Be an optimist

Be an optimist because it gets better. Life always gets better.

I was born in a slum. Placed into foster care at age 7, lived in the back of a car at 17. I had no worldly good but I had imagination and imagination is strong weapon in the right hands.

I dreamed a lot because I understood the power dreams could have over the harsh reality that was my life.

I learned to hope because hope can carry us through the worst of it.

I laughed and laughed often and loud because laughter always defeats grief and sadness and so very much of my childhood was drenched in grief and sadness.

I believed with all of my heart, my soul and my mind that one day I would find happiness.

Imagination, refusing to let go of the myth, dreams over tragedy, hope in place of despair, laughter in the face of desperation, to continue to hold out for something better in spite of it all, those are the things that will kept me alive. Those are the things that moved me forward.   

With all that behind me, I cannot, I will not, take the pessimists view because I am a witness to the provable fact that no matter what happens, no matter how unbearable it gets or how dark it becomes, life goes on, you always get a second chance and things do get better. Be an optimist

Everybody on the planet is a little bit nuts

  Just remember that everybody on the planet is a little bit nuts. Remember that and every now and then a lot of life’s weirdness will make sense.

We are not randomly tossed into this life

We are not randomly tossed into this life. We are not an irrelevant, haphazard chance of the universe. Nothing is. There is a purpose to all things, a progression, and a sequence of events that all happen for a reason.

You and I are a part of that grand rhythm but we are more than that. We are children God placed on this earth by him with the mission to lead an honorable life, to have compassion, to be useful in the world and to have made a difference in the world. 

Pay attention to your loved ones.

When you have a family of your own make sure you don’t lose them by becoming lost in the world. The job will be there tomorrow, but if it isn’t there, there will always be another job and another appointment and another career thing you absolutely have to do…those things will always be there…..  but your family may not be there. People grow, they change and sometimes they move along. Pay attention to your loved ones. Help them grow. See them through a change. Don’t let them move along without you. Don’t lose them.

Lead a good life, a full life. Fight for it if you must.

Lead a good life, a full life. Fight for it if you must. Commit to never leading a compromised life. If you do that, know that at times the price you pay for living your life on your grounds will seem high. But the good life, the fulfilled life, is a treasure, and at the end of our journey we will look back, you and I, and we will realize that all we paid to walk our own path was a mere pittance compared to the magnificence of our prize.       

The common virtue of all great people is their sincerity.

The common virtue of all great people is their sincerity.

Sincerity and authenticity attracts people.

Sincerity, even in error, is strength.

Sincerity is earnest and it is honorable and makes for a highly effective life.

Sincerity is real so it is rarely chic or cool.  In fact it is the opposite. It can’t be faked. It has to be a part of you. It must permeate all of what you are.

Work to be sincere. Push the weakness, the hypocrisy and the insincerity out of your existence and fill that void with sincerity.  

No matter what the odds, plan to win.

Even when you are the clear loser, start writing your victory speech. Don’t ever expect to lose. No matter what the odds, plan to win. History is filled with victories that were stolen from the jaws of sure defeat and it almost always happens at the last moment when all seems lost and hope is almost gone.  History shows us that the winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. But they stayed in the fight. They kept trying. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

Don’t make being happy the goal in your life.

Don’t make being happy the goal in your life. If you do you that, will always be unhappy because life is hard, it’s filled with disappointments and missed opportunities. People will let you down and all of it will drain away your happiness. 

Instead, live a life that seeks purpose, that means to improve the world and leave it  better than what we found it. Build a life around great passions. Strive to be kind and generous and filled with compassion. Those things are the point of the journey.  Do those things and happiness will find you and fill your life.      

The house where I grew up, in Ansonia Connecticut

 Google Maps
North Cliff Street, Ansonia Ct.

(Click the Google maps link to look at the house)

I grew up on the left side of the house, where the ramp is. (Although that's gone now) My bedroom was where the far left window is.  

When I was a boy there were two enormous pine trees on the front lawn and the house had wood sidings painted brown and red.  

Around 1910 it was all one house but was subdivided in the mid 1930's. The original owner was Chapel S. Carter, the son of a Connecticut Baptist church deacon, who, in 1905 patented a finger-nail clipper.  Carter was secretary (and part owner) of the H.C. Cook Company of Ansonia, which was incorporated in 1903 as the H. T. Cook Machine. The company introduced the Gem Brand nail clipper in 1920.

MY WRITERS SITE: This just seemed to fit on a writer's site.

MY WRITERS SITE: This just seemed to fit on a writer's site.

This just seemed to fit on a writer's site.

How wonderful is this? ....life is good, smile and be happy.

Woman hearing for the first time.

All you need is you.

During the life long transformation of our spirits we eventually realize that as ourselves, in our own being, is all we need in this life.

I sense there is a lawyer involved in this.

The life less ordinary

To experience anything that is important in this life takes courage. What is important is often not easy and nor is it popular. 

To be kind and compassionate and decent takes courage because the world is often none of those things. 

It takes courage to live a life filled with passions because society encourages uniformity, advocates the safe route, applauds the cautious and often rewards the mundane.

Don’t look back on your life and try to recall how many times you failed to live a brave life. It takes time to develop courage. You aren’t born with it but you are born with the potential to become courageous and every day the world challenges you to put that courage to practice. You’ll have a lot of opportunity to prove yourself to yourself.

When those instances do come, expect to get knocked on your kester a few times because it is not easy to live a courageous life. You’ll fail occasionally. The day will come, I assure you, when you will compromise your convictions. That doesn’t mean you are a moral failure, a coward, or a quitter or a bad person. It means you’re human and you goofed up, you dropped the ball.  That’s all it means. Nothing more and nothing less.  

Try again some other day and when you do perhaps you’ll succeed or perhaps you will fail. It is often in the effort that we find glory.

As difficult as it is, try to build a life that is well grounded in YOUR well-being.

As difficult as it is, try to build a life that is well grounded in YOUR well-being.

Not the other guy’s well-being, not the world’s well-being, but your well-being.

And to do that you must be willing to spend your entire life learning and then practicing what it takes to grow and blossom as a person while doing your best not to merely get by in fulfilling your own happiness and fulfillment.

It is a worthy and noble life’s pursuit.

Here’s one way to start. Take one hour a day and give it to yourself as a present. Savoy it, enjoy it, relax in it, it’s yours. 

"Do the thing that makes you happy" Emerson and throwing a pile of grass seems to make this guy happy. 

For sure

I love this photo

Yeah, sad but true

Hot dog

The tension between standing apart

“The tension between standing apart and being fully involved: this is what makes a writer.” Nadine Gordimer