Lessons I learned from my dog Chopin

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(Chopin passed…tragically on Sunday, 12/29/13, after a great day at the beach)

A dog’s tail never lies…ever and you can tell exactly what he’s thinking my looking at his tail.

Every day is precious…and when you least expect it, God calls you home.

Always be happy to see those who you love…let them know every time you see them how glad you are to see them (even if it’s only been a few moments).

Always be ready to defend your family, with your life if necessary.

Sometimes a loud bark is more effective than a bite.

Hug your dog more…he likes it also.

All you really need in life to have fun, is a good attitude (and someone to play ball with).

A kiss (or several slobbery licks) can make the world right again.

Food is good food, especially if it’s a treat.

You’re never too old to play.

Take a walk and notice everything even if you’ve seen it before, something might have changed.

If you run until your legs are rubber, that’s the definition of a good day.

Sometimes you’ve got to be patient with those who love you.

Family is not the blood that runs through your veins, but the love that flows through your heart.

All dogs do go to Heaven…(even if this isn’t Biblically true, which it isn’t, it makes me feel better and I still pray that I’ll get to play with all my pets in Heaven).

Being loved by a dog is the 3rd best experience in life, second only to being loved by your family and God.

Thank you Chopin, my giant puppy for teaching me all of this and so much more…

Ever Wonder?

Why?
How?
What?
When?
Where?

Wondering is a lost art. I miss having the heart of child.

We grow up and put away childish things but sometimes I wonder if the world wouldn’t be better if we all had a nap and recess.

I miss rooting for the Road Runner and laughing at Wile E. Coyote. (Yes I rooted for him too!)

Who can forget Foghorn Leghorn “Now boy…”

Or “I will love him, hug him and name him George”.

The simple life of Charlie Brown and Snoopy is a world I want to live in.

Charlie almost never wins but he keeps trying and Snoopy has the greatest fantasy life ever while still living La Vida Loca. (Snoopy has always been my favorite.)

Pinky and the Brain taught me the value of setting big goals.

The Penguins of Madagascar show us good things come in small packages.

Scooby and Shaggy taught me its ok to be scared when you are brave.

Saturday morning couldn’t come fast enough….which taught me the theory of relativity (fun=time goes fast)

Finally, remember “show and tell”? I do and I think it’s why I became a salesperson.

Or maybe it’s why I blog, because I want to show my heart.

Like the Beatles song “Father Mckenzie writing the words to a sermon no one will hear…”

What do you miss about being a kid?

By the way…the Snoopy is from my 3rd birthday…cause he’s still cool 37 years later and like me he has a few miles on him, but still huggable. The miles are from years of keeping me safe from the monsters under my bed and in my closet.

Those must have been some epic battles.

Michael Bremmer

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Lovely Love

Your heart and your hand

A prize any man would die for

Slipped away from me

Like water through my fingers

Your love so sweet and lovely

Full of grace and kindness

No deceit was found here

My soul weeps

Gnashing it’s teeth

For what could have been

How can I miss what

I never had or knew

A girl I never met

But whose spirit touched me

Across the world

Thinking of the tender things

We spoke of, worming your way

Into my heart.

You fear I’ll forget you

I’m afraid I never will

And that you’ll never forgive me

For running away

When I should have ran to you…

 

Michael Bremmer

A Flickering Candle

“Men and Women are very different” Don Murray

“Well of course!” Marilyn Monroe

 

“I like you the way you are and I don’t care how you got there” Don Murray

“That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me” Marilyn Monroe

 

Sometimes the flu can be a good thing. Trapped in my bed, with Netflix, I watched the classic

 

BUS STOP, 1956

As a gentleman, Don Murray, drove me nuts for most of the movie to the point I wanted to punch him, as his character is supposed to.

As a man, Marilyn entranced me, even beyond the grave. Sometimes I wonder if the sadness in her eyes wasn’t just acting.

 

But I realized a few important things…

  1. No woman ever wants to see her man fight (or worse lose if he does). But in the depth her heart, she wants to know he fight to the death for her.

     

    Ladies, just FYI, any gentleman would fight to the death for you, without a second thought. Ironically, it may be easier than talking about our feelings.

    Guys, try talking it out a bit more, it hurts less than fighting and she’ll respect you more for it. She knows you’d fight for her but she’d rather you’d just spent time telling her what’s really going on. (If she wants to see you fight, you need a new lady.)

     

  2. True love doesn’t care where you’ve been, who you’ve been with or what your history is.  As a friend once told me, “we know you boys have histories, but it’s your future we’re interested in!”

    Gentlemen, like you, she has a past. It can’t be changed, but it made her who she is. Did she screw up, date some losers, probably, but so did you. Get over it.

    Ladies, don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. Trust me on this. If you love him his past shouldn’t matter either.

  3. Marilyn Monroe was a terribly underrated actress. Her life shows beauty can be a curse.

     

  4. Men be the reason she wakes up smiling, not the reason she cries at night. Ladies, realize we’ve got a heart also, careful with it!

Thoughts?

Michael Bremmer

 

 

 

Rock and a Hard Place…

 

I’m between a rock and a hard place.

Wanting to keep promises I can’t keep.

Stuck between my desire to be honorable and responsible

Tired of being the one whose shoulders the world rests on.

I’m worn out and used up.

Everyone thinks they know what I’m feeling

But how could they, when I’m not really sure.

Gasping for air, secretly hoping I drown

Because then the pain ends.

Fighting back because it’s the “right” thing to do

Because I’m wired that way.

In the immortal words of Charlie Sheen,

“If you don’t want to get hurt, just pretend you don’t have a heart”.

My problem is my heart beats on my sleeve

Where everyone can see it…

Sometimes I just want to be small, fit in pocket

But I really want to be huge, brighter than the sun

But not for egos sake, but because I really believe

God’s got a bigger plan for me and expects better of me.

That’s the worst part.

Disappointing Him and not really caring.

The Creator of the Universe breathed greatness into my chest

The day I was born, whispered it in my ear

And every time I fall short, I want to run and hide, instead

Of sitting in His lap, telling Him everything (He already knows anyway.)

Sometimes I envy Jonah, God used a whale to swallow him.

Unfortunately I lock myself in a room full of self-loathing

Trying to prove my merit as a man, wanting to be known for

Something special, to be noticed and respected,

A picture of perfection that really is just a shattered mirror.

Why can I see the greatness in others, like a laser in my eyes?

Believing in them more than gravity (it’s just a theory after all)

But not believe in my own value?

It’s simple…I’m not listening to the Creator anymore,

But my own doubts.

God calls me a Prince, Chosen, The Apple of His Eye, Special, Lovely, Friend.

I think I need to focus on what HE has to say.

My simple prayer…

It’s better you don’t know.

 

Or my other favorite… “when you’re older”

Life is funny that way, because, they were right.

I can’t unlearn what I know or erase the memories.

(Freaking nearly photographic memory)

I’ll never forget the softness of your lips

Or the gentleness of your fingertips on my skin.

It would have been better for me to never known

Because it’s all I have now, memories that torture me

My soul bleeds for a few moments more

Screaming to revisit that angelic time

I held you in my arms

Addicted to a sliver of the past, forever gone

Never to come again.

A weight was lifted, a crush realized

With the final blow, ending it all too quickly

I would have given you all that I had

Hoping that it was a dowry almost worthy of you

With the slim hope, that all I am would have been

Enough for you to say yes?

While I want to be happy for you (and I am, sort of)

(I’m always on your team regardless)

Because I want you to you to be happy forever

(even if it’s not with me)

But my spirit weeps alone, because I wanted to be

the one your happily ever after was with.

 

What is Truth?

 

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about … when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.”

C.S. Lewis could paint a picture with far less than a thousand words.


Hurt

What have I become,
My sweetest friend,
Everyone I know,
Goes away in the end,

And you could have it all,
My empire of dirt,
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt,

I wear this crown of thorns,
Upon my liars chair,
Full of broken thoughts,
I cannot repair,

Johnny Cash’s haunting voice seeps into the corners of your soul.

 

Truth, what is truth?

Pilate’s famous question of Jesus…right before he allows him to be crucified.

 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

Mind and Strength.”

“Do unto others as you’d have them do to you.

Jesus Christ, when asked, what the greatest commandment of God was.

 

This is not a religious blog, though I am a Christian.

I’m just a man…thinking about Truth

And knowing Truth is simple and isn’t relative.

That’s the hardest part…the torture if you will is

 

Knowing the right thing to do it and doing it,

Every time, when even when I think no one is looking.

(just like I tell my kids to do)

Michael Bremmer

Thoughts?

In My Heart…

She can kill me with a smile,

Reaching the little boy that still lives there

The one who just wanted to be loved

And wasn’t (yes, I’ve got lots of Mommy issues).

Well, I’m not too complicated.

Be nice to me and I’ll do almost anything for you.

What draws me close, gets me every time

Is genuine kindness, the hope of sweetness?

You’d think by now I’d figured it out,

But I haven’t.

This picture is the one I ALWAYS knew I could trust.

The one who protected, loved me (teased me beyond)

I love you big brother.

(yes, I’m the cute one making ducks look awesome)

Michael Bremmer

I want to be Danny!

 

If you watch this video and don’t cry.

You’re dead.

This is what TRUE LOVE is about.

http://youtu.be/WNfvuJr9164

(click it—what do you want, it’s a free, personal blog)

 

Michael Bremmer

It is what it is.

As the Stones say…

“You can’t always get what you want,

But if you try sometimes well you just might find 
you get what you need ”

Parents use this song to justify spanking or time out.

(yes, I believe in spanking if time out doesn’t work)

I think the irony of life is, you can’t have everything you want

Where would you put it all?

Also, quite frankly I’ve learned, the more I own

The more it owns me.

Toys, pets, stuff, emotions.

Emotions especially can own me; I’ve always had to watch them.

Mastering me, instead of me mastering them.

My passion and deep caring is my best aspect

and my worst enemy.

See in life, whatever you get the best of

You also get the opposite in equal amount.

I think God really does have a sense of humor

This is why such tortured souls, like

Poe, Van Gough, Steve (you know the one)

produced such wonderful things that changed the world.

As Tony Robbins says,

When people are down they tend to ponder,

When they are up, they tend to party.

(He ripped off Ecclesiastes in the Bible by the way)

While I don’t like being down, I have learned more during

those times.

As my stepfather taught me,

“Pain is the one teach no one ignores”

Dad, I’d rather just trusted you on that one.

But that’s not the way life works, I wasn’t there

when God created everything, He didn’t ask me.

But He’s God and I’m not, so obviously He’s got a better point of view.

It just hard to trust Him, even when you know you should.

 

Michael Bremmer