Resurrection. I am going to go see Mahler's 2nd symphony tonight and it is called the resurrection symphony. It is a timely experience for me because I need to experience this same sense of triumph in my own life. As I sit here I worry about money....there being enough to pay the bills and my weight...an ever- present worry in the back, and ofter the forefront of my mind.

Although the loss I have experienced pales in comparison to Gustav Mahler, I can relate. Losing trust in my body...losing my mom then my dad. Losing a part of where you come from, and the sinking realization that I have to stand on my own now. So, the worry tends to take over. It is almost like a fog that hovers and keeps my parents alive...what I mean is, as long as I worry, I feel as though something is being cared for. In reality, it just ruins my quality of life. So MY RESURRECTION is about doing things that I respect everyday and letting my life fall where it falls. As long as I am doing what I can do, that is all I have.

I practice everyday. In an effort to improve basic skills every day, I have adapted a routine and I have noticed improvement. Long tones...slow lip slurs...blowing through the note and letting the lips vibrate. LETTING them...not making them. In order to do that, you have to TRUST. Trust that the corners of the mouth are where they belong and let the air flow. If it sounds bad, it sounds bad. The whole practice of music to mean is one huge trust exercise anyway. Seems like everything I have ever learned on this instrument has boiled down to circumventing the conscious mind and TRAINING the unconscious to play FOR me. Anyway, this builds respect.

A KEEN awareness of what I consume. I track calories everyday. At least for this period in my life. The ultimate goal will be serenity. A sense of peace with food...again...trust. Knowing what 2,000 calories feels like and looks like....but for now, in order to train, I must write it down. And so, when I do, I feel respect.

Exercising with an intention to build strength. I want to be as strong as God made me to be. Take my body and build muscle and speed. I know it is in me..I can feel it. With discipline and gratitude that I get a second shot, I want to stop poisoning myself (and my mind) and pick up the fire that resides in me to make what I have been given the very best it can be. I will be resuming running but I REALLY want to strength train...and get results. I can't afford the kettle bell class I called about so I will have to keep looking at what I can do.

I will be exploring music and writing everyday. I have a new band that I am excited about and I want to stretch it into something special. It is a blend of hard hitting energy and sophisticated harmonic language. The first time I heard the elements married in a player, was Cornelius Bumpus... This deep soulful player conbined with beautiful jazz language on soul and funk tunes. Since I experienced that awakening, I have heard it in many players and I am fascinated and want to write the same way.

Well that's it...the start of my own Resurrection. Gaining my respect everyday. I will be losing my other 100 lbs. a MOMENT at a time.

Roy

If only we could see our lives from the end. Looking backward, I imagine we would take advantage of our time to live deliberately. Would I worry about the same things? What actions would I take to change things...if I change anything at all? And then I wonder what would I tell you from this imaginary death bed? What picture did I paint with the gift of life? Did I join the stylishly disheartened majority? Maybe I went my own way. I wonder if anything ever really changed for me..I mean do I struggle with the same themes in my life...until it is over? Well, allow me to use my imagination as I try to see the life I really want from the perspective of the dying process.

"He was a really good dad." "I mean he always made me laugh and I always knew that he loved me." My daughter speaks with anticipating grief in her voice. "I am going to miss him and I am sad but I also know that I am just like him." "His determination and wit...these are things I inherited from him."

"He inspired me to change...challenged me to really look at myself and deal with whatever controlled me. If there was one thing I know he valued it was being free. He HATED to be controlled. He would challenge anything in his life that attempted to circumvent his free will. I loved that about him...and I love that about me. I remember he took me to the grand canyon when I was 12 or 13 and said "this is what freedom looks like". He said "we are at the bottom but we keep walking until we are at the top." "Don't think about how far away it is...just take the next step" We did manage to climb back out. I was red as the rocks underneath our feet...it was a valuable lesson about sunblock as well.

"He taught me to trust in my gifts. Writing is a classic target for jokes about being a starving artist, but he said your best investment is YOU. In other words, believe in what you have and make it as good as you can and trust that process. There is a reason that you have a talent....and it is not up to us to know, but it IS up to us to use. I flailed around for a long time and thought about giving up, but I stuck it out and now I write."

"I loved that he was always young. Even when he was old you get the sense that he remained a young man. I loved that he nurtured his garden the same way he nurtured me. He wouldn't stop the weeds but he WOULD make sure that the right things grew. He intervened just enough.

Now, stepping out of my fantasy I can say these are things I hope for. I see there are elements that are true about me and I am in the process of applying, what I believe to be my real nature, to the challenges I face. But, right now, I have felt so depressed that nothing I WAS doing holds the same interest. I sleep a lot. I don't feel motivated and I don't trust my body.. I feel a little lost. I was running and had all of that camaraderie and support. I don't right now. The YMCA is still there but I don't go as much...I just don't seem to have it in me. I am afraid of having another heart attack...I miss my OWN parents so much I physically ache sometimes. And I just wish it was all the way it was... I wish I could feel good again. But I guess this is the ride. How to dig out of this hole I am not sure but I know I can't stay. Work is slow and I have too much time to think... I guess my "daughter" is right. Do the next right thing. I just want it all back...

Thanks for reading I am trying to figure this out and I always appreciate your support..

On a positive, I had a great food day...shooting for another tomorrow.

Roy

Hey!

There is no place to begin. The one thing that I struggle with the most is the ONLY thing I have really wanted to change. The part of this that makes me sad is, had anything been different about my heart attack I would no longer be here and yet the predominating thought is...the same as it always has been...when do I get to stop being fat? When I imaging a guy who has faced the possibility of dying...he is answering bigger questions. Who am I...what do I want t do...how can I impact the world. Not me...I wonder when I will be able to make it without going to bed disappointed in myself. I can't really exercise the way I was..I will be able to, but I can't seem to wade through the rehab. I still have 30 more visits before I am officially cleared to resume normal exercise. Then I have a new hole to learn to live with.

You often don't know what someone means until they are gone. You get so used to experiencing their impact that it becomes a cohesive glue that help hold you together. Well, now that my Dad (and both my parents) are gone, I realize, in small bits, what has been lost and how much I looked to them for guidance and approval. They became, and of late especially my dad, a barometer. I was becoming my own person and wanted him to really see it happen. These words make me really really sad because the only way he knew was with this unshakable struggle to find the strength to change. So, they unfortunately knew a son who never quite got where he wanted to go. And so another night falls and with it another surrendered day. Surrendered to not meeting my own birthright...a legacy of my own....a vision. I want to weigh 190 lbs. I want to be strong as hell. I want to know how to fix a few things...a lawn mower or a tiller. I want to be the very best musician I can be instead of trying so hard to hide my shame behind the label of "good" What happens when I risk it and really TRY? I don't know..

But I do know this: I am an addict. I hate saying it...I hate BEING it. I hate that I feel soooo hopeless about my weight...so embarrassed... Even with my own heart scare...it is not death that scares me...it is NOT living. And that is what it steals from me. Life. I can't do it alone and I am panicking (a blind panic as one of my funny character voices may say) Why not me? Why can't I be one of those stories that I want to read?

Ya know, some people have huge inheritance. They get cars, or lots and lots of money...vacation homes..whatever. I got some of that too...my father had saved money so that we could have something (his father left him with bills and daddy did not want that to happen) He accomplished that. But the money and the things are not my real inheritance.

I got tenacity

I got a will --one that bends but never breaks

I got a backbone.

I got knowledge.

I learned how to grow anything I want to eat.

I know what it is to sweat.

I got a fierce sense of

Determination

Ethic

Accountability

I got humor.

I got generosity.

I got compassion

I know how to feel my heart

and listen to my head.

I know how to be quiet.

and

I know how to say

I

Don't

Know.

These things that I received took many years to amass. I wanted nothing from this man but I got all I could ever need. I know in my heart that it is enough to move forward, but easy it isn't. Not sure what my next move is, although it most certainly will involve a major level of determination regarding food. I can tell you this..I am not done. Had I been, we would have all had a grand time at a visitation of my own,,...but we didn't did we? So, I want what I have, and I will be damned if I let something as old and tired as weight hold me down for the rest of my life.

I will be using some of my inheritance to change things.

Stay tuned

Roy

Hi again!

I have been given the gift of a day to do with what I want. There is work to do, and I intend to to work hard on the tasks at hand. But I have a personal goal that I want to achieve today. I am going to run 10 miles. I have mapped it from my house and, although I am not sure I am ready for it, I am going to attempt it.

A lot has been going on with me and for some reason I haven't really wanted to blog about it. I am still stuck with my weight...lower than it has been but a complicated relationship with food has made it difficult to go forward. I watch the people on the biggest loser and I think "I can work that hard" but then the smaller decisions thwart my efforts. I let myself down. What I am learning though is STAYING in that place is about shame. Being ashamed that I am not more.

There are lots and lots of shame triggers for me. It could be people talking about being fat on their wedding day...(I was quite heavy at that time) OR it could be a feeling of being over full. Not playing as well as I want. The same voices trigger...the same feelings. I become a child with no protection. For me, a good test to see if I am in that place is to ask..."how old do I feel right now" If it is below my ACTUAL age ...I am probably being shamed.

Breaking out of it is not my area of expertise. BUT I know that you can't eat your way out of it. "Exercising" it out won't work either. The only thing that I see as helpful is forgiveness and a plan. If I don't do something as well as I could, (whatever it is food..music..interpersonal stuff) it is NOT because I didn't try. More than likely, I have slipped into very old trap. SO, I did my best, I recognize my error...and try again. I am told that a mistake is and opportunity to being again more intelligently. (more informed) A plan is the "more intelligent" part of the equation. There is no reason to repeat the same mistakes over and over UNLESS I let fear keep me from examining my shortcoming. It is easy to do, because a mistake is embarrassing...(after all, I am an exception to human error and if I am flawed then everyone will see that I am a ---fill in your own degrading self talk here.) SO the plan today is to meet a goal of double digits as a runner in preparation for the Country Music Half Marathon, to cook something that is nutritionally sound, practice the trombone (specifically the beauty of sound and flexibility) and write music. Then later, to help others who have decided to push their comfort zones by becoming runners themselves.

As I push, I am rebelling against control. I am free... it IS a human right to be free even though we have robbed others of that right...but then I can't judge because I robbed myself.

Well...I guess I better get started..might take me a while. :)

Thanks for reading!

Roy