{"id":159,"date":"2004-12-18T22:34:36","date_gmt":"2004-12-18T22:34:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2007-02-10T16:29:51","modified_gmt":"2007-02-10T22:29:51","slug":"still-in-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=159","title":{"rendered":"Still in L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"clear:left; float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-top:10px;;width: 55px;\" name=\"fb_share\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#appId=125029517579627&amp;xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=159\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"55\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>Somewhat<br \/>\nsurreal day here; it&#8217;s been a few years since I&#8217;ve been here during the<br \/>\nholidays, the mild weather a warm surprise. The service for my friend<br \/>\ntoday was beautiful with a turn out of about 90 people in the morning<br \/>\nsunlight. there were speakers who shared their memories and feelings,<br \/>\ntwo beautiful presentations of photographs of my friend and his life<br \/>\nand a achingly beautiful performance by Dianne Reeves and Patrice<br \/>\nRushen that left not a dry eye in the house.<br \/>\nHe touched many people in<br \/>\nhis short time on earth. Some of us decided that the best thing we<br \/>\ncould do is carry on his spirit through our actions, mentoring others<br \/>\nand bringing love and humour to the world in our lives and our work.<br \/>\nYou&#8217;d think that would be unspoken but sometimes you have to say it out<br \/>\nloud to remind yourself what is important.<br \/>\nBack to Texas tomorrow, a<br \/>\nfew friends unseen; when you lose a friend like this you hope you have<br \/>\nanother chance with the people who are special to you. Reach out and<br \/>\nlet someone know that they are important to you tonight. You may not<br \/>\nget another chance&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Thoughts Read @ Bill Cope West Coast Memorial Service 12-18-04<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">   <\/span><\/p>\n<p>11\/27\/04-12\/17\/04<br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Throughout my life I have been fortunate<\/span><\/p>\n<p>To learn many lessons from those who went before<\/p>\n<p>Good, bad, indifferent&#8230; shaping, defining, refining<br \/>\nBut there are those who touch your character<\/p>\n<p>And bring quiet in a world of noise<\/p>\n<p>We all start out excited, trying so hard not to mess up,<br \/>\ndisappoint or look like a fool<\/p>\n<p>We feel doubt, anger, confusion and success<br \/>\nall seemingly in a matter of moments, a blink of an eye<br \/>\nYou learn that time is time; and sometimes you gotta wait.<br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">To earn trust you have to give someone a chance<\/span><\/p>\n<p>To find answers you have to ask the right questions<\/p>\n<p>To see what&#8217;s happening around you, you have to be willing to look<\/p>\n<p>To do right, you have to feel what is wrong<\/p>\n<p>To feel the warmth of the sun, you may need to go outside<\/p>\n<p>To keep what you have, you gotta give it away.<br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">There&#8217;s the trick; shaping your surroundings, running the show&#8230;<br \/>\nit&#8217;s all an illusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>You do your homework, remember your lessons, keep your eyes open,<br \/>\ntake action and let it unfold all around you.<br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">But to do it with style, kindness, some serious smooth&#8230; <\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">To walk through a doorway and have more than one person smile&#8230;<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">You don&#8217;t  have to be tall enough to see over the wall&#8230; but it helps!<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">I&#8217;ll forever be waiting for the signal, the signal to spin, that everything is ok,<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">The all clear, waiting for you to turn around with your hand in the air,<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">A smile on your face, dancing a little bopping popping groove, stepping off<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">As the wall closed in, I&#8217;ll be waiting, the lesson learned, my job now to carry it on,<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Teach<br \/>\nsomeone else, share the quiet, share the calm, share the smile, share<br \/>\nthe warmth, share the trust, share the big picture<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial\">To give away what was given to me by you.<\/span><br style=\"font-family: arial\" \/><br \/>\nGood bye my friend&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somewhat surreal day here; it&#8217;s been a few years since I&#8217;ve been here during the holidays, the mild weather a warm surprise. The service for my friend today was beautiful with a turn out of about 90 people in the morning sunlight. there were speakers who shared their memories and feelings, two beautiful presentations of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[19,16,7,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peNcU-2z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}