Saturday, June 9, 2012



"Lemons"

Synopsis;
Making a Life Lesson from an old cliché.
I have just finished reading a new book
and for those of you, who know me,
know that
I am an avid reader of spiritual and metaphysical books.

There are specific books that have changed my life
and Dr. Paul Debell's book,
“Decoding the Spiritual Messages of Everyday Life”,
is clearly one of those life altering books.
I would place it at the same level as,
Dr. Brian Weiss'- "Many Lives, Many Masters",
Eckhart Tolle's - "The Power of Now",
James Redfield's - "Celestine Prophecy",
along with the works of
Neale Donald Walsch, Dr. Gary Schwartz and Gary Zukav.
Normally, I will go onto Amazon.com and surf around,
usually ordering 5-10 books that "call to me".
When I finish one, I’ll stand in front of my bookshelf
and scan the remaining books, asking
"which book do I need to read, now?"
the question is presented to "The Universe"
(God, my higher self, whoever is up there helping us)

Dr. Debell's book had been on my shelf for over six months.
Each time I ask,
"Which is the next book I need to read",
I felt "not yet” when looking at “Decoding… ",
so there it would sit.



A month ago I finished my last book
and once again, I scanned my book shelf
looking for which book called to me
felt it was time to read "Decoding..."
This book blew me away from the first page.
It is a slow read, not because it is difficult to read,
but because with each new page I had to stop,
in order to process the information being presented.



However, the most interesting point is,
that as experiences (messages)
were being presented to me in my life,

in "real time",
I was reading about them in the words
Dr. Debell had written, years earlier!
I found myself having to stop reading
and smile at the pertinence of the words he wrote,
in relation to what was happening in my life at that exact point in time.



This book has my highest recommendation.
http://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Spiritual-Messages-Everyday-Life/dp/1402767129/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top


So… You may ask,
“OK, but what does this all have to do with "Lemons?”
Allow me to go back in time a little.


In the early spring of 2012, had a bad cold...
It was presented to me in a very nice way
by one of my High School students
who walked up to me,
coughed squarely in my face
and asked for a pass to the nurse, because he felt sick.

“Thanks for sharing” I said
as I wrote out his pass,
with the anticipation of my own cold in the near future.
I didn’t need to be a psychic
to see my anticipated cold come to fruition
and it was a beast of a cold.
Chills…
Fever…
Hacking coughs that were so strong,
the muscles in my chest and back cramped…
I had to take some days off
and just stay in bed wallowing in the misery of being sick,
when the outside temperature was a perfect 70 degrees,
the birds chirped,
the sun was shining,
the sky was a beautiful blue

and I just wanted to die.
Well this monster of a cold lasted for about two weeks,
before I began to feel better.

But, I still have a residual cough that was really ticking me off...

I said things like,
"I can’t stand this! GOD... when am I going to feel better?”
Or
"I forget what it was like to be able to take a deep breath without coughing up a lung!"

With each cough I whined more…
With each ache I complained louder…
Until I started to even annoy myself,
not to mention my wife,
who by this time had become immune to my relentless complaints.

Soon, I was finally feeling better and finished reading a book by
the American Psychic Medium Jane Roberts.


http://www.amazon.com/Jane-Roberts/e/B000APH242/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Again, I found myself standing in front of my bookshelf,
deciding which book was calling to me,
when my attention was drawn to Dr. Paul Debell’s
“Decoding the Spiritual Messages of Everyday Life”
but now  I knew that this was the time to read it.



As I was reading it,
I decoded the spiritual message
behind my recent battle with the cold from hell
and it came to me in the form of a large, bright yellow, juicy, lemon.
The quote from Dale Carnegie rang in my ear
-“When fate hands us a lemon, let's try to make a lemonade”-


And then “It” hit me...
If I was never sick...
If I was always in perfect health; all the time…
If I never had the experience of coughing so hard,
that my muscles ached or I was unable to catch a breath…

I would also never know the sensation
of the positive anticipation of good health
or
the joy that comes with the feeling that you are “getting better”.
I understood that if you don't have the bad...
You can never appreciate the good...

Another Life Lesson to remember when things are looking a little crappy :)




Monday, February 27, 2012

The Winter of 2012

Synopsis;
A personal view of New Jersey.


I know that New Jersey gets a really bad rap sometimes.

Comedians love beating up NJ.


TV is also no friend of New Jersey

The Sopranos… We are all mobbed up and have a combined IQ of 23.
Boardwalk Empire… The story of the Soprano’s older brothers.
The Jersey Shore
These numbskulls aren’t even from New Jersey
they’re from Staten Island; my other home
Jerseylicious… Are you kidd’n me or what?
The Real Housewives of New Jersey … Really?!!
These are the “Real” Housewives? Don’t get me started;
this show makes “Mob Wives” look like a group of female
MENSA alumni discussing theoretical physics!

Now don’t get too envious, but my niece actually lives in Hawaii…
Yes the one place on Earth that could be called a true Garden of Eden
(as opposed to the real “Garden State”).
But if you live in that idyllic place,
where the temperature is always perfect,
the views are always spectacular,
the people are always friendly and beautiful,
In this perpetual perfection,
even Hawaiians say you become accustomed to its beauty.
I suppose that’s why people love to visit this paradise so often.

Now don’t get me wrong, give me the opportunity to live in Hawaii…
See how fast I’ll say “Seeyalater,  Jersey…
where’s my plane ticket!”  As I wing it to Newark Airport.


But I am happy to say I like New Jersey… most times

On October 28, 2011 we all experienced that crazy pre-Halloween
blizzard and I was caught in it,
driving from Saddle Brook to my home,
a 45 minute drive which took me 7 hours!!!
It looked like a war zone when I got home.

Power lines and  trees down,
cars mangled from multiple car wrecks...
What a disaster!

I was cursing the snow,
my tires,
the slow drivers in front of me and the maniacs behind me,
the missing plow trucks,
the lack of road salt
but mostly,
I was cursing the fact
that I was so incredibly stupid to venture out on that day at all.

And while cursing New Jersey,
I was wishing that I lived in Hawaii where they have no snow.

I thought that if the winter started in late spring,
we were in for one hell of a winter.


I pictured burning out my snow blower and all my fire wood…
I pictured ice dams on my roof and water leaks in the house…
I pictured driving through canyons of plowed snow in my neighborhood…
I pictured the last pile of snow melting away in late May 2012…


But one of the things I do love about our Garden State
is the change of seasons.
From summer to winter and back again,

I love the change of air temperature,
The heat of a summer day, the sun beating on your skin.
The shiver of the wind as it rips through your down parker
on a day when the wind chill factor reads -15 below.
The first hint of spring when the crocuses break through the soil
and the smell of blossoms fill the air.
The way the state looks, the change of colors…
But that winter didn’t materialize and neither did the snow.And now I do have one question…

Where the heck did winter go?

And to be quite honest…
I missed that winter of 2012 that never happened!