Belly full. Brain slow. Eyes heavy. Thinking no.
That was my version of poetry. Actually we just finished a film shoot and we really enjoy a good buffet, so off to the Marriott’s buffet we go. Sometimes we eat too much and the words start to come. If there is a flicker of humor or brilliance wrapped around those words they might become poetry or a song if truly inspired. Today just a simple rhyme.

The trade winds blow light across our back. The grass is green and clean. The lava close is black. The ocean’s water mean.

That was another attempt at poetry… The ocean doesn’t look mean today. A little choppy. Hopefully not too much. We are going on a whale watching excursion in about an hour. Food is heavy. Running late. Time to go. We anticipate.

aloha,  James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

The Depth of a Man can be measured by the depth of his thoughts and the depth of his dreams. I know a little about this subject. I have spent years working with people helping them find and live their dreams. I would ask them what is on their “Bucket List.” I would ask the questions, “If money was not an issue, where would you go?  What would you do? Who would be with you?” Regularly, I would receive a blank stare. You know the one… It is often described as the “deer in the headlights” look. I would then proceed to help them develop their top 10 list of things they want to do or see before they die or “kick the bucket”, a.k.a. their “Bucket List.”

Most people would have their top 3 places on the top of their minds. That was relatively easy. Places 4, 5, and 6 would come with a little resistance, people often had to search the recesses of their mind for these. Then things got interesting. I discovered there are 2 groups of people. The first group would search back to their childhood (often with some prompting). Search back to when they used to dream. Back to when they could do anything, be anything, could live a life without limitations or constraints of the daily milieu. Where did they want to go when they grew up? Did they want to marvel at the Taj Mahal, hike the Great Wall of China, scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef, surf the Bonsai Pipeline, visit the Louvre and just sit for days, weeks, or months taking in all the amazing wonders held within its’ walls? For this first group it was like pulling teeth, because they had never thought that deep… in their life! The second group, dreams 4, 5, and 6 would come a little easier. They had thought this deeply before, but not for a while. Not since before they reached that age of financial responsibility. That age where they realized they were now locked into a job and family responsibilities which they feel they can’t escape. Something very interesting would happen with this second group during dreams 4, 5, and 6. As they would reach into the recesses of their mind they would open the door to their closet of dreams and connect with those dreams. For this group the challenge was not trying to come up with 10 locations they wanted to see before they died. This second group had the more gargantuan task of, once revisiting their dreams, trying to fit the entire world of possible places to visit, cultures to experience, sunsets or sunrises to marvel over into just four slots. These are slots 7, 8, 9, and 10.

I encourage everyone I meet or come into contact with, to go into the recesses of their mind. Go into the closet of your dreams and connect with your dreams. Then write down these dreams. Write them out at length and in detail. You earn bonus points for specificity!! A dream that is not committed to pen and paper is a pipe dream and will go up in smoke, but when you put it down on paper the world is full of possibilities. Once you have your Bucket List, I invite you to check online or call a travel agent and see what it really costs to achieve your dreams. Start making plans. With the present world economy there are some great deals out there to be had. They are there for the asking. But the person who is still dreaming and not taking action towards their dreams is simply wishing their life away. Hoping for someday. As Oprah says, “Someday is not the 8th day of the week.” If not now, when? Life is what happens while you are waiting for your ship to come in.

Come join us! We decided to stop waiting for that ship to come in. We built our ship and sailed out of the harbor. The harbor of safety. We now sail the seas of our joys, the worlds experiences, and all of our dreams. We look forward to seeing you on these open seas.
Aloha,  James Christopher
ThruJimsEyes.com

Today we are relaxing at the beach. The time is late afternoon. The weather is warm and cloudy, but not muggy. You can feel the light trade winds as you listen to the waves crashing on the beach. You smell the salt air. It’s a clean smell. The type of clean smell you only find when you are somewhere exotic and remote. You can see sailboats up the coast in the distance looking towards the silhouette of Maui.

We are visiting friends today. We usually get together about once a month and come to this beach. We sit, sharing great food and heart warming stories, catching up on the past month’s events in our lives. Today is special. It is our friends’ anniversary.  One more reason to get to the beach and feel the sand underneath our toes. I just wanted to share this moment with you. Now it is time to eat and be sociable. Have a blessed day.

Aloha,  James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

I recently heard many people speaking about the national and world economy. The optimists and positive thinkers say, “The economy is just fine. There is opportunity in every challenge. That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” My personal favorite saying is, “There were more millionaires made during the great depression than anytime in history.”  The conservatives and pessimists tend to focus on the fact that this was the worst economy the U.S. had seen since the great depression. Even though we are past the worst they will still claim all kinds of doom and gloom.

Even with all the strides forward one thing is certain, this economy can use some growth. As part of that ever-optimistic, positive thinking, believer in the American Spirit and the indomitable will of that Spirit, I say,  “We are Americans and we can do anything!!!”  Yes we can!  Each of us can do our part. Will the going get tough?  Hell yeah. We are truly in a global economy with global competition for the first time in this country’s history. Never in the past has the competition been so fierce. And with a president who actually wants to fix the problems this nation has, the road may be longer than we like, but we will get there.

My solution is this:  Bring back the big band music of the early 1940’s. The music of greats such as Tommy Dorsey, Glen Miller, Fats Waller, Harry James, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and all such timeless music. Their style of jump, swing, jive, and boogie music with powerful brass, soothing clarinet, and melodic sounds of the orchestra is unparalleled. Their music made people jump and dance and forget their woes. It was a music that said anything is possible. I remember when my grandparents would play their old records from the 40s and they would just light up.

I have taken up listening to Sirius Radio channel 4 which plays music from the 1940s. It always gets me going and calms my spirit. I believe if we can get people dancing to this music (there were such great dances back then) we can fix this economy. How?  When we dance we move our body.  When we move our body we get fresh blood flowing into the cobwebs of the old negative thoughts. When we breathe new life into old negative thoughts we dispel them in favor of possibilities. When all this is timed to amazing music that speaks to your very soul it says, “Yes We Can!!” I believe we can accomplish anything. After all, we are America.

We can retool and re-educate ourselves. We are America the Brave. We are not America the scared.  We are America the strong.  We are not america the weak. We are not the United States of I can’t. We are Americans, not American’ts.  So turn your satellite radio to big band music of the early 1940s. Ask you grandparents to teach you the dances of their early days or rush to the closest Arthur Murray Dance Studio.  I am not from that era, so I will have to take dance classes myself. I hope to see you on the dance floor helping to save America one dance step at a time.

Aloha,  James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

If you have been to my website and watched my video blogs then you know my tag line, “I believe a life worth living is a life worth journaling. That’s why I am here.” When someone first proposed the idea of journaling to me I said, “That’s what little girls do.”  They write in their diary all the little events of their day. They talk about how Little Billy looked at her or Susie pulled her hair today.  Blah, blah, blah.

My eyes have been opened and the truth of knowledge and wisdom have illuminated the catacombs of my ignorance. I now understand why girls keep diaries, whether it was conscious training or not. Everyone knows females are more emotional creatures than males, at least in our species.  When any of us form a thought, it goes into our brain from the base of our brain near our spinal cord.  That thought travels to the limbic system, the emotional part of our brain.  This is where it gets interesting.  For females the thought tends to stick around in the limbic system.  For males the thought, generally speaking, continues on to the frontal lobe, the logical part of our brain (paraphrased from the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0). This is why females tend to be more sensitive and be more connected to their emotions. Males, on the other hand, tend to be less emotional and more detached. It takes training for most men to feel their emotions, but sometimes we too get stuck in them. Especially the negative emotions. It doesn’t help that the American society tends to discourage men from feeling their feelings. As I was saying, it makes sense that girls were socialized to keep a diary, or journal. It has been proven that when we stay in our emotions, if the emotions are strong enough, we have difficulty getting out of that emotional state, because we see no logical way out. This is where fight or flight mentality becomes evident.

Remember a time when you had a very strong emotional state.  It may have been anger, rage, envy, jealousy, resentment, obsession, etc.  Yes, the negative emotions tend to sick around for a while.  Remember how long that feeling stuck around.  What did you do to dissipate that negative feeling? I mention fight or flight because it is a perfect example of being stuck in a negative emotion.  We all know the saying, “paralyzed by fear.”  When our thought patterns get stuck in our limbic system and we recognize it, I say journal it.  When we journal our thoughts, especially our emotions, we can move those thoughts to the logical part of our brain, the frontal lobe, and find a way out of a negative non-empowering state.

I use journalling to deepen my connection to my positive emotions as well as move out of the negative emotions.  Journalling allows me to elucidate others, to share my thoughts and feelings at a depth that my mind may not have been able to find on it’s own. These are some of the reasons I say, “buy a journal.” Years from now when you are looking back on your life you may decide you want to publish your memoirs or maybe your grandchildren will gain a better sense of identity by reading your life in your words not through the filter of their parents. This is the legacy that any of us can pass on.  This also allows you to look back on your life and see if you have lived a life worth living. If you feel you have not, you still have the rest of your days to fix that problem.  So get going and live and journal your life.

Aloha,  James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com