Breakfast With The Bird

Perhaps it is merely contentment, but the words aren't just pouring out these days. I'm sitting here with Bogey, my Blue and Gold mccaw, sharing our breakfast of walnuts and banana. I'm the one doing the typing while he investigates anything in the kitchen that may possibly have changed since yesterday. Life seems to be on an even keel and the little things in life are just that and nothing more.
The biggest things coming up are counting my 55th year on the planet and the job move to a new remote building. I may have been concerned about those things in the past, but right now they since less important than the next piece of walnut.
Spring looks like it has decided to become a roaring hot Florida summer already and my thoughts turn toward the really important things in life; music and surfing. Like my family, they have stayed with me and I cling to the idea that I'll be playing the Doors in an Old Folk's home someday and pulling out a bar of surfwax to sniff and recall my days of gliding down the face of some glassy wave.
There is a saying, "If you used to be a surfer, then you never were." As a surfer who spent his life inland, I think I understand that saying as well as anyone could...

The Salt Water Buddha

I can't say why, because I really don't like reading about religion, but I do like reading books about adventures in life and how someone can learn from that. I'm reading the Salt Water Buddha now, which is one young man's journey of self-discovery. He runs away from home to live and surf in Hawaii and learns along the way that the journey itself is the important part. This is either the main recurring theme in books like this or the one I always pick up on. It started out with me saying, "one day I will be retired and boy will I have fun traveling and seeing the world then!". I later looked at the world of declining fortunes and realized that I might be lucky to keep a job at Home Depot so I can have medical insurance when I'm that old. So, I go on the adventures now and have little bits of my retirement in advance.
The other main theme is the quest I seem to be on to find that bit of wisdom that will finally make everything come together and make sense. From my readings (and even Kung Fu Panda!) I can already figure that the wise old man I am seeking will end up being me.
I have actually started getting some of this into my daily life. I now truly understand that surfing is not the 3 seconds on the face of a wave or the number of waves I rode in a particular session. Surfing starts with me pulling the bar of wax from my drawer and smelling it, driving over the causeway and getting my first whiff of saltwater, and even the struggle through the whitewater to get outside. The trick is loving every single part of it. You really don't have to be that smart to know this, you just need to be reminded once in a while...at least I do.

A Big Thank You

As I look around and take in all of the bad things in our world right now, there is one thing I know for sure; it is never ALL bad or good. I used to think of something going wrong and believing that the whole day was shot, or if enough bad things happened, the whole year was shot. And you know, I'm kinda getting that sort of news these days. 2009 sucks and all we can do is hope for 2010 to be better.
However, our gig at the 'Flats for Cinco de Mayo, was one of those shining moments that I seek in life: nothing but fun. We had so many people that if any one else had come, they probably left because there was nowhere to sit and the line for food and drink was so long. Among those that stayed, we had family, friends, long lost friends,well-wishing neighbors from our community, and really nice strangers.
They say you can't really seek happiness, but a few beers and good times with all of those people put a large smile on my face. If that wasn't what I was seeking, then it could never be found.
Thanks guys, for making absolutely sure that no one could ever say that 2009 was all bad....

What Is It About This Time Of Year?

Trimming the plants, spring cleaning, big changes at work, and in church they made sure you got the references to Easter and its meaning in there. This is the time of year to let go of old things and embrace the new. It's more difficult when you liked what you had and what is being offered is something less. But, I have learned it firsthand in life, in order to try something new, you have to be willing to stop doing something else. Some of the best surprises in my life were situations like that.
Pretty soon I will be moving away from some great friends and I know that even in this day of instant communication, it is hard to maintain those friendships from a distance, or perhaps THAT itself is the lesson; to keep those friendships going, even if it is more difficult. Then there is the possibility of new friendships and adventures. Maybe even a song or two.

You Can Feel It In The Air

April is feeling like the month of change. We have gone from drought to a weather pattern that keeps us guessing. There is a hot wind blowing right now and the forecast is for lots of rain, but they keep missing on the rain part. My wife's school might get closed down and I'm am supposed to get moved with my department to a building my company purchased to deal with the overflow of staff. It's crazy, like watching the construction of high-rise condos when the housing market is upside down.
The cool thing about life when things start getting less predictable is that we start to question the most basic parts, like what it is we truly desire. Is it money? A life of leisure? The adoration of the crowd? Sometimes it seems like all I really want are some snapshots of me with my friends and family having fun.

Back Among the Living

I'm finally starting to feel normal after a bout with the stomach flu. Nothing like a short break with an illness like that to remind you about how quickly it could all be over. Lying there, curled up in fetal position on the bathroom floor, I could see how people come to the decision that life is just too painful to take. It was a lesson to not take it for granted that almost every day of my life I wake up happy and ready for the world.
We had a band party last weekend and got a little jam going on. That reminded me of why I"m doing this; you can't get that sort of thing playing alone in the studio. Sometimes you just need to cut loose. You get a moment where everything melts away but the beat, and you are very close to the cave men dancing around a fire thousands of years ago.
It was worth the price of beer and hotdogs to get a few minutes of that energy. It needs to happen again soon.

All I Have To Do Is Last 3 More Years

I come to learn that the world only has 3 more years to go, according to the Mayan calendar and the I Ching and other sources that predict the future. For some people that is a horrible thing, thinking that the end is near, but the truth is, it is always near. For me, it was a bit of a comfort. Hey, I can last three more years of a bad economy, and whatever else comes our way. The idea of trying to last for 50 more years is much more daunting.
I figure if you only have 3 years left, it is about time to start hitting the waves and playing some music!