Kenny’s Blog [Click here to log on] 02/13/2012 NUMBER 28 Thank you all so very much again for all your notes and calls of appreciation for last weeks ‘Monday Message’.  It really means a lot to hear back from you about these blogs and also helps me to understand a bit more about where I need to be focused in writing them. Many of you have been writing and asking me how to meditate lately so, this week, I’d like to talk about that as well as some of the values we receive during meditation and also how we can apply the fundamental principles of meditation to our everyday life. THE MESSAGE ‘GENTLY COME BACK’ I started meditating in 1986 and over the years I’ve tried several different meditation techniques but, the one I currently practice is my favorite and along with much of the information below, is based in the teachings of Deepak Chopra.   The meditation I practice isn’t any better than any other it’s just the one; I resonate with and feel the most comfortable.  What ever meditation you choose to practice please know they all greatly benefit and enhance your physical, emotional, and spiritual lives. Did you know there are studies that say meditation slows the aging process and meditating twenty minutes, twice a day, for 5 years consistently, you’re very likely to be 12 years younger than people born on the same date who do not?   Here are some other health benefits from meditating; Your brain waves change from being beta waves, (13-40 cycles per second) and alpha waves (8-13 cycles per second), which are considered our normal waking, working and activity wave cycles, to theta waves, (4-7 cycles per second) and delta waves, (1/2 - 4 cycles per second), which are usually only achieved in deep sleep! Also the heart rate slows down, blood pressure goes down, blood flow to the brain increases, the blood flow to the kidney’s decreases, your immune system is stimulated and there are profound changes in your hormone levels. The following meditation practice is from a Deepak Chopra seminar and has become my favorite and most recommended; Start by sitting in a chair or on the floor with your back straight, your hands lying comfortably in your lap, your palms facing up and open.   Be emotionally open, with an inner attitude of surrender. Close your eyes and become aware of your breath as it enters and leaves your nostrils. Don’t analyze it just be aware as your breath goes ‘in and out’ A simple way of going into a very deep meditation is by paying attention to your breath using a sound or ‘mantra’ that you mentally say as you breathe ‘in and out’. So, as you breathe, in through your nostrils, mentally say the word, ‘I’ and as you breathe out, mentally say the word, ‘Am’. If you’re distracted from your focus on the ‘in and out’ of your breath and from mentally saying, ‘I’, ‘Am’, by a sound, it’s okay, just gently come back to observing the ‘in and out’ of the breath and mentally saying, ‘I’, ‘Am’. If you’re distracted from your focus by a sensation in your body, like an itch, take a second to scratch it so you don’t have to think about it and then gently come back to observing the ‘in and out’ of the breath and mentally saying, ‘I’, ‘Am’.   If suddenly you realize you’re having all of these thoughts and emotions in your mind, gently come back to observing the ‘in and out of your breath while mentally saying, ‘I’, ‘Am’. Don’t try to concentrate on the ‘I’, ‘Am’ or the ‘in and out of your breath’, just gently come back and favor your attention on your breath and mentally saying, ‘I’, ‘Am’. Once in a while, especially when you’re NOT TRYING, all the sounds, sensations and thoughts will disappear and what’s left is YOU the pure spirit, but DON’T TRY to get there, LET IT HAPPEN! No matter what; if you fall asleep it’s supposed to happen.  Too many thoughts great, you were releasing stress!  If you have lots of emotions come up, again you were releasing stress!  If you have sensations in your body and feel restless, great, you got an opportunity to release it but, above all else, you will still have received ALL the benefits of meditation. The way I apply these fundamental principles of meditation to my everyday life are; whenever I become aware that I’m focusing on any distraction in my life that takes me from my peace, whether by my own thoughts, or someone, or something, I gently come back by focusing on and observing the many blessings of my life in this moment.   Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny 02/06/2012 NUMBER 27 Thank you all for your loving and supportive comments and calls to me about last week’s blog, ‘Imagine if I didn’t’, and for the constant unending gifts you each are in my life and in all life. Finding time to write this blog each week isn’t always easy and this week seemed especially so with all the ‘stuff’ I was focused on but, here it is and hopefully it will inspire and motivate you to focus and live a bit more in this present moment. It seems fairly obvious to me our greatest separation from our peace is entirely caused by all our worries of yesterday and fears of tomorrow which only ever keep us from realizing the blessing of living our life in this present moment. THE MESSAGE ‘IT’S UP TO US’ We all have thoughts that keep us from our peace.  Thoughts aren’t a tangible, grab a hold of, menace we can physically remove from our lives when we’ve had enough of them, but they are in our lives by our choice and are our creations.   You might be thinking you don’t choose or create them but how do you explain having, or holding onto them? From, the most humble to the most holy, the most hurtful to the most cruel, none of us are exempt from any thought we have that keeps us from our peace but, I believe, even if we can’t physically reach in and remove them, we can gently rid ourselves of them if we truly want to.  The first and most important thing is to acknowledge we are responsible for them.   Whenever I have a thought that wants to ‘hang out with me’ or keep me from my peace, I verbally acknowledge it and say, ‘I see you, you may belong to me, but you aren’t me, I’m pure spirit.’  Doing this exposes them and at the same time helps me to realize and realign myself with who I am.   It’s okay to have them because we do but how much of our life we give up to entertain or allow them to take us from our peace, is entirely up to us! Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘We must no longer choose to entertain ANY thought which keeps us from our peace, joy, happiness or love.’  ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 01/30/2012 NUMBER 26 As of today I have been sending out this Blog for six months!  I just want to thank all of those of you who, by your loving notes and calls each week, continue to deeply inspire me to write this Blog.  I know I say this often but there are truly no words that could ever begin to express my deepest heartfelt gratitude for your support of this Blog and all your stellar examples of love in my life. THE MESSAGE ‘IMAGINE IF I DIDN’T?’ For the past 22 years I’ve kept a book where I write the names of every person I meet each day.  I truly feel every person I meet, whether it’s for a minute, day, week, month, year, or however long I know them, are a part of the puzzle of who I am and that we are all inextricably connected together as one, of One. , Twice each day when I meditate, in my minds eye, I see this incredibly beautiful ‘healing light’ going into my book bringing unconditional love, peace, joy, harmony, happiness, abundance and all that is good and God to all of the names I have placed there and to all of their families, friends and ancestors, ad infinitum.   I don’t generally tell anyone about this book unless they’ve come to me for my help in releasing them from their, ‘stories’, ‘concepts’, or beliefs about life, which have kept them from realizing their peace.  Even then, I only tell them about it to let them know, that no matter what they may be going through in life, they’re never alone because there is always someone, (myself), faithfully sending them healing light and unconditional love, peace, joy, harmony, happiness and all that is good and God each day to help ease their burdens. A few years ago a wonderful woman, who had been coming to me for about a year to help her with her challenges, called me and was very upset.  She told me she wanted to share her ‘story’ about what she felt was keeping her from her peace.  After quietly listening to her ‘story’ for almost an hour, I gently said to her, ‘Honey, you do know, I send you healing light and unconditional love, peace, joy, harmony, happiness, and all that is good and God, each day in my morning and evening meditations don’t you?’   She paused for a moment and said, ‘Really, Kenny? because my life couldn’t be any worse!’  I said, ‘Honey, if you really think your life couldn’t be any worse, imagine what it would be like if I didn’t meditate for you twice a day?’  Well as soon as I said this she just burst into laughter and in that moment released all she had been so focused upon that had been keeping her from her peace. So, the next time any of you find yourselves ‘separated from your peace’ remember that there is someone who meditates for you, your family, friends, and ancestors, ad infinitum, twice a day, every day and then, ‘imagine if I didn’t!   Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Unhappiness’ is a condition we create in our lives by all the time and energy we choose to give of our life to nurture it.’  'The Message' - Kenny Mitchell 01/23/2012 NUMBER 25 It’s so wonderful to know my life is filled with so many incredibly beautiful loving souls as those of you I have come to meet and know throughout my journey in life. THE MESSAGE ‘IN THIS MOMENT’ We are often so impatient about whatever it is we would like to manifest in our lives whether it’s love, peace, happiness, joy, abundance, etc., that sometimes we miss realizing the great degree we have them in our lives in this moment.  The following story is one I refer to whenever I am feeling this way. Two disciples went to their Master one day and asked, ‘Master, we know you speak with God and that He always answers you, would you please ask Him when we will be enlightened?’  One of the disciples had been studying with the Master for 25 years and the other for about 5 years.   A few days later the disciple who’d been studying with the Master for 25 years asked him if he’d spoken to God about when he’d be enlightened. The Master lovingly said, ‘yes my son, God told me that because you have been such a devotee to the path of Love and Light for these past 25 years that you will attain the bliss of enlightenment, not in this lifetime but in only 3 more lifetimes.’   The disciple couldn’t believe what he was hearing and told the Master that he felt, after dedicating the better part of his life to God, waiting another 3 lifetimes to attain Enlightenment was just unacceptable and so he quit his studies with the Master. Next the disciple who had been studying with the Master for 5 years came in and when he asked what God had said, the Master lovingly said, ‘my son, God told me that you would be Enlightened, not in this lifetime or in the next lifetime, but in as many years as there are leaves on the Banyan tree.’   Now, the Banyan tree, called ‘the wish fulfilling tree’, is not only the largest tree in India but there are thousands of leaves on it, which meant that it would be thousands of years and many lifetimes before the young disciple would attain Enlightenment.   But, even upon hearing this answer, the disciple jumped up in the air with great excitement!  He was laughing and crying and overwhelmed beyond joy and just kept repeating, ‘God said I would be Enlightened, this is music to my ears, and my heart is overflowing with gratitude and love, I am so happy this is the best day of my entire life!’ and suddenly, in that moment, he was enlightened!   The journey to enlightenment is as far away or as close to us as we would believe it to be.  It’s not about someday we will attain, or have this, or realize that, it’s about the blessing of the journey and the life we have before us ‘in this moment’!   Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of you day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Every moment we spend waiting for our happiness, peace, joy, love, or abundance to arrive, is one less moment we have to realize them now.’ ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 01/23/2012 NUMBER 25 It’s so wonderful to know my life is filled with so many incredibly beautiful loving souls as those of you I have come to meet and know throughout my journey in life. THE MESSAGE ‘IN THIS MOMENT’ We are often so impatient about whatever it is we would like to manifest in our lives whether it’s love, peace, happiness, joy, abundance, etc., that sometimes we miss realizing the great degree we have them in our lives in this moment.  The following story is one I refer to whenever I am feeling this way. Two disciples went to their Master one day and asked, ‘Master, we know you speak with God and that He always answers you, would you please ask Him when we will be enlightened?’  One of the disciples had been studying with the Master for 25 years and the other for about 5 years.   A few days later the disciple who’d been studying with the Master for 25 years asked him if he’d spoken to God about when he’d be enlightened. The Master lovingly said, ‘yes my son, God told me that because you have been such a devotee to the path of Love and Light for these past 25 years that you will attain the bliss of enlightenment, not in this lifetime but in only 3 more lifetimes.’   The disciple couldn’t believe what he was hearing and told the Master that he felt, after dedicating the better part of his life to God, waiting another 3 lifetimes to attain Enlightenment was just unacceptable and so he quit his studies with the Master. Next the disciple who had been studying with the Master for 5 years came in and when he asked what God had said, the Master lovingly said, ‘my son, God told me that you would be Enlightened, not in this lifetime or in the next lifetime, but in as many years as there are leaves on the Banyan tree.’   Now, the Banyan tree, called ‘the wish fulfilling tree’, is not only the largest tree in India but there are thousands of leaves on it, which meant that it would be thousands of years and many lifetimes before the young disciple would attain Enlightenment.   But, even upon hearing this answer, the disciple jumped up in the air with great excitement!  He was laughing and crying and overwhelmed beyond joy and just kept repeating, ‘God said I would be Enlightened, this is music to my ears, and my heart is overflowing with gratitude and love, I am so happy this is the best day of my entire life!’ and suddenly, in that moment, he was enlightened!   The journey to enlightenment is as far away or as close to us as we would believe it to be.  It’s not about someday we will attain, or have this, or realize that, it’s about the blessing of the journey and the life we have before us ‘in this moment’!   Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of you day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Every moment we spend waiting for our happiness, peace, joy, love, or abundance to arrive, is one less moment we have to realize them now.’ ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 01/23/2012 NUMBER 24 I honestly can’t thank you all enough for your continued support of this Blog.  I am truly beyond humbled by your unconditional love and the very many, wonderful, heartfelt notes of encouragement and appreciation, I receive each week, about Kenny’s ‘Monday Message’.  Thank you!   THE MESSAGE ‘FINDING GOD’ I went to the ‘Farmers Market’ in Studio City on Sunday to pick up some honey and stayed for a couple of hours to help a new friend of mine, Sathia Sun, who works there every other Sunday selling raw honey for a local honey company.  I honestly don’t know how much help, I really ever am to my gentle friend, Sathia but whenever I do ‘show up’ he’s always kind enough to tell me I am.   I’ve been going to this same ‘honey stand’ since the market opened almost 14 years ago and during that time I’ve known only 2 guys that have spent a significant amount of time selling honey there.  The first was Mike Schwenn who was there for the past 13 years and now Sathia. Mike was an avid baseball fan and held season tickets to the Los Angeles Angels and he and his wife were, what I might describe as, ‘quietly religious’. In other words they had a deep abiding faith in God and in their own particular religious denomination but they never made you feel uncomfortable, or unwelcome in their life, if you weren’t ‘finding God’ through their religious beliefs or church. Mike and I spent lots of time talking and laughing about baseball, life, love and God and we not only became good friends, but I got to learn a lot from him about honey.  After almost 13 years of showing up every other Sunday, at the Studio City Farmer’s Market, Mike left, at the end of  2010, to sell his own line of honey products called, appropriately enough, ‘Holy Honey’, along with his wife who also sells cloth and clothing from India. The new kid on the block, who took over the reins at the market selling honey for Mike’s old company, is Sathia Sun.  Sathia’s last name, I believe appropriately and accurately describes his overall disposition.  He’s always sunny!  He’s a happy, content, always smiling and cheerful, good, kind, decent, gentle, respectful, easy going, intelligent, 21 year old gift in my life and in all life.   For me going to the farmer’s market on Sunday and spending time with Mike and Sathia has been this most incredible blessing.  I’ve gotten to know, and hang out with, for however briefly, two really beautiful souls on the planet and learn a bit about honey and a lot about unconditional love and friendship from them both, as an added bonus, in the process.   Along with getting to hang out with these two wonderful souls, I have also come to meet and talk with hundreds of other wonderful men and woman and I’ve always come away from my time spent there refreshed, renewed and realigned with my peace. I honestly don’t have any hard and fast opinion, one way or another, about where any one goes to ‘find God’ on Sunday, or any other day for that matter, but for me, I know one place I’m always certain to and that’s at the Studio City Farmers Market, every other Sunday, in everyone I meet there! No matter where you are today, or what ever you may be doing, please know each of your examples of love, peace, kindness and all that is good, have greatly helped me in ‘finding God’ on this blessed journey that is my life. Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny 'The more we search for the gifts in our lives the more we come to find them.' 'The Message' by Kenny Mitchell 01/02/2012 NUMBER 23 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  May every blessing be with each of you in 2012 and with all of those you love and hold dear!!   May your journey ahead in the New Year and every year forward be filled with all that is good, peaceful, joyful, abundant and loving, always! THE MESSAGE ‘THE BEGINNING OF THE END?’ Just in case any of you may have been living in a vacuum or in a cave somewhere the past several years and haven’t heard the news, or seen the movie,… 2012, is supposed to be the last year we all get to live on earth! The following is an excerpt, from an article in the New York Daily News written on December 31st, 2011, titled, ‘Ka-ching’, by Robert Dominguez, about the end of the Mayan calendar, a sign, which some feel, lends credibility to the fast approaching end of the world on December 21, 2012; “They should sell this nonsense by the pound that’s how much it’s threatening to take over whole bookshelves,” said paranormal investigator, ‘Joe Nickell’, author of dozens of books debunking assorted myths, legends and supposed hauntings.  No matter that the Mayans, Central and South American Indians who flourished in the first millennium, never said the world was ending on Dec. 21 – only that their calendar was turning over on that date for another 394 – year “baktun” or cycle, according to scholars.  “If it has ‘Mayan’ in the title, like ‘The Big Book of Mayan Crossword Puzzles,’ or whatever, it’s probably pretty good for sales,” said Nickell.”   Mr. Dominguez went on to say that while this type of disaster and global catastrophe has generated big money “ranging from t-shirts, underwear, clocks, calendars, coins, and even more than a dozen iPhone and iPad apps counting down to The Big Day”, he more assertively stated; “Fittingly, the people who stand to benefit the most from the 2012 hoopla aren’t hysteria-feeding writers and opportunistic Internet entrepreneurs but the Mexican government, hurting from a drop in tourism because of ongoing drug wars in some cities, are pouring millions in a “mundo Mayan” campaign to promote the culture and lure visitors to the seaside ruins in Tulum and the Mayan caves in Aktun Chen and that “the Mexico Tourism Board expects that over 50 million tourists will visit the five states corresponding to the ‘Mundo Maya’ or ‘Mayan world’, over the course of 2012”. What ever you choose to believe is fine but I believe, 2012, WILL, be ‘the beginning of the end’ - but NOT of civilization but un-civilization! 2012 will be ‘the beginning of the end’ of the ‘group trance’ mentality we’ve been living in, for far too long, which has only kept us separate from seeing and sharing our lives more intimately and harmoniously with one another. It will be ‘the beginning’ of our ‘self-realization’ about the personal responsibility we must each begin to take, for our everyday attitudes, beliefs, feelings, observations, words and thoughts, which have always, in every way, helped to create the conditions of our lives, either good or otherwise.   I believe, 2012, will also be the ‘beginning of the end’ to what’s kept us separate from our truth and that greater, centered, present, peaceful, and eternal part of us, and from re-harmonizing ourselves more intimately with the Whole, Universal Loving All Awareness, God, in the process. For me, 2012 will NOT be, nor has it ever been, about ‘the beginning of the end’ of the physical, tangible, or material world, but of an individual and collective, ‘awakening’, to a new, exciting and productive time in our life and in the history of our civilization.   This, I believe, will begin to happen through the expansion of our individual and collective consciousness, and awareness; first, by taking responsibility for our personal lives and then, by living our lives accordingly, with a more compassionate, giving, understanding, accepting, and unconditionally loving heart! So thank you all for being such an intimate part of the expansion of my consciousness and awareness and for assisting me to realize that ‘better part’ of me, by every example of ‘unconditional love’ and kindness you have added to my life! Now let’s all relax and look forward to the unfolding of the New Year, and the beginning of the end, of our individual and collective separateness, not only for ourselves but for the many, many generations, who will follow our examples, of ‘unconditional love’ in the future.   Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny 12/26/2011 NUMBER 22 Thank you all so very much again for your continued support of this Blog through all your kind letters, loving notes and calls of encouragement!  Words could never begin to express what my heart feels about how very deeply blessed and incredibly grateful I am for the life I have before me which has truly only been made more so by each of you. I honestly don’t know how I got to be the person to have had the greatest fortune to come to meet and know any of you but I certainly am thankful for every one of you and the times we’ve had sharing a moment of our lives together. THE MESSAGE ‘THE GIFTS THAT KEEP ON GIVING’ We all have stories to share about ‘special moments’ or events that happened, as children, adolescents, or adults, which have left loving imprints and ‘gifts that keep on giving’ in our hearts and lives. The following is one of those special moments and loving gifts that keep on giving in my own. From as early as I can remember two or three weeks before Christmas my father would hang two large speakers onto the wrought iron trellis that he had spent weeks fabricating in our basement by pounding it all out on an anvil.  It was a beautifully hand crafted gift to my mom and it framed the four corners of the landing you stood on as you entered the front door of our house and also held up a little porch roof.   The two speakers he hung were wired directly to the stereo system in our living room and every year my mom would play her favorite Christmas music; Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, Mario Lanza, The Vienna Boys Choir, Mahalia Jackson, The McGuire Sisters, Doris Day, along with many others, and you could hear them all from just about everywhere in our neighborhood.   The music was never blaring or uncomfortably loud and much like the music we hear playing today, at shopping malls during the Christmas Season, it was always very comforting to listen to and made the spirit of the Christmas season, especially for all of those of us who were fortunate enough to hear it, a whole lot more special. There was a hill, on one end of our street, that was an unused part of a little cemetery and at Christmas time, while my brothers and I, and the kids from our neighborhood would sled and ski there, we could always hear my mom’s Christmas music playing in the background. A few years ago, while talking with a very dear friend of mine, Tommy Bartlett, about winter back in our old neighborhood, I mentioned how my brothers and I and our friends used to sled and ski up on the cemetery hill.   Tommy had grown up across the street from me and even though I’ve known and loved him and his entire family for most of my life, he and I never really knew each other until I moved to L.A., because he was about 15 years younger than me.   Anyway, before our conversation that day, I honestly hadn’t ever given much thought to whether or not anybody else ever heard my mom’s Christmas music but as soon as I mentioned, sledding and skiing on the cemetery hill to Tommy, his eyes lit up and he told me how special it had been for him to hear my mom’s Christmas music playing, while he and his brother Rick and his sister Betty and all their friends skied and sledded there as kids also! Recently, while having lunch with a friend, I noticed the music playing was some of the same Christmas songs my mom used to play during the Holidays and I wondered how many other lives had been touched by these songs while sledding on the cemetery hill back in my neighborhood. Then today my sweet brother Tommy called to wish me a Merry Christmas and he warmed my heart by reminding me once again how special it was for him to hear my mom’s Christmas music as a kid.  After we hung up I smiled and thought how much my mom and dad would love to know their Christmas music and gift, in my life, Tommy’s life and all life, had still kept on giving. We all have gifts that keep on giving into life; whether by our smiles, or our stories of ‘special moments’, or through a phone call to a friend or loved one at Christmas or anytime, or by anything and everything that keeps us focused upon the blessings of our life.   Thanks Sollie and Jim for all you did to share your lives and hearts for a moment with all of us and for your Christmas music, and the loving gift it left behind that keeps on giving.   And thank you all for the gifts you have each given me that keep on giving by every example and expression you share of love, kindness, peace, joy, and happiness in my life, always. Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny 12/19/2011 NUMBER 21 It honestly doesn’t seem possible this coming Sunday will be Christmas!  In the spirit of the season, I’d like to say how very deeply thankful, humbled and appreciative, I am for having had the greatest honor and privilege to come to know each of you and for the most precious gifts you have each brought to my life. I pray that you will all have the best holiday next Sunday but wherever you are and whatever you’re doing that day or any other, please know that you’ve each touched my life in a way that has made it so much more peaceful, joyful, beautiful, in every way and a whole lot more loving. THE MESSAGE ‘CHOICE’ Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated February 2nd, in the United States and Canada and according to folklore; if it’s cloudy on February 2nd, when a groundhog comes out of its burrow and he doesn’t see his shadow, he’ll leave his burrow, and winter will end soon but, if it’s sunny, and the groundhog sees his shadow, he’ll go back into his burrow, and we’ll have another six weeks of winter. The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and received worldwide attention as a result of the 1993 film of the same name, ‘Groundhog Day’, which was set in Punxsutawney, PA., and featured ‘Punxsutawney Phil’ the towns own infamous groundhog. In the film, a weatherman, (Bill Murray), is sent to cover the story.  Unhappy about being given the assignment, because he feels it’s beneath him, when he arrives in town, from the moment he checks into his hotel, throughout the entire days festivities and even that evening, while he’s relaxing at his hotel, he acts like a jerk and pretty much insults and alienates everyone he meets, including a young reporter, (Andie Mcdowel), who he’s attracted to. When he wakes up the next day, for some unknown reason, it’s Groundhog Day all over again, and he’s the only one in the whole town who realizes it!   At first he uses it to his advantage but after several days of waking up to Groundhog Day, he starts to believe he’s doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people, doing the same things EVERY day, until one day he realizes it’s all been an opportunity for him to change his life for the better. Watching the weatherman repeat Groundhog Day over and over again, besides the movies message, I felt it was very much like what we experience in our own lives each day; going to work at the same jobs with the same people, the same neighbors, the same relationships, the same situations with little variation and sometimes a little bit of the same goes a very long way. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up each day and have no memory of yesterday?  We wouldn’t remember being upset with; our boss, co-worker, husband, wife, kids, sister, brother, mother, father, neighbor, in-laws, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, the economy, war, the way the other guy was driving, or what someone said to us 2, 5, 10, or 25 years ago that offended us! We wouldn’t remember being told we were jerks, or that we were late for work, dinner, math class, or about the paper we didn’t pass in on time for our final grade.  We wouldn’t have any memory of a speeding ticket, the traffic on the 101 in L.A. or route 93 in Boston and every day was a new day with unbounded potential! I believe this is exactly what we must start doing, (not remembering yesterday or worrying about tomorrow), especially if we are ever to break free from those thoughts that keep us focused on the misery, worry and woe of all our yesterdays or what 'might be' tomorrow. The good news is we’ve always had the ability to wake up each day and see it anew; it’s just that we’ve mostly chosen not to.  No one ever told us we had to be stuck in the stress of yesterday or the worry of tomorrow.  It’s always been our choice. Some religions talk about being born again, through baptism into their faith, in order to realize a more intimate connection to God.  My personal, non-religious belief is that we are each literally ‘born again’ every day we awaken to a more intimate connection with God, peace, joy, harmony, happiness, love and all that is good; through every breath we take, every thought we think, word we speak, observation we make, feeling we have, and in every moment we choose to see the better part of our life.   So, what’s our choice going to be today? Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘The only challenges or confusions I have in my life are the ones I choose to place before me’ – Kenny Mitchell 12/12/2011 NUMBER 20 How deeply blessed I am to have met and come to know each of you, for however long it’s been.  Sharing a moment of my day with all of you these past several months has been such an incredible gift to me.  I am truly so very appreciative for all your loving examples in my life and humbled by your friendships. THE MESSAGE ‘HAPPINESS’ So much has been written by so many inspirational men and woman, about how to create more ‘happiness’ in our lives, that for years, whenever I was asked to write my own thoughts about happiness, I’d often say, ‘what more could I ever possibly hope to add to this discussion that hasn’t been said already?’   Then a couple of years ago, after being asked again, for what seemed the ‘millionth’ time, I had the thought; ‘if there are 7 billion people living on the planet, even if there are 10,000 people writing about happiness, there aren’t too many, but far too few and certainly room for one more!’ We are each the author of our happiness with every word, thought, action, belief, observation, and feeling we have or choose.  I’m responsible for my happiness and these are the ways and means, I’ve always had at my disposal, to create my happiness or whatever else I want to attract more of in my life! Realizing I’m responsible for my happiness hasn’t always been the easiest pill for me to swallow because, for a good part of my life and sometimes even now, I’ve chosen to place it outside of myself, in the arms, hands, and responsibility of all those around me.   We often place the responsibility for our happiness upon those around us unknowingly and unwittingly, rather than intentionally, because of everything we’ve come to feel and believe about our life, with such complete and utter certainty!   I’ve learned that my happiness has never been, ‘out there’, but that it’s always only ever been, ‘in here’, within me.  My job, neighbor, wife, brother, sister, mother, father, friend, classmate or any other relationship, has never been responsible for my happiness! I don’t always choose the nicest thoughts, gentlest words, have the kindest feelings, make the most loving observations, or even see the better part of life, but whenever I start to feel my happiness slipping away, I stop for a moment, take a deep breath and think about all the other 7 billion people on the planet who share my life and the purpose for maintaining my happiness, immediately comes flooding back to me. So, wherever you are and whatever you’re thinking about or faced with today, especially if it’s keeping you from your happiness, gently stop yourself for a moment, take a deep breath and please know… you are never alone. Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Nothing can ever stand against our happiness other than our own thoughts, words, actions and beliefs.’  - Kenny Mitchell 12/05/2011 NUMBER 19 Thank you all so very much again for taking the time from your busy schedules to offer your very kind, loving, and uplifting notes and calls each week in support of this Blog!  There are no words that could ever express my humble appreciation for what your love has created in my heart.  I am truly deeply blessed to have each of you in my life! This week was pretty hectic and not having a chance to focus on my blog until late Thursday made me a bit uneasy but, the moment I sat down to write, I thought of all the incredible blessings I have and all I’ve received musically, spiritually and physically and a deep peace washed over me. THE MESSAGE 'ASK WHY?' I was asked this week; when I began creating music and lyrics, how I write a song, what inspires my music and lyrics, who inspired my particular musical style and lastly, if I would share another one of my songs! I began creating music and lyrics when I was 12.  I’d sit at my mother’s piano playing notes and chords of other artist’s music and after doing this for a while, I started creating my own. How I write a song is; I’ll pick up my guitar and play until a note or chord catches my heart or my ear and when I feel a ‘connection’ with them the lyrics follow.  The melody always comes first then the lyrics.   What inspires my music and lyrics are; the stars, moon, sun, rain, wind, earth, trees, birds, air, oceans, lakes, and every person I’ve ever met throughout my entire journey on this planet.  They’re not mine, they never were.  I just happened to be one of the many incredibly fortunate and deeply blessed souls and conduits that somehow have an ability to express them.   My musical style is deeply rooted in jazz but has been greatly influenced by many artists of every genre of music, past and present.   The following song lyrics were inspired by each of you and from the many blessings I’ve received on this most special journey that is my life.   ASK WHY? Once as a young man I looked to the sky and searching the heavens I asked myself why? I asked, why is there black and why is there white and why does a young child cry out in the night? And is it fear that's our common reality or is it getting too close to know you and you me? And as I stood there for a moment with those thoughts in my mind I suddenly realized how we could all grow so blind. Now I'm sitting here resting my weary bones wondering when there'll be other tones of life and of fun and of gaiety, of all the things we can do if we're free. I ask why is there white and why is there black and why is it we still seem to turn our backs, To love, and to life, and to peaceful things, to feel the joy when a young child sings? So let's all dance with the fairies in the nursery rhymes and learn to live life one day at a time. Live in peace, live in love, live in harmony, for all the world you know.. is in you.. and in me? Now let's sleep to the cricket’s musical lullaby and wake in the morning and look to the sky and ask… Why? Music and Lyrics by Kenny Mitchell © Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘As we release our hold upon all that keeps us separate from love... we become love’ – Kenny Mitchell 11/28/2011 NUMBER 18 How incredibly thankful and deeply blessed I am for this life and for all of you receiving this Blog!  I often say ‘pinch me but not too hard because I don’t want to awaken from this beautiful dream that has each and every one of you in it!’   Happiness is a full time job and doesn’t suddenly appear because I’ve meditated and kept good thoughts; it’s a constant practice that comes to me in equal portions as I come to it!   There are many people, I’ve met and continue to meet that have greatly contributed to my happiness but those who have been my greatest challenge have brought me closest to my peace! THE MESSAGE ‘THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW’ When I was a kid my favorite television show was, ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’, a ‘variety show’ that aired every Sunday night from 8-9pm and as I watched; The Beatles, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, The Muppets, The Rolling Stones and hundreds more, I’d imagine myself someday performing on The Ed Sullivan Show! I’ve been an entertainer for most of my life  and for many years now, whenever I do a show that’s gone particularly well, I say, ‘that was almost like being on The Ed Sullivan Show!’, which brings me to my story. In 2000, a few years after arriving in Los Angeles, I accepted an invitation to perform at the 75thStreet Elementary School, from a teacher who worked there and lived in my apartment complex. The 75thStreet School is a large, k-6th grade, grammar school that enrolls about 1200 students, comprised predominantly of Black and Hispanic children. These kids come from some pretty tough surrounding neighborhoods, and many of them are exposed to drugs, alcohol, violence and abuse, on a daily basis. It was after learning about these hardships, I became really excited about playing at the school and being a part of something positive in these kids’ lives that I started telling everyone I knew about the ‘gig’! One day after sharing my excitement with a friend he said, ‘You shouldn’t go there, I heard it’s dangerous, and you definitely shouldn’t take Kelly!’   I said, ‘are you telling me not to go because you heard it was unsafe?’ I told him although I appreciated his concerns; I felt if we were ever to live in peace with one another, we must stop spreading fear and sharing thoughts that keep us separate; especially if they’re based on anything other than our own, first hand, personal knowledge and experiences! The day of the ‘gig’, as Kelly and I pulled up to the school, I noticed a Black man directly across the street, sitting on the hood of an older Cadillac, drinking a 40 oz bottle of beer wrapped in a brown paper bag.  I waved and smiled, he waved and smiled, and I turned to Kelly and said, ‘We’re home!’     After setting up my equipment on the stage, I asked the teachers to move the chairs they’d placed in rows across the auditorium floor, into a more intimate semi-circle in front of the stage and to seat as many children as possible on the stairs leading up to the stage where I’d be playing. When everything was ready they brought in about 350 kids!  As they entered the auditorium we were told that most of the little girls and boys had chosen to dress for the event in their Traditional Native African and Spanish dress and had been preparing their outfits for weeks! After seating about 50 kids on the stairs leading up to the stage, and the rest in the semi-circle on the floor directly below me, I was introduced and sat down to play.  We all sang and laughed together for almost two hours and it was over before we knew it! While the kids filed out of the auditorium, I stood by the exit door, and shook, high fived, or bumped hands with every little girl and boy.  I told each of them how beautiful they looked, how well they sang, thanked them for being such well behaved kids, and told them I loved them.   When the last little girl came to the doorway she stopped, and looked up at me with a huge smile and said, ‘I love you Kenny Mitchell, and this has been the best birthday ever!’   As she walked away, I turned to Kelly and said, ‘how precious has this been?’  ‘Imagine if we’d allowed our friend’s fears to keep us from being here and experiencing this today?’ This wasn’t almost like being on the Ed Sullivan Show… this was The Ed Sullivan Show! Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny 'Wouldn't it be wonderful to think in our next lifetime here we will all finally come to know and accept one another?' - Kenny Mitchell 11/21/2011 NUMBER 17 Thank you all so very much for your continued support of this Blog through your kind notes and uplifting words of encouragement!  You are such precious inspirations and wonderful examples of why my world and the entire world is becoming a more accepting, caring, and loving place. I truly believe I’m here in this lifetime to ‘re-harmonize’ myself with the, Universal All Awareness, Essence of all life, through every thought, word, action, belief, feeling and observation, I think, speak, take and have. I’m a gentle reminder, in a sea of many, of what I believe our relationship is to the God of all life and the responsible part we each play in creating the life we wish to have, happy or otherwise. My desire only has always been to gently align those who find me, with a more intimate connection to their peace, joy, love, and abundance, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, using every teaching, belief and wisdom, I now embrace. THE MESSAGE ‘THANKFUL’ I keep a written journal and a mental catalogue of inspirational stories I can turn to whenever I’m going through a challenge in life.  They always seem to help ‘right my ship’, so to speak, to focus me more clearly on all I have that’s good, kind, and loving in my life. The following story never fails to inspire me no matter how many times I share it.  It’s perfect for those times we just can’t seem to stop ourselves, from ‘gnawing on the bone of our misery’ long enough, to look around and see the better part of our life!   It was Super Bowl XL, Sunday, February 5th, 2006!  Besides the game, between, the Steelers and Seahawks, I was looking forward to the halftime commercials, they’re always cutting edge and entertaining but this year there was a GMC commercial that Kelly had worked on! Thirty minutes before half time my phone rang. It was a friend asking to stop by and talk about something that happened between him and his wife.  I told him yes and a couple of minutes later he was knocking on my door. I knew from our previous conversations, he and his wife were deeply in love and I was certain, after we talked and he’d calmed down enough to evaluate his anger, and attachment to being right, he’d call his wife, they’d apologize to one another, he’d go home, end of story!     Not today!  He hadn’t even gotten through the door when he started telling me about a huge fight they’d had.  I listened, and every so often gently tried to focus him away from his ‘bone’ to the better part of his life but, he wasn’t having any part of it!   Our conversation quickly went from, a hurt he initially wanted to resolve, into blame, anger, judgment and resentment!  It looked as if he was going to be stuck in his; why me, how could she, ‘pity party’ for a while but fortunately, the Super Bowl commercials began and everything was about to change. Sometimes we all get so wound up about our perceived hurts and injustices we forget to even notice, never mind be thankful for, the simplest gifts we have like; breathing, seeing, hearing, standing, walking, talking, and thinking! The following commercial brought all of these gifts we have to be thankful for into a much greater focus and perspective, for me and for my friend; I pray it does the same for you. It starts out with a close-up of a young man sitting in a chair; his hands and feet jerking uncontrollably, and with a great amount of difficulty he says, ‘There’s an intelligent person inside this body.’ Next you see a paint brush painting on a canvas, with a caption beneath it that reads; ‘I speak to the world in color and light’.   The first time you actually see the artist he’s kneeling on the floor, bent forward at the waist over a canvas, painting with a paint brush that’s been attached to his head with a metal band, and another caption; ‘Art gives me a way to express myself.’ Then you see the artist, his paintings and two more captions; ‘Most people think ‘gimp’ means a lame walk’, ‘Gimp also means a fighting spirit’.  A few more shots of his completed paintings, and of the artist smiling and the final caption; ‘I am an artist’.   The commercial’s message is, ‘There is no force more powerful or more beautiful than self-expression’  The final shot is the painter sitting in a chair and once again struggling to speak, he says, ‘I’m unbelievably lucky’.  It all ends with the commercial message’s ‘tag line’; ‘What do you have to say?’   Please open the link below to see this ‘Inspirational’ 1 minute video!  > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KRGUjNFD-Q I am so THANKFUL for all I HAVE! Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘We don't fully come to appreciate the blessings of our current circumstances, until that is, we suddenly find ourselves without them’.   - Kenny Mitchell 11/14/2011 NUMBER 16 When I initially began sending off this Blog I thought it would be a beautiful way of sharing a tender, loving, moment with each of you and a gentle way to re-center, realign, and return any of you, experiencing a disconnect from your happiness, to a more intimate connection with your peace. I felt it would be a wonderful way to reconnect with all of you, to keep the memories of our friendships strong and vibrant and a perfect opportunity to ‘return the favor’ for all the incredible love, beauty, happiness, peace, joy, and harmony, I now enjoy in life, because of each of you!   I am so very deeply humbled by your continued outpourings of love, kindness, appreciation and heartfelt support of this Blog but most importantly by your stellar examples of friendship. THE MESSAGE RETURN THE FAVOR It was a Friday around 9pm.  I’d finished my after school job, selling shoes in the ‘Woman’s Shoe Department’ at Britt’s Department Store and a friend was driving me to interstate 89, to ‘hitch’ a ride to Claremont, New Hampshire, a town 70 miles Northwest of Concord to see a girl, I was dating, who I’d met that summer. It had started out as a really warm, September day, and preparing for school I’d dressed accordingly in a pair of jeans, a short sleeved shirt and a light weight denim jacket.  I’d gone directly from school to my part time job and hadn’t realized, until I was leaving work, how much cooler it had gotten. Being a young man, with a greater ‘sense of love’ than of ‘common sense’, I wasn’t about to go home and change into warmer clothing!  I thought, ‘I’m okay, Friday night traffic is always heavy, and I’ll catch a warm ride pretty quickly’, except I was wrong. After waiting with my thumb out for almost an hour and no one stopping, rather than turn around and head home only a few miles away, I decided to start walking in the ‘break down lane’ instead. I walked and walked, along the highway for 2 and ½ hours and almost ten miles, (I would learn later), first slowly but then quickly to stay warm. There were no cars coming, no street lights and eventually I was in the middle of nowhere, in the dark of night, with only the stars and moon for light.  It was late, I was cold and not seeing any headlights coming, I finally stopped and sat exhausted on a guard rail. I don’t know how long, I sat there in the cold but, I do remember thinking very calmly, ‘if someone doesn’t come by soon, I’m probably going to die here’ and then I saw headlights!  When I tried to get to my feet, I fell to the ground and even though I was unbelievably weak, managed to stumble out onto the middle of the highway and wave my arms in a desperate attempt to signal the car coming towards me to stop!   It stopped! A man instantly jumped out, and shining a flashlight, which momentarily blinded me, asked me 3 rapid fire questions; who was I, what was I doing out this late in the cold and where was I going?  When I tried to answer I couldn’t move my mouth I was so cold.  Realizing I wasn’t a threat the man put his arm around me and helped me to his truck.   As he was lifting me into what looked like a UPS sized truck, I saw a beautiful young woman sitting in the passenger’s seat, that I later learned was his daughter who he was moving back home from Concord, and that’s how they came to be driving past. They had me lie on a couch behind the front seats, covered me with blankets and drove me to their home.  When we got there the man called my parents, my girlfriends parents, told them who he was, where I was, what had happened and that I was safe and spending the night. Then he called a doctor who told him to put me into a tub of water to bring my body temp up and keep an eye on me until morning. The next morning, after eating a huge homemade breakfast, the man drove me 30 miles to my girlfriend’s house. When we arrived I said, ‘please let me repay you for all your incredible kindness’ and he said, ‘no.’ Then, I reached into my pocket and asked him to at least let me pay for his gas, he gently added, ‘I do want you to repay me, Kenny, but not with money.’ ‘The next time you help someone, and they ask how they can repay you, ask them to return the favor, not to you, but to someone else and someday, if enough of us do this, the world will be a more kind and giving place.’ Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Be the example of all you wish to realize in your life’ – Kenny Mitchell 11/07/2011 NUMBER 15 How incredibly beautiful is this world?  And how deeply fortunate for me to have been so incredibly blessed to meet and come to know each of you!  Some of you, I’ve only met or spoken to very briefly and yet you have created so much love in my heart!  I’m truly humbled for the privilege, and honor of meeting and getting to know every one of you! Today, in meditation, I asked for the veil that is my ego sense, and my constant companion, to be lifted from me so, I might see, feel, and live more intimately aligned and in a greater harmony, with my truth. Almost immediately after asking, the answer I heard in my head was, ‘the only veil between you and your ‘truth’ is your continued belief and support of its existence! You can’t get any closer to your ‘truth’ and what you ‘already exist as’ than you already are!’ THE MESSAGE WHICH ONE WILL WIN? In my very first Blog titled, ‘We Create Our Lives’, I said, ‘I’m starting my blogs with the title, ‘We create our lives’, because I feel it’s truly the foundation, underpinning and main tenet of what I believe to be the crucial key element of how we must each begin to focus if we are ever to equal the playing field, so to speak, of realizing the best lives we could ever dream or imagine ourselves of having.’ I shared some of the life quotes, proverbs, and adages, of Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, and Shakespeare, as examples of who and what I turn to, for my own inspiration, whenever I may be challenged in any area of my life. I just can’t say it often enough how extremely important it is for us to be constantly mindful of the words, thoughts, beliefs, observations, feelings and actions we have, make and take to stir the creative waters of our life. We are each solely responsible for where our thoughts are focused and for the words we use and for the beliefs, observations, feelings and actions we choose which will absolutely result in creating the lives we wish to have either good, happy, peaceful, loving or otherwise. Today I’d like to share another of the many inspirational stories; I turn to whenever I may be challenged.  It’s a beautiful story that I feel greatly illustrates how we create our lives and I pray it will somehow do the same for each of you. A wise old Cherokee Chief was teaching his young grandson about the facts of life and he said, “A fight is going on inside of me, it’s a terrible fight and it’s between two wolves!”   “One of the wolves is Evil!   He is fear, anxiety, worry, stress, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, racism, sexism, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego!” “The other wolf is Good!   He is joy, peace, harmony, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, forgiveness, acceptance, understanding, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith!”   ”Then he turned to his grandson and said, “This same fight is going on inside of you and inside of every other person in the world too.” The young grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked the wise old Cherokee Chief, ‘Which one will win?’ The wise old Cherokee Chief simply replied, “The one you feed.”   Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Fight for your thoughts especially if they have you realizing or focused on anything but the best in every moment!’ ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 10/31/2011 NUMBER 14 In a world which sometimes offers otherwise, I am so deeply thankful for all I have and for all I’m receiving.  Thankfulness is one very small word to express what it is my heart feels for all of you who have become my friends and family.  To be alive, awake and aware, in this breath of a moment that is my physical life, is truly beyond words. Every moment we awaken to a greater possibility of manifesting peace, joy, happiness, harmony, abundance and love in our life, we bring them all that much closer to us.   THE MESSAGE ‘FORGIVENESS’ I left my parents home when I was 18.  I called my mother everyday, often 2 or 3 times a day, until the day she left the planet, except for a ‘confused’ period of time in my life, when I didn’t, which lasted about 3 months. My mom, Sollie, (a nickname for Solange), was French and all during my childhood she went to work each day as a stay at home mom/housewife.  She was my greatest inspiration, teacher, first love, and the best darn friend I’ve ever had, and the person I greatly credit for my insatiable thirst of life, love, laughter, good and God. She came from a family of entertainers each of whom played several musical instruments and performed throughout the New England states during the 1930’s as ‘The Drolet Family Vaudeville Orchestra’.  ‘Sollie’ was filled with a contagious enthusiasm for life that was truly awe inspiring and contributed greatly to my own musical journey.   My dad James, ‘Jim’, was Scottish and Irish and he went to work each day at the Phone Company.  He was a regular contributor to my laughter often telling me and my brothers as we sat at the dinner table, ‘you’re Scottish and Irish and another one that starts with an ‘F’!’  And even though my mom would always ‘feign displeasure’ she and my dad truly had a wonderful love affair. Both my parents were extremely loving individuals but my dad was the ‘designated disciplinarian’ of our family and in the era I grew up, for many  dads, child rearing was done with a little more ‘firmness’ than it is today!  Being a sensitive kid I wasn’t always receptive to or understanding of the methods my dad chose to mete out his punishments and eventually it put distance between us.   That distance stayed between us, hidden beneath the surface of our daily lives and family interactions for many years until, one day after a call to my mother, I realized my dad had been doing the best job he knew how to be a father.   The realization came to me, immediately following that ‘confused’ 3 month period of time in my life where I didn’t call my mom.  It happened on the day I finally called, when she answered the phone, I said, ‘Hey Ma!’, and out of all she could have chosen to say to me to the contrary like; ‘Where have you been we’ve been worried sick’ or ‘What have we ever done to deserve to be treated so unkindly’, or ‘Why have you intentionally hurt us like this?’ she chose instead to say; ‘Hello Kenneth, (Ken-neth), how are you ‘lover’, (lov-ver), we’ve missed you, when are we going to see you’? In that moment, by her beyond humbling example of forgiveness, I learned the true meaning of forgiveness and instantly released all my childhood grievances against my dad.  I forgave him and myself for the precious time we’d taken from our lives which had only served to keep us from seeing and loving one another more! I believe, out of all the many blessings I received from my mother, the most significant one was this lesson, by her stellar example of forgiveness and she did it all with the grace, dignity and elegance of a beautiful swan gliding across the mirrored waters of a quiet lake in summer.  I think she’d like that comparison. ‘Hey Ma!’ Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘It's much easier to see and confront another's faults than it is to see and confront the ones we have of our own.’  'The Message' - Kenny Mitchell 10/24/2011 NUMBER 13 I am so very deeply thankful to have so many beautiful, precious, kind and loving souls in my life!  Thank you so very much to all of you!  You are all such unbelievably special inspirations to me, in so many ways, not the least of which are your stellar examples of friendship and loving kindness to me. It’s hard to believe this is Blog number 13 already!  Not that 13’s any particular benchmark but honestly it seems like only yesterday when I began them!  My sincerest desire is to continue writing them until I’m a hundred and eighty!  So I’d better get started… THE MESSAGE ‘CONTRIBUTION’ In April of 2009 I had to be taken to the hospital.  While I was there I met a precious, little, older Spanish lady named Rosa, who came into my room each day to clean.  She was so concerned about me and kind to me, always happy, smiling and often humming a little song while she cleaned. One day I noticed she was really quiet, not her usual self, so I asked her if she was okay.  Reluctantly she told me she was very sad, her feelings had been hurt by a nurse who had been very critical about the way she cleaned, interacted with the patients, and even about the way she looked. Rosa said the nurse had a history of saying hurtful things to her but recently it had gotten to the point where she was afraid to come to work for fear this nurse would berate her.  Then, almost immediately after telling me all of this, she broke down and started to cry. I got up from my bed and hugged her while she cried and told her I loved her and that her work was always perfect, as far as I was concerned.  I asked her if she’d ever done anything knowingly to have caused this woman to be so critical of her.   Still crying she told me she knew of nothing that could have caused this woman to be so verbally hurtful to her.  In fact, she said, she’d always gone out of her way to be friendly, kind, and respectful to everyone at the hospital, as well as this nurse. I brought her over to a mirror in the room and said, Rosa mi dolce hermana, (my sweet sister), I want you to look at yourself in this mirror and slowly say, ‘I love you’, over and over again, for 1 minute.  At first she was a little shy, but after some gentle coaxing, and me standing next to her with my arm around her shoulders for ‘support’, she finally looked into the mirror and repeated ‘I love you’ for the whole minute.   By the time Rosa finished with her ‘mirror work’ she’d stopped crying, and not only calmed down, but looked as if a deep peace had suddenly washed over her. Then she slowly looked up at me and with the most beautiful, gentle, peaceful, loving smile, softly said, Gracias mi hermano! (Thank you my brother). I continued telling her what a precious lady she was and thanked her again for making my stay in the hospital so much more comfortable.  I told her she was a beautiful gift not only to me, but to everyone she worked with, every patient’s room she’d ever walked into, and we were all better off because of her incredible examples of love and kindness. When Rosa left she was completely transformed from when she’d first walked into my room. She was happy, laughing, smiling, and absolutely walking on air, and my life and all life was once again a better place because of her!   Before sitting down to write my Blog today I thought, ‘what could I ever possibly add to further inspire the conversation about love, peace, joy, kindness, acceptance, understanding, forgiveness, abundance, God, Higher Power, Universal Spirit, or Consciousness?’ What I realized after writing this Blog is; ‘Whether or not we touch 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 1000, 10,000, or 10 million, we each DO add to, and further inspire this conversation, even if it’s only one person at a time!’ Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘When we stop entertaining any thoughts which focus us away from our joy... we become more joyful!’   ‘The Message’ – Kenny Mitchell 10/17/2011 NUMBER 12 I can hardly believe it’s been three months since I started this Blog!  I continue to be beyond humbled by all the loving, kind, caring, and thoughtful notes and personal calls of appreciation, I receive each week. I’ m so very thankful to see, feel, think, understand, and be aware of life the way I am.  Not in any judgmental, prideful or I’m better way, but in a very fortunate, very blessed and deeply grateful, way.                                                                          THE MESSAGE                                                                ‘YOU’RE JUST TOO NICE’ Several years ago a very dear friend of mine, after witnessing my reaction to someone yelling at me said, ‘Kenny you’re just too nice!’  This wasn’t the first time he’d seen me react this way or the first time he’d said, I was just too nice. He continued to tell me if anyone had ever yelled at him that way he’d have totally ‘lost it’ on them!   Then he asked why, on several previous occasions, when he’d witnessed similar verbal outbursts towards me, from this same person, had I always let them ‘get away’ with it? I told him there were two very good reasons; first, even though it was uncomfortable hearing this person’s hostilities, and my initial ‘knee jerk’ reaction or ‘first response’ at one time in my life might have been to respond otherwise, I was never in any real danger!   I asked if he thought angry or hurtful words could physically hurt us. Do they break our bones? Do they cut us? Do they spill our blood? No!  And any words, especially hurtful, taunting, or angry words are never about us but more about the person saying them.   Second, if I’d returned the other person’s anger, compounded by my own, while it may have been a more satisfying solution for my friend, it would have only added more to what I feel is a disproportionate amount of anger and confrontation in a world where there’s far too much already! The outburst he’d witnessed hadn’t been about me but had I continued to engage them, in their misguided yell-fest, it would have been!   So, one way, I or really any of us, can help, ‘stop the madness’, or the abundance of anger in life already, is ‘not take it personal’!  I don’t think these were the answers my friend wanted to hear or probably the ones anyone wants to hear.   I honestly don’t feel the need to prove anything to anyone about who I am because I know who I am and what someone says or thinks about me must never matter.  I believe, whenever I’m confronted with anyone’s anger or confusion, it’s my opportunity and ‘responsibility’, to NOT take it personally!   How I’m able to do this is by reminding myself often that we are all spiritual beings who, at a core level of awareness, are pure love.  This along with an absolute knowing, that throughout my entire life, I’ve always tried to be a consistently easy going, nice, good, kind, happy, accepting, forgiving, understanding, loving, gentle and peaceful person! During my 25 year investigation of consciousness, I have come to believe, that as a spiritual being, I am pure Love, and so is who ever happens to be standing in front of me, and whether they realize this or not, I must always! Why must I always? Because someone has to be responsible for breaking free from the egocentric cycle of confrontation and anger we’ve kept alive for far too long and at great expense to our happiness, so, why not me?   Finally, after explaining all of this to my friend, I could tell, even though he understood on a deeper ‘egoless’ level of consciousness, he still wasn’t ready to let go of his belief that I’d let them ‘get away with yelling at me, so I said; Okay, ‘Fast forward our life ahead 70 years from today!  Imagine you’re watching the last scene of a movie; you see the camera pan slowly across this peaceful, well manicured cemetery, then it pauses for a long moment on a non-descript head stone and comes in for a close-up of an epitaph which reads’;   ‘Here lies Kenny Mitchell, He was just too nice!’   ‘I think I can live with that!!’ Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’ No matter whatever takes us from our peace, love, joy, happiness, or seeing the better part of all life, it’s only for as long as we allow it too.  ‘The Message’ – Kenny Mitchell 10/10/2011 NUMBER 11 Thank you all so very much again for your kind words in support of this Blog.  I know I’ve said this before and will probably say it many times again but, I honestly don’t have any words that could ever begin to express what it is my heart feels about how deeply blessed I feel to share my life with each of you. There honestly isn’t a moment of my day that goes by that I don’t try to see the better part of it, but every once in a while, like everyone here I suspect, it isn’t quite as apparent.  It’s in those moments I’m uplifted by all of you and the many, many people like you, who I’ve come to know and love throughout my lifetime.                                                                               THE MESSAGE                                                                              'APPRECIATION' It was September 22nd 1975.  I was driving to Framingham, from Worcester Massachusetts, listening to game 6 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds.  It eventually ended in the 12th inning when Carlton Fisk, the catcher for the Red Sox, hit a home run to give the Red Sox a 7- 6 win, and forcing a seventh game!! When I arrived in Framingham I had to stop at a railroad crossing for a freight train crawling slowly through an intersection. Being first in line, closest to the tracks and seeing no end in sight to the freight cars coming, I shut off my car to wait and listen to the game.   It was the end of what had been a perfect Fall Day in New England and sitting there, I could see this incredibly breathtaking sunset in my rearview mirror. The sun was this most beautiful, intense, giant globe, with some of the most brilliant, reds, oranges, and yellows I’d ever seen, and it lit up the entire sky behind me! Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a reflection; an object appeared to be moving towards me from way down the tracks.  I turned my head to get a better look, and as I did, two hobos jumped off a freight car no more than 50 feet away from me!   ‘Wow, how many people have ever seen that happen before?’  I sat there staring at the two hobos, as they headed towards an embankment, while still keeping a watchful eye on the object coming towards me.  As the object got closer it separated into two objects which turned out to be two little boys pushing their bicycles along the tracks.   As the boys came closer the hobos were moving further away.  At almost the exact same moment the hobos crested the top of the embankment and walked out of sight, the two boys crossed over the hobo’s paths! It was amazing they hadn’t seen each other, but I saw it all and thought, ‘Where were those two hobos 40 or 50 years ago, were they those two little boys?’ and ‘Where will those two little boys be, in 40 or 50 years from now, will they be those two hobos?’  Where will any of us be? The sounds of the game, the sights of an incredibly beautiful sunset on a perfect Fall Day, the hobos and the boys and the realization I’d had about them and myself, all gave me a much greater appreciation of how very fortunate I was to hear, see, think, talk, drive, walk, and have the life I had! The following song/poem titled, ‘Two Boys’ inspired by that day. I know a Lady Yes I know her well She lives in a City She lives in a hell And I know a man Yes I know him well He rides in old boxcars He lives in a hell So, on and on they go, On in time Following their sunlit roads Drinking the wine And gaining of life’s great wisdoms For all to be told, For all to be told. And I know two boys Yes I know them well Traveling along the road That they know so well They pass an old bum He rides on a train The thought passes through them Will they see him again? So, on and on they go, On in time Following their sunlit roads Drinking the wine And gaining of life’s great wisdoms For all to be told, For all to be told. Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’ 'The more we search for the gifts in our lives the more we come to find them.' 'The Message' by Kenny Mitchell 10/03/2011 NUMBER 10 I am deeply thankful for each of you in my life and sincerely humbled by your kind words of appreciation about this Blog!  My desire in penning it has always been and continues to be that it may somehow create more peace in my life, your life, and all of those we share our lives with and beyond.   I feel so fortunate to have been born into this world to see, understand, realize and become aware of life and my integral part to play in it, the way I do.  I’m truly so very thankful for the incredibly loving, kind and inspiring examples I’ve had throughout my entire life from my parents, grandparents, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, teachers, school mates, and friends.  And from my precious wife, and all the extended family I’ve come to know and deeply love along the way and who I’m so humbled and honored to share my life with today.                                                               THE MESSAGE                                                         ‘LOOK OVER THERE!’ From 1964 to 1972 there was a wonderful show on television called ‘Bewitched’ about a regular guy, Darrin, married to a beautiful woman, Samantha, who just happened to be a witch.  It was a romantic comedy about the challenges young married couples face each day compounded by their ‘very different’ backgrounds.  There were lots of colorful characters on the show, but one of my all time favorites was, Gladys Kravitz, the lady who lived across the street from them, with her husband Abner. Gladys was a nosy, busy body neighbor, who was always spying through her window curtain, waiting and watching ‘to see what she could see’ that would strengthen her argument, to her easy going, unassuming husband, Abner, that ‘something was ‘not quite right’ about the young couple living across the street!’   Watching their relationship unfold, as he sat reading his newspaper and smoking his pipe, while she peered through the curtains describing in great detail all of the ‘strange happenings across the street’, was often hilarious.  It was always something different but usually it was about Gladys, unable to contain herself, after witnessing some strange event, saying something like, ‘Abner, hurry, quick, come and ‘look over there’, I think she just turned the mailman into a pumpkin!’ By the time easy going, content with his life, Abner, put his pipe and paper down and got up from his Lazy Boy to look out the window, every thing had returned to ‘normal’.  It usually all ended with Abner shaking his head and giving his wife an exasperated look that said, ‘ I think you’re seeing things’, and then asking, ‘Why don’t you just leave that poor young couple alone’?! I think sometimes we all pay way too much attention to what’s going on, ‘over there' so to speak, in everyone else’s life.  I lovingly call this the Mrs. Kravitz Syndrome!  It’s neither good or bad it’s just the way we’ve been programmed and often a more comfortable and familiar way of sharing with one another. We spend far too much of our precious time looking into the lives of others to see, talk and analyze all the ‘stuff’ they’re doing that bothers us when maybe our time might be more effectively spent on taking a good, long, hard look at some of the ‘stuff’ we have in our own! The next time we find ourselves bewitched, by the Mrs. Kravitz Syndrome, and feel the need to ‘look over there’, let’s try to stop for a moment and remind ourselves, that if we ever, truly wish to find ‘the peace of life’, we might try to focus and pay more attention to our own lives… right over here! Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much! God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’ ‘Every step we take into the lives of another is one less step we take into our own.’  ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 09/26/2011 NUMBER 9 I pray this blog may become a meditation, for all who find themselves here, where you can come and sit for a moment to relax, reflect, and unwind, from this sometimes hurried life, to gently reconnect with your peace, love, joy, and re-harmonize with all that is your Essence.   A place you are comforted and nurtured like you might feel sitting next to a gently flowing stream on a beautiful day, warmed by the sun on your face, while listening to the gentle symphony of sounds surrounding you in nature. I was walking into my kitchen today and I thought how differently I’d walk, talk, think, act, stand, breathe, or feel, if all I ever wanted to attain or achieve in my life was suddenly mine in that very moment!   Almost immediately, I felt this deep peace and calm wash over me.  It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from my life just by having had that thought!  What I realized in that brief moment, was I need to think these kinds of thoughts more often! THE MESSAGE PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!! The Disciple asked the Master, ‘How do I get to Enlightenment?’ The Master replied, ‘Chop wood carry water!’ Then the Disciple asked, ‘What happens when I get to Enlightenment?’ The Master replied, ‘Chop wood carry water!’ The Master reminds us if we’re ever to achieve Enlightenment, Nirvana peace, comfort, happiness, joy, abundance or whatever success we wish to realize, in any area of our lives, then we must focus on the constant, mindful, loving, gentle, patient, persistent, practice, and attention of attaining it! The way we practice realizing or materializing anything we want to have or achieve more of in our life, is by acknowledging and being thankful for all we have today and understanding that joy, peace, love, happiness, forgiveness, acceptance, and abundance, in every area of our lives, all come to us in equal portions as we come to them! Have you ever heard the expression, ‘The more you turn to God the more God turns to you?’ I believe there are many faces, aspects or characteristics of God; Love, Peace, Joy, Kindness, Happiness, and Abundance.   The more I turn to each of them, focusing on and wanting to experience them more, the more I attract and manifest them into my life! How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, practice, practice!!  What ever you’re trying to manifest, attain or have more of in your life, whether it’s Peace, Love, Joy, Happiness, Abundance, Carnegie Hall or Enlightenment, remember to try and stay focused on the blessings of all you have now and oh yeah, don’t forget to practice!! Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love your self, love your life and love one another’. ‘Want happiness, joy, peace, love and abundance?, then make them your priority with every word you speak, thought you think, and action you take.’                                                                                  ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 09/19/2011 NUMBER 8 I honestly can’t thank you all enough for the amazing blessings you’ve added to my life and all life!  I’m so very deeply appreciative to have each of your examples of love and kindness! They steel my resolve to focus on the better part of my life, especially in those moments, when I choose to focus otherwise. I received several incredibly beautiful, uplifting and inspiring messages this week about this Blog and my music!  After ‘luxuriating’ in them for a good long while, bathed in their loving and tender energy, I thought how nice it would be if we could all take a moment, sometime during this week, to offer a kind word to one another. (Thanks for the perfect adjective Marshall!)                                                                                THE MESSAGE                                                                    “THE SHINY NEW PENNY” Remember when you were first in love?  You didn’t care if you ate, drank, slept, or if it was raining, or sunny!   The sky seemed bluer, grass greener, air fresher, and life was so much more vibrant and beautiful, almost as if you were experiencing it for the very first time! You went through the motions of your daily routine, but in a dream state, unaware of anything, except the next time you’d speak to or be with your new love!  You didn’t dare tell anyone about it for fear you might tarnish, spoil, or break its magical spell!  It was like a shiny new penny, fresh from the mint untouched, and unhandled by any other life! That’s how it was for me and Kelly until one day, after a few months of being in this incredible bliss, I said to her, ‘What are you doing that for?’ (JUDGEMENT, CONTROL, EGO!!!).  I honestly didn’t realize I’d said it until a week later I heard myself saying it again!  And that’s when I saw the LIGHT that had been shining out from Kelly’s eyes towards me…dim a little.   The light I’m referring to is the one we express, when we’re uninterrupted and fully engaged with life, living in ‘child’s mind’. (‘Blog NUMBER 7’).  It’s that better part of us, totally loving, fully accepting, adoring, untarnished and unspoiled yet by our judgment, fear or ego.   There are no words to describe the affect seeing this light dim from Kelly’s eyes had on me.  I felt awful, like having to walk, after being able to fly!   It was a tragedy resulting in an epiphany that left me knowing what to do. I gently took Kelly’s hands, looked into her eyes and said, ‘I promise, from this moment on, instead of focusing on or sharing ANY challenges, confusions or judgments ‘I’ have about you, all I’m ever going to try and focus on and share with you, are the gifts you add to my life each day ONLY!’   For twenty two years I’ve tried to keep my promise to Kelly about the gifts she adds to my life each day and with every other person I’ve met along my journey as well.  Have I always succeeded?  No, but I’ve ALWAYS tried. Wouldn’t we all like to know how to keep our relationships fresh and untarnished, like a shiny new penny, the way they were when we first fell in love?   Try sharing the gifts you bring to one another’s lives each day ONLY.  We’ll never know if we never try… Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love, YOUR GIFTS and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much. God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love yourself, Love your life and Love one another’ ‘Focusing on our challenges or confusions only helps perpetuate them further in our lives.’  ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 09/12/2011 NUMBER 7 My Dear Sweet Precious Loving Brothers and Sisters, Thank You So Very Much!  I am so very deeply humbled and truly awed by all your supportive words of appreciation and kindness. It’s been seven weeks since I started this blog!  The blessing for me, because of the many hours I spend writing and rewriting it, is that it helps to keep me more clearly focused on the better part of my life as well!                                                                            THE MESSAGE                                                                           ‘CHILD’S MIND’ Lao-tzu, traditionally regarded as the founder of Taoism, lived in China from (551-479 B.C.E.). He’s credited with writing the Tao Te Ching, The Book of the Way, an incredibly brilliant and insightful, philosophical treatise on ‘the art of living in harmony with the Universe’.   I believe one profoundly important message the Tao offers us about life and one deeply embedded within many other teachings as well, is; the more we see, think, feel and observe life, through the eyes, mind, heart, purity and innocence of a child, a practice also called ‘child’s mind’, the less we suffer from the confusion of the illusion of life. ‘Child’s mind’ is a state of consciousness.  Like the way kids are, when they’re three feet tall, living in a beautiful dream, without a clue about what’s happening in the world around them, because they haven’t been fully awakened to life yet and to all of the ‘stuff’ that keeps us separate from one another.   They have no idea about social status, race, fear, anger, war, or poverty.  They eat, sleep, get up, go to bed, play with toys, dolls, and see every moment of their life as this great big ‘gift’ waiting to be unwrapped!   At ‘three feet tall’ we’re totally free of all prejudices and judgments and then, as we age and grow taller, it seems we begin to grow further from our innocence, our beautiful dream and this pure state of consciousness called ‘child’s mind’. Staying connected to our innocence and that ‘better part’ of ourselves, we must practice living in this state of consciousness called ‘child’s mind’ often.   I wrote the following song/poem, as a gentle reminder to myself, about ‘living in harmony with the Universe’ and the innocence of ‘child’s mind’.                                                                                               ‘Living in a Beautiful Dream’                                                      See all the children playing                                                           Laughing as they go,                                                 Never worrying what to do next                                                  Or  wondering where they’ll go.                                             Could it be that they’re so damn free                                                That they’ll never wonder why?                                               Black and white, hate and fright,                                             Don’t matter when your 3 feet high.                                                    And what will we tell them                                                    When they finally awaken                                                         From being children                                                You know it won’t be that long?                                                        Should we tell them                                                         We’ve tried some,                                             Or tell them we’ve lied some?                                                            If they knew                                           they’d never sing another song.                                                    So give me the mind                                                      Of a child at play                                        Enchanted by the kettles steam,                                            And I’ll laugh and I’ll sing                                           Throughout the whole day,                                           Living in a beautiful dream. Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much. God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love yourself, Love your life and Love one another’ ‘The 'Peace' of life comes to us in equal portions as we come to it.’ 'The Message'- Kenny Mitchell 08/29/2011 NUMBER 5 I am deeply humbled by all of the beautiful, kind, touching, positive, heartfelt responses to this ‘Monday Message’ Blog!  I honestly have no words that could ever begin to express what my heart feels.  Thank you!   This Blog is a compliment to a book I’m writing titled, ‘The Message’ sub-titled, ‘Life is Love, Love one Another’.  ‘The Message’ is a gentle reminder, in a sea of many here already, of how we create our life. I believe, I’m here in this life to re-harmonize and re-align myself with who I am as a co-creating God being, through every word I speak, thought I think, action I take, observation and feeling I have and through all my senses.                                                                                                                             THE MESSAGE                                                                             ‘OUR MESSAGE’ We each have a message we’re delivering, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, individually and collectively.  Whether we realize it or not, what we manifest in our life, either good or otherwise, is directly tied to our message.   If we’re wondering why we haven’t gotten what we want in any area of our life, then we might want to think about changing our message!   Our message is made up of every thought, word, action, belief, observation, and feeling we have.  If we create our life using them then what are we thinking or talking about?   What beliefs do we have or observations are we making?   How do we feel about our life?  How are we stimulating our senses?  Are we positively impacting our senses by surrounding ourselves with inspiring people and experiences? Are the words we use, conversations, thoughts, beliefs, and observations we have and then share with all of those around us, focused on the better part of our life?   Are we meditating, exercising, or walking in nature. How about listening to, or reading and watching uplifting messages? Are we helping those less fortunate and making an effort to serve in life for the greater good of all? All of these are how we contribute to our message we’re emitting and broadcasting into life.  When we stop, look and listen to them often and objectively enough, without letting our ego get in the way, we realize they’re the reasons we attract and manifest all we do or don’t have in our lives! Another way to think of our message is as our tool box.  How we use our message to build our dreams, visions, or desires, will result in their ultimate manifestations in our lives, either good or otherwise. So how are we using our tool box to create our life today? Thanks so very much again for all your incredible love and support of this blog and my music and in the process keeping me focused on the better part of my life and ‘my message’, always. ‘Love your self’, Love your life, and Love One Another’ ‘The only challenges or confusions I have in my life are the ones I choose to place before me' – Kenny Mitchell 08/22/2011 NUMBER 4 Thank You All So Very Much for your incredible outpouring of love and support of this blog!  I’m so very deeply blessed, and truly humbled!  Please know your uplifting notes of appreciation and encouragement are a huge part of what sustains my efforts and fuels my inspiration.  Whatever hesitations I may have initially had about writing this blog are gone. I’m not anyone’s Guru, but humbly here at the feet of all of those of you who are mine. When anyone comes to me with their challenges, every answer, direction, guidance or wisdom I share with them is also a reminder to me, of what I need to focus on when I’m dealing with my own! The conditions, I now enjoy, of love, peace, happiness, harmony, joy and abundance, spiritually, emotionally and physically, are the manifestations, of all my thoughts, words, actions, beliefs, feelings and observations to that end! Again, this hasn’t happened by accident but, by patience, practice and persistence!                                                                                     THE MESSAGE                                                                             ‘ARE WE THERE YET?’ One summer day when I was 9 during a family trip to the Atlantic Ocean, I asked aloud, to no one in particular, from the back seat of my parent’s big Buick sedan, “Are we there yet?” In reality it was probably only the 10th time I’d asked, but to my parents, especially my dad, it must have seemed like the 10,000th, because in an instant, almost as soon as I finished saying it, he reached around from the drivers seat without ever looking back, (which always amazed me how he could do that while he was driving!), and grasped the top my knee and squeezed it, (yeehaw!!), with his thumb and forefinger, and said, “Kenny, we’ll get there when we get there and all your asking won’t get us there any sooner, so knock it off, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!”   My dad was probably like most dads of his generation, the way he chose to raise us kids with a firm but loving hand, so I didn’t take the ‘vice-grip’ to the top of my leg and knee too seriously!  Besides being immediately raised to ‘hero status’, in the eyes of my brothers, for ‘taking one’ for the team that day, it did stop me, at least during the rest of that trip anyway, from asking again, ‘are we there yet?’ I feel many of us, in spite of what we’re being told or asked to be patient about, in many areas of our lives today, are still asking, ‘are we there yet?’, far too often.   We’re focusing our energy on all the things we want to have, get, achieve, or accomplish and so we miss seeing and enjoying all we have already in our life today! I guess the lesson my dad was trying to squeeze into my leg that day and the one I’m trying to share with you today is; the sooner we realize we won’t get there any faster, by all our impatience, or worries, no matter what we want to ‘get to’, or ‘have more immediately’ in our life, the sooner we’ll all be able to just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride of life we’re on today! Thank you all so very much for keeping me focused on ‘the ride of life I’m on today’, by your tender examples of love and kindness, through your calls and notes to me in support of this blog, and my music.  WHAT A RIDE!!! ‘Love Yourself, Love Your Life, Love One Another’ God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘When we focus on all we 'don't have', we starve ourselves from realizing all we 'do'. ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell 08/15/2011 NUMBER 3 Thanks so very much again to all of you who have been coming to this space and sending me your friend invitations and emailing me with your kind words. I am truly speechless by all of the incredible love you are all reflecting into my world and into to all life. I am deeply humbled by all the love pouring into my life literally by the bucket full.  Truly no words here on this page or any page could ever hope to begin to express to you what my heart feels by all your love. It’s for these reasons I, we, must continue to share with one another all that is uplifting, supporting, inspiring and nurturing each day only and often.  We create our reality and what better way than to create it with thoughts, words, beliefs, observations, actions, and feelings that are based and rooted in love! THE MESSAGE BASHERT, באַשערט It was Sunday. The year was 2006. I had been sitting at the Studio City, Hand Wash car wash, on Ventura Boulevard, waiting for my car to be detailed when suddenly I saw this pristine 1968 Oldsmobile model 442 muscle car, drive into the car wash. The man driving must have seen my mouth drop open as he drove in because as soon as he got out of his car he came over and sat down next to me.  We immediately started talking about the car, and continued talking non-stop about our lives for almost an hour. It was over before we knew it but it felt like we’d known each other a lifetime. As we were about to leave, I asked, ‘Out of the 7 billion people on the planet we could potentially meet why do you think we meet the ones we do?  He said, ‘There's a word in the Yiddish dialect, 'bashert', that means, destined, predestined, fated, or meant to be’.  As we shook hands to say goodbye, we both knew our meeting had been no accident but, bashert! I firmly believe I create my bashert and attract every situation into my life, either good or otherwise, with my every thought, word, belief, observation, action, and feeling.   What I think, say, believe or observe about my life and then act upon with intense enough feelings and desire, will be done unto me. (I will manifest). I also believe all I’ve ever manifested, attracted, or created in my life, hasn’t only been to gently guide me to be ‘more loving’, but ultimately, to re-align and re-harmonize me with the Whole, Essence, Source, Universal All Awareness, All Creating Divinity, Loving God of all life! Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much. God Bless and..."Be Peaceful" Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love your self, Love your life and Love one another.’ “We must stay focused upon the joyful, loving, peaceful task of creating the life we desire and dream of having.” - Kenny Mitchell 08/08/2011 NUMBER 2 Hello again my most precious loving brothers and sisters!  Wow!! No words could ever begin to express how very deeply touched I was to have received so many incredibly loving, positive and kind responses to my first blog!  I think we’re just about to take off to someplace very special! Speaking of which, I’m really flying by the seat of my pants here, this being only my second post, so please bear with me.  In the end I pray this blog will grow organically into a comforting, loving, soothing and peaceful place, to stop and pause for a moment, to relax, regenerate and reconnect to our peace, and by doing so, the many gifts in our lives. Just to recap for those of you who may not have entirely understood my last blog titled, ‘We Create Our Lives’, it was about how we each have a responsible part to play in creating our lives with every thought we think, word we speak, action we take, belief we have, and observation we make, and how they are all strengthened and made manifest in our lives by the intensity of the feelings, desires and emotions we place beneath them.  This may be a lot for some of you to digest but please don’t worry, it’s a lot easier than you might think and the truth is, like anything we want to get better at, it just takes a little patience, practice and persistence!   THE MESSAGE ‘WHAT A GREAT DAY!!’ Why do we give away any of our precious life to thoughts or conversations we have about all the stuff we’re so unhappy about?  What are we thinking or talking about while we’re driving our car, or walking on a beautiful beach, or when we’re at work, or with our friends, families or significant others, or really anytime?  How about right now, or just before we sat down to read this, were we thinking or talking about how great our life is or something else? Whatever you’re thinking or saying please know I’m not here to judge or police anyone’s thoughts or conversations. Believe me, I have my own thoughts and conversations to police and if there were a monitor over my head displaying them well, let’s just say I have my own thoughts!        Years ago I went through a period of my life when I’d say, ‘Most of the time, I get the day but sometimes ‘the day’ gets me!’  I didn’t say it every day but often enough until I finally created a day that actually did ‘get me’ so I stopped saying it! Then I started saying, ‘Most of the time I get the day but, there are ‘moments’ in ‘some days’ that get me!’ but, even saying this new and improved version, about having only ‘moments’ in some days ‘getting me’, I was still creating those ‘moments’ so, I revised it again and now I say, ‘WHAT A GREAT DAY!’     Creating the life I want is an ongoing process and the more patience, practice and persistence the easier it gets!   I always try to be aware of whenever my focus is taking me from my peace, and as soon as I am, I start to reprogram myself accordingly.   The point is, I didn’t go from losing a ‘whole day’ by what I was creating using my words and thoughts, to losing only a ‘moment’ of my day to, ‘WHAT A GREAT DAY’, overnight!  I got there, like I mentioned above, by lots of patience, practice, and persistence and genuinely wanting them a lot less in my life!   I believe the time I’m taken from my peace, or happiness, by any thoughts or conversations I’m having to the contrary, is greatly reduced by how long ‘I choose’ to commiserate with them!   How much of my day do I want to give to any thought or conversation that keeps me from realizing my peace, joy, happiness, or abundance in any area of my life?  How much of this incredibly beautiful dance of life do I want to give up to my thoughts or conversations to the contrary? For me the answer is NONE! NOT ANY! NADA! at least not if I have anything to say or think about it and the good news is, I DO and so do you! The next time you realize any part of your day being taken from you, by a thought or conversation you’re having about your challenges, try saying or thinking; Life is Love or I am Love, over and over again until you stop focusing on them! Or try taking a walk and say or think the word, Love, every other step!   I guarantee these simple exercises will work for two reasons.  First you can’t think and talk at the same time and second, they’ll begin to refocus you away from what you were thinking or saying! Until the next time please know that you are all often in my thoughts but ALWAYS in my heart.  WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!!! God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love Yourself, Love Your Life and Love One Another’ “Life is not calculus, it’s simple math, we make it calculus” - Kenny Mitchell 08/01/2011                                                                                         NUMBER 1 I started this Blog because many of you, who know my work, have asked me to share my thoughts, words, feelings, and ideas about life, not only with all of you, but with a larger audience. My sincerest desire is that through this blog my work, and my message, may begin to reach that larger audience. I pray it will become a place for you to come and relax and refresh yourselves, even if for only a moment, and that it may somehow gently guide you to a place where you may find even more comfort, happiness, harmony, love, joy, abundance, and peace, in every area of your lives. I strongly feel if we wish to see change in any area of our lives, we must first be open to having those changes.  When we are truly open to change, someone, or something will step into our lives to gently guide us to them.  But please remember, whenever we wish to bring about any change, no matter what, it is always by our own hand. Nothing we can ever hear, read, study or learn, will ever bring about any change for us alone.  It is only in the application of all we have heard, read, studied or learned that will bring us to the realization of those changes.   I am just one voice in a sea of many, humbly here to assist any who wish in finding the better part of life.  Here as a gentle reminder that we each create our lives with every word we speak, thought we think, action we take, belief and feeling we have, and observation we make.                                                                                          ‘THE MESSAGE’                                                                              'WE CREATE OR LIVES' Quantum Physics by way of, ‘The Measurement Problem’, confirmed what the greatest spiritual leaders, sages, healers, enlightened masters, gurus, and indigenous peoples have known and been telling us, not just for centuries but, since the beginning of recorded history, ‘We create our lives’. ‘The Measurement Problem’ basically states; ‘an atom, (pre-matter if you will), only appears in a particular place, and becomes a solid form, or materializes, when you measure or observe it’. In other words; an atom is spread out all over the place until a ‘conscious observer’, (you or me), decides to look at it and only then does it manifest or materialize! So, the act of ‘measuring’, ‘observing’, looking, or focusing upon anything, like all the thoughts, words, actions, feelings, beliefs and observations we have each day, is how we literally create our entire material universe!   I am starting my blogs with the title ‘We create our lives’, because I feel it’s truly the foundation, underpinning and main tenet of what I believe to be the crucial key element of how we must begin to focus if we are ever to equal the playing field, so to speak, of realizing the best lives we could ever dream or imagine ourselves having.   How we apply any idea, concept or teaching, will help our lives become a lot less lopsided in our opponent’s favor.  Our opponents being fear, misery, worry, woe, anger, etc. or anything really that takes us away from this beautiful journey that is our life. The following life quotes, proverbs and adages, are a few I turn to, for inspiration, whenever I am challenged in any area of my life.  I pray they may do the same for you as well. ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’.   - Shakespeare - Hamlet ‘Ask and you shall receive’ (WHATEVER WE SAY!). – ‘Believe and it will be done unto you’ (WHATEVER WE THINK!). – ‘Knock and the door shall be opened’ (WHATEVER ACTION WE TAKE!)". - Jesus of Nazareth ‘A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes’. - Gandhi ‘Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves’. -Buddha ‘Hold ONLY those THOUGHTS that are DEAREST to you NEAREST to YOU’. -Kenny Mitchell So, if we create our lives, with every word, thought, action, belief, and observation, and we’re still not realizing our happiness, peace, joy, love, abundance or comfort in any area of our lives, then who’s responsible?  I think we all wish sometimes this was a trick question, me included, but the answer, whether or not we honestly want to hear it is.. EACH OF US! Until the next time, I love you all and I sincerely thank you for stopping by. God Bless and... "Be Peaceful" Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love your Self, Love your Life, and Love one Another’ 05/09/2011 NUMBER 6 Again I’d like to take a moment to humbly acknowledge and sincerely thank all of you who have been contacting me about this Blog!  I’m so very deeply blessed to receive your uplifting notes and encouraging words! One reason I write this Blog is it’s self-serving!   Self-serving because writing it helps remind me of what I need to focus on each day if I want to have more love, peace, joy, happiness and abundance in any area of my life. I need to read and hear ‘the message’ this Blog has to offer, as often as any other person, because it helps to quiet those thoughts that sometimes keep me from realizing how incredibly blessed my life truly is!   My sincerest desire is to be free of my ego-self to express my soul, my true self, and that perfect, whole, well, complete, unbounded, unlimited, and eternal part of me, more!                                                                                         THE MESSAGE                                               ‘LIFE’S A MINUTE WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO WITH IT?’ It was Friday about 6:50 pm, on a beautiful warm summer evening in August 2010.  I was standing in my kitchen, talking, laughing and making pizzas with three very dear friends of mine, when suddenly appearing out of nowhere, I saw my mother! Normally seeing my mother wouldn’t have been a big deal, except for one very important detail… my mom’s been gone from her physical body and from my life since May of 1994! I didn’t actually see her physically, but in my minds eye, like I was watching a movie in slow motion or having a dream, but I was wide awake and it was no dream!   When I first saw her, I wasn’t surprised or frightened, I honestly didn’t have time to be and she looked so beautiful and smiling, and exactly the way I remembered, from my earliest memories of her, when I was 2 years old. It seemed as though she was racing towards me, while all the life we’d shared together was unfolding at the very same time!  Then, just as quickly as she’d appeared, she raced past me and I watched her until she was out of sight! Even though my vision had lasted less than a minute it seemed like a really, really long time had passed and then, the lights came on, the curtains came up, the show was over and she was gone!  It was all too surreal! My friends had no idea what happened because, it was over almost as soon as it began, but when it ended, I went into the living room, picked up my guitar and wrote the following. It’s five o’clock in the morning Somebody pour me another drink Cause I just saw my momma’s life racing past me And I don’t know what to think! I don’t know what to think I don’t know what to say I don’t know really, if it matters any way? That I just saw my momma’s life racing past me And I don’t know what to think! I don’t know what any of you might think about how fast this life seems to be racing by at times but to me it feels like I was fifteen yesterday, and today, after what seems only a minute later, well… I’m not. I honestly don’t have anyone’s answers of how to be more in harmony with their life but if I may humbly suggest the following, which is something I do whenever I find myself caught in the ‘web of life’ and momentarily taken from the beauty of this incredibly precious life racing past me.. I STOP for a moment, TAKE A BIG DEEP BREATH and then…. I GET DOWN OFF THIS RIDE CALLED LIFE and REFLECT upon ALL that IS and ALL that EVER HAS BEEN… GOOD in my life!!!!!!! Life’s a minute what do you want to do with it? Thank you all so very much again for taking the time ‘to take the time’ to share your love and a moment of your day with me.  I love you all so very much. God Bless and… “Be Peaceful” Love, Love, Kenny ‘Love your self, Love, your life, and Love one another’ ‘We must find the time each day to stop for a moment and reflect upon all that is good with our lives, and with all life.’  ‘The Message’ - Kenny Mitchell ©KennyMitchell.com 2006-2011 All rights reserved.