I seldom write my blogs within a few days of each other.

I seldom reveal deep personal information about my life.

I almost always say what others do we can’t control and we shouldn’t let that bother us.

All of that is changing for this One Minute Blog!

I’ve been “powering through” some physical challenges recently. It’s been tough and very slow but the bottom line is that I’ve been “powering through it!” After a great day yesterday with loved ones, I woke up this morning feeling great! Physically I felt better than the day before and mentally and spiritually I felt better and more powerful than I have in a long, long time thanks to an amazing infusion of love from my son and daughter who visited yesterday. That was all about to change.

I had breakfast at McDonalds and decided to walk to a nearby bus stop instead of calling an Uber. As I was almost completely through a full parking lot, I was just a few feet from a full line of cars in line the their drive-thru meals. I stepped up onto a slightly elevated walkway and my foot caught the edge. I went down in the parking lot like Muhammad Ali had just delivered a perfect shot! I lay there in the parking lot rolling around for a few minutes because the pain. I knew I hit my knee and leg, by back, shoulder, elbow and most vividly, I felt a sharp pain when my ribs hit the side of the walkway and felt not only the pain but felt the pop. Most importantly, I also knew instantly I did not hit my head and that I rolled with the impact as I had been taught as a young man.

I was thinking clearly but knew that I needed to regroup and see how bad I might be injured.  As I rolled around I saw the sky, the tree limbs above, I could hear the cars and the drive-thru speaker going off. I vividly remember looking back and to the left for the help I knew was on the way as I was still rolling and moaning. I remember it because the 2 people in one of the cars in the full drive-thru line, were pointing at me and laughing! There was no doubt because the passenger kept pointing as he was almost hysterically laughing! It was almost surreal. I did a quick reality check by asking myself some questions and answering them out loud in between loud moans. There was no mistake. There was a full parking lot and a full line of cars and no one even asked if I was ok.  WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING PEOPLE!?!

I managed to roll out of the parking lot and onto the walkway where I struggled to sit up after a few more minutes. Again I did another quick self check. While I knew that I could physically somehow get up, I was much more concerned about my mental and spiritual injuries. (More on that in a moment.) I struggled to find a base as I had been taught. Again, I assessed my physical injuries. Can I stand up? Yes. Do it then!

I gathered all of the physical focus I could muster and with each small and shaky step got closer and closer to that bus stop where I would ride home and walk carefully into my house. The grand dichotomy was that with every feeble step I took physically, I was fueled by a fire and rage mentally and spiritually that I had not felt for years. It scared me.

The rest of the physical toll is yet to be told, but I don’t think I’m dangerously or seriously injured. Injured yes, seriously I don’t think so, but I know I’m walking a fine line and won’t hesitate to head to get medical help if I think I need it. The rest of this blog will finish with my ongoing mental and spiritual struggles.

I’m having trouble letting go. Here are the facts…

•I know there were at least a few people who saw my fall and my struggling.

•I also know not one of them stopped to yell “Hey, are you OK?” Not one of them rolled their window down to check on me. Not one of them stopped pointing and laughing at the old, disabled guy rything in pain to show any remnant of humanity. Not One!

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING PEOPLE!?!

Have we really come this far? Are we so self absorbed and egomaniacal that in the United States of America we’re too busy to even feign concern for someone else, much less be amused by it?

Oh don’t worry, I’m not letting myself off the hook here either! I NEED TO BE BETTER! I need to let it go. I need to focus on me and not them. I need to remember that positive energy brings positive energy and healing and negative energy brings exactly the opposite! I need to be better than I was, than I am right now!

I also need to realize that I’m human. We all get mad and we all feel things that we wish we wouldn’t be feeling. THAT’S WHY I’M WRITING THIS VERY UNCOMFORTABLE ONE MINUTE  BLOG (OK, we’re wayyyy past one minute, sorry.) We all will have times, hours, days and longer where we’re not exactly who we want to be. Here’s the important part, THAT IS OK! the mere fact that you know what’s happening, that you want to get better, that you’re feeling strong feelings you’re not comfortable with and even stronger feelings that you need to change them, is the key.

I’ve got lots of work to do and I’m doing my best to do it.

To answer my question from earlier…

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING PEOPLE!?!

I don’t know! That’s nothing that I would do. That’s nothing anyone I know would do. That’s nothing that I believe any of you would do. The facts are though that people did it. Not just one person or a couple of people or a few people but several people stood by and did nothing, zippo, zero! Several people saw somebody else’s problem. Some people saw a comedy skit playing out in front of them because they were too self absorbed to be anything resembling a caring, loving or kind human being.

What do we do? Strive to be better. Strive to be kind and loving and grateful and empathic. Strive to be the kind of human being that you would hope our maker hoped we would be. I hear what you might be thinking…”Yeah, but all those people didn’t help you and you might have been seriously hurt!” Yep! And that is exactly why we need to be better. IT’S WHY I MUST BE BETTER!!!

There’s many, many more people just like them who are exactly the same. At some point in their futures something really bad or really scary is going to happen to them, to their kids, the parents, their spouses or partners, their friends, neighbors or a complete stranger. When that time comes, THE WORLD IS GOING TO NEED PEOPLE LIKE YOU TO HELP THEM BECAUSE THEY WON’T! You deserve to be better than they showed today, so do I. Even during those times when when we don’t even know we’re looking deep within us to see who we are, we all deserve to see the person who will help. Let’s hope and pray that they will be that person tomorrow. If they’re not, I’m gonna do my best to have their backs. I hope you’ll join me.

Peace

     …..Gregg

PS…As I said earlier, I think I’m OK physically. I am still on guard and monitoring and continue to assess myself just as I did as I fell. Mentally and Spiritually I am who I am and doing my best to get better. On all fronts, I could use your thoughts, prayers and as much Positive Energy as you know how to send! Only Positive Energy for me and for all of those who decided not to act and all of the others like them. They need your help much worse than I do! I’m indebted to you.

Aren’t you tired of being mad?

I only have one question for you…

Aren’t You Tired of Being Mad?

It sure seems that the answer is no.

Almost everywhere you look people of all shapes and sizes are, excuse the verbiage, Pissed Off! About what? Well you can pretty much name it. Life, people, driving, Democrats, Republicans, Independents (Wait, Independents? Yep!), too many people in your life, not enough people in your life, sports teams, dogs, cats, fish and even some people are mad at the things I say! (They obviously are very troubled and need either therapy or to win the lottery!)

Seriously though, to answer the question about why “WE” are so mad, we first need to answer the questions about why “I” am so mad!

The time has come when we need to say that’s it’s not OK to constantly be mad and point fingers and rail at other people because they look differently, act differently, talk differently or even move around differently.

Well here’s a NEWSFLASH:

WE ARE DIFFERENT!

Look, your don’t make something better by ripping it apart! You also don’t make the world a better place by being mad all the time. Importantly, you also don’t make YOUR world any better by railing, hating, bullying, casting aspersions or creating a bigoted land of make believe where only you and those who always agree with you are always right. Tough words? Yep. Too tough? I don’t think so.

Look, we all need to start taking responsibility for our own thoughts, words, actions AND inactions! As great as it would be to make someone else stop being hateful and angry, we can’t. Only they have control of that, just as only we have control over what we think, say, do and don’t do!

So, as that noted modern philosopher Taylor Swift once said…

“And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off”

(Yes, I just quoted a Taylor Swift song in this One Minute Blog! …and moving on)

Whenever you feel yourself feeling mad here are just a few suggestions to shake, shake, shake it off…

…Ask yourself out loud if what your mad about is worth the time and energy you’re spending on it.

…Breathe! I know, I know. It works! Take 15 seconds and just breathe deep two or three times as you focus on your breath.

…Remember that whoever you’re mad at might be in the midst of the worst day that you could ever imagine. Does that excuse what they’ve done? No.  But it might help to explain it!

…Finally, whenever you start getting that mad feeling begin to rage, stop what you’re doing and immediately do something nice for someone else. It could be one of a million things…

•call someone and tell them you care about them

•tell someone who’s doing a good job that they’re doing a good job.

•tip someone you normally wouldn’t or someone you would, a little more.

•drop pizza or some flowers off for a nurses station for no reason or do the same at a Police Station or Firehouse.

•give an unexpected hug to someone you care for

•pull into a drive through and pay for the car behind you.

The original question here was aren’t you tired of being mad? I think maybe it should actually be

Aren’t You Ready To Start Being The Person You Were Meant To Be? The only way you can do that is to stop being so mad and start being grateful, kind, empathic and loving. None of those last four things I mentioned can happen when we’re mad, hateful, vengeful, bigoted or feeling discriminatory.

Finally, yes, I am tired of being mad! I’m tired of others being mad but much more importantly, I  am so tired of being mad myself. My Dad told me a long time ago that “It feels good to feel good!”

Man, it sure does! I hope a bunch of folks will try it!

Peace

     …..Gregg

What’s your number? You know, your number?

Don’t worry, I don’t know mine either, but we all have one. It’s probably the most important number we’ll ever have in our lives. I’m talking about the number of times our heart will beat from birth to when we say hello to whatever and whomever is next.

Sometimes it might be fast.

Sometimes it might be slow.

Sometimes it might even miss a beat or be irregular.

Sometimes it might even need some help to keep going.

Given all that though, we all have a number.

So, why concern yourself with pettiness, hate, bigotry or holding a grudge or even just not doing the truly important things in life because you’ll get to it tomorrow? When you really think about it, it just doesn’t make sense, does it?

Here’s the plain truth, there might not be tomorrow for that friend you’ve been meaning to talk with, the family member who deserves another “I love you” or the neighbor down on their luck or battling life as best they can. Here’s another lighting bolt of truth, there might not be another tomorrow for you either!

Now is the time to figure out what is important, who is important and how to make sure they find out! Then, get off your butt and deliver the message! Email, text, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, US Postal Mail, phone or IN PERSON,

DELIVER THE MESSAGE!

It’s one that will continue to live on or just die away. The choice is yours.

Peace

     …..Gregg