stay excellent

well...as i sit here today...it's been quite awhile since i've written anything...
a lot has happened since my last posting...
and i truly must apologize for being so invisible for the past month...
i've had so many thoughts of what to write at different points of the month...
but for some unknown reason, could not sit myself down to write any of my thoughts down.
it's just one of those things that happens to me...
lose focus...
get focus...
try to focus...
stay focused.
the latter being the impossible one for me. haha!
anyways, the thing that is in the forefront of my mind happens to be...life.
hmmmmmmmm...
surprising, eh?
i'm perched in a chair at my local buck, caramel machiatto at my side,
and watching people flow in and out of the front door.
yes, it is quite distracting, but, at the same time,
a great way to remind myself that life is constantly changing and moving.
a couple of weeks ago, i came home from work to find my front window open to my apartment...
at first, i thought...'oh, cool, maybe there's a handyman here, fixing my locks on my window'...
but at second glance, i realized there was no handyman, but there had been a person that was quite attracted to my laptop, that sat quite nicely, on the palace saloon table, next to my front window.
soooooooo, laptop stolen...i had to face the fact that there are somedays that people just want what you have...
and there are days...that there's absolutely nothing you can do about it...completely out of our control, what others do.
always a reminder that life is just that sometimes...
wild and wacky and all over the place...
some days people take things and sometimes they give things.
one of my thoughts was that whoever stole the laptop...well, i hope they really needed it.
i was completely astounded as well, by the feeling that someone had punched me in the face.
it just seems as if it's such a personal thing to have people take things from you.
i actually slept the first couple of nights afterwards with a golf club, literally in my hand.
FORE! haha!
the point to all this, if there is one, is the shear fact that life is sort of full of surprises.
that we have no idea what is around the corner...good and bad.
and yes, we have to take the good with the bad...
what truly shows who we are is how we act and react...to all people, places, and things...
verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
things that happen to us...things that we do...how we treat others...family, friends, and strangers.
several years ago i read a book called 'the four agreements'...
it pretty much explained how to live life more soundly...with integrity through our speech and through our actions.
it was an absolutely beautiful book, and a wonderful thought on how to live life.
the problem arises when we are living life, and we forget that what we do and say, affects all people...somehow.
easy to read these things,
but as my yoga dude says, 'when we roll up our mat, and go out into the world, that is the true test of who we are'.
and a test, it truly is!
each day i'm taken aback by the failures i have accomplished in speech and in action...
but each day, when the sun comes up...
i get another chance.
and hey, i'm a firm believer in second chances...and third...and fourth...and so on, and so on.
i was watching a movie the other night, and in it, one of the characters, instead of saying goodbye to his friend,
just walks away and pumps his fist in the air and says, 'stay excellent'...
i kinda like that, and i think i'll keep it.
well, my friends,
stay excellent...
or at least strive to be so.
because if you think about it...
excellent to each of us is different, isn't it?
sort of like people say...it's all relative.
yeah...if each of us sat down, and wrote down what makes us happy or what we would describe as excellent...
most likely there would be thousands upon thousands of different ideas of excellent.
that's the greatest and coolest part of life!
the differences!
maybe we should all sit down by ourselves and write these things down,
and pin it up somewhere in our houses...
to remind us that each day is a day that we can be excellent,
and that even though we may not realize it...along with all the bad things that happen in the world...
good things are happening all around us too...
excellent things even.
don't get me wrong though...
there are definitely those days that, as it happens...seemingly nothing is going our way...
i'm figuring...if we keep moving forward...keeping our eyes, hearts, and minds aware...
anything is possible...and maybe, just maybe, we can find some excellent in each day.
and if you don't...
keep looking.
(fist pumping in the air)...stay excellent