The Life Aquatic

“Life wants you to touch, taste and see the grandeur of the world's unfathomable variety.” ― Bryant McGill

Some time back my family and I toured the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. This facility holds a very impressive display of aquatic life presented in an amazing way. I have included a few pictures. What I found interesting are some of the correlations one can draw to our own lives.

There are so many of us in many different shapes and sizes. We become drawn to one another based on similarities and similar beliefs. There is also variety of life in both a population of fish as well as humans.

The type of people we encounter range from the nicest persons one would ever want to know, all the way to some of the cruelest people on earth.

If you look at a tank full of fish, you can see aggressive fish to those that go about their business not bothering others.

Some people will blend into their natural surroundings much like the Leafy Sea Dragon trying to go about life unnoticed. While others you just can't help but notice.






There are so many of us out there and life will present challenges when connecting with the wide variety of others. Many of these connections will be unexpected. Just remember there are quite a few fish in the sea.






There will be plenty of opportunity to cross paths with different people. Your impact on them and the resulting impact on you in many ways. So jump into life, the water is fine.

Stay inspired my friends!

Walk In The Rain

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” ― Roger Miller

The evening ends as a slow rain begins to fall. The gentle patter of its rhythm pulls you into a wonderful hypnotic sleep. This is going to be a great and refreshing night of slumber you think as you drift off.

Then at 5:30 AM, the alarm pulls you rudely from a dream.

The new day is upon you and it all begins once again. As you look out the window, you notice the rain continues. The first thought is that traffic is going to be awful. Ready to go and heading out the door with a cup of coffee in hand, fumbling in the rain you are seated in the car. Now you find that you have spilled some coffee on your clothes.

Yes, you tell yourself, it is going to be one of those days.

Not even 6:30 AM and your attitude is sinking. One bad attitude can beget another. It is enough to really ruin your day and those around you. But it is your choice if this is going to make or break your day though. For one good attitude can beget another as well.

In an article, IT’S YOUR MOVE: THE ATTITUDE HAND, there is an excerpt from a book by Cyndi Maxey and Jill Bremer which discusses setting 'real life' expectations. The authors list 'UNREAL LIFE' rules that people get caught up in. They also give us some 'REAL LIFE' rules, those which can truly help to change your daily life.

UNREAL LIFE RULES
I must never fail.
I must always look smart.
I must work very hard at all times.
I must never get angry.
I must always look thin and attractive.
I must always play it safe.

REAL LIFE RULES
You can’t have everything.
Things won’t always go your way.
Life is unfair.
Some people will never understand you.
You can’t please everyone.

Real life rules are not meant to say, "okay, no use in trying."

Far from it, the rules are meant to release you so that you can succeed. Once you understand there will be ups and downs, that fairness is not a guarantee and all of the other things that happen in life, then you will be able to go forward and make change.

Be a person of purpose and change. Let your good attitude come to the surface. A little rain is going to fall on everyone's life, so walk in the rain!

Stay inspired my friends!

The Blind Side Chance

"Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish." - Ovid

There is an old song titled "Take A Chance" by the group ABBA. It is a song that delivers a plain and simple message. It says what each of us want in life and that is to be given the chance to prove ourselves.

Love, school, sports or work but each of us want that chance to be given.

There was a movie a few years back based upon the book titled Blind Side by Michael Lewis. It was an Oscar nominated film that earned Sandra Bullock the Oscar's Best Actress award in 2010.

If you have not yet read the book or watched the movie, SPOILER ALERT.

This story can make a pessimist declare the family had motive for taking in this poor kid because they were a family depicted as very driven. The husband and wife were Ole Miss University graduates who saw possibility in developing a sports talented kid for the "Rebels".

What better way to give back to your alma mater.

If you believe that is what happenend, then you miss out on the great story that truly took place. When Michael Oher was noticed "on a snowy November day in 2002, ...a 16-year-old Oher walking in 3 inches of snow wearing shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes, they had no idea he was one of America's most gifted athletes." In th families eyes, he was a child in need who was basically raising himself.

His single-parent mother had bounced in and out of his life due to drug addiction. His grades were hanging on by a thread, living a life on the edge that could have fallen in either direction. I leave the story with this fact, Michael Oher is doing just fine today.

You may wonder what it this has to do with you or me.

Does it mean we should go driving down the streets looking for someone to take in? Should we be looking to save someone like Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy? No, that is not my point to all of this. It means to do what your heart is telling you to do. Just as the Tuohy family did, they saw a need and acted upon it.

Do not let a fleeting chance pass by what your hearts is telling you.

There are many needs in life which pass us by each day. There are those fleeting moments in your mind that you should have done something. I am not here to describe those needs in life, but to suggest that you to act upon them. Do not let it pass by, the chance to impact the life of someone else. An unexpected meal to a young couple, a car ride home from the grocery store for someone carrying bags or other random acts of kindness.

Let your heart guide you.

The kindness you show today will circle back around eventually to you. All it requires is taking a chance.

Stay inspired my friends!

Mend The Broken Bridge

"He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has need to be forgiven." - Thomas Fuller

Some years ago, my life had taken a pretty painful turn for me. After twenty years I lost my marriage which was very painful and gut wrenching to say the least for me. There is a great verse from a song by the group Elbow which goes, "I must have been working the ropes, when your hand slipped from mine."

During this time period, I went through an awful lot of anguish, anger, and angst. I said and did not say a lot of things and could feel myself letting the situation consume me. I was at a point of either spiraling downward into a cold river below me or rebuilding my bridge to something far greater.

My life appeared pretty much like an old bridge that no one would buy, if even for a dollar. I could choose to let the pain tear apart that bridge or begin a process to rebuild it and strengthen it.

What started the process was forgiveness.

I wrote in one of my books titled CHANGED LIVES about the experience and I am continue to work on that bridge. This past weekend I did some further repair by opening up a conversation with some of the people I had bitterly wanted nothing to do for what had occurred.

And my bridge is looking a whole lot better. As I exercise more forgiveness, I am able to pass over my bridge more safely.

Why foregiveness though?

As Mary J. Maciejewski wrote, "...the choice not to forgive but instead to cling to anger, bitterness and resentment, can cripple us. Those negative emotions are powerful and destructive, and as long as we hold on to them, they will escalate and keep us trapped in the past"

It really does a number on us no matter how hard we try to push it to the back of our mind. Forgiving someone doesn't mean you have to face the other person and say the words. What it means is you have to face yourself and allow forgiveness to take place.

Doing all of this will help free you from external forces having this hold on your life. Those are the external forces which are destroying your bridge to a greater life. They cripple you from repairing or building a sound and stable structure, keeping you bound by past hurt.

You have control over how you choose to deal with the pain.

However bad or horrible it may have been, you stand on one side of a deep chasm while your future lay on the other. A broken down, ramshackle bridge lay before you. It now becomes your choice to allow forgiveness into your life. It is then when the process of rebuilding your bridge really begins.

Find it within yourself to forgive others, then forgive yourself.

A broken bridge can be mended so that a greater life can be reached. Start rebuilding it now. And stay inspired my friends.