Another blog, kind of self explanatory by the title.
I was sitting and watching the trailer for The Pursuit of Happyness that comes out this Friday. I know that it will be a great movie and I'm lucky enough to be sharing the viewing of it with people I love.
While I have seen the trailer many times but tonight it made me think. There is a part in the trailer where Will Smith is telling his son not to let anyone tell him he can't do something, that if he has a dream to protect it and if you want something to go out and get it, period. That is paraphrasing but it is the jest of what he said.
It brought to my mind how I grew up, especially prior to my sister and brother in law adopting me. Now never doubt one thing, I love my mother and while she made mistakes she did the best that she could with what she knew. Her life was extraordinarily tough, it makes mine look like a walk in the park in comparison.
I remember when I was young my mother's boyfriends telling me I would never amount to anything, my teachers telling me that I would never amount to anything, even some family members would say that I would be nothing.
I don't know if it was the abuse, the rapes, the drugs, the alcohol, living on the streets or just the not giving a shit that wouldn't listen to them.
Now I do want you to keep in mind as you read this that while all of the aforementioned things happened my mother never took part in the telling me I wouldn't amount to anything. She had her faults but she instilled and exampled an enormous work ethic and a dedication to do what she could.
I look at things now and I have found out what a lot of those same people that used to tell me I would amount to nothing are doing. Several are in prison and the rest are either working in fast food, gas stations, or getting government help. Now I am not saying that working in a fast food restaurant or a gas station is bad. It isn't. But I do know that some of my friends while I was a kid have spoken to these people and I have spoken to some of the teachers that said what they did and none of them could believe where I am in my life.
The teachers I spoke with some looked at me with disgust and some with sincere apology. Now there was an antithesis of those teachers and her name was Martha Warren. She was a teacher in middle school and when she found out I was stealing and selling drugs at 11 to keep the lights on and have food in the house she helped me. She got me my first real job and even though when it was discovered how old I was by an insurance company I was made to leave it she did everything she could to keep me out of the life I was in previously. The love that she poured on me was an unexpected and treasured gift that I have always carried around with me.
Martha has since passed on but I have reconnected with her daughter and she said that until the day she passed she always said she would one day hear my name doing something great. Her daughter still has a picture of me and her mother in her mother's backyard when she was paying me to cut firewood in the middle of spring to try to keep me from the streets.
Now I look at where people are, and the outlook that many of the people I have met have. They look at things as they are what they are. I can't explain why I have always had the drive in me to be more than what I was supposedly supposed to be. I mean I was the kid that everyone thought would be in prison or dead by 18. And while I was well on my way I knew changes had to be made.
I look at the kids that I work with now and when I share with them the brief or long version of where I was and where I am now I start to see a flicker of hope in them. There is nothing like knowing that someone who was where you are made it. I think that is why I have such success with them and while I can't say that I would ever want to experience the things that I did in my youth again I am grateful for those moments when I know it has helped others.
My life after the streets and many other things has led me across the world to war as well as beauty, has led me to love that I will never forget and to come to so many places that have given me more than I could ever imagine.
If I hadn't gone through the things I had I wouldn't be able to write in the fashion that I do. The books I have written come from those places in me that are driven to help others. There is always a message of perseverance, faith and hope in them.
So my point in all of this is to look at where you are in life and ask if it is what you want to be doing. If it is then you are as blessed as I am. If not then why is it not? I know that I make it sound simple and while the actual acts are simple in a sense it is the transformation of the mindset that so many settle with that is hardest to change.
As my beautiful friend Joan puts it I have in some ways mastered life in the ethers. And she is right and I am blessed enough to have friends like her, Angela, Jason, Mike and so many others that hold that cord that doesn't let me float completely away.
Most of us have moments in our lives when people tell us that we can't do something, that we won't be something, that our dreams are out of reach, and that what we are doing can't be done.
Well I'm here to tell you that none of that is right. Every single person alive has the gift of choice and it is that gift that lets you become anything you want. To do anything you want. It may seem scary, risky or even seem stupid but if you believe it can and will happen.
We are all placed in a time of change in our world. The universe has seen it needed to happen and people have seen the need and there is a transcendental state in effect. We are blessed enough to have more people than the past generations had that want to effect this change of love, peace and prosperity in the world.
I know that some of you think I am speaking some foreign language or I got kidnapped and put in a cult but if you know me you know that this is not the case. I have seen first hand what can happen when your outlook on life is changed. It has happened to me and I have witnessed it in many others.
The world is out there for the taking for all of you. All you have to do is take the first step of realization that dreams are possible and that nothing is out of your reach. All things in this world are attainable.
So I hope that this helps some of you and I hope that those of you who read this and think I've lost my mind will just know and understand that I speak with the love that I have for you all.
So I will close with the opening of this entry. "If you want something
go out and get it. Period." and with a quote from one of my favorite
books The Way of the Peaceful Warrior, "There are no ordinary moments."
Know these things and live them.