10 Lessons from a Navy Seal

This came up in my Facebook feed today, and I watched it twice. I've seen it before, but like many things, words, songs, movies, advice...everything can sound different at different points in your life.

Aside from the last three words in this video, I could watch this ad nauseam. It truly is worth watching in its entirety. At least to me, but then again, I clicked on the link because an admiral was pictured, not because it said UT Austin.

Here is a Table of Contents, if you will, of the lessons the admiral shares. Please note that the titles listed below are of my own creation/annotation (and are for my own future reference):

• 1:24 Make decisions, or The Butterfly Effect
• 4:40 Make your bed, or Tasks and Goals
• 6:14 The boat crews, or Find Your Teammates
• 7:20 It's about heart, or Size Doesn't Matter
• 8:38 Uniform Inspections, or The Struggle of Perfectionists
• 10:06 Learn from everything, or Own the Circus
• 11:30 Dive head first, or Fly Outside the Box
• 12:50 Don't back down, or Shark Punching
• 14:00 Keep your cool, or Calmness in Calamity
• 15:38 Don't lose hope, or Singing while Sinking
• 17:50 Don't quit, or You Can't Un-Ring a Bell

#BoomerSooner

PBDC Day 5/31: Something Beginning With i

i went out for lunch today.

i have the day off from work, and this morning was not as relaxing or as quiet as i had hoped for it to be. Marlon from days past would have either bought a pack of cigarettes, or had it been later in the day, maybe gone to a bar to see some the regulars who are probably sitting in their regular seats, but today...

i got a three-cheese cheesesteak with bacon cheese fries and a lemonade.

i enjoyed every last bite. And as I sat in the food court at the mall and ate my Charley's treat, i noticed one of those cell-phone recycling/selling kiosks.

instant cash for your cell phones here!

instant. How very 21st century American of us.

it needs to happen now to have some worth.

if it's going to appeal to consumers, instant is the way to go.

i saw a sign for an iComfort bed on my way to the mall, but in my safe driving world where I don't touch my phone once the car is in motion, i passed on the opportunity for the highly riveting subject.

i don't have an iPhone anymore. i left my 3GS behind when i got my Samsung GS2 a while back.

i have an iPod that i rarely use, and i don't have an iPad.

i wrote a Facebook note in 2008, and i posted it on my blog in 2010. i titled it "a crash course in honesty"

i took myself to lunch today, because i need to get out of the apartment at least once a day, just to keep myself from going crazy.

i like being able to make choices for myself, even if they are simple ones like getting something for lunch.

i start every single day with the choice to get out of bed, and lucky for my co-workers and customers, i also choose to take a shower each morning.

i believe in making choices for myself.

i believe in God.

i believe in free will.

i like speaking my mind.

i love telling stories.

i love.

i try not to hate.

i do get angry, but that's because i care about many things, and am passionate about nearly as many.

"inspiration starts" with "i," as do "imagination," and "innovation," and "insemination".

i am writing my 100th blog on this page right now, but by the time you read it, i will have written my 100th blog for this page. so you're reading the 100th post on Ally of the Mind.

i named this page Ally of the Mind alluding to Sam Shepard's play, A Lie of the Mind. A wonderful play, if i do say so myself, and i came across it in preparation for a Christopher Durang piece i directed entitled A Stye of the Eye.

i know today is Ash Wednesday (for the Catholics out there) and i can safely say that Catholic guilt is at its lowest point in my life as it has ever been.

i learned a lot from my friends at church, and i learned a lot more about myself when i chose to stop going.

i think it's because i started asking more questions. Not just of Catholicism, but of the world, myself, the people around me, and those who i learned so much from whether they were teaching me or not.

i will continue to write.

i will keep taking pictures.

it prompted me to take a picture of something beginning with "i," and so i want to end with something complementary. The polar opposite of "i" as i have been using it today would be "you," so here i go.

i love you.

i don't hate you anymore.

i'm sorry you feel that way.

i miss you.

Photo and Blog a Day Challenge-Day 13/28: Water

"Be water, my friend." -Bruce Lee

I've had quite a relationship with water in my three decades on this Earth (which is covered mostly water, by the way).

1. Lived on both coasts.
2. Joined the Navy.
3. Stationed on and deployed with a submarine (Hooyah, Rickover!)
4. I love the beach (fitting with #1).
5. I love pool parties.
6. I drink a lot of water.
7. I really enjoy taking a shower.
8. I passed my swim qual in Navy boot camp.
9. I successfully completed a month-long swimming unit in high school.
10. I can't swim.
11. One of my biggest fears is drowning.

Ok, so maybe #10 and #11 aren't exactly in support of my overall positive relationship with dihydrogen monoxide, but hey, you take the good with the bad, right? You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette, so they say.

But yes, water and I get along more times than not. A lot of people do. Brad Paisley even wrote a song about it. And not in a metaphorical, subliminal way, either. Here's the video for the song entitled, "Water," shocker, right?

If you've been following my blogging journey, you've noticed there have been a few posts about snow.
Snow.
More snow.
Snowflakes.

I wanted to flip it up today, so I give you...ice.

Driving around seeing all the icicles on houses has been so intriguing, awe inspiring, and scary. A few days ago, a co-worker had told me that the icicles on the back of the building had been growing, so during my lunch today, I drove around to check em out for myself

Whoa, right? Here are a few more.

And although the logical part of my brain can piece together exactly how this happens, I couldn't help but stare at them and be amazed.

Water. Like Bruce Lee said, it can take the form of any vessel that it fills. But what if there is no vessel? Then it flows as freely as it can...until it freezes. And then it flows again when it thaws...until it freezes it again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Applying that to ourselves, we can flow into the vessels that we fill. Households, schools, jobs, religions, communities, and so on. But when there is no vessel, where do we go? When do we freeze? When do we stay liquid? Do we become dirty by picking up filth from our environment? Or even when it is added to us?

We can filter things out, thaw, freeze, flow, and spread. We can lose droplets in cracks and grow in collaboration with others.

These icicles back here are like people. These moderately scary, but wholly awesome ice sculptures persuaded by the construction of these buildings are like each of us. We flow, we grow, we freeze, we flow, we spread, we mix, we nourish, evaporate, and flow once again.

It's as simple as Master Bruce said, "Be water, my friend."