A good friend sent me this

http://www.rebellesociety.com/2014/01/03/let-yourself-fall-apart/

Modern day living?

I don't mean to sound like a doomsday person.  Nor do I want to harp on the stark fact that so many people are getting sick. Or that there's all this stuff that's going wrong in the world.

Maybe it was always the case and we're just more aware of it now.

I don't know.

Modern day living comes with the harsh reality that there's so many more cases of illnesses and of new allergies.  There's a growing number of mental cases and learning disabilities. And if you ask me, people have more things in their lives and also more loneliness and sadness.

It seems like there's more health problems now than years ago.

And the scariest thing of all, is no one can truly say what's causing all this.

For all the advancements in modern medicine and for all the progress of technology and 21st century living,  we are living with more disease and more illnesses and no one can say why.

And that is very scary.

We have no control

We all think that we're in complete control of our lives.  We foolishly and naively believe that. 

Bad things are like a nightmare in a horror movie.  They're not real. They're not happening.  It's only make believe.

We go merrily along with our lives until illness strikes and then the world stops.

And all we can do is try to get moving in the face of bad news.

All we can do is take control of what little we can manage.

And that's when we all truly see that we are not in charge of anything but our mind. And trying to focus on the good stuff in light of bad news is the hardest thing to do.

Life is so fragile.

But we have to hope and try.

There is no truth in politricks

If it one group of people that I am tired of, is 'politrickians'. I mean, what a group of low-life, lying, cheating, mean-hearted, selfish, corrupt, evil, sly, vicious, blood-sucking rats. All of them.

And that's just putting nicely.

I'm not a utopian anarchist. I'm not a rebel without a cause. Never considered myself one to break the rules just for the sake of being a rebel. Who cares about all that nonsense really?

Some rules make life simple, others make life a completed mess.

I'd like to think of myself as a decent person, one who believes in the natural order of things, the course of natural justice and the goodness of everyone.

But I'm convinced now that folks that become politicians, or work with big businesses, multi-national corporations, banks and the main-stream media are not included in that group of decent people.

I'm singling out governments here first.

There isn't a single government that truly serves the people. They only serve their friends. It's blatantly obvious in the US, Canada and it's painfully obvious in Trinidad & Tobago.

Here in Trinidad, it doesn't matter who's in power - the PNM, NAR, UNC, PP. And all the parties who want to be in power but never had the majority stake - COP, NJAC, MSJ. It doesn't matter, the end result is the same - friends and friends of friends get the benefit.

You can see it time and time again, every government that comes into power after a while only serve their special interest groups.

It's disgusting and it's blatantly obvious. And nobody does anything to stop it. We only cast blame, look the other way and complain about it without changing anything.

But what's amazing and beyond comprehension is that voters will back their parties no matter what, as if this time in power will be the best.

I often wonder if Trinis are a special breed of stupid people, but then I see that same sort of stupidity elsewhere in the US, Canada, even in Europe.

And the results are always the same.

What's that saying again? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

All of a sudden life got busy

So there I was...busy minding my own business after returning from kobo town's summer tour.

Took me a while to readjust to a normal life. But I'm finally in a good spot.

I was getting back into a really good practice schedule for both classical and electric guitar and then I called to play a few flamenco shows in October and November with Stefan Roach.

No problem I can do a few shows.

Now this week I'm going to be a part of a musical production at the Central Bank Auditorium. Starting next week. Rehearsals like crazy and seven shows.

And just like that, my normal schedule is now out the window.

Oh well.  Nothing is forever.

Change is good.

Acceptance and awareness

Over the last few years, I've noticed certain situations recurring.

And I've noticed that my response has changed.

Sometimes it's good to fight what's happening, to raise hell, to stand up for one's values. Other times it's better to just observe and see how the whole story plays out, almost like a movie.

What is bizarre is that 'observing' and just being aware seems almost counter-intuitive, but every time I've done so, the results are never what I thought they would be.

We often have such a knee-jerk reaction to so many things, that to sit and do nothing, sometimes in the face of discomfort is the most absurd, irrational idea but it works.

Here's how I've changed my life:

- On a daily basis, whenever someone gives me a 'bad drive' here in Trinidad (which you know happens here alot), I just let them go ahead of me, pull back and drive slower. Two things happen - I avoid an accident and I feel at peace, I even say a prayer for the dangerous driver to be careful. And guess what? My day is not ruined. I feel fine. Sometimes I get a little irritated but I'm not screaming and shouting obscenities at the top of my lungs.

- Redefining stress - read an article a few weeks ago that if we accept stress as a part of life and try our best to deal with it that we will actually live longer, healthier lives. So now, stress is my friend and we talk and laugh about our relationship all the time. We meet for coffee once a week and discuss where we can improve.

- Wait and see - rather than fly off the handle in any situation, or letting my feelings get the better of me, I wait to see what is the best response before I answer. Sometimes it's better to not say anything at all. For the sake of peace at least.

- Picong and Fatigue (Caribbean teasing and banter) - I've come to realize that when my students give me talk, it's for me to ignore it, unless they're being rude, kids like to test adults (took me a while to learn that one). And I've noticed that my football friends give a lot of 'fatigue' talk during a match, it's really a technique done to ruin the opponents' game, instead to getting angry, now I join in whenever necessary, it's relieves stress (my new best friend).

- Whenever I find myself spiralling down into a well of worry, I try to think how to objectively get things done, and tell the Lord that I don't know where I'm going, but lead the way. That usually works.

- And last, I'm looking at any difficult situation as a process where I can learn to be a better 'me' at the end of it. Because nothing, no situation lasts forever.

So far, so good in this new way of thinking.

I think the key to a well-balanced mind is acceptance of all that's around us, and being aware of what impacts on our life and what exactly we will to allow have an impact on us.

Change what we can, accept what we can't and know the difference.

Seems simple enough, but really hard to do.

The adventure of a lifetime

I'm on a bus...stuck in traffic.

Heading to Portland, Oregon to play a show tonight at Mississippi studios with the band Kobo Town. 

It all started back in June.  I came up to Toronto to stay by a friend for the summer.  Reason being - Kobo Town was going on tour. Where? Everywhere.  Europe.  Canada and America. 

It's hard to believe that the tour is nearly on it's last leg. We've had many mishaps.  Yet, most of the shows have been good. Out of 25 shows so far we've only had two where we were disappointed. So that's not too bad of a ratio.

It's funny.  

People on the outside will look at this and say 'wow! How exciting! All this touring'

On one hand it is. One the other hand no one knows the stress that goes into planning a tour. Nor the stress of when things go wrong on the road.

Talk about damage control and brain storming on the spot.

It has been a crazy ride.  Maybe the average person might not think it so exciting if they experienced it first hand.

But one thing is for sure. It's an experience I'll never forget.  The summer of 2013 and all the touring we did. 

We saw the world from the window of a bus, a plane, a van and a boat.