Swing Batter Swing!

The day was August, 3^rd, 1972. A Dominican boy by the name of Paul had just struck out on a miserable day; the mosquitoes were thicker than a fog, the sun sweltering.  His team had been trounced 17 times in a row, and today, Paul swung out for the very last time. He decided as he heard the smug almost sarcastic smack in the catchers glove from a ball that was “just inside” that this would be his last stand at the plate.  He was done.  Nothing before this season started, nothing during and for sure nothing now could be deemed as any good.  The summer started out fast and hot, the constant fights between his parents culminated in a crazy nightmare. The slamming of two doors; the front one to his home and the one of his mom’s car as she sped away. She might have thought that she was just speeding away from her problems but Paul wondered if she considered that she was speeding away from him, his one and only mamma. 

With only his feet to keep him going, Paul trudged to the nearby block wall, threw his gloves and hat over it, leaned back and closed his eyes.

            “Hey kid.”

Paul quickly opened his eyes, shocked that someone had spied out his moment he thought of as private.

            “Hey kid. Why you feeling so bummed out, just a strike out. Even the Babe had almost 1,900 strike outs in his career. Funny thing is that no one remembers those because he kept swinging.”

Keep swinging.  Life is so terrifically hard these days isn’t it? Today, I just want to affirm what everyone else is thinking.  Life is a challenge.  What do we do with that? 

In the story above, Paul decides to keep swinging.  He ends up becoming a professional baseball player, and ends up breaking the homerun record of 1999. Paul decided to keep swinging, did you?

In this world, we can only do one of two things, be a member of the audience, eating hot dogs, drinking in all the sights and sounds and watching the action happen before us or we can be a participant; actually suit up, and say proudly, “I want to be a part of this.”  

I have to tell you, that is the most exciting part of the game. When you decide to actually step up the batters box, and swing!  

We will always have moments when we go down, but the greatest parts of life are when we have realized that we went down swinging, there is no shame, and we can confidently say we did our best!

This is our one chance to go for it; I am going to tell you now, don’t waste it.  Just think of this, Would you rather be…

…someone who watches the action from a seat in the stands? Sure that is safe, but what part do you play in it?

Or do you want to be a part of the action, swing and hit, or swing and strike out, but for God sakes, swing!  Every time you choose to swing, you will learn something; whether you strike the ball for a grand slam, or you completely miss it… the fulfillment is that we swung! Sometimes, we’re just not meant to hit it.  

So today, swing, you never know… Enjoy your week!

-Lou

Let it Fade?

                                           

“Memory. It’s the diary that we all carry...with us.” –Oscar Wilde

A memory carries with it the strictest implication of something that in most cases lies exclusively in the past, that we can not ever go back to or experience again. It is as Oscar Wilde puts it, our life’s diary.   

Growing up in rural southwestern New Mexico, my earliest memories are of camping trips to the Gila River, Bill Evans (quite possibly the most desolate lake I have ever visited) and Lake Roberts. I remember floating down the river on inner tubes, later crashing through the water on ATV’s. I remember Bill Evans as the place where I once fell in, and the story about it grew to enormous proportions (I think it’s now to the point where I wrestled a sea snake as my dad and uncle tried to rescue me). I think of Lake Roberts and the time when I did a 360 (read doughnut) in my 1955 Chevy hot rod as I missed the turn off with a buddy that is no longer with us. (I still think of you all the time Mark) Memories; they drive us purposefully to Nostalgia Road, drop us off for a time, but always beckon us back much too soon.    

I was talking to a friend the other day as she was half re-telling half-crying stories from her high school days and “the one that got away.” For homecoming one year, her boyfriend had given her a homecoming sash that she kept for well over 15 years! They had actually broken up well before then, however the sash remained as a memento of a great memory they experienced together and the reason it was finally discarded albeit reluctantly, was due to that fact that it finally started falling apart piece by piece from sheer age.    That’s when it dawned on me; memories are a lot like that huh? We love to play the role of a nostalgic lover, thinking about our glory days; periods when we had the time of our lives. There in that seldom opened room in our mind, among the hanging dust and clatter are special trips with friends, old girlfriends, old boyfriends, buddy’s and people we will never see again, and feelings or emotions that we will never again quite recapture in the severity or vividness we seem to remember them. 

We can ponder those long-ago moments just like the majority of our world, and truth be told, there is nothing wrong with that, but let me throw a wrench into that kind of thinking. What if you chose to live a life full of purpose and intent that woke with the determination to create brilliant and distinct new memories rather than simply run the hamster wheel? I know and you know that life is much too short.  Do we want to spend even a portion of it sipping from a bottle begging the question, “Remember when?” or do we want to rev the engine a little, shout out to our partner or partners “Hop on!” and go make some new ones? I chose to rev the engine today, who wants to ride?     

“There is nothing sadder than a life lost that was lived with an abundance of regrets, and there are times when I wish I would have said yes more, than in which I said no.”

                                                                                                                        -Louis 

Liberty?

I am going to start off this week’s blog with a little story.  There was once a rich young man who lived in his father’s house and had all that he desired.  His father made sure that he had the finest clothes, the nicest car to drive, and every time the young man opened up the fridge, it was brimming with food. On the surface, it seemed that the young man had everything he could ever want but nonetheless, perhaps out of sheer boredom, the young man approached his father and said, “I need to strike out on my own.  Give me my inheritance now, and I will make a life for myself away from your home.  The only reason I seem to have everything is because of what you provide. I want to find out if I can do the very same thing on my own; make a career, and find success apart from you.” (You may think you know the story, but keep reading) 

So the father obliged, gave the young man his inheritance, and like a flash in his 2012 Mercedes, he was off to try and make his own mark on the world. 

I’ll stop there for a moment. Have we ever given serious though to what liberty really is? By its definition, Liberty is defined by Webster as freedom from captivity. It makes sense to believe then, that liberty is freedom from any one thing that wishes to hold us captive. When we formed the United States, it was to gain freedom from Britain. When we as individuals choose (that is going to be the key word) to have a certain liberty, whether it is overindulging  in certain unhealthy foods, choosing to light up a cigarette, or even pursue a certain lifestyle, we do so with freedom, knowing that it is well within our rights as Americans to do so accordingly.  Here is where it gets a little complicated and muddy. What if that freedom which originated as a choice was now a “forced” freedom that is perceived to be by some the overarching “healthier value” we should all adopt? Can that then still be considered freedom? 

The year is young, and I’m still pondering how to “Carpe Diem”; I find myself understanding that the quickest way to being confident of the decisions I make is to fully comprehend what words really mean vs. what I am force fed daily by those with hidden and sometimes well-intentioned agendas.  Freedom is a birthright here in America and if you believe in it, then you have to fully believe in it.  We can’t just cafeteria-style pick the freedoms we should have, then deny every other one we don’t agree with. Freedom is the very DNA of what our country is founded on, and is what gave us our strength, virtue and inspired other countries to follow suit.  We as a people love to say that we are accepting of different cultures and lifestyles, but in the same breath, wrongly pursue some of those cultures and lifestyles we may not understand. We as a people say we are proud of having freedom, and yet try to push “forced freedom” which is really not freedom at all, unto others. My deepest disappointment is that I truly feel the reason our world is such a mess, is because we have lost the ability to genuinely care for or acknowledge someone as an equal even though they are different. I guess for some, that’s okay though.  After all, freedom if it truly is freedom indeed should be without limits and that even includes those that choose to be closed minded to others who do not think like them.

Oh yes, the story of the young man who got his inheritance early? Turns out he didn’t do too badly. He opened his own investment firm, made a ton of dough, and gave almost all of it away to charity. See, even though he had everything he could ever want by “forced freedom,” True freedom was having the ability to choose it for himself.     

Free Your Mind!

Welcome to 2013! As you and I begin to step forward into the New Year, many thoughts race and clamor for attention. One question in particular lingers, “Where do I want to go in 2013?” I am sure that many of you may be thinking the very same thing. One thing undoubtedly sure is that for most of us (including myself), we had at least one regret in 2012 that we would like to take back. Personally, I don’t mind sharing; the one regret that I personally want to take back was the empty emotion of feeling like I had to apologize for holding the bar so high.  I have always been a competitor. Ever since I can remember, there has been something inside of me that has always pushed to get ahead.  If you are one these people, I am just as sure that others around you felt the same competitiveness within you and at times may have even felt very intimidated. It’s that intimidation that others felt while I tried to be my very best, that in 2012 way too many times, I felt like I almost had to apologize for. It was like a racer apologizing for going to fast, or a shooter apologizing for hitting the target too many times. 

This year, I would like to give us all permission to free our mind, and to write-off apologizing for attempting to be the very best we feel we can be.  I was recently reading a survey, and it said that over 80% of people will never reach their personal goals in life. I read it one of two ways; that 80% either chose to quit on their dreams, or they were reaching for the wrong dream.

Let me quickly explain that; in life, either we will quit trying, or we will live in a fantasy world, never achieving that which we truly want.  Authentic and real dreams are in that perfect balance of a life restrained and devoted, and a life that is in step with the needs of their environment.  In short, either we will let people sell us on the fact that our dreams are impossible, or we will live painfully unaware of how unrealistic our dreams really are. How do you know the difference?

The difference simply put is this: Does the focus make you look like a superstar? Or does it have a shared win with others in such a way that will create a powerful and influential positive impact when that goal is finally reached? Are you just trying to be the A-list celebrity, or do you want to leave a positive mark on the world? Chances are, if you are just looking to inflate yourself, you may be headed towards a very empty, dissapointing and shallow goal, good luck!   

 

In life, we have to have non-negotiables.  What that means is there are things that we are just not going to do. Becoming people of purpose, people of vision, people of goals achieved, and people of dreams becoming reality, is also knowing very clearly what our non-negotiables are.  It’s when we struggle with acting boldly on those non-negotiables that we find we most fall or fail. 

Here is to wishing you becoming the very best, at being able to say “No.”

-Lou