Tag: life lessons

I lived my life 1/4 of Mile at a Time…and Now I regret it

On By trustmeimnotadrIn Food for Thought, life, peace, success, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Dominic Toretto once said “I live my life a quarter mile at a time. Yadadadadada, for those 10 seconds or less I’m free”, or close enough. I am a 90’s kid, and like most of us who grew up in that ohhh so sweet spot between being an old fart and a full blown millennial, I took to heart everything I learned via my role models on TV (this was long before Youtube and people chewing on laundry packs for fame, because of course that will make you uber famous in 2018).

As badass as it sounds to say you lived your life a quarter of a mile at time, the reality is very different from the expectation. By living your life this way (which I did, much to my disappointment, maybe I needed more NOS or a larger ball bearing turbo) you begin to focus more on living fast and less on the actual fantastic life experiences you are going through. I took for granted people, moments, feelings, sensations, all in an attempt to “live my life a quarter of a mile at a time”.

It’s a sad day to look at your old contacts list and realize that you don’t remember who half of them are or what it felt like to be around them. Instead of living our lives a quarter mile at a time, let’s go ahead and live our lives focusing on every inch of that tarmac as we swiftly drive across it as slowly as possible. Embrace every second you spend with every single person or experience you have because in a blink of an eye it may be the last time you ever feel the way you did at that particular point in time and it’s really easy to forget just whom or what it is you ever lived for. If you’re reading this means you’re still alive, breathe it in…

Written by: Del Rivers

Six Degrees of Separation…Perhaps?

On By trustmeimnotadrIn Food for Thought, humor, life, peace, Random Thoughts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Another day has gone by; another story to be told has been written. As I sit drinking my coffee at the nearby café, I can’t help but look at everyone around me and think how we all have our own stories, our own memories, our own problems, our own daily dilemmas and issues.  To think that I got it easy compared to other people makes me feel somewhat blessed but it also leads me to think about how things happen and how we are all linked in some way or another.

The guy that is sitting in the table next to me at this very moment, scrolling aimlessly through his laptop, quite possibly might have ten times more problems than I do and to be honest  I might never know. Although it does get me to think; could someone that knows him, know someone that knows me and could said person be what causes him some of his problems? Crazy to think how it really is a small world. With all of its vast oceans and continents we still  can’t escape the lingering fact that we are all connected in some way. I remember a song by a band I loved in my college years that  said “Seeing all those people on the ground, wasting their time.” Looking back now I find that song very interesting because a lot of people are literally wasting away their lives and weathering away in the tunnels of time. Funny how there are billions of people on this planet and we don’t even know 1/1,000,000th of them all and even funnier is that we may all be somehow connected. Perhaps it’s time I get up and introduce myself…

Written by: Del Rivers

Be Grateful For Every Breath You Take: A Story About ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)

On By trustmeimnotadrIn Food for Thought, humor, life, Random ThoughtsLeave a comment

As some of you may already know, just a few weeks ago  (August 29th, 2015) marked the 10 year anniversary of the disastrous Hurricane Katrina that caused massive damage to the coastal city of New Orleans, Louisiana here in the United States. Hundreds of people, including celebrities, came together to share stories and anecdotes of their life experiences both before and after the powerful storm transformed the city forever. One of the stories that really drew my attention was that of ex pro-football player Michael “Steve” Gleason.

Gleason was a professional football player for the New Orleans Saints who at the age of 34 was diagnosed with a super rare disease referred to as ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. In a nutshell ALS is a degenerative illness which slowly causes you to lose voluntary movement. From the ability to walk and talk and speak all the way thru to your ability to eat and breathe. He came to the peak of his career n 2006, just a bit over a year after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and gave the devastated and demoralized city hope by blocking a punt from the opposing team. This in turn lead to the first score in the Saints first game in New Orleans in nearly 21 months due to hurricane Katrina having devastated both the city and the morale of the team. Unfortunately his heightened career ended when he was diagnosed with ALS in 2011; right around the same time him and his wife were trying have a child. Despite his everyday battle with ALS and being confined to a wheelchair, Gleason’s spirits are high and his optimism and passion for life have all but been lost in the midst of his struggle with a widely misunderstood disease.

Imagine wrapping your arms around your significant other and feeling the warmth of there skin tightly pressed against yours, imagine walking down the beach and feeling the cool wet sand beneath your feet, imagine driving down the highway with the windows down and the warm summer wind caressing your face, imagine eating your favorite slice of chocolate cake and savoring it within every corner of your mouth. Now imagine what it would be like if no matter how hard you tried you couldn’t wrap your arms around the one you love, imagine not being able to walk down the beach because your legs won’t move, imagine not being able to place your hands on a steering wheel because your arms refuse to respond, imagine not being able to enjoy your favorite chocolate cake because you cannot chew. Imagine that one day, everything you normally do, everything you take for granted, all become things that you will never be able to do again.

If you haven’t been grateful for anything in a long time I implore you to walk outside and while you take a breath of air and feel the warmth of the early morning sun on your face you can at least be grateful for the fact that you were able to step out that door on your own two legs and live to see another day. As Carlos Mencia once said, “What makes life beautiful is the essence of the fact that it can go away”.

Written by: Del Rivers

Life Lessons Learned….or Not

On By trustmeimnotadrIn Food for Thought, humor, life1 Comment

It’s a known scientific fact that when you’re 18 you’re fearless, invincible and selfish. Heck some people never grow  of it. You’re like Batman minus the daddy issues and with an extreme case of arachnophobia (I’ve played enough Resident Evil to survive a  Zombie Apocalypse or an Ebola outbreak but the day those arachnid bastards start taking over I’ll commit Seppuku).  It isn’t until later in life that you realize that you’re actions do have consequences, you’re decisions do come back to haunt you, and that eating 3 Big Macs a day with 6 beers really isn’t a Healthy diet (pfft, screw you Dr. Oz, what do you know about cholesterol and diabetes?!). At the end of the day you’re left with a ton of friends pissed off at you, a beer belly, and a Burger King gut. Luckily it’s in our power to learn from our mistakes, rights some wrongs, but most importantly become a better person with each passing day. Here is a list of things I learned, and am still learning, throughout my life:

Life lesson number 1: Never change something good for something you think is great because what you think is great might turn out to be good and make you realize that what you had was already great.

Life lesson number 2: Also, in reference to the above statement, don’t cling to something you know doesn’t deserve you but also have realistic expectations. You can’t expect to land a princess if you aren’t no prince yourself, this applies both ways.

Life lesson number 3: People do have the ability to change but it doesn’t happen overnight, it takes months, I dare say even years in most cases. If someone has been the same for 20+ years, do you really think they’ll change in 2 weeks?

Life lesson number 4: Don’t mistaken remorse for change. Just because someone feels guilty about something and says they’ll never do it again, doesn’t mean they have or will change. Remember, the guilt will eventually fade…

Life lesson number 5: You can be whoever you want to be whenever you want to be. It’s never too late to reinvent yourself into what YOU want, and not what others want you to be. The worst thing you can do is lie about who you are to someone because at the end of the day you only lie to yourself. If someone can’t accept you for you then they don’t want to be with the real you, hence they don’t deserve to have the best of you.

Life lesson number 6: You will meet many people along the long winding road called your life, some good some bad, some replaceable others unforgettable. Each of these persons will contribute to your life and teach you something new, even if it’s something small, it’s still there. Time to accept this and move on.

Life lesson number 7: There will be times that you meet someone you instantly click with, where you can start a sentence and they can finish it, where you will enjoy every moment you spend together and can’t help but smile when you think of them. There will also be times where you meet someone that you don’t click with, who can’t finish your sentences, who you probably don’t enjoy the moments you spend together and most likely make  you frown when you think of them. Don’t try and force it with someone who you know will make you miserable when there are plenty who will make you smile.

Life lesson number 8: Now, just because a person can’t finish your sentences and does not have much in common with you, doesn’t mean they cannot make you smile. Sometimes the best people you will meet in your life, who will go out of their way to make you happy, have very little in common with you. It does not mean that they are less worthy than someone who does, it just means they are at a slight disadvantage from the starting line. They just could be the ones to cross the finish line though…

Life lesson number 9: Don’t jump off the deep end trying to save someone who is deliberately drowning themselves because you might just end up drowning along with them. Let’s face it, some people just want to be miserable and enjoy draining the happiness out of everyone around them like some sort of walking black hole. We all know at least one person who falls into this category, you know, that person who’s always complaining about how unhappy they are with themselves and with their life yet are reluctant to do anything at all to better themselves. The ones who are constantly getting into harmful relationships and complain that all they do is get involved with assholes but have turned down all the good people worth giving a chance to. They don’t want to help themselves and yet expect everyone around them to mend to their needs. These people are a cancer, a disease and should be avoided at all costs. At the end of the day, you can’t help someone who isn’t willing to help themselves. It may sound selfish but sometimes you need to let someone drown so they can learn to swim.

Life lesson number 10: Don’t believe everything you hear, always come to your own conclusions. The whole reason you were born with a brain is so you can think for yourself, don’t let me or anyone else tell you what to think or believe. We all have individual life experiences, that’s what makes us different, no two are the same. This list would probably be different if you wrote it, maybe it’s time that you did…

Written by: Del Rivers