Take Back Your Life!

Always fascinating how column/blog topics enter the psyche.

Was listening to one of my singing idols — Julie London — do her sultry rendition of The Door’s Light My Fire. It’s terrific. Listen to it here on You Tube.

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire

(Lyrics to live by.)

Just my kind of karaoke song. Unfortunately for my higher vocal range, they only seem to offer the original by The Doors. So, I re-listened to The Door’s version and learned from the CD jacket how the band got its name. (more…)

I’m in the throes of an abstract painting class intensive. Instructor’s right up my muse alley. He’s constantly uttering rebellious phrases.

And I’ve been writing a lot of them down, like “dare to be messy.” (Of course, I love this. As a messy person, I’ve faced serious discrimination beginning at overnight summer camp when the best candy bars went to the cleanest lodges. My messiness often resulted in my entire cabin sharing a pack of Wrigley Gum instead of us each savoring our own Snickers.)

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Hey rebellious friends,

I bought a bargain book about a month ago. Something about the title, “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart” prompted me to pick it up and thumb through it. I share most of author Gordon Livingstone’s philosophy on life and have blogged often about similar topics. I love all his chapter titles, especially the one I borrowed for today’s post: We Are Afraid of The Wrong Things. (more…)

I have a tendency to lean towards the hysterical, the passionate, the out-of-control. It took me many decades to get there and I’m proud of it.

Why?

Because I feel alive. (more…)

I’m constantly dreaming up new life shops. It’s in my creative blood. Sometimes I offer the same life awakening experience twice. More often, I take the “best of” material along with me to a new gig and give it a twist of creative lime or lemon.(Interestingly enough, I do the same thing at karaoke. The thrill of doing a new song, get’s my adrenaline pumping. And travel. Like to keep going to new villages and sites. Almost like I’m a modern day Lewisitta and Clarkitta). (more…)

If you’re old enough to remember Get Smart, then you may recall that when Maxwell Smart and the Chief wanted secrecy they buzzed down the transparent Cone of Silence. Ironically, the Cone louded up their conversation to the point they couldn’t hear each other while inside the cone and often had to communicate through a bystander outside the cone who easily heard everything they said. (more…)

There’s a lot of self-loathing in the world. Lots of folks who don’t love or even like themselves.

I used to be one of them.

It’s hard to say for sure, but I don’t believe I entered the world disliking myself. That self-horror emerged along the way, beginning most likely when I entered first grade and the judgments began. (more…)

Somewhere along the childhood line I started to lie when confronted about “doing” something. I believe it stemmed from being punished when I admitted to fairly minor household transgressions like eating the cake or tracking mud into the house. Like any kid I started to put two and two together and realized I came up with punishment 10. Unfortunately, this behavior followed me into life beyond childhood. (more…)

I got the idea for this Musepiration from a comment I left on a friend’s post (thanks Jenna) and from a comment someone left on one of mine (thanks Patty). A good reason to leave comments — it gets everyone’s creative juices flowing.

Adults seem to have a fear of beginning, even activities they desperately want to do. Conversely, children usually have the confidence to leap into new things. If you’ve been reading my blog lately, then you know I talk semi-ad nauseam about the creativity restraints many school and work environments put on folks.

“Here, put on this mind-body-soul strait jacket. It’s GOOD for you.” (more…)

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research for my upcoming newspaper column on education or rather what we call education — it’s really schooling. Two very different concepts. Didn’t even know there was a difference until six years ago when I stumbled on my first book by John Taylor Gatto, “Dumbing Us Down.” Since then I’ve read tens more. (more…)