Michael

Erica’s mother turned 85 today. What a fantastic milestone. A huge party was thrown in her honor. People flew in from all corners of the country. It was quite the event!

I liked the fact that people cared so much about Marge that they not only took the time to come to Newport for the weekend but some flew hundreds and thousands of miles. Wow! That says a lot about her and the friendships she has made over her lifetime.

I find inspiration from Marge in the many countries that she has traveled. I looked at the list of places she has visited over her lifetime and was astounded. In some years she visited half a dozen countries and she traveled like this regularly for most of her life. I got the travel bug late in my life, but it bit hard and I can’t seem to get enough.

The other thing that inspires me about Marge is the time and money she gives to worthwhile charities and other important organizations. She is continually working to help improve the lives of others. She doesn’t talk about it. She just does it, day in and day out.

Finally, the third thing that I enjoy about Marge is her independence. It’s one of the first things I noticed about her after our initial introduction. It’s a great lesson and inspiration for all who meet her.

So, Marge, Happy 85th Birthday! I can’t wait to celebrate your 90th with you. It will definitely take that long to work off all the food we consumed for 8 or 9 hours today.

Michael

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. – Chili Davis

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children. – George Bernard Shaw

I’m sixty years of age. That’s 16 Celsius. – George Carlin, Brain Droppings, 1997

Well, it was a great day for me! Phone calls from friends and family. Some really cool gifts and lots of fun.

I didn’t have to work today which was an added bonus. So, I started off really slow and just stayed relaxed for the rest of the day. One of my favorite parts about birthdays is the calls from friends, family and this year B-Day messages on Facebook. I’m very fortunate to have the friends and family that I do. They are a great gift!

The kid in my really comes out on birthdays. I just want to do things that are fun and really fun.

Erica took me out to a great restaurant in Providence and then we went to see Cirque du Soleil, specifically their Alegria production. Alegria means jubilation in Spanish and let me tell you, this show was full of it. I can’t describe what I saw, but I didn’t know the human body was capable of some of things I saw tonight.

Cirque du Soleil was unbelievable and a perfect ending to a perfect day.

Thanks to everyone for calling, sending me messages or texting me. It made for a special time.

Michael

Fathers, like mothers, are not born. Men grow into fathers and fathering is a very important stage in their development. – David Gottesman

It is much easier to become a father than to be one. – Kent Nerburn

I don’t know about other fathers, but I didn’t find being a father to come naturally. I had to learn how by trial and error, patience and a lot of hard work. Thank goodness my daughter had an excellent training program. This year I wanted to do something a little differently. I am a father because of my daughter. Without her, I’d just be another guy. lol

Here’s what my daughter helped me to learn:

1. Unconditional love
2. Courage
3. Selflessness
4. Patience
5. Joy
6. How to laugh at myself
7. The true meaning of fear (i.e. I was initially terrified that I would be a bad parent)
8. How to focus on the present moment
9. How to have fun like a child again
10. What it really means to raise a teenage daughter

Thanks Linsday! It’s a gift to be your dad.

One of the reasons I’m in Austin is to attend our annual family reunion. We typically hold this event sometime around the fourth of July. This year we had 17 of us but it can swell to over 35 if most everyone can show up.

I always enjoy coming to our family reunions as I don’t get to see many of our family during the year except for this one time. So, we typically spend a lot of time catching up on everything that has happened since we last saw each other.

But, mostly we laugh and laugh and laugh. We have many comedians in our group, so someone is always saying something funny and then the rest feeds off that. We can’t seem to help ourselves.

This year was packed full of activities: golfing, geocaching, eating, hiking, cave exploration, shopping, eating, swimming, playing guitar and more eating. Exploring the Inner Space Caverns was definitely a highlight.

I’m thankful for the family I have. There is never a moment where I feel alone. We all help each other if needed and enjoy each other’s company.

But, mostly I like the laughter. It’s a big selling point for me.

Have a great day!

Michael

My grandmother had her 94th birthday today. We call her Dee Dee. Her nickname was my idea as I couldn’t say grandmother when I was very young. Dee Dee worked well in my limited vocabulary at the time. The name stuck and everyone since has called her by that nickname.

Dee Dee is still as spunky and bright as she was 40 years ago. I was thinking about what has changed in the world in 94 years and it is staggering; technological advances that would be science fiction for people in 1915; multiple wars but more importantly thousands of incidents where people helped others out of every crisis imaginable. The world is more connected now than ever before.

In my grandmother is the seed of what we should all be following. It’s simple. She takes each day as it comes and makes the most of it. She works on keeping her attitude high and doesn’t hold on to negative things for very long. She seems to enjoy her life and doesn’t appear to have any regrets. Finally, she is appreciative of the life she has now and has lived.

I find her attitude inspirational and it has been a major input to my own life philosophy.

Dee Dee, Happy Birthday! I look forward to sharing many more with you.

Michael

Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them. – Lady Bird Johnson

Belief. It’s a powerful influence not only for children but adults as well. By sharing your belief in someone else, you can actually help them instill that same belief within themselves. It’s a great way to help people and one of the best ways to enable others to learn how to help themselves.

I’ve seen it in work situations, my friends and my daughter.  People will rise to your expectations. Sometimes that is all they need to get going. Once that fire is lit, it will burn on its own eventually.

When you worry about someone or have anxiety and fear, then you are feeding their lack of success. Empathy may not be the answer to helping somebody. Seeing past their own faults and looking into their true nature is the only way to help them. If someone is feeling down, you can’t help them by feeling down also. If someone is talking negative or having negative thoughts, being negative with them will not help them. In fact, all that does is bring you down also. It’s important to not feed someone’s dysfunctional belief in themselves. Show them a different way, a different perspective. That’s the best gift you can give. Sometimes it’s just the support people need to get out of a challenging situation.

Next time you are with friends, family or coworkers, look and see what your beliefs are concerning them. Are you helping them or feeding their hindrances?

Michael

With a heavy heart I left my daughter and her boyfriend in Yosemite. Unfortunately, I have to fly back to New England tomorrow on a very early flight.

I’m a very lucky father in the fact that I have a fantastic daughter. We also share a love of nature and the outdoors. Hiking with her is fun because we both love the details of the hike; looking for unusual things, animals, plants, rocks and simply enjoying the experience overall. It’s fun to share that kind of activity especially with family. We are already planning our next adventure.

Before I left, my daughter’s boyfriend asked me if I regretted doing the Upper Yosemite Falls hike. I said, “Ask me in 72 hours. That’s when I expect the sore muscles to be back to normal.”      Truly though, I don’t regret it one bit. The difficulty of the hike was more than rewarded for the sense of accomplishment and the view that very few people get to see.

I have learned to regret very little now. I don’t find it a useful thought process or emotion. Regret implies that we have made a mistake. If you are moving through life, trying out new things, endeavoring to have new experiences, how can you have any mistakes? If something doesn’t work out or you don’t like it, then you have more information than you did prior to that experience. You simply move on to the next logical step whatever that might be. There are no mistakes. Bumps in the road maybe, but no mistakes.

No regrets! Throw that phrase out of you vocabulary. You’ll be much happier for it.

Michael

My sister had a great Christmas present idea for our grandmother who is 93 1/2 years old. Presto makes a device that allows people who don’t have a computer to receive emails, photos and etc. through a special printer that connects through a regular phone line.

We went over to my grandmother’s apartment tonight and set up the device and connected it to the phone line. Within 30 minutes the setup had been configured and my grandmother received her first two printouts. One was from me and it was a simple photo of my daughter eating oatmeal today. The other was a written email with a photo of my sister’s family.

Wow! Our grandmother was overwhelmed (in a good way), felt joy at getting some photos and then shed some tears because she understands how she will be more connected now to the entire family.

You know, we all have the same desire and that’s to know that someone, somewhere is thinking about us and cares. Our family is spread all over the country which makes it hard to get together all at once. So, now, my grandmother’s world just expanded exponentially and she can more easily stay connected to the rest of the family who takes technology for granted.

It was a wonderful evening.

Thanks sis for the great idea!

Michael

The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. – G K Chesterton

There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. – Robert Louis Stevenson

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. – Katherine Hepburn

It is a happy talent to know how to play. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our family had some fun today!!!! The kids opened a few more presents this morning. We all worked hard to prepare the traditional Christmas lunch/dinner. We played a few games, mainly Rockband 2 for the Wii. The movie, Yes Man, was our pick for a holiday movie. It was light, fun and nothing too heavy.

After a small dinner we started a tournament with the Wii. There were eight of us and six competitions; 1 from Rockband 2 and the rest from Wii Fit. The competition was fun but the main point was to do something together. We don’t get to see each other as much as we would like over the year, so we make sure we do a lot at Christmas time.

Lots of laughter, fun, more laughter, conversation, more laughter, competing in the events, more laughter. Did I mention that we laughed a lot?

We played. It’s that simple. No worries. No drama. No work. Just play. Adults don’t play enough. We need to re-learn that lesson from our children. It’s so important to psychological health. It’s vital for our growth and mental stability to just let go and be silly sometimes. No one will care.

Break out of your routine. Stop following your rules and routines for short periods of time. It will keep you fresh, happier, open and most importantly, increase your periods of fun. You’ll start living more and therefore have more to give others.

Why not start right now?

Michael

Tonight was the night where we sat and opened presents from each other. I have always loved this tradition. There is a lot of laughter and many special moments. It’s fun to watch someone get what they were wanting and seeing the joy in their eyes.

I was thinking a lot about family tonight. We are all so unique but we share a very strong common bond. We all have our peculiarities, eccentricities and quirks but the focus is on the positive aspects of each other. Accepting someone means accepting everything about them, both positive and “negative”. The differences can be celebrated just as much as the similarities.

These lessons in unconditional love can easily translate to other things in our world. Instead of focusing on what we don’t like about someone or what we disagree with, why don’t we find what we do like instead? For example, maybe their political views are divergent from ours, but they have a great sense of humor and do a lot of charitable work. Or maybe someone has religious views that we don’t subscribe to, but they exhibit fantastic family values.

Look for the good things, the positive things and the things that make us happy in people. If we spent our time focused here instead of complaining, disagreeing or disregarding then the world would dramatically change. We can start right now making a difference by being just a little bit more tolerant.

Have a great day!

Michael