Pretty Fly for a Bright Guy...

Each Day Born Anew

2011-10-15T11:12:00.000-04:00

The brilliance of morning always reminds me of life's most valuable approach, one I seek though most often find difficult to full fill: We must live each day anew"

So many of us preach, "...live for the day." We expound, "...live in the present," but this is not nature's way. The squirrel does not live only for the moment. Rather, he plans for the future while not being discouraged by his past. In some senses he is in the moment - but only because he has not allowed his past to be pushed forward to create fear. From this point he lives each day anew, with hope and power and creativity. He reaches from today into tomorrow. We can learn from nature's lesson.

Make ready for tomorrow. Relish today. Discount yesterday as already done. End fear and live with energy.

Happy Living Folks

Gregory K. Cadotte

Birds in Bright Sky

Clouds Opening |

Treed Sunrise

Flowa Powa...

2011-10-14T12:01:00.000-04:00

Thorn with Purple

Pond Flower with Green Background

Number One Sunflower

The Blues...

Sunset Crane

2011-10-09T21:45:00.000-04:00

Sunset Crane

Glossy or Matt Finish

Fall Dreams

2011-10-08T16:37:00.003-04:00

I have always found Fall to be a wonderful time of year, and time of presence and presents, nature's way of easing us into the coming winter. Enjoy...

Gregory K. Cadotte

Hawk in Flight

Purple Flowers with Children

Bee on Fall Flowers

Sunflower

Milkweed Pods

A Storm is coming...

Weeds in the Wind

An Ear of Corn in the Field

October Mornings

2011-10-08T16:22:00.003-04:00

Bird in Changing Sky

Sun Rising through Stacks

Perfect Sunrise

Heart Song

2010-12-20T20:51:00.004-05:00

“I am not going to wait another minute to be happy…”

Usually I quote another writer when I begin an article but today I have quoted myself – for the very first time I might add. I laugh, but really this is the truest statement I have ever spoken. If I had to think when I said it I would lie and say I cannot remember. But I do remember and it was the moment I decided to be myself without reservation, when I took control of my inner-responsibilities.

What are these inner responsibilities we hand off so often to others? Simple stated we allow others to make us happy or to make us miserable. We wait for love as if it will define us. We allow our associates to tell us we are beautiful or ugly, to tell us we are good or bad and we listen to their opinions as if our lives depend upon them.

Wait for nothing, silly children. Listen to your heart and guide yourself. Did I say the word ‘silly’? I in this I point to myself first. I am like a child. So, hear what my heart had to say to straighten me out. It said, “ Wake up stupid and grasp something no one else has handed you. Take the world for a spin and dance the dance of King David as he entered Jerusalem. Remember what it feels like to be a King?”

What does a King wait for?

So, why are we waiting for others? More importantly, why are we waiting for them to make us happy? Is it even possible for others to control our heart? Of course not. Freedom and happiness are not gifts we find under the tree at Christmas time or under the sheets with our favorite soul. Freedom and happiness appear despite our relationships and natural desires, whether that desire be the love of our girlfriend or that relationship be the gentle company of our children.

Healthy relationships are the product of existing love. Love is not the product of healthy relationships. And what is this love? It is self-love, healthy and joyful love of every speck of our own soul, our heart and our body. Unless we are free and happy with ourselves we will never be free and happy with anyone else. Consequently, unless we are free in our existing world we find will never find freedom in the world of others. Our outer world is a reflection of who we are inside. That is the truth of it.

So, quit your whining – and I say this in the nicest way possible.

Listen. This is the most important sentence you will hear today: Don’t wait another minute to be happy.

This life-thought will reflect in every face you see and every smile you steal -and one day you will wake up you will find that you live in the world of your dreams with the girl of your heart - and with some smelly dog you can never get to take a bath.

Smelly dogs. That problem is for my next blog because I find I am out of things to say today.

Stay tune. My smelly dog story will be a doozy….

December 12th

2010-12-12T14:21:00.005-05:00

I met Honey one morning quite un-expectantly while searching the downtown for a cup of coffee. As I remember, the morning was cool and dark; one of those near-winter mornings reminding us snow is on its way and will collide with our schedules for months to come. Secretly I must tell you, I first saw Honey a few weeks before as she sat knitting away in a comfortable lounger in my favorite coffee shop.

Honey. Let’s see, if I had to describe her I would say she was an older gal in her sixties crowned with a stylish felt cap with a pair of glasses slid down her nose to see the working edge of her knitting. So, she had a studious look to her – a loner’s gaze - but still she faced the crowds as if to say, “…I dare you to say hello.” Personally, I think she rather likes people but she says it quietly – the way a lioness smiles before she crunches on old bones.

I think I did say, “…hello,” that first night but we are not talking about first nights, are we?. We are talking about early mornings – one specific early morning when she caught me completely off guard. As I remember her walker was pushed to the table like a servant and as she moved her coat and scarf aside, she placed two cameras on the table.

“I’ve been to see the Pope,” she announced,”…I’ve been to Rome and it doesn’t look near as bad as I thought it would look.”

I’ve never been much for the Pope but I love a good Roman story as much as the next heathen so I set my coffee down at her table and shuffled into the booth to see what I could see.

As I looked through the photographs I could tell she was slightly uncomfortable in my company. After all, I was a new face pushed too close to her and she knew it. It was more in how her eyes moved, how they shifted to and from my face too quickly as if not to get caught up in details. It was not a great fear but it was fear, the slight apprehension of someone new intruding in a world somewhat old. We all do it – and this fear must be pushed aside if we want our world to grow. Honey did just fine for as she settled into her explanations of the Castle of Angels and the foods she tried and cafes she visited I saw her eyes rest calmly on my face and mine soon rested calmly on hers and we became friends.

People are not so scary really. I wonder why I constantly forget this. And here I am preaching, I the one who should sit in the back row because I know less than nothing. However, my lack of knowledge has never stopped me before so why should it today.

So, I will continue. We are not surrounded by strangers so much as we are surrounded by mothers and daughters and fathers and sons. (My heart taught me this, a blasted muttering fool with no sense whatsoever.) We are surrounded by what we have always been surrounded by – our friends and our loved ones, our family – only these ones have new names and new faces and new experiences.

I met Honey that morning – and although she is not my mother she is my mother. I’ve met so many people the last while, so many I wonder how I will remember their names – but they are not names, they are stories of life framed by nervous eyes and a quiet demeanor. And then they settle down into friendship. They can be disarmed with a simple question of, “How was your day?” or by asking their name. And suddenly they are talking to us and we are talking to them and the world grows a little more vivid with each word.

Damn it. I am leaving now.

I turn and look around. Why am I typing alone at a table in the market when there are a thousand more mothers to meet and a million more sisters to care for and a hundred brothers to find. Fathers are beyond count and mostly bald and fat - but who cares?

I am off to seize the day. Beware. I am coming for you….

How was your day? I just thought I would ask.