Your Talents

Know your innate, natural talents and use them every day.

Lisa Jimenez
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Hello Sue
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Look up. That bright light that smacks your cheek and makes it glow is your own private ray of sunshine, your special gift from the solar system. It invites you to reflect it back to the earth as only you can.

The tiny flower that grows in a small patch of earth gladly accepts its ray of sunshine and blossoms with color. It is not jealous of the rays its neighbor flower gets or the earth its neighbor is growing in or even the special drops of rain that nourish it.

One day I modeled for a painting class. During the break I walked around and looked at what the students were doing. Those paintings couldn't have been more different from each other. One was a close up of me, almost a portrait, while another had me very small as a single object in the landscape of the room.

Two of my own paintings are hanging in an exhibit right now. Walking around and observing all the works that are there, from very good to excellent, I marveled at how artists can take the same basic materials and with them come forth with such completely different expressions.

Listen to three singers sing the same song. The notes may be the same, the melody the same, but how different the interpretation and expression. Your innate, natural talent may not be about paint or tones, It may not have any connection with art at all. In fact it may be more difficult to describe than art or music. But it is surely there, just as surely as the sun will shine on you.

,I once counseled a high school senior who wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life. I told him to do everything that came his way and when he found the thing that he enjoyed, that he looked forward to doing every day, to do that and it would lead him into the life he wants.

There is only one way I know of to discover one's talent and that is by living, by rolling up the sleeves and getting involved in anything one thinks one might like. An active mind always has answers.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.

Man Alone

If you can mentally separate solitude from loneliness today, your time alone will seem alive with possibility.

Unknown
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Hello Arkene
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There is a big difference between aloneness and loneliness. I've lived alone now for almost 15 years. I often wish I had some companionship, particularly of the female persuasion. But since I am not vigorously pursuing it, or even passively pursuing it, I guess it's not that vital to me.

The fact is I keep excellent company with myself. I agree with almost everything I say. I don't bitch at myself for leaving my dirty socks on the floor. And when I come through the door everyone here is glad to see me.

One sad part is that since I don't have anyone to talk to, I talk to myself. Out loud. And since I've grown used to talking to myself I've caught myself doing it in public. So now I am giving the impression of a harmless old coot sitting on a bench mumbling to himself.

One happy part of aloneness is the absence of interruptions. My head is full of ideas, most of which I can do nothing about confined as I am with serious lack of abundant income, unable to transport myself easily and living in an area seriously arid of any cultural activity. But there are some ideas growing up out of the top of my kitchen table which can grab my interest with a fist and set me to working something out, whether a painting, a story or a blog entry. My time is my own, it belongs to me and my muse, my angel of inspiration.

Life is a grand puzzle. I've tried throwing away the pieces in the past, but, no good, they won't go away. Now I cherish them. Each time I put two pieces together I'm delighted. That I have no one to show it to is frustrating. But I know it's a puzzle with an infinite number of pieces and if someone else joins a few pieces and they fit with mine, very good. And if they don't both of our lives are enriched anyway.

In my solitude lands are explored, discoveries are made, mysteries unfold, principles are learned, knowledge grows, wells are filled, stars are captured, majesty is revealed and possibilities are endless.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.

Rhythm Of Life

I don't want to be a passenger in my own life.

Diane Ackerman
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Hello Lily
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As far back as I can remember people have been telling me what to do, what not to do, where to go, where not to go, what to think and what not to think. Now I'm just as pleased to listen to sound advice as the next vagabond. But why is it so often dressed in the garb of orders? What do they want me to say "Yes Sir" and "Yes Ma'am"? I will tell you honestly I have made more mistakes than I can list in a leather bound volumn by following my so-called superior's orders.

My fault. Freidrich Nietzsche says that one of the most important qualities a human possesses is instinct. Churches tell us that instinct is bad, a sin, that people who rely on instincts are amoral. I have learned in the School of Hard Knocks to trust my instincts in so far as they are part of my reasoning process. Some of the other helpful qualities a human can exercise are preference, taste, visualization and imagination. There's no guaranty that even utizing those tools you will make the right decision. But the important thing is that it was your decision and not someone else's. And if it was the wrong one you will know why.

I spent too many years with someone else driving the car while I was taken wherever they wanted and let out on their playing field. I applaud myself for making the most out of bad situations. But I learned by trial and error, mostly error, to drive the car myself.

Another important quality, which is usually overlooked and is often the cause of a mangled result from following orders, is the fact of your own rhythm of life. Another person's rhythm is not yours. It's a hard thing to realize, to even know there is a difference in rhythm. Everyone moves, thinks, feels and does at a different pace and when you find and move at your pace things seem to harmonize themselves. Pay no attention to those who want you to hurry up or wait up, unless you are trying to keep pace with them. Find your own distinct, personal, beautiful, rhythm of life and live it.

DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
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Do I Like Me?

Lean too much upon the approval of people and it becomes a bed of thorns.

Tehyi Hsieh
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Hello Rose
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Like most actors I spent my working days seeking approval. First of all I wanted to be approved of by the director so that I would get the job. Once in rehearsal I wanted the approval of my colleagues, my fellow actors. Opening night would come and I wanted the critics to approve of me. And then I wanted to impress and charm the audience.

What was this need for approval? It is not germane to a performing artist to need approval. Being liked is a side show. The main event is the preparation and performance of the play, musical, ballet or whatever. The real pleasure for an actor is in the discoveries, developments, understanding the character, being able to create that character's life and presenting the drama in a moving and believable manner with beauty and artistry night after night. When an actor achieves that accomplishment he finishes his night's work with joy and satisfaction, no matter what anyone thinks of him.

Naturally we want to be liked. We want the applause, we want the good reviews and to be respected by our employers. Who doesn't? But when approval begins to take the place of reason, reality and conscientiousness, that's when the thorns start growing.

There's this famous story about a well known actress (maybe one of you knows the story better than I do and can fill in the accompanying details). She was doing a comedy. At one point she asked the character on stage with her for a cup of tea. For some reason it was a very funny moment and the audience would roar with laughter. But one night they didn't laugh. And for the next several nights there was no laughter. She asked a friend to watch the scene and tell her what was wrong. He did and told her that by the way she spoke the line she was asking for the laugh and that she should go back to asking for the tea. She did that and the laughter resumed.

In all areas of our lives it's the integrity and honesty of how we live and what we do that counts not the measurement of our popularity. As the Suna Sirah states "Honor yourself with humility, and give yourself the esteem you deserve." And I say, graciously accept the approval you get from others but know that you don't need them to tell you how good you are.

Disappoint yourself. Forgive yourself. Do better next time. And drink a toast to yourself every day.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
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Long Journey Home

For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live.

Theodore Adorno
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Hello Ernie
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I moved into this town on September 9, 2001, 2 days before the WTC came down. I often think about that, especially at this time of the year. Up until a few days before it I was surviving in a part time proofreading job at a law firm within a few blocks of the site of the catastrophe. If I had still been in NYC on that day I probably would have seen the planes crash into the buildings because I would have been waiting for the crowd from the ferry to clear so that I could go downstairs to get the subway.

I often wonder what I would have done, stand stock still in shock, or run. People were running in both directions, away in a panic or toward it to see what they could do. Or I might have been already on the subway and stuck underneath it for 12 hours or more.

I had worked for another law firm high up on the North Tower a few times and I remember the supervisor and other workers as being very nice people. They probably did not survive.

But I wasn't there. I had moved from my squalid little residential hotel room to a town in eastern Pennsylvania to set up a life for myself, temporarily. I do not like it here, and I often wish I had never left New York. But then....

I was born into an Upper Middle Class family in a New York City suburb. 4 years later my father died and soon the family plunged slowly and agonizingly into poverty. All the "nice things" my mother had from her former life were sold, piece by piece, to pay rent and to buy food. We moved continuously, each abode worse than the last one. We moved about 25 times until I was old enough to move out and take care of myself. She finally settled into a ground floor apartment that wasn't too bad. I never settled.

Having grown up without a steady home and without even a concept of home, I've never really lived at my address, and there have been many of them. I've had, so called, fixed addresses in 5 different states and the District of Columbia. I lived at some of them for a month or so and in others for years. But none of them were my home. I don't have a home. Where I live now is not my home and I can't imagine myself living here for long.

My professional life has taken me in and out of 5 different radio stations, a bunch of recording studios and upon many stages at theatres all around the Eastern part of the country from Maine to Florida. I'm a vagabond.

I am a vagabond but in my heart, in my wounded but sanguine heart, there is a home for me, my home. A beautiful home, within sight and sound of a body of water, near a cultural center, quiet and peaceful, safe and secure, clean and ample, with good people around me. I have spent my whole life, almost 70 years, hoping that some day I will find it.

But maybe I won't. Maybe I will continue to be a vagabond, with some strange, new place beckoning with promise, expectation of permanence, but offering only disappointment and another transient stopover on my journey. If so then look for me in my writings, because that's where I live.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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Getting Up

Hope is a waking dream.

Aristotle
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Hello Barbara
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Wake up. Yawn. Stretch. Get out of that bed. Stand up. Wash your face. Brush your teeth. Make your coffee. Eat your breakfast. Get dressed. Open the door.

Wait a minute, you forgot something. Where;s that dream you were having? It's still back in the bed. Well, that's probably a good place for it. It was an improbable dream anyway. And maybe there were things about it you didn't like. So leave it there.

It's another day, a chance to make a mole hill out of that mountain you left yesterday, a chance to make one more step towards the plans you made last week, a chance to check up on the things you planted in your life last month, a chance to observe and appreciate how much you've grown in the last year as an indication of how much you are going to grow this year. If you don't have things to look forward to you might make the mistake of looking back.

So you've your plans, your ideas, your desires all tucked neatly (or maybe not so neatly) into your agenda, each with its own color. These are the hopes that got you out of bed this morning and every morning whether you know it or not. Each one has its demands on you, demands which you gave them. And those demands involve dreaming up the thing and dreaming up the way to do the thing. It's time. It's also time, armed with desire, courage and hope, to do battle with the bad dream of worry, the nightmare of failure.

What you do is to start at the end, visualizing exactly what you plan to do or be and where. Then holding that dream in mind at all times you go back to the beginning or where you left off, take the next step, take advantage of the things that occur as a result of that step and the previous steps and then accept and rejoice over your accomplishments. Don't be surprised when unexpected benefits arise, for as Shakespeare said "the mightiest space in nature fortune brings to join like likes, and kiss like native things."

Designs are made for unique constructions. Tools get invented to do things there are no tools for. Surfaces are prepared to launch great ideas. Hope becomes gratitude in advance as the dream slowly becomes a reality and life is better.

Then on to the next one. There is always another day to dream.

Dana - The Vagabond
Never give up.
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It Will Work

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

Helen Keller
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Hello Sue
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"Aw, give it up. It'll never work . You'll never get there. Don't even try."

"You'll never raise enough money to do a lame brained idea like that."

"This is the stupidest piece of legislation I've ever seen. Be assured we will vote it down."

"Load it all on the donkey and walk. You don't need wheels."

"Come on. The Earth is flat, anyone can see that. You'll fall off the edge."

"Knock it off Orville. God did not intend for us to fly."

"Man can never go to the moon."

Some people just automatically develop an ornery attitude to any new idea. Can you imagine what our lives would be like if the pessimists and nihilists ruled the world?

I'm an artist, which means I'm an optimist. I have to be. Every work of art whether it's a painting, a song or a poem is like water onto a thirsty earth. Sometimes it's a big splash like the Mona Lisa or a Beethoven symphony. But no matter how small the droplet is it is a bit of refreshment and possible inspiration for the human spirit.

As an artist I roam through the world with a different eye and ear I love music and I hear it strange places. I hear horns in the passing trucks, strings playing through the branches of the trees on a windy day and drums and cymbals in the crashing waves. I once knew a playwright who cold write a play about anything. Give her a mathematical formula and out would come a play about it, with characters and drama. In one remarkable case I knew a high school senior who joined the Marine Corp to learn explosives and then worked doing special effects for Hollywood films.

In every case where an optimist has accomplished the impossible nobody dared say it couldn't be. It was. It is. Because somebody had the courage to know it was possible way back when no one thought about it.

We are discovering the secrets of the stars, finding unchartered lands and opening up new heavens for the human spirit.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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