Rolling Back... On Sanity!

Hey crazy cats, I'm really trying to get back into the swing of writing more. I came across a little situation that really called out to me. I write about goofy stuff and some serious stuff. I usually try to mix both of them up, so as not to bore you to death.
 Today's topic is about keeping sanity, grace, and strength during rough times. There are times, in every one's life, where we just want to throw in the towel and hang up the gloves. You know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the epic adventure of shopping at Walmart!
 I, for one, have a Super-Duper-Mega-Collossal-Epic-24 hour-7 Day A Week (even on Rapture Day) Store in my neck of the woods. It literally sits right across the street from me. It is a Mecca for those who wish to spend their money. It's like a mega mall right at your fingertips.
 A couple of interesting things about this place, which also brings me to the essence of this entry...

1. No matter what time or day it is, the place is always, and I mean ALWAYS, packed. I swear the place is a mall purgatory!
2. You can never ever find parking! I once witnessed a lady trying to park as I walked in the store. When I left, two hours later (reason behind that to come), she was STILL looking for a spot!
3. I don't mind Walmart hiring handi-capable people. But why, tell me why do they have to hire some really strange handi-capable people? You know the ones I'm talking about too! They look like circus show runaways! They look like they escaped from the Ripley's Believe It or Not exhibit!( going to hell for that one). They take 45 minutes just to put one item into a bag. And while I'm on the subject, why is it that they can tell you EVERYTHING Paul, Ringo, John and George ever did but can't tell you where the hell is the dental floss aisle is at!?
4. What's the deal with the Walmart Security System thingy always ringing on me? It doesn't ring on anyone else! i can have a stick of gum in the bag and I'll be pulled over and groped as if by TSA at the airport as if I'm going on a transcontinental flight to Yemen.
5. What the heck is up with 40 billion registers and only TWO of them are open!!!! I swear the lines are soooooooo long.  Then you get the little "juvey" delinquent whose got an attitude all the time. it isn't my fault you got busted selling smack at recess to your friends. Just scan my bubble gum and don't look at me with your yellow eyes, ugly perm/weave/balding hair and messed up teeth all angry cause you don't know how to scan the thing right. you already made me wait in your line for at least an hour just to get up to you, in time to hear you complain that you haven't taken your break yet. News flash! You work at Walmart! You get no breaks!
6. Why is it no one speaks English! I've heard Spanish, Hindi, Tagalog, Pashtun, German, Arabic, Swahili, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, French, Creole, Portuguese, Slavic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, and even Pig-Latin! All I wanted was dental floss and I left with gum!
7. Why is it that I always get that one senior citizen who wants to pay for their $1500 40 inch flat-screen TV in pennies! My question is why??????? All they do is watch "The Price is Right" and "Maurey"! You don't need hi-def for that!
8. I love the mom who thinks it's OK for her 30 kids to run around the store, grab the bicycles off the rack and ride around the store on them. Then she tries to act all motherly and say she's going to place them in "time out" if they don't behave. Lady they just killed the old guy, who bought the 40 inch flat-screen TV! Go over there and beat the snot out of them! I'll watch your cart as you do. Heck, it's only got a couple of boxes of  Massengil and a Danielle Steele novel in it anyway. No one wants to take that.
9. I know that Walmart is a multi-billion dollar corporation. why is it that they can't replace their messed up carts? All of the carts have at least one wheel that's "jacked up". Do you know how annoying that is when you hear the clacketie clack throughout your hell-on-earth ordeal?
10. Finally, we come to the final thing that annoys me about Walmart. Why do they sell guns and ammo right next to the back to school supplies? That's messed up! Just saying.....

Well, I'm going to end it here. If anyone has other things that they find annoying about Walmart please let me know. I would love to read some feedback. Well, gotta go. I'm running off to Walmart. Keep safe and dream big!

Shattered Heaven

Hey crazy cats! It's been awhile, so I'm gonna just jump into our subject today. I promise to bring everyone up to date as we go along, later on. An interesting subject has come up in the news. As a matter of fact, lately it's all you hear from Hollywood. From Courtney and David, to Arnold and Maria...Yep, you guessed it...break-ups! They're messy. They're hurtful. They're commonplace. Gone are the days of sticking to the end. Gone are the days of fidelity.
 So I did a little research before I started writing this entry. I found out that:

1. 50% of marriages end in divorce.
2. 60% of married men and 40% of married women have cheated at least one time in their marriage.
3. 80%-85% of married couples have flirted with co-workers.
4. In recent years, women have become more "aggressive" when it come to pursue a extra-marital affair.
5. 90% of those surveyed say that cheating is morally wrong, but not a crime.

 We see these numbers and really don't react to them as we should. In part, I believe, it's because we don't "feel" the pain. However, when you're on the receive end of an affair, things are very painful. Usually, the hurt spouse looks for a reason why the other spouse must've strayed. The feeling of anger, sadness, disbelief, and many others fill the mind.
 We share our most intimate moments with them. We fall in love. We envision a world where only they exist. We set forth our desire to spend our lives with them. We marry. It should be happily ever after, right? Well, marriage is a lot of work. It's basically like having lighted matches in a dynamite factory and expecting nothing bad to happen. Sometimes, it works out and no explosion. Other times...well, let's just say it's really....well, you get the picture.
 When it comes to infidelity, it's usually a death-blow to a marriage. Yet, even a marriage can survive such a devastation. If you want to save it, you can. It isn't easy. There is a lot of work to be done. It's something that you work at for a couple of months then it's fixed. You can't pretend it never happened or refuse to talk about it. Although it's extremely painful, it must be addressed...by both sides.
 There's going to be a lot of yelling. There's going to be a lot of cold nights. However, if you did the crime, then do the time. It's only fair. No one held a shotgun to your head when you married....unless, it was a shotgun wedding.
 Only a few chose to try to fix it though. Lately, it seems like its easier just to throw it all away and try to start anew. My question is then: how do we learn from our mistakes then? If you can walk away and not accept the consequences, how do you grow? We evolve only when we see our weaknesses and try to get rid of them.
 It's going to be interesting to see where "The Govenator's" situation ends up at. However, we all know how is it going to finish. I don't blame his wife. She's on the recieving end. I can relate.
 Anywho, I hope everyone has a beautiful weekend. Take care of your loved ones. Keep safe and dream big!

Who You Foolin' ?

 Hello crazy cats! It's finally getting warm here in Florida! I no longer have to turn on the heater at night and wear my long-johns to work....Actually, the only thing I did was turn on the heater. The cold-spell is finally leaving us.
 Well, it's almost Christmas. The trees are in homes across America. Almost everybody have finished their Christmas shopping. The families are making last-minute tweaks to their traveling plans, in order to see their loved ones. The festiveness is in the air.
 Two weeks from now, we bid 2010 goodbye. It was a rough year, but I feel it was a year of learning and growing. This year, I learned so much about myself. I've learned to truly forgive others, to move passed petty things that bothered me for so long and finally the meaning of being an open book to the rest of the world.
 In my journeys, I have let many, including everyone who read this blog, in on the ups and downs of this exploration. I haven't hid much, when it came to the pain and triumphs in my life. Many a times, I have wondered the reason or lesson behind some of the things that have happen. Sometimes, the lessons are easy. They are straight-forward and clear. Other times, it is like trying to find out the beginning and end of a noodle in a spaghetti plate.
 On thing I have tried to apply to every facet in my life is be true to oneself. Believe it or not, we do lie to ourselves. We lose track of our light within us. We forget to see things through the right lenses. We blame others for our misfortunes. We try not to accept responsibilities.
 Being true to oneself is to really be honest. If something is a crutch, vice, or addiction to us, accept it. Acceptance is the first part. Case in point, if we get to work late everyday, then we shouldn't be annoyed when we get called on it. If we lie to the people we care for, then why do we get upset when they call us on it? If we become angry at people after we did them wrong, then expect nothing good of it.
 We reap what we sow. There are times when we get shafted. It does happen. Case in point #2, I recently let myself really wide open. I trusted a certain person. I felt that I could say and reveal anything. I did. This person didn't hurt me, not one bit. However, they didn't even acknowledge the fact of my effort. It stung just a little. I was kind of bruised.
 Was it done intentionally? I doubt it. Was it done out of fear? Tough one to call. It isn't easy. I'm not easy. So the question is was I honest with myself? I guess I wasn't. I tried to fit a square peg in a triangle hole. I tried to turn a blind eye to the rest of the factors in a complex equation. In short, I lied to myself. Why? I don't have an answer.
  I don't want to go down that road again. However, as human as I am, I will. It's human nature. It bites. It stinks, but it's life. The easy way around this is to be honest with oneself. That way, All the obstacles are cleared. Once we are honest with ourselves, we have a peaceful conscience. We have no reason, on our part with our soul, to be upset, angry, or disillusioned.
 When we begin to be honest and accept ourselves, we begin a metamorphosis into someone better, someone we want to become. Well, this one is done. Everyone take care. Hopefully, I will make one more entry before the year is out. have fun! Keep safe and dream big!

Dying is Worth Living For

 Hey crazy cats, greetings from the icy depths known as Florida. We woke up this morning with temperatures in the low 30's! Wow! Talk about a wake up. I moved down here to escape the cold weather and it seems to be following me. I guess the saying is true; you can run, but you can't hide. However, I keep on. The weather will soon get back to normal and I'll be back in my short sleeves and shorts.
 Today's entry is going to be an extension of what I've been writing about recently. I've noticed that occurrences have been happening that have merited me to touch on the subject. I don't pretend to be an expert on any subject. let's face it, I'm not even a novice! however, from what I learn, I share.
 Today I want to talk about the human spirit and its need to triumph. We all love the underdog stories. We love "Rocky". We've all cheer at the end of "The Karate Kid". We all cried at the end of "Men of Honor". We are all taught to fight and triumph over adversity. It is embedded in our DNA. It is the thing to do. Never give up. Never die.
 We see it everyday in sports. Athletes battle everyday for victory. They fight for the honor and prestige of being known as champions. They get paid a outrageous salary to perform and succeed at their respected profession.
 However, one thing that we haven't been educated to do is lose. We were never trained to die. We never like or acknowledge defeat. We fear death from the moment we are born. We look at death as though it is the end of existence.We make excuses when don't succeed. Bruce Lee once said, "To accept defeat — to learn to die — is to be liberated from it."
 Once we accept defeat, death, or any other form of failure, we are liberated from them. We no longer fear the world. We no longer fear our limitations. We are not bound to the mediocre existence that others dread. We finally begin to live. We finally begin to cherish life. We see the beauty of it all.
  Life isn't about whose the fastest, whose the strongest, or whose the smartest. Life is about enjoying the journey, seeing the beauty, feeling the warmth of it all. We see the wonders of what the Devine Creator wanted us to see. We see the newborn's smile while they sleep. We see the colors of the sunset for the first time. We hear our souls for the first time.
 Now with all that being said, failure (actually, the acknowledgement of it potential existence) is actually a good thing. When we see life without limitations, we brave a new frontier. That, my friends, is one of my new things I've learned.
 Well, it's another one done. I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. Keep safe and dream big.

Open Door Policy

 Hey crazy cats,  it's another entry in the insanity known as this website. It's been awhile since my last entry. it has been busy in my life, but I really want to make at least one more entry before the year is out. So, as usual, I'm going to jump into thee subject of this here blog-thingy.
Recently, I came across an interesting life lesson. It came in the form of a question. The question is ; "does everyone I know know how I feel about them?" How many times have we let those opportune moments pass us by? We take them for granted. We  believe that we will always have tomorrow. We forget  how fragile our lives really are.
 We sometimes take the people in our lives for granted too. I'm not saying that death is always at our  doorstep. Sometimes, if we wait too long, they leave. They don't leave because they want to. They leave because we push them to.
 There are times where we don't say an "I love you" or an "you mean so much to me" or even an "I'm glad you're here". Sometimes, people leave because they feel unwanted or unneeded. Sometimes, we do need words of enlightenment. We do need to know where we stand.
 We  must always strive to be open books. We shouldn't keep our true feelings hidden from our loved ones. How do you  expect to grow and prosper if you keep that seedling in your heart hidden from the sun? If we are afraid of getting hurt, it renders us weak and afraid to let our hearts grow. If problems are like rain, then we must let it rain. Even plants need rain  to grow.
 If we are afraid to live and love, then we are already dead. If we are afraid to dare, then we have stopped dreaming. If we lose faith, then our lives have no meaning. It is easy to pretend to live and be strong. However, living is taking that risk. Living is being courageous and making your own destiny.
 Do not be afraid to tell anyone how you feel. Everyone you meet is in your life for a purpose. Cherish them. Care for them. Let them know.
 We are only here on this earth for a little while. We are here for only a fraction of  a billionth of a moment. Let's make it worthwhile. Be not afraid of being true to yourself. Be honest and explore. Love while you still can.
 Well, I'm going to call this one done. Before I go, I want to wish everyone a happy holidays. Have fun and enjoy one another. Keep safe and dream big.