Scars of Life

Some years ago, on a hot summer day in south Florida , a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his house. In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door, leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was swimming toward the shore.

His father, working in the yard, saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, he ran toward the water, yelling to his son as loudly as he could. Hearing his voice, the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his father. It was too late. Just as he reached his father, the alligator reached him.

From the dock, the father grabbed his little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was much stronger than an the father, but the father was much too passionate to let go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard his screams, raced from his truck, took aim and shot the alligator.

Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the vicious attack of the animal. And, on his arms, were deep scratches where his father's fingernails dug into his flesh in his effort to hang on to the son he loved. The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with obvious pride, he said to the reporter, "But look at my arms. I have great scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Dad wouldn't let go."

I can identify with that little boy..... We have scars, too. No, not from an alligator, but the scars of a painful past. Some of those scars are unsightly and have caused us deep regret. But, some wounds, my friend, are because God has refused to let go. In the midst of your struggle, He's been there holding on to you.
The Scripture teaches that God loves you. You are a child of God. He wants to protect you and provide for you in every way . But sometimes we foolishly wade into dangerous situations, not knowing what lies ahead. The swimming hole of life is filled with peril - and we forget that the enemy is waiting to attack. That's when the tug-of-war begins - and if you have the scars of His love on your arms, be very, very grateful. He did not and will not ever let you go.

You just never know where a person is in his/her life and what they are going through. Never judge another person's scars, because you don't know how they got them.
Right now, someone needs to know that God loves them, and you love them, too
- enough to not let them go.


Always Tell Your Family And Friends How Much You Love Them!!!

The Best Things You Can Do

I am looking at a blank computer screen no knowing where to start.......
A few things hit me the other day and I will share them. I was thinking about the year (2006) and then I got to thinking about my age. I will not express exact numbers here, but I will just say DAMN!! Where has time gone??? I remember my parents taking me to Disney for the first time, my second grade classmates, breaking my arm, cutting grass for extra money, playing soccer in Jr. high, my high school graduation, being a freshman in college, being a college graduate, my son being born, getting married, getting a divorce, the death of a child, having a successful career, loosing a good friend, loosing about everything else............ and rebuilding.

I had mixed feelings typing all of that. In my travels, I have realized that:

The best thing to give your enemy is forgiveness
The best thing to give an opponent is tolerance
The best thing to give a friend is your heart
The best thing to give a child is a good example
The best thing to give a father is deference
The best thing to give your mother is conduct that will make her proud of you

The best thing to give yourself is respect

TREES

I am not doing so well with posting every other day… The past month has been really busy for me, which is a good thing I guess.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to see Tyler Perry, and he said something that stuck with me. I guess you have to listen to a person who has struggled from being homeless to the point where he makes over a million dollars in a weekend, but putting on a dress and playing a character… Go figure!!!!!

Anyway, Tyler said look at your self as a TREE… You have friends that are like leaves. They are there hanging with you, and holding on during the sunny days, but let a hard breeze or storm come along and their gone in the wind.

Other friends are like branches. They grow with you, and help you become bigger and stronger. From time to time you have to trim them and let them grow on their own. Sometimes branches even try to out grow the tree they are attached to.

Lastly, some people are your roots… You don’t really see them but they are there holding you down. Keeping you grounded, and helping you keep a firm grip of life.
The roots are sometimes hard to find but they are always there.


You only fail when you give up……..

Bitter or Better

It has been a minute since my last post and I apologize for that. I have been really, really busy with work. At times I think I have bit off more than I can chew. (Of course that will become an entry at a later date)

Whenever something hurts us in life you have two choices to make... You can become Bitter or Better.
Believe it or not until the last year or so I have lived life without totally realizing that the power to live the life I wanted rested in MY OWN hands... I possess the key to my own happiness.
I've always had this uneven balancing act in my life. What I mean is my personal life was great and my professional life was horrible. Then the tide would change where my professional life was great and my personal life sucked. What currently is making me so optimistic is that I had, or shall I say have, hit that point where there was no place to go but up.
Being able to move forward after situations is hard, but simple things can help... or hurt more.
The right words spoken at the right moment can transform us. They challenge us at crossroads in our life, carry us through times of sorrow, or dare us to action.
I never quite did it before but I now try to use the right words to help.......



The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.

Love or Money

I had an interesting conversation with my ex-wife yesterday. Just a bit of history.. I have been divorced for about 8 years and I have a son who is 13. I will just say that my relationship with my Ex wife is a pretty cool one… being older we now talk TO each other instead of AT each other….. Go figure
Anyway, in our conversation I asked her what her yearly salary was. Now this wasn’t just an out of the blue question to her. I was talking to a friend of mine, who works in the same field as my ex-wife, but he works for a competing company, also I already knew a ballpark figure of what she makes. She actually didn’t know the exact number because she was a manager, but recently stepped down from that position…. (Ok I took that answer)
I asked her why she didn’t tell me that her profession would make so much money when we were in college.. She said that I was so focused on doing a job I liked, and she wanted to get paid. That stuck with me…..

Is it better to have a job you love doing or having a job you hate and financial gain.
My job is kinda unique, and if you don’t work in this business you would never understand it. The in’s and out’s, the politics, the perks, and the method to the madness.
I do OK.. I consider myself very blessed to still be in a business that will chew you up and spit you out and not look back. There are peeks and valleys and I have experienced both…………….. I love my job, but I also love the dough…


The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it

Busy Busy Busy

The past week has been sooo busy. It's that time of year.. SPRING!!! March madness, festivals, concerts, the list goes on and on.
I love my job, and the perks are awesome... Over the past 3 weeks I have been to Walt Disney World (4 day trip paid for by Disney!!!!) for a live broadcast. Traveled to Tampa for a concert by our sister radio station, BET is filming their Spring Bling activities this weekend in Miami, which I will breeze thru.
No Blackberry!!!! I dropped my blackberry 2 days ago and it is not working. My cell company are total asses! They don't have insurance on my model because I was told that it is a high ticket item, so they said I need to purchase another one at full cost... (about $500) What the F*&#!
Anyway hopefully I will be up and running by this weekend. I just wanted to add a post since I haven't since last week.


It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness......

RELATIONSHIPS

Back on the grind… Ok .. I apologize for not having a entry for yesterday, but it was a hard weekend.. I needed a day to rest.
I did learn a few things this weekend that I would like to share. I am trying to not keep going back to my last relationship but at this point is it kinda hard. I’m sure that as more and more time passes it will get better. I don’t want to make it seem like I am not over things because I am, but there are a few life lessons that I picked up trying to pick myself up and move on.
These are things that people should already know, but in today’s society and going thru the daily hustle and bustle of life we all get a bit caught up.

Relationships take work… Nothing is easy and if you are not ready to put that work into one don’t get into one.
Until you and your girl/guy go thru a conflict… you won’t see their true colors.
RESPECT each other..
Communicate
If you truly love that person…... Don’t give up on them.
You can hurt another person with words just as much as you can with your hands.

And this does not just apply to romantic relationships, but also siblings, friends, life partners, whatever.
Today people are so quick to “write” friends off because of something they did that YOU didn’t like. Did you express your concern(s) with that friend? Did you communicate that you were/are upset and tell why? Come on life it way to short to hold on to stuff like that.
My last girlfriend was there WITH me, but she wasn’t there FOR me, and there is a huge difference. Ok I will step down from my soapbox.. My intention was to talk about my weekend, but I kinda went in a different direction..

To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing….

Snack on that……

Here I go

Ok... So I have finally jumped off the cliff. I am putting my thoughts, feelings, views, life out there for the world to see and comment on. This is a form of therapy for me... You know that writing your feelings down and getting things out in black and white. I've been experienced other forms of therapy, but since I can basically write whenever, and wherever I want this should be a good thing... I am going to stay optimistic about it and roll with it.
As it says above I am a radio DJ.. It's what I do and it's what I am good at. Over the past year I have gone thru Hell and back but I'm still here. There were some days when I didn't know how I was going to make it, but I will repeat... I am still here. I don't really want to call it a midlife crisis but maybe that's what it was... Yes, I used the word WAS, and it feels good.
I want to have a daily entry, but I will build up to that. As for now lets start out with every other day...
I know I am not giving up a lot of information on my first day, but I will slowly and surely.
I also plan to end each post with something for you to think about..... Kinda like food for thought

Often the Test of courage is not to die but to live.........

Snack on that and I'll get back