Marty Floyd’s Weblog

Wow!

I took a break this past winter. I worked on some personal projects. Painting inside and outside, ripping out my master bath and pulling a “Bob Villa” style do-over. I patched my roof, tore down my pool.

This past March I went down to Charleston S.C. to attend a funeral. My aunt, the one who basically taught me to water ski and had the most infectious laugh, was gone physically.

I was a reality shock for me. She was only 16 years older than me. I felt as though my life was slipping away. I know it becomes natural to “feel mortality” but I was not ready yet. I muddled along until spring was warm and breezy.

I started working in the yard pulling weeds, cutting off pieces of trees that were damaged by a particularly wet and snowy winter.

I tore out flower beds, re-mulched and replanted the beds. I had carpet torn out and new carpet installed.

I did a big shake up of personal items. I took one room at a time (it did not matter to me….I am the project manager for this segment. I am the person responsible. THEN I MADE A BARGAIN. I said that if I could find currency with the object I would sent it over for review/reconditioning. If the item better served an older requirement or was of no particular use/advantage it got dumped.

I made the comment that if anything was special to somebody they should take a picture of it and then say goodbye to it.

That is kind of where I am today. Do I really need this and if so why?

This process takes away from the hoarding mentality. It provides mobility, saves time, resource and money.

With the pictures you may still conjure up the memories and feelings that are good or important.

Think about what is collected, why is it collected, what advantage it provides other than satisfaction of impulse. This is one reason retail grocery stores in particular place cute or tasty items next to the checkout stations. They count on the old queue concept that they analyze to their benefit. If they know the checkout line will consistently have 4-6 patrons waiting it becomes easier to move (sell) small items. Do the thought process fairly often on what, why, what and it becomes natural. You end up with a good system of inventory, storage facilities and usable materials. You also don’t have to spend days getting STUFF ready so you can spend all day on Saturday having a yard sale and/or donating the stuff that has kept you from finding many things you knew were out in the garage somewhere.

Time on the other hand is different. It is given freely, for a price, or is taken and becomes lost. Time is a lot of things but patience is not one of it’s better qualities. Time decides “how long” and gives no more. It is gone. Take close heed of your time. Once spent it can not be spent again.

Stop, find your quiet place, relax, decompress and allow any stress to leave your space.   Clear current thoughts. Breath. Repeat your key word like “OHM” over and over while watching your breathing pattern slow down. Now choose what you want to focus your mind and energy on. Solve some problem or create an easier solution or a safer solution or a more productive solution. You can even waste some time looking at those animals that seem to pop up every time you take some time to just be, to look at the clouds and say what better way to spend my time right now.

Take some time.

The year 2009 is coming to an end. Christmas is next week. A new decade starts January 1, 2010.

I have been playing songs on my computer in the background while I “worked”. A couple of weeks ago I came across an old music DVD I made from my Beatles “records”. I know it is hard to believe people still have them. They keep company with 8-track tapes.

While looking for some of the “old” great guitar players I ended up on YouTube.

I selected some of them to put onto my computer.

You can check out some of my “favorites” in this blog. Obviously that is hard to do when current music changes with the culture and thinking of the times. So I have made no special attempt to get my best-loved music in this blog. 

Click on the little piece of film on the left of the URL address line and watch the music video. Then do it again on the next URL address line down. Of course you can play the same one over if you want. You can even play more than one at a time though it probably distorts the physical and chemical process that works on your brain so you can hear and see.

You can of course go on reading the blog  while enjoying the music video or just read the blog entry and come back when you have some time to go into the music videos.

These will definitely make your day a little different. They are not the Christmas songs you start hearing before the goblins of Halloween have all been quietened.

Let It Be - Beatles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBPFvp750sc

Come Together - Beatles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vAqekT-GuA

Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNpkTY8kwFQ

Miss You - Rolling Stones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOf0FsA0Fio

Professional Concert Version - Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMjzxHzZnnI

Listen To The Music - Doobie Brothers

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/music/watch/v294452pMYWAJkc

Why Worry - Dire Straits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im2SoltmZEc 

Cocaine (good music) Eric Clapton  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYS732zyYfU

Shout (professional looking concert) - Tears For Fears   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI9lo5BRJmg

I Shot The Sheriff - Eric 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10qLYy6hiFQ

George, Eric, Ringo, Elton (jammin)  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aLLHFSM7i8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxEX__YXmDs  

John Lennon (Stand by Me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4_ghOG9JQM  

And now some music by one of my all-time favorites Michael Jackson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Z8k5ChsX8 

Michael Jackson said “make a better place for you and for me.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGwo6ZdEYMs

Two versions of the music video Earth Song follow; the second with Michael’s singing.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Hcd60VoRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FZcAzZOyOg  

Power to the this season, the year 2009, the decade, and music. Listen/watch these and see if you can remember some thoughts and memories or a time in your life associated with a particular song. When finished with a song just close the video (Apture software window) you are using to play the music video.You can repeat the song on the video software. “do it again” Dire Straits said in one of their best songs or you can come back to this post over and over to watch and to listen.  Enjoy the holiday season with whatever music makes you happy, gives you good memories or touches your soul. 

Give thanks to those who really do care for the environment, culture, mankind and how to best preserve our civilization. “Play it forward” because you can pass it on and know you are helping another person as you have been helped. A giving heart is what the Christmas season is for me other than the celebration of Christ’s birth. You can give of yourself whether you give material gifts or not. I have heard many times that helping others without expectation (other than knowing you made a difference) is what we could all do more often. The spirit is clearly moving and providing a tingling charge, like when you hear a song that makes you feel electric. Because it captures your soul and you have a profound sense of purpose,

I sometimes choke up myself and my skin starts to tingle and then feel as though I am being shocked by some low voltage electrical power source. A good power source for sure. There is a great feeling to see and hear a hit from our good times. It seems to identify you as having been right there “experiencing history”. I hope you enjoy these songs. They are meant to get into your head for a while, to make you smile.

What difference does it make whether it is 97 degrees or 108 degrees when the normal temperature is 85 degrees? Not much is my thought. Heat is heat no matter whether you think of a cool breeze or an actual swim. It is still hot.

Another question: What is the difference between Chapter 13 bankruptcy and Chapter 7 bankruptcy? Not much if you are at a point where you have to say you can no longer maintain your financial stability. Bankrupt is bankrupt whether you think of a cool breeze or an actual swim. It is still financial collapse.

It is somewhat odd to me that there is almost 10 percent of the American working population not working and Washington is trying to bail people out by offering to give them up to $4500 for the car they have. In return they can get a new car. Can they pay it off? Will they lose their job? Is the government looking 7 to 10 years ahead, 20 years ahead? I think not. 

How will my children and their children come to terms with the decisions that cost them so much that it is very hard to imagine? 

Another topic that is hard to grasp is the idea that the government is looking to provide a “dignified way” for end-of-life choices. Does everyone think this is alright? Did they not so long ago think it terrible that there was a “Dr. K”? So much so that he went to jail for assisting. I don’t even want to bring up faith, family, religion or other human attributes.

I read the other day that scientists have spotted a tightly formed galaxy that is traveling a million miles an hour. None of them thought much about the fact that it was traveling at that speed. After all it was over thirteen billion miles away from Earth. 

Another topic that I thought was in this type of category is coffee. I read that tests have concluded that coffee can actually reverse Alzheimer’s. I remember not so long ago my doctor said “do not drink coffee because it will probably kill you.” Coffee was called the most used “drug” in the world. Now here is yet another example of a heat index if you will.

Time has a way of turning, of changing. Maybe that is why there are so many songs, written material and photographs on the topic.

All you have to do is look at photos of times past to see how quickly change occurs. Whether you look at photos of your youth, your children’s youth or extended family the picture becomes the same. Time is time!  

So the point of this is that most things really are relative. It is the person that makes the difference. Our unique self is different than any other, yet positive attitude makes many the same.

Check your ATTITUDE

Then 
———-

I was sent the bulk of this as a “read this” and decide whether you want to delete it or share it.
Obviously I want to share it and add some of my thoughts to it.

READ THIS

LET IT REALLY SINK IN

John is the kind of guy you love to hate.  He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say.  When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, ‘If I were any better, I would be twins!’

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, ‘I don’t get it!’

‘You can’t be a positive person all of the time.  How do you do it?’

He replied, ‘Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or…you can choose to be in a bad mood

I choose to be in a good mood.’

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it.  I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or…I can point out the positive side of life.  I choose the positive side of life.

‘Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,’ I protested.

‘Yes, it is,’ he said. ‘Life is all about choices.  When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations.  You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line:  It’s your choice how you live your life.’

I reflected on what he said.  Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, ‘If I were any better, I’d be twins…Wanna see my scars?’

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

‘The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,’ he replied. ‘Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices:  I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.’

‘Weren’t you scared?  Did you lose consciousness?’  I asked.

He continued, ‘…the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’.  I knew I needed to take action.’

‘What did you do?’ I asked.

‘Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,’ said John.  ’She asked if I was allergic to anything ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply.  I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity”.

Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live.  Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude…I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

I learned from a “much read” Bible, “There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem” by Wayne W. Dyer and another book titled “Think and Grow Rich”.

You have some choices now if you want to make them:

01. Get a Bible; use it
02. Get Wayne Dyer’s book; use it
03. Get this book (Think and Grow Rich) from me on 17 rules; use it
04. Go read my other blog articles

Express your self by sitting quietly, clearing your mind of all your thought chatter (”meditate” as Deepak Chopra says), then listen to your Anima (animus, Eros, Logos and soul-image). Check your Attitude (readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way, based on the underlying psychological orientation). Use your basic psychological functions: Thinking, Feeling, Sensation and Intuitive Types. The whole psychology of an individual is his habitual ATTITUDE! Be a better friend, adapt, and forget about ego as possible. Energy, motion, and soul can accomplish so much.

Stand above the crowd! Express who you really are, not what you can accumulate materialistically.

——————

This particular post is being placed in all my categories (as of September 27, 2007) as it applies to you just as much as me.

I started working on this post on a sheet of paper (an envelope) from a birthday card I received last week. My birthday is September 23rd and presented a good time for reflection.

I thought about my earlier “experiences” with art (paintings, music, books, TV, radio, cartoons in the newspaper, movies). I especially loved Picasso, future stuff, Flash Gordon, the Disney cartoons and movies, “2001, A Space Odyssey”, the Bible, Carl Sagen, baseball, GI Joe, “The Flying Purple People Eater”, Mickey Mantle, Elizabeth Taylor, Billy Jean. And they were all site and sound!

I have been a truly fortunate person. I have experiences that I still hold in memory. They are better than watching the latest high definition digitally encoded movie on CD for the “unpteenth” time. Some memories actually come with smells, touches, tastes, perfect audio and video!

Think for a moment about something that became truly mapped into your brain, psyche, and soul. Something along the lines of the birth of a child or the thrill of “knowing” you created a positive, lasting experience. What about the “experience” of discovery, freedom, faith? Something as simple as swinging on a swing (at home, a park, or on a tree rope over a lake or pond) or hitting a home run bring in all the senses, known and unknown.

Our capacity to learn, know, be unique, yet the same, is truly amazing! I have learned that the strength of positive inner feelings and mental attitude are far more powerful than negative ones. The negative ones are like weeds. They just grow when we do not engage in intentionally planting and growing the good, positive ones.

I created a web page that is a collection of some of the articles and thoughts I have “experienced” in this my birth month. I hope you take the time to visit soon at my web page.

Even this commercial brings thoughts flooding in on a very personal level,

Sleepy Hollow? Soft, smooth, fragerant, tight, tanned skin? Richard Scary, Stephen King? Star Trek, Star Wars? Bats, Batman? Pumpkins, Jack-o-lanterns? It could go on and on the longer you look at the advertisement.