A free soul musician

     

By Ron Pope

Where should I start…these stories, my music, it comes from all the places I’ve been, the people I’ve been blessed to play music along side, the way it feels to play my guitar until it bleeds or to bang on that old piano in my living room until my shoulders ache and my fingers won’t move anymore.From Georgia to New York, New York to the road; Charleston and Memphis, Vermont to Chicago. Left home to release my first record with The District…Maine and Boston and who knows where else…walked down Wilshire, blinking in the Los Angeles sun… made love in the grass and meant it. Got lost in Delaware scrambling to get home to my family after too much time…swam in the ocean with the boys, thanking God for purple and orange Florida sunrises. Soaked up New Orleans…tried to become Levon Helm; realized I wasn’t much of a drummer. Wrote A Drop In The Ocean with Zach Berkman and then put it away for six months because I didn’t get it…fell in love…drank whiskey from the bottle and howled at the moon. Released Last Call…played the blues back-to-back with Buz in Charlotte and just about everywhere else along that godforsaken highway…the van broke down…we fixed it…the van broke down again. Got lost heading to South Carolina and ended up in Alabama…fell out of love and hit my head on the way towards the bottom…made a Christmas album, because, damn it, I like Christmas albums. Played big rooms…played small rooms…listened to Van Morrison and cried…listened to trains scream somewhere off in the distance on sleepless, blue-black nights…dreamed of California sunshine in the dead of an endless New England winter. Struck out on my own…wrote an album about love and loss, hope in the face of desperation, and all the places I find beauty; called it Daylight because for a long time, I was sitting in the dark, waiting on the sun.Years ago, I traced the outline of a woman’s face on a piece of paper; someone I loved and didn’t want to forget once we’d put the whole thing to bed. The picture didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped, so I took my ink-stained fingers and spelled her name out in big, smeared letters on my arm. I guess that’s all I’ve ever really had…my words. This music is the story of where I’ve been, who I am, and where I’m going…these songs are my life. 

source:http://www.myspace.com/ronpopeny

Here are some of my favorites from Ron Pope. =)

A Drop in the Ocean

I'm yours

My current favorite is 'Beautiful and Lost'. I love how he sing, he has this beautiful voice who sing with his soul on the lyrics of the song.

Wait For Me 

 

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A winner is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul

I found this article from Francis Kong's Book, The Early Birds catches the worm and the second mouse eat the cheese.

The Winner's prayer

The late Commodore John W. Caunce, master of the original Elizabeth (that majestic ocean liner of the Cunard fleet), kept a framed copy of an old prayer on a wall in his quarters. He often showed it to passengers who visited him. Many people know the prayer, but its origin is obscure:

Here's how the prayer goes.

Lord, thou knowest better than I know my self that I am growing older and will someday be old.

• Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.
• Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.
• Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy.
• With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.
• Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details;
• Give me wings to get to the point.
• Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.
• I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others' pains, but help me to endure them with patience.
• I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cock-sureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.
• Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.
• Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint (some of them are so hard to live with) but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.
• Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people.
• And give me, Lord, the grace to tell them so. Amen.

Now, this seems to be a prayer that would surely be honored by God.

You seem to sense immediately the maturity level of a person by the way he prays. Most people I know, when faced with an extremely difficult situation, would pray this way: “Lord, remove the problem away from me because I cannot handle it.”

And then you find people who get themselves in a nasty fix and then blame God for placing them there. There prayer goes this way: “Lord, why do you put me in this difficult situation?”

But the mature person prays this way: “Lord, give me the strength to go through this and grant me the wisdom to learn lessons from this situation. I cannot deal with the problem on my own strength, so then in You I will put my trust.” Now that's the prayer of faith and humility, and I am positively certain that God honors prayers like this.

One day a businessman, who needed millions of pesos to clinch an important deal, went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a man who was praying for P100 to pay an urgent debt. The businessman took out his wallet and pressed P100 into the other man's hand. Overjoyed, the man got up and left the church. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed: “And now, Lord, that I have your undivided attention...”

Hard to imagine God would be pleased with a prayer like that...

By the way, how do you pray, anyway?

Life is a matter of perspective. It's not what happens to you; it's how you look at it and how you take it. Don't take life too seriously. No one has gotten out of it alive anyway.    

----end----

Other people when they  heard about the The Winner's prayer by Commodore John W. Caunce, the first thing comes in their mind is this prayer is being prayed when you want to win something or to win on a competition,  but when we read the prayer carefully the prayer  is about being humble with our talents and gifts that God's given to us, being strong and not always complaining when we experiencing pains and down falls, asking for guidance to speak the truth, to have patient and humility, learn to not let our hearts grow back crooked because sometimes when our heart breaks it can grows twisted, gnarled and hard to forgive, and lastly is to be appreciative on people. 

In short, the prayer is about asking God for his guidance to become a better person because being one, you can already consider  yourself as a winner. Because a winner is winning your own self to become better and it can only be possible if our prayer is accompanied  with actions.


Same like how William Ernest Henley says,"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." Let us be the master of our fate and  the captain of our soul to become a better person under the guidance of God, because through this you become a true winner on this life.

 

You can't measure a dream

Like the famous saying, "When you start thinking you are already good that’s the time you stop being good". You will lose the need to improve when you think you  already achieved or fulfilled your goal. If you want to keep a room for improvement and become better than before, I always keep  this kind of mindset, you have to set to be the best as a goal, but never think yourself as the best because when you start thinking you are the best that’s the time you stop being one . I never said that I am the best because I never think that I am, but I used this mindset so I will always do my best in everything I do to improve either myself or my performance.

 Think this way, when we think that you are already the best you will lose the need to work hard and to improve, but when you think that you are still not, you will keep doing your best and  work hard. The good thing about this is, you will be surprise by the improvements you can make with this kind of mindset and at the same time this will also help you to keep your feet on the ground every time when you achieve something. Because when we achieve something we start to have this kind of mindset we start thinking that we are better than others or we are already the best, eventually we will lose the need to practice or to work hard for next time. Then we start to lose humility and the passion to work hard to become better. 

 Do you know where did I learn this kind of mind set? I learn this kind of mind set on people like Michael Jordan (the legendary basketball player super star), Francis Kong (a top business man in the corporate world) and the famous R&B singer Usher. The one they have in common is they are on the top of their own field but they never think they were the best, because they always make sure to leave a room for improvement.

Let me borrowed this one story from Francis Kong’s article. 

 Basketball great Michael Jordan once said, “When you see me play, you see Larry play.”

Larry Jordan, that is. He is Michael’s intensely competitive older brother. Sportswriter David Halberstarm called Larry Jordan “a formidable athlete in his own right, though packaged in a wrong-sized body. [He] had great strength, athletic ability, and ambition, but was simply too small to achieve in sports what his heart, will and talent normally would have earned him.”

Clifton Herring, who coached both boys at Laney High in Wilmington, said that “Larry was so driven and so competitive an athlete that if he had been six two instead of five eleven, I’m sure Michael would have been known as Larry’s brother instead of the other way around.”

As a kid, Larry Jordan beat his little brother’s butt so many times playing one-on-one in the backyard court that Michael learned to hate losing. “As soon as I grew taller than him, I vowed to never lose out to him again, “Michael remembered. 

Michael Jordan become what he was today, it’s all because of the size of his heart’s desire that elevate him to the top. As a kid, he never thinks he is the best, but he works hard that’s why he became one.

Same with Francis Kong mentality he remain on the top of business ladder, it’s because he doesn’t stick to his job description but he become well-rounded person . He is adventurous. Accept challenge and make the most of his time learning things and adding more value to who he was and what he can do. If you are going to read his biography you see that he is man who have a multi-profession. 

The famous R&B singer Usher confessed in the press conference of his comeback album Raymond VS Raymond that, when you are the top of your league you feel you are the best, like he was  invincible. But that is his mistake, when you start to think that you are good that’s the time you stop being one. Because he thought he is already the best, that’s why he stops to venture new things to offer to people. But he realized that he was wronged on that, because people change. Like the famous line in American reality show Project Runaway, “one day you're in. And the next day, you're out”.  He learned that we should always keep a student mind to learn new things and improve ourselves. I think he was right on that, because after a long hiatus and  hangover on his success during his 2004 Confession album, Usher proves it on his number one come back song “OMG”.

I think sharing this kind of success stories and kind of mentality make us realize that the people we thought who are best doesn’t think themselves as the best. Isn’t it amazing that when we are not thinking that we are the best, it makes you work harder and improve ourselves? And the opposite reaction is you become better while other people think you are the best.  That’s how powerful our mind is, the mind creates our own reality.

To end this entry the point is no one can ever measure our hearts desires or our dream. Same with my favorite quote of Nathan Scott from the American drama series One tree hill, when he was struggling to achieve his dream:

“Numbers are funny. They can measure you, time you, analyze you all they want, but all they know what really matters are how you play the game. He thinks I've lost a step since the accident, so he's gonna play tight, I haven't. Now he'll back off because he doesn't want to get beat off the dribble, just a half step, that's a mistake. Have you ever heard the expression you can't measure heart? Well the truth is you can't measure any of it. Heart, want, need. They think I can't play point guard, but Q knew I could. You can't measure a dream”.

Most importantly, we shouldn't forget God in the process of achieving our dreams because we couldn't achieve something or anything without these gifts he have given to us. To remain to  walk with Him in the process and to share this to others is the way we could give Him our gratitude.

Note:

 I will just share  my own battle cry, When you dream, dream like Neil Armstrong reach for the star. If someday you may not reach the star but with your hard work and determination you'll be landing on the moon.♥

What I mean is I want to dream like Neil Armstrong because he dream to reach the star, but fortunately he discovers something better than what he dream,  he discovers the moon .

In the faced of failure

I believe that as a human being there's a lot of things I still  have to learn and  to improved in myself. I don't aim for perfection, but I want to become a better person and if possibly I want to become a good servant of God. To learn and to achieve something you can be a smart person who learn from your mistakes or be the smarter person who learn from other people mistakes. Do you know how we became different from one another? It is how we respond and react to our situation.

Positivity lift up people or build something while negativity destroys it. What I have said in one of my entry before that a positive reinforcement can build people to become a better performer and person. Just think of this, when your teacher, parents or boss didn't say anything  positive about you, do you think you can be encourage to become a better performer or a person? When all you can hear from them is you are a failure or loser in life?  When your boss or teacher  doesn't give any compliment  that you did a job well done in your work or say thank you for what you have done. What do you think will happen? Same with telling success and failure stories, When you tell a story about how you failed, it serves as a lesson or a warning for others that these are the things that doesn't work for me or for you. But when you tell success stories, it inspires and motivate people that after failures there is a sweet success that is waiting. When you failed you have to accept it, but never put it in your heart. Get up!  it is not the end, it simply means that it is another thing that doesn't work for you.



I got this from Francis Kong's article, And Then There Was Light:

The world may not realize how significant Thomas Edison is to our lives. As the inventor of the incandescent lamp, he provided the world with light needed to carry on life and progress. Let me tell you something about him. On October 18, 1879, the young inventor Edison sat in his laboratory after 13 months of repeated failures in his search for a filament that would stand the stress of electric current. To add to his problems, the men who had been giving him financial aid now refused to put up any additional funds.

Having tried every known metal in his experiment, Edison was baffled. Casually picking up a bit of lampblack., he mixed it with tar and rolled it into a thin thread. Suddenly the thought struck him-why not try a carbonized cotton fiber? For five hours he worked on the first filament, but it broke before he could remove the mold. Edison used two entire spools of thread in similar fruitless efforts. At last a perfect strand emerged, only to be ruined when he tried to place it inside a glass tube.

Still Edison refused to admit defeat. He continued to work without sleep for two more days and nights. Eventually he managed to insert one of the crude carbonized threads into a vacuum-sealed bulb. "When we turned on the current, "he said, "the sight we had so long desired finally met our eyes!"

Thomas Edison had endured failure after failure, and his finances were in jeopardy. He was under tremendous stress. But his persistence in the face of the most discouraging circumstances gave the world one of its greatest inventions-the electric light.

A great American, Booker T. Washington, had this say about stress: "No man should be pitied because everyday of his life he faces a hard, stubborn problem. It is the man who has no problems to solve, no hardships to face, who is to be pitied. he has nothing in his life which will strengthen and form his character, nothing to call out hos latent powers and deepen and widen his hold on life."

Rich McLawhorn says something encouraging, too: "In the midst of stress and tension, direct your trust toward heaven. The wind of God is always blowing. That wind can bring you countless blessings, including peace. But one's sail must be raised to catch the wind. Hoist your sail, and catch God's wind."

And the Word of God comforts us in Isaiah 26:3: " He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!"

When you encounter stress, keep these words and Edison's example in mind. They will help you keep your equilibrium. As stress exerts its force on you, seek true peace. And what is true peace? Not the absence of conflict, but rather, the absence of inner turmoil.




Francis Kong seminar watch here

Francis Kong  share on this seminar how he handles his children when they are facing failure. I think parents and teachers should learn from this. Sometimes, our wrong response and reaction when we handle other people who are  facing failures creates a great impact on them. We should be careful on how we handle it, because we can build or might destroy them.

Happy Energy inspired!

I was inspired by Happy Energy: Happy Bean campaign by Naver (It's the Korean search engine site), where every purchased of virtual bean in their official site is you can help to provide supply for a particular organization.



JYJ's Junsu Happy Energy: Happy Bean campaign support Kenyan to build music schools for children or people who are interested or love music.


After seeing this campaign I remember my childhood dream, I dream to have my own organization for a cause, and I just realized today that I want to support and advocate HAPPY ENERGY. Where the organization's mission is to produce "happy energy" for a better life and better world. In able to be possibly achieved this,  let's campaign  healthy and balance positive thinking in each of every one of us.


Through positive encouragement with one another to promote positivity in the heart and mind of everybody, so we can feed the hunger, so we can build home for the homeless, so we can help other draw their dreams and achieve it. Together with a positive outlook, let's make the world a better place to live in.





Happy Energy campaign watch here

NAVER Happy Energy 2011

Kindness Acts are classic

I'm currently working at the airport, a few days ago I helped a mister who lost his I.D., I remember when I was in duty in the information counter during that time when he asked me to helped him to contact the airport office to report his lost I.D and so he can request for a new one. During that moment, I could see the worry look on his face, because there's a policy in the airport, where if an employee  lost his/her I.D. there's a certain penalty and the worst cased would be getting suspended to have the privileged of an I.D. pass in all areas of the airport. As an employee how can you able to go work without your I.D.? the airport security won't let you in and everyone knows that in any establishment, even in schools that if you have no I.D. you cannot enter the building . Even I was newly hired during that time, I was thankful that I was able to helped him. 

And just two days ago, after few days passed, we met again and unexpectedly he still remembers me. I was touched by that gestures how he can still remember me for what I have done, I could see how grateful he was for my small kindness in helping him during that time. I realized  that, the act of kindness is still classic after all. No matter what, people will never forget your small acts of kindness, they makes you immortal in their hearts. And the best part of it is the happiness you feel in your heart that you know you have helped someone who is in need.

Love has no language, religion and culture

Do people know how the war begins? A war begins because people didn't respect each others' language, religion or culture. But if we are talking about love, Love has no language, religion and culture. There is no superior language in the world, or if we call God with different names it's still the same because all religion has only one core and that is love. And having different culture with one another is a reflection of a country's identity. A country become unique by it's own culture, culture determines the individuality of a particular country. Why do you think the country like Japan give importance to their own culture? It's because it is their own identity.

Never compare yourself.

People shouldn't compare yourself to others because we have different characters and how we think and how we view things. The culture of the place where you were, or the background you came from, our experiences, our values, our religion and the people around us make us different with one another. It doesn't mean that what you have experienced is also what other people is experiencing. People in the other side of the world have different experience from yours. Never compare yourself.

Example is the African kids who goes to school barefooted, Can you compare them to yourself and say that you also experience what they have experienced? I don't think so, maybe others experience this but not everybody. We have different experiences everyday and people respond or react differently to every situation, so don't ever compare yourself. Because it's very degrading to compare yourself to others, why do you need an approval or assurance that you are just the same with everyone?

Gratitude rock

"Gratitude is the beginning of happiness and contentment" ...Why did I say that?

I will tell you the story of Lee Brower who was a teacher and he found that things weren't going right in his life.

But one day, he found a rock and he said to himself 'Every time I touch this rock, I'm going to think of something I'm grateful for'.

So every morning when he wakes up, he will picks up his rock from the dresser, and puts it on his pocket and he will think something he was grateful for on his life.

And every night he comes home, empties his pocket, sees his rock and again think of something he was grateful for.

And one day when he was with his friend that was from South Africa he dropped the rock in front of him and his friend asked him 'What is that?'

Lee Brower try to explained it to him what he was doing with his rock and pretty soon his friend started to call it the "Gratitude Rock".

Two weeks later, Lee Brower got an email from his South African friend asking if he had any Gratitude Rocks to send over. His friend explained that his son was suffering from a rare form of Hepatitis and was dying. So Lee went to the river to look for rocks and he sent the rocks to his friend in South Africa.

And five months later, Lee gets an email from his friend telling him that his son is doing terrific and completely cured of the disease.


"Gratitude Rock is a tool. Every time you touch your Gratitude Stone, it anchors a thought of Gratitude. Reminding you to take a moment to appreciate. Each thought of gratitude is a magnet. Gratitude Stone serves as an energy spark to the universe."


I think this was a nice idea they used  to remind us the things that we should be grateful for, I mean I don't say that everyone should own a gratitude rock to be grateful about something in their lives, because being grateful should be in our nature. When you are grateful of something in your life you will attract positive things, because being grateful makes you think the good things in your life. And good things attracts good things while bad things attracts bad things that's how it works in Law of attraction. The universe will just give what you asked, because we are the creator of our universe.


But most importantly, we should not forget to be grateful on God because everything we have came from him. He can take anything away from us on his will, not because he want to punish us, but he wants to teach us something and that is humility and gratitude. Because humility could create equality while gratitude makes people to take time to give appreciation. The combination of everything will create Love, we will learn how to love and be loved that will lead on you on a life that  is well-lived and happiness is the product of a life well- lived.

Something good happens on me today, like another dream turns into a reality, and for being grateful I want to share this to everyone.

Get to know Lee Brower:

http://www.leebrower.com/

http://www.empoweredwealth.com/








SOURCE: pics from iStock & secretchanges

Power of positive reinforcement

Hi! A simple positive comment like,



“You did so well.”    A simple




“thank you I appreciate that.” A small plaque, a FREE LUNCH offered and watch the magic of how positive reinforcements have on your people making them better performers and better persons.

Even Mark Twain says: "I can live for two months on a good compliment."

Haim Ginott says: "If you want employees to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others."




But one of my favorite quotes comes from humorist Robert H. Henry who says: "A man doesn't live by bread alone. He needs buttering up once in a while."



And while you’re at it, don’t forget to show your appreciation and say a good thing to other people, but make sure that you mean it. It would really help them if your compliment is genuine.


Never underestimate the power of positive reinforcement!!!!

Through this we can build people to become better performers and person.

 

ORTHROS: Orthros no Inu (Japanese drama)

 

Orthros, a double-headed dog in Greek mythology. His name means speed and one who flies quickly in Greek. He is black in color with each strand of its beard made up of snakes. Orthros is rash and hot-headed. When he was guarding the bulls for Geryon on Island Krete, he was beaten up and killed by Hercules.

.

I've watched Orthros no Inu , it is a Japanes drama series about the two man who have given a Godly power to heal and to kill humans.The reason why Orthros was chosen as a figure to personify the drama's theme could be the fact that he is double-headed. If the power to heal or kill someone is represented by Orthros, the two heads would probably signify the good and evil natures of human. The same power can be used differently among individuals so switching the stereotypes of good and evil. 

The two main characters, we have Ryuuzaki Shinji (Takizawa Hideaki), an evil man who has been in prison for three murders he committed when he was 18. He doesn't show his true feelings and would do anything just to achieve his aim. Having the power to heal, he doesn't think that he should use this power without gaining anything in return. 

On the other end, we have Aoi Ryousuke (Nishikido Ryou) who is a Japanese language high school teacher. He has a kind personality but has the power to take someone's life by touching them. He seems to realize that he had this power some time ago but would only use it to protect the people he cares for. As such, we have one man who's more than happy to use his power for his desires and the other who seems reluctant to use his power even when the situation calls for him. In short, Ryuuzaki Shinji, who has the heart and soul of the Devil and with one touch can cure any illness and heal any injury and there is another man, Aoi Ryosuke, who has the heart and soul of an Angel and with one touch can take any person's life, the two individuals is switching stereotypes of good and evil.

What I like on this drama is how Ryuuzaki Shinji character says that if  humans are given godly powers, the tendency  is humans begin to become greedy and used these powers with their own personal desires. He also pointed out that being able to heal someone doesn't mean the dead can be brought back to life. And being kind doesn't mean being gullible.

 

While on Aoi Ryousuke's part, at first, he see his power to kill as a cursed because as how human thinks we intended to see death as evil. But later on he realized, that dead was not evil because this ability was also came from God. God is also the one who take human's life on his time. He says that death is the one who even out human race, as everyday there is someone born  at the same time there is also someone die.

The point of this drama is God didn't give us godly powers to heal or to take someone's life, because if we are capable to heal illness or injured people,  people would not learn to have faith, hope, patience, to dream, to be kind and to love. And if there's no death, people would not appreciate and enjoy life or being alive.

 If you think this way, what if Ryuuzaki Shinji has the ability to take one's life and he has the evil heart and soul, what do you think will happen to other people? Maybe he killed them if his aims wasn't  met. Maybe that is why God gives people talents and gifts so we could used it on his will and not on our own selfish gain or bad intentions. He did it in purposed that  Aoi Ryousuke possessed that ability because God believes that Aoi is much capable to take good care of that ability,  he knows that  Aoi's kind and compassionate heart will use it in good. 

 " If there's a way to change the world is God the only one allowed to? If humans, are also capable of having God-like powers...Would we be able to change the world?"-Ryuuzaki Shinji 

Everyone has a given talents and gifts, because God believes that we can do something good with it,  he  gives it to us  with a purposed, He believes that even in our just  human ability there is something we could change, that's why we have to used this talents and gifts wisely.

my Introduction

A lover of music, freedom and beauty and an optimist who believe that just because something is a struggle doesn’t mean you can’t do anything it just mean you’ve got to find a different way of doing it.

I am a believer. I believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, justice, peace, dreams, the imagination, and in mankind. I believe in the achievement of the impossible. I believe in what they refuse to believe in.

I like traveling in different places and learning their language, history and culture. I am a God fearing and family oriented individual. The things that only matters, the people who will be there for me til’ the end and french fries are the things that I treasure.

I don’t usually follow trends but I'm into classic fashion. Listening to music and reading books are my past time. I love the sun because it gives me an impression of a good day but I also adore the rain it makes me want to play like a kid.=P