Confusion Cleared

"Everywhere the sun is shining; All around the world, it's shining; But cold winds blow across your mind." -"Confusion" by Electric Light Orchestra

There are times in our life when nothing seems to makes sense. We feel we have lost all sense of direction and become confused about our place in time. It can be a frightening time filled with anxiety and often times depression. The sounds of others trying to encourage you are faint and distant. You have simply fallen into a state of mind in which you really cannot hear, but desperately want to.

Confusion is medically defined as "the inability to think with your usual speed or clarity, including feeling disoriented and having difficulty paying attention, remembering, and making decisions."

Confusion can be brought on by numerous conditions such as alcohol (obviously), concussions, fevers, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, lack of sleep, nutritional deficiencies, or a host of other things. Seeking out medical advice is always good to ensure what seems simple isn't something bigger.

And sometimes confusion is a state of emotion caused by events going on in your life. It could be your relationship with another person, a job-related decision or one of life's many circumstances. We fight to control the emotion and work through it ourselves, but eventually it grows only worse. You lose your sense of direction and struggle to decide which way to go. So you stand still, caught in this state of confusion.

It is here, at this point, when you have to simply choose a point in all of the confusion and head towards it. The idea is not to figure out necessarily which point is the correct one, just head out in one direction.

Movement will cause change in the confusion.

You can always change direction again, but standing still doesn't solve your condition. It sounds so simple but all of us know that confusion breeds indecision and it becomes difficult to rationalize. So in reality, there is no simple answer, only advice to choose something and move towards it.

The cloud of confusion will eventually begin to clear in your life. The sun will look brighter, more stars will shine in the night sky and your life will carry on, clear of the confusion that once held you firmly in one place.

Stay inspired my friends.

Suppose

"We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows." ~Robert Frost

The word suppose is a pretty simple one to understand. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "to lay down tentatively as a hypothesis, assumption, or proposal." An example might be, suppose I quit sitting on the couch and took a walk. Or possibly, suppose I stopped complaining about my job and did something to improve my lot.

There are many supposes out there each of us carry. Suppose I did this or suppose I did that? But suppose you actually did something about it? Suppose you actually got out and walked more? Suppose you took a class to improve your knowledge? Suppose you loved a little more and complained a little less? Suppose you quit supposing and did?

To paraphrase a quote by the great boxer Muhammad Ali, "Suppose you view the world the same at fifty as you did at twenty; then you have just wasted thirty years of your life." So much will be passed by if we never act upon our goals or dreams.

Getting oneself to create movement towards a goal is easy to talk about. The difficult part is actually creating that movement. But once you start with the slightest move, the momentum will build and help sustain your movement towards achievement.

You walk a little more, you read a little more, you even love others a little more. The dream starts to become less of a dream and more of a reality. And once reality is in sight, it grows bigger each day as you move from suppose to will. The suppose in your life will finally be reality.

Suppose it all could really happen? It will when we stop supposing.

Stay inspired my friends.

Giant Smiles

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."
-Joseph Addison

How much would you spend on coffee to see a person smile?

A man in Michigan by the name of Dan Dewey has spent $10,000 of his own money to do just that. And it seems this weekly habit causes the line to back up at a local Starbucks each and every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Others may at first be put off by the long wait until they learn he is there to buy coffee for patients undergoing chemotherapy at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in the town of Pontiac, Michigan.

All of this began in 2007 when his father was a patient at the same hospital. It just so happened that every Thursday at the same time, his father was undergoing chemotherapy and Dan was there each time. One particular trip, with his father sitting in treatment, Dan offered to get his father a coffee from Starbucks.

As Dan recalls, “I took a look around. There were several other people there, and they couldn’t go anywhere. So I said, ‘Anybody else want a coffee? He’s buying; I’ve got his wallet.’”

This became a weekly event in which Dan would get coffee for his father, other patients and staff in the cancer unit. When his father had completed his treatments, Dan asked his father if he should continue coming back to get coffee for others. His father replied, “Yeah, go ahead."

Dan says he will never forget his father's words and while his father passed away the following year at age 87, his memory inspires his son to comfort other cancer patients with his weekly trip to the cancer treatment facility which has become known as “Dan’s Coffee Run.”

Those that know Dan also note that Dan Dewey does not have a lot of money, but it does not stop his generosity. He does get fan mail and some donations from those that have never met him. There are the occasional gift cards and letters from those he has never served coffee to but have undergone cancer treatment as well.

But it is the coffee and friendly nature of Dan that rewards him with new friends and lots of smiles. And more importantly as Dan says, "I feel like I’m having coffee with my dad every Thursday morning. That’s all I need.”

Many times all it takes is a friendly gesture, a little conversation and a gigantic smile to make all of the difference in a person's life and your own.

Stay inspired my friends!

Break the Isolation

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." -Marc Brown

Not only do I count my biological brothers, but also other men that stand with me when times are tough and when times are good. As men we tend to isolate ourselves and handle things alone. We need to break the isolation and learn to lean on our brothers. In numbers we have strength and the ability to overcome our struggles.

My own brothers have stood by me, lifted me and corrected me when needed. When we stand shoulder to shoulder, we can overcome any obstacle we might face. So break your isolation and stand with your brothers as we walk this journey together.

And stay inspired my friends.