The Verbal Commute


Santa Rosa, CA. ~ To me, when 2016 turns to 2017, it is not a new year, it is the next day. But I have to say, it is fun to watch, hear and listen to all the changes that incur and how people react to them because the number changes. I am aff ected but I look at it as an opportunity, and a marker and form of milestone. Like the next day. Each day for me is a fun ‘what if’ or ‘what can I do new’ type of day. Next month, I begin my 19th year. Personally, I feel like I am retired, doing what I want.


I have unlim-


ited freedom to roam the world and learn new ways of becoming a better person, more compassionate, more understanding of the diff erences that make us who we are. In the early days of my


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UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • January 2017 • 3


are thrown at us, some right in the pocket, like playing catch. Others come from all directions and the peripheral assessment


Paul Andrew Doyle, Publisher & Chief Delivery Boy First Humor A group of chess


pears though, as life proceeds in a forward manner, most of what happens to us is in many ways up to us. T ere is a lot we have control over. T ere are many cases where people have no control of what hap- pens to them. But, with our shear inner strength and a know- ing that


life can and


does change makes it a bit easier. A few rogue actions can make a huge diff erence in the ‘next day’, or for that matter, ‘A new year’. I’ve thought about


life, I wanted to reach milestones of great- ness, but soon, year af- ter year, realized the greatness comes from each moment. It seems that greatness is a track record of character continuity at its steadiest. T e reaction to change and how it is continu- ally integrated into life’s huge maze of wonderment. T e balls


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read, you don’t have the time


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as that.” Stephen King


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Young Osprey chick on the shore of Lost Creek Reservoir in Eastern Oregon, fall of 2016 while kayaking ~ PAD Photo


and judgement allows us to see, and we duck. Others arrive at some random chaotic direction and nail us without warning. T ere are minor bruises, but enough for us to be even more aware of the unknown. It ap-


this for as long as I can remember. I do recog- nize, that at this time of year the day has changed almost with- out warning...some- thing seems to build up indirectly. It is that ‘new year’ that says, ‘Get it in gear!”. T en... Action. T e new year is a very soſt pressure entity that continually grows closer. Week af-


ter week passes and whammo... it’s the New Year! Time to act. For me personally, I enjoy it. I don’t really try to change be- cause of this internally driven clock of becoming a better person, or to exercise more, to


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“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ~ Ernest Hemingway UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • January 2017 • 3


lose weight or to try to instan- taneously become a super hero (hypothetically speaking). I merely maintain my forward progress and try to out do what I did the day before, everyday. I push myself to move forward with more clarity, understand- ing, and most of all...patience. I don’t’ know why I was driven to become a millionaire at the age of 21. Maybe because I thought at the time it would make me seem more important? What would I have done with it then anyway? Sit around by a pool looking cool? No, the real riches are in the heart. It is what we do for our loved ones, every- day. It is the ability to walk up to a door somewhere and no- tice that someone is going into that door too, and stopping to open it for them. I do this a lot! I jokingly tell them that I am the door monitor for the day ... continued on page 8


enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories.


After an hour, the manager came out of the offi ce and asked them to disperse.


“But why?” they asked, as they moved off.


“Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”


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