Working Life’s G. P. S.

I get lost a LOT!  It’s not something I’m proud of, but I can actually get lost between the bedroom and the bathroom.

I love my GPS a LOT!  I call her Flo and she’s gotten me where I want to be on many occasions.

Flo needs two pieces of information in order to do her job.  She needs to know where I want to go and she needs to know where I am now.

Years ago my life was a bit off track…OK I was lost in the dark and no happy about where my lack of direction had left me.

My life needed the same two pieces of information:

Where did I want to be?

Where was I now?

Getting clear answers to these questions wasn’t easy; there was a lot of denial, low self-esteem, bad habits and WAY too many choices, but when I finally got clear and honest my life started moving in good positive directions.

There have been road blocks, detours, potholes and more than a few rough roads, but I’m loving the ride…most of the time. J

It’s time to get clear about where you are and where you want to go.

PANT RANT or IT’S IN MY PANTS

Check out the fit on these pants.

I like the colour, the material and the colour, but they were way too long.  The pants needed to be shortened if I was going to be able to wear them without tripping.

But…they weren’t getting shortened until I bought them.

Did you get that?

You can’t change anything you don’t own.

Take that out of your pants and apply it to your life…it works there too.

If there’s something in your life you’re not happy with CHANGE it, but that can’t happen as long as the problem is someone else’s.

This is why we can’t change other people – because we don’t own them.  Changing ourselves can sometimes cause them to make changes in themselves, but don’t count on it.

YES! There are nasty people out there and they will do nasty things to you and NO! it’s often not your fault, but (and it’s a big but) at some point, you have to grab your problem by the pants and say “This is MY problem and I’M going to do something about it.”

• Stop being a victim (or acknowledge that you like the role).
• Stop complaining about what “THEY” did.
• Own your pants and get them hemmed so you can stop tripping on them.

DEAL WITH YOUR PROBLEMS LIKE A MOUSE

Betty Boop before and after the production code

I was watching some early Betty Boop with my kids this week.  This was before 1934 when the production code made her cover up her cleavage, lower her hems and lose both her garter and her wiggle.  She’s saucy, sexy and awesome.

After the code went into effect, she lost more than the garter – she got watered down and became a little (I hate to say it) bland.

Betty was a product of the Fleischer Studios, but they weren’t the only animation studio to have problems with the production code.  Disney’s biggest star – Mickey Mouse – did not pass the code’s strict moral standards; he drank, smoked, abused other animals and forced kisses from a reluctant Minnie – WHAT A CAD.

Where the Fleischers grumbled and robbed Ms. Boop of her spark, Disney used the opportunity to reinvent Mickey.  He became the happy-go-silly, optimistic innocent we know and love today.  He also jumped from being a star to being an icon.

Life is going to throw you some problems – sorry, but it’s true – you can grumble about them and give up or you can muster all your creativity and do a Disney, use new limitations to create a work of genius.  Turn your star into a legend.

IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL YOU QUIT

One of Kimball’s most loved characters

Ward Kimball’s creation.

Last July I was working at the opening ceremonies of TAAFI 2013 (Toronto Animation Arts Festival International).  David Silverman was the Keynote Speaker. Silverman, Director and principle creative genius behind The Simpsons, was everything you’d expect him to be: Creative, Funny, Knowledgeable, Personable and a little Irreverent; I loved it.

My favourite anecdote was hearing that as a student at UCLA Ward Kimball came to lecture.  Kimball was one of Disney’s original Nine Old Men, an Academy Award winning animator who Walt Disney himself referred to as a genius.

Kimball told them “Walt’s dead, and you missed him.” The message to these young, animation students was clear…’the Golden age is over’.

Kimball lived to see the later Disney masterpieces including, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King, Toy Story and Monsters Inc., not to mention The Simpsons and the birth of DreamWorks.  I wonder if he changed his mind about it all being over.

EVEN A GENIUS CAN BE WRONG.

You’re going to run into a LOT of people trying to tell you it’s over, you missed it, you’re too late, the boat has sailed.

THEY’RE ALL WRONG.

If David Silverman had listened to Kimball, he wouldn’t have bothered creating anything new and wonderful.  Don’t EVER let someone tell you it’s too late.  It’s only too late when you believe it is and give up.

GO CREATE A NEW GOLDEN AGE for you, the people you love and the rest of us; we’re all richer when you do. 

 

Check out the TAAFI website here http://taafi.com

Now THAT’s a solid intention

Soooo, I’m on Astoria Blvd. in Queens NYC waiting for the bus to LaGuardia when I notice this bronze plaque cemented into the sidewalk.

“On this site will be erected a monument to Christopher Columbus.

This tablet dedicated on October 12 1937”

 Now THAT’s putting it out there.  We’re gonna do something and we’re going public with it.  Hard to forget about a bronze plaque cemented into a sidewalk beside a busy train station.

Then stuff happened.  Before they could get the statue commissioned, cast, transported and up on his pedestal, they found themselves smack dab in the middle of WWII, there was a shortage of EVERYTHING especially money, man power and metal…that plaque sat in the cement reminding them of the intention.

After the war, in 1945 – SEVEN YEARS LATER, Columbus finally got planted on Astoria Blvd. where he’s still hanging out…looking rather dashing I must say.

It’s easy to make plans, and it’s easy to break them…especially when something gets in the way…like a war.  Get your intentions out there, cast them in Bronze and cement them into the sidewalk where you’re going to be reminded of them every day…or at least stick a note on your mirror.

Tornado Warnings

She’s one of my favourite living artists.  I’ve known Lynne McIlvride for decades and am honoured to own one of her originals.

I was at the opening of her new show last night http://www.davidkayegallery.com/ and once again I’m struck with the beauty of her work.  As always, I start to wonder why. What is it about this art that hits me so profoundly and more importantly, what is it trying to teach me.

Apart from her being one of the best people I know, her work speaks to me of balance and beauty – often in the midst of chaos.  She mixes found objects with fresh painting, her life 0 the good and the bad is recorded in her work with a courageous honesty that I marvel at, but it mixes with metaphor and symbols, whimsy and heartache.

This is what I love the most; she explores her art and her passions with specific and clear emotional detail while using metaphors that make her work universal.

Her latest series, Stormy weather (seriously, check it out) is all about tornadoes.  She’s put them in their sturdy glass doored boxes so we can view them and their destruction from a safe place, and then she tucks in some supplies to help with the healing after.  My favorite is the one pictured.  It’s a nasty little tornado (in spite of its colors) and Lynne’s given us thread to sew it all back together when the tornado’s done its worst.  No Band-Aids, sturdy and colourful thread.  It’s gonna leave a scar, it will never look the same, but we’re gonna hold it altogether. Another piece has the tornado coming through fabric that’s already patched together…here it comes again.

Sometimes life gets ripped apart, if we face it with integrity and creativity, we can make something beautiful.

Thanks again Lynne.

Check out her web site, she’s great.

http://www.mcilvride-evans.com/

 

Her current show runs to August 25th at the David Kaye Gallery – 1092 Queen St. W. Toronto.   http://www.davidkayegallery.com/

Happy Half a New Year

A fellow blogger who I’ve come to really enjoy posted a blog that really got me thinking on the weekend.  She called July 1^st the threshold of the second half of the year.  What a great way to mark Canada Day.  I celebrate how much I love my country AND I take a minute or two and re-evaluate, re-think and re-group…sort of a mini New Year’s Eve.  That same day, I hit the half-way point for my Blog goal and hit 5,000 views since I started in January (2013 goal is 10,000).

Check out the inspiring post here.  http://joiworks.com/2013/06/30/crossing-the-threshold-to-the-second-half-of-2013/

I’ve learned a lot about BLOGGING and life in the last six months.  Here’s what’s come up when I think about it:

It works when I work it.  I know this seems self-evident, but when I take time to post regularly and make real connections with other bloggers I get stronger, better and more tangible results.  When I take time off my views drop to one or two a day.  Go figure.

On the subject of making good connections, I have to admit that I started looking at other blogs and leaving comments as a way to let people know about my own blog.  I specifically did this with bloggers on subjects like personal growth, my area.  The more I connected however, the more I found I loved reading other people’s thoughts on the subject.  My own personal journey has been greatly blessed by the people I read…now I still read and make comments because I truly find value in the writing I find in this community.  Leaving a comment is just a small way of showing my gratitude.  Oddly enough, (or maybe not) the more sincere I get, the more people I find connecting with my own blog.  Funny how this works.  Honesty and sincerity actually work…and you can’t fake it, people know.

I want to say thank you to everyone who stops by, everyone who follows and everyone who posts.  You inspire me, make me laugh, make me think and open my vision wider.

Helen Wilkie – one of my favourite speakers – has a great story she tells about moving forward that ties in beautifully.  Here’s a link to it…check her out, she’s awesome. http://www.mhwcom.com/HelenOnYouTube.html

Musings on Tea and Japan and Manners and just being aware of other people.

Here’s a slightly different post.

I read this morning that in Japan it is considered impolite to fill your own glass.

Something about this has struck me deeply, I love the idea of a point of etiquette being based on the idea that those eating together must be attune to each other’s needs.  I watch for your cup to empty, or get low, and you watch for me.  Together we all get enough to drink. I’m not quite sure how this works when you’re eating (and drinking) alone…maybe you don’t need to be quite so polite when you’re alone.

My goal this week is to move this into my life.  To try to be attentive to those around me – to see where they need what I have to offer.

I know this blog is about art and personal growth…good manners are an art…so there.

This Post will last FOREVER . . . Babe!

If you’ve only read one sonnet in your life, it was probably Sonnet 18…”Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day . . .”

You were probably forced to read it by some English teacher who was desperate to excite you about Shakespeare by pointing out the obvious sexual references. . . I know I was.

Much as I like love the sexual references, forget about them for a sec.  Look at the last two lines . . .

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

In simple modern English, he’s saying “This poem is so awesome they will be reading it FOREVER; I just made you immortal Babe.”

The sonnets are numbered roughly in the order they were written, so #18 (of 154) was written when he was a pretty young guy.

It’s the most arrogant thing ever written in the English language.  It would be unacceptably arrogant . . . if it wasn’t turning out to be true.

There are a lot of reasons why Shakespeare’s great, one that is often overlooked is that he knew from the start that he was great.

Do you have the courage – the honesty – the unadulterated Chutzpah to believe how great you are?  We ALL have greatness within us.  Find yours and bring it to the world, this is not an option, it is our job here on earth.  Some are great writers, or painters, or parents or cooks, but we’ve all got something the world is hungry for.

Find your greatness and you will change the world in wonderful ways.

Happy solstice…or why I wish I were at Avebury with the throng.

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, June 21, 2013, the longest day of the year.

The Summer Solstice always makes me think of two things, one memory and one question.

First the memory:  seven years ago we were visiting relatives in Wales.  One beautiful sunny day my wife’s cousin Peter asked if we wanted to see the standing stones at Avebury.  I had no idea what he was talking about, but I`m always up to see something new.  Off we went.  On the way he explained that the standing stones were the largest collection of prehistoric standing stones in Europe…bigger than Stonehenge but for some reason not nearly as famous.  The closer we got, the more congested the small road got.  I didn`t think anything of it until we came to a virtual standstill.

The standing stones of Avebury – without the unwashed masses

Suddenly Pete let out a colourful expletive, followed by `Oh my God, Oh my God, it`s the %”*!$ing Solstice.`  That`s when I saw them.  Huge numbers of people: bikers, hippies, druids wandering with their children among these magnificent stones.  It was a sight I`ll never forget and wished I was part of . . . I`ll also never forget the running commentary by Pete as he cursed `the great unwashed of Europe` who had descended upon his idyllic plans for the day.

He refused to stop the car and I never did get to join the throng, but it’s still one of my favourite memories of a wonderful trip.  Sometimes the best adventures are the ones that are unplanned.

A few days later we got to Stonehenge where there were only a few very polite and well washed Druids performing some very beautiful ceremonies.  I preferred my day with the throng – whom I suspect were actually better washed than I was during much of this trip.

The second thing I think of on every solstice is a question:  Why isn`t this the hottest day of the year?  It has more hours of sunshine and more direct sunshine than any other day this year. BUT and it’s a big BUT, this isn’t the hottest day of the year.  The sticky hot, wish you could take your skin off it’s so hot, days of August are still months away.

NO – here’s why.

Change takes time . . . even the earth knows it.  The earth is still reluctant to fully surrender the cold that set in last winter; it lingers in the rocks, in the lakes, in the building, in the very soil itself.  It hasn’t fully caught up to the warming influence of the longer days yet.

I had a text message from a friend who’s been making some healthy choices for his body lately, he’s discouraged; he’s doing all the right things, but not losing any weight.  It’s just not shifting.  I feel for him, it’s tough and our bodies, like the earth, like our emotions, like our souls, like to linger in the past, in the comfort of the known.  There are all kinds of theories around the subject of why change takes time, I personally think it’s the universe’s way of finding out if we’re really serious.

Warmer days are coming.  Have faith; if you’re doing the right things, if the light is shining, the world will catch up, it has to.  There are going to be setbacks, there are going to be problems and some days are going to feel colder than others, but we will get there.