Icewind's Ramblings

I saw this and figured I would post this for my friend Terran who enjoys such nonsense. Enjoy Terran! Ice

Life Observation # 172 Silence is Golden . . . Duct tape is Silver! Ice

It is great being back at work again and I am getting into the grind of putting bids out to get projects done around Alaska this summer.  The group that I am working with are great and now that my official State of Alaska email is up and running I have started to receive emails 'welcoming' me to DPS and 'congrats' on the new job replacing a long time employee who is retiring at the end of the month. My first email this morning was from one of the troopers who sent this to me so I know I will fit in just fine with this bunch of characters.  Missing Wife Found by Alaska State Troopers The day after his wife disappeared in a kayaking accident, an Anchorage man answered his door to find two grim faced Alaska State Troopers. "We're sorry Mr. Wilkens, but we have some information about your wife," said one of the troopers. "Tell me! Did you find her?" Wilkens asked. The troopers looked at each other. One said, "We hav...

Life Observation # 169 - Patience  "Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a false messiah."           - Illusions by Richard Bach - Sometimes in our life we go through something and while in the middle of it may not understand why things are the way they are.  What I have learned is that you must trust yourself and stay true to your values even when the outcome and costs to yourself are on the line. I think it is about the value of a man or woman holding onto what they believe and having the understanding that it is not always in our hands or timetable to change the outcome. Patience was a hard thing for me to learn but after 7 months I think I have a pretty good grasp of it. Great things are on the horizon and I am spreading my wings to soar up to new heights to see it come to fruition! H...

Life Observation # 167 Purpose gives life meaning. The human mind has no elastic limit. Ice

There is many times that something triggers our imagination back to something and recently it was one of those times for me.  I saw something that triggered a memory of story telling and great music with friends.  It was a time where I spent many nights listening to music and stories with my friends that played in Atlanta at the time in a band called Cullowhee. One of the stories told was the difference between Heaven and Hell, told by my friend, Terry Edwards.  With his customary southern drawl and laid back style he painted the picture to all of us in the audience listening. Terry would tell the story about the man who died, and when he arrived at the "Pearly Gates" Saint Peter told him he was going to take him on a tour of heaven and of hell.   First, they took a tour of heaven. St. Peter and the man arrived just in time for dinner . . . it was in a huge banquet hall and the tables were sagging with the weight of the sumptuous entrees.  Eve...

Several months ago I watched the movie, “Moneyball” with Brad Pitt.  It is a baseball story on the Oakland A’s rebuilding their baseball team using on base statistics as opposed to high dollar ball players.  There was a song that Pitt’s daughter in the story played that has kind of stuck with me since and at different times kept going off in my head. Major league baseball slang for playing in the big leagues is called being in “The Show” which the name of the song is written by Lenka.  It is a catchy little tune but it kept going over in my mind how much like Life it applies for many of us.   “I'm just a little bit caught in the middle, Life is a maze and love is a riddle, I don't know where to go, can't do it alone, I've tried and I don't know why. Slow it down, make it stop or else my heart is going to pop', Cause it's too much, yeah it's a lot to be something I'm not, I'm a fool out of love 'cause I just can't get ...

I think sometimes as we live our lives we get wrapped up in all that is going on and forget what is truly meaningful within our existence.  I have stated over and over that we need to live in the “Now” moment as that is the only thing that really exists in our lives.  The past is just that, gone forever and the future is not yet arrived and is still in the fantasy state of our minds. There’s no way to get around the fact that life is here and now with our entire being a whole entity and indivisible from ourselves.  How you choose to think, feel, and be is going to be what you get back out of life in the experiences you have and create.  Create positive thoughts and for the most part you will experience positive things and people back in return.  If you wake up and choose to be negative then there is a great chance that you will have a negative day or experience the not so good things coming back your way.  It all stands to reason just as common sense ...

It’s getting to be that time again . . . Wacky Winter . . . when Chicken Little’s prediction finally comes true: “The sky is falling.”   Winter has long been here in Alaska , and the darkness with it.  As we once again approach summer and finally moved into “Springtime” in Anchorage we are gaining approximately 5 minutes and 44 seconds of daylight every day until Summer Solstice on June 20 th @ 9:04 PM Alaska time. For most people it may seem strange to hear “springtime” as barely having temperatures just above freezing still in the thirties or if we are lucky reaching the low 40’s for a few days.  Anything to help melting commence and get breakup out of the way is desired by everyone it seems. How one handles this time of year makes or breaks many people who live here.  It is a wondrous place to live . . . most of the time but it does wear on you in the late stages of winter when you want the snow gone, light to return, and the “heat” of summer to on...

Here we are going into the last week of March and many of us in the Anchorage , Alaska area are finding that it has once again been lightly snowing for the last couple days with forecast for temperatures to warm up a bit by Monday with wet snow falling and melting on the way.  I am sure everyone is ready for “break up”, the yearly ritual of melting snow, muddy water splashed on vehicles leaving them filthy.  Everyone waits until the snow melts and things dry up a bit before finally cleaning up all the cars and rigs on the highways making Alaskan vehicles in springtime probably the dirtiest in the country. With the snowfall yesterday and today it seems like most people enjoy watching it fall out the windows, I know I do.  I kept hearing something like someone knocking on my door only to look and find no one there.  I looked out my back deck door and saw what was making the knocking sounds.  It seems that spring has sprung and the birds are returning to Ala...

Life Observation # 165 . . . Challenges  Several of my friends are going through challenges right now in their lives and it once again reminds us that life is precious so get on with living so not to become stagnant in our daily existences. Dale Carnegie once said: “About 90% of the things in our life are right.  Make sure you don’t overlook the 90% that is right because you are focusing on the 10% that isn’t.” For most people that is a true statement but sometimes we want to focus on that 10% because that is what bothers us the most at the time.  Those challenges we face want to beat us down in our lives and we need to make that effort to choose a different path.  It doesn’t take much to make the day better . . . but it does take intent.  Even if there are challenges, obstacles and other craziness going on in our life, we always get to choose how we are going to tackle the day and the type of energy that runs through our body.  Is it e...

Many of us get wrapped up in things and continually have issues with time and our management of it in our lives.  There are so many different items to be sorted and dealt with as one walks along our timeline in this life. Is it easy, probably not, and how you deal with things will make you either totally stressed or worked up or as things become a little clearer in our thought process we may start seeing that calm that comes with a Zen-like living or lifestyle. Everyone has stresses and sometimes it seems like the waves of Life keep crashing in on you but do not be dismayed . . . you have the power to change things. “You can’t control the waves, but you can learn to surf” Challenges are going to come . . . but we’re not supposed to get sucked in.  We shouldn’t let them be too “heavy” and weigh us down because we have been given the amazing ability to surf.  We just have to choose to do it. Osho teaches us, once you have tasted the juice of the present,...

We all seem to have it lately . . . I guess it is that time of year when everyone has so many things going on in their lives that things build up for everyone.  Maybe it is that Late Winter/Early Spring time of year that we are all starting to go crazy waiting for the snow to melt and get breakup over with here in the far north. I saw this story on Peter Kovacs wall and wanted to pass it on as it shows us that many times we look at something from the obvious perspective but it we change our focus or gaze just a little bit it opens up a whole other thought process which can give us new insight or attitudes about things going on in our lives. A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience.  As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question.  Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers called out from the class r...

Life Observation # 164 “If time travel is possible . . . we'll know about it beforehand.”   Traveling woes At the airport for a business trip I settled down to wait for the boarding announcement at gate C2. Then I heard the voice on the public address system saying, “We apologize for the inconvenience, but Alaska Flight 51 will board from Gate C8.” So everyone picked up our luggage and carry-on’s and headed down the corridor to gate C8.  It was not 10 minutes later the public address voice told us that Flight 51 would in fact be boarding from Gate C2. So again everyone gathered our stuff and returned to the original gate.  Just as we were settling down the public address voice once again spoke:  “Thank you for participating in Alaska Airlines physical fitness program.” Ice

Words of Encouragement I saw this picture the other day and many of us go about our days trying to be upbeat and have positive thoughts.  Even on a crappy day it seems to make it go quickly so we can get back to a place where the positive takes over again. You never know the power of encouragement as you can see from the picture that early in life we received it and it started us on the mobile paths that we take each day as we go through our lives. Take the time to encourage those around you so that they can reach their individual potential and over time maybe there will be enough energy that we can have a Zen like transformation of our piece of the world making it a better place to live.  It starts off small but can grow to improbable things if we put in the effort. It started off with baby steps, went to a wobbly walk, and now we have the ability to run! Enjoy the moment as that is all that is real, and be positive to align yourself with a rewardi...

Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be pre-determined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We should never allow our fears, or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny. Your destiny can't be changed but, it can be challenged.   Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one. How is your own endgame of Life? Live fully and be prepared for the unexpected! Ice

You have the power to change someone’s life tonight . . . a call . . . an encouraging email . . . an idea . . . a contact . . . a positive post . . . or even a smile. And the funny thing is . . . when you do . . . your own life changes too! Ice

The sun will rise and set today . . . regardless of what is going on in your life. You will go on today . . . regardless of what is happening to your, for you or around you. You can go through your day on autopilot or you can choose to appreciate your life experience. What will you choose today? Today I'm choosing to be grateful . . . for every moment and every person in my life. Everyday we have the opportunity to make this “Now” moment in our lives the best possible time as it is always fleeting and we can never get it back again. I'm blessed because you are here with me . . . on my journey.  Ice

We change the world a little bit each day with our kindness. It seems to start slowly but with time it gains momentum and spreads to others who are also kind extending the aura around you. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it. Ice

Since my heart attack it has been hard for me to get back into my groove of writing each day so I wanted to make some changes to things hoping it may shake up my subconscious to jumpstart again. I have always believed that being positive in your thoughts and actions each day is a choice we make when we wake up each morning and that it will affect how your day will generally go.  Not always, but it stands to reason that if you are positive you will be sought out by other positive people and negative people will have other negative folks drawn to them. Over the last months I have been sending positive messages to someone who has been struggling with the past and seeking changes to their life.  Sending these each morning has made me feel great in giving of myself the time and effort to put positive energy out in my realm of the universe each day.   I want to start sharing some of these with you to hopefully brighten your day and help you be reminded how li...