Category Archives: Faith

FollowCraig: “My Mom”

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She stood there, so quiet, tears running down her face holding in her anger, hurt and fear. I will never forget that picture in my mind and heart. You see, I was eighteen years old and was at that moment embroiled in a very heated fight with my stepfather. This was a rather horrific way to leave home, screaming, fighting, then climbing out of my bedroom window to escape! My mother was so broken, she really did not know what to do? There was nothing she could do. Her oldest son did not move out like so many to a new and exciting life but rather was running for his life. My mother had four boys, we are all grown today and each of us have our memories of life at home. Our mother is a wonderful and very caring women and I Love her very much. Today as I look back over all these years and reflect on all the times my Mom was so quiet, not really speaking out and seemed to just accept her place in life. Her husband didn’t respect her, her boys depended on her for everything, she worked so hard and still smiled when inside she was just beaten down. It is often said “the acorn does not fall far from the tree” and so that is with me. I’m much like my mother. Perhaps that’s why I understand her so? As you follow my journey and lessons learned, this is one of so many. We only have one mother in our lives, we don’t get a second chance nor can we choose another. They are there for us always, even when it seems they’re not. To the men who read this I say; love and respect your mothers as they suffer through a lot of pain and sacrifice for us. Today as the rerun of that day plays over in my mind, I know it was my mother who made it possible to survive and work past all the trials that were to come in my life. Yes, my mother was really the brave one! For me, everyday is Mother’s Day!

I’m still writing. you’re still reading, so please keep following…..

Craig

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FollowCraig: Bad Employee!

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I’ve just got to be one of the worst employee’s ever! It’s a blessing and credit to those of you who have a job and show up everyday and give it your all! So many of you put up with arrogant or unqualified bosses, your working peers hang out in circles around coffee and cigarette breaks and talk about who knows what? Some of you work so much harder than others and yet you never get appreciated. I know all this as I have tried. You see I was one of those bosses for many, many years. Then one day all that came to an end and I found myself looking for a job, a regular everyday job. Almost no one wanted me and when someone would hire me, I would find myself working for someone like myself. I would always end up trying to run the place. It just sucks! The solution for me seemed to be working for myself, but what to do? I tried all types of businesses “work from home”, route sales. M.L.M., you name it. Then one day a couple of years ago when I was working for a company (Limo Driver), it happened. All I could think was why now when I’m almost 60 do I hear this? You must tell your kids this while they have a chance! This is it; “find something you love to do and the money will follow”. Oh, so simple, so very simple. Today I write this blog because I love sharing my journey with so many others and learning from you all along the way, I am building a business selling products that everyone needs, followcraig.biz and I am finding what I love after all these years! It’s never to late….

I’m still writing, you’re still reading, so please keep following….

Craig

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FollowCraig: Plastic Plants

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Imagine being a teenager pushing a lawnmower as part of your weekly chores? Every week your dad reminds you; Craig “Cut The Grass”! We had rental houses as well so the grass cutting just seemed to never end. I swore that when I got older my house would have plastic plants and artificial grass, never to do this again. Today I’m 60 years old and just finished watering my freshly planted grass and flowers. What happened? So goes life, we get all wrapped up in our daily chores of work, paying the bills, raising children and dreaming of vacations. My life began to move really fast in my late 20’s and early 30’s. I was working all the time, first in the insurance business and later managing automobile dealerships. My ego was so very large back then, you should have seen me. Fancy clothes, gold jewelery, fast cars and big bar tabs. I remember buying a gold watch made from a 20 dollar solid gold coin, I was nuts! Craig was living a plastic life and yes I had plenty of Plastic Plants. Interesting thing about plastic plants and plastic lives, they start to get dusty and often begin to fade. Those little branches just start to drop off much like the plastic life. The family, fades, falls apart and nothing is shiny anymore. One day you wake up and nothing is real and the craving for something different begins to stir. You begin to search and travel some very risky trails. Life on a tightrope without proper balance, so close to falling, so close to hitting the bottom and never getting up. Then it hits you, plastic plants don’t last because they never needed water. Like life if you’re not needed and you don’t love your plastic world just dies. It took some time for me, it didn’t come easy but I found it; that little secret that had eluded me for so many years. Life and plants need watering. Gold watches, fancy cloths and fast cars speed away. Today I’m not a fake, I have faith, I love and am loved. I don’t have a single plastic plant, and every plant in my life gets a healthy dose of water and love. Now that’s the life!

You’re still reading, I’m still writing, so please keep following….

Craig

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FollowCraig: What color are your Grandchildren?

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Let’s be clear on this, I was born a white guy, into a Mormon family located in California. I didn’t have any control of over who my family would be? What a surprise, I am just like everyone else. Not one of us can pick our family, where and what religion or not we are born. For those of us lucky enough to live here in the USA; “the melting pot of the world” we are hopefully raised to be accepting of our differences and celebrate the common ribbons that tie our lives together. So why is it we have so much racism and fear of those who look, talk or worship different from us? I think it’s fear of the uncertain. As a Christian man, it fascinates me that so many people forget we are all God‘s children. We come in all colors, cultures and faiths. I heard a story the other day of two older German Lutherans who have lived in Los Angeles all their adult live. Over time the neighborhood has evolved and is mostly populated with people of Hispanic heritage. When they go to church they see so many people who are not white Germans, they wonder what color their grandchildren will be? They are afraid their own legacy won’t survive. Why do we forget that our color and heritage does not matter to God? We cannot change the family we were born to, nor the place we were born. We can however choose our beliefs and faith. So, what color are your grandchildren to be? I know the color of mine are love.

I’m still writing, you’re still reading, so please keep following…..

Craig

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FollowCraig: “Junior Seau”

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Suicide! Not all that many years ago my own family suffered the tragic loss of suicide. it’s a milestone of time one never forgets. For many years my response to others on this subject has been “the most selfish act anyone can do to others”. In our family it was the loss of my mothers husband and my stepfather. Today we hear of the tragic loss of the young man; Junior Seau. I remember watching the movie, What Dreams May Come and came to realize we can’t know the inner pain these people are suffering? I will never know really what pain my stepfather was living anymore that the Seau family can imagine what Junior was going through. My views have changed over the years about suicide. I don’t really think it’s something anyone wants to do and cause so much pain in all those around them, it’s only no other options are available and the pain is just to intense. We have no magic pill, no man made solution? I like to think that faith in a greater power would be enough and for some perhaps it is. So today rest in peace Mr. Seau, I for one hope you have found it. To the Seau family, if you believe as I do then you will know that he has just gone home to a safer place.

You’re still reading, I’m still writing, so please keep following….

Craig

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FollowCraig: You Gotta Let Go To Embrace The Flow…John Page Burton

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Some terrific writing from my friend John Burton. A must read!

You Gotta Let Go To Embrace The Flow…John Page Burton.

just keep following…….

Craig

FollowCraig: So Fast!

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So I’m here at home watching a television show about our digital age while writing on my iPad. Later I will review this story on my home computer, edit and then post on; Twitter, Facebook and so many other social media sites using the “Internet“. Would I have ever imagined years ago, when we only had a black & white television, phones with dials and connected to the wall with springlike cords, typewriters (not electric) and the list goes on that I would have an iPad? Not in a million years! So Fast, in just over 45 years or so much has changed. just the other day someone shared a photo of an Internet minute. Have you ever looked to see what happens in only a minute on the Internet? It’s astounding! Life does move fast, it has for me that’s for sure. Now at 60, my children are grown with families of their own. It still seems however like I am still in High School, the world is moving faster than ever and I still love being in it and everyday opens up to a new and thrilling future. Yes we do live in a more and perhaps better connected world and it seems as if we are traveling the speed of light. However when I hear others say we are moving to fast and we must slow down, I wonder what that really means? To me slowing down is not the real objective but rather to keep up, continue to learn, stay connected with the world, engage in life. The wonder of being older is that rather than slowing down, we can look back and reflect on our experiences. Use that knowledge to keep moving forward. A lot does happens in an Internet minute, but experience happens throughout a lifetime. So stay strapped in and hold on!

You’re still reading, I’m still writing, so please keep following…..

Craig

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FollowCraig: ?Peace?

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I’m a child of the 60’s, a baby boomer! The word peace had such a different meaning back then. The war in Vietnam was raging, the Beatles were riding in a yellow submarine and Tim Leary said just drop some acid and drop out! John Lennon’s song “Imagine” perhaps is the rare remnant of that turbulent time that transcends our generations?  We now think of peace as being comfortable in our own skin. I would love to see us all fight for peace in the world like we did back then. I for one have reached so deep for such inner peace that I have often forgotten about the real struggles in our world. Perhaps the real inner peace we are searching for comes from helping others find theirs? Suppose everyday, we just reached out to one new person who could use some help, a hand up or a kind word? Would that not really give us “Inner Peace”? I guess I still have some work to do, how about you?

you’re still reading, I’m still writing, so please keep following…

Craig

FollowCraig: Re-calculating Route

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Her clear discerning voice, reassuring confidence, always certain of her direction! If I make a left, right or wrong turn she is always there “re-calculating route.” Oh the wonderful GPS! Just the other day as I was driving and our in car GPS system once again directed me to exactly the right destination. Calmly and politely re-calculating my route each time I deviated from course. Always forgiving and re-calculating after each wrong turn I might make along my journey. So I began thinking that perhaps all those other wrong turns, you know the ones we make in life? The times we didn’t say no or yes when we could have. The times we told a white lie, when candor and honesty would have been the right thing. All those wrongs, all our little sins? Then for some reason, something happens in our life, we find ourselves asking a higher power for help or perhaps repent for a wrong? Then our direction changes and life is good again. Is it possible that this higher power, could just be our own GPS? Always there to keep us on course, to re-calculate our route after every wrong turn? I have learned that each time my life direction seems off course, when I can’t sleep, when I am worried or when I have just screwed up! I can just stop, go to God, ask forgiveness and follow his direction; my destination once again is clear. Call it prayer, surrendering, repentance or call it crazy but it always works!

I’m still writing, you’re still reading, so please keep following……

Craig

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FollowCraig: Bad Date

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All the fabulous lights below as the plane was landing in Las Vegas about 7:00 pm on a Friday night. Normal for me as I was living there and traveling for business. It had been a long week and I was tired. So out to dinner, (party of one) then a little Jazz music at one of my favorite haunts, nice! Then it happened, she was sitting at the end of the bar, big smile, great eyes, a flashy Las Vegas beauty! I was so shy and she so wasn’t! I think that’s how it happens? You see, I was just finalizing my divorce. So, I was sure ready..Right! It had to written all over me? “Available!” That night was the beginning of what I warmly call “My Long Bad Date” You see, my personal self esteem, my own insecurities and all those years without faith and standards led me to what were to become the greatest life changing events I would ever experience. I married that Las Vegas beauty after a couple of very turbulent years. Oh we fought about everything, she gambled, spent and drank every dollar we had. Everything that was wrong between us became my fault. All I could see was that one beautiful beginning, and I did everything possible to hold it together. In time I grew to fear her, her outbursts of violence and her incredible cruelty to my family, friends, employers and me. My understanding and compassion for abused partners in relationships became crystal clear. It sneaks up on you and attacks the most vulnerable part of your soul. A dear friend later told me; “Craig” She’s not a bad person, but a sick person. Then one day, I just could not take it anymore and I gathered all the courage in me, my faith in God and left. All I had was a suitcase, an old Buick and a few hundred borrowed dollars. You see, I had stopped drinking a couple of years before that day, developed a faith in God and began setting standards for myself. How often have you heard “No Pain No Gain?”, so true! So, that faith and fear pushed me to go forward, just go! That was several years ago. Today I am very free from that abuse and fear. I live a wonderful life and face everyday with joy of the unknown. All I can say to those who suffer in silence the pain, fear and guilt of abuse is; You can change it! It will be, OK! .….more of my journey ahead..

You’re still reading, I’m still writing, so please keep following….

Craig

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