MaxComm Communications - frame YOUR message™

"Urgency and passion drive achievement – sensitivity makes it human but it seems, whatever we do, is made sweeter if someone appreciates it or praises it. Conversely, no matter what we do or how well we do it there is no other way to describe the flip side of it, when someone is limp, weak or reluctant with their comments, simply saying ‘that wasn’t bad’ or ‘really, that wasn’t bad at all." - Mark Kolke

"Someone commented to me ‘relocating is hard’ referencing my intention to make a move, to make Maui my home. Relocating half way around the globe is hard - perhaps harder is relocating a few blocks to change logistics, a few miles to change habitat, or a few brain cells over to change a point of view." - Mark Kolke

"No way to know it, no way to control it, there is no way to prepare for it, no way to understand it. I’m going to let it keep raining until it is done. I’ll let the sun shine when it is ready. Like life, death and rain - some things are inevitable, most others I can change and for the ones I cannot change. I can always change my view, alter my vantage point. Sometimes that clear vision is rainbow seen through rain, sometimes a much fuzzier view." - Mark Kolke

"So many springs behind, so many springs ahead for all of us. Right now, just now, this time has come, let it stay, it seems nothing can go wrong. I know that can’t be true, but I want it to be, It never got hot enough for spring fever to take hold of most people - it was early, cool and wet - first one thing, then another thing – so many things in spring, so so many, then the end of spring." - Mark Kolke

"Measuring self – to the climber that must be a ‘number of summits’, to the baker his count of loaves, to a miner his tally of tons loaded, to the child his grades in school, to the gunslinger notches on a belt or a bedpost, but what does a mattress maker measure?  He would measure so many springs - in his work and in his life." - Mark Kolke

"Spring is momentum – the word alone conjures a bouncing energy released from metal coils – spring begins in winter’s dark days when we ache to see her, ends in June as we are primed for summer, to greet tomorrow’s solstice as entry point to all points beyond." - Mark Kolke

"Someone commented to me ‘relocating is hard’ referencing my intention to make a move, to make Maui my principal residence. Relocating half way around the globe is hard - perhaps harder is relocating a few blocks to change logistics, a few miles to change habitat, or a few brain cells over to change a point of view. Upside down or right side up there is no simple way to predict an outcome." - Mark Kolke

"This day has promise – contents unknown, this day has sunshine in it, openings appear, often too small to appear worthy. Imagination the only limitation, I feel change – not day to day – but turning pages, one chapter of my life to the next, when reality collides with dreams - like sandpaper greets silk – abrasively and things are never the same after." - Mark Kolke

"I don’t know path or consequences of the rest of my life, but I hope I can see it from here. I think the route requires me to be determined, I think having expectations limits my experience – the outcome to be determined depending on now determined I am." - Mark Kolke

"I don’t know if he became the father he wanted to be – I’ve never asked him, but he never did anything to become the only one I ever wanted – he just was, still is. To me, he just was one. I never felt lorded over, bossed around or controlled by him – more the opposite. I never felt afraid of him but there was a line I didn’t want to cross – into the unknown, the fear factor was considerable but looking back I know he didn’t want to be harsh given that my mother’s discipline on its own was plenty for any child." - Mark Kolke

"I’ve been addicted for 38 years; I started using when I was 18, I’ve never quit before. The opposite of euphoria is upon me; but its just one thing – I won’t starve or die of thirst, it’s just one thing . . it should be quick and easy. I’ll just stop that; obviously it would be easier to give up something I didn’t like, but how tough can it be?  I didn’t drink much coffee, just one pot, every morning, sometimes a cup later but mostly just that one pot to start my day." - Mark Kolke

"Misfortune is not unforeseen, it is reality. While it could be argued some people get more than their fair share, I suspect we all get comparable doses. The difference I think is in how we deal with it. The baseball player knows the percentages but still steps to the plate with great optimism and comes out swinging." - Mark Kolke

"The archer does not quit because he/she missed the bulls eye. They load another arrow, aim more carefully taking into account changes in how the wind is blowing, then take another shot." - Mark Kolke

"The insect who fell off a wall or the imprisoned activist do not quit, they keep on climbing, keep on fighting – because that is their struggle." - Mark Kolke

"We have many purposes - instincts for survival often collide with obstacles in our way leaving us choices of struggling on, struggling again or struggling somewhere else but we don’t get to ‘not struggle’ . . . that sad luxury is for when we are dead." - Mark Kolke

"Don’t have a good day when having your best day ever is an available option. Say good morning to someone and say ‘lets do our best work ever today’ or greet someone we meet for the first time with ‘lets have the best time we ever had tonight’ or someone who needs a tug or a hug with ‘lets have the best conversation ever, right now’, The choice to not get it right but to get it best, is here in front of me right now." - Mark Kolke

"Today is another opportunity for those who missed theirs yesterday – each day filled with whatever we want. Asking for it, asking for help with it, asking for more than our share, asking for ‘it all’ is our right and responsibility to ourselves and to those who depend on us for support in any of its many forms – to squeeze every lemon dry in search of sweet results; actors all, life as improv theatre is really ‘improve theatre’." - Mark Kolke

"They have their separate time - sad and happy don’t clasp like hands, they meet like rain and sun. Hard to make heads or tails of - opposites they are not – more like different images on sides of a coin where I see one or the other but not usually on the same day, never at the same time." - Mark Kolke

"I believe we get what we negotiate, we get what we enable, no right to complain unless we’ve fought hard for what we believe, work hard for what we want, painted our dreams on tall canvases. If we’ve done that and laid our wholeness out on the ground for the crows to peck away, spent ourselves fully in living without reservation, without constraint, without limitation on our expectations then we have no room or place for complaint and, I hope, I will not have reason for any." - Mark Kolke

"I won’t play a perfect game, a really good game or get one perfect shot. No one will be watching, no one will care, it will not matter. The world will not change. I go because I love the atmosphere of golf, the impossibilities and permutations of it let the brain spend thoughts on so many combos of things it lets the other part of the brain that worries about issues, juggles issues, solves problems and strategize solutions to keep its equilibrium, it gets to take the day off." - Mark Kolke

"Seeking to discover something - scientist in the lab or me doing the most mundane chore - the accident of discovery cannot happen unless first of all there is something going on. Accidental discovery is not likely to happen if we are not looking for something – we’ll just miss it." - Mark Kolke

"Someone is entitled to feel great, feel honored, feel respected, feel connected. Someone deserves a fresh look, a second change. Everything in life is not Everest, but most everything is a climb of some kind." - Mark Kolke

"My dream will be mine alone. I can share it but not impose it, teach it but not clone it - different dreamers, different dreams. I may be late arriving. I don’t know my route for sure. I know where I am going. I believe I know how to get there." - Mark Kolke

"I’d rather have a foe who believes in me than a friend who doesn’t, I’d rather be late than not arrive at all, I’d rather my baggage takes the same trip I do, and on the same day, but I don’t always get what I want." - Mark Kolke

"Freedom to choose which line to cross, taboo to flout, convention to trash, proper thing to do improperly – there is no failing or danger in exposing ourselves to the risk/reward continuum. The ultimate worst case scenario is that we take our life, or that life takes us; so, what’s the risk then, if ultimately life takes us anyway?" - Mark Kolke

"Life is a debt we owe to self. No time to waste, start paying, never stop." - Mark Kolke

"Debts I owe used to bother me, hovering clouds above, like a cartoon character. There is only one debt worth my time, only one worth paying. Life can only give me death, it owes me nothing else, so, who do I owe, where do pay, how much do I owe, when will it fully paid?" - Mark Kolke

"Life’s value is not tangible – I can’t hold it in my hand or describe what it is in theory; neither can you. Life’s value, is not what I give to it – or what I take. Not measured by cash, toys or land or any thing. Value is what I make different in me that, in turn, makes anything different or better in the world. If I make nothing better, nothing different – if nothing changes, then my life is a waste of air, water and good food. If I have an experience – thrilling or painful – if it does nothing for anyone but me, what is its value other than my pleasure or my pain?" - Mark Kolke

"I’ve no desire to mislead anyone about anything at anytime – but unintended pain or gain of unintended consequences is not something I can predict, plan or avoid. My truth is my truth – in the moment, on the day, how I feel – that’s my truth regardless of time of day or night. Tomorrow, next week or in two years my truth may be the same but my way of describing it will be clearer, more refined, somewhat evolved – or change radically. My truth is my perception of truth, mine, through my eyes." - Mark Kolke

"Errors in reception, transmission or translation almost always arise out of a mistake in the sending of the message. I often find what I write, what I intend to convey, is misinterpreted by a margin that passes understanding." - Mark Kolke

"As I see it, life is a never ending series of errors in judgment, mistakes, course-corrections, disappointments, falling short, not measuring up, missing, losses, ties and cancellations this is sprinkled with some sunshine, punctuated with a win here, a victory there, a good turn, a good deed, a good deal, a good time and some measure of balance." - Mark Kolke

"Reality can (perhaps it should) be avoided, rejected, deflected just as much as it should be embraced. I think reality is over-rated and mind-expansion dreaming under-rated. A full life, not a balance of both, but rather the full pursuit of both without a notion one should defeat or compete with the other." - Mark Kolke

"No one who lives a full life ever stayed still or in one spot very long. Today, not the past, is all I have to work with. Chasing a dream or asking for what we want is nice but doesn’t get us very far. The next step of all of us is there for the stepping – having a dream and doing what we want is available to everyone." - Mark Kolke

"There are no limits, no speed limit on the thought highway, no curfew on action, no time limit on how much we love, no maximum on giving - giving ALL to a course of action does not leave us empty, it is how we get full. The reality that ‘there will never be enough time’ is not reason to quit, but reason to start." - Mark Kolke

"Sometimes it takes forever, to gather it in, to pull it down to this page like some billowing hot air balloon that needs to be packed and stored for its next trip - knowing something is over there or just out of view." - Mark Kolke

"Just out of sight or beneath the surface or just out of reach where truth waits to be uncovered, fertile territory wanting exploration, ideas beg cultivation – like a gold nugget waiting to be washed out of ten tons of gravel. Curiosity, awesome volumes of learning there for the asking, the looking, the feeling. OK, I have to ask nicely, repeatedly, softly, slowly sometimes." - Mark Kolke

"Maybe it is some inevitable repetition of things that have failed so many times before. Maybe they will fail again and again – but one cannot do anything but admire the commitment, courage and relentlessness of Israeli people who want a home, a homeland, a sense of being and belonging. Whether or not all things done in the past were the best or wisest or necessary we will never know for sure. That’s OK with me." - Mark Kolke

"I think life, too often too short, is more about quality, nerve and verve that it is about longevity; don’t get me wrong, I want long." - Mark Kolke

"When runners arrive at the stadium they do not immediately head for the blocks to await the starters gun. They arrive, unpack, get organized, limber up, stretch and go through a ritualistic process of preparation of getting ready to be ready, getting prepared to start, getting set. Getting to one’s marks is about process - whether we are getting ready for work, for curtain to go up on a play or to write each day. We must, like the runner, be ready to start, be prepared to start, want to start and then, when the moment for starting comes, ready to start, prepared for it." - Mark Kolke

"This is my time-lapse movie, I am the camera, I am the film, I am the actor, I am the director – I am the viewer too. Tit down, pass the popcorn and watch with me." - Mark Kolke

"I see this in lots of places – someone gets sick or injured or has a life event go the wrong way. Their fury, their impact, their consequences effect so many like ripples in a pond that seem to grow into high waves of rage, while sadness finds new depths in troughs between the waves. - Mark Kolke

"Examination of motives at pivotal points in relationships is key if we hope to solve problems with any affect at all in business. Conversely, I think there is a tendency in personal relationships to avoid, to use a hockey metaphor, to go digging in the corners; even tougher is my relationship with myself – how often do I go digging around in the corners of my life to examine meets and bounds, testing my limits, examining my relevance?" - Mark Kolke

"My power to change world or client or friend ranges from a zero to, at best, a small number. I spend most of my time working on my changes, invest some time trying to change this world and none at all trying to change anyone else because my chance is zero – it is up to them, not me." - Mark Kolke

"I heard of someone just diagnosed - given 3 weeks to live; I was told he checked into a clinic; if that happened to me, I would, after quickly getting a 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th opinion, not be checking in at any clinic anywhere. Rather, I’d be checking-in to get on a plane, checking-in at a beach-front resort, checking-in with the starter on the 1^st tee, using my time not filling it, using less time on sleep but investing lots of time making love, walking beaches and fairways and butterfly chasing." - Mark Kolke

"If I took everything on my table, everything on my plate – sorting ‘things to do in the next 3 weeks’, ‘things to do in the 3 weeks after that’ and threw the balance in the trash – I wonder how that would work if? Every day, we have 3 weeks to live – for most of us that is followed by another 3 and then another 3, but, if any of us knew we had only but 3 precious weeks, would we change focus, could we?" - Mark Kolke

"A bridge is place, as on a ship, from which to steer the ship or . . or ourselves. Watching old movies we gasp as the rickety rope suspension bridge in tatters is the only life line someone has – but that is the suspension of disbelief. In real life we have many bridges made of much stronger things than rope or steel or concrete – sometimes those are worn tattered relationships. Sometimes they are unbreakable bonds, but these bridges are of no value if they are just sitting idle. We can build a bridge with anyone, all it takes is two people who want the connection." - Mark Kolke

"Sometimes I get lost in the debris of too many things to do, too many priorities to even think of listing, too many demands upon my time – but, I get to choose what I do and when I do it; if I can do ten things, afford ten things or have time for ten things – does it really matter which I do first, which bill I pay first, which cheque I mail second, which file I put in the drawer last or what’s next?" - Mark Kolke

"Net Worth, a number at the bottom of a page, representative both of everything and of nothing at the same time; a snapshot, moment in time, subject to change without notice. It is about monetary worth but not about values, calculation of what we have rather than who we are, statement that says ‘here is what you are worth today’ without guarantee of tomorrow." - Mark Kolke

"What any of us think of one another is measured many ways. Mostly I think views we hold, measures we take, tend to be qualitative – of future promise,  past deeds, recent experience and ‘in the moment’ feelings of how we feel, where we are, where we think we are headed – which cannot be fully measured in a day or a month, in one shopping trip or after a hundred." - Mark Kolke

"Quality of life is not money, success or power nor a period of time – it is a state of mind, a way of being, a state of grace, a statement of pace. It is about telling the world to get stuffed no less than it is about embracing that same world or someone. It is all these things before breakfast; it is reason to get up, it is reason to dream a little and fornicate lots. It is reason to meet someone on their terms - not because I don’t want to meet them halfway but because I am moving way faster and raced past the midpoint without noticing any particular landmark or guidepost or feeling some need to worry about it." - Mark Kolke

"They’ve gone so far beyond my expectations.  When a 4 yr. old takes a plate to the dishwasher they sometimes drop it, upside down of course, on the floor. Peanut butter laden crumbs clean up easily. They go on to try other new things, thousands of them – often wrong the first time - over time getting so many of them right. It seems just yesterday they were four-year-olds in miniature brown corduroy overalls,  wobbling as they took their breakfast plates from table to dishwasher, grinning that they could do that so well." - Mark Kolke

"Any given day someone will lighten my load, and I won’t know it. Someone else will add to it and I won’t know it because the total load remains the same. Each time I shed something that does not deserve my time I make room for something that does. Every time I avoid someone who wastes my time or diverts my energy down a blind alley I am making room for time to engage a pursuit or person who is surely worth it. The form it takes or how long it takes is irrelevant but the stimulation factor is clearly a value barometer." - Mark Kolke

"I am convinced we will always get what we expect. If we expect good things to show up, they will. If we expect trouble, it will. If we expect routine, it will, if we expect drama, it will. If we expect calm seas, we will have that too. So then, if I train myself to be always anticipating and expecting major change, accepting major change will turn my fears into passions just like a fresh set of clothes makes the day different." - Mark Kolke

"If I assume today will be normal slow lazy ‘fairly typical day’, then it will be, with my expectations fulfilled. Little is likely to change. On the other hand, if I expect today will be an exhilarating new experience, then it might have a chance to be. I’ve been pondering, if I make a major change today, what value is there in it for me or for anyone?" - Mark Kolke

"There we were, two guys at a stair landing, catching up but both marveling at how that coincidence unfolded on a day two people were running late, where it appears a series of unconnected (or were they?) events brought our paths to a crossroads in the innocuous of places - hmmmm?" - Mark Kolke

"I can’t imagine getting a leopard to sit still long enough to determine whether or not his spots change (recent experiences with a butterfly reinforce this view though also prove that all spots are not immediately apparent). We lions don’t have that problem. Just because we lack spots does not mean we lack personality or that we posses the power or skill  to disguise it or change it. I’m as tethered to my personality as Gusta is to her leash but we get loose sometimes; a dog unleashed is fun, a leopard unleashed is risky business, an idea unleashed – limitless potential. Unleash yourself, lose your tether." - Mark Kolke

"There is so much dignity in work, but there is no dignity in not knowing where your next meal is coming from of if you can afford it – which is not just a 3^rd world country problem. We have it in every city and town in this country too. I can't help but wonder, of all that money spent by corporations and governments promoting Earth Day, how many bags of rice that might have bought?" - Mark Kolke

"A silver bullet would be nice, grass greener on the other side of a great breakthrough. I’ve considered political parties called GREEN, considered the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and others where one can join a group, get a newsletter, make a donation and contribute to a group that purports to foster change as if a few thousand good people are battling 6 billion bad people. That does not frame the issue or a strategy for solution in my view." - Mark Kolke

"For me there seems to be a clearer, albeit smaller, picture of whether 6 billion can win any battle with the planet. I doubt we can wage any such war that collectively would equal any force of nature or which could reverse it. We’ve only been camping here a short while and, to listen to all the talking heads, it seems we’ve nearly wrecked the place." - Mark Kolke

"While I think tactics and strategies are great for adversarial sports like business, sales, athletics and board games – competitive and combative – relationships, love and the pursuit of love, are filled with too much of that and not enough ease, not enough simple, not enough generosity of spirit and of self." - Mark Kolke

"Untried is not the same as untrue. Leaping off the precipice is no riskier than sitting at the bus stop on a day the buses don’t run. Waiting for a journey that will never start is like talking about one without serious intent - each will fail to lead anywhere pleasant. With butterfly on my shoulder, how can I expect that to continue unless there is venturing, adventuring and freedom to explore the unexplored." - Mark Kolke

"Walking beaches, our footprints of any depth quickly vanish in the surf of life, as if we were never there – but then, in a way, we’ve left no scar or evidence of being there if we tread gently on the earth." - Mark Kolke

"Loving discovery, I sit on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what happens next – my journey of life (JOL) is neither destination or trip. It takes place in many destinations and along the pathways between them, but for me the discovery of something new on purpose or by accident, is the beverage I thirst for, crave and chase every day. Some days it involves learning new things about a butterfly, some days it involves learning something about the world – every day it involves learning something about myself." - Mark Kolke

"I vented some frustration to someone who might listen. I recognized how little affect that action may have for anyone else but also how important it was for me. My action/inaction ratio is something only I am accountable for. I’m not talking about road-rage antics applied to life, but taking it upon myself (our ourselves) to take a step, take a stand, do something and never stop trying." - Mark Kolke

"Will it change anything?  That’s the better question; will my complaint, my speaking up, speaking out – will it change the world, that company, that person I complained to, will it change them or how they deal with me or anyone else?  Will it change me?." - Mark Kolke

"Thinking is dangerous but not so dangerous as not thinking; living is dangerous too but not so dangerous as not living." - Mark Kolke

"It’s not the time or who it’s spent with, the trick is to think like mad, and imagine madness so no one knows the moments when I think I’m quite mad – or completely bonkers, to imagine what I imagine, to live this charmed lucky life. I fantasize about idleness, but not long, I can’t do idle well, or wild. Instead I work at dreams and dream at work and write and work some more so one day I can just write and write and write some more." - Mark Kolke

"If I don’t like the day, I can make one up – make a better one, a longer one, a day full of laughs or tears or both; a day of work and play 31 hours long. All I have to do is think it and it is so. So I will, so I can, so can anyone. Bizarre to some, but given the world today will not look anything like the world 100 years from now, I think by taking off on some new path my chance of flourishing is not so bad because sitting still has zero chance of being anywhere I’d want to be in the future." - Mark Kolke

"I’ve figured out that no one has it figured out; each time I write some more I seem to figure out a little more – might be mad - I prefer to let it make me glad that I can think and write and work and play and no one has to give me permission, no one has to hire me, no one has to do anything at all; I do, I’m the one, I’m the guy who has to think for me, dream for me, write for me – not you; you get to do for you, you get to dream for you – not me." - Mark Kolke

"I’m not sure if I am obsessed or merely determined. Perhaps too many dreams and desires for one person to have or reconcile - perhaps I should lower my expectations. I think the better course of action, for me, is to raise them higher, then higher still, until there can be no topping them, and then, try to top them anyway." - Mark Kolke

"Change takes time. Its pace is something we crave to control, accelerate and impact in terms of direction but there seem to be a set of lessons found in nature to suggest that just won’t happen quickly because we want it to or because we become better at searching for it or better communicating with each other. We’ll see" - Mark Kolke

"Yesterday, in the body of a note to a colleague describing a new adventure and the website I am creating - I meant to end the description of how relevant the site is to my lifestyle and work-style plans over the next few years with: ‘this new site is the hub of my wheel’ but instead I typed ‘this new site is the hub of my while’. That got me thinking about short while vs. long while, in Hawaii while, at home while – it seems the mind could have many whiles, for a while - certainly worth my while, for a while. If a couple of keystrokes make my wheel a while, they can change anything for a while." - Mark Kolke

"Most people don’t get me on most things, some people don’t get me at all, ever. Someone (clearly in the last group) wrote the other day indicating he didn’t want to hear from me again unless I’d discovered a cure for cancer. I’ll have to get back to him on that." - Mark Kolke

"Emerging from darkness, as someone pointed out, is sometimes a slow process. For me, it requires an early start. No amount of sleep lost or stored up, can match the silence and majesty of walking under the stars in the middle of the night. At 4AM I curse getting up, by 4:30 I believe sleep is over-rated, by 5:00 I wonder why not! No amount of sleep or caffeine can compete with the energy boost that comes with knowing that everything is as it should be." - Mark Kolke

"There is no better place in life or time anywhere else under any of the stars than where I am right now; there are shadows in the middle of the night but they seem just like shades of the dark inadequately served by a stingy light - still it lights the path, leads to morning." - Mark Kolke

"Misunderstanding is manufactured, failed communication is a poorly tailored garment. Its cut pieces sewn without pattern, without plan, more often yielding a mess than a thing of beauty." - Mark Kolke

"Seeing the butterfly is easy, but looking in the same direction the butterfly is going remains a mystery to be discovered, albeit slowly;  seeing what I want, wanting what I see; the fog analogy fits too for that situation when one can see clearly looking forward, another seeing clearly looking back – but not until two people are looking in the same direction can they determine if they see the same things." - Mark Kolke

"In recent days, and coming ones too, discussion will take place in my life not unlike discussions in many relationships - that point of go forward, go backward or stand-still – when those seem to be the three available options which is confounding for me because I feel like a story teller, writing it down, where I’ve found my happy ending - but it’s only the middle of the story." - Mark Kolke

"My destination is not a place or places or many places – it is a province of peace, a state of mind, of being found and found out and where we are is right here right now and nothing else matters anywhere close to this anywhere in life in any place (mind you, everything’s nicer in Maui)." - Mark Kolke

"Sometimes traffic signs are just traffic signs; sometimes they arrest attention and divert thought. I came upon one that said ‘be prepared to stop’ – impact - not just to slow me to avoid a construction crew collision, but rather a collision of ideas in my head, semiotics in action. Depending on how I see change, or sea-change, making change can be conclusion of a store purchase or something else entirely depending on what I want to see and depending on whether I am prepared to stop. Either way, I’ll keep the change." - Mark Kolke

"Be prepared to stop, be prepared to pause, be prepared to go, be prepared for anything, be prepared for something, be prepared for nothing. Life is flying without a net, it is a mix of reality and imagination, a mix of luck and planning, of actions and reactions, of help and of helplessness." - Mark Kolke

"That which does not serve to connect us, serves to divide us - life as we know it, dream it, wish it, love it or hate it is subject to change without notice; the certainty we knew only moments ago might evaporate moments from now; when I put my head around that idea, depending on my mood or emotional state at the time, I travel in a heartbeat from fright to euphoria – like they are towns by those names; I prefer to live between them." - Mark Kolke

"Difficult things don’t scare me, near-impossible challenges intrigue me, but this one I find impossible to extricate myself from its clutches; like fingerprints or snowflakes, there are no two mothers alike and probably no two mother-child relationships alike." - Mark Kolke

"I’ve spent my entire life hurrying – rushing – just to get to today, getting ready for today, prepared for today – so I think I can handle anything today might bring - all I can do is to be prepared to be unprepared; being ready to be sharp is not the same as being sharp – it is more like being an intellectual Maytag man . . sitting around, waiting to be ready with a solution if the phone rings; I try to use something I’ve learned (and taught) in my Toastmasters life with respect to impromptu speaking – that of being ready to react to something I’m not expecting." - Mark Kolke

"Creativity, like dough, is a living thing. Notes on paper, notations on screen, on paper or floating in head swirl – eddy-like for me, the same water in and out, forth and back again – juicy mess massaged and made whole or splashed spectacularly on this canvas, a loaf made of life slices." - Mark Kolke

"Unplanned forks in a road, will alter the future. Some, disconcerting in the moment, won’t be important two weeks from now let alone a year. Some are  life altering events, while most are not – daily circumstances and chance perversely conspire to cook up change, thoughts and creativity - the brain my cauldron, belly my thermometer." - Mark Kolke

"A dog brings tail-wags and licks to cure every ailment to lift my deflated spirit on the toughest of days. Most people, I am convinced, don’t fully get it - have it the wrong way ‘round – because you don’t get a dog, a dog gets you." - Mark Kolke

"When tide turns, when tipping point is reached, reversal of direction follows – then a trend toward something is a trend away from something else - a case for quiet, but unspoken thoughts cannot unfold a plan." - Mark Kolke

"Every day it seems everyday things alter the course, mess with the schedule and bring new things into focus. Today’s lesson for me may be about staying inside in cold weather, but I think not; not about walking or falling or rehearsing, I think more about noticing others not noticing, wondering how often that was me walking by or staying silent when someone was having trouble, in need of assistance." - Mark Kolke

"A place on the road, a spot on the map – the target, the destination – seems like a big deal if you are heading toward it, hugely important goal (well, important to me at least), but as that goal or milestone gets closer it looks more like ‘just a spot’. Another place in time – once reached or passed, it becomes like any other notch on the ruler, just a spot in time or distance from which I am moving forward, moving further away from as I head off to somewhere else, to some other goal." - Mark Kolke