Change the Way You Feel About Things and the Way You Feel Will Change

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How would you feel if over the course of two days, you poured your heart and soul into writing a piece for your blog that you thought could really help people improve the way they feel in their lives, only to accidentally lean on the alt key on your keyboard and have the whole two days worth of work vanish from your screen forever ?  I have to be honest, when this happened to me this morning my first thought was not a good one, but I quickly glanced up, read the title on my screen and took my advice.  Funny thing, the 1500 words in the body of the blog post had disappeared but the title stayed intact.  I guess it was the Universe testing me yet again.

The way we think and feel about things has a direct impact not only on how things look to us  but how we ultimately feel.  One of my favorite Wayne Dyer quotes is “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at Change”, nothing could be more true.  But as I thought about it, the same could be said for the way we feel about things,  If you change the way you feel about things or events in your life, the way you feel will change.   When I lost my 1500 word blog post this morning, I could have felt terrible about losing all that work, instead I chose to feel like there was a positive reason for losing that work.  Had I chosen to feel terrible, I could have spent the whole day angry, upset and taking out my feelings on the world instead, I feel great, I figured out a way to prevent losing work like that in the future and I am taking a different, more refined approach to getting my real message across to you in this version 2.0 of this blog post.

All of us can feel great 100% of the time, it’s a choice we make as each of us are totally responsible for the lives we create.  I have seen great days turn into lousy days just because a friend or family member chose to feel angry about something that was totally a waste of time.   Road Rage in particular is one of those things,  whether I am riding with people, listening to people on cell phones or driving myself it never fails that when someone else does something stupid on the road, it causes most people to get angry, and that anger usually burns up a good hour or two of what could have been fun and happy time.  I used to be incredibly guilty of the road rage thing, so much so that I would not only get angry, I would transform into a stalker who had to show that person how wrong they were for their lousy driving decision.  Today, I keep in my mind, another Wayne Dyer quote that I repeat to myself as I take an extra breath when these situations on the road happen  “When faced with being right or kind always choose kindness”.  Repeating that quote to yourself and choosing kindness makes you feel totally different then choosing “Right and Anger“.

The way you feel and this “KNOWING” thing I always talk about.  Think about times in your life when you were uncertain about something, you were anxious, stressed, worried and maybe even feeling a little sick not knowing what the outcome would be.  Then think about times in your life when you knew the outcome of something was going to be exactly what you expected, you were happy, satisfied, joyful and confident.   Now think about how you would rather feel, Happy or anxious, Satisfied or stressed, Joyful or worried.  Think the choice is easy, and everyday you are faced with that same choice, only you can decide how you feel, no one else can make you feel sad, it is your reaction to what someone else has said or done that makes you sad or happy.  You are in complete control, and once you  absolutely “KNOW”  you are in complete control, you never have reason to not feel great 100% of the time.

Over the past 5 years when I lost my way from always “KNOWING” to questioning whether I could do it, my health suffered, my family suffered, I suffered, I wasn’t happy and I thought that what was happening in my world was making me unhappy.    But, I was creating my world and was choosing to feel unhappy about what I created.   For the first 46 years of my life, I was very good at creating exactly what I wanted and the only time I didn’t feel great was when I slipped up and thought the wrong way.  Let me give you a little insight into what I am talking about.  Throughout my life I have constantly heard people talk about me as being lucky, always being in the right place at the right time, that everything I touched turned to gold.   When I heard those things, I always told myself those people were right but I knew that I was creating my luck, and everything that went with it by choosing the right thoughts.  When I slipped into the dark days of the past 5 years,   I started thinking that maybe it was just luck and that my luck couldn’t continue since things had been so good.  I would sit through meetings with people who would tell me that I am too positive, too optimistic and that I have to be honest with myself, that I have to get real.  I started to believe those people and what they were saying for no good reason.  After all, my life went just as I had planned it for the first 46 years, it wasn’t until I started listening to people tell me that I wasn’t who I thought I was that things changed.    The most important thing to understand is that the people who told me these things weren’t responsible for my downfall nor do I believe they had any ill intent, they just didn’t understand themselves the power of “KNOWING” that I had come to master over the prior 46 years.   I was completely responsible for the past 5 years, I created it and I own it.   The biggest and most valuable lesson to date in my life is realizing exactly what happened the last 5 years.  The Universe has its way of providing lessons and clues for you along the way, you just have to understand  and learn along the way.

Now that you know how to make yourself feel great all the time, why not give this “KNOWING” thing a try ?   Let’s do this together, as I mentioned in my last post, this stuff is contagious and it is fun when we can all share actual experiences with these life creation ideas.  I know I am going to have another incredible day, I know things are going to fall into place with several different projects I have in the works, I know I am going to lose some more weight today and feel even better than I did at 40 when I was in the best shape of my life.   What do you know ?  Get out a piece of paper and right down the things you know and see how you feel.  Change the way you feel about things, Know the things you feel good about are yours and the way you feel will change for the better.

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Your Kiss is on My List

“My list of the best things in life”  includes music that puts a smile on your face and makes you feel good all over.  Like my Blog post “Don’t Worry Baby”, music is great therapy and hearing the Hall and Oates classic “Your Kiss is on My List” immediately brought me back to the early days of dating my wife ( 30 years of marriage, and 35 years of dating).  Not only did it bring me back to the early years of my relationship with my wife but it also made it clear to me that we are constantly creating our own experiences in life.  And what may seem a simple coincidence is actually much more.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner.   Whether you call it Synchronicity or coincidence, I believe it all happens for a meaningful reason and it is up to you to figure out what the synchronicity in your life means.  So where am I going with Hall and Oates and Synchronicity ?  Well, something very interesting has been happening to me since I started writing this blog, meaningful and fulfilling synchronicity is started to appear daily, I am getting back into the zone where I was completely in control of my life and able to create things almost exactly as I wanted.  Miracles both large and small have started to happen but most importantly, friends, family and random people who have found my blog have started to have similar experiences.  I received an urgent text today from a business associate who has been reading my blogs who wanted to let me know what a great day she had and how everything was falling into place as she visualized it.  Now I know this particular person is very spiritual, has incredible faith, an awesome attitude and likes to read things like “The Secret” and similar works.  So she is understands the whole “knowing” thing that was the reason I started writing this blog in the first place.   What was really cool for me was that she created her day the way she always knew she could but she took the time to share her experience with me.   Her sharing of her experience today sent a positive shock through my body of knowing we can all create exactly the lives we want and that thought (good or bad) is contagious.  

Hall and Oates, what role do they play in today’s post ?  That’s another fun story I would like to share with you today because it is a great example of the incredible sychronicities in my life.   A few months back while searching Facebook for old friends, neighbors and business associates, I ran across Bren.  Bren or Brenda as I knew her back in the 60’s and 70’s was the cute Blonde from across the street in the neighborhood I grew up in.  Bren was a year younger than me but I had a crush on her during my entire elementary school experience.   Back then,  and I suppose at that age, you never hung around with girls in a grade below you and besides I never thought she had any interest in me.  But I always had that crush and anytime I had the chance to give her a ride on my Schwinn Apple Crate bike, I always was happy.   Well it turns out that Bren is a huge Hall and Oates fan, which was interesting because my wife when I started dating her in 1975  was also a huge Hall and Oates fan.  I have enjoyed Hall and Oates ever since my wife first played “She’s gone” for me from the “Abandoned Luncheonette” album.   So last week, I am checking out the news feed on Facebook and Bren posts that Hall and Oates are going to be in town and she wants to know who’s going with her ?.  I jokingly, immediately posted that I was going.  I really wanted to go but couldn’t justify spending the money at the moment.   So after posting my reply, I forgot about it, then late last week Bren sends me a message telling me that she has two extra tickets that my wife and I could have.   Wow,   I couldn’t believe the offer so I told Bren I just had to check with my wife to confirm.  Saturday rolls around and I tell my wife about Bren and the tickets, she was thrilled, so I immediately confirmed with Bren.  Now that was all incredible and fun but listen to this,  so my wife and I decide to go to a movie that afternoon, we decided to see “You Again” with Jamie Leigh Curtis.  Now, we decided to got to this movie just minutes after I confirmed with Bren about going with her to the Hall and Oates concert.  My wife and I really knew nothing about the movie except that Jamie Leigh Curtis  was in it.   So we are sitting in the  theater, eating a HUGE bucket of buttered popcorn when all of a sudden the couple in the movie are playing the Hall and Oates song “Your Kiss is on My List” on the radio, now that may seem like just a funny coincidence to you but to me it was synchronicity and a reminder to me that I played a role in the events that had just been created.  Even better, at the end of the movie and rolling into the credits, Hall and Oates and the cast of the movie sang “Your Kiss is on My List”.   While I always enjoyed that song, I never remembered the lyrics including the line “The Best Things in Life”, when I heard that, I knew the Universe was sending me yet another message about why happiness is the key to everything and when you know the outcome of your life, you can’t help but be happy.

You can have all of the Best Things In Life, you know you can, you just have to visualize your list of the best things and sit back and watch them show up.  I am adding something to my list of the best things in life, getting everyone to know they can create incredible experiences in their lives.  I know you can do it and I know that in my life, cancelling out the media has had a major impact and changed the way things are going for me.  I no longer listen to  or watch  any of the major news networks including my favorite Fox news, I don’t pay attention to the political nonsense going on in this country (I do intend to vote and I know my intuition will guide me to the right candidates),   I have turned off talk radio in favor of audio programs from Wayne Dyer, Mike Dooley and Joe Vitale.  Yes you could say I am brainwashing myself with positive, fulfilling and uplifting messages, and yes the brainwashing is working, I am washing out all the dirt and replacing it with clean new information.  I hope you will join me in creating incredible life experiences and if you get a chance, a text message, blog comment or email would be great, I love to hear about people and the great experiences they have created for themselves.  Get to work on your list of the “Best things in life” and make your life the best !

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Owner’s Guide to Enjoying Every Single Step of Your Life !

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Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t enjoy each and every step of your life.   I have embarked on an experiment the past few weeks that is showing me that you can enjoy every minute of your life, no matter what you are doing.  The best part is it’s easy, you just have to make up your mind that you are going to enjoy everything.   I always wanted to write something where I could use the term “Pollyanna ‘,   as in most people who are reading this are saying, oh no, Tim has gone “Pollyanna” on us.  I probably didn’t use that right but it was fun and most importantly you would never believe how much I just enjoyed that.  If you are new to my blog, you should know that after 27 years of creating a perfect life for myself and my family, I messed up the last three years and let the folks from the Dark Side convince me that I shouldn’t be happy and that I couldn’t really be as successful as I always had been.  This weak moment, ended up being devastating between a business failure and losing my home of 25 years to Foreclosure.  When I finally woke up from the nightmare, I decided to employ all the tactics and strategies I had used the previous 27 years, except this time around, I am super charging them.   

The first serious test came last week when I needed a miracle to save a property I own from foreclosure, I focused and made up my mind it was going to work out and it did (read my miracle blogs from last week for the details).  The strategies and tactics I am referring to are all the lessons I have learned from the Bible, Wayne Dyer, Terry Lyles, Earl Nightingale, Tony Robbins,  Joe Vitale, Mike Dooley, Peter Geisendorfer-Lindgren, My all time favorite coach Ted Leuer, Pinky McNamara, My Grandmother and my Mom.  I don’t have the time or space to tell you what they taught me, but I have tried to share a piece from every one of them in my blogs the last couple months. 

The Experiment…So a lot of people think I am nuts and think that I taking on way more than anyone can handle but before I go into the detail, let me just say I don’t think I have ever been this energized in my life.   My massive action to fix my life and correct the problems of the last three years includes taking on 3 full-time jobs, working 7 days a week while continuing to write my blogs, film my video blog, record my audio programs and work on my long-term life creation plan.   As I said, I am energized and enjoying every single minute, I have looked at each full-time position as an adventure, not as job but truly an adventure and it’s working.  Let me give you an idea, first if you don’t know much about me I am a lifelong salesperson and entrepreneur, I have made over a million dollars a year more than once in my lifetime, I have started at least 10 companies, I have been a radio broadcaster, a baseball coach, a father, a husband, a son, a public speaker and more.   The background is important for you to know because I think once you find out about my 3 full-time adventures, you might think I am over qualified or taking on something that should be below me.  So here we go,  each night from 10 pm to 6 am, I am the night manager at a convenience store that is owned by a great company that has over 400 stores or as they like to call them “Stationstores”,  My kids can’t figure out why I enjoy it so much, but the reason I enjoy it so much is it’s an adventure, I am learning, I am meeting new people, I am helping people,  people are handing me money all night,  I learned how to operate a car wash, stock soft drinks in a cooler, run one of those cool safes and I even get to sell Lottery tickets.  Not once have I asked myself what am I doing here, not once have I worried about what they are paying me.  I know it’s strange but I made up my mind to enjoy everything I do and the gas station is no exception.  I truly am enjoying every step and every task at my night-time adventure. 

In the late afternoon and evening I am selling a great new high-speed internet service and I get to work at the largest mall in America, The Mall of America.  We have really cool products, cool uniforms and I get to help people connect to the internet no matter where they are at high-speed.  This company is new to Minnesota and relatively new Nationwide so it’s like the good old days of working with a start-up with the latest and greatest technology. 

My other position is selling what I did for over 27 years, media replication services, and while things have changed dramatically and the business hasn’t come in as quickly as I hoped, now that I have a new attitude and approach I know this business is going to take off as I venture into areas I hadn’t previously pursued. 

Side effects…So I bet you are thinking that this guy must be tired and he can’t be enjoying anything else, guess what you are 100% wrong.  Again, I can’t explain it, but it’s as if the whole word switched over to High Definition, 3D when I made up my mind to enjoy everything.  I have lived in Minnesota most of my 51 years but all of sudden, I am seeing beauty along every road with the changing colors and landscape, I am discovering buildings and places in Downtown Minneapolis that I had either forgotten about or had never appreciated in the past.   There is a very old Catholic Church a few blocks from me that was built in the mid-1800’s by German settlers that I am just amazed at every time I drive by it.  I never really paid attention to Church buildings before but all of a sudden I am intrigued by everyone I see. 

And it’s not just landscape and buildings that I am enjoying, I am truly enjoying meeting new people and dining with old friends.   I know this sounds unbelievable but some how I have managed to get  myself in the “Zone”,  every experience, every phone call, every meal seems much more intense and enjoyable.  I am no longer going through the motions of life, I am enjoying every single step.  I am enjoying things so much that I don’t even think about sleeping and I can’t even tell you the last time I was tired.  OK, there was something I didn’t enjoy last week, the Sequel to Wall Street, it did put me to sleep, but it was the most enjoyable nap I ever had and I got to do it in a very nice theater and the bonus was my son took me to the movie. 

Yep, this time it was all about me, but I talked about me and my amazing life because you should be enjoying your life as much as I am enjoying mine.  I can’t imagine doing it any other way.  One of the things I am enjoying more than just about anything is my daily emails from the Universe (www.tut.com) .  Here’s what the Universe sent me this morning:

Tim, do you know why I am always there? Because I want you to have all of those things you’ve told me about, and so much more.Let’s kick some “butt,”     The Universe

  

Which reminded me that I am probably having such a great time and enjoying things so much, because I finally have accepted who walks beside me in everything I do.  If you knew who walked beside you in everything you do, I know you would feel the same way.   Enough of Tim’s blabbing, go out and enjoy yourself, you deserve it !!!

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Expecting and Needing a Miracle….

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Here I am…..working about 22 hours per day frantically trying to turn around my current situation.  Some of the best motivation and therapy has been writing as often as I can in my blog.  Yet, just when I thought things were really starting to fall my way, another crisis hits this afternoon.  Notice I said “just when I THOUGHT”,  had I made up my mind that “I KNEW” things were turning around  I don’t believe I would have been facing this crisis today.  While I don’t want to share all the details with you at this point, I will say that there would be a lot fewer foreclosures if the banks would actually take the time to hire and train employees to talk to, understand and negotiate with homeowners.  Worst of all those employees all need to be on the same page and need to stop outright lying to people who have done what the media has said to do, “talk to your bank”.  My crisis revolves around a mortgage company employee giving me a deadline to get documents to him , which I did by beating his deadline by two days.  Today, I called the company to make sure they had all the documents, even though, I had requested in my fax cover letter that they contact me immediately if anything was missing.  Well, guess what ?  today the mortgage company’s representative tells me that I didn’t get the documents in on time, when I told him I got them in two days before I was told they needed to be in, he just said well it wasn’t soon enough and you can’t stop the sheriff’s sale of the property.  For the first time in a very long time, I lost my temper and really went after the guy, of course that did absolutely nothing for me. 

For about an hour after that call I was in a terrible state and unfortunately my daughter called me at the wrong time and I yelled at her even though she had nothing to do with the situation.   After that, I  felt absolutely rotten about two things, yelling at the mortgage company and yelling at my daughter, both were wrong.  Once I calmed down and had a chance to compose my thoughts, the first thing that came to mind was “I need a Miracle” and I need it quick.  Since the mortgage company decided my paperwork was too late, I have just a couple days to come up with a very large amount of money so I can keep the property.  I had no intention of sharing this much detail with you in my blog but the more I thought about it, I thought there are thousands of people in this same situation that may benefit from hearing what I have to say.

First of all, nothing is impossible, absolutely nothing.  Second, I have been faced with situations even tougher than this and no matter how worked up I got, a solution always seems to appear.  So I have to remind myself to stay calm and stay focused on knowing the answers and solutions will appear.  I also have to remember Diet Mountain Dew and Pastor Peter Geisendorfer-Lindgren of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove, Minnesota.  What does Diet Mt. Dew and Pastor Peter have to do with miracles ?  Let me tell you,  over the past two years when things were very rough for me, Pastor Peter would invte me to meet him in his office for our drink of choice  “Diet Mt. Dew”, we had incredible conversations, I always felt a sense of peace roll through me and most importantly we prayed together.   I always left his office “Knowing” everything was going to be alright and it always was.  

So let’s get back to the “Miracle” stuff, when I was thinking about writing this entry this afternoon, my plan was to leave out most of the details of my crisis but to talk about expecting a miracle, almost like a little test.  I thought, I will give everyone a quick summary of the situation and then I will focus on expecting the miracle with the idea of writing about the miracle actually occurring in a few days, that way I could really inspire people by showing them the miracle first hand.  The problem with that scenario is that sometimes miracles don’t show up exactly the way you expect them or when you expect them.  I have been blessed with countless miracles in my life, so many that I can’t even keep track.  These miracles have been small and large, some expected and some were just plain surprises but all of them were blessings from God.

Let’s make a miracle happen right away.  I know it’s possible, as it happened to me and it has happened to many people I know.  One miracle in particular is the subject of a screenplay I am working on getting placed so a film can be made.  The business associate who brought me the screen play happens to be the subject of the screen play.  Her miracle was what I would call an ultimate miracle but it shows the power of faith and knowing you can create miracles.  Let’s call the associate KH, and let me just give you a quick summary of her miracle.  About 10 years ago, on Christmas Eve, KH had a heart attack even though she was young and healthy, her husband was able to perform CPR as he had just finished a CPR class the week before, the ambulance just happened to be down the street and arrived in less than 2 minutes, KH had died, her heart had stopped and the paramedics had to shock her heart to get it started but without the CPR she wouldn’t have had a chance.  Once she arrived at the hospital and the tests came back, he heart was so damaged that the doctors told her they were putting her on an emergency transplant list.  Since the next day was Christmas they told her that the soonest they could perform the surgery was the day after Christmas.  KH was devastated, she couldn’t talk because of the tubes and breathing apparatus that were inserted in her body.  But KH had faith and knew she needed a miracle.  Since she couldn’t talk she spent all day, Christmas day, tracing the letters to the word “Miracle” in the palm of her hand, all day long without fail she kept this up.  The next day she woke up feeling horrible, the nurses told her she need to go in for tests on her heart to find out how much more damage had occurred.  The last thing KH felt like was more tests.  After the tests were completed, the doctor stopped by to have a talk with KH.  The Doctor didn’t know how to explain it, but the tests done that day, the day after she traced “Miracle” a thousand times in her hand showed that her heart was fine, there was no damage and she didn’t need the transplant.  KH told me this story over dinner at a Friday’s restaurant, I was so glad that the lighting was low because I was in tears most of the time she was telling me about her “miracle”.  I really don’t believe in coincidences, and I truly believe that God made sure that KH and I would meet to show me that anything is possible and to remind me that Miracles really do happen.

The next 48 hours are all about miracles for me, I will be praying, visualizing, writing in my journal and writing personal scripts to myself but most of all I will be letting go and letting God take over.  God has never, ever let me down and I know that this situation won’t be any different.   If you really need a miracle the first thing you need to do is “Expect it” and secondly you need to “Know”  it’s going to happen.  Some people call it faith, I call it knowing and the other thing that helps is being able to spell miracle in the palm of your hand.

I expect to be writing about my miracle in the very near future, I hope that you will check back and share my miracle with me.  Regardless of what you are facing, your thoughts must be positive and you must know your situation is only temporary.  I have been there and while I have searched for what my purpose in life is, I truly believe that the challenges I have faced were meant to happen so I could share with you how to cope with and conquer any challenge you may face.   Anything and Everything is Possible !

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The Lost Art of Dining with Friends

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Last night my wife and I had a terrific evening dining with my American Legion Baseball Coach (33 years ago)and his wife.  While we arrived at the restaurant fairly early we found ourselves all alone at the end of the evening in the dining room.  Usually when I go out to dinner with anyone whether it is my wife, friends or business associates it seems like I am watching the time to make sure the whole affair is limited to 60 minutes or less.  I am not sure where the 60 minute time limit came from but I know that I have felt bound by those time limits for most of my life.  The 60 minute self-imposed time limit was most apparent to me during my travels to Europe from 2002 – 2006 especially in Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France.  My wife and I would go into a restaurant, eat our food and would be ready to leave after 45 minutes but it usually would take almost another hour to get our check so we could finally pay and leave.  This was interesting because it forced us to start talking and relaxing while we waited for the check to come.   The more we dined out in Europe the more we noticed that everyone else came to dinner for the entire evening.  Now I know this is not unique to Europe and I know there are many people in the United States that spend more time at dinner than I do but I believe in the US the opposite is true at most restaurants, even if you want to make a long evening of it, the wait staff is usually quick to bring your check, ask if you need a box and clean up your table to hurry you out the door so the table can be freed up for someone else.

Last evening, we really spent the entire evening visiting so much so that it took me almost two hours to eat my French Dip sandwich.  I can only really recall two such evenings in the last 10 years where I truly spent the evening dining with friends or should I say visiting with friends and the dining was secondary.  Last night was fantastic as I had a chance to talk to my coach about the old days and spent a little too much time telling him and his wife about everything I had done personally.  I felt bad for talking so much but I think I just wanted to let him know everything I had done with my life and that he was an inspiration for my success and an example for me to remember when I felt sorry for myself or was facing a tough challenge in my life. 

The other all night dinner I recall took place in Cannes, France where I was fortunate enough to be invited to dinner with a group of guys, all of them English who were a big part of the British Invasion (Music) of the 60’s and 70’s.  The group consisted of former managers, agents , publicists and record company executives who had been involved with all the huge names of the era, Janis Joplin, The Who, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Ozzie Osbourn, ABBA and more.  I spent the evening listening to all of their stories and thinking that a book or movie could have been made just about our dinner conversation.   I remember just sitting back and listening and enjoying everything so much.  Several times during the course of the evening, I got apologies from people in our group who would say to me “I hope we are not boring you with our stories”, they actually thought no one else would be interested in what they had to say, but I couldn’t get enough.  The restaurant we were at had only two tables, the large table we were at with our group of 6 and a smaller table for 2.  The only customers of that restaurant that evening was our group of 6 and the couple that sat at the other table.  Our dinner and evening lasted at least 6 hours and the couple dining at the other table was there most of the evening as well.   The wait staff never tried to move us along, they simply brought more food and wine as the evening progressed.

The “Art of Dining with Friends” may not be lost everywhere in America but from my experience there are very few people who still go out with friends and enjoy an extended evening of really enjoying their friends company just at a restaurant.   After last evening and after thinking about what I observed in Europe, I plan on tossing out my 60 minute dinner limit, start searching for restaurants that would enjoy and accommodate a group of friends who linger at their table late into the evening, I am also going to toss out the movie that commonly was a part of going out to “Dinner and a movie” and of course I am going to start tracking down friends to join us for long leisurely dinners.

In these days of “Social Networks” that are primarily electronic, I believe that returning to evening long dinners with friends could really help people connect face to face with people again.   I am not knocking the electronic “social networks” as I think they are terrific way to reconnect with old friends so you can make plans for an evening of Dining with Friends.   So what’s the point of me writing this particular entry ?  I guess I am just trying to say that too many of us spend way too much time isolated at home or rushed to meet some self-imposed time limit on a meal, I guess that is why we have so much “fast food” in the United States.  Now I am thinking maybe I am the only one that hadn’t taken time to spend a long evening with friends, maybe it is only me that had lost the art of dining with friends, regardless I am going to make a point of at least one evening a month where all I do is find a group of friends that will join me to eat, drink and visit for entire evening.

Neuschwanstein Castle is Calling Me !

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I have never been abducted by aliens but I have been called by a 19th century castle in Germany, not once but many, many times.  Now I didn’t get a call on the phone but ever since I was very young I have had recurring thoughts that I had to go to this castle in Germany.  The only way I can describe this lifelong obsession is to compare it to what happened to Richard Dreyfuss in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“.  In the movie, Dreyfuss’s  character is drawn to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, he draws pictures, he makes sculptures in his mashed potatoes and finally digs up his yard and builds a scale model of Devil’s Tower in his living room.  He finally gets in his old beat up station wagon and drives to Devils Tower where he evades the military and meets up with the visiting Alien space ship.   In my case I haven’t built sculptures in potatoes or ice cream nor have I built any scale models in my home of the castle, but I have had a strong feel my entire life that I had to go to Germany to visit Neuschwanstein Castle to find out what was going on.

Trying to figure out my obsession with this castle has been interesting, I know that this particular castle was the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyland and it did appear in many vampire movies I watched as a kid but beyond that I always felt there was something deeper.   You may be able to tell by name (Braun) that I have some German blood in my family.  My Dad and his family are almost 100% German and have always been extremely proud of their German heritage.  So my first thought was maybe it’s the German blood drawing me to Bavaria and Neuschwanstein Castle which would be weird especially with the situation I have had with my father my entire life.

My Mother and Father were divorced when I was less than a year old, my Mother and Grandmother really raised me and even though my Father lived close by he never visited me or kept in contact with me.  In my late 20’s I contacted my father on the phone on several occasions and while I had a nice conversation with him I never was able to convince him to meet me for lunch or anything else.  It has been tough not having a Father but because he was in town, I always worked hard at everything hoping that some how he would hear about what I was doing and want to meet me.  When I played baseball, there was nothing I wanted to do more than play great so I could get my name in the paper.  My first year in College, my College baseball team made a swing through the south on a Spring Training trip, we played several games against much larger Colleges and it did extremely well, it was probably the best week of my Baseball career, I led the team in RBI’s and if I recall had the highest batting average during that trip.  The best thing was that our daily game summary appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune Newspaper.   I thought to myself that finally my Dad would read about me and want to meet me, but the phone never rang.   Later on in life I started a company called Braun Media Services in 1990 that did extremely well until it was sold to Zomax in 1995, again no call from my Dad even though positive stories about me and my company appeared in my local newspaper.   The telepathic calls from the castle continued on.

In 2004, I had the opportunity to travel with my wife to Austria on a ski training trip with my son.  My wife and I stayed at the same hotel as my son but planned on making day trips to nearby attractions.  All that I could think of was Neuschwanstein Castle, so on our first day we drove our rental car 3 hours and to Bavaria in Germany to see the castle.  I had no GPS system to guide me, no map only some rough instructions that didn’t make sense to me.  I don’t speak or read German but now I was on autopilot being guided by some force to the castle.  We didn’t get lost, we drove directly to the castle and my wife was amazed at how I found it without the benefit of any worldly guidance.  I never mentioned this to anyone before but as I drove, I had this strange feeling that I had been here and knew the countryside intimately, every turn, every field, every river and stream and the mountains and forest were all familiar to me.

Arriving at the castle a sense of “finally arriving” at where I was always supposed to be swept over me.  After purchasing our tour tickets and waiting our turn to enter the castle, I strangely started describing to my wife what we would find inside.  Once inside, I knew I had been here before (I had never been to Germany let alone this castle)I calmly described each room to my wife before we entered it and once inside it was exactly as I described.  Outside and further up the mountain in the woods is a bridge across an amazing 2,000 foot ravine that was built at the time of the castle, the walk to the bridge, the woods all seemed as familiar to me as my backyard in Crystal, Minnesota where I grew up.   I have no idea why all of this happened or why I knew this place so well even before I visited but the sense of peace and well-being I had when I was at the castle, in Bavaria and for that matter in Germany was unlike anything else.  These days not a day goes by that I don’t think about what I now call “My Castle” and Munich, I have the same feelings about the city of Munich and I continue to feel pulled to return especially at this time of the year.

Up until this year, the only fascinating thing about “My Castle” and Germany was how I was personally pulled and called by these places.  This spring something else happened that was amazing and had a strange connection to “My Castle”.  As I mentioned earlier my father has lived in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area my entire life, after he remarried he had another son and daughter (my half  brother and half sister) earlier this year, I connected with my sister on Facebook, we have developed a great relationship and she is the only connection I have to my father.  After a lot of emails and phone calls we finally got to meet when I invited her and her boyfriend to join me at a Minnesota Twins baseball game,  As we were talking, Germany came up and then “My Castle”,  I told about how I felt drawn to the castle and how I knew the place inside and out once I got there, she had this strange, stunned look on her face, and then she told me that she has had similar feelings and that her whole house is decorated with pictures of Neuschwanstein Castle.  Talk about mind-blowing, not only do I finally get to meet my sister, but a lifelong mystery of mine is now shared by my sister.  Some day I am going to figure this out, but the one thing I have grown more confident about is the messages in my head and my gut about how to proceed in life and how important it is to follow your gut instincts.  I would write more but I am getting a call.

Life Changers (Real Life Angels)

What is an Angel ?  I believe Angels are real and can take many forms including human form, those “human” Angels probably don’t even realize they are Angels.  It may be that describing certain people as Angels is not accurate, may be they should be called “Life Changers”, whether they are Angels or Life Changers, I believe they have all been sent by God to guide us and lead us to live the life that God has planned for us.  I have been blessed with an abundance of “Life Changers” showing up at critical times through out my life.  And without hesitation, I can tell you who they are, how I felt in their presence and what they have meant to my life.   I know that “Life Changers’ show up in everyone’s lives but I am not sure everyone is quite as aware of these “Life Changers” and that of course is the trick.  I am not sure what it is, but I have always been blessed with an awareness of the people that come into my life.  Whether I am looking for these people or I just recognize them when they show I couldn’t tell you but I am thankful for each and every one of these people that have showed up and changed my life.

The funny thing about these real life Angels or Life Changers is that they can touch you for a lifetime by just being in your life for a brief moment in time.  In the summer of 1974, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Rich Rollins Baseball camp in Rochester, Minnesota.  Back when I was 14, baseball was pretty much my life and there was nothing I loved more than spending a couple weeks at Baseball camp in Rochester.  Each week, a guest instructor would show up at the camp and spend a couple hours with us in very small groups.  I had the chance to meet and get to know Rod Carew and carry on a friendship with him through out High School until he was traded to the Angels.  I also met several other major league players and developed friendships with them that were very cool for a 14 year kid who loved baseball.  One day, my first “Life Changer” showed up, he drove up in a silver, Lincoln Mark IV which was a really fancy car back then, when he emerged from the car, he had huge smile on his face and his body almost glowed.   His name was Danny Thompson and he was the Minnesota Twins Shortstop this was special for me because I played shortstop at the time and I was really looking forward to working with him for an hour or two.  When he walked over and sat down on the grass with me and the other players, something was different, I felt different, I felt like I was in the presence of someone or something incredible.   Now remember, I had similar meetings with Rod Carew and major leaguers that were much more famous than Danny and while I was impressed and nervous to meet them it was completely different with Danny.  Unlike the other players that visited, Danny spent almost 6 hours with us each day he visited, the other players spent an hour or two.  When Danny looked you in the eye and smiled and told you that you could be a major league player, you knew he meant it.  I learned alot about playing shortstop from those meetings with Danny but it was what I learned after Danny had left that convinced me Danny was super human, a life changer, an Angel.  About a week after the last time Danny spent the day with us, I was back home reading the newspaper and there was an article about Danny Thompson and the time he was spending at the Mayo Clinic while the Twins were in town.  It turns out Danny had leukemia which at that time was almost always fatal.  The article talked about how after a Twins night game Danny would drive himself the next morning to the Mayo Clinic for treatment, spend the whole day in Rochester and then drive back to the Twin Cities to start at shortstop for the Twins.  The article never mentioned our baseball camp and none of the coaches or Danny ever mentioned the Mayo Clinic, his leukemia or treatments or anything else to us at camp.  I was dumbfounded after reading the article, how could he spend the whole day with us out in the hot sun and have more life in him than all of us.  The truth was that Danny Thompson was totally focused on touching the lives of others without concern for himself.  To this day, the lessons that Danny Thompson taught me have stuck with me.  Danny played with leukemia for three seasons after being diagnosed, in June of 1976 he was traded to the Texas Rangers, on September 29th, 1976  Danny played his last major league game at shortstop at Metropolitan Stadium against the Minnesota Twins, he went 1-3.  On October 2nd, he pinch hit for his last major league appearance and just two months later at the Mayo Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Danny passed away.  Danny had obstacles that very few of us could ever imagine, yet the only thing that could stop him from serving others by his example was death.  Danny Thompson may have been the Angel that opened my eyes and heart to look for these special Life Changing people that show up in our lives.

In the fall of 1974, I started my first year of High School at Cooper High School in New Hope, MN, fresh off a summer of baseball camp, I had my sites set on the coming spring and the baseball season.  In Minnesota, we always started Baseball practice early in March in our gym because the baseball field usually was covered with snow until the first week of April.  On the first day of practice we were introduced to the coaching staff which included a student teacher named Ted Leuer, Ted was a graduate of Cooper and a former athlete who had stood out in all the major sports, Football, Basketball and Baseball, I remember him being somewhat of a legend.  Like Danny Thompson, Ted always had a big smile on his face and any time I was around him I would get that same feeling I did when I was with Danny, that this was someone special sent to teach me some very special lessons that would stick with me forever.  Of all the coaches we had that year, Ted was the hardest worker and the one coach who never asked for any help with anything.  I am not sure what it was but I felt like Ted had taken a special interest in me, I overheard him one time telling another coach that fundamentally I was a very good player.  I don’t make a habit of listening to conversations, this just happened to be a chance thing and Ted had no idea I was around, but having the Cooper legend, Ted Leuer tell another coach I was good player was an incredible confidence booster for me and it made me work harder than ever.  As the season progressed, Ted worked with me very hard to improve my fielding skils and he took time just about every day to stay with me after the regular practice had ended to him me ground balls until I couldn’t stand up, not once did Ted tell me it was time to quit because he was tired, it was always me telling Ted it was time to quit because I was too tired to continue.  Ted and I had always had great conversations about baseball and when I found out Ted would be coaching our Summer Legion Baseball team I was ecstatic.  for the next 3 summers, Ted spent hours upon hours hitting me ground balls after the regular practice until I couldn’t stand up any longer.  Ted was amazing whether it was an encouraging statement about my play or getting on me for making a mental error on the field, I could always count on Ted to keep me pointed in the right direction.   Before each game, Ted would hit infield practice to our team and I  remember standing out on the field at 3rd base looking into our opponents dugout and thinking how lucky I was to have a coach like Ted.  I know he was an inspiration to everyone that ever came in contact with him but I remember thinking that  they just get to get inspired today by Ted, I get him everyday.  After College and Broadcasting School, I entered the real world and like everyone else I was faced with many obstacles along the way but I beat those obstacles with the lessons I had learned on the Baseball Field from Ted Leuer.  Anytime I was faced with an obstacle, I would think to myself this is nothing, look at the obstacles Ted has overcome and I would breeze through those obstacles and be on to the next.  Over the years, the one thing that people say to me that kind of bothers me is “how can you be so happy and positive when you have this big problem”, it bothered me because I felt like they were saying I should be upset and feel bad, but how can you possibly feel bad when you have examples for your life like Danny Thompson and Ted Leuer ?  Both of these guys proved to me that anything is possible and that there is nothing you can’t deal with positively.    Ted went on to a successful career in logistics and after years of trying to find him, I recently reconnected with him through linkedin.com and look forward to having dinner with him and his wife sometime soon.   Let me share something amazing with you, Ted had a tragic accident that would have had a negative impact on 100% of the people if they had to go through the same thing.  I am not going to tell you about Ted’s accident or the obstacles he faced because Ted did such a good job of overcoming them that I don’t think any of his players or people who saw him on a regular baiss ever saw Ted’s obstacles, because he could do more than 99.9% of the people out there.  Ted is another super human, life changer, Angel that appeared in my life, didn’t see any obstacles in his life and set a great example for a high school 3rd baseman that has stuck with me my entire life.

I have thre more life changers to tell you about but there stories are dramtically different than Ted and Danny.  These three people touched my life in a different way, the first, Harmon Killebrew, the Hall of Fame Home Run Hitter for the Minnesota Twins and the second Bill Olson, everybody’s best friend at Cooper High School and Val Wessel, my best friends father in law.  Harmon is an incredible human being, being in his presence again gives you the feeling of being with someone other worldly.  Harmon is gentle, caring and is totally focused on others which is unnusual for someone who has accomplished as much as Harmon has.  He has set a great example for how to deal with great success and give back to others.  There is much more I could tell you about Harmon and someday I will but I just wanted to give him a brief mention because he is an important piece of the life changers in my life. 

Bill Olson was everybody’s best friend at Cooper High School form 1974 to 1977, he had a big impact on the life of everyone he touched.  I mention him today because he was a life changer and Angel for me.  Bill and I, spent a lot of time together and I hope to write more about Bill on another day.

Yesterday, I attended the funeral for Val Wessel, Val was the father of my best friends wife, Jessica.  Val lived a full and succesful life and was 77 when he passed away.  I only met Val a few times, but for some reason, I always thought about him because he also had that aura like Ted, Danny and Harmon.  When my friend Pat called me with the news of Val’s passing, it sent a shock through my body that I have only felt a few times in my life.  At the funeral yesterday, Val’s daughter, Jessica (Pat’s wife) spoke about her father and his life that was totally committed to others.  She talked about him telling her and her brother to call him anytime they needed help no matter what time of day or night and no matter what the situation was.  Jessica also shared many stories about her Dad that further illustrated what kind of man and father Val Wessel was.  Jessica reminding me as she spoke of her father of all the things I used to do for my kids before I got caught up in the troubles that my business caused for me.   It hit me hard that Val was the example of the father I always wanted to be for my kids and that I had selfishly put dealing with my business and financial issues ahead of being a good father.  Val Wessel was a super human, life changer, Angel to his family, his friends and to me personally, I know the example he set and the reminders I have received will stay with me for the rest of my life.  Thank you Val for reminding me of what is really important.

Teachers, Tests and a Lifetime of Learning

It is very interesting to me that since I started writing this Blog last week the Universe is putting me in touch with Teachers, giving me tests and allowing me to learn from what I am blogging about.  Now I am not talking about traditional teachers or tests, I haven’t gone back to College or a trade school, I am just running into people and having situations arise that I KNOW are the Universe’s (God’s) way of teaching me or testing me.  When I was on my walk with my dog “Flash” this morning, I was planning on writing about how Dr. Terry Lyles ( www.terrylyles.com) appeared in my life at a very tough time, while most people thought he was just a business partner and someone whose book I was going to publish, I saw him as a teacher who was brought to me by God to help my Wife and I deal with a very tough time.  My mother in-law was dying of cancer and Terry helped us both deal with the trauma associated with it.  Terry believes that every crisis or tragedy in our lives are actually gifts, which was what I was talkng about a few days back when I said that there is something good in everything, you just have to dig hard sometimes to find it.  Terry has worked with everyone from Professional athletes to first responders at ground zero (9/11) to the victims of hurricanes and Tsunamis.  Terry spent over a month working in a makeshift morgue in Thailand after the Tsunami helping people identify and deal with the loss of their loved ones.  Terry will be the first to tell you that this experience was one of the greatest gifts of his life.  One of the things that Terry taught me that sticks with me and helps me deal with any obstacle thrown in my way is the stories Terry tells of working with  theNavy Seals.  Most people when faced with danger run the other direction but the Navy Seals are taught to run toward the danger and deal with it head on.  This is something you need to do with the obstacles(danger) in your  life, run toward it and deal with it.  Running away, makes it fester and creates the stress that we all think we can’t handle.

First thing this morning, God throws a huge test at my feet, I had a letter forwarded to me about a business deal I am involved in that could have created a disastrous situation and maybe still will.   A few months back, I would have been extremely upset and fired off a nasty response, taking it personally that some would dare to do this.  But today, I took a deep breath and said to myself, there is something good here, I detached myself from the situation and suddenly the words for a positive email response were flowing through my fingers.  I sent the email and a few hours later got a response that I was afraid to look at but when I finally got the nerve to open the email, the response was the polar opposite of what I expected, I will even call it pleasant.   Now it may be that I just set the right tone with my original response but either way a volatile situation has now turned into a manageable situation and I am content that a positive solution will arise.  The key is stopping to recognize the tests that are presented to us everyday and looking for the teachers that come along to teach us in places we least expect it.

My friend from high school, Heidi, responded to a post I had about patience on my Facebook page today and she talked about the incident with the flight attendant on Jet Blue last week where a passenger was so out of control the flight attendant litterally  couldn’t deal with the situation and left the plane (with two beers and a trip down the inflatable slide).  Had the flight attendant realized that the unruly passenger was actually a teacher sent to teach him something, the outcome might have been much different.  Dr. Wayne Dyer talks alot about the teachers that show up in our lives and he specifically refers to the people that bother us the most as the people that are here to teach us what we really need to learn.  These teachers include the drunk at the baseball game that pours beer on your wife, the guy in the red camaro that cuts you off on the interstate, the snowboarder with the bad attitude that gets in your face or the umpire that calls a foul ball ball when you were actually hit in the wrist by the pitcher.  The next time someone really irritates you, instead of getting upset, think to yourself, what was this person sent here to teach me.  I think you will find that you will feel better, your blood won’t be boiling and you might actually learn something that makes you stronger.  This is just another way of looking for the good in every situation you are presented with.

I had a great lunch today with a very good friend who makes movies for a living, he had mentioned that he had read my blogs and appreciated the living in the now comments I had made.  We were talking about how today’s world with all of the economic worries and families in financial crisis that it has forced us to look at things differently.  It really is a great time to live in the now because no matter where you are Omaha, driving by the landfill on the South Side of Chicago, Glacier Park or North Minneapolis you will find amazing things to appreciate and be thankful for.  You have no idea what you are missing if you haven’t visited the worlds largest ball of twine or driven down West Broadway in North Minneapolis.  Everywhere you look there is something to appreciate and be thankful for and yes to enjoy !  You just have to live in the moment and learn to appreciate everything.  Today more than ever I appreciate the amazing friends I have and the people like Chris who I had lunch with who is so creative and interesting that the lunch was a seminar in itself.  So do yourself a favor, be alert and pay attention to every person that crosses your path, try to figure out what each one was sent here to teach you, what each obstacle or test was designed to teach you and how to appreciate the lesson plan that God has created for you.

The Wonder of it all….

I posted a quote from one of my favorite gurus Wayne Dyer on my Facebook page today about living in the moment. It was not only about living in the moment but it was about getting started on all of those things you have put off.  There really is magic in getting started now and also in enjoying the moment.  For years I could never really understand what it meant to “live in the moment” or “be in the now” but within the last couple years I finally figured it out and it has dramatically changed everything.   One of my favorite quotes from a few years back when I was a young father was,  ” Somewhere there is a Father sitting in his office thinking about playing baseball with his son and somewhere there is a Father playing baseball with his son thinking about everything he has to do at the office”.  When you take time to analyze that you realize that we are all guilty of this but worse its  insane  and   doesn’ t make any sense.  If you really want to see how amazing life can be teach yourself to live in the now.

When I finally figured it out and started living in the now, an entirely new world opened up to me, all of a sudden I couldn’t believe what I was seeing everywhere I looked.  For over 40 years I missed out on so much because I was never in the moment, except for on the baseball field but that is a  whole other blog entry for a later date. Back to the now,  so here’s what I was missing, on a simple ride through town I was focused on everything but my surroundings, now that I am living in the NOW I have discovered so much new stuff right here in Minnesota that it is incredible.  And when this whole new world opens up for you, the gratitude you feel for everything God has created is overwhelming. 

Once you master living in the now, you also catch other people not living in the now and you can’t figure out how you ever got caught up in not living in the now.  The best example I can give you is last summer when my wife, my son and myself were driving back from dropping off my daughter at school in Montana, we drove through Glacier Park and went for a hike at Logan Pass.  I think Logan Pass in Glacier Park is one of God’s great masterpieces, it is so unreal, the mountains and the sky look as if they were painted on a canvas and the wildlife, grizzlys, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and more seem to appear on cue.   I was so caught up in the moment, I couldn’t think of anything but the wonder of what I was seeing yet my son was talking about if I thought we could make it to a big city in time to see a movie the next night.   With something so amazing as Logan Pass it seems unimagineable that anyone could not be in the moment while hiking the area.    I could give you a million examples of how the world has opened up to me as a result of learning to live in the now but I think it would be much better that you enjoy the now yourself, right now !

Once you figure it out, everything works better, food takes on a whole new taste, writing a blog is effortless, mowing the lawn is amazing and your dog licking your neck while you are trying to work is just plain fun.  One of the key elements of mastering the NOW is looking for the good in everything whether it is a landfill or a clear mountain stream,  whether it is a check written to you for a million dollars or a bill for a thousand dollars, there really is something good in everything.  Now good doesn’t always mean happy,  it can mean proud, overwhelmed with emotion and more.  I remember my Uncle Bob’s Funeral a few years ago, we lost him way too early and it was tough for all of my family, but at the graveside at the Fort Snelling National Cemetary I was overwhelmed by what took place.  The military honor guard fired their rifles in a salute to my uncle and then they carefully removed the American Flag from the casket and carefully folded it into a triangle and as they handed it to my Aunt the head of the honor guard said ” On Behalf of the President of the United States, the Country thanks you for Bob’s service”  I don’t think I ever experienced something so moving, the rush of emotions and pride for having Bob as my Uncle was truly overwhelming.  At that moment, everything was clear to me and the moment hit me in a good way.   So look for the good in everything and let yourself be amazed with things you never thought about before, crazy things like the color of the weeds growing in your garden, the cool breeze after a rainstorm with that fresh air smell, the amazing night time sky full of stars and even the methane gas being burned off at night from the landfill south of Chicago. There really is a whole new amazing world for you to experience once you learn to live in the now.  So take time to look into the eyes of your significant other, your kids, a parent or a coworker and just experience looking and see what you have been missing for all these years.  I now understand what Wayne Dyer means when he says “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at Change”.

Little Red Mustang !

I graduated in 1977 from Cooper High School in New Hope, Minnesota with what had to be the greatest group of classmates ever assembled.  My High School experience was great in every way, the Teachers were all fantastic, the coaches were incredible and those classmates of mine were so awesome that I never lost touch with many of them and those I did, I have recently reconnected with.  My three years at Cooper High School definitely contributed to KNOWING I was going to have a great life and enjoy success in just about everything I took on.  When I look back and compare my high school experience with those of my wife and my kids, I am not sure how I got so lucky to be a part of the Cooper class of 77.  I really wish that my wife and my kids would have had the opportunity to have the experience that I did.

It was a hot September, Saturday morning in 1975 when I had just finished a long tough workout with the Cooper Cross Country team at Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet.  Riding back to Cooper with my teamates we passed the Texaco station across the street from the Lincoln Dell on Lake Street heading toward Hwy 7.  There it was, the car of my dreams sitting on the corner of the gas station with a big For Sale sign on it.  It was a 1967, Red Mustang with a Black hood and rust around the rear fenders but it was the car I always dreamed of driving.   When I got home, I called my Mom and told her about it, she called the gas station on my behalf and found out they wanted $500 for it.  I only had saved about $150 while working at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale for .97 an hour, so my Mom and my Uncle Ted pitched in and borrowed me the balance.  We picked up the car that day and I drove it home with its 3 speed stick and Red Bucket seats.  Not only was I a part of the greatest  High School class ever but now I was on top of the world with my Red Mustang.

Unlike most kids today, that car with it’s old worn carpet and rusted fenders, was so meaningful to me that I overlooked ever defect of that car.  I can’t imagine kids today ever appreciating a car like that the way I did.   While most people probably would have seen the defects, I never looked at that car for what it was, I only visualized what it could be ! To me I could improve that car by fixing the rust, putting in a new stereo, replacing the carpet and even having a new floor welded in when my seat dropped 6 inches while I was driving it because the original floor fell apart due to the rust it had accumulated.  What fascinates me about just about everything I look at, is what a difference it makes in your quality of life when you look at everthing from the standpoint of “What could be” instead of “what it is”.  So in a very strange way, my little Red Mustang played a big part in shaping my life.  I was so proud of that Mustang and I worked hard to buy new wheels and tires for it and I work endlessly to wax it and polish it especially before taking Suanne on a date.  Suanne, my high school sweetheart and now my wife of 30 plus years drove a red mustang too !.  

I worked at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale as an usher from the time I was 13 until I was 17 but grew up in that theater because my Mother worked there from the time I was about 3 years old until the 90’s.  Besides my mustang and Cooper High School, the Terrace Theater was also a big part of my life.   I was usually the door man at the Terrace which meant I got to tear the tickets and let my friends in for free when they would come to the movie.  One of the Candy Girls I worked with was a girl named Lisa who went to Robbinsdale High School, she was always the most animated and active of all the Terrace employees and always the most insistant that I let her friends in for free.  I am not sure of the exact date but I know it was early in 1975 when a 1974 Red Mustang II Ghia would drive by the front door of the Terrace with a mysterious Blonde behind the wheel.  I always thought she was my version of Suzanne Somers in the T-Brid in the movie American Graffitti.  Well it turned out the Blonde in the red mustang was a friend of Lisa the Candy Girl and Lisa always made me let her and her boyfriend (the captain of the rival Robbinsdale High School wrestling team) into the movies for free.  So here it is, 1975, I am driving the car of my dreams and the girl I always dreamed of ( A Blonde in a Red Mustang) is regularly visiting the Terrace with her boyfriend, the wrestling team captain.  I knew she was the girl of my dreams and since my mustang had taught me to look at what could be instead of what was, I knew that I would find a way to ask this young lady out.  I started bugging Lisa the Candy Girl every chance I had, I begged her to ask the Blonde in the Red Mustang to go out with me.  All Lisa would tell me was that the Blonde wasn’t my type and would never consider going out with me because she worked at Dayton’s Downtown Minneapolis.  To this day, I have no idea why Dayton’s had anything to do with me other than I guess working at Daytons put her in a class way above the ushers at the Terrace Theater. 

Knowing that the Blonde in the Red Mustang was not only going to go out with me but was going to be my wife, I persisted in begging her friend to get her to consider me.  Then it happened, I got a call from Lisa the Candy Girl on a Wednesday night, The Blonde in the Red Mustang was devastated because she didn’t have a date on Saturday night, Lisa told me this was my chance, so the rest is history, I called the Blonde we went on a date in my Red Mustang and 35 years later Suanne(the Blonde in the Red Mustang) and I are dreaming of driving a 2011 Red Mustang.  A classmate from the Cooper Class of 77 requested that I blog about being a teenager with a car in the 70’s so I thought I would write this piece about the Red Mustang.  It really is great to be reminded about what a Little Red Mustang  meant to a teenager in the 70’s and how it would play a role in just about everything for the next 35 years..