“Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.”

Alan Alda

If you’ve ever suffered through had the opportunity to take a Myers-Briggs assessment, you may or may not remember your alphabet soup personality type. I always seem to come up as ENFP – Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving. Over the years, I’ve been told many times that I’m very perceptive or intuitive – I can usually smell a rat long before anyone else does, and I always know when “something is up”.

“With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.”
Lope de Vega

My quest for simplicity started in childhood. As the severity of my parents hoarding increased, so did my desire for a less complicated life. Night was the most peaceful time for me then, much as it is now. As a child, it’s when the chaos seemed to subside, and the darkness hid what daylight showcased.

“In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.” -Jose Narosky

I’ve worked on Veteran’s Day more often than not since I’ve lived in San Diego. Despite that, I always take a moment to thank those that have or are serving our country.

I know that if my Uncle Frank were still alive, he would be at a ceremony somewhere in our hometown honoring our veteran’s. He had a particular spot in his heart for Vietnam Veterans because of the way they were treated when they came back from the war, and the difficulty they had in finding the services they needed to support them long after the war.

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.
– Louis Pasteur

I’m currently on the #NaBloPoMo diet. Ok, it’s not a real diet, it just reminds me of being on a diet. My challenge is to write a blog post per day for the entire month of November.  I love to write, so it should be pretty easy right? Well, it’s not…. But it’s an amazing exercise to go through.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

Dr. Maya Angelou

I love this picture. It captures the essence of Maya Angelou’s quote. I can’t remember having an awareness of skin color or cultural difference before I entered the first grade. We were all just kids, playing and having fun.  In 1970, my parents gave me a “Baby Know it All” doll for Christmas. I had never really thought about it until I opened the box – this was the first time I saw a doll that didn’t have blonde hair or white skin. Although she was African American, I immediately felt that she was much more like me than my other dolls. Her hair and eyes were dark, like mine.

“The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise”
Alden Nowlan

Yesterday, I shared an encounter that stirred up a lot of memories as I was writing it. The video below shows a bit of where I grew up.  Some of the pictures are from my parents era, others, I know well.

What kind of feelings does your hometown evoke?

“The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. What is grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion.”
Lao Tzu

The baggage of old thought and emotion holds the power to change not only our perception, but our entire lives. It can taint our view of the world, the people we encounter, and how we view ourselves.  This summer, a random encounter with a stranger led to a profound exchange of perception based emotions.