Working to burn off my covid pounds…inch by inch.

Happy Friday, it’s the weekend, followed by a case of the Mondays, a moment of hope on Humpday…aka Wednesday because you’re halfway through the week…ever closer to…another Happy Friday.

As we move into a Post Covid World, post crisis at least, we all have the opportunity to decide what our new normal is. What we do and don't want in our lives. Who we want in our lives. How we want to spend our time, money and thus LIFE…

“Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren't packed with wise and moral actions…

The other day I was at Shock City Studios working to complete my audiobook when Rich, the sound engineer who makes It’s the Journey sound so good, was confirming where we were starting that day. I told him the page and, for probably the 3rd time…

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked that question, well…I’d have quite a pile of nickels.

I’ve been getting it a lot more lately as I’ve been having fun with my book and podcast project…

When we dive into something new we have to be willing to push through that tough beginning part when we are so consciously bad at whatever we are trying.

It’s the Journey is an extension of the topics I discuss in AfterLIFE. I’ll continue to explore examples of living on purpose through the lives of other who join me on the show.

January 2, 1934 was the day James Harvey Baller was born. Happy Birthday Jim!

Who was Jim you ask? Well, he was my mom’s 2nd husband, my stepdad, and my friend. I loved him for all those things.

When I was a kid there were parts of my childhood with divorced parents that was tough and like many, I always assumed happiness could be found in another place. I spent many summers with my aunts and uncles in California so I spent lots of time imagining how happy I could be if I just lived there…

“Why do we spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be? If only we knew what we wanted. Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?”

 Thomas Merton

100 Years ago today a Sicilian boy arrived in America. December 20, 1920, my paternal grandfather, Salvatore Sanfilippo, made his way to New York aboard the SS Madonna.  An 18 year kid old who may never have left Sicily before then somehow got from Trappeto to Palermo to Naples to New York and then eventually St. Louis…

This summer I had a hard time when people would hypothesize when this Covid mess would all be over.  Many people would set some date that it “had to be over by then” to feel a sense of control or comfort only to become sad, scared or depressed when that date came and went.

For me, like many, this time of year is about reflection of the current year and contemplation of the next.  None of us were thinking we’d all be in a grand time-out for most of 2020 and a good deal of 2021 as we make our way through the ugly phase of the pandemic and hopefully are getting vaccinated next year and able to get back to “normal”.  As I think about this year though there are many things I don’t want to get back to…

If you know me or if/when you read my book “AfterLIFE” (to be released in January 2021 www.carloblog.com) then you’ll know my stories of “yes and-ing” and “following the fun” that have lead me on a path of growth, learning, and adventure for nearly a decade now. Each thing that I said yes to lead me to new adventures, new people, new passions, all the way to this very with this project…

My whole life I have been fascinated by history. Through the biographies of historical figures, we can learn so much about life—through the lens and context of another time.  A couple years ago I read the biography on Leonardo Da Vinci…

The longer we are in this grand time out, the more opportunities there are for profound and meaningful changes in the way we live.

Here are some things I've changed or adjusted that I'm quite happy with:

A quick google search will pull up tons of "kill the ego" articles, tips and tricks. Sigmund Freud is credited with coining that term, but in his writings he never used it. He spoke of the "Ich" and the "Uber ich", or the "I" and "Super I". When his works were translated from German into English the Latin word for "I", Ego, was substituted.