When we are growing up, we constantly hear the croon of those that are our senior how “fast time flies” or that “it seems like I was just changing your diapers yesterday.” Lo and behold, I’m just a few days away from welcoming my amazing pre-teen daughter into teen-dom.

And I am SO looking forward to it.

But it did just feel like yesterday.

It seems there are so many things that influence that perception of time, not the least of which is the speed of my own life. I think the amount of margin we carry in life affects it as well. Neither of these elements were very optimized during the first 10 years of my lovely daughter’s life. And it went FAST. I wish I was more present – and that’s not really referring to the physical sense – I worked from home. Physically present does not equal emotionally present.

The last few years have been a journey toward “better” – learning to be (and enjoying being) more present in relationships, even in the midst of less than optimal conditions (financial pressure, business commitments, emotional struggle, etc.) Just this week, I’m in the middle of a significant amount of pressures to deliver a project for a client, and I’m learning that presence does not come without a fight – when I let my guard down this week, the fog rolls in, and when my daughter shows me the beautiful dress she and mom just purchased for our date this saturday, I see it, am blown away by it, but it seems like a world so far away in that moment. If I continue to let that slip, by the time Saturday rolls around, I’ll be completely taken out by the event.

I must keep fighting! We all must. I have spent so much of my life letting my circumstances dictate my well being that it is easy to fall back on that behavior. Thankfully, circumstances are just that – circumstances – and they don’t define who we are are (but how we approach them often indicates who dwells within us.)

I’m really looking forward to ushering this amazing new teen into the world. It’s been fun to watch her gifts develop, and to do our best to provide an environment for those gifts to incubate with minimal distraction from the “expectations” of society.

Audiophiles tell us that one of the colorful words used to describe that a loudspeaker delivers a live, lifelike sound is “presence.” Isn’t that interesting, that a measurement of presences is the amount of life-likeness? Oh, I want to be that!

And to Aimee Cole, you are an amazing young lady, with a very diverse set of gifts and talents. Extremely artistic and creative (www.bluwatermelon.com) and a Martial Artist as well (Tae Kwon Do Black Belt.) It’s so much fun to watch you live in your gifts, and see in you the joy that you get from that activity. I can’t wait to spend this weekend with you – present.

Presently,

~Bryan

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I am so amazingly in love with you –  and my love for you grows stronger with every day that I spend my life with you.  I begin each new day wondering what you have in store for both of us – what adventure will we complete this day, what challenge will we have to overcome that we can only overcome together. Yes, I even look forward to those things from my past that you bring up and force me to deal with – I know that working through those things only deepens the adventure, and beaks down any remaining parts of the wall that prevent me from fully knowing and experiencing you.

It wasn’t always like that, you and I…   Read the rest

I’ve been asked many times by people who have observed me losing 50 pounds this last year and a half (it actually does not have to take that long, “How did you do it?”

I love the question, and the answer is both an enjoyable one for me to deliver, and at the same time a source of great frustration. You see, I’m beginning to learn that, in many areas of life, “common knowledge” is not necessarily “correct knowledge.” Yet somehow in our society, we tend to elevate it to law very quickly.

In no area is that seemingly more true than in medical science, especially with regard to how we as humans should eat. You have the USDA food pyramid, with it’s base of grains, breads, and rice – and it’s recommendation to use fats and oils very sparingly. You combine that with the rest information they tell us ( who are THEY anyway ) and you get a low fat, high carbohydrate diet as what is optimal for our health.

So.. have you looked around lately? How have we done with this in the last 30 years? I think you will agree, we’ve failed. Or rather, the ‘diet’ has failed us, and failed us big time. This is why it’s so frustrating to me – when I offer assistance to someone to help them get on the right dietary track, I have to wade through the incredible amount of “common knowledge” that they’ve received through a myriad of channels in order to deliver the real truth about eating well.

I plan to bust myths regarding healthy eating in a series of articles (subject to change as I move along…)

1- It’s Not The Color Of Your Bread That Counts
2- Eating Fat Does Not Make You Fat
3- Eating Cholesterol Does Not Raise Your Cholesterol
4- A Thin Person Is Not Necessarily A Healthy Person

But first, let’s set the stage. I have followed Dr Eades for quite some time (long before implementing his recommendations.) As with many discoveries of truth, he was suspect of the ‘status quo’ of information that was prevalent at that time (and still is – it’s actually gotten worse.) He began to research on his own and, well, it’s best if you just hear it directly from him below. Have an open mind, and we’ll begin replacing “common knowledge” with truth in these next few articles. Warning: following along may cause you to implement new ways of eating, causing you to lose large amounts of weight, feel better, and enjoy eating in the process. And, you’ll have to help YOUR friends wade through the piles of misinformation and untruths being sold as “common knowledge.”

I’ve been wanting to share this with you all for a long time – I hope you enjoy the journey!
~Bryan

p.s. click the link to go to the site – it may be a bit easier to read in it’s original size…

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Hi friends,

Sorry for the radio silence lately, lots ‘O stuff going on (mostly good.) Lots of partially completed posts hanging around, all fun stuff, we’ll get them up in due time for your perusal.

But for now, just a quick post. You all likely know that I have a passion for people working in their gifting. A past blog post about Benjamin Zander is a classic example.. I get “shiny eyes” every time I watch the clip.

I firmly believe that we all have an “offer” – that offer can show up in so many ways. As I’ve learned through my own experiences, your “offer” does not necessarily drive you to a vocation that “is” that offer. In other words, just because you’ve got a ‘knack’ for understanding people does not mean that you wear a title of “People Understander.” Your vocation is never enough to encompass who you are..

However, through creative means there are always let all that you are come out in your vocation…

Like being a great Musician, that can “rap” in an amazing, creative way, but just happens to be a Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant.

See for yourself below.. And we’ll catch you with a new post.. very soon!

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I’m sure that’s not an original title, I did not even bother to Google it, I’m sure there are a bazillion posts like that out there. Today, I’m just “wondering out loud” along with you, no doubt.

My thoughts were inspired by today’s TED post from Renny Gleeson, Web 2.0 media and marketing guy:

I know you’ve all seen the poses Renny references. You’ve even seen the car traveling down the freeway on autopilot as the driver has head buried in small hand held device (I’m guilty) attempting to type a text message on a numeric keyboard. You’ve even seen the road sign probably in the form of a bumper sticker (it’s OK, I know it had a ‘bad word’ in it – trust me you will be OK.) Read the rest

There… I said it. I feel so much better now, thank you! But I really am.

As I’ve been learning and growing in this new phase of life, I’ve been around mentors and others whom will recommend books to me, either in a talk, conversation, or even in another book. Something like “If you want to go deeper, try ‘Such and so’ from ‘Whoever.’” So I trip over to half.com, and search for the title. Having been “checked out” on reading for such a long time, I’m catching up on books that are not necessarily brand new this year. The good news is, someone in this world has purchased the book, read it, and no longer desires to keep it around. Lucky for me! Unlucky for my night stand, as it towers under the weight of this new material. Read the rest

That, my friends, is an outstanding question! In fact, I must say I do hear this question a lot. Interestingly enough, it never comes directly from a source, it comes more in the form of “… so and so was asking why…” and other similar forms.

It comes from family, friends, church, you name it. Heck, it even comes from me at times!

Why does it always have to be a job? Actually, I should pause here and offer you, the fearless reader, a little bit of background to set the context.

If you have not read the first ever post on this blog, I recommend that you do that now, you can find it here. My life’s journey had a huge “reset” about 2 years ago, when my poorly constructed financial world came crashing down, setting off a very long (and very healthy) downsizing trend, that essentially takes us to this moment in time. This “crash” turned out to be one of the biggest blessings God has ever given me, and the effects have been far reaching on family, friends, and relationships. It exposed so many areas within me that needed to die, so many things that I spent my time on that were keeping me from the very Glory that God had designed for my life.

You see, we all have a part in His story, and He reveals the script to us through relationship with Him. Did you catch that part about relationship? Read the rest

Or at least, that’s what I originally thought.

And now I are one.

What happened? Hmmn… It’s probably best that I start from the beginning. I’m a techy guy cleverly disguised as a reasonably well adjusted human being (my own interpretation, create your own as you wish.) My first Jr. High School book report done on a computer was coded in BASIC, and printed using LPRINT statements (I had no word processing software at the time.) I’ve had an e-mail account since they were simply numbers (remember CompuServe?) My first use of the public internet in 1993 involved things like FINGER, ARCHIE, VT100, and finally WEBCRAWLER.  Me not afraid of using techology (some might even say over-using!)

Instant Messaging came on the scene in the late 90′s (remember ICQ – Uh Oh!) When I remembered to turn it on, I found it valuable to communicate with relatives across the country. Same deal with Simple Message System (aka SMS, aka TXT Messaging) I’ve had phones with that capability for quite a few years, and before that, a SkyTel pager that essentially did the same thing (at a much higher cost.)

All of the things I’ve mentioned so far were things I participated in, and used to some degree or another. But I began to notice a shift, and it appeared to be a generational shift. Read the rest

The time has definitely come.. for some structure in the Cole Family. But first, a little background.

For most of my employed and self-employed life, I’ve been in roles that do not demand that I be in an office, or “on location” on a regimented schedule. It’s really the way I would prefer it, but that’s a “whole ‘nuther topic!” When you combine somewhat of a lack of self discipline in the past, with a flexable working arrangement, it tends to default to a rather un-structured result. Sprinkle in a little of the “night-owl-ness” and, well, I think you begin to see the total effect.

That result is not the best formula for creating a stable family environment, where mom has security, and the kids have positive things they can count on – nevermind the benefits to me personally! I’m fairly convinced that many of us have the awareness of what the needs of our family are that create this zone of safety, but in the busy, plate-spinning world that we live in, we often don’t truly have (make) the time to set up a dependable structure. There are those families that do have this – I’ve seen you throughout the years, and have envied you; I’ve wanted what you have, wanted it for my family, I’ve just not seen how I could get it. Truth is, God had to clear out the underbrush in my life, and make space for thoughts like this to even be processed. Actually, as I write this, there’s even a deeper truth that comes out for me… I wanted it, and may have even had the ability to implement some level of it, but like so many other things that I wanted for my life, it scared me to death. Read the rest

I have so many half completed posts in my blog that I need/want to finish. But every once in a while, God rocks our world, and best laid plans are to be set aside. Well, God rocked my world tonight.

Those that know me well know that music is an enourmous theme in my life. Music has a dramatic effect on me, it is one of the very ways that God speaks to me. I was not always able to phrase it this way (thanks Ransomed Heart)  but I now know why certain songs, certain words pry at my very soul, bringing me to all flavor of emotion, manifest in goose bumps, chills, and tears.

My dear friend Kit Reichow wrote about music in his blog post just the other day, and the story resonated with me. I, too, have seen August Rush (thanks Kit) and I get the analogy… The music IS all around us, we just have to listen. God is all around us, we just have to LISTEN!

Prior to “the fall” (not Adam and Eve, I’m talking the Bryan Cole Dark Valley circa 2007-2008) I rarely watched television. I’d been an avid Star Trek fan in the past, especially “The Next Generation” series from the early ’90s (I think Picard is a fantastic leadership study.) But the years before “the fall” I dismissed much of the things that I enjoyed in the past, and as the Star Trek saga rolled on, I ignored it. However “post fall” I began to take a little time to catch up, and I really began to enjoy “Deep Space 9.” Then one day, somehow, the DVR caught “Star Trek: Enterprise.” Of course, I immediately judged it as not up to par with the others (before watching it – such old habit) but I gave it a chance. I do now like the series, but the real power for me was in the opening title scene, which plays on every episode.

The video here is that very opener. It is basically a 1 minute history lesson of great travel expeditions and their craft achievements, from the 16th century HMS Enterprise to The Space Shuttle (and beyond.) It really wakes up my heart, to the results of perseverance toward the dreams and desires that God wrote upon our heart, so that we would be drawn into the role that he has for us in “The Story.”

But it gets better. I began to research the song “Where My Heart Will Take Me” and the song is SO powerful! The words speak directly to me, right here, were I am EXACTLY in MY story.

Check out the lyrics:
- Russell Watson Lyrics
So needless to say, the song went on my iPod, and at times I listen to it in the car over and over again, consecutively. The music speaks to me; God speaks to me.

And He’s been speaking a lot lately.

In the last few weeks, I’ve really been hearing a lot from God in many ways on my part in the story. It’s gone from a general understanding based on my desire, and is rapidly moving into a laser focus. The song means more and more. I attended a Money Coaching training class (more on that in another post) and the designers used some music here and there in the seminar, and I began to share this song with them, as overcoming money issues can be a real transition point for many (don’t I kn0w.) That brought the song to the forefront (I’d not played it in a few months). But it gets better.

So I’ve also been catching up on some movies I’ve missed, especially those with an inspiring story – another way God reaches me, and many others, is through movies. I watched “Patch Adams” this evening. Whoa. Tears. God was answering a lot of questions about how my desires were going to manifest themselves for His glory, and he tore down a lot of barriers that I was already creating, with that movie.

So the movie ends, my face is blustery and wet with tears, and then the credits come. What’s the end title track? “Where My Heart Will Take Me.”

I totally get it, God. I’m over-engineering the use of my Gifts. You’ve spoken to me through the character of Patch Adams; just GO and use my gifts. And if I did not get that loud and clear, you cemented the understanding with a song.. THE song..

God, you are amazing. God, you are so good. You go to such great lengths to speak to us, to draw us to you, into your story. And you are so patient, as we begin to take what you give us and try to mold it ourselves, as if the clay was still wet. Then we remember, you are the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. You wrote the story, and it is finished; and the more we listen, the more we are drawn to it, the more we are drawn to you. And the more we experience the Glory you have SPECIFICALLY for us.

The music IS all around is, we just have to listen.

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