Keep The Faith

This post is going to be a little different than my typical articles. A few days ago a friend of mine sent me an email with a video attached to it. It was titled Keep The Faith. I personally don't recognize the man telling the story. If someone does, I'd appreciate you filling me in and letting me know.

The story moved me. I took me back to a time when I was in my mid 20s and had completed four years of college and a bachelors degree and an additional year of graduate school and had earned a masters degree. I was a young business man and I was going through another life change as I entered the service to our country to serve in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War Era. So, while the presenter of this story is, obviously, younger than me, which you'll pick up on as he relates the story, I relate to what he is saying because I had experienced the attitudes that he relates.

There's not much else to say because I don't want to steal the presenter's thunder. But, those of you of a certain age (mostly from the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, the Baby Boomer Generation and the very early Generation X) will be able to relate to this. You will likely remember when this was pretty much the overall attitude in the U.S. regardless of what part of the country you were from. For those of you who are younger than the group I just described, this is the way our country once was. It certainly wasn't perfect. But, it was a lot better, in my mind, than much of what we're witnessing and experiencing in all sectors of our society.

If It Is To Be It Is Up To Me!

If you've never heard of this short sentence made up entirely of two letter words, it's time you did.

Over the past few weeks I've been talking about “New Beginnings” and how I'm going through this challenging phase of my life. Everyone either has, is or will go through some very difficult times. Unfortunately, some of these events and experiences are going to be traumatic.

Someone once asked Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking, if there were any people who didn't face problems. He said, and I paraphrase, he knew of a place where there were a lot of people who didn't have problems. Let me take you there. So, the person went with Dr. Peale who led him to a cemetery. The person at first was stunned and then thought he was making fun of him. Dr. Peale assured him he was serious, none of the people in that cemetery or any other cemetery had any problems. The only people who have no problems reside in graves. So, if you don't want to join these people, you better get down on your knees and pray for God to give you problems.

We start having problems when we are small children. Our parents help us learn to cope with and solve our small problems. As we get older the problems get more difficult. And, of course, when we become adults, we have to deal with problems and situations that often seem insurmountable. Everybody has problems of one kind or another. I won't bore you with a list of the many kinds of problems we all face during our lifetimes. It's also said that God, or the Universe or life won't give you any problems that you can't handle. That doesn't mean they will be easy. It just means it's up to us to resolve the problems.

New Beginnings – 2022 – Part 3

Three weeks and three new articles. I'm patting myself on the back! I hope I'm back on line again.

This is going to be a short article today. Winter has set in here in the area of West Virginia known as the Potomac Highlands. It's where I've been staying with a friend while I've been recovering from my bout with cancer. I'm very lucky to have terrific and very supportive friends in various places and, certainly, my friend Carolyn has gone way above the call to help me.

It's snowing quite hard here today and into about midday tomorrow. It's quite cold with the current temperature registering at 16 degrees and an estimated accumulation of snow between 9” to 12” and possibly as much as 18.” I grew up in northern New Jersey and we had some cold temperatures and significant snow accumulations there when I was a kid. And, then I lived in Syracuse, NY and I have to be honest, snow, lots and lots of snow was a way of life along with sub-0 temperatures. We had some serious winters when I lived in the Washington, DC area and for the ten years I lived in Annapolis, MD. About every five years or so, we would have a very serious winter in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia when I lived outside Winchester. But, while some of my friends look forward to winter and snow, I have experienced probably about 30 blizzards during my life and frankly, I'd much rather see the snow from a distance along with the cold temperatures. I'm perfectly content to watch snow in TV shows or in movies. I don't need to experience it in person any longer.

Part of my New Beginnings is to start researching and searching for a new region to base my operations from and I'd like it to be a location with a moderate or temperate climate. So, I've been looking at places around the U.S. during the last several years I was traveling, prior to being inconveniently stopped from my travels by my cancer challenge. But, I'll be looking again for the right place once I can get back on the road.

New Beginnings – 2022 – Part 2

This is my second article of 2022 and you'll notice it has the same title as the first article, except I extended it as Part 2. I've been thinking, researching and contemplating this entire past week about what I said last week. Something sparked in my mind and heart about my thoughts and feelings. But, to start things off, let me give you a long quote I discovered during my research.

When someone you love dies, you are given the gift of "second chances". Their eulogy is a reminder that the living can turn their lives around at any point. You’re not bound by the past; that is who you used to be. You’re reminded that your feelings are not who you are, but how you felt at that moment. Your bad choices defined you yesterday, but they are not who you are today. Your future doesn’t have to travel the same path with the same people. You can start over. You don’t have to apologize to people that won’t listen. You don’t have to justify your feelings or actions, during a difficult time in your life. You don’t have to put up with people that are insecure and want you to fail. All you have to do is walk forward with a positive outlook, and trust that God has a plan that is greater than the sorrow you left behind. The people of quality that were meant to be in your life won’t need you to explain the beauty of your heart. They already understand what being human is----a roller coaster ride of emotions during rainstorms and sunshine, sprinkled with moments when you can almost reach the stars.

― Shannon L. Alder

Substitute the first and second sentence with, When you die and are reborn, you are given the gift of new beginnings. Your eulogy is a reminder that the living (you in your rebirth), can turn your life around at any point. With those two changed sentences, this quote is exactly what I'm feeling as I leave the past behind after being stricken down by my cancer experience and the ensuing battle. I don't know if I can describe what happened the morning of August 18, 2019 as having experienced death and coming back. I know there is a short period of time that I have no recollection of. I don't know if it was seconds or minutes. I don't recall seeing my life pass before me. I don't recall seeing a long tunnel with a white light at the end. I just don't remember anything for that brief period of time. And, of course, I was completely disoriented when I regained consciousness or grasped life again, whichever the case may have been.

What I do know is that a lot of things changed. To be perfectly honest, if friends, family, business associates or new people see me today, the only thing they will likely notice is that I'm slimmer because I lost about 20% of my weight (and, unfortunately, muscle mass). Otherwise, externally, there is little about the changes I described in the previous article that one can see. The voice I've used to speak and to provide voice-overs for numerous clients is still the same. I still have the knowledge, creativity, any talent I may have been blessed with and the skills I've learned and honed through over 60 years of adolescent and adult experiences. For all practical intents and purposes, externally and experientially, I'm still me. But, as I described, there is a new persona residing inside this older and, now, somewhat modified body.

New Beginnings – 2022

I'm writing this on January 1, 2022. As you can see, if you look at my last blog article, this is my first new article in a year. The year 2021 was very similar to 2020. They were both years that weren't. I mean, for me, they weren't noteworthy. Many things happened during 2021, but from my perspective, they were mainly negative things. But, I really don't want to focus and dwell on the negative. A few years ago, after writing this blog for about ten years, I began facing writers block. My articles became fewer and far between. I picked up again for a short time in 2019 when I was stricken down with my battle with cancer and I wrote almost daily for a few months about my experiences.

Let me be clear, I'm 76 years old. I'll be 77 years old in a few months. I try to not dwell on my age, however, due to many things that have occurred over the past couple of years, most notably, my battle and, so far, my victory over a near fatal bout with a pretty rare form of cancer, I have begun to accept my aging reality. You may have heard older people express the aging process as experiencing all kinds of aches, pains, physical changes, lower levels of energy and stamina. But, at the same time, they say their minds are acting like they are still in their 30s or 40s. I can relate to that.

However, some of us are dealt a variety of challenges. Some of those challenges result with life ending. During the past couple of years I've lost at least 12 friends from various facets of my life. Some of these friends were considerably older than me. Some were around my age. Still others were younger than me. Meanwhile, some of us survive after being dealt strokes, heart attacks, hip, knee and other joint replacements. Others have to deal with issues like diabetes, MS, Lupis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other chronic and autoimmune diseases. And, some, like me, must face the “Big C,” cancers of all kinds. I'm actually a two time cancer survivor, but I'm still going. In many cases, probably most cases, these medical issues are surprises. They blind-side us and, like it or not, we must deal with them.

A Letter To Greg

This article is actually a letter (sent by email) to a very good and valued friend of mine of 50 years. I sent this letter to Greg earlier today. I realized as I was concluding the letter that it is really a Manifesto.

There is an old cliché that says there are three kinds of people in society.

#1 People who make things happen.

#2 People who watch things happen.

#3 People who wonder what happened.

That relates to what goes on in politics, religion and other forms of social interaction. I want to be part of group #1. I, unfortunately, often find myself as part of group #2. But, I strive my hardest to avoid at nearly all costs being part of group #3.

Lately, I've found myself losing sight of who I really am by being sucked in and reacting (knee-jerk reaction) to issues, events and ideological discussions I really can't do anything about and that really are not my problems. I find myself spending far too much of my priceless time writing to inform, educate or influence people who really don't want to be informed, educated or influenced. They simply

Welcome to my world! Revisited - Year 9

Every year or so I revert back to my first post on this blog to review where it started and where it evolved to. This was post #1 on February 6, 2008. It was just a few days shy of nine months later when I left my ranch for the last time to pursue a very different lifestyle. And, it's now a little more than nine years ago since I wrote the original post. My notes indicating the changes and evolution in me, my lifestyle, my thinking and the blog are all in italics embedded in the copy of the original post.

This blog is about exactly what the title states - “living and working free.” Actually, the focus is now on how to live free including all facets of human experience and lifestyle and the name changed to "2 Live Freely” a couple years ago. Now, to make sure this concept is perfectly clear, I DO NOT mean living FOR free nor working FOR free. I mean living and working freely under our own rules, terms and conditions for our lifestyles and workstyles.

It is important to note that there are no rules, terms or conditions carved in stone that tell us how we should live or how we should work. The only rules are those that we each establish for ourselves in our own hearts and minds . . . unless we adopt the rules, conditions and terms that others may want to impose on us. This holds true to the current blog posts and my philosophical thinking - no significant changes.

My postings here are going to be based on MY feelings, opinions, concepts, wants and needs. What I say may or may not apply to you – or perhaps only parts of what I say may apply to you. So, do not, under any circumstances, consider anything I say here to be gospel. What I say only pertains to me and my life. The operative word in all of this is “FREE!”

Insanity . . .

But, this is the best kind of insanity. I spent nearly a week in The City of the Angels with my son, Pete, enjoying his loft in the art district and checking out a number of eateries and some local points of interest. Great time with the “chip off the old block.”

Then a week ago Friday, I drove down to Hawthorne, California, a Los Angeles suburb, where Pete lived last year when I had an unplanned, extended stay in the small guest house he was residing in at that time. If you've been reading this blog very long, you'll remember I blew my engine on the trip over the mountain from the San Joaquin Valley into the Los Angeles basin in early January 2015. I had my engine rebuilt in Hawthorne by a very competent and honest man, Wilson, and his team of skilled technicians. I stopped and visited Wilson and team (and met his lovely wife) at A1 Engine Rebuilding Service. I highly recommend these folks.

I had called ahead and made an appointment with Marco at Song's Front End Alignment Service while I was going to be in Hawthorne. Marco did a great job last year, and also proved to be both competent and very honest. Once again, he took care of My McVansion and gave me a feeling of confidence as I rolled toward that same mountain where the ill-fated engine incident occurred last year. This time approaching from west to east. My McVansion scaled that mountain (as it has several higher mountains on the way west from the east coast only a few weeks before). But, once over the mountain and into the San Joaquin Valley, again, is where the insanity was awaiting.

It Was A Very Good Year . . .A Review of 2015 and A Preview of 2016

“It was a very good year . . .” was the title of a song and the opening line of the lyrics. It was composed for Bob Shane and the Kingston Trio in 1961 by Ervin Drake. It was later covered by “Old Blue Eyes,” Frank Sinatra. So, how was your year? Can you say it was a very good year when you think about 2015 in retrospect?

Let's be realistic. The chances are the positive things that happened during 2015 for most people, outnumbered the negative things. Of course, I think it's likely that most people tend to remember the negative things a bit more and thus, may consider it a bad year and are looking forward to the new year to be better.

Something Different - A Short Survey About Living Free

I'm on the road most of this week. I'm making a quick trip from West Virginia to central Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania I'll travel south to the outer Washington, DC suburbs in Virginia near Dulles International Airport to attend the annual Veteran Speakers Retreat. As you may recall, I coordinated and ran this retreat for 12 years. Now, I'm back to simply attending as a participant. When the retreat ends I'll be completing a small project for a long-time client in Fairfax, Virginia.

Finally, I'll head west to Winchester, Virginia (my former hometown) to pick up my tax returns for last year (yes, I'm on an extension) from my CPA, before returning to base camp in West Virginia. It's always a challenge to keep up with blogging when I'm on the road. It's especially challenging when I'll be participating in the events of the retreat and interacting with old and new friends during the course of the long weekend event.

I've decided this will be a great time to do a very short survey. I will appreciate it if you'll take this survey.

Nathan, The Walmart Greeter, Pontiac, Illinois, June 3, 2015

Allow me to introduce you to Nathan, a Walmart Greeter in Pontiac, Illinois. Nathan is a very special person and I'm so glad I had the great fortune of meeting this young man while on my trek heading back to the eastern U.S.

When I met young Nathan, we were washing out hands in the men's restroom at the Pontiac, Illinois Walmart Supercenter. Nathan was very friendly and very courteous, starting a conversation with something like, "I hope you're having a wonderful day, Sir!" I said I was and wished him the same. He then went on and asked if I shopped at this Walmart regularly and I said I didn't, I was just passing through on my way from the west coast back to the east coast. His inquisitiveness was both innocent and refreshing. I knew there was something special about this young man.

Nathan then asked where I came from (meaning, where did I consider home) and I gave him a very short "elevator speech" about not having a fixed home any longer and being based in South Dakota, but I had lived in New York, Maryland and Virginia and I was born and raised in New Jersey. This brief resume seem to delight him and he became very enthusiastic when I mentioned New Jersey. His response was "New Jersey! Wow! I've never been to New Jersey."

By this time we had left the men's restroom and he just kept repeating, "Wow! New Jersey." It was almost as though I had arrived from the Land of Oz. Again, throughout the entire conversation, brief as it was, he was always polite and courteous and his enthusiasm (at about 10:00 AM) was infectious.

At this time, I knew his name from his name badge, though I hadn't read his job title. I discovered that later. I decided to stop at the Subway shop in the Walmart and partake in one of their breakfast sandwiches. While I was sitting there enjoying my breakfast, I heard some music playing that definitely didn't sound like it was standard "Muzak" background sound. I craned my neck a bit attempting to discern where the music was originating. When the music wasn't playing, I would see Nathan walking around that end of the store doing various "chores."

It wasn't until I finished my breakfast that I realized the music was emanating from a folding table set up at the entrance to that side of the store. At the table sat young Nathan playing a small keyboard. It was then that I realized what Nathan's position was at the Pontiac, Illinois Walmart Supercenter. He was an official "People Greeter," although, I would suggest that he was actually an ambassador of goodwill.

Yes! Young Nathan greeted people with the same enthusiasm, politeness and courtesy he had extended to me beginning in the men's room. I sat and watched and listened for a while. There were hugs, both given and received by Nathan. There were smiles and warm salutations. I watched him interacting with other store employees and there appeared to be a genuine warmth and friendliness that extended both ways. I spoke with one of the other employees and she said Nathan was a very special member of the staff and was respected and loved by all.

This special young man certainly did his best to not only make people feel welcome in "his" Walmart, but attempted to make everyone's day brighter because they crossed his path.

Oh yes! The table, the keyboard and the music. First, I wouldn't say, from my limited exposure, Nathan was a virtuoso musician. However, at the table he set up at the front of the store, there is a sign you can see clearly soliciting donations to the 2015 CMN. CMN stands for Children's Miracle Network. You'll also note a jar stuffed with cash. Nathan doesn't have to ask anyone to donate, he simply is a "miracle" himself. He never leaves the table without taking that jar with him. He understands how important the job is that he's doing and the responsibility he shoulders to help the children needing miracles. And, you bet your boots I put some cash in his jar.

Almost every day is a great day in my current living free lifestyle. I don't need much to make me smile and feel blessed. But, this particular day, a young man, Nathan, crossed my path doing what many might consider a somewhat menial job. Not Nathan. This seems to be his calling. His job is to make people smile and feel good, at least for a little while, regardless of what they may be dealing with in their personal lives.

Nathan and I chatted some more before I was preparing to leave the store to climb into My McVansion and continue on my journey. I asked Nathan if I could take a couple pictures and video record a short clip of him playing his keyboard. I told him I wanted to share my experience, on my blog, of meeting him and how he had made such a positive impression on me. He was delighted. I gave him one of my travel cards with my blog URL on it and told him to watch for my story about him in a week or two.

I hope he gets to see this and realize just how important he is to Walmart, the customers in Pontiac, Illinois, the children who will benefit from the Children's Miracle Network and to a world who needs to find and meet a lot more Nathans, the Walmart Greeter. Please share this blog article with your friends. I hope it will inspire them, too. And maybe some of my vandwelling and RVing friends will stop at the Pontiac, Illinois Walmart if they're ever passing through the area and meet Nathan themselves. I know he'd love to meet you.

Here's Nathan . . .

Photos-of-the-Week - From Sea to Shining Sea and Gulf to Lake, America the Beautiful, 2014 - 2015

From Sea - The Atlantic Ocean

I've been sitting here in sunny, warm southern California enjoying the time I'm spending with my son as I await the recovery of My McVansion from it's "heart attack" (engine failure). I began recapping the past 12 months of travel My McVansion and I have enjoyed and experienced. I have literally been from sea to shining sea and from the Gulf to the Lakes. What a wonderful year. . . READ MORE & SEE 3 MORE PHOTOS

California, Here I Am!

Yes, I am in sunny, warm (finally) southern California. But, not without challenges getting here. I'll recap the travels in another post devoted just to the mostly uneventful trip other than my eight day stay in Cherokee Village, Arkansas. But, this is the view from where I am composing this article today.

This is from the small yard, but adequate for my son, Pete's, (and currently, my) needs in the city of Hawthorne, California, one of the cities that makes up what most people call Los Angeles, the "City of Angels." His small house is actually a guest house located behind the small main house that faces the street. It's actually very quiet and secluded back here. I can't see anyone and no one can see me. . . READ MORE

2015 Trek #1 Departure Date Is Imminent

The much awaited (by me) target date for departure on the first trek for 2015 is Monday, December 8, 2014. Yes, I'm calling it the first 2015 trek because it's so close to the new year and the vast majority of this trek will be during 2015.

The van preparation is coming along. It's been hampered a bit, unfortunately, by colder weather and a bit of snow and very cold rain, not to mention some serious wind from time to time. But, I keep progressing. A number of projects have already been completed (alterations, changes and additions) and while the current list of items still looks daunting - it's really quite doable. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #186 - Titillation or Natural, Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 2003

No pun intended with the title of this Photo-of-the-Week, although, I'm sure many will think there is. I'm going to wax philosophic over the topic of, in particular, breasts, boobs, hooters and a plethora of other terms used for a natural part of ALL humans' anatomy, plus the human body in general. I'm sure some of you may be put off by this, however, I can assure you nothing perverse, lewd or lascivious follows. This will be fairly long and unusual for my Photo-of-the-Week post, but I'll reveal my motivation for this article near the end. . . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #183 The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music, New Creek, West Virginia, September 2010

The musical genre known as Bluegrass is alive and well and moving people around the country. This photo was taken at a small bluegrass festival in a small, unincorporated area of West Virginia called New Creek, probably named after the creek of the same name that runs through the area.

As you can see, there are hills in the background and this site was actually up on a hill. It doesn't take much to set up and bring people together for events like these. Bluegrass musicians seem to be as plentiful in the mountains of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina. Of course, many current bluegrass musicians come out of city locations like Washington, DC, Baltimore, Nashville and so on. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week - Contrast in Americana - The Old And The New, North East, Pennsylvania, July 2014

This photo op jumped out at me as I was crossing from northwestern New York State into northwestern Pennsylvania on a recent trek. North East is actually the name of the township in northwestern Pennsylvania. Is that clear? Maybe as clear as mud, huh?

The contrast was so stark as I passed this sight that I turned around and went back to capture this photo. There stood an old Dairy Queen soft-serve ice cream stand back to back with a modern Circle K convenience store. . . READ MORE

Photo-of-the-Week #172 The Great Hotdog Caper: Heid's of Liverpool, Liverpool, New York, June 2014

I know there are some readers out there who are saying - "Does he know how unhealthy hotdogs are?" Yep! I do. I have a long time friend who is a retired dietician. She practiced her profession for some 30 or 40 years. She never let an opportunity pass when we were gathered at a group picnic to make her pronouncement that hotdogs were "tubes of death." We respected her and loved her, but on this issue we humored her and went right ahead and scarfed down those "tubes of death" slathered in mustard, catsup, pickle relish, sauerkraut, minced onions, chili and melted cheese. Nary a one of us gave it a second thought - other than, perhaps, indulging in this delicacy might shorten our individual life spans by a minute or five. It was worth the sacrifice.

So, here we have a place appropriately named, Heid's of Liverpool in Liverpool, New York, a suburb of Syracuse, across from Onondaga Lake. . . READ MORE

Great Myths: Myth #1 - We Are Created Equal

Freedom in Sight - End of the Underground Railroad in Lewiston, New York and Freedom on the other side of the Niagara River

We Are NOT Created Equal!

I don't care what the Declaration of Independence says about being created equal and our inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I am a realist and a pragmatist. I don't believe you can make a silk purse from a sow's ear. That is not unless you have a fairy godmother with a magic wand. . . READ MORE

Information Overload, Brain Drain & Writers Block

As regular readers of this blog, I'm sure you have noticed that I haven't been publishing much in the way of new articles for the past few months. I regret that. I have actually written several posts, however, after spending considerable time writing and contemplating each article, I just wasn't satisfied that I was delivering thoughts and ideas I felt would be useful for you. So, they sit in my draft file and may surface sometime in the future after I look them over again and possibly edit or rewrite them.

So, What Is My Problem?

I am back at my base camp in West Virginia. I arrived here about 9:30 PM this past Tuesday evening, July 22^nd after six weeks of travel. I realized that I just haven't been producing the way I normally do or the way I like to. Since I returned I actually wrote, yet, another article the other day. I wasn't happy with it either.

So, I realize that I'm in some kind of funk, phase or mode that I'm not very pleased with, after all, my life and philosophy are all about living free, yet, I don't seem to be able to write anything about it. Am I actually living free? Is my mind and creativity free? Or, am I trapped in some kind of black hole of my own creation.

I believe I've identified three causes for my writing malaise. The first is “Information Overload” or as some call it, “TMI” or “too much information.” It's basically mental clutter. The second is “Brain Drain.” The third is “Writer's Block.” Let me explore each of these a bit with the intent of helping emerge from my personal state of the literary doldrums and, perhaps, assisting you in climbing out of some kind of personal “black hole” you may be dealing with.

I might also mention that this kind of lethargy or mild despondency may actually be the manifestation of some (hopefully) mild form of depression. I'm not sure what specifically triggers various manifestations of depression, but I know that I have a genetic predisposition. So, while I don't feel particularly depressed, it may have nothing to do with how I'm actually reacting.

Information Overload

Let me first examine the idea of “TMI.” I am, by my very nature and as a 50 year veteran of the recording industry, an information “sponge.” While I was drawn into the recording industry by the music part of the business, I actually spent the vast majority of my life creating thousands of hours of information content. I guess I could almost say my middle name is Information. People often comment to me that I'm a fount of information. This can be very good, but it can also be a curse.

I am a voracious reader (though I really never classified myself as such), but not so much in book form as in articles, blog posts, newsletters and a variety of other forms. There has been so much going on in our country and our world, both recently and currently. My mind seems to never quit grabbing at and attempting to comprehend and order continuous sound bites both aural and printed. I have also shared time with an amazing array of very interesting people over the past six weeks on my just completed trek to New Jersey, Connecticut, New York (state) and Pennsylvania. By the way, if you aren't aware, I find just about everyone amazing and interesting since each person is so unique.

I learned so much on the trek. I took more than a thousand photos. I have about 150 hours (maybe more) of video I've captured with my dash cam. I explored old “stomping grounds” and witnessed the changes. I met, spoke with and learned from the numerous people I interacted with along the way. All this while traveling about 3,300 miles mainly in just one of the four states I visited. My mind may be having some issues with sorting, categorizing and analyzing this “data” to put to some tangible use. So, as I said, TMI!

Brain Drain

What I mean by “Brain Drain” might be considered by some to be numb or “brain dead” (not in the clinical sense, but psychologically and, maybe, emotionally). There is so much going on inside my head that I simply have needed to shut down for a while to take some time to sort, analyze and categorize all the accumulated new data. I need to discern that which is useful and valuable enough to to relate it to you and which is the chaff that I simply need to discard.

There is a blog I read by Randy, titled Mobile Kodgers. Randy seems to have his act together, but he uses pictures to speak thousands of words. He has found his voice. I haven't met Randy, yet, but intend to when I get out west later this year. Another interesting blog is Waterfall Road by TJ Worthington. I've met TJ down in his territory in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina. I was down there this past New Years Eve and passed a brief pleasantry with TJ, but it was at a celebration of one of my closest and longest friend's wedding (on New Year's Eve – that's a way to start a new year). So, I didn't have the opportunity to get aside with TJ and really chat about – well, lots of things. TJ also seems to have his thoughts in order.

So, not only am I dealing with Information Overload, but I've allowed this overload condition to drain my brain, leading to . . .

Writer's Block

I'm sure, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, being at a loss for words has not been a problem for me. Actually, if anything, I need to get a copy of the AP Style Guide used by journalists and learn how to curb my words to make my posts faster, easier to read and comprehend and more interesting. (Maybe I'll order a copy for my Kindle library after I complete this post.).

Writer's Block is a real psychological problem, first described by a psychoanalyst in 1947. Many, if not all, writers including best selling, award winning authors have suffered the malady at some level at one or more times during their careers. So, while not exactly reassuring, at least I know I'm in good company and I can “recover.” I also read another article that enumerated ten types of writer's block and I can identify with at least four, if not five, of those.

I am going to post this article because it may assist you in overcoming some form of writer's block or even just some other challenge or even procrastination you may be dealing with. I know there are numerous other bloggers and writers who read this blog and, perhaps, you may also be going through some periods when writer's block sets you back a bit.

Ready! Set! Write!

I have a lot of things I want to write about. And, actually, writing this article has been educational and motivating for me. It has helped me focus my attention on the issue and recognize the things that may be blocking my creativity and productivity. So, be ready for some new articles with, what I hope will be, valuable and useful information. It's welled up inside this living free, location independent, nomadic blogger. It's about time, isn't it?