I watched an airplane fly off into the sunset last evening. Its wings lifted as the plane turned southwest to fly off into parts unknown.
Usually, I see this and imagine sitting in an airplane with my seat leaned back and my tray-table down. I envision myself going somewhere or anywhere but here.
From The Boys: The Last Of The Hoodlum Days
It was just another morning before noon in my town. I was walking towards home after a crazy night and trying to piece together the events from the day before. Randy pulled up in a white van. His long hair was tied back in a ponytail with a blue bandanna wrapped around his forehead.
Randy’s eyes were bloodshot and red. He was already fueled up after drinking from a bottle of 80 proof cheap whiskey. He was ready for trouble. This was for sure. But then again, so was I.
The music was blaring from the radio. There was a lit Marlboro cigarette hanging from his teeth with a long ash that was slightly bent and curved downward. As Randy pulled up, a cloud of smoke poured from the passenger window. The smell from the smoke proved the end of an obvious smoking session that Randy just finished.
Nautical Medication
Ever fish out at sea by yourself?
I was about 8 to 9 miles southeast of the Jones Inlet. The sea was mainly calm with a steady roll of slow-moving waves that swelled beneath the boat. It was quiet.
The air was clear but the sky was gray. Yet, there was no threat of rain. It was just quiet is all. There is no other way to explain it.
A Little Truth
Every so often I get calls, late at night, and on the other end of the call is a desperate voice from a desperate person in the middle of a desperate time. They speak as if I can immediately recognize their voice. Sometimes it’s easy to tell. Other times, I have to listen for a while.
I never ask who it is. I just listen and let them talk until I figure this out on my own. This never takes long.
Sometimes the person is crying. Sometimes the person is talking in a low tone, afraid that someone might hear them and they’re paranoid about some exterior force with some ulterior motive.
Oftentimes, the person is incoherent or drunk or sick or on the run and trying to keep themselves from being locked up in a cage.
It Really Is A Mad, Mad World
It seems the world has gone mad. The riots across the country have spread throughout the rest of the globe, which I get.
The violence of one led to the violence of others, and here I am in NYC, walking down Lexington as if the city is a ghost town of boarded up windows after a big shootout between good and evil.
Note of Inspiration
There will always be adversity.
There will always be something controversial and there will always be someone at odds. We know this.
There is no escaping the fact that failure and falling down is part of life, or, as the saying goes, “Into each life, a little rain must fall.”
Sometimes though . . .
the rain goes on too long. Sometimes the clouds and the thickness of the storm can cause us to forget that although it might not be visible; the blue sky and the sun are still above us.
Ask anyone that has learned or fought or gave everything they’ve had, and they will tell you the same thing. Even winners lose.
There is no one in this world that is impervious to loss or pain. There are some however, that seem to rise above it. There are some that make what they do look easy because of their natural ability or talent.
There are some that can not study at all and pass a test. There are some that can sit at a piano and somehow, the music makes sense to them.
To Be a Child
I see little children and I smile. I see them and think about all of their abilities and their possibilities.
I smile because I see them as a symbol of hope. They are hope for a life that has yet to come.
When I see them, I wish children could stay as they are, young and hopeful, perfect, and eager to touch, taste, and smell everything our world has to offer. This is them at their best, untouched self.
This One Hurt Me
Each time I think things couldn’t be crazier, apparently, I blink and something crazier happens. Yet, I find myself not surprised. It is enough to cause me to shake my head. I am growing tired of the association of blame. I am tired of the direction of fault. I’m tired of the news about deaths and murders and I am tired of the political platforms, which use tragic events like tools to gain an edge.
Continue readingMay is Mental Health Awareness Month
Here we are at the end of May. They say May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Is it?
I’m not exactly sure what this means during a month like this one. At a time when everyone is quarantined and all eyes are on the news, and with the regular tragedies in the mix, the craze behind politics, the list of both information and misinformation, plus all the arguing and bickering between the right and the left does not show me a sense of awareness towards anything.
Overcoming Depression
I write about this because this is very real to me. I also write about this because although many people suffer or struggle in silence, and as they see it, no one understands and no one else gets it, but still, this is very real to them too.
Either way, whether right or not, I think this hits home for all too many people. I think that everyone has their own ideas and their own ways. And me, I have mine too. I had my own soundtrack in my mind that emulated my thoughts and feelings throughout my life.
The Written Addiction 