Success Starts Here!

Happy Weekend friends!!!! It was a long week for some of us and I must say, we "deserve" this weekend don't we? Of course it's a long weekend; one set aside to remember those who have served our country. More specifically for me, Memorial Day isn't so much about those of us who serve, but those who have shed blood or more strikingly paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Freedom is probably the one thing we take most for granted in America. We take it so much for granted that it doesn't really seem to matter. We abuse the heck out of it in our insatiable appetite as a nation to demand crazier and crazier behavior from our politicians, athletes, and entertainers. And the media is all too happy to show us exactly what we want in its never-ending 24/7, 2,000 cable channel news cycle. Our voracious appetite for more and more sensational news, more and more morally corrupt behavior, humans at their worst, is reminiscent of Romans at the Colliseum cheering on as

Well that was awkward. I am thankful to share with all of you that we are all still here. Just wanted to make sure you had gotten the word. These days are filled with doomsday zealots and to be honest, it has always been that way. Over the last 24 hours I've read a number of stories with references to dozens of assured "last day on earth" prophesies. They've gone on for a long, long time. These days of course with the internet, social media, our 24/7 news cycle on tv, even the most outrageous of these people find their 15 minutes. What interests me is the fact some of our religions (or more specifically, religious leaders) espouse the afterlife to the point of us missing out on what it is we are here to do, to be, to experience. I have to believe that if our human experience is meant to mean something, then we must "live" it in the here and now and not spend so much time planning for the afterlife to miss out on all the amazing things life has in store for

The last 30 days have been a little difficult for my circle of friends. As life goes on unpredictable as always, my circle of friends have seemingly lost more friends, coworkers, and family members than I remember in recent memory and it has me thinking. A friend of mine posted a recent article by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking balking at the idea of a hereafter as a fairy tale for those afraid of the dark. Please know this blog is not about telling you what to believe. As I read the comments folks left about the article, it dawned on me that regardless of what each of us thinks, one thing is certain; every one of is going to find out the answer to the question of whether a hereafter exists or not.; every single one of us. If nothing exists, well then we won't have a whole lot of pondering to do on the idea since we won't be in a hereafter to ponder or do anything else. But if it does, there might be some "explaining" to do. I don't know what will happen wh

41 years ago, a 36 year old woman who had never had a child before was about to enter her 8th month of pregnancy. She had been convinced her whole life she was sterile by the man who married her when she was 16 in a small country town in Puerto Rico and then brought to the states to be beaten and made to work while he stayed at home getting drunk. At some point, a few years prior to 41 years ago, she summoned up the courage to leave her abuser and strike out on her own. Low on education and a command of the english language, she languished in farming and factory jobs up and down the east coast. Two years earlier she met a nice young man who had struck her fancy and the two of them became inseparate. Little did she know just three years after her son was born this man would leave her or that she would work the rest of her life in crappy factory jobs in an effort to give her son a fighting chance at the American dream. But 41 years ago today, pregnant with her new lover's child, she