Music is such a gift. It gives us great pleasure, and it definitely creates a trigger for some of our most important memories. When my dad was dying, and to the point of not speaking, I would sit by his side, hold his hand, and when I would ask him if he wanted to hear some music, he would nod his head. I would find ” Days of Wine and Roses” on his IPad, and put one earbud in his ear, and one in mine. I would lay my head on his chest. I knew he could hear the song, and me, because he would squeeze my hand, and he would slightly turn up the corners of his mouth.

Daddy was in a inexpliable place between past memories and future, and I was in the makings of an incredible, indelible memory for myself that is with me forever. It is cautiously captured every time I choose to listen to this special song.

From this, my advice would be to never get to busy, or harried to forget to listen to your music. Do this for yourself, and with everyone you love. Enjoy it with your friends during important occasions. Blast it in your car with the windows down. Make your kids, (in other words, share..:)) listen to your stuff! Mix up something fun, and dance around while doing your hard earned home improvement projects, and creating an important space!  Download something appropriate when you are mad. Play something fun, and gritty while you are on vacation. Kiss the one you love with some quality sounds in the background. Give yourself a few moments every day to find a few new music favorites. Oldies are great, but explore the new. Maybe you can find a couple songs on the radio, or in your music library?  It doesn’t take long to remind yourself of the importance of this rich sensory layer to your life….  Music is your audio photograph, and I promise, when you incorporate it into your life, you will record something very special.

Andi’s playlist for today…

“It’s Your Thing” Isley Brothers..

“Just Breathe”- Pearl Jam

“Where The Boat Leaves From”  Zac Brown Band

“Revelation” Third Day

“The Weight”  Duane Allman, Aretha Franklin

“Dazzling Blue” Paul Simon

and ….  “Days of Wine and Roses” Henry Mancini.. Love you Daddy..:)

Andi Bartruff

   The age-old wonder of death and how we can escape it. We can’t escape our physical death from this world, but we can live forever in spirit! I look at death as being born into a new life… a spiritual life!

I want you to go with me on this one, as I am only using a common sense analogy. It is not my intent to offer the believes of any religious groups. I am talking about our spirit… something we all have.

We are all conceived in the womb. This is a place where we lived for 9 months. We kicked and we sucked our thumb. We were alive in that warm cozy womb. Then one day “someone” says to us “today you are going to born into a new world where you will breathe in air,  have parents, eat real food   and run and play. It is going to be so different from anything that you have experienced over the last 9 months, you will be born!” You say … NO! I don’t want to leave here (the womb) I am happy here. It feels so safe and warm! You say that I will be born into a new world… to me it would be like death to leave the womb. What you call being born is death to me! Well as life goes… you are born into a new world,  you breathe the air, you feel the love and comfort of your parents. You learn to eat real food, and you grow up to adulthood. Your life in the womb becomes a memory you can’t remember.

We come to the end of our physical life.  Now “someone” comes to us  again and says.. “it is time to be born into a new world”  Some say NO! and some welcome it with open arms! We  are going to be born again into a world that is so different from anything that we have experienced over the last however many years of our life. We are going to be born into our spiritual life!

Some of us will be afraid of this transition just as we were when we were in our mother’s womb. The fear will leave once we cross over to our spiritual life. A life that will give us all the answers to our worldly questions and a life that will be shared with all of those that have gone before us. And as with our memory of womb life, this physical life will also become a memory we can’t remember.

I am not asking you to dwell on the end of your physical life, just think of it as  another phase of our existence. It will be greater than anything our minds can imagine, and therefore it  is human nature to feel fear of the unknown. I for one will welcome it with open arms when my time comes. Stephen Spurling

I know that a lot of us live with some major disappointments in our lives, woulda, coulda, shoulda! The thing that will help us deal with our own demons is to remember that almost all of us can say this at varies points in our lives. I for one have my own disappointments and think of these disappointments as “did I have control over “what is” or “do I have control over what will to be?” The point here is that we all must move on from some of  life’s biggest disappointments. We must be strong enough to make alternate arrangements. Be at peace with ourselves, find our happiness and propose in life the best way we can. We are not all destin to have everything we want, and we must be at peace with what we have. And above all… know that if your disappointments were within your control…  You would have changed the outcome. Control over all things that come our way  will never happen, but how we deal with it and make it through should be our focus. Stephen Spurling

Sawdust  runs through my veins… well not really, but I have often wondered if there is something in my gene pool that makes me love the smell of fresh-cut wood. The smell of a freshly painted house. and even the metallic smell of nails and screws. I have often thought of sweeping up sawdust at the job site taking it home and putting in a pot on the stove… my potpourri!  Now that’s foolish!

I have to love it. After all;  who could possibly like working outside in the cold of winter and  in the heat of summer. How about crawling under a house, entering into the world of bugs and spiders that are carrying on their day-to-day lives  were I am the intruder!  No fear of cobwebs here my passion is too great! Sometimes it can be dirty work but it goes with the job.  Now all this craziness is necessary to say that I am good at what I do! I feel as if I eat, sleep and  breathe  my work! It is my God-given talent to be a “renovating fool!” But sometimes I do wish God had made me a great piano player…  as my back would surely be all the better for it!

We can’t pick the talents that we are given. We must just figure without how to expound on them. So find your God-given talent, and you too will be able to eat sleep and breathe your gift! Even if means working alongside the bugs and spiders, you will do it. This all leads back to one if my favorite quotes: When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”  Erma Bombeck Using the talents that God gave us is our intended path and there is nothing more gratifying than doing what we do best!  Stephen Spurling