Welcome to the creation of Water Mark, my newest Flip magazine.
To Change Your Life, Change Your Life!
This is probably one of the most legendary events and stories of my life. It involves a person who had such profound influences in my personal growth and mental survival, Brian Tracy.
It started when Keith Howard, a Lambda sales rep, gave me a copy of bootleg tapes by Brian Tracy on the Psychology of Selling. I took those 12 tapes with me to the Montreal Gift Show in about 1983. Since my French language was not enough to hold an in depth discussion of crystal and how to sell it, I would let my local French speaking sales reps handle the show and I would be there to meet with the largest customers. With time on my hands, I took the tapes, and the first laptop computer to a lovely hotel and sat in a room and transcribed the entire set of tapes. At the end, I internalized the material and applied the sales techniques to the subsequent trade shows. The results were incredibly amazing! I sold three and four times previous sales.
Several months later, I discovered on my brother Mike’s bookshelf, a set of tapes called the Psychology of Achievement by Brian Tracy. I borrowed them and transcribed much of the material to apply to my life. One of the most profound exercises from Brian was a list of personal goals, including what would you do if you had six months to live. I shortened it to what would I do if I had 60 minutes to live. You can answer that for yourself. All I can say is that if I were not with the most important people in my life, I would surely be in communication with those people. It dawned on me that if they were that important to me, then why was I spending all my time not with them.
I later attended Brian Tracy seminars and became a facilitator for his material. I traveled to San Diego and spent an entire week in a small room at his headquarters, with Brian speaking to 7-8 trainers. Awesome!
Recently, I reminded myself that it is past time to revisit his material on achievement.
It’s a Good Day!
I love waking up with a positive song in my head. THAT does not happen often, I can tell you that for sure.
I love the silliness of this Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cinderella and Fairy Godmother duo.
(Godmother)
Impossible, for a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage.
Impossible, for a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage
And four white mice will never be four white horses
Such fol-der-ol and fid-dle-dy dee of course, is— Impossible!
But the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don’t believe in sensible rules
And won’t believe what sensible people say.
And because these daft and dewey-eyed dopes keep building up impossible hopes, Impossible things are happening every day.
An Anniversary of Freedom
Sometimes only poetry can satisfy the soul.
Is it too late in love we life, whose striven longer or lust we crave
For wanton sharing of memories daze our minds for now or long lost days
Your beauty crests as sea to bow, from side to side as rhythm stays
And I must simply wait the tide for your return to mark my ways
And we are lost in transient weaves for sure of what we walk to cleaves
Of unknown shelter of content to what we wish for, lives unspent
For when all thoughts can vanish blind to wisdom of the ages kind
For lessons learned, so much to bear, ignite the flame, explode the flare
Our souls unite in flight to sky, the cosmic essence of our lives.
Tough Times Never Last, Tough People Do!
The times I am going through right now reminds me of my dad, or pop, as we all called him. As a child, I remember him saying that sometimes you have to be “hard-nosed”. I smile as I realize that I thought the saying had something to do exclusively with his nose. You see, my dad had a real schnoz.
I realize also that his hard nose policy got him through many things in life, including a handicapped child, cancer, divorce at 80 years of age. Whether it worked for him in all life situations is a good question. All I know for sure is that I adopted the same method of dealing with difficult situations.
Loving Life
You know I love creating music in so many ways. One of my dreams has been to have a recording set-up just to create as the moment occurs. Well, check that off my list.
Let’s see: Guild acoustic, Martin electric acoustic, Ibanez hollow body for jazz, Yamaha twelve string for fun, Epiphone banjo – to
Let’s see: Guild acoustic, Martin electric acoustic, Ibanez hollow body for jazz, Yamaha twelve string for fun, Epiphone banjo – to learn a new instrument, Cubase for recording multiple tracks, mic for voice and instrument recording, headphones to listen to guitar track while recording voice overlay, interface to laptop, mini amp for space.
I have also begun creating electronic tracks of beats, cymbals, myriad sounds of all kinds. What wonderment of surprise as each new creation comes to life. From my ear to recording to ear.
Prehistoric Bug Discovered
While spraying Japanese Beetles, I came face to face with this creature.
Nice Lilly
Another fine day at Hyco
Discovered during a morning walk around the lake house.
Galaxy or What?
Sometimes it is just fun to see what can be seen at a different level of view. Can you guess what it is? Galaxy, night sky with a filter?
or is it just a closer look at something interesting? Beets from the garden.
Impact My Life
Kids; There are many times in our lives that have meaning that can only be realized years later. Gary Bolstad is one of those people who may have little to no realization of just how important he was in my life.
It all started one summer night in downtown Berlin, Germany in 1968. I was getting off a bus near my Kudam apartment when I spotted a hitchhiker with a guitar case in one hand and his thumb pointing towards traffic. I noticed that he had a small American flag on the shoulder of his jean jacket. His hair was long, which signaled that he was not military. I found myself blurting out; hey, are you an American, living in Berlin. He quickly chirped, Ya! Without much thought, I said will you teach me how to play guitar? He said sure.
I invited him to my small, efficiency apt and we began a relationship that has spanned nearly 45 years. Gary, and later, his to-be wife, Kristie, came into my life at a most impressionable place and time. I was living in a foreign country for the first time in my life. By being in the military meant that I was experimenting and experiencing everything twice, just to make sure.
Gary helped me buy my first guitar in Berlin. He simultaneously helped me create an interest in photography. I bought my first Pentax in Berlin, cost $132 in 1969. The military base had a darkroom lab. I would go there many times to learn darkroom techniques from a very interesting Berliner who had been separated from his mother when the wall was erected.
When I moved from Virginia back to Ohio, Gary introduced me to Ralph Leesburg. Ralph, Gary, and I have remained long distant friends for many years.