RED’S RANTS

(Dedicated to my  Momentum Family)

I will own up to my own foolishness.  I was cynical, but deep down knew that there is a better outlook for me to have.  Going through life, believing I was not enough–that I didn’t matter, that someone is always better, prettier, smarter, more successful than me–was exhausting.  There is a better me underneath all of what I have carried around as absolutes in my head.

I did something so inexplicably unlike me, that even sharing it will likely have friends and acquaintances alike, fainting as they read on.   I went to Momentum Education Workshop.  I admit I was a smidge skeptical, thinking I was way too broken to be fixed. I was sure I was way too set in my ways to make changes in my belief system.  But, I did go in knowing I would give it my all since I indeed wanted a change that just going to the gym or traveling to beautiful, amazing places–even with the people I love the most–wasn’t enough.

Was this fool able to transform, you ask yourself?  I will explain it as best as I can.  Surrounded by a group of strangers-turned-friends in a time frame that would seem impossible (a couple of nights and 2 days) I learned so many lessons.  I will never be so quick to judge, I will honor people for who and what they are, because they matter and I matter and because we are all more than the sum of our past or our present.  Learning that I am enough and that being vulnerable is not a flaw but a tool in allowing love in and subsequently letting it out, and being able to share that is a gift…. Not just any gift, but a gift that is contagious.  Going through life with a scowl on my face has produced a mirrored life right back at me.  As I walked through Manhattan this morning, head held high, smile on my face, saying hello to the guys in the deli, I felt what Sylvia High drove home.  Possibilities are endless, limitless, and achievable and ultimately I can be extraordinary.

I met some of the MOST amazing people in this workshop and I wish I could spend more time locked in a room with them.  🙂   They gave me courage, strength and the ability to let go, get in touch with the me I forgot, buried and left for dead.  Standing in a room full of complete strangers sharing my personal world was something I thought impossible before last Thursday, and yet its effect on me has turned out to be life altering. I wish amazing things for each and every one of the people I met.  Their lives and stories touched me in an infinitely profound way.

I feel foolish that I was ever skeptical.  My life is not stuck.  By changing my choices, by changing my beliefs, the facts of my life change.  This will likely make no sense to those who have not participated in the experiential workshop.  These types of things can not be explained on paper or in words.  It truly is an experience.  By experiencing it with people you have nothing in common with, but have EVERYTHING in common with is what I found truly extraordinary.

Momentum Education Workshop, Bayshore and my Emu…. DDJ is forever grateful

– I WAS HERE – Beyonce

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i41qWJ6QjPI

Today, 3/6/13   I am experiencing changes in the people around me.  It is still amazing.  I can’t wait for Advanced! 

Dealingwithfools.com – Debbie Jaffie

Well, now that I have your attention.  Today marks the 55^th running of NASCAR’s Daytona 500.  This is a first with a Woman Pole sitter in Danica Patrick.  I suppose I am confused about the hoopla.  Women have been around poles for YEARS.  😉 

 But I digress.   This is about the foolishness of those who do not watch but claim not to like NASCAR for … wait for it … because it’s “just left turns”, “cars going in circles”.  2 things:  It’s NOT just about those left turns, and they are usually OVALS, dammit!

 The components involved in the making of a great driver include the owner, crew chief, pit crew and driver.  Any one of these components to have a glitch during the race, (sans owner), can end that race in a second.  It’s tactics, mechanics, accuracy, skill and a little luck.   

 And you can’t forget the importance of the little things: When to pit, tires, no tires, how many tires, fuel or no fuel, change to the chassis, how to reserve what fuel you have?   I am sure I have lost some of you by now.  So to simplify it, try going 190 mph for a mile or 2 for fun… easy enough?  Now do it with 42 other cars at a feathers distance from you. 

Yes, I am a BIG fan.  And that took some doing.  I was a most reluctant New Yorker, but had a great friend walk me through it.  And once I learned, understood, and saw the type of athletes these men, (and now women), are I was hooked. 

 This is a sport I not only love, but respect. I sense the respect for its fans is mutual. 

 Maybe you will think I am the fool.  But I know better.  Watch a race with someone who loves the sport.  I think it can be contagious.  Perhaps you will love it too.  And to those who do… ENJOY the 2013 season.  I know I will. 

What do you call them?  Are they directionals, turn signals, those blinky lights that tell you when a 4000 pound automobile is about to make a move?  I call them TOO COMPLICATED for the average driver.  On a short drive this morning—with no blinking lights in sight—I was cut off, forced to slam on my brakes, and followed a car that may or may not have been turning in the next millennium.

That’s right, a little something you can find on their website,(http://www.safeny.ny.gov), though should have learned, gee, I don’t know…. BEFORE YOU TOOK YOUR DRIVING TEST, is that the use of the aforementioned  directionals is in the drivers ed book, rule book and law book.

Results May Vary

Not Typical

Paid Actor

Use with healthy diet and exercise

 Who are the people who believe these claims?  Are they just foolish, desperate, drunk? No, I think mostly foolish, because we all know the old adage, if it sounds too good to be true, it most certainly is. I see these commercials incessantly in the late night and early morning of television.  And my guess is during daytime television, which I am thankfully not exposed to.  If not for my DVR and the ability to back up and pause, these little tidbits of information go vastly unseen as they disappear faster than a hotdog at a hotdog eating contest.  Of course there is the OTHER disclaimer, “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease”.  All of which I suppose is comforting in the world of legitimate medications for diseases that are advertised on TV that VERBALLY explain that they all “could cause death”.  And those have been evaluated by the FDA.   At least they are up front about it.

So where does this leave you?  Well, life is a crapshoot.  Diet pills don’t work, (the part about diet and exercise does), and sometimes real, prescribed by a physician, medication kills.  I haven’t worked out the odds yet. It seems a daunting process.

In the interim… I am wary of everything I read and hear. And in the end I roll the dice.  So far, not dead.