Expecting and Needing a Miracle….

Image by The Hennessy's via Flickr

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 !

Related Articles

• Because I Believe in Miracles (yimcatholic.blogspot.com)
• Miracle Formula for Success (socyberty.com)
• Expect Miracles & Good Things (beliefnet.com)
• Eight ‘Miracles’ Reported in Pope-Crazed England (newser.com)
• GMAC Suspends All Foreclosures Nationwide (news.firedoglake.com)

Neuschwanstein Castle is Calling Me !

Image via Wikipedia

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.

Marcus and the Amazing Honey Stick for just 25 Cents…..

Coincidences ?  I don’t think so.  Daily life is so amazing, especially when you are paying attention and testing what I will call the natural laws.  These natural laws include the law of attraction, practice makes perfect and many more but they really come from things you probably heard your parents or grandparents talk about when you were growing up.  I think most people probably never give some of these ideas and quotes a second thought, but I guess I was a good listener and took them all to heart.

This morning I was thinking about what Joe Vitale said in his book “The Attractor Factor” something to the effect that he has changed his mindset to believe that the more he spends, the more he receives.  Now that sounds kind of irresponsible and maybe just like plain wishful thinking but it reminded me of something that actually happens to me on a regular basis.  To illustrate, I would like to share with you the amazing but true story of Marcus and the Honey stick.

When I was growing up my Mother always would tell me how important it was to give to others whether it was an offering at Church, or a tip to the person who waited on you at a restaurant or payment to the kid that mowed your lawn or shoveled the snow in your driveway.    She would always follow that up by saying that my Grandfather was always generous in his giving and always said that the more you give, the more that will come back to you.  I have always tried to live by this principle whether it was tipping waiters at restaurants or paying people that did work for me, but I never thought about whether anything was coming back to me until I had a chance request for 25 cents from Marcus.

Marcus was a member of the Buck Hill Ski team here in Minnesota and was a teammate of my kids Jake and Kylie.  When my kids were younger, I spent a lot of time at their ski practices, ski camps and races.   I think it was the fall of 2002, we were at the Buck Hill Ski Racing camp at Winter Park, Colorado and I had made my way from the hotel to the day lodge to watch the kids practice.  While sitting at a table looking out the window I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned around and there stood Marcus who had just come in from outside, once he got my attention, he said “Mr. Braun could I have 25 cents to buy a Honey Stick”, after asking Marcus what a Honey Stick was(a straw filled with Honey), I gave him a quarter and didn’t think much of it at the time.  Later that day, I was walking back to my hotel room and as I walked I saw something shiny in the snow, I reached down and there it was a shiny quarter, I picked it up and put in my pocket.  When I got back to the hotel,  I walked to my room and then reached in my pocket for the key, as I pulled the key from my pocket it fell on the floor and there laying next my key was another quarter.  Now I am thinking this is just an interesting coincidence it couldn’t be the universe rewarding me for giving Marcus a quarter for the honey stick and you are probably thinking the same thing as well.   The next morning I got up early and drove to Denver to catch my flight back to Minneapolis.  At the airport, they finally started boarding the plane and as I looked for my seat I spotted a seat with a quarter sitting right in the middle of it, I thought to myself “no way”, then I looked at my boarding pass and sure enough, the seat with the quarter was mine.  So for the quarter I gave Marcus the day before for his honey stick, I now had 3 quarters in my pocket to replace it.   At this point, I sensed this might be more than a coincidence so I set out to test it again, a few weeks later I was at a ski race and I was ready, sitting in the lodge I was waiting for Marcus to stroll by.  The minute I saw Marcus, I waved him over, reached in my pocket and gave him 2 quarters and told him to buy himself a couple Honey Sticks, Marcus was quick to inform me that they didn’t have Honey Sticks at this particular ski area and tried to give the quarters back but I insisted he keep them and suggested that maybe he wanted to use them to play a video game (Marcus loved the video games).  As the day progressed, I kept my eyes open for signs that this principle might actually work and sure enough almost $2 in quarters appeared in very strange places that day and over the following week I must have found another $3 or $ 4 in quarters.  My ritual with Marcus continued for about 7 years until he graduated from High School and went off to College.

My story of Marcus and the Honey Stick has always stuck with me, most notably about a year after the first time I experienced this phenomena I was at my office and had an employee who without fail would ask to borrow $5 just about everyday for lunch from somebody in the company.  One day, he asked me and just as I was about to say I couldn’t help him, I caught myself and said to myself this is the Marcus deal just at a higher level, I then reached in my pocket pulled out a five dollar bill and told him to keep it, it was his and he didn’t have to pay me back.  He immediately said “No, I just want to borrow it, I will pay you back tomorrow” but I insisted that he keep it and told him that it would come back to me without him having to do anything.   Well that caused a stir with him and he asked me what I was talking about, so I told him the story of Marcus and the Honey Stick, he started laughing so hard I couldn’t believe it, I really think he thought I had completely lost it.   Later that same day, we had a customer in for a meeting and this same employee was part of the meeting, as we were walking with the customer to the conference room, the employee starts telling the customer about Marcus and the Honey Stick and how I had given him $5 for lunch.  Everybody, including myself had a nice chuckle and walked into the conference room, because of the commotion, I decided to sit at different place in the conference room than I normally sit and as I pulled the chair out, I looked down and there on the chair was a twenty dollar bill (really, this is a true story), I picked it up and showed to the employee and said “see, it works” and then I was accused of planting the 20 and much worse but I had nothing to do with it.  Over the following days, I started finding one and five dollar bills in very stange places and I was more convinced than ever that when you give, you always get more in return.

This is a true story and I am convinced this will work for everyone but you have to “Know” it will work for you and it can take other forms. My Wife for example, hates casinos but always has done well at every casino we have ever visited and she very seldom gambles, she just always finds Twenty and One Hundred Dollar bills laying on the floor.   Why does this work for her ?  because she “knows” it will !  I always hear her telling people that she always finds money on the floor at casinos, between telling other people and thinking this way, she has convinced herself that she always finds money and she always does.    What can you convince yourself of today ? Jesus said in Mark 11, 24 “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it is yours” .  I believe that prayer is much more than kneeling beside your bed and folding your hands, it also includes your thoughts as well.  So have good thoughts, ask for what you want and believe you “have” received it and then sit back and watch it show up.  Really !

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..