Take the Leap
I’ve been repeating myself a lot these past few days, because it seems as though the same conversation keeps coming up with new friends…old friends…
It’s easy for most of us to get stuck in a rut (idiom?? I am bad with American idioms…my dad was…and that’s how I learned’em). At least in LA, the economy is terrible, jobs are hard to find, most are holding on to the jobs they hated two years ago but can’t let go of out of fear. So we accept that things are bad, times are tough, and we have to struggle to get to where we want. While I agree that it’s not necessarily easily to “follow your bliss…” it shouldn’t be a struggle. This is what I discovered on my two month break after working on a vigorous City Council campaign here in LA.
Dedicating my life for a few months in hope of rebuilding LA with fresh new, intelligent, unadulterated leadership, once it was all over “normal” was different. I couldn’t go back to doing the same old thing anymore, so I didn’t. I took time off to figure things out again, and what I came to after 2 weeks of being anxious of not “doing something,” was a belief that I have come accross in many great writings, or guided to by many of my mentors and spiritual leaders…WHEN YOU ARE FOLLOWING YOUR LIFE PATH, Your Purpose, GOD WORKS IN YOUR FAVOR. (I call Ein Sof God…you might call it the Universe…the Collective Conscious…).
I have now thrown myself into the scary-not-easy-place of accepting that my bliss is my bliss (even if up front it doesn’t seem like a sustainable option…) and now, every day seems like a day off because I love every single thing I am doing, and won’t settle for less. The “scary” and “not easy” doesn’t feel like a struggle, because I am exactly where I want to be.
It takes a courageous leap, that even I at first was not ready to take, because it’s an uncommon one that doesn’t have the structural security of the trajectory our parents followed. But when you take the leap, to stop doing what you hate…working for fear of not having money, or security….GOD blesses you by opening the opportunities and doors meant to help you fulfill your purpose….After all, that is how we are best in use to serve others…when we become full of bliss and joy and can’t help but want to make sure others are also feeling and living the same.
In that concept is where I honor all the people who might not find it easy right now to up and quit a job to “follow your dreams” due to hungry children, sick families, other needs…but again…we can start the ripple effect of bliss by looking into what we dedicate our time and energy to, and deciding whether or not we really are walking down the right path.
Take the leap! You can sleep on my couch if things get really bad….(that was a joke…unless I know you and tell you this in person.)
Great Tool for Your Virtual Office – Genbook
I am as in love with the internet as ever! I actually got passionately upset last night while speaking to this guy on the phone. We were being set up, and I decided to have a conversation with him first, and he wouldn’t take my answer for what my job was (acting…I’m in a play…), so I said, okay, well I’m also into Social Media Consulting. He went on to talk about how Facebook was useless, and for children, and a waste of time. Well I gave him my two cents (is the idiom cents or sense??), and needless to say there will be no date.
But this post is actually about something new I found through my friend Danny. Genbook is a website for appointment scheduling and client management and I LOVE it. I’m all about the virtual office: save resources, flexible schedules, happy employees. I’ve worked in many virtual/home office environments and there are a few things that make it tough. The worst being that it’s hard to leave work at the office, because work is there all the time. Another tricky part being attempting to maintain a sense of team and community among employees when everyone is separate. But if the little things, like scheduling appointments & meetings, communication via chat/email/smartphone, and information sharing are taken care of, then the other things are easy to work on. Such as saying “No, I will not write that grant at 3am because I am not working right now and I worked from 9-3!.” Anyhow.
Genbook helps you setup an online calendar, and folks can setup up appointments by checking it out and submitting an appointment request. Its pretty handy, and the cheapest package is …. well…Free.
Check it out…More info on how to contact me using Genbook coming soon…
Just hanging out
Sitting here at the Cigar Factory.
The old man brought me a bouquet of flowers for my performance tonight. He brought them and hid them behind the factory front counter until I came out.
I didn’t practice today, but there’s something about being in the “ambiente.”
It’s me and a bunch men, sitting out back, bbqing, smoking “puros.”
Life is simple and beautiful.
My mom reminded me last week that I shouldn’t be smoking, and she’s right. So I’m not smoking anymore, not like I was when I was learning.
A cop came by to pick up some cigars rolled especially for him. They are HUGE. So huge, the cigar roller couldn’t use a mold for the “tripas.” He used paper napkins to wrap them tightly to hold the shape. What I am curious about is why a cop needs cigars THAT big.
The old man is coming to the show tonight to roll cigars after, and he’s letting me roll a few.
I love this.
What Makes A Cigar Cuban
Aside from the leaves coming from Cuba? (good luck with that)
There’s a style to finishing the cigar that makes it Cuban. Yesterday I had my first cigar event at a Polo Match in Palm Springs. The cigar roller that came with me explained to me how every cigar made in Cuba was finished.
The wrapper is applied as usual, but at the end, the twist is trimmed with making a cap on the head. Then out of tobacco leaf, a tear drop shape is cut and used to wrap the cap (pañuelo) on the end so that there are two lines marking the the wrapper circling the head twice. Then a final circle is added at the top.
That’s how you tell a Cuban cigar. The two lines circling the head.
