Shine This Way

Take a soul moment; REFLECT

Not a single or proprietary / Multiple instances in a stretch.

You can act on intuition and fathom what happens next or covet calculated systems with cleverly guided texts sent to be a model.

If you create it follow suit.

If you make a lot of mistakes well you played the lotto.

This life is difficult sometimes.

Sometimes it's hard to see.

Sometimes it's hard to be we and be free.

I ain't waitin for the sunshine to shine on me,

And I ain't waitin for a wave to drop a sine on me.

My soul light the ocean up bright right on key

And on time with the fullest of the moon I see.

We are progress points on the map and we are billions added upon millions.

Africa's lost children havin a ball, spillin a willingness to evolve, fillin the skill without millitant killin and lovin all we shine.

Shoo-doo Shoobie Wah

I probably still know every word to every song on Cooleyhighharmony.

I can probably still remember the feel of the carpeted kitchen in my grandfather's home.

I grew up there.

My mother grew up there.

I probably belted those songs on that album in that kitchen;

Or at least in that house.

Today I'll be driving to Stamford, CT where my mother was raised and I'll share a stage with Boyz II Men.

Last night I couldn't sleep.

I wanted to ask my mother what it felt like to have her son force her return to her hometown to watch him open for a group she heard him sing along to so passionately as a child.

So full circle it might actually frighten me a bit.

I was never a part of her childhood but every time we visited Stamford I somehow felt like no time had passed between the days she ran up and down those streets and the days I did.  I felt like I was transported into her youth.  I'd run out to the edge of the backyard and peer over the fence at the school she attended and imagine her headed there in the morning, lunch and books in hand, singing her latest favorite song.  This was the same carpet under her bare feet.  I knew what it meant to be family then.  As we grow, we sometimes lose that connection to our family.

We concentrate on our new everything.

Our new apartment;

Our new job;

Our new position in life;

Our new partner;

Our new philosophy.

I'm thankful that throughout all of this newness, life has offered my this opportunity to return to our youth together.  My mother and I on her territory, once again re-claiming our presence so that the trees can hear our song and remember their youth too.

The Positivity of Moments

So I'm totally and 100% sure of it.

Sure that what we do in every interaction matters more than simply beyond this and each moment.

It matters to us as individuals and to us as a group and it's contagious.

I'll try to remember this when I'm with the moment and act accordingly.

Each moment is the manifestation of those which came before it and if we are wholly present and positively involved in every moment presented to us then we can live within the beauty of our manifestations.

Life happens to us as much as we happen to it and we have the ability to tune into this marriage.

I want to propagate positivity now more than ever because I've seen it work.

I've seen it work through the power of positive intentions.

And not selfishly either but with the intent that this work we're putting in will change the atmosphere of everything - affecting others as powerfully as ourselves.

Guide yourself by righteous action and follow the path you yourself have built within every moment.

Synopsis: Hawaii (showing up)

So - Hawaii - was - something for my history books.  A world outside of that which I previously knew imaginable or expected and for this I will be forever thankful.  More thankful for the way it forced me to view me than anything else.  Its land has been and is so giving - they have a name for it - 'aina.  Lush and vibrant.  Full and unfaltering.

Iyeoka 1st posed the idea to me when it was still cold in the Northeast so god only knows it could have been as recently as March considering how the winter lingered this year.  I think it was earlier though, like around February or January.  She said, "put Hawaii in the back of your head.  It'll be some time in July.  I've decided that I want you to come with me"  So I did.  I put it in the back of my mind and didn't get my hopes up or think too much about it and I decided I wouldn't until she brought it up again.  All the while I was scheming ways I could make it work financially for me and now that I think of it, I guess that's what the back of my mind is meant for - to calculate without taking away from day to day functions.  Mine works by the way.  The trick was to fool the front of my mind into not obsessing about the possibility of HAWAII!!!   HAWAII    AHHH    HAWAII   !!!!

I made it work.  Through conversations about spending money and ticket prices and really just a little tightening of the belt I made it happen and we were on our way to Hawaii.  Just the 2 of us without a bass player, real guitarist or drummer.  I say real guitarist because technically I'm a guitarist - just not her usual carry-all-the-weight guitarist.  During the previous months and for no other reason than wanting to relate to her music better I decided to learn her songs on the acoustic guitar.  We'd done some workshops and gigs just her and I, so at least we'd have that to fall back on.  She said she knew musicians there and that we'd be fine.  I trusted her.

We show up 1/3 of the way around the globe on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Before departure I pulled Oahu up on Google Earth and toured the Island, highlighting key places that I knew we'd be stopping at for gigs and such.  I can't champion this method of preparation enough.  Download Google Earth!  It's FREE!  And if you're going somewhere even the slightest bit foreign to you, scoot around the place on Google Earth beforehand and I promise you will feel at least 30% more comfortable with your new surroundings immediately upon arrival.  There was definitely one time when I was like "WAIT!  I've been here before!  I've seen this before!"  It took me a moment to remember it was on Google Earth.  Such a weird feeling.

As soon as we walked out into the open air of the open air section of the open air airport I was smacked in the face with a sensory overload.  It wasn't what I saw, but rather what I felt and smelled that hit me.  The smell of uber fresh flowers and the feeling of cool moist air came into me like a much needed transfusion.  We had just spent 12 hours traveling by plane and it was only a few hours later than when we left.  What a concept right?  I mean even if you do this kind of thing all the time, it's still gonna hit you hard.  It was 6 hours earlier there than I was and I knew I had some work to do to catch up.  I tried not to quantify the difference but it was impossible.  I tried not to calculate the time difference but every time I felt awkward, my brain jumped into calculation mode and before I knew it I was telling myself exactly what time it was back home.  This is the furthest difference I have ever time travelled in reverse - or forward for that matter.  I knew this would take a couple of days to level off.

They say showing up is 50% of the getting the job done.

So does that mean my trip is half over?