It’s quite interesting…many of us assume in this day and age that the new, improved, updated and latest model outweighs all that came before. Indeed, it could be true for certain items or information…for example: computers, history books or some of the latest gadgets … but with a little distance, the cream rises to the top.

This week the vaults are being mined once again for a recording group that broke up over 33 years ago. On Tuesday, “Let It Be…Naked,” is being released worldwide. It is to be the version of the album that was supposed to come out before it was remixed by producer Phil Spector. Each year there is a new Elvis Presley Box Set containing unreleased material and recently, in an interview, producer Eddie Kramer said that there are still hours of quality recordings to come out on Jimi Hendrix. I could go on and on, mentioning the latest Frank Sinatra release or perhaps a little Rosemary Clooney, or Peggy Lee, whatever is your taste. One thing’s for sure….there is a hunger for quality in the year 2003. I still find it quite ironic seeing a 12 year old buying a copy of The Beatles Abbey Road:)

How much have we succumbed to as a society? In an age of instant gratification, what do we give up of lasting value? Do we still find uniqueness a qualified treasure, or are we willing to settle for a copy of a copy? On a recent business show a record industry executive was mentioning the damage that file sharing has done to his business…suddenly he was stopped by the interviewer who said “Doesn’t it strike you as strange that your biggest selling artists are dead people?” Stunned, the executive was lost for words. How many more Remastered Recordings, Special Edition DVD’s of classic movies, or more In-depth Documentaries do we have to see before we realize there is a price to pay for lack of fostering new creativity?

Quality moves right across the board…not only in electronics, media, but also in clothing, food, art and construction, etc. We all have a responsibility to give our best…if not, we fall victim to obsolescence. If you have ever cleaned out your attic or basement, the quality stands out. The value shines through the dust. You remember and see the treasures you forgot.

Quality is timeless. It transcends through the ages…improving with time. Quality preserves…Quality teaches….Quality lasts…..

Good Work takes time,
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

Human beings as a whole are made up of all different shapes and sizes…while some may stretch to a height of seven feet, others come in around five and a half feet, or shorter. No mystery here…it’s just the way God made us….each one of us different and unique….human development and nature, which grows at it’s own pace. Plain and simple, we should not be surprised that physical, emotional and intellectual growth differs from individual to individual….only mankind, in it’s wisdom, starts to assign rules, regulations and levels to achievement.

For each person who prospers and accomplishes early in life, there is also a corresponding number who are called, “Late Bloomers.” In a society with a short attention span seeking instant gratification, is it any wonder that there is little patience for these Late Bloomers? It can also be said, right smack in the middle of Early Achievers and Late Bloomers, is a whole hodge podge of our society….trying to find out how their successes can be measured. One question stands out…can we really put an age on talent, achievement, and acceptability?

One night I was watching The Larry King Show on CNN, and I listened with amazement to the writings of a little boy with muscular dystrophy…reciting his poetry with the wisdom that could easily been created by an eighty year old….a child with no degrees after his name, with a universal knowledge that was so unique and simple that anyone from any walk of life would be able to comprehend. It also brought to mind something I experienced a few years ago, at the nightclub Michael’s Pub in New York City, where the singer Mel Torme was appearing, before his passing. Mel mentioned, as he looked around the room, something to the effect of, that at this late stage in his career, in his late sixties, that he saw young people over here, not so young people over there, and here he was playing a two week engagement that was sold out. He added that when he was half that age, he wouldn’t have been able to sell out the place for one night! Then he thanked everyone. The point being, for anybody or any society to have the audacity to put any limits or restrictions on abilities like these, according to age, is wrong.

Life is not a race…it doesn’t matter who gets there first. It’s just that we get there.

Keep on truckin’ 🙂
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

My definition of intelligence has greatly changed over the years. I used to believe that intelligence boiled down to having the most diplomas on the wall. I used to believe that belonging to the right societies, serving on cultural boards or counting the visits to the museum was a correct gauge of one’s knowledge. Unfortunately, a person can do all of these things, and still remain stupid.

Our great society has inflicted upon us a warped sense of pure intelligence. If the goal in life is to attain Peace, and Love, truly…..can we find it in a dollar bill? Being cultured, indeed, is important, as is financial responsibility….but, can they alone be the barometer of intellect? I don’t think so. Stupidity is a trait that is inflicted upon a person over time. The only way to overcome it is to understand why it exists, and search for the cure. So let’s take a look at what makes someone stupid, and how one can evolve from it.
As I have said before, culture and finance…two of the main gauges of success in a society, can leave us feeling empty and depressed upon achievement. How many multimillionaires have we read about over time who have spent their last days feeling empty and lost? I don’t know about you, but if I had accumulated a large amount of money in my life, and at the end of my days felt lost…I would consider myself stupid. How many more intellectual or literary writers do we need to read about, who were acclaimed by their peers, who committed suicide because they felt worthless? Yes, indeed, they fulfilled their art, but personally they were left feeling morose. Some, you could say developed psychological disorders…but overall, did they realize that their search for success and notoriety led them to the wrong place? There are four people that I know in my life who are all financially independent, and surrounded by loved ones, yet, they spend their days feeling sorry for themselves, angry, and plotting how to manipulate the next kind soul that comes their way. This is the definition of stupidity.

So what do I think real intelligence is? I think it is the realization that the true purpose of life is to Love, and be Loved unconditionally. For me, Love and God coexist together. Love is God….and God is Love. If in my endeavors I do not incorporate the ingredient of Love, then my goal cannot involve intelligence. The purpose of Life has to be to leave this earth a little better for having been here. It has been said many times, by people far smarter than me. Real intelligence, I believe, eventually leads one to this conclusion: that Faith, Peace, Love, and Life are priceless and precious…..without them, we are nothing more than hollow shells, adrift in a sea of stupidity.

Love,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

The two facets of life that overall inflict the mightiest highs and most devastating lows are Love and Money. Emotions and Finance…a powerful concoction that moves through our lives over time. The better we understand their affects, the more control and discipline we will have over the joy/pain factor. Responsibility is a key ingredient for both…still, a full comprehension is needed if we are to get a handle on their affects.

Let us ponder the thought…how important is it in our lives who we love, and who loves us? God loves us unconditionally, but human to human love can be a whole different scenario. Who we choose to love sets the stage for at least fifty percent of the daily influences in our lives. If we are in a healthy and growing relationship, we prosper and evolve…basically becoming better people. When in a destructive and suppressive environment, we become trapped and stagnate. Is it any wonder why the infliction of depression is so common these days? So it falls to us to try the best we can to choose relationships that can nurture our lives in a positive way. Yes indeed, relationships do go sour sometimes…and one must move on…but it’s always good to keep in mind how important emotional partnerships really are.

Finances…or for a better word, plain old money…in my life’s experiences have delivered the hardest blows. Many of my friends, myself included, have learned sometimes the hard way that “There ain’t no free lunch” 🙂 the bill eventually comes in the mail!:) If only in the present moment we realize that each financial decision we make so greatly can affect our tomorrow, we may think twice of buying an item that we will eventually pay back three times it’s value. Hey, we all need a home, a car, etc., but isn’t it interesting…it’s the mundane and temporary stuff that costs the most. So many books have been written on how to become financially independent…yet still most Americans get to retirement age with little or no savings. Money, as one says, could be the root of all evil…but that all depends on what you do with it.
Is it so important to marry the millionaire? Do we really think we would be happier? Do movie stars really have a better life? Each night on our television screens a parade of individuals are pranced out before us, telling us “We’ve made it! This is the way to live!!” Only to at some point watch them crash. The heart and the pocketbook, talk about opposites attracting! So what do we do? Is there Nirvana? The perfect world, where everything is wonderful and beautiful all of the time? Yes there is, but it’s not here.

As some say “The day is evil, it is up to us to make it good.” Wouldn’t it be incredible if each life was enriched by Love, and balanced by Finance….think about all the good that one could do with all that extra time. Then there could be no excuses, only the Truth of who we are.

Embrace the balance,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

Let’s imagine for a moment that our life is a lake in the middle of a forest…. calm, serene, with greenery all around us. The perfect setting for a peaceful life, except in this world, is it realistic to believe that this perfect picture cannot change? Our peaceful lake unfortunately is exposed to all the elements and winds of change that life can throw at it. As much as we prepare, it is always wise to expect the unexpected.

Rain, wind, sun and evolving landscapes are what our lake has to contend with. There is life and death as we travel the shores of time, yet, why do we expect our own individual lives to have a different climate than the lake? Aren’t we too exposed to all the elements? For humans it’s just a touch different…yet not by much. Like the lake, we have our share of good days and bad ones…and still we go on. The acceptance of reality is key. We learn like the lake to preserve ourselves….to grow, to become stronger, so that the next time we are hit with adversity, we have better defenses to weather the storm. Like the lake, around us are other forms of life…we all battle the same weather. The winds may blow at us, but our neighbors too are confronted with it’s breath also….. there are people sharing the same tapestry of life. Acceptance of change is one of the hardest things we mere mortals must do. We fight it, but eventually it happens. Don’t feel alone…there is not a living creature that doesn’t have to come to terms with change….even the lake.

On a starry night, look up at the Heavens…take a glimpse for a moment of all the life that surrounds you….and somewhere, in some forest, is a lake reflecting the same moonlight. We all share the Heavens…..

Love thy neighbor,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

From the day we breathe our first breath, we are inundated with sights and sounds that shape our consciousness. With each breath, we are allowed to continue the journey through the fields of mortality. This Gift of Life should never be taken for granted….far too many have fought so hard to defend it, and hold on for just one more day. As we rise each morning, we are given a chance to bask in the wonderment of Divine Creation.

Physical existence is simply a dance between life and death. Each year we push forward to the next….to continue our quest of growth, and a greater understanding of who we are, and why we are here…until the day comes for us to leave. I used to have quite a different opinion of life and death….but over the years I have learned to see that at some point, death is a gift too. How so, you may ask? Well, a person sick and in pain, or inflicted with a terminal disease that is so excruciating, will at some point pray to be let go. To quote singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, who last week passed away from lung cancer, “To not live is a sin.” Warren embraced his final months with dignity and humor. Many of his friends were known to have heard him say, “I just want to live long enough to see the next James Bond movie!”, and, “It’s important to enjoy every sandwich!” Last Sunday Warren peacefully passed away, while taking an afternoon nap. His final months were spent recording a new CD called, oddly enough, “The Wind.” A fine example of a man who grasped his life and accepted his death. In his last interview, he said, “I’ve been very lucky…I’ve had the chance to live two lives…the first one, a crazy rock star, ranting and raving around the stage each night, and the other, twenty years of sobriety where I got to spend valuable time with my family.”

Life indeed is a series of stages. From birth to death and all the in-between. Seeing that no one yet has been able to live forever, death becomes the final gift of life. It is not an end, but a new beginning. To overcome the fear of death is perhaps the ultimate gift of life, because in doing so, every moment has value. Life is really nothing more than a grandiose vacation, where one day it is time to go home.

Live the Gift,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

This week many of us will see images over the television screen that will relive the horror that happened on 9/11. It is hardly believable that two years have passed, yet for some, including myself, the passing time has felt like ten years. So much information, renewal, tears, mourning….and still, we have to go on.

We have learned much about ourselves…both personally and as a society. The problems of the world are no longer half a planet away…in an instant they can be in our own backyard. The love and the joy that we once took for granted has changed. If Time could be traded on the stockmarket, you would see that its value has increased significantly. Many of us have our opinions of how we got here…and where we are going. One thing’s for sure….we’ve changed.

We are all wounded in one way or another…each day we try to find ways to heal those wounds. The world too has to deal with its wounds, and try to find its healing. Mankind has tried time and again to correct the mistakes, yet strangely, where one problem is solved, another one is created. Could it be that Man’s failure for lasting Peace is because he has come up with the wrong answers? Could the answers be with a Higher Power?

We pride ourselves as a civilization that follows the Law of God….yet around the world there are so many different interpretations of that Law of God. So let’s make it easy…suppose tomorrow a Special Assembly was scheduled at the United Nations, and the guest speakers would be a Representative of the foundations of the world’s religions. To represent Judaism, you could have Abraham or Moses….to represent Christianity, Jesus Christ. To represent Muslims, Allah, to represent Buddhism, Buddah…….etc.,etc. So how could these Prophets appear? Their words and teachings would tell us all how we should handle our current problems. The Prophets of Peace would gives us the answers. The question is…can the ego of man accept the conclusion that he is not God?

As you can see, I, like you, have done much pondering. Yes, there will always be those who have nothing better to do than to wreak havoc…the point is to learn as much as we can about ourselves and why we are here. 9/11 has taught us that even in one of the most prosperous countries of the world, in a New York minute, everything can change.

In Remembrance,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

Each morning after a couple of cups of coffee, I look at the day ahead and ask myself “What can I do today to surpass the 50 percent rate?” ….that to me is the point where we overcome the negative forces of life and tilt the scales to the positive. To accomplish this takes focus, awareness, planning, and the belief that it can be done. Some days I reach 60 percent or even 80 percent, and indeed once in a while I do fall short with just a performance of around 35:) Each day is a new game with the scorecard of life. We all have tough days … that’s not the point … it’s the days that could go either way…. those are the days where we can make a difference. We can win more than we lose at the game of life. Whether we decide to participate or not, around us the game does go on.

What I try to do is break the days down into sections: morning, afternoon and night. That way the day as a whole does not get too overwhelming. There is a good chance that something will go not according to plan at some point during the day…. to look at the time in compartments can allow us to focus and redirect. If I fall behind in the morning, I still can catch up in the afternoon. The hardest task to do in the game of life is to stay centered and focused. The distraction is everywhere. Like everything else, the more we practice the better we get.

What has helped me, is to keep a scorecard of my performance. Each hour is given a percentage of how I’ve done. This has been a good way for me to see how things are going and what changes I need to make to increase the percentage. The greatest gift I have learned from this process, is how easily the mind can wander from the center and create distance from daily goals. The real enemy of success is distraction. When our minds are focused, a Grand Slam Home Run is truly possible. A scorecard can give us a good “up to the minute” evaluation of our performance.

My scorecard rates the hours between 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. which is the most productive time. Roughly 12 hours, where each hour is given a score, and when divided by 12 gives me an average, which is the score for the day. Some days are better than others, but one thing is for sure, I do know what is going on in my life and how it is affecting me. Over time one starts to see a correlation between the performance on the scorecard and the level of success. For me, the scorecard has let me see that time is not the enemy if we use it wisely. Perhaps when we see our lives on paper our vision becomes clearer.

Tip the scales,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon

So many of us watch daily the comings and goings of our favorite Soap Operas. How seriously do some take this fetish? Quite a few who work during the day video tape their favorite shows so that they can view them in the evenings when they get home. A friend of mine never misses an episode of “All My Children,” even though she watches it at around 10PM, many hours after it has aired. Soap Operas…a little touch of creative writing, with characters who sometimes can feel like next door neighbors.

In the Soap Opera genre, we watch the comings and goings of other people’s lives….but really, how far off can they be from our own lives? Humorously, don’t we also live our own personal Soap Opera daily?? Couldn’t we all fill up an hour of airtime based upon our experiences of the day? Our daily lives, a continuing story on the roller coaster of life, that can enter any climate at any given moment.

Think to yourself, don’t you too have your friends and acquaintances, and an appearance of a villain once in a while? Perhaps we too are writers of Soap Operas. Some record their Soap Opera in the form of a diary, so that they can read back over the years to see how the story has unfolded. Others do it through photo albums. Here’s an idea….how about someone in the family assigned the task of jotting down the lives of the members of the family for the week? Then, each week or month all get together to listen, laugh, and learn. Of course, we would try our best to not hurt anyone’s feelings…but, it’s a nice way to see how close to each other we really are. It could be called, “The Jones Family,” or “The Smith Family,”…..you get the idea. We all are characters in one Soap Opera or another. Our own, and other people’s. Many times we decide what role we play.

Strange, isn’t it….. we sometimes think someone else’s life is more interesting then our own……while all the while the classic story could be all around us.

The story continues…
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon