About a week after my birthday I learned about something.

Let's go back to 1986. A wonderful movie was in the theaters that stared David Bowie and Jenifer Connely titled Laberinth.

David played the Goblin King Jareth and Jenifer played Sarah, a teenage girl that still believed in magick.

In the begining of the movie the two characters meet and at one point Jareth starts playing with what looks like a crystal sphere. He rolls the ball through his hands in a fashion that defies logic and gravity. The movements are too fluid to be anything but someone actually doing what you see on screen, of course I find out later that it was another mans hands doing this fantastic feat of magick.

I try to figure out how to do this with no success.

*Bump* April 2008

Reasearching Poi (not the food from Hawaii but a form of juggling originating from New Zealand.) some more, I run across the term "Contact Juggling".

I start exploring and the first video I find I realize that I hit the jackpot, this is what it was called (at least now days, it's one of the many names it's known by.)

Now you might be wondering just what Contact Juggling is, well here are to videos that demonstrate what it is very well and shows most of the elements of this fantastic art.

This one is Sphere Camp 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr8ZPvhOzIw&feature=related

This one is Sphere Camp 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3hTsQimZsU

I have been learning this art for almost a month and I have learned that this, once mastered, can be very meditative and once I learn many more moves I play on using this as a form of meditation.

Until next time.

Ok, today I turn 38. Happy birthday to me!

I was just sitting here thinking about where I've been, where I am now, and where I'm going.

When I put it all into perspective, it looks a little scary with some light in there.

The past:

I spend four years in the US Navy and literally travel half of this big blue marble we call home. My mind is opened for possibilities and different ideas.

After the military, a three-year search for myself begins. During this time I connect with old friends and make new ones, some of which lasted and others I wished I had never gotten involved with. However, all shaped and colored my life.

One that lasted was a woman named Vanessa. She and I saw each other briefly, but mostly we developed a relationship that was more like brother and sister. She was the one that introduced me to "The Lady" of my life that I am still with after all this time. I believe that my life would be very empty right now, if it were not for "The Lady".

The next phase of my life began.

"The Lady's" name is Nancy; she challenged the world I knew. For quite a few years, it was not easy. The two of us have two all time lows together.

One of these was the fact that we were homeless for a time and we remained together through it, even though we were not married at the time. After things changed for the better, and our own personal baggage from our own pasts were resolved finally, we got married.

Thus, a new period begins.

For a while, we struggled to figure out who we each were as individuals and it nearly lead to divorce. We were separated for about three months and during this time, we realized what we had done to each other and what we were missing in our lives and got back together.

Together we begin to find out who we are as a couple and rebuild our lives from the ashes we made.

The Present:

I have a very good job and I'm making more now than I have at any other job I have had in the past. We live comfortably speaking even though there is a lot of room for improvement, like being able to afford a car to be able to get around more. However, we manage just fine for now and every time I commute to and from work and look at gas prices, I think, "I am lucky that the money I'm not spending on gas, insurance, and repairs is allowing us to be as comfortable as we are living now. Even though it still feels like we are just surviving in this lifetime."

The Future:

I have worked for the company I work for now for almost six years now and the last six months have been the best. I am on track for moving up to department manager and I am thinking about after I do that for at least a year looking into entering the co-manager program our company has and maybe achieve store manager or higher. For now my goal is store manager level.

Conclusion:

Looking back at just what I have presented here a lot has happened. Some details are fuzzy, and with good reason but not forgotten completely. Good times and bad shape who we are and who we will become in the future.

One simple fact remains: All we can do is hold on tight as we ride this thing we call life, and do the best we can in all that we do.

Life is always changing and always evolving. Many times in ones life one should always take stock and rethink your beliefs and even reinvent ones self. The main reasons I'm here is to do just that. Life's twists and turns can get rather bumpy if you don't slough off the old out dated mode of thought, keep what still works and open the way for new ideas and ways of doing things. I have noticed others that don't do this get left behind and either laughed at or ignored altogether. This begins my next journey in this lifetime.

SeaFire