Divine Inspiration and that thing that guides you...

Have you ever had a really great idea that you just knew would work, but for whatever reason you just weren't able to pull it off, only to see someone else doing exactly what you wanted to later on down the road?

While I'm not quite done with my Comicon coverage (there are still a few things I wanted to get in there), I wanted to talk about something today that's been on my mind all week. And if you don't think that there's something divine, or at the very least something guiding us, beyond the veil of perception, what we like to call life or reality, then you just aren't paying attention.

Earlier in the week I spoke about Instigatorzine and their bi-monthly magazine that puts new authors and aspiring artists together in order to try to get them some exposure, and how I had wanted to do that myself, which was the very purpose behind The Mad Doser Presents in the first place.

A few days later I gave you an article about Loaded Barrel Studios and the comic line that they produce using a process that I had wanted to try two years ago.

Well... the Jacob Javits Center is an enormous place. The NYCC stretched across 6 massive rooms with thousands of booths set up with all kinds of products and creative ideas spread out before you. Yet out of that entire show flow and display after display, the two companies that struck me most were right next to one another using the very same ideas that I had wanted to work with but was unable to get going on.

For me it was a matter of that all important support system that I keep prattling on about. I could never get the right people around me to help out or get the people that I DID have to help excited enough about the projects to want to contribute more. Its a failing that I have, my greatest flaw, that keeps me from finding the success I've long sought.

Originally I had told you that I walked right by at first, but it was a feeling I had, a vibe from an attractive young lady that got me to go back. Some might say that was God, or the Force, whatever you believe, saying "hold on right there kid. I want you to see something. You were right, those ideas of yours work... and THIS is how its done. Now go out there and get em".

If you look at the pics I've posted today you may see some similarites in them with the comics I highlighted earlier in the week. I had done these over two years ago now; the cameras used weren't nearly as good as the one I have now either. This next one actually caused a huge fight where the girls boyfriend threatened to beat me up for messing with his property... until he found out what he was in for if he tried it. She ended up cutting me off over it only to find out he had been cheating on her with his ex the entire time they were going out....

But for all the work I had done, or thought that I had done, there was and is still such a long way to go, and I wasn't putting the pieces together the right way. I came away from the week seeing how very much was ahead of me if I really wanted to make it in this business, how much would have to be done if I were to do it right.

The thing of it is... you can take almost anything as a positive or a negative. I could be looking at this in terms of how far ahead in the game other people are over me, and how much I have to do just to catch up; a daunting task. Or I could look at it like this..... something just showed me the way!

Sure, there's a LOT that I have to get done now. One of my tasks for the weekend is a major list making marathon just to set up a chart of all there is to do. But now I have a clear idea of exactly what that is, and exactly what I have to do to get there. Its going to take time. Its going to take money I don't have. Its going to take people I don't know. And that's going to require me changing the way I do things and learning new ways to communicate with people in order to get all of that, bring people into the fold.... I have to become a new me....

You know what though..... ever since I've felt a charge that I haven't had in a long, long time. Where once before I'd be overwhelmed and crushed by the fear of all the bad that could happen, now I feel nothing but the challenge in everything, and its stirred my soul. Its carried over into other areas of my life already. And I'm ready to go.

Who says there's nothing watching over us, guiding our way?

And so... I'm giving you something. Here's a link to a free download of my last eBook "A Loaded Portrait". I've always said I write for your enjoyment, so enjoy. Its a book of short stories that we had put together to test the eBook format when we were trying to do the very thing Instigatorzine is now promoting new writers and artists. If you like what you see, contact me and you can be in the next one. All I ask is that you pass it along to everyone you know.

That's all for today.

Later People!



Join my fanpage John LaSota - Writer

Or our creative team's page The Mad Doser Presents

And if you need a healthy helping hand from a Personal Performance Consultant

Coach LaSota

God... you're a funny bastard God....

I'm sure I'll get a lot of hate mail for that title, cursed as a blasphemer and lose some fans over it, probably by the same people that swear I'll go to hell for eating meat on Fridays yet hide and protect kid touchers the world over... but whatever, it feels like a weird morning already, so we might as well pile it on.

Besides, anyone that knows me will also know that despite the fact that I don't believe in organized religion of any kind, I am in fact extrememly spiritual, so to get out of sorts over that statement is to completely misinterpret its meaning, which people do every second of every day. God IS a funny bastard, and the joke is on all of us, but today I mean that in every good way possible.

I've already mentioned in my post "A Deeply Personal Note..." (which many of you loved) that everyone of us must be able to express ourselves and feel like we matter to the world around us in order to feel well adjusted and good about who we are. And in my piece "A Real Man... A Great Man... and the Man Cave" I talked about how we all need to feel as if we are accepted for who we are right here, right now, exactly the way we are without having to do more or be more. (Though it was slanted for men, the same applies for women as well)

At the time that I wrote each of those pieces I was feeling really good, but in the days and weeks in between I found that I'd lost all of those feel good moments and fell into a deep down cycle, and this one was BAD, the worst I'd had since I was 19 years old and lost 35 pounds in a matter of three weeks. I know Ed Burns makes fun of the down cycle in his flik "She's the One", one of my favorite movies (I'm a big Ed Burns fan), but they really do exist for all of us.

According to Dr. John Gray, men and women alike go through a cycle where they go from feeling really good about themselves to feeling really bad and need new affirmations that they matter to the world around them and are accepted and great just the way they are right now every 28 days or so. (Amazingly like the menstrual cycle) So not only does the down cycle exist, but its normal for every one of us to go through it. Its just that some of us feel it more than others depending on where we are in life, how we've been taught or are equiped to deal with things, and our brain chemistry.

So what the hell does this have to do with God? Well, as I said, I was caught up in the worst downcycle I can remember in the past 15 years, which is saying a lot considering some of the things that have happened in that time. And just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, sure enough, one after another, I was put in position after position and given example after example to show me just how great I am right here, right now, just being who I am. And I was able to see, through the eyes of people around me, how much I do matter.

As always, I use experiences in my own life to try to get you thinking of similar experiences in yours. Isn't it amazing how something always seems to happen, as if it came out of nowhere, to bring us exactly what we need exactly when we need it? And it seems to happen every single time. We've all had this happen to us in our lives, the Rolling Stones wrote a song about it.

So last night as I drove home from dinner at a friends house, I couldn't help but reflect on all the of the things over the past couple of days that showed me just how much a part of other peoples lives that I am, and how much of a difference I really do make in those lives. Last night's dinner was one more way of showing it to me. And it all came just as I thought I had nothing left in the tank. It made me smile. And I couldn't help but blurt out as I got onto the highway....

God... you're a funny bastard God....

And here's another thing that proves the point of all I had to say today... my buddy who I had that dinner with last night... this guy is great and he doesn't even know it. He can't see it for himself. And I'd bet that I can say the exact same thing about YOU reading this right now. Its up to all of us to show each other how great we are, and how great we can be. Those of us that have people who do that in our lives don't need God, or the Tao, or the Force or the Universe, whatever you want to call it, to step in as much and do it for us. But it will if we need it to. It just waits till the last minute when we need it most. Its our job to make sure we get to people before they need it that much.

You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find... you get what you need.

 

And for those of you keeping score... we all need to feel like we're accepted for who we are right here, right now, and thats good enough without having to do or be more, and we need to express who that person in the right here right now is, and know that who we are and what we do matters to the people around us. But no matter who we are or where we are in life, every 28 days or so we're going to go from feeling great to feeling like crap, so it's important to surround yourself with people who accept you for who you are, allow you to express yourself, and show you how much you matter to them. Likewise, its just as important that you accept the people around you for who they are, allow them to express themselves, and show them that THEY matter to YOU..... its a running tally....

How much better would we all feel if we all did that? Life would be one giant lovefest... YEEAAAHHHH!!!!

Later People!



Join my fanpage John LaSota - Writer

Or our creative team's page The Mad Doser Presents

And if you need a healthy helping hand from a Personal Performance Consultant

Coach LaSota