My Story and Why I/We are Here.

Let me start by making it very clear what I am not.

I am not a spiritual teacher, nor any sort of guru, or any kind of holy man on some island somewhere.

Nor am I a philosopher, psychologist, psychiatrist, or any other type of mental/spiritual health professional.

Though myself and other contributors to this site will discuss topics that might be beneficial for people’s wellbeing, the main goal is to entertain and hopefully inspire.

The primary intent is simply to share my interest and love for self-improvement, personal growth, along with inspirational and motivational content with others. 

Any content that is provided by any kind of specialist in any field will certainly be highlighted and noted.

So, my story.

One morning in March 1984, my life suddenly and unexpectedly changed forever.

The picture you can see at the bottom and either to the top of the left of this page, depending on your device, is me playing the saxophone at the Chicago fest in the summer of 1983.

It was taken just a couple of months before I would appear on the 3rd episode of the first season of Star Search 84′ with Ed McMahon along with the group and bandmates that I was playing with at the time. 

I had joined a group in the fall of 82′ put together by my long time friend Alan Hewitt. He and I had grown up in neighboring towns in northern Michigan.

The other picture is a more recent one of me.

My life at that time seemed destined for record deals, jets, and limousines.

However, as many young starving artists, I was supplementing my income by working as a waiter at a restaurant in a northern suburb of Chicago.

While driving to work on the morning of March 7th, 1984′, I was suddenly broadsided by another car after entering the intersection at Irving Park Rd. and Southport.

In a life that seemed to be clipping along at breakneck speed, time for me came to a very abrupt and complete stop.

Back in 1984, as you may remember, there were no seat belt laws, and I was not wearing mine at the time.

My skull was fractured in two directions, and I had suffered what is commonly known as a closed head injury.

After the accident, there were no visible signs of any kind of injury, no cuts, no bleeding, and no obvious broken bones. It would not have appeared to anyone at first glance that I had been hurt. However, I could not communicate normally and was semi-conscious and to some degree ambulatory or walking and moving around.

Even though upon a closer observation that I was more unconscious than conscious, it appears that I was mobile and moving, and somehow had gotten myself outside of my car and onto the street.

I can only remember a fraction of a second or the moment right before the accident occurred and then nothing at the impact. I do sort of remember a second or so of being moved somehow in some kind of vehicle. Though, I can’t remember whether in a car or ambulance.

What no one could have recognized right away right after the accident was that I had sustained a closed head injury or as it turned out a significant and critical subdural hematoma. This is a blood clot growing on and around my brain and my life at that time was definitely in parrel. 

This type of injury would require a very serious type of operation known as a craniotomy. Miraculously, I was taken to the Ravenwood hospital on the north side of Chicago.

It seems that the police or first responders were thinking that I may have possibly been on drugs because, well, I was a musician in the ’80s with long curly blond hair and wearing a long drab green army trench coat. I’m sure you get the picture.

However, because I could not communicate with the police (I think) they were required by law to take individuals in this state to the ER. Thank God.

I was in the ER for about 6 hours unconscious as they tried to get some kind of family authorization to operate.

As time passed the doctors started to recognize that my right side was becoming more and more unresponsive from the growing pressure on the left side of my brain.

The neurologist decided that it had absolutely become life-threatening and they no longer needed authorization and they got me into the operating room.   

Apparently, as soon as they relieved the pressure my brain, the right side of my body came back and they were fairly confident that they had at the very least saved my life.

They would not know the total extent of any damage done to my brain for days. 

The Doctors were optimistic because of my youth and the quick response to the paralysis on the right side of my body from the release of the pressure on my brain.

They later told me that had I been 46 instead of 26 it would have been a much different story. 

In the future, I will write a more detailed account of my recovery and the new journey that I would be faced with in a Blog post on the site and have a link to that here.

Over these many years, I have come to understand just how those next moments that day right after the accident would prove to be the most miraculous and important moments of my entire life. 

A million things could have happened to me in those moments immediately following the accident that could have certainly ended my life.

• Because I was originally from Michigan, I had no information on me or in my car as to who to contact in case of an emergency.
• I could have been hit by another car while moving aimlessly around unconscious on the street.
• I could have walked away from the accident and not have been recognized as being injured or having been in an accident.
• If I’d have stumbled away from the accident and no one stepped up and came to look after me, I could have been taken for some homeless person on the street and just left to fall asleep on the curb. Which I most certainly would have, and that alone would have been fatal.

Falling asleep unattended would have meant that I would have become comatose right there on the street. I personally have walked passed countless sleeping people on the street in some of the major cities that I have lived in. 

As it turned out on that street and in that hospital, I was surrounded by individuals that were undoubtedly my angels.

To this day, I don’t know who any of them were except the follow-up visit with the neurologist, where they are, or precisely what they did.

Somehow, miraculously they were there to care for me until help arrived, and without question, they saved me. 

It’s because of them, those unknown Angles that were around me at that time, that I’m here to tell you about this episode and how it affected me and my life going forward.

• I learned to grow and create a new life paradigm because of it.
• I learned to overcome doubt, anxiety, despair, depression, and the 24/7 repetitive negativity twisted thinking inside my own mind. 

It’s because of that morning in Chicago that my life was forever changed that I’ve come to create this Blog. A life that was so different from what I thought that it would have been.

A magnificent journey home. A journey to places, occupations, people, and most importantly the journey into myself and my own being.

Hopefully to share things that can help or inspire others in some way. 

It is a place for sharing ideas and thoughts on creating and living our 1-Vibrant-Life.

Let’s Get to It.

Our lives and the world that we currently live in is challenging, to say the very least.

Yet, if you stop to think about it for a minute, all of human history has been and will always be changing and challenging. War, famine, disease, climate change, politics, and conflict between different people, countries, and religions, etc. etc..

However, each one of us will live our lives because of what we alone choose and what we alone decide.

“Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It’s not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make. Period.”

―Wayne Dyer

As individuals, we are singularly responsible for our own lives and not as we might want to believe the result of anyone or anything else that we might want to blame. It’s on us.

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” Dale Carnegie 1888 – 1955

No matter what we do, where we come from, where we’ve been, or even where it is that we think we are going, we alone THINK our way through our lives. 

So, it is true that everything that we think about in regards to ourselves and our lives is the key and not actually what we might think about the world outside of us and as well, what anyone else might think about us.

A healthy mind is one that is clear, grounded, and living in the present moment. Not living in the past or trying to live a future that is yet unknown.

I have found this mindset the key to my own peace and serenity.

No one can have a happy life or a happy mind if they are always worried or concerned about those things that are, in fact, unreal or untrue.

“Nothing real can be threatened
Nothing unreal exists,
Herein lies the peace of God”
From The Course in Miracles

We can not live our lives based on what other people may care about or what anyone else thinks or does.

We need to allow ourselves to be open and vulnerable enough to be who we are as our true and imperfect selves. 

We are each spectacular human beings and we need to show that person to the world without fear.

Everyone is free to live there own life in their own way.

One of the primary keys to a more peaceful, happier life is to learn to let other people be who they are and do as they wish. Not do what you want them to do or become what you might want them to become.

When you learn to let, people be as they are and even more importantly help them grow into the person they might want to become, life is easier for everyone, and especially for you.

Though we can care and have compassion for others and they’re well being, ultimately, their lives belong to them, and we need to bless them and let them be who and what they want to be. 

Happiness depends on ourselves. 
Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC 

Our World, Your and Mine.

This world is home to all of us, and as we’re not going anywhere.

We each need to learn to live our lives with happiness and joy and in a more productive, alive, and vibrant manor.

We all need to live our 1-Vibrant-Life.