Category Archives: !Featured

Day 312: I wake up. Something’s not right.

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I wake up. Something’s not right. It’s a feeling.

I listen. Nothing. Hmmm. Maybe I’m just hot. I shift a blanket.

And then — a voice. Or maybe it’s two. Can’t make our what they’re saying. Still sleepy. It’s late.

The voices seem to circle my car as I lay in the dark. Cigarette smoke drifts in through the opening in my sunroof.

There is animated talking — minutes pass. The rhythm to the conversation doesn’t seem natural. Is someone on their cell phone? Yes…no — maybe? Why are these two voices talking to each other. Who’s on the cell phone?

A pause… Continue reading →

Day 310: A matter of perspective.

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“The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius.” — Sid Caesar

A friend that I went to school with between 3rd grade and high school graduation left a comment on my personal facebook page this morning in response to my recent “role I was born to play” blog entry — and it truly moved me.

As is common in life — or was before online social networking took over the world — he and I lost touch for years after high school — it wasn’t until Facebook reconnected us last year before we communicated again.

His comment was a surprise and a refreshing alternative to my  own perspective. See — I have my own interpretation of my life, what I’ve done, and what I’m doing — and the longer I do what I’ve been doing lately, the less it “registers” with me.

In fact, sometimes it just seems pointless — like seriously, what am I doing? Was it a “leap of faith” — as I’d prefer to believe — or am I in the midst of a tragic free fall? Sometimes, when I’m battling doubt, I really don’t know. I mean, is it genius or stupidity that beckons me down the path I’m on? Is it even right to say the word “genius”? Maybe I’m just an idiot. Maybe this is all just pointless…

I get to thinking this way from time to time — and then I remember Danny Wallace saying something very similar (he had his own battles with doubt) in his book, “Yes Man” (not like the movie) — and I loved that book.

I try to remind myself at times, that maybe I’m just looking at things from the wrong frame — maybe there is, in fact, something to this and I’ve just lost my perspective… Continue reading →

Day 308: The role I was born to play.

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“The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.” — Mark Caine

 
The role I was born to play — I haven’t found it yet. I’m not yet ready to lay claim to any one title. I’m not yet ready to fit into a box. And I’m not sure I ever will be. So –

Zero Dean: [Photographer] — [Digital Artist] — [*Sandwich Maker]


 
*Ok, I’ve never actually made sandwiches professionally, so that’s a bit of a stretch, but I do make a pretty mean *PB&H. (*Peanut Butter & Honey)

– those titles are just pieces of a bigger puzzle, not “the answer”.

If you’re wondering where this is coming from and what I’m talking about — I posted the following on my facebook page earlier today… Continue reading →

Spirituality & Health Magazine – “Getting Unstuck” by Peggy LaCerra

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Back in December 2010 I had the good fortune of meeting & being interviewed by Peggy LaCerra for an article in Spirituality & Health Magazine.

Well, the issue in which that article was to be featured has finally hit the shelves. The March-April issue of “Spirituality & Health Magazine” is out.

Note: The article is in the actual print magazine, not the website. It’s titled “Getting Unstuck” and I’m told it features me, though I still have to find myself a copy.

Many thanks to the writer, Peggy LaCerra for our interview. She was truly a pleasure to talk to and I am *very* appreciative of the kind words and continued support.

As the article is only available in the print magazine, here is a long list of places to help you find it: :) Continue reading →

‘The Invitation’ by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

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“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithlessand therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.”

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
copyright © 1999 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.

This piece inspired a whole book.

She also has a facebook page.