The other day a relative of mine posted this statement “If you wanna change your situation, start changing your situation and your situation will change.”  He said that it sounds simple, but is really something to think about.  I found the statement rather profound.  He said he used the statement as a way to motivate himself to take action, in order to make some changes in his life.

One of the reasons I started this blog is to write about how and why people are motivated.  Are we motivated by what we want to get or are we motivated by situations in which we find ourselves?  Or can we motivate ourselves?  Whatever it is, the situation usually calls for some type of action on our part.

Dangling a carrot (so to speak) in front of someone is one way to get that person to take action, if the carrot looks good enough, that person will reach for the carrot.  Poverty can motivate a person to take action, which is what my father did at the age of nine when he left home to make money to feed himself and have a better life.

My relative has used self talk to motivate himself.  Self talk is an action.  For me, at one time in my life, self talk would have been a difficult action for me to take because I suffered from low self-confidence.  For some people, the only thing that could motivate them to take an action would be a pin in the tush.  You’ve seen the cartoon drawing of someone being stuck in the butt with a needle-they jump!

So, I admire my relative for putting his self talk out there, because he has started an action which is going to require him to take more action in order to change his situation.  He is an inspiration and an example to others who may be struggling with the need to change.   It helps to know how others are motivated into action, that way we know we are not alone, and it makes our own efforts easier.  How were you motivated today?  Or what has motivated you in the past?

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Hello.  Well, its’ a week before Christmas and the one thing I am missing this year is my Mom.  Her name was Norma, she passed away in 2010 and just yesterday I decided to put a picture of her on the wall next to my work station so she can be my muse.  It’s a picture of her at a volunteer day celebration luncheon so she has a plate full of food in front of her.  She has on a white shirt with a collar, a pink sweater with a pink tie, strawberry blond hair and a nice smile.  It’s a full face picture so I can see her “beauty mole”.  I like the smile because it looks as though she is pleased with what I am doing in regard to this blog. If you care to browse further I have a pic of my mom in another post and a younger picture in my little photo section.

Three things my mom liked to do was volunteer work (Hollywood Bowl gift shop, library reading tutor), wear pink and decorate for the holidays.  By now her tree would be up and decorated, Christmas candy would be in a candy bowl (who does that anymore?) and, oh yeah, my favorite thing of all, there would be a huge reindeer head on her front door that played “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer” when you pushed the button.  And everybody pushed the button.  Until her last couple of years, she would also decorate the hallway near the elevator by putting up a small Christmas tree.  And of course, she cooked.  Mac and cheese.  Yams and pineapple and ham.   Usually, everybody in the family who could, came by on Christmas.  I miss that.

So, my mom is my muse, she is an inspiration and today we are visiting Christmas of 1942.  Mom was 19 and working for the City.  She hadn’t gotten married yet so she was still living at home.  I don’t know for sure but she was probably listening to songs like, “Flying Home” by Lionel Hampton or “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby, or she could have been listening to the Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta “H.M.S. Pinafore” because she was an aspiring opera star at the time.

My mom had met my father, Eddie Green, by now, though they were not married, so she may or may not have known that Eddie was performing that Christmas season on the popular Columbia network’s “Caravan” program.  The program was billed as an hour of fun and music with a veritable “blitz” (I think this was a nod to the war) on gloom.  Guests included Xavier Cougat’s Orchestra and Eddie Green, comedian.  I have an article from a Niagara Falls newspaper that says “It has been decided that the nation today, more than ever, needs laughter, and the “Caravan” is going to contribute as much of it as can be packed into an hour of radio time.”

As I have stated before my father, Eddie Green, was by that time a well-known radio personality appearing as “Eddie, the waiter” on the Old Time Radio program, “Duffy’s Tavern”.  From everything I have read, so far, most people thought Eddie was “side-splittingly” funny.

I think that, like in ’42, the world could use more laughter.  I know I could use a good laugh.  I have copies of most of the programs my father was on, but listening to them by myself is not as fun as it might be if I could listen to them with mom.  I have only received most of my recordings over the past three years, so mom, to my knowledge, never got a chance to hear them.

I can imagine though, going over to mom’s and pressing that button on the old reindeer head hanging on her door and dancing to the little tune that comes out and then going in and sharing my discoveries her, I think that would be a great Christmas present.  Wow, this was my longest post yet, thanks for hangin out with me.

The Christmas season is upon us and I am having difficulty getting into the spirit of Christmas.  I believe my difficulty comes from the turmoil that is going on in our world today.  If I watch the news I see nine incidents of violence before I see something positive.  So I decided that since I have been doing research on my father for the year 1942 (the date of his draft registration card) I would go on-line and see what was going on in the world that year that is similar to what we are experiencing now.  Well, duh, we were in the middle of WWII.   OK, so maybe there were some things going on that might prove to be more positive.  After all, there are some good things that happen in this world, right?  For instance:

Count Basie recorded “One O’Clock Jump”.

Bing Crosby recorded “White Christmas” the greatest selling record to date.

John H. Johnson published the first issue of the Negro Digest.

Walt Disney released “Bambi”.

Then I found this article about a race riot in Harlem.  A white police officer was arresting a black woman and a black off-duty soldier stepped in because he thought the officer was being too rough and in the scuffle that soldier was shot.  Somehow, a false rumor was spread that the woman was the soldier’s and that he had been killed right in front of her.  This was not true, but a riot was sparked.  Violence.  And the weird part is that the Mayor lifted the dim out that was in place because of the war, so the police could keep a watch out for looters.

I understand that good and bad will always exist, but I am hopeful that we will someday figure out a better way to exist with our fellow human beings.  Then that way when people view the news, however that may be done in the future, they will view nine good incidents first before they have to see the bad.

One other thing, remember these?  My childhood was not always the happiest, but, my little golden books always made me feel good, even seeing one today gives me a warm feeling.  I encourage you to think about some of the things that give you pleasure this holiday season.  Share your good feelings with another person, spread the love.  How do you plan to be merry for the holidays?

HA! I am thanking my lucky stars that someone posted the above quote.  I was having a hell of a time thinking of a post.  I don’t know if it is the cold or the crickets, but I just can’t seem to think.  And I need to post, otherwise I am subject to just giving up.  If I do not post on a continuous basis, I will eventually convince myself that this blogging thing is not working, because look how long it’s been and where is my traffic?  No traffic must mean I am failing!  It’s probably just the crickets, though.  They have crawled into my landlady’s wall and are driving me crazy!  I have a catastrophic brain and the crickets and the cold weather are not helping.  Cold weather stops my flow, it seems.  I mean, it’s not snowing or anything harsh like that, I am just a warm weather person who needs to turn on her heater, for Heaven’s sake.

I have had amazing experiences these past few weeks, my first writer’s convention and appearing on a radio program, but I seemed, today, to have tried to take myself into a place that does not exist at present, a place of failure.   Then, while surfing the web, I saw the above quote and I thought HA! That’s it.  I remembered that I started this blog to have a presence in the writing community, not to attract heavy traffic.  Well, I have a presence, and by living and pursuing a goal today, I may encounter failure but it will certainly not occur by default.

I feel warmer now, thanks to my little heater and some socks, and maybe those crickets will take pity on me and go to sleep or hop away.  Toodles.

I love my siblings.  Actually, I love each and every member of my family. The thing about me and my siblings, though, is that we all seem to share the same silly characteristics.  Whether we are all together or just two of us talking, somehow a blast from the past becomes a part of the conversation and the hilarity begins.

My siblings and I have a relationship that I cherish.  Growing up, we had to rely a lot on each other for support.  I was the oldest and had the most household responsibility and I know that my siblings respect me for that today.  But, I don’t know if they realize just how much their presence in my life, means to me.  I have what I think is a bizarre sense of humor, and I know that my siblings, Lance, Brad, Donna and Brian played a large part in its development.

Being the oldest of this little group taught me to be responsible.  Being the oldest meant I got the chance to be a role-model (not that I knew it at the time), but it meant that I had to be a good girl, a good sister. Being the oldest helped me be a good mother when that time came. This does not mean that I was a model sister all of the time, because being the oldest also meant that I got the chance to drive my little sister batty.  Like the times I would hide her shoes (that makes me laugh right now), and she would run to mom and scream.  I did that a lot.  Today, Donna claims she has an obsession about keeping her shoes aligned properly in her closet.  So funny!

Well, now we are all grown up, but we are still silly, we still laugh a lot together.  We are also still extremely close, though one of us, Lance, has passed on.  However, the fact that I have recently begun this new chapter in my life, that of being a writer, means that a lot of my time will be spent at my computer, but, wait a minute, now that I am thinking of this I realize, my siblings are sitting right here with me, because without them, I would not be who I am today, able to sit here and pursue my dream.