The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure. — Francoise de Motteville

I set forth an intention a few weeks ago, and now the universe is lining everything up to make it happen.   I had planned on spending my days off resting my knee before I had to go back to work on Wednesday, but relaxation was not in the cards.  I received a phone call late Monday and I was going back to work a day early, which honestly I had no problem with, I can always use extra hours.   The interesting thing is, my day off turned not only into working at my own store, but I ended up putting some overtime working in another store as well.  Ask, receive, and believe, just be careful and clear about what it is you want.

After work I headed over to pick up my sister, and one of Hanna’s friends, Hanna had a dance recital at school and we of course supported her.  I did my best to get out of it, but its kind of hard to say no to the people you love.  We had a pleasant evening, Hanna’s group did much better than they had expected.  I bought some pizza to take back to their apartment afterwards and we got to sit around and visit for a bit.

The day was a bit tiring, but in the end very satisfying, and rewarding.  Money comes easily and often, and here lately, that couldn’t be more true.  Stay tuned for further details.

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Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.  ~John Muir

God taught me another lesson on perspective yesterday.  Growing up in Texas I took it for granted that most people had nice manicured lawns, big Oak trees, flowers, and plenty of water to nourish them.  Since I moved to Las Vegas, the first few years I lived here I talked about how I detested living in the desert, everywhere you go nothing but dirt and dust.  Hell, even the cactus here were ugly.   But then I wasn’t looking in the right places.  My eyes only saw what I chose for them to see.  Well yesterday, I was given an opportunity to see another side of our beautiful state when I headed out to Red Rock canyon with my good friends Billie, Tom, and Sanjay for a nice little hike.

Billie and Tom are a bit more experienced to say the least, but dragging along a couple of novices like me and Sanjay, we all decided to hit the easy to moderate trails, which provided not only ample scenery, but a bit of a physical challenge for us beginners.

We started out on the Willow Creek loop, which we finished in no time.  We then headed across the road and took what we thought was a trail, which eventually lead us onto a trail with a bit more of a challenge to it.  This trail lead eventually lead up to a fork to a waterfall, which is where we took our group photo.  There wasn’t much water coming down the waterfall at this time of year, but it still provided for some nice scenery, not to mention some beautiful views along the trail.

After our hike, we headed back into “civilization,” and ate a nice lunch at the Grand Cafe at Red Rock Casino.  After a nice meal, and a bit of recap about the days events I then headed off to work.   Before I realized it, I had a tremendous amount of energy, and I had one of my most productive days at work ever.  I kid you not when I say I restocked the entire store, and enjoyed it.

Growing up, I would play anywhere from 18-27 holes of golf a day.  After those rounds I of course would be tired, but after resting for a couple of hours, the oxygen I took in all day long would kick in and then I would go out with my friends and party all night long.  This was the kind of energy yesterday gave me.  You cannot get this kind of experience walking on a treadmill listening to audio books on your IPOD.  There is something about nature that revitalizes you.  Not to mention the added exercise tends not to be even exercise, you forget that what you are doing is even beneficial to your health, you just get wrapped up in everything around you.

As I said in the beginning of this post, God taught me another lesson about perspective.  Take a closer look and you can find beauty in just about everything.  Another lesson I took from this is when you focus on the beauty that life has to offer, challenges take a back seat, and they aren’t even challenges anymore.  They end up just being another path to a really cool little waterfall somewhere in your life.

I will post the rest of my Red Rock pictures in a separate post real soon.

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When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self. — Confucious

Friends have said I have changed, so much so that they have to alter the way they view me as a person. I know I have changed, but what exactly is change? I have said it in the past, and I know that there are some who are just waiting for me to falter, like a fat guy on a diet, they want to catch me sneaking a donut, or a candy bar so they can scream “Aha!” point their finger and say, “I knew the real you was inside there somewhere.”

To some degree that has already happened. I had an experience recently where the old Cary came out, and part of the old Cary is my dark sense of humor. I made a joke about a subject that 99.9% of the world, except maybe the late Sam Kinison excluded, would consider it politically incorrect. One of the people in the room said, “I thought you changed.” They then laughed it off as if it were only a joke. But we all know people use tactics such as humor to express what they truly mean, and then try to hide it under the guise of “I was only joking.” However I knew deep down that is exactly what they wanted to think, so it would stop them from analyzing their own selves, and how they view this world we live in.

So once again what is change? Well I can tell you what it is not. It is not perfection. It does not mean you live a mistake free life. When I think of change, and if someone were to ask me if I changed I would say yes, because to me change is awareness.

I still make mistakes, all of the time. I still falter and allow my ego to rise up, or the competitive spirit to take over and create situations that I otherwise would rather not be in. But the awareness in me that is expanding every day I go on this journey allows me now to recognize all that for what it is, and because of this awareness I can now gain more control over myself during these situations and not allow them to blow out of proportion.

So I changed how I look at the world, so now I choose to focus on the positive rather than the negative, and I decided to speak words of praise and encouragement instead of tearing people, or more importantly myself down. Does this mean I walk on water, or can raise people from the dead? No, I am far from perfect and perfection is not what I am striving for, and neither should you, or we will both be very disappointed.

I am grateful for awareness. Because the more I become aware, the more those aspect of myself that I want to change inside me, die off and have less and less control.

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The Secret is: “The Law of Attraction”

Every day I come across evidence of the Law of Attraction working in my life, in the past couple of weeks I have seen some interesting things manifest themselves in my life.  I just wanted to share one funny incident that upon reflecting over my life, I have seen happen quite often.

My father and I we’d decide that we wanted to see an older movie, maybe it was a year old, or ten, it didn’t matter, we’d start talking about it and decide one night to go out and rent it.  Without fail, within days of paying for the rental, that movie, no matter how obscure, would show up for free on one of the movie channels we had subscribed to.

Now that I am studying the Law of Attraction I know why this happened.  Thoughts become things, we attract what we think about.

Well the other day, Sanjay gave me a spindle of movies to watch, some of the old, some of them new.  I went through and sorted out the ones I definitely wanted to watch and in the collection was the movie 23 starring Jim Carrey.  I have seen the movie, and I liked the concept, so I figured I would watch it again.  I mentioned the movie to my sister and nieces, because we had seen it when it came out in the theaters and told them how I had planned on watching it again.  We just happened to be talking about movies that day.

Well fast forward to a few days later when I’m watching the web cast for chapter 5 of Eckhart Tolle’s book on Oprah.Com.  During the webcast Eckhart mentions the movie 23 when talking about people who obsess over certain things.  I thought it was rather interesting that he did but didn’t pay much more attention to it.  After watching the show, I then went into the living room and turned on the t.v. to see what was on schedule that night, and there it was again, the movie 23.

I’m sure you’re sitting there wondering why this is important.  Well these are what my father and I call “faith builders.”  Using the Law of Attraction it is just as easy to manifest $1.00 as it is to manifest $1,000,000.00  the only thing that holds us back is ourselves.  We tell ourselves that a million dollars is much more difficult to obtain than one.  Well start out small.  Decide that today you’re going to manifest something small in your life, and once you see how easily it comes into your life, your faith then builds allowing you to create bigger and better things for your life.   Just ask, believe, and receive and watch the magic happen.

I enjoy these faith builders, because they remind me of all of the small things I have been blessed with, and I am receiving on a daily basis.  Should I be thankful that the movie 23 showed up for free on HBO?  I should be grateful for all things, big and small, especially if I want to continue to receive more blessings in my life.

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photo credit: Mr. Usaji

Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.  ~Joseph Addison

Everyday my body gets stronger, my muscles become more elastic, my joints more fluid, and I am grateful for the healing that I have received and continue to receive.

I am amazed at the changes my body has gone through in the past year, with 100 pounds and untold inches of fat gone, I am capable of so much more now, specifically of enjoying more of life.

I was at Wal-Mart when I noticed the blood pressure machine, I hadn’t had my blood pressure taken since my last fill, so I figured I would check it out.  My blood pressure was fine the last time I had it checked, but I was amazed when the numbers came back 117 over 72, and my heart rate was 85.  I don’t think I have even had numbers as good as this when I was a kid.

When I go walking on the treadmill now, I’m really having to kick it up a notch in order to achieve the same results I would have received months ago at such slower speeds.  It is amazing the transformation my body and health have had over the last 11 months.  The lap-band has helped, but it is only a tool, and a part of myself had to step up and help to make it happen.

I am not finished by any means.  I have lofty goals when it comes to my health, and every day I am pushing myself to make better overall choices.  But here is the important thing.  I don’t always succeed.  But guess what?  BIG F’in DEAL!  There are no more pity parties, no more blame.  I make decisions about my life.  Then good or bad I accept the consequences those decisions bring, and if they don’t bring the desired results I want, well then I have to make better decisions next time.  No more beating myself up over such small things in life.  I did that for most of my life, and it doesn’t lead me anywhere good.

I am learning to love myself, and it has been a fun and interesting experience, and part of that process has been to learn to forgive myself, and allow myself some room to make mistakes.  Mistakes aren’t a bad thing, it is only how we react in those situations that can be bad.  Me, I am working on hard on just picking myself up, dusting myself off, and going at it again until I get it right.

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photo credit: angrokor

Live every day as if it were your last and then some day you’ll be right.  ~H.H. “Breaker” Morant

First I would like to apologize for my lack of posting here recently.  I have been working a lot of mornings here lately, and mornings are usually when I write my posts.  It is hard to find the time to get up at 2:30 or 4:30 in the morning so I can get a post out.  In the past I’ve written some of the posts later on in the day, but here lately I have been pretty tired, I guess it is all catching up with me.  I get home, I take a nap, and them I’m just kind of out of it, not wanting to do much else for the remainder of the night.

Going back out into the work place, I went from 0-60 in no time flat.  I tested myself, and so far I have passed, but not without a cost.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not focusing on the negative stuff, I am just trying to explain my lack of posting here lately.  The plus side to all of this is the fact that I am actually physically capable of doing this at all.  I am approaching my one year anniversary since the lap-band surgery, and when I consider that at this time last year, I could barely walk through Wal-Mart let alone work standing for eight hours a day, that is one amazing accomplishment.

My body is getting stronger each day, I don’t want my life to be just about work, so when I do have days off, I try to spend them doing something with either family or friends.  Occasionally I just decide I’m going to relax for one of those days and not go anywhere.  I have started walking again on the treadmill *thanks to the IPOD*, so I am still working hard at keeping my life balanced between my job, fun time, and all of the inside work I’m doing on myself.  Am I tired?  Yes.  But am I enjoying myself?  A resounding yes.

I am excited on so many levels.  Life is great, and it is only getting better each day as I learn more about myself.  I missed posting, but let me stress, that just because I did not post a gratitude blog, I still have been saying my gratitudes out loud every morning, and throughout the day.  I have also been doing a lot of meditating and praying throughout the day.  So the work still continues, I just slacked there for a bit, but I am back and for that I am grateful.

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photo credit: marzbars

I will see it when I believe it. - Wayne Dyer

Yesterday was just another day full of abundance, and blessings, that just kept getting better and better.

Let me just start off by sharing a little story.  This last week, I did a favor for some friends and watched their dogs, and house while they were away on vacation.  When asked what I expected to get paid, my response was, “Not much, I sat here and ate free for a week.”  All I can say is that due to their generosity, some of the things I have been needing, and wanting, became a reality.

Awhile back, I accidentally washed my mp3 player.  I decided at the time, that this was a luxury item, something I didn’t really need.  Well since I started working, my car, and its CD player, have become my personal sanctuary whenever I go on break.  A few weeks ago, I quickly came to realize that its already starting to get too hot to sit in the car, and listen to music, or whatever audio book I’m going through at the moment.  So, yeah, I asked for a material thing.  I asked the universe / source / God, whatever you choose to call it, for an IPOD.  I didn’t know how I was going to get one, and with the turmoil Geico caused in my checking account, that put me behind.  The damage they caused, was almost half a weeks pay for me.

Because of the generosity shown by these friends, I was able to go and pick up myself an IPOD yesterday.  I don’t know how much I can stress how important music has become to me at work.  Those times that I am able to just go to my car and listen to something uplifting, really help me get through those days where its a bit hectic, or the pain in my back has become almost unbearable.  To have that ability, even during the summer, without racking up a huge gas bill running the A/C, to say it was imperative, is an understatement.

On top of that, there is a project that I have been wanting to work on, a video blog / podcast that I think a lot of people are ready for.  That project moved one step closer to becoming a reality yesterday.

The blessings continued to pour in.  Rita and Denny gave my nieces a great computer desk, and I spent the rest of my day over at their house helping to move out the old desk, and put in the new one.  Not only that, because of Randi’s blog post on SaveLV.Com, I was also able to score four tickets to The Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay for the family, and interestingly enough, CiCi’s, a buffet pizza place we ate at often, back in Texas, opened up here, so guess where we had dinner.  We have been waiting for almost five years for them to move this far west, and they finally got here.   Also the book I requested at the library showed up, and because of amnesty week, the library erased my $4.75 worth of fines, among other things.  Really, there were so many things that happened throughout the day, each and every one of them another blessing.

It was a cool day.  Not only was it full of blessings for me, but I in turn, was able to be a blessing to others.  That is the whole point of this journey, to live a life so overflowing in abundance, that it can’t help but pour out, and touch others.

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photo credit: sandrino

Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching? ~Dennis and Wendy Mannering

In between going to the Library, and crying over the latest Oprah Big Give episode I go to a job I love. Yes, I openly admit that I am a dork, but I am a happy dork.

To say that I love my job, does not mean that I never experience any issues with my job, my co-workers, or customers. I am only human, dealing with other human beings, so yes, there are moments at work where I ask myself, “Do I really love this job?” If I get past the back pain, and the occasional bit of attitude from someone trying to drag the rest of the world into their pain, I find that the answer is always yes.

Out of the roughly 15,000 days I have enjoyed on this planet, Starbucks, and my experiences there, will represent only a fraction of that time. My time there will soon come to a close, and another opportunity to advance, grow if you will, financially, mentally, and spiritually, will become available. However, while I am there, it is not only my duty, but my desire, to be the best employee I can be, so when an outside presence acknowledges that is exactly what I am doing, it just makes my day.

What am I going on about? Well, I walked into work yesterday knowing that once again I would be left to close alone. While for an entire week, other closers had help, some until 8:30 at night, I would not. That means non-stop work, and no breaks, even to the point that when I have to kneel down behind the counter just to get a sip of whatever it is I am drinking, I somehow feel guilty for violating company policy. I decided to just accept that, that is what it is, and there would be nothing I could do about it today.

As I walked in, I was told by Jason the assistant store manager over Von’s that I had some good news waiting for me, and when I got into the Starbucks Kiosk, Andreea told me that I had received another 5 star shop from Starbucks. I have had five different shops since I started working there, three of them from Von’s, and two from Starbucks, and all of them so far have been perfect.

The Starbucks shops I am especially proud of, and so is everyone in charge. These are the harder shops to get a perfect score on. The Von’s shop focuses only on customer service, whereas the Starbucks shop focuses on everything. Not only do you have to get all parts of the customer service part right, but the drink must also be perfect in weight and temperature.

Well needless to say, I didn’t care if I had to work alone for the next week, a dork like me, who loves that kind of crap, I was on cloud nine.  It once again reaffirms what I believe, that I am on the right path, and that I am holding up my end of the bargain when it comes to my job.

I am grateful for my job, and all of the opportunities it provides for me to learn, and grow. My time there is coming to an end, and I will take those lessons, and apply them elsewhere. My job is helping to make me a better person, and during that process, it is giving me a chance to affect others lives, in a positive way.

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What flatterers say, try to make true.  ~German Proverb

I do not write this to inflate my ego, I write this because I do believe in the Law of Attraction, and I want more of what I am going to write about this morning.

This week, at least four times, I have been told by friends that I either uplift them, or I am an inspiration to them.  The first thought that comes to my mind is of course self-doubt, and I immediately think, “Me?”

However, just as quickly as that thought enters my brain, I immediately replace it with one of gratitude, because the whole point of this adventure, is to learn to love myself, and until I can, and do, it will be that much harder to manifest some of the things I truly desire in my heart.

Do I want material things in life?  Sure.  There is nothing wrong with wanting toys, money, things that comfort the physical form.  But more importantly, I want my life to be blessed to the point that I can be a blessing to others, I want my life to overflow.  For me, my blessing comes, when I am able to give back to others, in whatever way possible, at this present moment.  Right now, I do so with my words, writing about trips to the bookstore, and the library, and that is of course just as important as donating money to a cause, because it is apparently having an impact on some people out there.

Not only are my words having an impact, but my actions as well.  Every day I go out into the world, and more than a few times each week I receive confirmation, whether it is from friends, co-workers, or complete strangers that they see something exciting inside me, and for that I am truly grateful.  I am too only human, and I too am in need every now and then for some inspiration, something to lift me up, and these compliments do just that.  They remind me that I am on the right track, they give me a strength to continue to go out and conquer things in my life that used to conquer me.

Thank you all for your wonderful compliments, you are all truly an inspiration to me.

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God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say “thank you?”  ~William A. Ward

It is another beautiful day here in Las Vegas, and I just spent my breakfast / meditation, outside on the back porch.  What a way to start the day.   If this is a precursor of what is to come, then I’m in for another day full of blessings.

Yesterday, Friday, was payday and my day off.  I had made some plans to go walking with Jim, and to hang out with my sister and nieces at some point.  Neither plan happened, but that was a good thing.  I had already decided that for both of my days off, Friday and Saturday, they would be spent with me being a bit “selfish.”  I was going to do what I wanted to do, nothing more, and nothing less, so that is exactly what I did.

Ed gave me a coupon to Great Clips (thanks Ed!), and I had planned on getting a haircut.  So right then and there I saved almost $6.00 on that alone.  After that, I went to Vons and picked up my paycheck, and then headed over to Sam’s Club to pick up a new DVD, The Secret Things of God.  I had seen it last week, and it had piqued my interest, so that was just one of my guilty pleasures for the day.

I then headed over to Borders books because I was also wanting a book on CD to listen to in my car during lunch breaks from work.  I saw a number of titles I wanted, but I was just unwilling to spend $20-$40 on them, so I figured the next best thing to do would be to head over to the public library and see what they have available.  A visit there was already on my list, so I could turn in an overdue book.

Well needless to say, it was a good thing I went there, because they had two of the titles I had seen at Borders, and a few more that I went ahead and picked up.  I was excited, ready to get back to the house and start listening when I was hit with yet another blessing.  I apparently had racked up over $4.00 in fines over the last few months.  Not much mind you, but the librarian gave me some news, next week when I came in, all I had to do was ask, and they would erase those from my account.  Of course this is not only available to me, but all Clark County Library patrons.

In my bundle of electronic media goodies, I also picked up a DVD of Jack Canfield’s (Co-author of the Chicken Soup For The Soul series) The Success Principles.  This is an hour long presentation of the most important principles from his book of the same name, and I have to tell you, this DVD blew me away.  I immediately went on line to see if they had any copies of the book available at the public library, and yes they did.  Not only do they have the book, but the audio book on CD as well, so I requested both of them, and will run down there as soon as they pull my order.

I then spent the rest of my evening finishing Chapter 4 of Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth, Awaken to Your Life’s Purpose.  This chapter is on role playing, and the roles our egos choose.  This is such an interesting book, and the video web casts are something I look forward to after each chapter.

Well that is my day in a nutshell, it was spent doing the things I love to do, and for some reason that seems to be always centered around books.  Today is shaping up to be another one of those kind of days, and it is hard to just be right here in the now, when all I can think of, is how excited I am to jump right in and get onto chapter 5, and start listening to all of these CDs.

I hope today you too will take some time, and do something you truly enjoy.

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