Mark E. Lampkin

It too often feels, during this second term of President Barack Obama, like Geo. W. Bush is still listening in on the conference line…as are Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and even Jimmy Carter. The feeling that only the chairs on the porch have changed, but not much else, is becoming more disturbing to me as the months swiftly roll past me this year.

So, I have decided to take matters into my own hands, and begin my own small-level protest. I mean, what else could happen. I had to short-sell my home…move to another city…come whisker-hair close to filing BK…all just to get a new start. No bailout cash came my way…at least not enough to allow me and my family to breathe a sigh of relief.

Part of my plan to make a difference in my own community, is to commit to sharing my home-based business, Legal Shield, with as many people as will listen. Of all the network marketing opportunities I have reviewed, this one is the best fit for me. It offers a great service, for a small monthly fee…and it has no competition. And that is a great selling point for this entrepreneur.

In a recent presentation that I conducted, I asked the attendees to remember when TV shows like Dallas and Falcon Crest were popular. And how, whenever a family member got into SERIOUS trouble, the call went out to James…the family attorney. He was quick to arrive, briefcase in tow…glad to be able to serve. And his desire to justify the enormous monthly retainer for his services was also a likely motivator.

As Main Street citizens, most of us cannot afford that type of retainer, nor the high hourly fee charged by a good attorney. Thus, many of us have been mistreated, accepted a plea bargain or worse, all because we did not have affordable access to the legal system. That is changing through the use of provider law firms under the Legal Shield banner.

Please take a few minutes and visit my web site: www.marklampkin.legalshieldassociate.com
Let’s see how it feels to be like J. R., and pick up the phone and get your attorneys working for you…and not for what Mr. Ewing was paying each month.

Peace.

I recently heard on a news program that a retiring CEO of a Fortune 500 company was given a golden parachute of cash and stock dividends in the amount of $78 Million dollars. My heart, which is in great condition as I am a high school basketball official, almost went into arrest. At a time in our nation when we have heard more about fiscal cliffs, grand bargains and now sequestration, than ever before….how can it be acceptable that one person is deserving of such an amount of goodbye cash.

Now, before you begin to bash me as some sort of socialist, Marxist, neo-capitalist minded person, please take a few minutes to view this video that has recently gone viral…which outlines the outrageous gap that exists between the wealthy and those other 98% in America.

Peace.

Recently we have been inundated with three of the more bizarre terms that I can recall in my entire lifetime. Those phrases are fiscal cliff, grand bargain and the sequestration. Have we as a nation not learned from the painful lessons of our own past? Let alone see what is still happening half a world away in countries like Greece, Spain, and more recently China? No austerity methods have ever worked to stave off an out-of-control recession that is being fueled by anti-government antagonists. The Tea Party traitors of the GOP have now accomplished a big part of what they sought when they won seats in Congress of 2010. They have convinced enough people that the trickle down theory of Reagan is still the way back to glory.

And now, as many will face layoffs, furloughs and business stagnation, they will continue to place the blame of the failing economy on President Obama. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Please take a few minutes to read this article…and consider how this all will unfold.

Goodbye yellow brick road…

All in. No Bet.

I got your back. I don’t recall saying that.

Friends to the end. What did you say your name was…?

There are some times in our lives where we have to wonder if all that we have thought, felt, said and done was worth the effort. We vote for a candidate; locally, statewide or nationally, and the promises they make are rarely kept. A marriage that we thought would be a partnership until the end of our life journey becomes a battle of who’s doing whom…and only the attorneys are smiling at the end.

It seems we as a society are rearing a new generation of youth who have the expectations that everything is available…and right NOW. No more let’s wait and see. No more microwave mentality. It is the experience of a text that must be responded to in a moment…

When we begin to see more clearly the sunset of our life, it is likely then that we begin to question, and maybe to understand, how precious and important are the moments of genuine human connections.

Living without fear is not something many of us can honestly acknowledge as something we embody. Giving up our last________, is rarely an easy decision. Maybe it is because we were taught by parents from the Great Depression era to “always keep a dime in your pocket to make a phone call.” Yet, here many of us in America are faced with having to leave our homes because the unending Recession has us by the throat. And that proverbial dime won’t even buy you a cup of coffee, let alone use it to make a call. Have you seen a pay phone in the last 5 years?

As we prepare to either re-elect Barack Obama or choose Mitt Romney to lead our nation, I am just wondering what else we can do to help each other to feel the sense of family, community and pride once again. Is it really about the money? Medicare? Gay marriages? Privatized prison industries? Never ending wars…

Here is my commitment; everything I do from here ‘til my eulogy is spoken will be done without reservation. No FEAR. No REGRET. All in….and then let’s see where the chips fall. Will you be my Huckelberry? TTYL.

Peace.

A Drop in My Bucket…

More than two years ago, I wrote a piece that shared some thoughts surrounding the movie, The Bucket List, and it’s theme of living our lives fully each day. Since then I have been ever mindful of the things that I, and those family and friends close to me, are doing that bring us joy and happiness. Some of us have shared some deeply buried wishes that have been in our spirits since childhood…as well as some adult-themed aspirations.

Just this past Friday, I fulfilled one of my more daring bucket list items; a skydiving experience. It has been at least 25 years since a good friend of mine, Mark Burk, shared with me his experience of jumping out of a perfectly functioning airplane. I heard the excitement in his description of that experience, and I vowed to one day know for myself the feeling that comes as close to “free flying” as man can ever know. Yet, the years have continued to pass, never coming close to my making this dream a reality…

Maybe it was my life changing the past three years, and the subsequent deaths of close friends, that prompted me to seek out those deferred dreams. My marriage ending, my business collapsing, and seeing more-silver-than-black hairs on my head…but, I knew that if I was ever to get this thing done, it had better be soon. And thus, as fate would have it, I happened upon an ad on the Internet, for a Living Social deal to tandem skydive.

I anxiously read through the listing, it sounded so exciting…yet, when it was time to put in my credit card information, and consummate the transaction…I paused. Here I was again, staring face-to-face with my fear and my dream. Would I surrender to that fear once more? Or, would I now embark upon a new pathway, one that would free me from not only my fear but, the laws of gravity itself? In a leap of faith, I bought the opportunity.

Funny how one moment in our life can bring forth so many emotions…and memories. I recently read online where Richard Bach, the author of numerous novels, one of which I read in 1982, The Gift of Wings, has been seriously ill. It was his aforementioned book that gave me the desire to seek out the sense of flight, not from a commercial airline perspective, but one where man rarely gets to experience, at 10,000 feet. His story was about a man who loved flying bi-planes…and it described the beauty of the things not seen by us ground-huggers, or by those who regularly travel at 30,000 plus feet on a regular basis.

And so here I am, sitting attached to another man by four grappling hooks, in a bi-plane rising to 13,000 feet about the ground. It was all so surreal as we climbed into the beautiful sky…the temperature dropping a few degrees, laughing at the jokes made by my tandem buddy, and yet, it felt as though I was in a dream state. This could not be really happening to me. Then the door was opened and we slid toward the opening…we perched over the planes edge and I sought to remember why the hell I wanted to do this as I saw the fields of green farmland below me…and then we jumped.

To be continued…

Choose or Lose….

In our daily lives we are often presented with opportunities to make choices. Some are simple ones: Coffee or Tea? Swiss or Cheddar on our sandwich. Take the elevator or the stairs.

While others are much more delicate and complex.

Do I ignore this discomfort in my stomach, back, arm, etc…or call my physician. Will I consult with a legal professional to get my last will and testament, durable power of attorney completed…or put it off again. Can I really make the changes to my daily food intake and exercise routine? Or will I continue to put my family at risk of my having a serious health challenge.

The choices are always ones that we consciously make. They are so subtle, yet so powerful. Empowering or unsettling. Selfish or selfless.

It may really be true that most people spend more time thinking about their vacations than they do about their physical and financial health.

If the future of our family and communities are incumbent upon our setting imprints upon the people who are watching…then let’s give them a better example day by day. I choose daily to eat more fruits than fries. Eat more fresh vegetables than fried chicken. Consume more water than anything else that is mass marketed on the television.

Looking and feeling good as we head into our Baby Boomer years is a choice. Not an accident.

Win or lose…it’s up to you.

Peace.

Friends w/o Benefits

One of the more recent catch phrases that our society has overused is that of “Friends With Benefits.” Most of us know that it describes the relationship between two people who are friends, in which there are special benefits enjoyed in that union. That is where it often gets complicated.

In a world where we are bombarded by sexually suggestive images and phrases, how can we ever believe that it is possible to have an opposite-sex friendship that shares no benefits? Or is it inevitable that that “line” is going to be crossed at some point and time? I thought a benefit is supposed to be a good thing.

I choose to believe that men and women can be friends…in the true sense of the word. Friends with no hidden agendas. Friends who truly seek the best for one another…even if it means nothing else will ever transpire between them. Friends who will celebrate with you in times of conquest. And who will mourn with you in times of sorrow. This is the true meaning of friendship.

Giving without expectation is truly a higher-consciousness opportunity.

Try it…you’ll like it. There is a benefit to this…I promise.

Peace.

Little White Lies…

Funny how such a simple phrase can have so much power.

Those who fabricate untruths have been able to convince themselves that their deceit is justified…because it is just a little white lie.

How does a wife tell that to her husband? How does a brother tell that to his brother?

How can we expect our children to be better than we are…when they see through the little white lies?

In a world that is getting smaller each passing day, thanks in part to the instantaneous ability for information to be spread…how can a little white lie remain thus?

With all of the video available? With witnesses? With the truth being exposed…

God help us to be better. To love more. To envy less. To be transparent. Let that one of you who has no sin, shame or closeted skeletons cast the first stone. Right.

Better to be a man/woman of dignity and poverty than a wealthy fraud who just can’t stop telling those little white lies.

It hurts so deeply when she is the one who sleeps next to you…bears your child. Promised that it was ‘til death do us part. It’s the truth that has died…

And in the memory of Marvin, I ask, “What’s Going On?”

Peace.

Wait Watchers

Here we sit at the mid-point of the second month of 2012.

There are some of you who have dropped away from the regular workout routines you committed to in January…

Still a few who are still reading the affirmations that were created as the new year began…

While others have resumed their regular routine of worry, work and wonder about how to make this your best year ever…

Today I am here to applaud the quiet minority who have, for likely the first time ever, continued to do the daily little things; read the chapter of the self-help book, exchange the sweet, sugary delight for a piece of fruit, and invest in a new way to think and work…

Which of these scenarios best describes your GPS location today?

Are you waiting for another year to pass?

Are you watching others live the life you secretly wish to experience?

It can be yours…

Get off the couch and begin today to have the health, wealth and freedom that you believe is your destiny.

Stop waiting.

Stop watching.

Live free beginning today.

Peace.