I go every morning to take care of our horses: feed them, brush them, hug them, kiss them.  It makes my mornings special.  Also, I get to see deer family.  There is one deer lives behind. She recently had 2 fawns.  They are so cute! It warms my heart.  I have pictures that I want to share with you and make you smile. Enjoy and have a great day!

I call him Spot, the Adventurer.  He often separates from his family to look for adventures. He is so curious about everything.

Here, Spot checks me out.

The Spot’s sibling that always sticks with Mommy

The Mommy Deer

Pregnant doe before the twins

And here is my most favorite family shot

“Paul Hartunian figured out how to make a fortune from selling pieces of the bridge.  This is a true story.  Hartunian was working as paramedic, looking for his lucky break.  One day he was watching a newscast of some work crews repairing parts of the Brooklyn Bridge – taking down old wooden beams and carting them away.  And this idea popped into his head.  He immediately called down to the construction site and asked the project manager if he could buy the old wood.  Of course, the manager thought the wood was worthless so he was happy to get rid of it.

Hartunian took the old beams of lumber and had them sliced into one-inch-square and 1/8-inch-thick pieces of wood and glued them onto an official certificate saying that the holder of the certificate had purchased the Brooklyn Bridge, or a piece thereof.  Then he did something quite remarkable.  He sent a press release to hundreds of media outlets that said, “New Jersey Man Sells the Brooklyn Bridge for $14.95!” His phone rang off the hook!  Literally hundreds of media outlets called him on the phone and wanted to learn more.  He ended up selling thousands of these pieces for $14.95, plus a couple bucks for shipping and handling.  He turned those old, worthless beams into SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS.”

“Cindy Cashman took an old idea and added a twist to it and made a fortune in the information business.  Cindy was able to purchase a huge mansion on a lake in Texas, having made over a million dollars from marketing her specialty book, which she published with a partner.  You might have seen her book, Everything Men Know About Women, by Dr. Alan Francis (her pseudonym). But here’s the real amazing part: Cindy’s book is totally blank! There isn’t a single word printed on any of the 128 pages of this paperback! And yet women bought this book by the caseload. A hundred books at a time to give to their friends!  Cindy made enough to retire.”

The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen

What great idea lurking in your head? Follow it through.  You never know unless you try it!

In  1974 Sylvester Stallone was a broke, discouraged actor and screenwriter.  While attending a boxing match he became inspired by a “nobody” boxer who “went the distance” with the great Mohammed Ali.

He rushed home and in a three-day burst of creative output produced the first draft of the screenplay entitled Rocky.

Down to his last $106, Stallone submitted his screenplay to his agent.  A studio offered $20,000 with either Ryan O’Neal or Burt Reynolds playing the lead character.  Stallone was excited by the offer but wanted to play the lead himself.  He offered to act for free.  He was told, “That’s not the way it works in Hollywood.”  Stallone turned down the offer though he desperately needed the money.

Then they offered him $80,000 on the condition that he wouldn’t play the lead.  He turned them down again.

They told him that Robert Redford was interested, in which case they’d pay him $200,000.  He turned them down once more.

They upped their offer to $300,000 for his script.  He told them that he didn’t want to go through his whole life wondering “what if?”

They offered him $330,000.  He told them that he’d rather not see the movie made if he couldn’t play the lead.

They finally agreed to let him play the lead.  He was paid $20,000 for the script plus $340 per week minimum actor’s scale.  After expenses, agen fees, and taxes, he netted about $6,000 instead of $330,000.

In 1976 Stallone was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor.  The movie Rocky won three Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing.  The Rocky series has since grossed almost $1 billion, making Sylvester Stallone an international movie star!

Follow your gut. Stick to your guns. – from book “The One Minute Millionaire” by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen.

Everyday we are governed by our thoughts.  Our thoughts project our reality.  The thoughts transfer then into actions, whether we are aware of it or not.

First, where does our thinking come from?  What it is based on?  Why we think the way we think?  Most of it consist of what we read, what we heard, what we learned.  Most of our thoughts are based on our past, that is familiar to us.  That’s why it is so hard to break away from mistakes we keep making.  We fall into the same trap, being aware of it or not.

For example, why some women or men fall repeatedly into abusive relationships?  Unconsciously, that’s familiar to them.  They do not know any better.  Why it is so hard to break bad habits? We think, we always done it that way – our mind keeps us hostage.  Why we keep our job even though we hate it? – it is familiar.  We justify that we got good insurance, great benefits, but each morning comes and we dread to go to work.  Days become years, and we are stuck being unhappy.  Some days are better than others, but deep inside we know we deserve better – yet we do not do anything about it.

We want to change so badly.  We promise ourselves “some day,” yet we keep going like the mouse in the wheel, and we get nowhere.

So, how to get unstuck?  How to re-condition our minds to go where we want to go, to achieve what we want to achieve?  How to get away from the past?

How about if we keep our past just for a reference to keep the lessons we learned?  That’s it.  As for present and future, let’s step into unfamiliar zone as often as possible.  What we think is what our reality is.

Another example:  If we think we cannot find our eyeglasses, we will search everywhere, even though they’re in our hand.  Now, if we concentrate in finding them, then we’ll find them instantly.  The same is with life.  If we think, we cannot do something, we’ll not even going to try it.  Now, if we think we can do it, we might end up doing it better than we previously thought.  We might surprise ourselves.  We got to step into unfamiliar, do new things, think in different ways – to recondition our minds that we can do anything we desire.

If we are stuck in abusive relationship, first, we got to change our mentality that we are worth only the best, and either stand up for ourselves or leave, or both.  In some instances, we might need help in that.  No person should be ever abused.

If we want to break free from a bad habit, we got to imagine us to be healthy, successful, honest, etc., whatever it might be, opposite from a bad habit – and condition our minds to take action toward it.

If we hate our jobs, think of this, “Life is too short to be unhappy, ” and take actions to change it.  We may need to save up for our new venture, or still work there until our hobby will take off to full time venture.  However, with our goal in mind we can now tolerate our jobs because we know it is only temporary.  Or, if we’re prepared, we can quit now, and go after our dreams now without waiting.

The key is to shift our minds and think positive.  We got to keep our minds on the target goal and go for it even it is not familiar or we’re afraid.  That’s where thinking positive comes in.  When we think positive, we are not easily let down and we see end results and go for them no matter what.  Sure, there might be things in the way, but with our shifted positive thinking, we can think outside the box and find solutions.  It’s all in our minds whether we can or cannot do.  Let’s choose, we can do it and act on it now.

It’s raining cats and dogs outside all day.  Most people usually curl up on the coach and hope that rain will stop soon.  However, as rain renews all the nature, and brings out all the color, the artsy people can make the best of it.  The rain creates magic if you look a bit closer.  Here are some photos I took to enjoy: This photo is of changing traffic light reflections

Reflection of the house in a puddle

Rose in Mom’s garden

Now do not let rain stop you.  Go out and create magic.  Look at different angle, in different ways. See what can capture your imagination.

Remember how we loved to play in the rain as we were children.  What stops us to do that now?

]]> http://wonderocity.com/rainy-day-art/feed 2 http://wonderocity.com/happy-4th-of-july http://wonderocity.com/happy-4th-of-july#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:44:28 +0000 ineta http://wonderocity.com/?p=197

This video warms my heart and leaves me speechless.  What a gift to have, see it for yourself.  Click on Big Cat Whisperer below.

Big Cat Whisperer

We get a brilliant idea; our faces light up; we think of end result; we get excited; and then we let it go.  Or, we start on the idea, and then we never finish.  Or, we consult with others, and let others to put us down.

Why is it we let it go so easily?  Why we give up?  Why we do not go all the way?

There might be five main reasons:

1.  We think of others first (responsibilities);

2.  We listen to critics, including ourselves;

3.  We are afraid of consequences (good or bad);

4.  We have too much on our plate;

5.  We procrastinate.

Would it be great if we would go for that brilliant idea?  Would it be great to finish what we started?  Here are solutions:

I know, responsibilities come first when we think of others.  Did we ever thought that we are important, too?  We are important and worth everything.  So, if we wish to work on the idea, we got to learn how to say “no” to people or situations that get in the way.

We share our idea with somebody.  That person starts to criticize.  Do we listen to them and stop, or we persist on our idea?  Also, we can be the worst self-critics.  Our minds can kill any idea with “what ifs”:  what if it is a bad idea and it would be a waste of time? what if…, etc.  In any case, we should ignore critics and fire our self-critic and go for an idea, no matter what.

Third obstacle is fear.  We might be afraid of consequences.  It also comes with “what ifs”.  Think about this… Would we rather make an idea work, or would rather let it be in our mind and do nothing about it?  I would say, better to try it, then later regret the chances we did not take.  Then we see that somebody came up with the same idea, and we beat ourselves down why we did not do anything about it.  The  fear also might be of success.  It’s unfamiliar territory.  We are afraid of what we do not know.  We are worth of every success.  We got to think of the end result, how much we can contribute not only to ourselves, but to others.  That will keep us going.

Next, we might have too much on a plate.  We multi-task, but do not achieve anything.  We think of all these things to do; we get overwhelmed and end up not finishing anything.  At these situations, we got to look at one project at the time, one step at the time.  Do most important things or even the hardest things first.  Look at most difficult jobs as challenges and go for them.

The last is procrastination.  We think we’ll do it tomorrow, but when tomorrow rolls in, we focus on different things and we entirely forget our project.  We got to focus on our target NOW and back it with ACTIONS.  Do it right now – no ifs about it.

Wonderful things happen when we least expect it.  I am speechless and thankful to John Pocino who wrote this about me and posted on CNN iReport.  Although we met just for a few short times, he read me as an open book:

“Today we are blessed with advances in technology that allows everyone to express themselves on their own level. The artist within comes Alive.

This technology allows other to create and demonstrate expressions that were trapped within the thoughts or each individual. It allows for personal growth and expression that couldn’t be achieved in the past. Anyone can purchase expensive equipment that enhances his or her work. Whether it be a Cannon 5D or the RED Camera.

But in the mist of all this technology, there is still the true artist. The one individual who takes a basic camera and creates. Creates more then pictures but create life. They only have to open their eyes to see the beauty of the world and push a button to capture that beauty for all to see.

Ineta McParland is such a person. I had the pleasure of viewing a new book that is being published.  While viewing the pages they seem to jump out at me and capture my imagination. It’s not that Sarasota is beautiful; it is that Ineta demonstrated through her eyes and through the lens what her heart sees in Sarasota.

She doesn’t own an expensive Cannon 5D, but with only a modest camera she uses her heart and soul to expose the beauty she sees. Her eyes are not just the windows of her soul but also the reflection of her heart. For each photo represents her love for life. An intellect would have to put mathematic equations to her style; they could not accept that the soul produces beauty that is unexplainable. Her decrypted writing enhances the vision she holds in her mine. She allows us the pleasure of experiencing her work and for that we are grateful.

There are other great photographers in the area, but I am talking about Ineta McParland. She brings beauty to the world and the people that surround her. And for that we are in a better place.

I would cherish the book with her autograph, and share it to other generations to view. It’s simple in design but complex in content.”

CNN iReport