Wednesday Night Blog #4

Wednesday Night Blog #4

August 27, 2014

By

Tom DiCaprio

 

Note: This blog although written on August 27 was not published until tonight due to a series of events that sidetracked me.  Here it is.

 

 

The other day, I was on Facebook and I saw a post from a friend of mine which I immediately decided to share.  In a lot of ways it hit home with me because I went through or am still going through some of the rules that it mentioned.  With that I will now be sharing the post here too.

 

7 Rules of Life

 

1.      Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up your present.

2.      What others think of you is none of your business.

3.      Time heals almost everything, give it time.

4.      Don’t compare your life to others and don’t judge them.  You have no idea what their journey is all about.

5.      Stop thinking too much, it’s alright not to know the answers.  They will come to you when you least expect it.

6.      No one is in charge of your happiness, except you.

7.      Smile.  You don’t own all the problems in the world.

 

Whisper of the Heart

 

I decided to open this week’s Wednesday Night Blog with “7 Rules of Life” because it has applied not only to my life’s journey especially the past twenty years which has culiminated in the past two weeks, but also since it will be a theme in my National Novel Writer’s Month project Gladio that will be started on November 1 as well as most of all I feel that everyone can benefit and learn from the “7 Rules of Life.”  Twenty years ago, I was a college student who had transferred to a college that I have always dreamed of attending.  In the Fall of 1994, everything seemed to be going right in my life.  Then I was involved in a crash in which I had to more or less put everything on hold for a few months.  The “dream” then became a nightmare.  I then endured a series of personal problems among which was regret.  There was also anger along the way.  I felt why did my life come to a standstill?  Why does everything become a disaster every time that things are going perfect for me.  This was not the first time that I felt this way.  Things were going perfect on three other occasions when it came completely undone.  Death (the loss of my father, grandmother and fiancée) were the first three times that this has occurred. Over the next few months I made the decision that if I had a chance to do something that I would just do it.  At times those decisions were not the best, but I wasn’t feeling regret for the most part.  Yet I was battling my past where I knew that it could all come undone yet again. 

     Then slowly things began to change.  I was yet living that “perfect” life working at a job which I was completely happy with when I lost my Mom.  However this time although things were coming undone, my friends were there for me and it made a difference.  They did not come completely undone.  In fact things gradually began to come together for me.  I realized that I have a lot of friends who are family to me.  I began to reconcile with my past while exploring my dream of writing in earnest.  I have since self published three novels.  Then came the crash two weeks ago where my car was damaged and I injured my back.  I was really beginning to live that “perfect” life again when there seemed to be yet another setback.  Everything seemed to playing out like the events of the months leading up to and including the crash.  Well this time it did not come undone.  I decided to atone for the past and redeem myself for it.  This time it is working out well.  I’m doing the things that I enjoy doing although I had to modify it somewhat, but I’m happy because of it.  I feel that I have become stronger because of everything.

1.      I’m not allowing the past to keep me down while I have made peace with it. 

2.      I no longer pay attention to what others think of me.

3.      Time is now healing wounds.  I chose to give it time unlike the past.

4.      I’m no longer comparing my life to others. 

5.      I’m now allowing the answers to come to me.

6.      I’m learned to be in charge of my own happiness and I’m happy because of it.

7.      I’m now smiling while accepting the fact that I don’t own all of the world’s problems.

I know that it took quite a while for me to accept it all, now I want to share this with everyone knowing that if I can help out even one person with this then I’ve done my duty.     

 

With that the fun part of the blog now commences.  I did some more autographing at the ballparks this week.  Between the trips to Frontier Field in Rochester, NY and Dwyer Park in Batavia, NY in the past ten days, I now have set a personal best with 122 autographed baseball cards in a year.  There’s still some more baseball to go so the number will likely climb.  The Rochester Red Wings are in the thick of the International League Wild Card Race.  We are a game and a half out of the wildcard and I like our chances of clinching it.  I feel that I’m more into baseball than I have been in recent years (Which is saying a lot).  I feel that I’ve been 67% into it since 2010 until now which would be the equivalent to a lot of people being 110% into baseball.  The MLB Waiver Trade Deadline is Sunday.  Which MLB team would like Bartolo Colon?  Mets could use a solid prospect or two.  Just saying.   Well it is now September 3, 2014 and Colon is still a Met.  Anyways as for those series of events that sidetracked me, well they were unexpected but nothing major.  Next blog will be published within the next few hours. 

 

Take care.