TOASTMASTERS: Securing the Good Life

If it is in man's heart to be inherently good, then why do we work hard to teach goodness? So many ways to say the Golden Rule:

Islam: "Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you."

Confucianism: "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."

Christianity: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Ancient Eygpt: "That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another"

I wonder if our idealistic notions over innocence and goodness undermine the mindfulness and practice it takes to secure a good life. Do we teach our young people to steal or do we have to teach them to not steal? Do we teach them to hit each other or do we have to teach them to not hit each other? Why do we need to teach people to not lie, not steal, and not harm one another? Perhaps goodness is not quite child's play.

Why bother with learning to live on purpose? There are books, retreats, seminars to attend toward securing the good life. Why so many breaths to ask, "Is this your very best you?"

What is good anyway? Isn't it the equivalent of being boring? Really now, is goodness a desired trait? Perhaps that is why we romance drama, sit on the edge of our seats for heartaches and make bets or cheer over knockouts.

Do we intend toward life going down or up?

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests. My name is JNET and I am presenting my 10th speech tonight titled Securing the Good Life. I hope to inspire you in my final speech completing the Competent Communicator Manual on this final month of the year, to secure the good life, hopefully keeping you on Santa's good side but most importantly your nearest and dearest good side.

Since goodness seems more like a practice or exercise as opposed to this spring of wonderfulness that just bubbles out of us, I will present securing the good life as a stretching exercise.

Everyone breathe. In... out. My first consideration for you is that goodness must begin firstly as an inside job. So breathe. We may have distracting thoughts in just breathing. I'm sure you have found yourself assaulted by them in your stillness. With each exhale, acknowledge that you can overcome doubts and fears. You are an intelligent and creative person created by an intelligence of which you are just a squeaky possibility that can go beyond just feeling and looking good. In this "breathing exercise" consider that you are not just a brownie point earning being but rather you are a vessel for the expression of goodness. Securing the good life begins with allowing the inside job of transformation.

Now everyone stretch. Stretching feels good. Doesn't it. How far do you enjoy your stretches in loving your life and the people in it? Stretching is a way to extend and connect to others. The good life does not come from sitting still and enjoying your transformation all by yourself. So we stretch and we stretch with purpose.

So is securing the good life as easy as breathing and stretching? How many of you exercise regularly every single day? How many of us still need to get those lessons our parents kept reprimanding us over? Don't hurt each other. Don't play too rough. Share!

We live in a world that likes to make fun of goodness and sensationalize badness. Securing the good life can get lost in your next distracted breath and from there we get too busy to stretch. Listen to your personal trainer, listen to your parents. Being on the team is a daily choice. Sometimes it may call for challenging choices like making a stand for yourself and preserving what you believe in. That can be very scary. Isn't it natural to want to run from fear and pain? Isn't that how we are wired?

Consider the ermine. This pretty animal's coat turns pure white during the winter. During other seasons its coat is brown and it is a called a stoat. In art, the ermine is a symbol of purity and the white coat is highly prized. But is this symbol of purity simply about its snow white pretty looks?

Hunting this creature down is interesting. It travels mostly alone and finds shelter in dens. Hunters look for these dens and coat the edges with tar or something sticky before chasing down the ermine. Why? Because when chased it will not go into its den where it will ruin its coat. The ermine will instead face the hunters, the dogs.

How many of us in this natural kingdom of ours face our aggressors? How would that set us apart? Breathe, stretch and make a stand to secure the good life.

JNET

TOASTMASTERS: Playing With My Eyes Closed

How many of you have played games such as "pin the tail on the donkey" or perhaps have been blindfolded to hit a pinata?

"I can do it with my eyes closed."

It's a simple and profound game which my students initiate. They close their eyes and they play something on the piano with their eyes closed and their head held up high. I watch them as they perform proudly.

But is this all child's play, playing pin the tail on the donkey, hitting down a pinata, playing the piano with your eyes closed? How many of you play with life and do things with your eyes shut?

Good evening fellow toastmasters, honored guests, and music students. My name is JNET and this evening I am presenting my 8th speech titled, "Mastery Within the Darkness: A Music Lesson in Seven Minutes. I will be demonstrating my comfort with using visual aids. But before I begin, I put before you a quote to consider as I speak and give you a visual journey,

"It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."

So how many of you "play" with your eyes closed? What is it to play in that dark space called your mind? Is it really fun? Or is it scary?

Like the deep end of the pool, so is learning to play and stretch your mind. You are beyond notes and staring at black and white. You are in your head and you are looking for the music in the dark.

What is it like? Well, you have no where to hide your mistakes while on a piano bench. I suppose you can pretend to yourself that you didn't hear that string of terribly wrong notes but most likely you'll press forward and play. And like those other childhood games, press on to get it right. Pin that tail, hit that pinata, make music and get the candy.

Mastery within that darkness in your mind is about playing a game with fear.

When I say fear I do not mean that emotional response to a threat. Come back to me, my student, we are simply on a piano bench. There is no need for your survival mechanisms to rev up. There is no threat of pain or danger.

And yet the fear of making a mistake may inspire one to not play at all or to play stilted.

You can't make music this way and playing Life in this matter will undermine your expression of yourself. Therefore, you practice, you know your material. You don't need to see everything but you need vision in your head and you master the darkness in there.

Playing does get easier with practice and you get move on to more advanced pieces where you still practice in the darkness of your mind.

It's an interesting place to play. How many of you cannot play a sonata? Cannot?

This is my recent sonata that I practiced in Hawaii.

I do not know how to swim but I played out anyway because I wanted to do some underwater photography. I hit a lot of wrong notes and got a lot of blurry pictures as well as bruises from the cage. But I eventually got these shark photos.

My conducting professor, Dr. Cokkinias always postulated..

"Life is about practicing; preparing."

And success follows when opportunity meets with your practice.

"It is only with the heart that the one sees rightly."

You don't need to see everything but you need a vision and start playing. Your heart will not be memorizing your mistakes; it'll keep your vision in sight as you plonk your way through the darkness.

"I'm going to play this amazing piece."

And you have a tiny keyboard at home to practice on. And you only have 10 fingers. That's where Beethoven is gonna come out??? Yes!

Well this is my camera; a humble though cute digital camera. What can I take with this thing?

With practice and this instrument, I've taken these recently at a photo shoot. I am surrounded by talented players. Who are believing in me despite my own personal darkness.

I do not know what an F-stop is. I do not know how to control everything perfectly. I play lots of wrong "notes". But like friends at a party, they smile and laugh, put the bat back in my hand and cheer me on to play.

Do you understand how playing with your eyes closed can be fun? And yes scary but worth every bit of practice.

Will you go now and practice with your eyes closed sometimes? Hold on to the vision in your mind as you practice.

And always, have fun.

Thank you fellow toastmasters and honored guests. Your music lesson is over. Go home now and practice and see you next week.

JNET

TOASTMASTERS: Composing My Life

DO YOU UNDERSTAND FORTISSIMO???

Maybe you do in the space of exciting measures where life announces joyful news, celebrates a win, or even sounds the music of battle and debate.

"I am loved!"

"I won the competition!"

"I'm right.. You're wrong!"

"No, IM RIGHT and YOU ARE A LOSER!!"

"LOVE ME! LOVE ME! LOVE ME!!!"

Fortissimo.

The emotions of happiness and the emotions of anger can also be expressed pianissimo and speak volumes about your gratitude for the blessings you enjoy or your pain that you endure on a prayer.

Fellow toastmasters and honored guests. My name is JNET and I am your music teacher for the evening presenting my 7th speech from the CC manual. My speech tonight is called Composing Life, a Music Lesson in Seven Minutes.

Leonard Bernstein appropriately said that

"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."

How many of you know you have the power to create? Then in the musical spirit, I would like to pose this thought, perhaps you can compose too?

Can growing your music skills grow "an admirable heart" as the founder of the Suzuki method purposes?

What happens when you combine curiousity and a musical instrument?
[*bring out instrument]

Compare the experience with watching television. One brings about action in doing while the other fosters passivity. It does take a while to grow an admirable heart though.

You'll learn and care about something called technique through study and excercise.

If and only IF, you care to develop discipline and become an athelete that succumbs lots of hurdles... called YOUR MISTAKES. For you left brainers out there, that means you practice and practice to understand these symbols in black and white and terms in French and Italian until you make very little mistakes and make something beautiful. And for you right brainers out there, it means you practice and forgive yourself enjoying being able to learn from mistakes and love learning music for the experience of the moment while striving for accuracy. And isn't it nice that you are not condemned to be a lefty or righty when it comes to studying music. It's a matter of two hands and two sides of your mind creating TOGETHER to a level of craftsmenship.

Why would you want to develop skills in craftsmenship? It doesn't sound cool and hip. Are you making cabinets? It sounds like a lot of WORK and maybe you don't care to be craftsmen or a maestro.

Maybe you want to be a maestro in different ways? You want to be successful in your career or in your personal life?

Well did you know that Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to med school? And a study of 7,500 university students revealed that music majors scored the highest reading scores among all majors including English, biology, chemistry and math.

What skills do you think you would gain from knowing what's going on in black and white in front of you? What hobby makes you study the details in black and white and yet gives you space to be creative to demonstrate your mastery? Where do you practice sustained effort in the space of mistakes? Just to express a melody as you imagined in your head?

I think Life will read differently to you if you all learned read and play music. And I wonder if you would enjoy and travel Life differently if you fed your creative and curious side with a musical vehical. I think you would seek out and follow the fine print in a different spirit from how you pursue other "fine print."

Like this...

Bach Prelude in D minor.....

Allegro moderato... medium fast ...non legato... but not connected rather disconnected... loads of stacatto.

Look at all these fast notes... woo hoo.... and all these get quiet and louder things to pay attention too...

So demanding... so specific..

And yet a worthy way to spend one's quiet time perhaps? You are just as demanding and specific as Bach is with your own life and dreams. How's your technique, composition and performance skills?

????

I end your music lesson now with a quote by Mozart.

"To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop."

See you again next week for your next lesson?

Thank you fellow toastmasters, composers, maestros and honored guests.

JNET

SPEECH: Visualize Forgiveness

Sometimes I am so terrible with visualization exercises.

Despite several happy and successful past experiences at conferences and seminars, I am sometimes the girl that gets lost and falls off the visualization exercise trail.

(Prop 1)

I would be there... in my head... concentrating on the exercise... going through the landscapes in my mind... exploring how I might rub against my subconscious mind and then viola....

I'd miss a turn.

(Take off prop 1)

What was that word he said? Did he say stage or page?

It's not like you can interrupt and ask them to repeat themselves. Mind you, this is not a 2 minute skip through a garden type of exercise. It's more like a 20 minute hike across the grand canyon of focus.

And so, I would find myself off track because I missed a direction. I would be bumbling about in my head, trying to find that quiet place. But then find myself distracted and amused that a few individuals really got comfy in their quiet place and have started snoring.

Good evening Toastmasters and Honored Guests, tonight I will share what happened on a particular day when I didn't get lost during a visualization exercise. My name is JNET, and I present to you project number six from the competent communicator manual, titled "Visualize Forgiveness."

I was at the Wiltern Theater on a Sunday morning. It was a full house... so full that they didn't know where to seat me except at the front VIP section.

There I stood, eyes closed while I travelled through the ravines of my mind. The speaker asked that I bring upon the "stage" the various people that I had come to know. I don't know how long I dug in my memory. It was long enough to give me a sense that I was having a spree going through my mind. My thoughts were spinning. It felt torrential yet peaceful at the same time.

I grew my stage. Every family member, friend from childhood to the present time, crush, love, failed friendship, kind neighbor, teacher, mentor found a space on the stage.

And I was awed at the collage of people that made a mark upon my life... People that have given me joy, people that have disappointed me, people that made me laugh, people that made me cry.

I was no longer in the Wiltern. I was in this space called memory where I was directed to ask the question of those on stage if they stood for my personal evolution and personal journey. I had to ask each person and every person on that stage.

(Prop 2)

JNET: "Do you stand for my personal evolution and personal journey?"

ABC: "Yes."

JNET: "Do you stand for my personal evolution and personal journey?"

XYZ: "Yes."

JNET: "Do you stand for my personal evolution and personal journey?"

123: "Yes."

With each "yes" I became present to the power and delicateness of being human. Each "yes" excused the person from the stage and gradually I emptied that stage and became present to love.

But the best part had not yet come.

I was then asked to bring everyone back onstage and see the web that connected us. I saw them and the party of string that circuited between all of us. The collage of people floated like a dream.

I was then coached to sever the strings and set everyone free to move on to their own journey. And quickly I emptied that stage and all that remained was the litter of strings. I stood before a scene that I can only describe as devastating.

(Pull away Prop 2) I don't know how long I stood in the center of that quiet chaos. Slowly, pieces of the disarray faded away. To the right, the silly string blurs and fades into a black. This repeats to the left, above me, below me.. Blurring and a fading away to a darkness that is celestial.

In that final celestial darkness, a feather floated down and surprised me. One solitary, bright, white feather.

(Prop 3)

And I got what is was to visualize forgiveness.

Visualize forgiveness.

Thank you Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests.

JNET

SPEECH: Featherweights

My mother is the church lady; specifically, the Catholic.... church lady. And though I have had my respective rebellions with her, I adore her. She is a sweetheart and she will give you a rosary as a gift before saying goodbye.

And before our goodbyes are complete, she will remind me to pray to my guardian angel. To which, I reply,

"I don't have a guardian angel mom. I have a league of angels."

Good Evening, Madame President, Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests. Have you ever said hello to your league of angels? Tonight, I present project number five of the competent communicator manual, titled "Featherweights", sponsored by Gucci, Greyhound and Amtrak.

When I turned 16, my mother gave me a new watch. She has this thing about getting me timepieces at recognized milestones. I have a watch for my first day in kindergarten and a watch for college graduation. Aren't moms great? They come up with the best gift ideas.

So you can guess my reaction when I forgot my sweet 16 gift in the piano room and didn't remember it til after rehearsal... after several hours. I was a wreck.

I ran to the practice room. Nothing. I had taken it off to practice and had ran off to class without it and it was now gone.

Mind you, I had lost my physics book the day before and I have a mother that goes through the list. Your mother may have a similar list. The list of "things you have lost". I went through the motions of checking it with the music department head.

"Has anyone turned in a gold watch?"

"No."

This was duplicated at the school's security office and the lost and found department. I wrote out my details and returned to the piano room to cry. I was going to have to go home and tell my mother that I had lost my watch. I LOVED that watch more than my physics book, more than my senior class ring, more than the countless partners of earrings that are solo. It was gone and I was going to have to go through another speech. Those speeches didn't exactly engender closeness between my mom and I.

My mother and I are going to fight about stuff, I thought? Again? My thoughts were racing. I hate fighting. I'd rather die.

And that's when I woke up. It was a watch. A watch! And this list my mom had was choking me. I lost a watch my mother gave for my 16th birthday which I loved and I was going to have to tell her that I lost it. That's it. I had to tell my mom to drop the list because it was doing my head in. I didn't want "stuff" to affect our relationship. I didn't want to be afraid of gifts from there on.

And so I prayed and wrote my note to put up in the practice room hallway...

"LOST: Gold watch, if found, please return at Professor Russell's office."

I didn't have a chance to put it on the wall. While I was writing, someone wrote and posted a note in the hallway,

"FOUND: Gold watch, please go to the school office."

The last time I lost that watch it took a couple of months to find me. I lost it at the end of the D line.. the green line train to Newton which also doubles as the Greyhound station. By the time I had realized that I didn't have my watch on me, I was already in Cambridge to work for the day.

"You lost your gold watch at the train station? Forget it. You'll never see it again."

I got a lot of condolences and reality talks. That didn't stop me from posting up signs about my watch and talking to the desk person at Greyhound. Days passed and turned into weeks and further yet. I finally received a call on Thanksgiving morning.

"Yeah, I'm calling about your watch. I had found it sitting on top of the subway fare machine. I want to leave it for you but I don't want to leave it with anyone at the station. I'm going to put it in a blank package and leave it with the person at the desk. Can you be there within the half hour to pick it up?"

I retrieved my watch from a shocked desk clerk at the station. I came home with that watch for Thanksgiving.

It was a watch. That's why I got it. Right? Everyone has something they are sentimental over and if you put a sign up and say a prayer. You'll get it back.

Yes?

I recently was at the Amtrak station in Glendale on a Friday night. They don't sell tickets there. I bought my ticket to San Diego from Union Station a couple of days prior in planning a trip to my niece's birthday. Due to technical issues the trains were delayed and a group of us decided to take a cab to Union Station to catch the next train there.

In the scramble, I lost my ticket. The fellows who took the cab with me searched the path I walked from the taxi drop to the Amtrak desk and according to Amtrak policy, you have to produce a ticket to receive a refund. What a pain. I bought a second pair of business class tickets. That's another $100. I made peace with the inconvenience and figured that people have bigger losses in Vegas. Any bet placed on my niece is a winner.

You can imagine my surprise when stepping down from my return train hearing a voice call out my name. In what amounted to a blur of a moment, someone put my lost tickets into my hand and walked away.

So I have guardian angels... a league of them.

But I don't think angels are there to fix things. I think they are there to cheer you on to making decisions and confirm that things are perfect. My mother no longer gets wound up over lost things. The imaginary wedge between her and I over stuff was lifted when I made a decision to face her and tell her I didn't want material things to sit between us. Is there an angel of lost tickets and watches?

No, but I think there are some angels that teach goodness comes from nameless faces. Maybe you have similar stories.

Maybe it was you who was my featherweight champion? Hello :) then and thank you.

Thank you, Madame President, Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests.


JNET

SPEECH: Sleeper, Awake

[Open with Reveille]

Madam President, Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests. My name is JNET and this is my 4th speech which I have named "Sleeper, Awake".

Do you remember making forts out of bedsheets, climbing trees: exploring?

Maybe you can still remember fascinations with caterpillars and a once unwavering belief in fairy circles. Money paid from the tooth fairy, M&M's melting color into your hand, and a sky full of stars. And maybe it feels like a dream away.

Does growing up make the trees less green as we worry about rainforests or does aging make sunsets undazzling by the constant repetition of days followed by another day? Is life an overwhelming influx of color and information that either bogs or bores one's attentions from thoughts to smell flowers and feel happy.

You'd rather smell coffee... Now THAT'S peace of mind to you.

Your days of fireflies and butterflies are now mad blurs of work and holidays. Does that cup of coffee really wake you up? Do you feel like an eternal explorer and this moment an adventure? Or have we fallen asleep? Maybe suffering in the silence of a noisy life. Lulla-lies; lulla-byes.

Some sleepwalk. Maybe many of us and we have bruises we can't clearly explain.

How do we best name a word that speaks of the trance of indifference or distraction that we find ourselves woken from? What is it called to be returned to mindfulness from the challenging yet sometimes dulling drama of life? What is it called to figuratively pace around in a half sleep arms outstretched but not feeling the wakefulness of wonder?

What wonder is there worth being wakeful of beyond the bliss of childhood? The world has war, greed and injustice. But what if you can be captured by your imagination again and look at the world with refreshed eyes?

[play "sleeper, awake", cantata 140, 4th movement]

"Sleeper, Awake!" Specifically the 4th movement of Bach's Cantata 140. Familiar melody? Sometimes played at weddings... it is a processional piece. With the chorus, the tenors sing against an orchestral counterpoint. It is a joyous piece, the text is a call to mindfulness. The procession is approaching ... Are you prepared to join in? This is different from hearing Reveille.

Allow me to be a tenor here bearing a message in the procession of life. Allow me to also share that I understand the rigor of life can be both exhausting and exhilarating. Are you awake?

Am I awake? I keep in mind, Bach's joy.

What is it to suffer from sleepwalking? In its observed clinical sense, the subject does normal things that one does when awake; cleaning, walking. Their eyes are open but their minds are in a different place. Memory fails due to an unconsciousness of behavior. Sleepwalking is more commonly experienced in people dealing with high levels of stress, anxiety and it can affect people of any age.The disorder can go unnoticed unless brought to the attention by someone else..

Sleeper, Awake!

Who here has dealt with stress in unwise manners and yet has climbed a tall tree and came down safely? In one situation there is a perhaps regretful fall and in another situation, a happy return to the ground for a further adventure.

Are we sleepwalking? I pose the question to give you a perspective to play with and Bach's, Sleeper, Awake as a lens. Are you bumping against things and not exploring? I don't think you've outgrown yourself. I don't believe being a sensible adult is to leave wonder for small children. Perhaps, we doze off sometimes.

Reveille is not the call I bring to you. I wish to wake up the dreamer in you in this procession called life. I will close with a few lines I wrote in a poem named, "Awake, Dreamer."

POEM: Awake, Dreamer!

How many times will you look at the blue sky
before you forget to notice it?

At what point will you say you are satisfied
with seeing enough full moons?

You have an imagination
that has built castles in your childhood...
What do you build now, Dreamer?

From a cry you now speak...
What have you to say, Friend?
You are someone with a story
and you are the hero in every one of them.

Awake, Dreamer! Speak, Friend!

Sleeper, Awake.... Thank you Madam President, Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests.

JNET

WORD UP: Unromantizing Christmas

Madame President, Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests:

In the spirit of bah humbug, and you don't have a soul sentimentality, I have written for you...

Un-romantizing christmas...

Friends, we have come to times of great hardship, unsure economic footing, our own car companies running on empty... AND we only have X amount of shopping days to muster a spirit of Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukah and Winter Solstice.

Now why would I want to unromanticize Christmas in the space of 7 minutes? You've been happily worshiping evergreen trees for generations. Isn't it the season to be jolly, be generous and gift your nearest and dearest while getting absolutely sauced? You have special events and sales at the mall to attend. Doesn't the holiday and year - ending season rush puts adrenaline and calories through your system that count and plan your schedule around?

Well I want to one up Mr and Mrs jones... that's why I am going to trump Saint Nick and December 25th in true Hollyday spirit. You do realize that December 25th is not really baby jesus birthday. yes? I know you are an intelligent group of people that like to know the facts and enjoy whatever superstitions you choose. (OPEN UMBRELLA)

Since many of you may be MORE sensitive about Santa, I will be less controversial and bash Mary, Joseph and Jesus first.

This is who we owe a box trading tradition to... (NATIVITY SCENE PIX) That silent night, holy night, all is calm song is a lie. Think about it.... how can you be peaceful when you can't find a place to sleep and you have to go into labor which you've never done before surrounded by animals and then put your baby into their feeding trough.

Mary: Here? Have the baby here? The Son of God? It's sooo dirty!

Joseph: What do I do? What do I do?

(PUT baby OUT)

Sheep to Animals: DO NOT EAT THE BABY!!!

And from this scenario we celebrate peace?

It's seasonal decoration... elaborate toy sets, or a clever way to sell more bread....

Do people notice where they can see Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus during the rest of the year?

Here's a piece of reality. (PUT OUT STONE) This was the typical fate of young girls with questionable conditions.

It all started with an angel... and a young girl.

Imagine yourself.. minding your own business when all of a sudden an angel appears. The angel says "DO NOT BE FRIGHTENED. God has decided to bless YOU. You will be with child."

A simple Jewish girl is suddenly a knocked up virgin teen. This rock should've been her reality. Punishment for adultery was death. What did girl tell the angel? "I am the Lord's servant and am willing to accept whatever he wants." And the man pledged to marry her goes along with the plan and protects the girl. Do you think there was any gossip? Years of it. Jesus was known as the son of Mary and in not such a nice way. What virgin birth? The girl was raped. Her husband is too weak to have her stoned. What kind of family gets on despite ongoing pressures.

Is this just a cute toy set to look at.

What would Santa do? You know what Santa does with naughty people. Naughty people get blacklisted and then given a big piece of coal. Does Santa see the world more black and white than your nightmare fundamentalist? Are we giving him slack because we like that he drinks milk, eats cookies and likes to laugh. Do we really want someone that caters to wish lists than someone who'll listen and understand?

Maybe with these dark times, everyone would feel at peace if everyone was given a bail out. Isn't that the reason for the season... to have a savior?

Do you want to celebrate peace on December 25th? If you do, you might want to also celebrate peace despite confusion, fear, gossip... and perhaps take on the confidence of a very radical family who chose to be servants of a God that they believed nothing was impossible through.

A pregnant teen. A husband that doesn't put his wife to death. A child who's first bed is the feeding trough of animals who'll grow up to be hated and loved and the world won't be the same for it.

I think many of us have heard the christmas story packaged so cutely. From confusion and uncertainty... can we grasp the kind of trust it would take to accept all things in strength?. Life is not CUTE. Look at the economy, systems and agencies are falling.

Do I have a gift to trump the Jones and even Santa Claus in unromantizing christmas for you? (TAKE UP BOXES BIG AND SMALL) Are your thoughts on the season neatly packaged... and can fit in a tidy box like this. Or have I freed them up to help you wonder....

Wonder.

Wonder that even if life gets confusing and unsure everything is still good... and wonder about a trust that transforms people and lives.

Merry Christmas Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests.

JNET

SPEECH: The Stillness Of Me

Good evening Madam President, Fellow Toastmasters and Honored Guests.

My name is JNET and I am presenting my first speech:

Seeing me in this dress, you would probably find it hard to believe that I am an introvert. I am someone who romances silence even though I am a musician and teacher. I am someone who appreciates stillness even though I am a dancer.

I'd rather hear about you but I have 10 boxes to fill. My ambition tonight is for you to learn a bit about myself by sharing a particular day in my life that occurred, a particular day of the week in my life and how my life is colored thusly. And to also to share in such a way that connects us despite respective cultures, ages, and experience....

Firstly, a favorite quote by a wise Jesuit priest...

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

We are NOT human beings have a spiritual experience. WE ARE SPIRITUAL beings HAVING a HUMAN experience...

And what is experience to me? It's an opportunity to wear a costume and be present on stage to play with the human experience.

I think my very first human experience was a very positive one.

My mother says that on the day I was born at a tiny military hospital in the Philippines, not a single baby girl had been borne there for at least a month. I can only imagine the greeting I received then. But I know a genuine hello today really stays with me. Those passing hellos from the hospital in the Philippines, to grade school teachers, college professors, and kind neighbors, now deliver me here to Toastmasters so that I may address you and ask you to wonder about your very first human experience.

Do you care that I've lived in Florida, Virginia, San Diego or Boston? Does it matter to you the things I've done along the way? How do I best give you a sense of who I am within six minutes? And how does an introvert get away with making her first speech in a ball gown anyway?

I think my friends here will agree with me that I am having a lot of fun with this thing called life. In many ways, Life is like a gala. Should I ever lose my shoe at a given moment, I am still the princess.

My family and friends are the jewels that adorn me. The education given me by professors, mentors and directors in my school of life has given me color and sound.

But I don't need this dress to explain the canvas of my life. Instead let me share with you my Sundays. This spiritual being out on a human experience has not been in church as much as she'd like these past several months. Instead, I've been at dance rehearsal at 10am every Sunday morning. My hair put up in a bun, dressed in a t-shirt or tank top with petticoats over yoga pants. My dance group is preparing to perform at the Ford this coming September 13th.

I will not deny that being able to dance in beautiful costumes thrills me. But I also get a thrill out of the arduous rehearsal. For 8 hours, we'll be taught basics to put 40 dancers into choreography about the stage. On a blank canvas of dancers in petticoats, Philipino culture, art, and history is put. We all look the same on Sunday.

We all come from busy lifestyles. We are all tired. We are all excited.

I go home by 6pm. Sometimes I'll go to a salsa dance class. Most times, I need to be home early so that I can broadcast my internet radio show.

"Good evening Los Angeles and beyond, Welcome to More Than a Headshot on blogtalkradio, and this is your host JNET, perpetual negativity slayer, bridge builder and lemonade maker, here with another episode for all you rugged angels out there.... "

Life has not been easy. Life is not easy. I've moved so much that I never kept a childhood friend. My father died while I was in grade school. I am not happy with my pirouettes. I wish I could be more focused in my writing. I wish I didn't know the thrive survive divide. My mom is about to have surgery and the challenge to take care of her between my brothers and myself ...

ahhh... that's the stage getting hot, I suppose.

Some ask in their heads... "what would Jesus do?".. I also ask... "what would Beethoven do" .. What would a perpetual negativity slayer do? How do I make something beautiful out of this?

pursue a mastered life, a masetro's life... compose beauty, passion, and possibility. i know many of you know that still place. that place where a moment to be content, sentimental, or thankful takes a peaceful stretch to heave a happy sigh before getting clobbered over the head a dozen sugar glass bottles.

From the still place of myself... I say hello and pleased to meet you... to meet you and speak to the still place of you.

JNET