"Building Life One Bottle At A Time" - A Lesson From An Unlikely Teacher.

Today I spoke with this woman. She was looking in recycling bins by my house. I asked if she'd mind telling me what she was looking for. She said liquor/beer bottles. After a brief conversation She shared She's gone through some real rough ish. I asked her why is She walking round collecting bottles from recycling bins. She said to make some doe. I again asked her why? She said she's got to do something to get going and right now this is it. I told her to wait & I'd be back. I went & grabbed some stuff & gave it to her. We shared a smile & we went on our separate paths. No fan fair, no big deal, no you should feel sorry for me. Just a thank you and then back to work she went. I know cause I watched her continue to probe recycling bins.

She doesn't realize that she just had a huge impact on my life. Why? A lesson in the power of a decision & how they always belong to us no matter the circumstance. A lesson in the power of persistence in the face of adversity. A lesson that failure is only permanent if you accept it as such.

She has decided that regardless of what she's been dealt she is going to make life on her terms, that she wasn't going to stay where she was at and that she was going to get to where she was going or die in the process. She decided to rebuild her life one bottle at a time.
Thank you Ma'am for the reminder to decide Thank you for the reminder to persist.

Thank you for the reminder that the answer to this question 'What Excuse Do I Really Have?' is none.

"I will persist until I succeed. I will never consider defeat and I will remove from my vocabuary such words and phrases as quit, cannot, unable , impossible, out of the question, improbable, failure, unworkable, hopeless, and retreat.; for they are the words of fools. I will avoid despair but if this disease of the mind should infect me then I will work on in despair.
I will toil and I will endure. I will ignore the obstacles at my feet and keep mine eyes on the goals above my head, for I know that where dry desert ends, green grass grows.
I will persist until I succeed."

Bless,
Mark Sparks
www.MarkSparks.com

Poem - Beats From My Past

I have family that raised me
Family that is still alive
That were once owned by slaves
And who lived the shackled life
Shackled lives
And in shacks for life.
So what does that mean
That I should hate the current manifestation
Of the person or people
Who's skin is the representation
Of the pain & mutilation
Of the people of my past?
Or should I let go
Of the anger
From the past
Which burns
In my present
Which threatens to
Burn up my future
Even if
It's the anger that I'm lured to
Cause anger is easy to hold to
Cause it's simple to spew hate
And takes no thought to make hurt
But to love isn't as easy
Cause to love requires change
And change takes work
And change requires risk
Which also leads to hurt
And I never know
Is the pain worth
The change worth
The reward
Worth going for
Or should I revert to the past
And look again at my past?
My great grandfather
Was beaten 'til he was bruised black
But since he was already black
They just kept beating
And though his skin was bruised
His heart kept beating
And he held his head high with pride
But they repeatedly beat him
Tried to beat out his love
Tried to beat out his pride
But what left him first
Was the beating of his heart
But his will?
They could never touch
And though
His heart physically gave up
Spiritually his heart never let up
So now it beats within me
In beats with I
So though your words
And your rules
Beat upon me
Your ways
Your hate
Won't beat within me
And you will
Nor will I
Ever beat me
Cause I will win
For the drum of defeat
Is not in me
So the beat of defeat
Beats not in me
So I choose to change to be
The best version of me
With the love of my ancestors
Beating in me
Cause the blood from their veins
Beats within me
So the pain
That comes from change
Far under weighs the reward
That makes change
And my dreams
Worth going for.

"Pop Died, Didn't Cry Didn't Know him that well." ... The Day My Father Died (Poem)

It was a lovely Christmas Eve morning
When I was awoken suddenly
He had stumbled in drunk
With something to tell me
My father passed away that day
After our last conversation
It sucks cause he spoke about loving me
All while speaking hatred.
He told me why he hated my Mom
And why I "ruined his life"
He told me it wasn't entirely my fault
But my birth caused him great strife.
He told me that I would amount to nothing
That a Man I could never be
He told me that I was shit
But then he said that he loved me.
He called me names over the years
But thankfully none of them stuck
His actions taught me how not to be a man
And his disappearing from my life for a time I attribute to luck.
He was a very talented man
Thought his hate got the better of him
He learned to perform many crafts
But in the sea of life he never quite learned to swim.
He drowned himself in sorrow he created
A life, according to him, only filled with pain
But I thank God each and everyday
The only thing we shared at the end was My last name.
I can honestly look into my soul and say
That I did all I could to make things work
But that wasn't always enough
To wipe away resentment and hurt.
I lost my father that day
And I wish we could've at least been good friends.
But the real shame in my father's passing
Is that he isn't even dead.

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Poem - Sleep Walking

I walk while I should be asleep
I figure if my mind don't rest then why should my feet?
I sleep walk cause my path isn't made for me
And when you think I'm sleeping I'm working hard you see.
I believe
That is how I am able to achieve
Something greater than what was first given to me.
No father, but that's okay
I was given a Spark
And the ability from God
To hit my Mark
And it's been dark
In my life on a few occasions
No, I'm not complaining - I'm only saying.
I've been on my knee's doubled over in pain praying
Wondering if the moment was it
If the words I'd heard were true - Mark you ain't Shi...
...


Nope.
I refused to believe that mess.
And now my pressure is a different stress
But I digress
I repeat I walk while I should be asleep
I figure if my mind don't rest then why should my feet?
To bed at four am up at 6
I wish
Sometimes it wasn't so
But when I go
I will know.
I stretched every once out of what God has given me
So until I'm gone I choose to BE.
So I repeat I walk while I should be asleep
I figure if my mind don't rest then why should my feet?

Stop Dreaming. Literally.

Okay, so maybe I meant Stop JUST Dreaming. As in wake up and make it happen!
You know many people will say they want something but take no actions to get it. Fewer people will take action without passion, without a definite purpose and kind of give some energy towards a goal only to be able to say "Ah well, I tried."
The fact remains that few people in this world are as happy as they want to be or in the shape physically, mentally, spiritually or financially that they want to be. In a time where we can get our hands on information, techniques and strategy's to help us do everything from build a shelf to cooking any dish you can imagine we spend more time dreaming of all the things we'd like in our lives instead of creating a plan, rekindling our passion and persevering. This is the definition of faith - to believe in something, work at something, push for something like it must happen. Faith is shown in action not in words. How much faith have you shown in attaining what it is you truly desire?

Tonight, before you go to sleep - think about just one thing that you want to create in your life. Anything. Then think about it as being certain to appear in your life. Really see it happening. Note how that feels. Enjoy how that feels. Next, keep that thought and emotion within your mind until you fall asleep. When you wake up go through the same process again, except this time give thanks to the Universe and your Creator for the blessing of that thing coming into your life. Then write down (not think) both what that thing is and 10 ways you can start towards it (knowing that it is certain to happen).
That's part one of the exercise. If you'd like to continue please email me. I'd love to be a part of your journey!

Now as your reading this know that this is how I have managed to continually receive many of the blessings in my life. I've been blessed to work all over the world speaking, modeling, acting and just being. And every thing that I've made a must I've made a reality.
So stop dreaming. Literally. Wake up and go get what you demand from your life.

Just a thought.
Bless,
Mark

www.MarkSparks.com

G'Bye? Nah. See You Later

Sometimes you've got to let go
In order to attain
It's strange
How hard it is to 'open the cage".
A beautiful mess
Is what you've created in me
And I see
That I'm so blessed.
But I'm still a mess
With you
Without you
It's true I see
The beauty of a thousands sunsets
Streak across your face when you smile
And as the song says
"I would walk 500 Miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles
To fall down at your door"
To fall down on bended knee
To fall down before thee
Before you
It's true...
I wish I could speed up
The hands of time
Or perhaps just turn them back
So that we could either get to our future
Or go back and enjoy our past
Alas
I am not Marty McFly
So that adventure will not take place
Instead I will leave
These words in their place:
"If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together,
there is something you must always remember.
You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
But the most important thing is,
even if we’re apart, I’ll always be with you.
-Winnie the Pooh"
So I say as I wipe my eye's,
Believe in these words from Pooh!
Even if this feel like the other kind,
You know, the stuff you wipe off your shoe.
And like he said at the end of his words
I'll always be with you.
Remember that and this last thing
I Love You.

I Ain't Afraid To Be Me.

I ain't got to be
What nobody else want me to be
And I ain't afraid to be
What I wanna be
So does that make me
A rebel?
A revolutionary?
Well then so it be
That's cool with me
Cause I refuse to live life
On terms that don't satisfy me
And I refuse to answer to anybody
Who wants me to be
"More like them" and
"Less like me"
You see
I am my own man
Built by the hand of God
And so to not be me
Would be quite odd
It's by his hand
That I can accomplish all
And with His strength
I'm able to rise when I fall
It is through His gift
That i have vision to see
That's why I ain't got to be what nobody else want me to be
And I ain't afraid to be
What I wanna be

Mark Sparks