What is Your Present Today?

Remembering my grandmother, she was a fireball.  I loved her passion.  If she felt it, she meant it and my grandfather loved her for it.  It's fitting her favorite color was red and so would be mine.  Red can mean so many emotions. It could mean love, it could mean madness, it could mean passion. 

It's easy in this world to become complacent; to not do something that would go against the grain; to kick the can down the road.  I am not that person and I will never be that person.  I could live in this environment for the rest of my life and I will never accept that position.  I guess they call that leadership or rebellion; I haven't decided.  Somethings' just don't sit right and no matter how many times it's presented to you in many different packages, it doesn't change the fact that it's just crap in a box.  You can't change the contents no matter how it's presented.  Crap is crap.

I guess that is my ability in this life.  To see things for what they really are.  I am good at reading between the lines, at seeing what others may not see and at coming to the conclusion that it's plain as day in my eyes. Bows, wrapping paper, it doesn't matter.  That is my present.  What matters to me are the contents, so I pray that when you open your gift, you are aware of what your present means to you.

My new goal: Lose Weight and Adopt Simpler Habits

In my quest to constantly improve, I've decided to focus on two things:  Lose the weight I've put on over the last 5 years and start to adopt simplier habits.  I'll be blogging about my honest struggles on doing these two things.  My goal is to lose at least 35 lbs within the next 6 months.  I've already bought the Medifast diet after doing research on the reviews.  I've read some good and some bad; especially with how the food tastes.  Because I'm a pretty good cook, I think that can sometimes be my downfall.  When there's good food, it's hard to remember portion size.  The psychological aspect of food will be difficult for me.  I relax with a good meal and some wine.  Portion control goes out the window when you're relaxed.  Also, I love In and Out burger.  I stopped eating beef and pork for three years.  I had an In and Out burger and now have them weekly.  So, no wine, lesser portions and no In and Out burger.  I've set goals that when I lose ten pounds, I can have a burger; but, until then no more burgers.  My eating habits have to change.  So, I will let you know how I feel going through this process.  Going from more to less will not be easy.

As for simpler habits, I've picked up painting.  It's amazing how relaxing it is.  Something so simple as picking up a brush and painting different colors on a canvas.  I picked up a book on how to draw shapes for acrylic painting.  At first, my paintings looked like that of a kindergarden student.  I had no idea how to paint shadows, blend colors, simple stuff.  I'd look at something and think that I could paint it and didn't realize how difficult it is to pick up the most simpliest of shapes, shadows and dimensions.  I painted a Joshua tree as my first test.  Probably not good to start off with a prickly tree that resembles a cactus.  It was a lot more difficult that I could have imagined.  It's easy to look at something and a lot harder to translate it to a canvas.  This past weekend, I painted a bottle of wine, glass, cheese and flower arrangement in one.  I could tell that I moved up to 5th grade level of painting, which means progress; however, everything appeared on the table, except the cheese.  The cheese was not dimensionally in the correct place.  That's okay.  I could probably get away with calling it "Who Moved My Cheese."  It's in the spare bedroom. My simple goal is to paint something that I'd put in my livingroom.  That's all for now.  Be back soon.

An Innovative State of Mind

An innovative mind never goes away.  It challenges, not always accepts the easy answer and tries to find ways to improve or create new ways of doing things.  While suppression might be the natural response because that's the way one might understand and attempt to control the outcome or process, it sometimes lacks the effort of understanding.  Times are faster, and getting even faster.  It requires innovation, and out of the box thinking.  There is no longer the luxury of time to think things through so throughly.  At a time of diminishing resources, expectancy of quick and accurate answers and the human element; how can one reasonably assume that all of this can occur with the status quo.  Truth is, you either embrace innovative minds or you spontaneously combust.

You Are Who You Are

Ever get the feeling at times that some people around you try and put you in a box?  That you're supposed to think like them, act like them, be like them.  I think we need to be more accepting of who people are.  We are all here for a purpose beyond what we understand and were made exactly how we were supposed to be.  We all have our strengths and all have our weaknesses, and how much better would we be if we leveraged our strengths as a whole to cover the weaknesses?  I feel a John Lennon song playing in the background..imagine all the people...just kidding.  All I can do is my part to get better at accepting people for who they are.  By the way, I don't believe in boxes. 

Distractions

There are times in our lives when we are offered opportunities to have a new perspective.  I almost feel like life starts off as a blurred lens constantly being polished in order to have the ability to see things clearly.
I haven't been in touch with this blog for a bit because I was in the process of gaining a new perspective.  I don't like to blog while my thinking is blurry or when I'm trying to gather my thoughts in a positive manner.  Truth is, I've allowed distractions to get in the way. 
Distractions can create a bit of a whirl wind state.  Eventually, you start at the bottom of the tornado and then quickly end up at the top and wondering how you got so far off the ground.
My new slogan: "While there may be many influences around, it's always good to keep your feet on the ground."
It's amazing how many things there are in a day to distract us from what we want to do or what we are supposed to do.  So, I've actually started to write it down.  Sounds simple, right?  I mean we're taught this in grade school.  Write down this, keep track of that...as responsibilities get greater and time gets more narrowed, you can tend to forget some of the fundamental things.  Just write down what it is that you want to do and post it in a place you go to routinely. 
The ultimate goal being learning how to step back, look at what it is that you want and stay on the ground while you go after it.