People my People,
Ever had a drive-by hug? Let me tell you about mine. I was waiting for Renee to come out the bathroom in Target. It was my actual birth day and she had surprised me at work on a day I thought I would spend alone (My wife is a beautiful liar). Anyway we had to stop in Target, and when she came out the restroom for some reason I picked her up and spun her little self around. Don’t ask me why I decided to hug her after finishing her business, she has been potty trained for years, but something came over me. A random surge of joy. However, like so many zombie epidemics you hear about, my joy was contagious and a white man in his mid to late forties stood in front of me as I put my wife down and said, “Well, if you are just giving them out...” and spread his arms. On instinct I threw my arms around him and lifted. He was nowhere near as light as Renee but for some reason I felt it needed to be done. When I put him down, he turned and left without a word. He was a total stranger, I cannot remember his face, smell, hair color, anything. He randomly came to make an impression in my life and subsequently yours.
Sometimes I believe the most self centered people are the quiet ones. The ones that keep everything in and everyone else out. The self centered worry all the time what people think of them so they decide to never do anything that would break any of our cultures 2.7 billion unspoken, arbitrary rules. A fully realized individual can walk up to a stranger and ask for a hug when he needed it, or better yet just because. Most of us are a bit in between with flashes of genuineness coming out when the mood hits or when under the influence. I have to be honest ladies and gentlemen, as cool as I thought that person was...I still checked my pockets afterwards to make sure he wasn’t the world’s kindest pick pocket. I’m from the suburbs of Oxnard kid, we don’t play!
WHAT’S HAPPENING
This week TRAIN OF THOUGHT pulls into a new state of the art station and we are kicking things off Gangam Style (which means utterly ridiculous, which means we are just gonna have a whole lot of fun with it). I can’t wait for you to see our new place and have fun with us. Remember it will be the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays. It’ll be your chance to make it your mid week art and culture fix. We all need it sometimes. Also, don’t forget, half of TOT will be competition. So sign up to show your skills and actually win some gas money. Times are hard yo.’
WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS
If you are interested in giving back to the community, being around artistic folks, attending free shows, laughing a lot, and getting inspired on the regular, come join our team. Hit us up at ilovetrainofthought@gmail.com.
THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE:
I have a good one for you this week. This comes from a book I'm reading called Wishcraft: How To Get What You Really Want from Barbara Sher. She gives very realistic advice for living a fully realized life. Often we worry about not living our life in a way that people say we should. But she gets into getting what YOU really want. And guess what guys, it doesn’t have to be just ONE thing. You don’t have to decide what you want to be for the rest of your life right now. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to do what you want to do when you want to do it, and then when it no longer interests you, do something else? Well there are practical ways to do it, you have to read the book to find out. But first and foremost lets find out how close you are to doing what you want and being who you really are.
Take out a sheet of paper. Number it 1-20. List twenty things you really enjoy doing, but you must list twenty. Even if number 20 is something you rarely do. Then for each thing answer these questions...
- How long has it been since you last did it?
- Is it free or does it cost money?
- Do you do it alone or with someone else?
- Is it planned or spontaneous?
- Is it job related?
- Is there physical risk?
- Is it fast paced or slow?
- Does it feed your mind, body, or spirit?
When you look at all these things on one piece of paper you start to notice a pattern. A type of person you are. Maybe most of the things you do are free and you don’t need a whole lot of money to make you happy. Perhaps everything you love doing is fast paced so working in a office may not be the best thing for you, even if you have a hook up at a job. its up to you to determine what the pattern means in terms of your life. I have done this myself, a real eye opener. Let me know what kind of results you get. I am really interested in knowing the real you.
Until Then,
Be Now
Gill Sotu
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