Leaves are flowing
off the trees like gold doubloons, after being pinched by Jack Frost
last night. Or maybe they’re just suffering heat prostration in
this 85° October. O-oo! there goes another scarlet boa in the
sultry breeze, streaming off a slippery elm in a strip-treese. I
love it when nature goes naked. Funny, we think of spring as the
time for passion, but fall is when the seeds get planted. Randy
squirrels in tandem pursuit, antlered testosterone taking a stand in
the woods (the buck stops here). Then, nine months later, more or
less, we have a spring birth-a-thon. But whether you want a wry
peep at nature’s porn or you revel in a walk through cyclones of gold
and crimson leaves on a windy day, there’s still time to celebrate the
season…
It's truly amazing and heartening to hear from so many of you out there who are conquering personal challenges. I'd like to pass that inspiration along, even though I can't go into anyone’s details. Whether you are dealing with an emotional crisis, psychological lows, or a physical limitation, trust me, you have legions for company, and the certainty I see is that the power to maximize lives comes inevitably from within. Whether it's some deeply disappointing aspect of your life or adjusting to something like blindness or a wheelchair, your situation has no more control over you than your own thoughts and attitudes. And I appreciate the concern for my own cracked ribs, but that circumstance hasn't slowed me down much. Six weeks now since I went over the handlebars, and I'm already back roller skiing, biking, etc. It gave me the opportunity to play a helluva lotta sax – if very softly for the first 2-3 weeks J – and to rediscover hiking (if I circle this city one more time, all the walls will fall down).
Over on StorytellersUnplugged I'm giving away free passports to magical journeys in my column this month http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2011/10/15/thomas-sullivan-fate-destiny-serendipity-karma-kismet-and-star-crossed-ironies-coincidences/ . No TSA patdown, and you get a dry run from a recent itinerary. Don't know the modes of transportation or the destination, but here's the sample lead-in for one of the ports-of-call from my own memories: “…remember, this really happened and you're borrowing my life, so you have to understand a little personal histoire first. The exact spot where I'm standing is sacred ground to me, a place where on March 27, years ago now, I spent the most miraculous afternoon of my life. So I've never stopped revisiting it or celebrating its magic. It was very much like the romantic idealism of the forest scene in the movie Avatar…” Hit the link above to connect with the rest of it; and please feel free to post a comment.
And a blanket “thank you” for everyone world-wide who sent in killer questions for future Q&A columns. Thinking of doing another next month.
Photo images from different people and places from this last year are still sifting together like autumn leaves from different trees, so I'll drop a few on you below. The first two – including one of my son-in-law/daughter/grandson – are from our Mt. Hood trek in Oregon. The next two are from skinny skiing the Sawtooth Mtns with my life-long friend Bruce in Idaho. The next four are from the Dominican Republic, including a shot of the church school I was working on. And there's my Aussie friend Grant, who many of you will remember from our Crow-Hassan/Elm Creek/Crosslake adventures, on board a yak in Mongolia. The next two are from the speaking trip to Norway. And, as promised, the last one is this month's Blast from the Past photo. Some of you may recall another life-long friend Pete Adams, who lives on a remote beach in Tasmania and occasionally pops up in our adventures recounted in Sullygrams and columns. Yeah, we somehow crammed ourselves into a photo booth, and it was a looooo-ong time ago.
Last but not least, special thanks to water polo guru & historian Chuck Hines for the many kind things he says about me in his weekly Watery Whiz updates from Asheville, NC. Double down on that for Suzanne Beecher's Dearreader.com where I guest-columned this month. Suzanne is closing in on a half million readers a day. And a final thank you for the sterling tributes on The1000Best. Sometimes the world is a warm & fuzzy place, even for someone like me who belongs to the ice & snow.
Thomas “Sully” Sullivan
www.thomassullivanauthor.com
http://twitter.com/thomassullivan
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1219261326
It's truly amazing and heartening to hear from so many of you out there who are conquering personal challenges. I'd like to pass that inspiration along, even though I can't go into anyone’s details. Whether you are dealing with an emotional crisis, psychological lows, or a physical limitation, trust me, you have legions for company, and the certainty I see is that the power to maximize lives comes inevitably from within. Whether it's some deeply disappointing aspect of your life or adjusting to something like blindness or a wheelchair, your situation has no more control over you than your own thoughts and attitudes. And I appreciate the concern for my own cracked ribs, but that circumstance hasn't slowed me down much. Six weeks now since I went over the handlebars, and I'm already back roller skiing, biking, etc. It gave me the opportunity to play a helluva lotta sax – if very softly for the first 2-3 weeks J – and to rediscover hiking (if I circle this city one more time, all the walls will fall down).
Over on StorytellersUnplugged I'm giving away free passports to magical journeys in my column this month http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2011/10/15/thomas-sullivan-fate-destiny-serendipity-karma-kismet-and-star-crossed-ironies-coincidences/ . No TSA patdown, and you get a dry run from a recent itinerary. Don't know the modes of transportation or the destination, but here's the sample lead-in for one of the ports-of-call from my own memories: “…remember, this really happened and you're borrowing my life, so you have to understand a little personal histoire first. The exact spot where I'm standing is sacred ground to me, a place where on March 27, years ago now, I spent the most miraculous afternoon of my life. So I've never stopped revisiting it or celebrating its magic. It was very much like the romantic idealism of the forest scene in the movie Avatar…” Hit the link above to connect with the rest of it; and please feel free to post a comment.
And a blanket “thank you” for everyone world-wide who sent in killer questions for future Q&A columns. Thinking of doing another next month.
Photo images from different people and places from this last year are still sifting together like autumn leaves from different trees, so I'll drop a few on you below. The first two – including one of my son-in-law/daughter/grandson – are from our Mt. Hood trek in Oregon. The next two are from skinny skiing the Sawtooth Mtns with my life-long friend Bruce in Idaho. The next four are from the Dominican Republic, including a shot of the church school I was working on. And there's my Aussie friend Grant, who many of you will remember from our Crow-Hassan/Elm Creek/Crosslake adventures, on board a yak in Mongolia. The next two are from the speaking trip to Norway. And, as promised, the last one is this month's Blast from the Past photo. Some of you may recall another life-long friend Pete Adams, who lives on a remote beach in Tasmania and occasionally pops up in our adventures recounted in Sullygrams and columns. Yeah, we somehow crammed ourselves into a photo booth, and it was a looooo-ong time ago.
Last but not least, special thanks to water polo guru & historian Chuck Hines for the many kind things he says about me in his weekly Watery Whiz updates from Asheville, NC. Double down on that for Suzanne Beecher's Dearreader.com where I guest-columned this month. Suzanne is closing in on a half million readers a day. And a final thank you for the sterling tributes on The1000Best. Sometimes the world is a warm & fuzzy place, even for someone like me who belongs to the ice & snow.
Thomas “Sully” Sullivan
www.thomassullivanauthor.com
http://twitter.com/thomassullivan
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1219261326
