Working for a Living: Attitude Adjustments

There is something we often forget about ourselves. This goes beyond our capabilities. This is us at our core. This is our attitude and the way we adapt to our circumstances as well as our surroundings.
The fact remains that most of us spend more time at work than we do at home or doing pleasant things, which does not mean work is or has to be unpleasant. Work is part of life.
We live some, think some, work some and play some as well as eat, breathe and sleep some too. This is life. The idea of a work life balance, however, is something completely different. 

Continue reading →

Sessions from the Balcony: Love

There are the great misconceptions about love and writing about love. It would be inaccurate to believe that one has to be in love in order to write about love. There is the misconception that one would have to experience heartbreak to be able to write about the absence of love.
Love is only love.
Love is us. Love is the way we think and breathe. The same as we are alive, love is alive. Anything we write or say about us is true. Even if what we say about our love is not true; our lies are still true because somewhere, deep down beneath the layers we hide behind and deep beneath our public image, and deeper beneath the roles we play in a back and forth chess match, and behind all of our push/pull mentalities, behind the nonsense and the make-believe, somewhere in there is a dream and a wish. Somewhere in us is a love we only hope could be true. Somewhere in us is the desire to be more.

Continue reading →

Hey Mom

I have this idea sometimes. Or maybe this is a vision. Maybe this is just the need to close my eyes and see something different. 
Maybe I need this because there is enough craziness in the world. There is enough ugliness and hate. We don’t need more. We don’t need more reasons to argue. We don’t need more reasons to complain. We already have plenty
I was told to let today be sufficient for itself. Tomorrow will come with its own list of things to do, places to go and things to see. Today is only here once. So, make it count.
And I get that.

Continue reading →

Here’s Some Truth For Ya

I admit it. I’m a big baby. I admit that I am afraid of needles. I admit that I am afraid of the dark. I admit that I have both rational and irrational fears. I admit that my fears have distracted me at times and that my anticipation of a situation is often worse than the situation itself.
I admit that I have given way to procrastination. I admit that I have submitted, forfeited, sabotaged, self-destructed and self-medicated to placate the symptoms of a problem that was buried beneath my behavior.

Continue reading →

Finding The Drive

Somewhere in there is the dream machine. Somewhere in there is the child within. Deep within us all is a drive to be, think, feel, taste, touch and smell. There is a need to cross the finish line. There is the hunger to be the one lifted on the shoulders of our teammates and carried off the field in the thrill of victory.

Perhaps this vision might look differently to you or someone else. Yet still, there is this dream to reach a level of greatness; to not only be valid or validated but to be honored and wanted. There is a need for the sense of connectedness that goes beyond just being included. And yet, adversely, there is often a worry that none of this will ever come true. There is often the inaccurate anticipation that somehow or in some way, as hard as we try, we just can’t reach the mark. 

Continue reading →

Memory Lane and My Reasons Why

It would be dishonest of me to say that there wasn’t the idea of us against them. It would be dishonest to say that some of this wasn’t fun. The rebellion I mean. This is one of the reasons why it was us against them. I wanted to rebel. I wanted to fight back. More than anything I wanted to be heard but I never had the voice to properly speak my thoughts. I never had the words or the language to explain what I was thinking or feeling. Instead, I acted.

This is why it was us against the world. It was us against the authorities and the people in the town. It was us against our parents, the teachers, the principals, the guidance counselors, the cops, the local government and anyone else in the world that did not see things the way we did. I pluralize this because there was more than just me.

Continue reading →

This Is My Plea

And suddenly, there is the idea of jumping to just get away. There is the idea that everything around us has become unbearably heavy. Too heavy in fact, and there is no end in sight, no relief ahead and nothing promising in the horizon. There is the heavy weight of nothingness, which no one else can see but yet, only you and I can feel it.

Continue reading →

The Tasks Ahead

No one ever said the right thing would be easy. No one ever told me that it would be easy to deny the body or to deny my thoughts. No one ever told me this.
There are times when we want to quit. There are times when we feel pain. We feel anguish. Our anxiety hits the all-time high. There are times when we experience conflict. There are moments when there is work to do but our body does not feel up to the task; and therefore, our mind does not feel up to the task. There are times when we lack the push and the shove or the drive we need to get us through the day.

Continue reading →