, in the value of formal education. In fact, I think that the classic, university-level, liberal arts education is a great foundation for anyone who wants to be able to live a fulfilling and contributory life. However, a person can have a PhD in any discipline offered in the best universities and still know diddly-squat about how to succeed. And you can have little or no formal education and still have figured out, like Andrew Carnegie or Richard Branson and many others, how to create enormous success.

There is a science of success. There is a technology of success. There is a specific knowledge set that is needed to create success. If you want to succeed, you will need to obtain that knowledge and then apply it to the way that you live your day-to-day life. You spend your coin on so many frivolous things to satisfy some passing fancy. You spend your time learning so many meaningless things like the game score or the date that some historical event took place. Make a wiser decision: invest your time and money into getting the education that will empower you to create a successful and fulfilling life. One way to do that is to buy, read and apply what is available to you in the Prosperity Paradigm website. It has worked for others and it will work for you.

#5 Fuzzy ideals. Most don’t know exactly what they want. Their ideals are not clearly defined.

Almost everyone will say that they want to be or to have success. Ask them what that means, however, and they will be unable to tell you with any exactitude. Fuzzy thinking. Whenever someone says to me, “I want to be wealthy.”, I ask, “What does that mean?” The common answer is, “Well, you know, to have lots of money.” Well then, “How much is lots?” ??? What does success mean to you? Can you define it in one written paragraph? Can you tell someone in a sound byte at a noisy cocktail party? If not, then you don’t know exactly what success means to you. Without that knowing, you have no clear vision of where you want to end up.

Undefined ideals are intangibles that seldom, if ever, become tangible. The simplistic statement of “I want to be successful,” is no more meaningful than, “I want to have a nice haircut.” Would you trust your hairdresser who has purple spiked hair today and blond streaked hair tomorrow with giving you an undefined “nice” haircut? Get exact. What do you want????? The universe has infinite possibilities. How can it know what you are asking for when you say, “I want to have success,”? Fuzzy thinking produces fuzzy results. Get clear about what you desire.

#4 No passion. The average person just plain doesn’t have enough desire to succeed.

Wanting success is not enough. You have to have a burning desire. This may be a crude example, but this point must be emphasized… You must develop the ‘tear your clothes off right now’ type of lust if you truly desire to create success. Wishful thinking does not make things happen. We all know that simple truth. Passionate desire, however, does have the necessary vibratory energy to bring forth things from the un-manifest into the manifest.

Become passionate. Light a fire in your belly, in your heart, in your mind for the realization of your ideals. Feed that fire with the fuel of belief and don’t let anyone put it out with negativity or words of caution or even reasonable doubt. The side benefit about being passionate about something is that you get to feel more alive. A life without passion is not a life; it is merely an existence.

#3 No resolve. Resolve, grit, gumption, tenacity, determination, persistence, discipline are major attributes of a winning attitude.

You might as well know in advance that when you embark on the journey to creating success, your tenacity will be tested. In order to succeed, you will need to develop a kick-butt attitude a firm resolve. Your results will be determined by your determination.

Fortunately, if you have clearly defined ideals that you are passionate about seeing realized, then your resolve to succeed will come easily. You may need to dig a little deeper in moments when it seems like nothing is going right with your plans. Which brings us to…

#2 No game plan. How can you expect to win the game if you have no plan to score goals?

The majority of people don’t have specific written goals. If you want to succeed, you have to define your goals. They are the specific objectives you must reach as you proceed to realizing your ideals. Goals are so critically important to your success that I won’t even try to summarize goal setting in a couple of paragraphs. Instead, I’ll point you to the article I wrote about the subject called The 11 Basics of Goal Setting.

#1 No action. The single biggest reason that most people do not succeed is simply because they don’t do anything about it.

People do all kinds of things. In fact, most people are so busy doing stuff that they actually don’t take time to examine why they are doing what they are doing. Look around you and you will see lots of frenetic action without any apparent purpose. Stop for a minute and ask yourself, “Why am I doing the things I do? To what purpose? To what end? What exactly is my intention in doing what I do on a daily basis?”

Assuming for a moment that you have the desire to create a successful life, even if your concept of success is not yet specifically defined, are you taking the actions that are necessary to create the results you’d like to have show up in your life? Everybody has dreams and desires. Not everybody does what is necessary to fulfill those dreams and desires.

In fact, most people do not even get started. They procrastinate. They make up excuses why they will start tomorrow instead of today; or they say, “I’ll start when the conditions are better, or when my financial situation permits, or when the stars are aligned properly, or when this current project, distraction, TV program, whatever, is finished, then I’ll start.”

NO. NO. NO. Start Right Now! Right now. This minute. Create a vision. Create a game plan to enact that vision. Start doing what is necessary. Keep going. Create momentum. Don’t stop.

Most people never get started; and then, sadly, most of those who are inspired to get started, quit too soon. They get distracted. They allow obstacles to deter them. They lose sight of their goals and ideals. They lose the motivation. They resign themselves to mediocrity. Do you desire success? Create a vision. Believe in its reality. Stay focused. Never give up. Never, never, never, never give up. If you persist, you will prevail. If you desist, you will fail.

Here’s what you do, right now.

Step One: Clearly and distinctly define your ideals.

Step Two: Write down your specific time-dated goals.

Step Three: Take the first necessary action. Then, the next.

Step Four: Persist.

Make the decision to become a success. Reach deep down inside yourself and find the gumption to act now. Develop the resolve to always continue to reach toward your goals. Affirm your right to have the success you desire. Educate yourself about the principles of success. Read my other articles. Read my books. Get excited about yourself, your life and your goals. Be grateful for the incredible opportunities that lie before you. Be grateful for all the blessings that you already have in abundance.

Yes, there may plenty of reasons why you may not succeed; but all those reasons can be made meaningless, invalid and inapplicable if you will only do one simple thing… make up your mind to create the success that you desire and that you deserve.

I published this last year in another space, but a full moon discussion over dinner at the home of some friends reminded me of this piece, so I will serve it up here.



Moonshine and Madness

Many of my subscribers have written recently to suggest that I should not write, in this aMusements column, about drinking beer; so, in the following article, in deference to their sensitivities, I avoid the mention of beer all together.

There was a full moon two days back on November 26th. I checked the calendar. There will be another on December 26th. That is 30 days apart. " What the hell happened to the 28 day lunar cycle??" I thought as I sipped my rum and looked at the moon with my binoculars a couple of nights back. So, of course, I Googled a bit to see if there was an explanation. I found this one...

The orbital period of the moon from perigee to apogee and back to perigee is called the anomalistic month. The period of the moon's phases, that is the motion of the moon with respect to the sun, is called the synodic month. The ellipticity of the moon's orbit also causes the duration of a half-lunation to depend on where in the elliptical orbit it begins and so, effects the age of the full moon.

The average duration of the anomalistic month is approximately 27.554549 days; while the average duration of the synodic month is approximately 29.530588 days.

The fumocy is slightly more than 14 synodic months and slightly less than 15 anomalistic months. Its significance is that when you start with a large full moon at the perigee, then subsequent full moons will appear ever later after the passage of the perigee. After 1 fumocy, the accumulated difference between the number of completed anomalistic months and the number of completed synodic months is exactly one.

" Hmm," I thought. " I'd better have another rum." So, I did; and, as I stared in marvel at that floating orb, so beautifully reflecting the light of the sun, I reflected some more on what I had read. I saw some sense to it. Where in the ellipse the moon was when it was full one night might determine the time span to the next full moon. Maybe. There had to be more to it. I sipped my rum and I pondered the mystery. An hour later, I was no more enlightened. I was, however, a little bit buzzed; and it was this dual intoxication of moonlight and moonshine that lead me to the conclusion that, despite any pretense to the contrary, I don't know shinola from synodic.

I have learned that the anomalistic moon cycle is close to 28 days, but that the synodic, or full moon, cycle is about 29.5 days. Now I am left to wonder if anomalistic is synchronistic or synonym-istic with animalistic and that, perhaps that might explain werewolves, menstrual cycles and the periodic madness of imbibing the demon rum.

The degree of my ignorance is staggering I realized as I made my way to bed. It is lunacy to pretend otherwise; but how else can I make it through the days of my life, except that I imagine I know a thing or two about the moon and why it does what it does every 28 or 29.5 nights or so.

By the way, sugar cane is traditionally cut on full moon days to maximize the yield of juice. Cut the cane on a full moon day and reap more juice to make more rum. That's a good thing since people seem to drink more rum on full moon nights. I, of course, will never touch the stuff again, full moon or not. Well, perhaps on a blue moon, which happens, on average, every 19 months; although I am not exactly sure whether that is anomalistic or synodic months.

A few days ago, I was sitting in the departures lounge in the Simon Bolivar airport at Caracas, awaiting my flight connection to Trinidad, with my laptop open on my lap, writing material for a new seminar presentation. I was in the groove, totally focused, unaware of the activity around me.

I glanced up from my screen. The waiting area was empty. Where was everybody else that was here also awaiting the flight? I looked back at my screen and checked the clock. 6:45. Ok. Time enough to catch my 7:30 flight; but maybe I had missed some announcement. Maybe I should get to the gate. As I was shutting down Windows, it occurred to me. Time zones. It was actually 7:45 DUH!!

No wonder everyone was gone. Had I missed my flight? I rushed to the gate. There was my crowd and it was busy creating pandemonium. I waded in. What fun. Absolute chaos. I stood there tuning in to the Spanish. Ah-ha. The flight is delayed. No exact time for departure is able to be set. It seems we are to fly on a brand new plane and the certification has not been stamped by the relevant authority.

Of course people are upset. They are concerned about missing connections. I make my way over to one of the reps and ask, "So, does this mean I have time for a sandwich and a beer?"

"Oh yes, plenty of time. It looks like about a 3 hour delay."

"Cool," I reply, "Thanks. That is great news." My earlier distraction had not caused me to miss my flight and for that, I am grateful.

"Hang on a minute," she says and gives me a coupon for $10 to pay for my beer and another one for $50 for a discount on my next flight.

"Hey, that's nice of you," I answer. "Thanks so much."

"No", she says, "thank you; almost everyone else is so upset and they get nasty to me as if it is my fault their flight is delayed."

A lady pushes in beside me, "If I miss my connection and my appointment tomorrow morning, I am going to sue the airline. I don't believe all this crap about new planes and such."

"Yes, ma'am, here is the complaint form. If you fill it out, I will personally see it gets to the right person." answers the rep, "and here is a $50 discount coupon for your next flight."

No beer coupon for her.

The flight leaves at 10 pm. 2.5 hours late. The plane is so new, you can still smell the glue they used to stick down the carpet. No one else has ever sat in this seat I occupy. How cool is that. The flight attendant offers me a free beer. I doze off and wake when the plane is landing an hour later.

Shortly after midnight, I am sitting in the lobby of my hotel in Trinidad, sipping a cold beer, chatting with the night duty clerk, when this same angry lady shows up.

"Good evening ma'am," greats the clerk.

"I need a cheap room and a wake up call," she answers. The clerk gets her registered and gives her a room key, organizes the wake up call. Never once does she say thank you.

"Hi," I interject, "we were on the same flight. I see you missed your connection. I hope it all works out for you."

"No, my connection is in the morning to Dominica." she answers, "damn airlines. I hope that one is on time at least."

"Oh," I say, "we are on the same flight again in the morning. Do you want to share a taxi?"

"No," she answers, "I'll make my own way. I've already booked a taxi."

"Ok, buy you a beer then, a night cap?" I ask her. Maybe I can cheer her up some, change her attitude?

"No!" she turns away and goes to her room, without saying another word to me or the hotel clerk.

Next morning, the night clerk drops me off at the airport. I check in with the airline and get myself a coffee. I am sitting there enjoying it when she goes by. "Good morning," I say, "How are you today?"

"Damn taxi was late," she answers without slowing down. Of course, there is a line up at the LIAT counter by then. Oh well. Life's a bitch, ain't it.

I went to the beach the other day. Not an unusual event in and of itself. I go to the beach every second or third day. What was unusual about this particular visit was that I stumbled across a small tear in the fabric of reality. Literally stumbled. Here is what happened; I'll leave it to you to decide what it means and how to classify it.

I was strolling down the beach, thinking about what to talk about during my presentation at an upcoming Magnetic Thinking seminar in Costa Rica, when I stubbed my toe and stumbled, falling to my hands and knees in the sand. I'd had my head in the clouds; now I was definitely back on the ground. Ouch.

With some degree of annoyance (ok, I'll admit to uttering some profanity), I got back to my feet and turned to see what had caused my fall.

Well, it was a yellow knot. Boats occasionally lose lines and they often get washed up on shore. I've been out on boats where such escaped lines had gotten tangled in the propeller. That really sucks. This one had gotten buried in the sand on my beach and this protruding knot was the source of my jolting discomfort.

Now, I could have simply gone on with my walk; but I didn't. Instead, in my annoyance, I decided to pull this rope out of the sand. I can't say what I intended to do with it once I got it free from the sand. I wasn't entirely of sound mind at this point.

After digging and pulling for a few minutes, I had about six feet of line freed. Ropes are made of entwined strands and as I was pulling with all my might, one of these strings snapped and slapped me in the face. I let go abruptly and ended up sitting on my butt in the sand. Needless to say, I had a few more choice expletives to offer in response.

Most people would have given up at this point; (it is probably the wise choice) but I have a stubborn streak in me. I renewed my assault, digging and pulling. After several minutes of this, I had freed about twenty feet of line; and, I had also built up quite a sweat and so I stopped to catch my breath. I sat down on the sand, this time on purpose, and a degree of reason and objectivity returned. Just a degree... enough to see how funny and futile this effort was; not enough to forget the damned rope and continue my walk.

I played with the rope in my hands, examining it. It was a standard, five-strand, braided 5/8 inch, yellow mooring line, almost as common in these parts as the sand I was sitting on. As I mentioned, one of these strands had snapped. This strand itself was composed of numerous smaller strings or filaments. I rubbed this strand between my thumb and forefinger, loosening the weave of these smaller filaments. I separated one of these filaments. Please don't ask why I was doing this. I don't know. I was just mussing about.

This filament or mini-string was about twice as thick as a human hair. I stretched it tight, holding the broken end in my teeth and the other still entwined end in my left hand and plucked it. "Twang" sounded a small but distinct note. Cool. I did it again. "Twong" it sounded.

"Watcha doin?" a small voice queried.

Startled out of my reverie, I turned to stare into the amazingly beautiful face of a dreadlocked child. Four, maybe five years old. I was sitting. He was standing and we were eye to eye. He smiled.

"Playing'" I answered, smiling back.

"Do again," he commanded.

I grabbed the filament, bit down on the end and plucked. Everything shimmered. The boy giggled and shook his head. The beads braided into his dreadlocked tresses rattled. I plucked. "Twong!!" Again the world shimmered. Again, the beads rattled. Half a dozen times, we played this improvised beach harmony.

And then it came to me... I would talk about Superstrings, super-symmetry and the symphony of thoughts that create our reality.

"Fun," said my little friend.

"Yes, it is" I agreed.

My little messenger ran off down the beach. I got up and walked into the sea to float on my back, stare at the sky and work out the thread of my talk.

__________________________________

Later, driving home, Steve Marriot of Small Faces singing Itchycoo Park reverberated in my mind...

Over bridge of sighs,
to rest my eyes in shades of green
under dreaming spires
to Itchycoo Park. That's where I've been.
(What did you do there?)
I got high...
(What did you feel there?)
Well, I cried...
(But why the tears then?)
Tell you why...

It's all so beautiful!
It's all too beautiful!

I'll tell you what I'll do.
(What will you do?)
I'd like to go there now with you,
you can miss out school.
(Won't that be cool?)
Why go to hear the words of fools?
(What did you do there?)
I got high...
(What did you touch there?)
I touched the sky...
(But why the tears then?)
I'll tell you why...

It's all too beautiful!
It's all so beautiful!

I feel inclined to blow my mind,
get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun.
They all come out to groove about
be nice and have fun in the sun.

(What did you do there?)
I got high...
(What did you touch there?)
I touched the sky...
(But why the tears then?)
Tell you why...

(It's all too beautiful!)
It's all so beautiful.
(It's all too beautiful!)

As I am wont to do, I was in the bar at the SunSail marina some days ago watching the sunset, sipping a cold Hairoun, thinking about what a glorious adventure life is when you allow it to be, when a total stranger came up to me and asked, "Would you please tell me what direction I am facing?"

I blinked. This is surely, I thought, a surreal moment; not a real question, but an angel's message for me.

"Well, I am facing the sunset," I answered, "so it is my best guess that direction is called West on this planet. On a larger scale, I suppose I am staring down the gravity well of old Sol."

"Huh... oh yeah; silly of me," he replied, with a touch of an embarrassed smile.

"No, not at all," I replied, "I thank you for the question. It reminded me to be aware of what direction I am facing."

"And that is?" he queried. Now I knew for certain he was an angel, perhaps disguised as some poor holiday sailor who was about to go out on a rental not knowing anything about sextants or pole stars, but an angel nevertheless.

"If", I explained, more to myself than to him, "I am standing in the present, I can face into the past or into the future. The direction I face is my choice, isn't it?"

"How's the local beer?" He replied. Maybe he thought I had had a few. Maybe he was just changing the subject. Maybe he was just thirsty. Maybe he had more wisdom to offer me. It mattered not.

"Pretty good," I answered, " Can I buy you one? It is the least I can do."

"Two Hairoun please," I told the barkeep. "Where you are from?" I really wanted to hear this answer.

"Los Angeles," he said, without even a hint of irony in his eyes.

"I figured it would be something like that," I said. "Long way from home then. Here to do some sailing?"

"No, I've come to visit some friends in Mustique. That's south of here, isn't it?"

"Yes, that way," I pointed, "you could see it if we were on that point out there, instead of in this bar."

"This beer is good." he said.

"Yes, it surely is," I replied. "My name is Leslie. I'm happy to meet you."

"Michael," he said, "how are you?" sticking out his hand. We shook.

"Blessed," I answered, "and you?"

"Yeah, I am feeling pretty good too. You live here?"

"Yes. I do."

"Good place to live," he said.

"Yeah man, it is," I smiled.

God, life is such a pisser.

Been away for a while. Lots going on in my life. New beginnings and some endings.

2006 has come in with a big bang and my universe is expanding in potential.

Life is such a miracle. Full of contrasts. Full of surprises. I am constantly amazed by the wonder of it all.

I'll be back soon to update you on some of the fun and funny things going on in my life.

In the meantime, here's a cool way to up your vibratory levels.