Gratitude - What's on your list?

Excellent, @HealingMe - what color did you go with? I remember when I was painting an investment property that I had - it wasn't even going to be a place I lived in - and I literally ended up with a binder of paint chips and it took me months to decide. ha ha. Fun to explore though.

Also, that's great that you are doing some strength training. I'm excited to explore again too (got my hand weights back out!!!) - little by little integrating more "script flipping" activities in contrast to past year.
Here's to getting stronger!! ❤️

 

@Sita - I just finished knitting the first skein of yarn! Yeeeee.
Thanks for the inspiration!

 

Those are my sons and my third 'son' aka their best friend.
My two Biological sons are the farthest right (lead singer) and second from Right (Guitar player)...and dead center is my 'third son' aka my work partner/known him since he was 12 and fully corrupted him as much as my sons.
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/attachments/2113/
Onstage Far left blonde long hair Is my oldest, dead center is my Baby, and Far right is my adopted.
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/attachments/2114/
That is them last month at the Pinnacle amphitheater opening for Jack White. Their Band is called "Waxed"

I just searched my hard drive and I do not have a single photo of myself, and definitely not performing. I looked through my phone and all I could find was a link to a music video from 2012. My hair was long, I had a goatee/nose ring and I was VERY High on drugs.
I am now sober and uber clean cut.



but the song was fun

I saw both of my Babys today...

P.s. and I don't know why this is so big. I just added the URL.

 

Mystery solved! Your sons open for Jack White—that’s no joke! What a talented family. Looks like they got it from their Dad. And now, lucky for us, you spend your sobriety and free time helping all of us here on the forum. Thank you!
Happy Father’s Day!

 

Good for you! I'm happy you did.

 

Definitely can be a looooong process. I jumped around from various shades and colors. Ultimately I've decided to go with Shiitake by Sherwin Williams which is exactly what I've been looking for: a warm hug. It's slightly darker and warmer than what the room is painted now and pairs well with the mid tone woods, beiges, grays, and brass in the room. I'm excited to get it painted. I just need to decide when ha!

 

Today I am thankful for:

• Sugar snap peas - haven't had them in so long and nice little treat this morning
• Thoughtful people who I met on my walk this morning who helped kindly rescue a turtle
• The tiny little gym in our community here that I had totally forgotten about, but stopped into today and actually did a few exercises on the weight machines
• Feelings of empowerment (still brief, but emerging!)
• Frankincense and Myrh incense that smells so comforting

 

I'm grateful for the health that I have.

 

Today I am thankful for:

• Actually heard myself laugh, like really laugh while on a impromptu walk with a neighbor this morning (almost didn't even continue with the walk since the sun was starting to get hot and all I could think about initially was what the UV like was -- sigh it was only 8:00 so no matter what it wasn't the direct sun of the day - but got so engaged with the conversation that I completely forgot about the sun)
• Authentic organic spontaneous connections with others (love those times when there is no need to plan or figure out when/where/how etc)
• Relaxing showers
• Rosewater spray
• Mindful moments

 

This is great, @Baseball65 - Thanks for sharing it!

Interesting that this was from 2012 - I've just been revisiting past music - now just making my way through the late '90s and early 2000s -making my way up to the 2010s era that your video was from.

I've been all over the place with music over the years and wildly different genres at different times/eras.

Was reminded again while on this revisiting music journey and listening to Rage against the Machine during some strength training - of the profound power of music to transform perception and seems another avenue on the path of moving some of the stuck energy.
(I can't remember the specific research studies, but had read once about how some extreme rock music can help with catharsis and processing emotions too - I'm sure that includes all different genres of music in different ways).
Have you experienced that? Another tool in your TMS toolkit?

Sounds like you are still playing from your earlier post. Do you write songs as well?

 

Oh, heck yes!

 

Has helped me so much this past week - literally gave me the energy to do more strength training/kickboxing than I would have never thought I had in me and even go out in the 100 degree temps today when everything I have ever been told about some of these symptoms is to avoid that all costs (which of course I was doing over the past year and did NOT help at all)

Also love the yin and yang of it all (combining all it and finding the inherent balance) intense rock music + kickboxing and then sitting down to knit calmly! Ha ha.
Oddly solely focusing on the relaxation exercises / journaling, etc I had been doing were just sending an inner message I was weaker than I actually am and yesterday for the first time in over a year I was able to meditate, just by finding some kind of balance of these things.

Sometimes the way through doesn't always look like what one might think, I guess.

 

This is a great discovery, @NewBeginning ! The yin and the yang. I guess we are great big lab experiments! lol and you’re getting somewhere!

 

Yes. Without hijacking the thread, That and study more and more complicated guitar is all I ever really do besides play with my dog.
Almost exclusively Acoustic guitar. I play Acoustic 99.78% of the time. That band was just a Lark

That was all I ever wanted to do going back to when I was 23 or so and first approached by the publishing industry.

I used to want to be known/succeed/financially rewarded for it....I won contests, awards, signed little development deals and even placed music in films.......
But because of large personality flaws, I have a hard time staying sober when I get involved emotionally. And I only have one gear.

I once challenged the VP of A&R to a fistfight in the parking lot of Warner Chappell. ....as You can Imagine, he did NOT want to work with me anymore.

BTW....very little of all of that was Hard Rock. Most of it was Folk/Country/ Pop. I was signed as the writer for an artist doing "Memphis sound" (Dusty springfield?) type of retro stuff. I have been in control rooms where I was the only person without a grammy, recording my songs...but was sanding Bondo the next morning at 6am. I have had a very peculiar experience. I recently wrote an autobiographical song called "The man who also ran"

The only positive of that is I have guided my sons AWAY from all the mistakes I made. I didn't have a lot of guidance. Generally when you tell an A&R guy your gonna beat his ass in, that doesn't to a lot toward 'exploiting your catalogue' (LOL)
I also told a producer with 7 grammys (he won another one while we worked together) that I didn't care for the mix he did on my song....I was promptly lectured by others "do you know who you just said that to?"
I reminded them that in 100 years, we will all be dead, no one will remember any of us, and that his mix still sucked.

and I didn't get TMS!

So, long story later....yes. I LOVE writing songs. I just don't deal with the characters in the industry very well.

My ability to pretend I like people or works that I really don't, went down to Zero after absorbing Sarno.

 

Same here. Sarno and meditation as well, these helped a lot. In my case. My tolerance to BS and ass^@&#s went down.

 

Great stories! You have been some interesting places with your life. I still say you should write a book. Have you ever been tempted to self publish your songs?

 

No. I occasionally get a hair up my butt and play a set somewhere, but Here in Nashville, I've gotten a lot of "Ok..you're pretty good. Where is your country songs?"
Though heavily influenced by OLD country (Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Dolly) I am not really suited for modern country and it is the last remaining industry that uses songwriters extensively.

I write songs every day. I am always working on another song. If I see a use for them of course I would get interested. But the industry was what ripped the joy out of it for me. That part is just too painful and 'Homie don't play that' or at least not very well.

 

• having bought a sketchbook and gone back to drawing

 

Wonderful!!! ❤️