For the full story read PART ONE.

Skiing
On my first full day in Telluride, Colorado, I planned to make my second attempt at skiing. Seeing as I am a natural athlete, my frenemy Nate decided to throw me off a cliff for my first run.

If you watch the video, you will see it didn’t go so well. I fell so often and so hard I feared at one point I would break my arm. Every fall looked like a tag sale. There was a trail of equipment up and down mountain. Nate had to serve as my sherpa and gather my equipment so I could start again. I was secretly hoping the ski team would come by and let me get in the stretcher.

There comes a point when you have to accept you are over your head. Pride comes before the final straw that break the skier’s back. (How’s that for mixing metaphors?) Since that didn’t happen, I gave up. I slid down the steepest part of the run on my ass. I could care less about looking a fool.

After crawling off the mountain, I needed a stiff drink. I’m not kidding. My nerves were rattled and I was fighting the inclination to throw my skis. I just wanted to scream, stomp my feet and pout.

In the Moment Realization: I completely understand now why kids have tantrums. Without a generous vocabulary of swear words and no legal permit to drink liquor, you are left with little more than to throw yourself on the ground and yelp.

Once I steeled myself in the Mountain Village, I walked over to the ski school to organize a ski lesson. I needed rescuing from myself. It was now after 1pm and I had missed the day’s group lessons. All that was available were private lessons. I was shocked by the pricing.

Half Day 1:30pm to 4pm – $425
Early Bird / Late Riser 2pm tp 4pm- $320

I concluded an emergency room visit would be less expensive than a private ski session.

I know the secrets of the crying game.

Back on the lift I went, frenemy Nate was now serving as my ski instructor. I insisted we ski strictly GREEN trails. That agreed upon, the rest of the day went more smoothly. I was beginning to connect my turns with a few minor glitches. When 4pm came around, I can honestly say I was relieved it was over.

Day Two

I dismissed Nate because I felt like I was being a speed bump. I intended to take a full day class and was unknowingly late by 15 minutes. The ski school was apologetic and not helpful at all. They didn’t even have the customer service skills to fake feeling bad for me.

There I was with rental skis, a lift ticket, no lessons and no ability to ski confidently. I sat on a bench and fumed.  Either I pay for private lessons or risk it alone.

In the Moment Realization Deux: I now understand why some kids who are having a tantrum decide it’s a good idea to hit their parents. No ability to use words, denied self-expression equals somebody needs to get it.

I sat on a bench skis in hand, wondering what to do. I seriously knew so little about skiing , I couldn’t even rely on muscle memory. I eventually caught up with Nate. He was extremely cool about my situation. It didn’t matter to him what trails he skied down. We hung out all day on the easy side of the mountain.

Turning sour grapes into wine, I am glad to report I never fell again. I departed the slopes a slightly more confident skier, saved myself $300 in extortion money, and composed a mental F*ck You Note for the Ski School.

What I want most to impart is you can ski at any age, or learn something new, if you decide you want to. Do it. Fear is always there and rightfully it should be. Fear will keep you safe. Your courage will keep your mind agile and body limber.

The Next Day
I wanted to take up a NEW winter sport… enter Snowbiking.

When I made a decision this was going to be A Year of Vision, I also made a random list of things I wanted to devote time to. One of those things on my list was skiing. In conversation with a client and friend Nate, I told him of my plans. He then suggested I come out west to his family home. This is how I ended up in lovely Telluride, CO. (You don’t have to ask me twice.)

How to get to Telluride?
Telluride, unlike much of the region, has seen snowfall this winter. The downside is that it is not easy to get to. You can fly directly into the local airport but flights are limited. The alternative is to fly into a nearby commercial airport and drive/shuttle over. We flew into Montrose, CO then a shuttle van met us and drove us approx. 90 minutes through the mountains into town. I slept the entire way over. However, the return trip was in the daytime and incredibly scenic.

Riding toward Montrose

The fence of the Ralph Lauren ranch goes further than the eye can see.

Home Sweet Mansion
A day of planes, trains and automobiles will wear you out and we were beat. It was after midnight when we arrived in the actual town itself. I exited the car and found myself standing in the darkness on the side of a mountain road. I stared at the the stars in the cold Colorado sky. What a gift. However, that feeling didn’t last long. The realization it was now 2℉ set in. Nature can wait, I needed some warmth. Upon entering the house, the burglar alarm went off. Nate couldn’t find the alarm panel to disarm it. Then the phone began to ring. It was the alarm company inspecting the situation, quickly followed by a call from the caretaker. This went on for about 10 minutes.

I thought to myself, “go stand back on the road because if the po-po show up they’re gonna shoot the Puerto Rican first and ask questions later.” However, getting shot with a stun gun seemed more appealing than hypothermia. In due time, we got the situation underhand. From the mud room, I looked down upon the living room, dining room and kitchen. Suddenly, my inner rain man began to perform mathematical computations. I computed, in terms of square footage, my entire apartment could fit into this one space with room to spare. It was too late for talking, I was led down stairs, assigned my bedroom, I unpacked and went to sleep.

The next morning I awoke to one of nature’s most incredible views.

The ski slopes and the mountain town.

After breakfast, Nate took me on the grand tour of the family home, a conservative 8,000 square foot eight bedroom house sitting on the side mountain overlooking the valley. At some point Nate’s voice morphed, in my head, to that of Robin Leech. I flash backed to thoughts of my teenage self and thought, “so this is how rich white people live and I’m a guest, not the help.” Anytime now I expected Blake and Krystle Carrington to be stopping by.

There was part of me that wanted to sleep in every room of the house. For the record, I did not. However, I did fall asleep by the fireplace in the living room one night. Yes, there I was living a scene from Dynasty. Dreams do come true!

Few Notes On Telluride
Telluride is an affluent town with a very bohemian vibe. The town maintains much of its gold rush rustic appeal. You won’t experience lots of car or pedestrian traffic. I am sorry to inform you there is no Prada, Gucci, or Cartier store to be found. There are multiple ski shops though and a Patagonia store, where I scored a deal. To be fair, the Mountain Village at the top of the ski lift does offer a bit more of that commercial culture. The gondola to and from town to the Mountain Village is free to ride.

Post-skiing, I dragged Nate on a bit of a walkabout. (If you have ever spent a day in ski boots, walking in shoes on solid ground is cause for celebration.) I stumbled upon The Free Box. The Free Box is where one donates items they no longer need. Essentially, you take something and/or you leave something. It is managed by the town and cleaned out weekly. Had I known, I would have brought the pile of crap sitting on my bedroom floor in NYC waiting to be donated to the Good Will.

Rule for Free Box Trade

The Free Box

Telluride Museum

Food Recommendations
If you want GREAT pizza, you must go The Brown Dog Pizza located at 110 E Colorado Ave. It is very casual dining and very popular. There is upstairs seating a large bar. There are TV’s playing sports so don’t worry for bringing the kids or walking in off the slopes.

The service is fine. The wait staff is very knowledgable about the menu and they need be because there is a lot to choose from.  I will say the wait staff has a bit of an edge to them that could bear softening. For example, I ordered Southwestern BBQ Chicken Detroit Square Pizza which was DELICIOUS. Nate had Boone’s Meaty D.S.P. and neither of us could possibly eat it all. I asked the waitress if I could take it with me to go. She came back with a cardboard box, and dropped it on the table so I could wrap it up myself. All we could was laugh because it was just too ridiculous to quarrel about.

Food Glorious Food

My other recommendation is 221 South Oak. Set discreetly on a quiet street, this quaint restaurant is on the opposite end of the spectrum of The Brown Dog. It is relaxed yet fine dining. The staff couldn’t have been more accommodating and the food exquisite. Seeing as this is not a food blog I won’t get into detail about my meal. I will however say, if you visit Telluride be sure to make a reservation. You will NOT regret time spent here.

In every city you have a crap restaurant…
On our last day, we were tired and it was cold outside. We didn’t want to eat out so we ordered take out and drove into town to pick it up. We ordered from La Cocina de La Luz serving regional Mexican and Southwestern cuisine. If this is what “regional” Mexican food tastes like, choose deportation. How do you mess up a burrito? This was overpriced crap. It wasn’t that it tasted bad. It just tasted like nothing. The food had no flavor. The guacamole could have been store bought. There was clearly no love in the kitchen. Mexico should be suing for slander. I can only imagine the bland joint stays in business because it’s a tourist town and tourists are forgiving, except this tourist. There is nothing worse than eating for nutrition sake. Talk about your empty calories.

Skiing
I will inform more about my ski adventure in part two but here’s the video to give you an insight.

Whitney Houston died Saturday February 11, 2012. It’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that she died of a drug overdose despite the fact there has been no autopsy yet. Many people are shaking their heads saying,”I told you so” or “that’s not unexpected.” Well, I am here to say you are part of the problem.

Addiction is a confounding disease and an equal opportunity killer.
Addiction, in my opinion, is no different to cancer. It starts small and spreads quietly and quickly. It infects everything in its path and just when you think you got it beat it rears its ugly head again. Unlike cancer, to combat the disease, you must fight the addict. You must get him/her to admit there is a problem. Then you have to have the strength to watch as they walk through it alone. You must possess the courage to keep your heart open as it gets broken time and time again. Addicts always break your heart and they don’t mean to. It is simply what they do.

Make no mistake. Addicts can be cruel. They only know self-preservation even if that means destroying everything in sight. Using replaces living. They forget the human body is only so resilient. What it comes down to is a war of wills.

Who are you really?
If you believe yourself astute enough to predict unfortunate outcomes like drug overdoses, suicides or any number irreversible fates, why not use your superior intellect to intervene? Take an honest look at your world. Get off the pulpit and down into the dirt. You will be best able to be of comfort once you recognize it is not your dirt.

We all know people who are engaging in life-threatening behaviors.
Drug and alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual practices, driving distracted, anorexia and obesity are just a few of the social addictions we whisper about. We don’t say anything directly because we don’t want to be accused of “scolding”, “lecturing” or “being holier than thou.” We make innumerable justifications to maintain the status quo. Furthermore, we certainly don’t wish to called out on our shit.

Every human being is living with pain.
All pain is equal. Depression doesn’t discriminate. Regardless of social status, most people lack emotional security. Unmanaged feelings leave a trail of blood and tears. We all want to live in peace, even the addict. WE ALL NEED LOVE AND SUPPORT. Arm chair critics don’t change the world.

It is how you live that defines you.
I remember Whitney Houston as a brave woman. She was honest about her private demons. Publicly, she accomplished what few artists have ever done. She was a global superstar in film and music. She touched the lives of millions of people with her talent. Despite this, she didn’t know her own strength. I encourage you to know yours.

Predictable or not, a human being died and left behind a child and a family who are innocents in this mess. I love gallows humor but now is not the time to joke or moralize. Give it a week or two, and in the interim go be of service to someone in need. Maybe you want to go one step further and take a long hard look at your own life. Inquire what others think about you? That way, when you start cracking your Whitney Houston jokes we all don’t think you’re just an insensitive hypocritical arsehole.

Do the unexpected.
- Erwin

How often have you heard “Life is short“?
This urban myth keeps gaining momentum despite the evidence that we are living longer than our ancestors.

Joel Olsteen and other spiritual gurus often sell us the foundational thought that we are entitled to be happy. In fact, God wants that more than anything. Clearly, God doesn’t read The Economist because the statistical reality is sobering.

The American mantra of “you deserve the best” is quite empty when you realize there simply aren’t enough resources. There is no greater cock block to happiness than the stone cold truth. With entitlement and mandatory happiness being the new existential angst of our times, it’s not hard to accept that the United States is the largest consumer of anti-depressants than any country in the world. 

Enter the bucket list, a seemingly benign list of bold gestures for the active aging, popularized by the movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Basically, it’s a fantasy list of things to do before you die.

Personally, I find composing an imaginary list of things I want to do before I die irresponsible. Trust me when I say, there are enough things for me to do around my home TODAY that any energy spent elsewhere is a captal crime against productivity. Alas, growing up poor has become its own virtue.

Since I’m sharing, let me not undersell my OCD. Don’t think I would rest in peace knowing there is a list sitting on my end table that is incomplete.  I’d beat Jesus’ PR time for resurrection. Best case scenario, I finish my bucket list then what do I live for? Look at what what became of Liz Taylor.

Buckets are known to spring leaks. There are no guarantees. All we have is today. I need to take one day at a time for my mental health. My truth is “the road always takes me where I need to be… even when I’m kicking and screaming No.”

Here are ways I pass the time when I question what’s next…

1. Take a moment right now to absorb that there are over 7 billion people on the planet.
- Create an identity for one person.
- Envision this/her dreams and desires.
- Consider how each anonymous person’s life may touch your own.
Now create a humane action that will make a difference so that someone on the other side of the planet will know your name.

2. Decide to be lifelong learner.
- Read newspapers with opposing viewpoints
- Learn a new language
- Sign a health contract

3. Use a calendar.
Stop making lists and use a calendar. If you want to go to Italy, schedule it. Put it on your calendar and work backwards.
a. Choose a future date
b. Go online and investigate fares and research itineraries. You want a cost assessment.
c. Now create a savings plan to pay for it.
d. Book your trip.
e. Find one local charity in that region to contribute to or volunteer at.

Dream big, make plans and build foundations beneath them. Maintain a sense of worth and enjoy humor in the absurd. Also, bring toilet paper for your journey because the sh*t always hits the fan at some point.

Kicking the bucket,
Erwin

Take a look at what I’ve accomplished without a list.

Watching Lunch Scholars on YouTube…

Heaven help us… America’s youth scares me more than al-Qaeda. To watch such blissful ignorance on display makes me fear for the future of this country.

A young reporter went to his local high school with a desire to know “How much basic knowledge do American high school students really have?”

In this probing exposé, he asked high school students some hard hitting questions like…
- “Do you know the vice president of The United States?”
- “In what war did America gain independence?”
- “Can you name a Democratic candidate for President?”
- “Can you name all of the countries that border the United States?”
- “Can you think of a country that starts with the letter “U”?

The sobering truth is U.S. students fall behind 31 countries in math proficiency and behind 16 countries in reading proficiency, according to the report titled “Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete?”

The report looked at the performance of students who graduated high school in 2011 on two tests: the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the exam administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the 2007 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), a national exam considered the gold standard in testing.

The analysis focused on mathematics because “math skills are the most significant for economic growth.”

I wonder how many kids polled could tell you the names of all the Kardashians or Anjelina and Brad’s kids?

Well, I’m learning Canadian to ready myself for the move. I hear having a second language will help my transition.

G’day mates,
Erwin

January was AWESOME!!! Every once in a while you need to take a month off to just BE. I didn’t want to write about anything, I only wanted to experience day by day. I kept a journal as always but this time for myself. Now, I’m sharing it with you.

November 2011 I decided that 2012 was going to be a Year of Vision and I set it to a calendar.

My goal is to Be bold. Be fearless. Take a look at all the ugly cracks and crevices I avoid viewing. Here’s my ideal story structure

Likeable Hero (For sake of argument, let’s agree I’m likeable.)
↓
Have a Desire (I have a dream.)
↓
Encounter Roadblocks (People f*ck with that dream.)
↓
Emerge Transformed (You are an inspirational phenom!)

So what have I gotten done so far…
- New Vitamin Routine to deal with seasonal depression
- Bought a Folding Bike
- Went to Telluride, CO
- Experienced Snowbiking
- Started Adult Gymnastics
- Started Acrobat/Aerialist classes
- Expanded KINETIC Sculpt® at a new health club
- Ended WINTER Elite Training Cycle

In addition, this year I have decided to take a picture and/or video per day to mark the year. This way, I can see where all my time went. Some days there wasn’t lots going on but I documented that too. You can’t cherry pick your Life. Every bead of sweat tells a story.

Here is the video journal and I will share the details over February.

By the end of January, I was exhausted. It felt like 10 months had been wrapped into 31 days. I just work on getting my sleep so I can do more.

February awaits,
Erwin

The 2011 Perspiration Journal Theme was The Year of Flight. I spent the year telling the story of my experiences, embracing my potential and transitioning from “a human being to a human doing.” Essentially, it was a year of letting go to let new ideas in.

The last weeks on 2011, I addressed
- Forgiveness and finding peace in conflict.
- Travel
- Life hacks. It is about the short cuts we take to meet our goals and how they blow up in our faces.

Most importantly, KINETIC Sculpt® moved out of the shadows and into the light.

If you missed any of it, go take a look back. most of it is a good read. If there is something you think is crap, just move to the next. I gave up pleasing everyone at 4 years old.

For 2012 The Perspiration Journal Theme is Vision.

This year is about exposing blind spots. It’s about personal investigation into those areas of Life you never consciously consider. Feeding the creative mind in a world of snark and retrieval learners takes vigor. There isn’t a day when I don’t stop and think it would be so easy to be complacent.

I’m dedicating a year to..
- facing fear
- finding beauty in the ordinary
- reinventing the common
- breathing life into the stagnant.

Every month I am dedicating myself to the pursuit of something new.

January
Beginner’s Mind

February
Love

March
Perseverance

April
Creativity

May
Being Present

June
Faith from Fear

July
Second Acts

August thru December is a repeat cycle. This is where I take the lessons of the first half and redux.

If you think I am going to become the Dalai Lama and go all touchy-feely, worry not. I enjoy the taste of vingar too much to go on a diet of sugar. Happiness isn’t a pursuit. It is a by-product. You do the heavy lifting in your Life and you will find happiness takes care of itself.

Here’s the road map, let your creativity run and wander forth. Be bold. Make better mistakes.

How will you frame your world this year?

1. Many theologians estimate that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25 but sometime in September between 6BC and 30AD.
2. Gold-wrapped chocolate coins commemorate St Nicholas who gave bags of gold coins to the poor.
3. The abbreviation Xmas isn’t irreligious. The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.
4. Pig head, it’s what’s for dinner. The traditional Christmas dinner in England used to be a pig head prepared with a mustard sauce.
5. English Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas between 1647 and 1660 because he believed such celebrations were immoral for the holiest day of the year.
6. Louis Prang, a Bavarian-born lithographer who came to the USA from Germany in the 19th century, popularized the sending of printed Christmas cards. He invented a way of reproducing color oil paintings, the “chromolithograph technique”, and created a card with the message “Merry Christmas” as a way of showing it off.
7. The tradition of putting tangerines in stockings comes from 12th-century French nuns who left socks full of fruit, nuts and tangerines at the houses of the poor.
8. The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, or “Christ’s Mass.” There is no set date for his birth in scripture and it wasn’t celebrated on any particular day. However Christmas was first celebrated on the 25th of December in Rome in 336AD
9. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was invented for a US firm’s Christmas promotion in 1938.
10. Carols began as an old English custom called wassailing, toasting neighbours to a long life.
11. Don’t throw out your Xmas tree. Make it lunch. The Evergreen is actually edible, well most parts. It’s a good source of Vitamin C & roughage.
12. The first postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria in 1937.
13. Popular belief holds that 3 wise men visited Bethlehem from the east bearing gifts. However there is no mention in the bible about the number of wise men who visited. Three gifts were brought – gold, frankincense and myrrh, but names commonly attributed to the wise men – Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar were added some 500 years later.
14. Before settling on the name of Tiny Tim for his character in “A Christmas Carol,” three other alliterative names were considered by Charles Dickens. They were Little Larry, Puny Pete, and Small Sam.
15. The typical image we have of Santa Claus dressed in red clothes with white fur trim, is an amalgamation of cultural input over many years. Some people claim the image of Santa we know today is from Coca-cola advertising, but this simply isn’t true. The standard Santa garb was well established by the 1920s and it wasn’t until the 1930s that Coca-cola first used the Santa Claus design in their advertising.
16. Santa Claus has two addresses – Edinburgh &- North Pole. Letters addressed to “Toyland” or “Snowland” go to Edinburgh, but letters addressed to “The North Pole” are really sent to the North Pole because, as you know, there is really such a place.
17. The poinsettia is a traditional Christmas flower. In Mexico (its original birthplace), the poinsettia is known as the “Flower of the Holy Night”. Since the 19th century, the poinsettia has been associated with Christmas.
18. US scientists calculated that Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world’s presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.
19. Have you heard of “Animal Crackers”? These are cookies that were imported to the United States from England in the late 1800s. Barnum’s circus-like boxes were designed with a string handle so that they could be hung on a Christmas tree.
20. Santa Claus has many different names around the world including Father Christmas in the UK, Pere Noel in France, Kriss Kringle in Germany, La Befana in Italy, Julinesse in Denmark, Dedushka Moroz (meaning Grandfather Frost) in Russia
21. Germany made the first artificial Christmas trees. They were made of goose feathers and dyed green.
22. St Francis – the famed saint who had an apparent miraculous control over animals, invented the nativity set – nativity sets – figurines which represent the people present at the birth of Jesus, in the 13th century!
23. The twelve days of Christmas are the days between Christmas Day and Epiphany (6th of January) and represent the length of time it took for the wise men from the East to visit the manger of Jesus after his birth.
24. The definition of a white Christmas in the UK is for a single snow flake (perhaps amongst a shower of mixed rain and snow) to be observed falling in the 24 hours of December 25th.
25. December 26 was traditionally known as St. Stephen’s Day, but is more commonly known as Boxing Day. This expression came about because money was collected in alms-boxes placed in churches during the festive season. This money was then distributed to the poor and needy after Christmas.

I dubbed 2011 the year of Flight. It was a year dedicated  to wrestle the baggage of the past and simply let it all go. I have been tremendously successful in doing that. It is a relief stepping into 2012 with such great comfort in my own skin.

Every person who has crossed my path with a bit of kindess has left an imprint. I thank you all. Because I knew YOU, I am changed for good. This video is for you.

Now on to the second gift…

I don’t think of this as a workout mix as much as I do workout to it. (I can workout to pretty much anything.) I think of this as thinking music for a drive or a long walk.

The message of this mix is simply “This Too Shall Pass” and thus the name.

DOWNLOAD This Too Shall Pass

The Password is: HappyNewYear

Song List

This week I have been surprised by the many gifts and outpourings of love I have received from clients, students and friends. I love giving gifts and am an incredibly embarrassed recipient. I truly feel with every cell of my body the kindness and affection behind the gift itself. Honestly, I have heaps of expensive gadgets and $100K designer wardrobe and most of it just collects dust. I recognize, NOW, that things don’t make me happy where once I allowed things to define me. What I want for Xmas most is to inspire others to GIVE.

Before I begin I want to be certain that you know I am not proselytizing. I am not a religious follower of anything other than common sense. (At this point, my mom is reading this and getting mad. She likes to remind me that she raised me a Catholic. Trust me Mom, after the abuse I suffered at the hands of the nuns, priests and the Jesuits it is hard to forget.) The point is people need help. Most of us have more than we need and less than we want. There is room to give in a meaningful way.

This year I have donated time and money to Green Chimneys, The United Aid Foundation, The United Way and the Mount Sinai Sexual Assalt & Violence Intervention Center. Next year, I am hoping to begin the process of establishing a KINETIC Sculpt® program for the active aging. It is a huge undertaking and I have already been hit in the face with the swinging door of bureaucracy. It stings to be told “No” when you are earnestly trying to help. I imagine this is why people don’t want to stick around long term after they make a donation. Let’s take a our “good person” street cred and get out of dodge.

The point is anything worth doing is worth fighting for. Will you begin to consider how you can give long term? It takes a village to raise a child and to comfort the elders.

Three Simple Ideas
1. Give a Rescue Gift
Japan, nine months after the tsunami, left as many as 22,000 people dead or missing and a half million more homeless. The economic cost of the disaster is estimated to be over $235 billion.

The initial emergency relief efforts slowly wrapped up over the months that followed as displaced families began moving from evacuation centers into their own prefabricated container houses. Life is far from back to normal.

You can make a donation to The International Rescue Committee of

• IRC Gifts
• Monthly Gifts
• Tribute Gifts
• Donate to Emergencies
• Drought in East Africa

Unlike other international charities, 92 cents of every dollar donated to IRC goes to the cause. Between now and December 31, 2011, special friends of the IRC have agreed to match all online gifts dollar-for-dollar up to $1.7 million.

2. Donate a designated period of service at your local school, youth center, house of worship, shelter, etc.
If you want to make a difference, you need to plant seeds and nurture their development. When you get involved in a tangible way in your community, the community is not the only thing that changes. In the words of Kathryn Hepburn, when you stop taking things that scare you, “you get soggy.”

3. Nurture yourself.
Read about things outside of your realm of expertise, sphere of influence or political viewpoint. Look for understanding. See common ground. Don’t put off exercise as if there is time to do it tomorrow. Live each day with possibility.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Together we can make a difference. There is value and reward in being of service. Philanthropy may not be popular in these materialistic time but even Ayn Rand, the mother of moral egoism, found herself mugged by reality.

Thank you for reading this, logging on, engaging in KINETIC Sculpt®, subscribing to the newsletter, and contributing to the journey. Being of public service is not something I take lightly. I am happy to GIVE and am learning to RECEIVE.

Happy everything!
Erwin

Song: Together You & I – Dolly Parton