What I Learned In A Sandbox of Angels: Fortune Cookies over the Main Course

You wake up, then choose not to. You hit the snooze button again, like the Pringles slogan goes you can't stop yourself from doing it just once, you mutter to yourself slow "I don't want to get up...". The brutal cold seeps thru the window sill much like heat resonates from a stove top burner leaving you to retreat back to your covers, back over your head they go. It's too cold out you tell yourself. And a long day. Here you are working 9-5 or doubles, graveyard shifts, school and raising a child maybe, all simultaneously. Life is hard. Much harder when you start out the first minutes of your day telling yourself you don't want to get up, it's cold and "it's gunna be a long day". Thats not the way the cookie crumbles.

Your mind is a powerful thing and a good portion of your days happiness, success and fortune is determined by what you believe and tell yourself. Nothing wrong with a morning like that, but do you then overcome your own objections by responding to them as opposed to reacting to your intial thoughts and letting them influence your behavior subconscious or not.  Start over. A little something like this..."I'm tired but I'll be good. It's cold out but I've seen colder. It will be a long day but I'm going to make today great. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder but I'll take attitude number two. What if you figuratively speaking read your fortune cookie before you consumed the day of experience that lied ahead of you which ill call the main course. You have the choice to even influence how that message reads based on what you tell yourself.  No ifs, ands, or doubts about it. Make the beginning of your day, what you often tell yourself you could or should have done at the end of it. Seizing moments often starts with awareness as much as effort. Often one moment has the potential to capture your imagination if you pay attention, make you think, look in the mirror, around you, scratch your head and say "Huh, that was interesting?!" Not really sure what to make of it at the time so you put it on the back burner. My moment similar to this happened over some Chinese. The thought just never left. I don't know what a true artist is, but imagine there genius blossoms thru moments like this. The unexpected that became a perspective.

It was a Sunday evening,  there I sat across from one of the most beautiful women I had ever met. She was tall, gorgeous and had a dynamic personality to match her stunning beauty. She turned heads left and right in the same capacity that a bobblehead does up and down. All my friends more or less considered her "out of my league" and I gave them more crazy looks then a a Kevin Hart standup when the conversation was approached. The most cliché statement I've ever heard of to this day. Should be on a list of things to never believe. As the story would go, I warmed up to this girl enough to be sitting there eating Chinese with her as well as her daughters. As the meal ended, I started to eat my fortune cookie and she says something along the lines of, since I was so positive I would appreciate this game they play called highlight & lowlight to end there day. Goal was to end your night on a positive. I played along but even as a positive person quite frankly I found myself more humored by it then anything, telling myself "that was silly". The next morning when I worked out, it stuck in my head tho. Just that moment.

Two months later I was honored enough to give an upbeat, hopefully motivational presentation to a room of Managers, Senior Store Managers, friends and people that helped make me who writes this. In my hand was a clicker for my power point and as I looked over my left shoulder there sat a box with 400 plus fortune cookies in it. 15-25 minutes later I don't really recall, the message was well received and it was based around the concept of making your life a fortune cookie figuratively speaking, where you fill it with the message you want to give off from the second you wake up. As I threw fortune cookies to people around the room I thought "how did that chinese meal turn into this?!" That's for someone far beyond by line of thinking to comprehend. But it gave me perspective. I gained something beyond what money can buy that night in hindsight. The fortune cookie is your mind and what you tell it and read into life. The main course is the constant. As my boss calls it, that's a circumstance. Your thoughts are not. The main course of life is your 9-5 job, doubles, graveyard shifts, work, school, raising a family and whatever your life entails. Your fortune cookie is not a circumstance, it is an attitude. A choice. What you believe. What you tell yourself. Anything that drives you. Symbols are only as strong as the message you tie to them. I tie my positivity to fortune cookies that I create the message in. There is no wrong form of good or striving to be a better you. That moment helped create perspective and opportunity for me.

Definitely takes an imagination and if you read the last post you know I'm channeling my inner 5 year old to create forward motion. That five year old I said was a fascinating thing, passion poured out of your soul with the unpredictability that only mother nature could emulate. Let that five year olds resiliency and passion also set the stage for the attitude your going to have today. Now is always the most important moment of your life. Tommorrow isn't promised as the saying goes so go own the only Monday, February 23rd, 2015 your ever going to have in your life.

Today is about you and what you choose to make it, I really believe that. It in itself doesn't always ensure success but it does ensure more opportunity. Don't let the circumstances of life discount the power of what today can be. We accept more then we change. Change how today reads, by what you tell yourself. Do circumstances often run your life? Time to play with the equalizer and balance that out with choosing to impose change into your circumstance.

When you wake up simply start by  planting as much positive ammunition into your life as possible. Today is yours, start telling yourself your own fortune not the main course dictating that to you. Your still on, don't go thru the motions. Go shine.

Years later this girl still has no idea the "fortune cookie" logic was born at her kitchen table over some Chinese and a game of highlight/lowlight that reinforces positive thinking and ive molded into mine over time. It took time to mold and take shape but here it is again a fortune cookie stuffed with a positive, go get it type of attitude.  She was there for the speech. She even heard parts of it as I asked her for opinions. This past week I saw her at random, oddly enough at the same time I started this blog of uncertainty, hope and telling myself "I can" do this and make an impact, if even to only one person or moment at a time then I stuffed a fortune cookie for the better.

She told me that day after not seeing me for probably at least a year or two that she credits me for teaching her to be so positive more then anyone else. I blushed, flattered and humbled by such a strong statement. As she talked about her new business and slogan she wanted I spoke of this "fortune cookie" logic and how it would apply to her business. She paused and said "wish I had thought of that". Truth is she did. I just squeezed this thought process out of that chinese dinner like orange juice coming from an orange. Never short circuit the power of a moment whether waking up in the morning or a something that captures your imagination and comes to life years later. Always be developing the message inside your fortune cookie.
Then when you achieve something, do something great, or are proud you can say "you did that". Because you chose to. You create more then you can ever imagine just by changing your perspective. Perception is reality,  what are you telling yourself today?
Be a message of good fortune.

God Bless & Stay Cool Good People :)
Joe

What I Learned In A Sandbox of Angels: Awareness often trumps Effort

What I Learned In A Sandbox of Angels: Awareness often trumps Effort

If you found this and choose to read it, thank you. Hopefully you get these minutes back and then some, after all im not out to waste someones precious time. I was asked a few times what brought on such a title. It's really just five words that apply. WHAT. I. LEARNED. SANDBOX. ANGELS.  The rest are a bridge that hopefully help create a positive message and vision. Its many things I guess so stick with me good people.

Simply it all starts with the five year old in me brought back to life by many of you. In a sandbox. At the age of 30 I'm going back to being five. Humbling myself. This is a new adventure and I'll enter it as I know nothing but passion, faith and being mentally strong. As we grow older we often lose some of our zest in life, myself included just thru the process of maturity. Why can't we have both forever? Rich,  poor, white, black,  man, women Republican or Democrat. It's the age of constant disagreement, being offended and not doing enough good as a society.  Our differences are shoved so far down our throat by the media that sometimes you want to send it back like a burger over saturated with butter at a restaurant.  But overall we just think it's the norm now. How complacent is that? That five year old believed in you more then that. He was never complacent when he played.

Lets start with that. The five year old in you was a fascinating thing, emotion poured out of your soul with the unpredictability that only mother nature can emulate. That kid forgave easily, was resilient,  didn't harbor resentment, was naturally grateful for the time people invested and shared with him or her. I'm going back to my sandbox with what 30 years of blessings and multitude of angels imposed upon me. Both those smiling upon me from heaven and those constructively trying to make me better here in the present. I could keep all this to myself but what good is that. I read a quote that said "What you do for yourself is gone when you are, what you do for others is how you create a legacy after your gone". How true, but often I stop myself before anyone does. A five year old didn't let anything stop him except the sun going down and calling it a day.

This is a new adventure and in essence I'll be a five year old in a sandbox speaking thru the eyes of an incredibly blessed 30 year old and what I've learned thru it all. I wont hold back, I don't really care what 100 people think of this as long as one person thinks something of it. Then pretty sure I made someone proud. Parent, sibling, coworker, boss, stranger or former enemy there is no wrong type of person to help.

Being 5 is an excuse to do things that often don't make sense. I'll make sense of this as I go. I've learned and still learning. First thing I learned is believing makes sense. This to an English teacher would probably be a flood of red pen marks thanks to misspelled words and grammar errors. But that's ok. I'm five. This is my sandbox and I believe what I'm doing in this realm. The sand will be my words and the castles I build out of words are symbols and pillars of strength that I'll categorize as "Angels & Blessings" of real experiences and people. Will consist of highs, lows, sad, angry, depressed, rejuvenated, inspired and anything else. It all will be manipulated and turned into a positive energy force like a five year old imagination in action.

Why? Because I have an agenda, an agenda to not be 50 and realized I missed opportunity due to fear of what others think. Why? Because a decade ago someone took me off park benches and walked down Highway 57 and told me I was going to do something. I'm not letting him down. Because my Aunt created this and I told her I would if she did. I'll hold up my end of the bargain. Because January 2nd at breakfast someone told me to be "mentally strong" and I'm not going to let him be wrong. He usually isn't wrong about people I've learned. Because I don't know who Lance Armstrong is, that yellow bracelet can't be tainted since I remember that more for an angel named Luke. Not some cyclist that was doping. He saved me at my lowest. Pay it forward was his suggestion. Best way I know how as of this moment, is in these words. Luke I miss ya. Because another friend told me I owed it to him to keep writing. My bad I took hiatus, RIP Beav. As you used to say "you already know". Last but not least because I was raised by the Michael Jordan of moms, and she always told me to be the best me i could be. I'm still trying.
Why do it now? Because it officially is MJs birthday. Because I asked for help on Facebook with the technical stuff and several offered up there help. For those people I wont take this slow, I'll let it go and fill in the blanks on this blog later.

Because is one of a five year olds go to words. Along with "I Want".

I want to just try. Life's a time trial and I'll keep on trying. I'll try for my daughter. I want her to be special beyond what even my wildest of dreams envision. I believe in kamra. I want to create her a typhoon of good karma if I'm able and I won't know unless I try. So I'm trying because I want something. I want to be better. I want to start to repay this eternal debt of blessings and angels gave to me far past the few I mentioned above. I want YOU to be feel lucky like I have at times.

Five years olds need things. I need this. I need to be a better person so this helps hold me accountable and true to the vision of the world I believe we can create. I don't need to change the world but I need to make my corner of the world better. So do you. You being better does not affect my life it benefits me. Your best is whats best for me and my best is what's best for you. I need to be a team player. This is what I can give to the team.

This is the beginning of "What I Learned in A sandbox of Angels".

It's really a bunch of things all driven by a singular vision of giving back and hopefully making one person smile. Make one person better then they intended that morning when they woke up. That's all my sandbox has been about in the 20/20 hindsight of my life...im just starting to appreciate it more a score and five years later.

The most cinematic thing in life is emotion and passion in its rawest form. That five year old in you had it.  Always. The sun is coming down on my second blog post and inevitably the longest. It's a vision. A belief. It's you. Ultimately it's mostly all of you behind these words, I'm Robin to your Batman.

It doesnt always have to make sense I said of being a five year old as long as it invigorates your soul. When the sun drops a part of that five year old hangs on running out of his sandbox hopping on his bicycle making some extra laps up and down the driveway. Racing the sunset his bicycle tires roll over pebbles like I envision this blog rolling over negativity and missed opportunities in your and my corner of the world. I'm not a teacher but rather a teammate, a father, a brother, a coworker,  cousin, friend and someone you can confide in.

Just a five year old in a sandbox and I want to build something. Only as strong as you all helped make me and this will be a process but I'll recreate myself from a five year olds soul. Tommorrow will be the new best day of your life. Find your five year old with the wisdom you posses now.

That's life in its purest and most authenticated form of passion you ever possessed. Just ask him. See you when the sun comes back up, I'll be in the sandbox. Learning and trying. Believing. I'll see you there.

God Bless & Stay Cool Good People :)
Joe

What if a day such as Friday the 13th known universally for its bad luck actually brought you the greatest of luck. What if the person your friends never told you to leave actually brought you the greatest joy by saying goodbye. What if your greatest fear became your greatest blessing. What if your demons of a decade ago actually converted to your greatest ally in life. What if 30 really was the new 20. What if you thought the impossible was simple thru being mentally strong.... What if you were selfish and that ultimately taught you to give back more then you imagined. What if you made the world around you yours based solely on the power of a good attitude. What if the people you haven't see or speak to are actually the fuel that lights your fire. What if you just refuted the devil based on the heaven you believe in and nothing else. What if you stopped saying "what if" and everything became "I will" or "I did". What if you realized "what if" always gives you a choice. We legitmize "what if" by often defining it as destiny. You are "what if" in everything you do awake. Go paint your destiny and in moments of what if just decide what it WILL BE.....just a thought but these above aren't questions they are propositions really. You choose. God Bless & Stay Cool Good People
‪#‎BeABetterYou‬
‪#‎HelluvaLife‬
‪#‎StillLearning‬

Sometimes the questions are complicated but the answers are simple. -Dr. Seuss