by Marty Coleman | Nov 9, 2010 | Marty Coleman |
Good and bad, not to think about what others think about. Bad if your child wants to hold your hand and you are oblivious. Good if someone thinks your hair is too blue and you love your blue hair.
Good if you are a creative sort and your career, well-being, success, etc. is wrapped up in you being original in your creative production. You can’t be original in production if you aren’t original in your thoughts. Bad if you are aren’t paying any attention to the desires and intentions of your clients and so miss the boat in your creative endeavors again and again.
Good if you are focused on a goal you really want to achieve and you are able to ignore what the naysayers are thinking and saying about your efforts. Bad if wise and trusted people are trying to tell you truth and you are escaping reality and not facing the truth.
Whenever someone says to me ‘I don’t care what anybody thinks’ I usually come away with the impression they are fighting VERY hard to not care but in fact they do. Everyone does to some degree. What they really mean is ‘I don’t care what CERTAIN people think.’
Thus, a key to maturity, wisdom and peace is knowing the difference between those whom you do care what they think and those whom you do not. Find that out and admit it to yourself and you are on your way to being a true individual in the world.
Drawing, quote and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 2, 2010 | aha moment, Marty Coleman |
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Saturday Vintage – A napkin from around 1998 that I put in my daughters’ lunches to take to school. I didn’t start dating the napkins until 2000, and even then only did it sporadically.
In honor of Autumn’s arrival and the resulting leaves falling from the sky I thought I would give you ‘Nose Leaf Man’. I hope you are enjoying a beautiful fall wherever you are!
Don’t forget to vote for The Napkin Dad in his bid to be an ‘aha moment’ finalist! If you tried yesterday the response was too much for their servers and they crashed. They are up and running again now and voting should be a cinch! You can vote once per computer.
Thanks,
Marty
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by Marty Coleman | May 18, 2010 | aha moment, Marty Coleman |
Yesterday the ‘Aha Moment Tour 2010’ came to Tulsa and I was invited to tell the Napkin Dad story. They are sponsored by Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company. You may have seen the ‘Aha Moments’ commercials on TV. They are going around the country in a very cool Airstream RV videotaping people talking about their ‘Aha moment’ in life. They will post them on their website throughout the summer. When they are done people can vote on the ones they would like to see put on TV. I will let you know when the video is up.
When I arrived at the RV there was a young woman, Kait, charged with checking me in. We had to wait while the person in front of me was interviewed so she asked me to tell a little bit about my aha moment. She had a wonderful look in her eyes as I told the story. When I was done she sheepishly told me it reminded her of something her father had done.
She said “of course, it is nothing like what you did”, and then she told the story. “He would leave for work very early in the morning, before I was awake. But he would always leave a little folded note for me outside my bedroom door. It wasn’t fancy, just a note saying he loved me, or maybe to remember to do something, like homework or be good. I remember that it was always the first thing I would do every morning, get up and go read my note. I was always so excited to get that note.”
The only false note in that story is about it not being like what I did. IT IS EXACTLY LIKE WHAT I DID! It has the same immeasurable amount of love, thought and care from her father as what I gave. He didn’t do it like I did, but that has nothing to do with the worth of his expression. He loved his daughter and expressed it as only he could, with his creativity, mind and heart. And guess what? She kept them too.
The first and best ‘Aha Moment’ for every child is when they realize they are loved. They don’t want to be loved by me, or some TV star or some cartoon character. They want to be loved by their mother and father. If you are a mother or father who finds a way, YOUR way, to express to your children that they are loved, then you are the best agent of love the world has ever known. If you aren’t that mother or father yet, no time like the present to become one.
Drawing, quote and commentary © Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 28, 2010 | Marty Coleman |
I know life can be hard. Very hard. I know because I have had very hard things happen in my life. But in the end, it isn’t life’s fault. It’s yours. Learn to play life correctly, no matter how hard, you will get harmony. Ignore the learning and just slam your existence onto the keyboard again and again and you will have discord.
It seems harsh to say, especially if you are going through a hard time right now. I have a friend whose dearest aunt just died and the family is arguing over the stupidest stuff, possessions not worth a dime, who deserves what, religious claptrap about her aunt, etc. They are pounding against the keys, creating a cacophony or ill will and discord.
But she is playing her life’s keys admirably amidst it all. She is remaining harmonious, which is helping her while she tries to explain the loss to her two young children, who were very close to the aunt.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“One plays piano, gets discord. Another plays, gets harmony. The piano is not at fault. The same is true of life.” – adapted by me from an anonymous quote
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 12, 2010 | Marty Coleman |
I started out doing these drawings for my teenage daughters many years ago. Because of that I have a number of teenagers who follow the blog. Some even have their own blogs. It’s great to see their perceptions as they grow.
Today I read a post where the young person had come to a realization that she needed to bring positive people into her life, people who look at the world and see the good. She isn’t unaware of the hardships, the disappointments and the pain of life. But she sees no value in surrounding herself with people who ONLY see that. Who have created a world for themselves where that is all they pay attention to. Their attitude has created their negative world.
She is leaving that behind and finding people who are inclined towards the good in life. I am proud of her for coming to that understanding. It will likely be something she will have to remind herself of again and again through life. But how cool is it to see someone understand that early on.
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 3, 2010 | Marty Coleman, Travel |
I have a friend somewhere in the world, not sure where, named Agnes. She has traveled the globe, sat with prestigious, inspiring people, experienced life in ways most of us do not. She is in deep, deep love with her husband, with whom she experiences many of these things. Those are her dreams, to travel with him.
He now is struggling with a pretty serious illness and that travel isn’t something they can undertake for a while. She wishes she could, she yearns for it. But though those are her big dreams, they aren’t her only dreams. She makes smaller dreams a reality for herself and her husband in tender, kind and intimate gestures.
She tells the world about these things, along with her larger dreams, in her blog. I read it and it reminds me again and again how much I love knowing people like that are in the world. I don’t really need to ever meet her or her husband, though what a pleasure it would be, I have no doubt. All I really need to be inspired is to know the two of them exist.
Read her latest entry about her manifestation of a little dream at the end of the night and then go and see if you can’t find the same fulfillment in the magic of your own small world.
Dream on, Agnes, and thank you.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“There’s not much to do but bury a person when the last of their dreams are dead.” – Agnes, somewhere
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by Marty Coleman | Mar 10, 2010 | Aging - 2009, Marty Coleman |
Here is a REALLY important lesson to not only teach your children, but show your children.
‘Growing up’ means there is a stopping point. You reach 18, or 21, or marriage, or kids, and you are done. You are grown up. But is that really true? Is it wise to teach that? Is it accurate? Of course it isn’t accurate. To teach a child that they are going to reach some point in the future when they are done growing does them a great disservice. They not only will be frustrated when that ‘grown up’ time arrives and they aren’t grown up, or they will be under the illusion that they don’t need to grow anymore, they are where they are going to be and that is that.
Imagine having the exact same opinions, tastes, styles, interests, abilities, and outlook on life as you did when you were half the age you are now. Are they the same? If not, then you have grown. If they are the same, guess what, you are stuck back in some prior era and need to get back on the growth track!
Just as important as your own growth is the example you set for your children. They are witnessing your growth or lack thereof. You want them to learn how to be a real adult? Then they better see you continuing to grow as an adult. They need to see you continuing to be interested and alive in the world or what will they think? They will think…great, I have a dead adulthood to look forward to with nothing new or energizing happening to me.
Show them you are continuing to pursue your interests. You liked art as teen? Well, go to a museum, learn about it, get a sketchbook, draw. You always wanted to learn to play the guitar? Well, get one and learn it. Your kids will thank you for showing them the real way to grow!
Drawing, commentary AND quote © Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Jan 28, 2010 | Marty Coleman, Sweets - 2010 |
How many people do you know are stressed as they eat desserts? So, the key to peace, serenity and fulfillment is, by logical inference, eating desserts. Anyone care to argue with that?
Drawing and genius insight © Marty Coleman
Quote by lots of people, but I rewrote it my way so it’s by me now.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 29, 2009 | Bernard Bailey, Marty Coleman |
Want to raise a spoiled kid? Don’t teach them this.
Want to raise a well balanced kid who will be able to deal with the ebb and flow of fortune and misfortune? Teach them this. Make sure you have your arm around them and they know they are loved as you explain it to them.
And don’t worry, they will still know they are the center of YOUR universe, no matter how hard you try to persuade them otherwise.
Drawing © Marty Coleman
“Science has found the center of the universe. You’re not it.” – adapted from a quote by Bernard Bailey
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 9, 2009 | Heart - 2010, Kelly Diels, Lianne Raymond, Marty Coleman |
Via a tweet from Julie Roads of ‘writingroads‘ that mentioned a blog named ‘Cleavage‘ by Kelly Diels that mentioned a quote within a conversation with Lianne Raymond that was rolling around in her head for 10 days I got part of this quote. I added the ‘every day’.
What is dying to be born in you? When is your due date? Is it perhaps overdue? Should you perhaps induce labor?
The pain of giving birth to this thing will be far outweighed by the love that will come from fulfilling your dreams.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Every day something is dying to be born in you.” – Lianne Raymond, Kelly Diels and Moi
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