Bisbee Life Coach

Hey there! Well, here I am saying one thing and doing another. I promised more blog posts and we’re half-way through 2018 and I’m already up to #2. Woo Hoo!!

Procrastination is one of my biggest enemies. Habits die hard, and for me this is probably the worst. It’s not that I don’t have great intentions, it’s that I don’t intend to do it right now. OK, well…I’ll work on fixing that. Later, perhaps.

So, Miss Debbie and I were talking about how we might contribute to our new community and as we looked around we saw a need for basic life skills.  You know, cooking, cleaning, applying for a job, being nice to your neighbors, changing a tire, balancing a checkbook, maintaining positive relationships, not ending up in prison…the sort of thing every Mom and Dad worries about.

Look at us…married for 40+ years, a 30-year military career, four kids of our own. Why can’t we help folks that need to learn a few basics about life, right? We’ve been there, done that, and got lots of t-shirts.

After a little research on-line, I found a Master’s Certificate Program on Life Coaching through Grand Canyon University (GCU)…the Lopes, with a campus in the Phoenix metro area. They have an on-line program so no classroom commutes.  I still have some VA education benefits left to use and, BAMM…just like that, I’m a student again. And to top it off…PURPLE is their color, and so is mine!

I’ve completed about 75% of the course now with one class to go. Yay, me!  I’ve learned some pretty valuable things about how to give people a hand up instead of just a hand out. With the help of a generous fellow student, I started a business called “Bisbee Life Coach”, designed to help anyone who has the motivation to better their life by utilizing three principles that I put together.

DISCOVER – discover where you are today, how you got here, and where you want to be in the future.

FOCUS – focus on creating a road map that you can use to reach your goals in life.

SUCCEED – reach the destination that you’ve always wanted to, but never had been able to achieve, and celebrate your success.

As a first-step, we started teaching Basic Life Skills using a workbook written by Nancy Harper as our guide. It’s called, “Life Skills Essential for Personal Growth on the Ever Changing Road of Life”. I found the subject matter to be pertinent and presented simply. In June we started our first-ever Basic Life Skills class with four students.

So far, so good…but I’m quickly discovering the first real battle is finding folks who not only NEED this information, but who are COMMITTED to actually doing something on their own behalf. As I talk with various people around town, it becomes apparent that there is a certain lack of motivation. Seems that many say they want to improve their lives, but just aren’t willing to do what it takes to change their behavior to do so. It’s a real quandary.

This quote may or may not have been said by Einstein, but the point is nonetheless true. I’ll use myself as an example. Remember that problem I have with procrastination? Well, occasionally it gets me into trouble. I know I’ve got to get a paper done for my school by midnight. In fact, I’ve known about it for a week. And yet here I am once again, an hour before midnight, working feverishly to get that paper done and submitted before the deadline. I’ve done it my whole adult life. In fact, I likely learned it as a kid in grade school. It’s INSANE!

The results are always the same…adrenaline rush, fatigue, sweaty palms, stress, and promises to myself that it’ll never happen again. Personally, I blame the instructors for my problem (shifting blame). I often do some of my best work when under the gun. I rationalize my procrastination because I “always get a good grade” in the end.

But that’s what we all do when it comes to making changes in our lives. We fall back on our old routines. We stay in our comfort zone. We don’t rock the boat. If it works, don’t fix it. But if we’re honest with ourselves (and too often we aren’t) we need to admit that although old habits die hard, new habits can take us to new heights of success.

Now I’m starting to sound like some of my professors, so I’ll quit now. I hope that you, like me, will be able to make improvements to your behavior that will make a positive change in your day-to-day life. I’m still a work in progress…so don’t give up on me yet.

Find me on Facebook by searching for Bisbee Life Coach, or on the web at www.bisbeelifecoach.com 

Cheers!

-  Papa Chief

 

Life Changing Moments

I’ll admit…I’ve been lax in pumping out regular blogs to Core Crow.  I plan to rectify that deficiency.  Perhaps it can be construed as a New Years resolution.  But really, it’s just that I enjoy writing and want to do so more often.

 

Since writing my last blog a year ago, a LOT has changed.  My life is completely different than it was just 6-months ago.  It’s been a bit of an adjustment, but…so far…a welcome one.  Let me tell you about it with a little background info to set the stage.

 

On 30 May 2017, my wife and I celebrated 40-years of knowing each other.  I met my soon-to-be child bride on Monday, 30 May 1977, in Weingarten, Missouri at the home of her parents.  I was 17-years old, and she looked to be all of about 14 at the most.  Unlike the ‘Once Upon a Time’ stories, I didn’t ride in on a white stallion ready to slay the dragon and free her from her castle prison.  And likewise, she wasn’t in her finest silk and lace gown crying for help to the first handsome prince that happened to come along.  No, it was a little less dramatic than that, or more so depending on your seat in the gallery.

 

I’m not sure what I was wearing; probably bell bottom blue jeans and a button-down shirt of some kind.  This dude on the left was probably pretty close.  But my hair was definitely at least 6-inches above the top of my head, and around the sides, and back, in the most perfect of afro’s a 70’s guy could hope for.  I guess you could say it was my crown of glory here on earth.  I had a bigger fro than any of the black guys I knew.  It was a work of art.  I was a babe magnet.  Don’t be jealous.  I’m just stating the facts as I remember them.

 

I was with my Dad when I walked into her parent’s house that day.  Our parents were old friends from years before we were both born.  I suppose for Dad it was a reunion of sorts.  17-year old kids don’t really care about old people’s relationships, so I’m just guessing.  As I stood in the living room watching them greet each other like old pals at a high school reunion, around the corner was peeking this young lass who looked all of 13 or 14 at the most.  I had previously been told she would be headed off to summer camp the following week.  As Ray Stevens once sang, “There she stood in all her radiant beauty”, wearing an old t-shirt above Daisy Duke shorts, barefooted, and her hair up in rollers.  Marty McFly said it best; “You are my density”.

 

After some courteous hellos she disappeared, only to reappear some time later looking like she must have sent out her older sister; wearing a strappy little sun dress, platform heels, long brunette curls hanging down a little brown face, but with that same shy smile beneath the chocolate brown eyes.  At the behest of her parents later that night, she sat down at the piano and it happened.  The cygnet I had seen only a few hours before began playing and singing like the graceful lead in a ballet performance of Swan Lake.  Being from a musical family myself, interest was inserted into my youthful head.  The story was beginning. 

 

At some point she went into the kitchen to fix us something to eat and I followed.  It was the first time we had a chance to speak without the hovering parents around.  Somewhere in our conversation I discovered she was not 14…rather, she was 18.  Huh???  A year OLDER than me? And how about that summer camp trip next week?  She wasn’t a kid looking forward to making a macramé coin purse.  She was one of the counselors.  My pulse increased…but I remained cool, calm and collected…like Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood or 0-0-7.  My casual reply?  “You know…you’re going to make someone a good wife someday”.  That’s it?  That was the Rhett Butler to Scarlet O’Hara line that you chose Billy Boy?  <insert eye roll here>  I’m an idiot!  She politely giggled like good little school girls are supposed to do while twirling her hair.  I was moronic at best.  She was intoxicating!

 

The Shady Dell - 1957 Airfloat

Fast forward 40 years later and that same little grown up girl and I found ourselves in the little town of Bisbee, Arizona.  We were renovating a 1957 camping trailer and I had found a campground with all vintage trailers you could rent like a motel room called The Shady Dell.  We went there to celebrate that day we met and spent the weekend in a 1957 Airfloat camper.  We had a blast! 

 

For those who’ve never been to Bisbee, or even heard of it, it’s an old copper mining camp that has since flourished into a sort of hippie enclave mixed with more traditional free spirits located a mile up in the Mule Mountains in southeastern Arizona only 5-6 miles from the Mexican border.  It’s about as diverse a group of people as you’ll find; rich in history but with a laid-back vibe, now that the mines are closed.  Old Bisbee reminds us of Europe with it’s winding little streets, hillside homes, and various collections of mom-and-pop businesses.  The Warren district (where we live) was the first planned residential community in Arizona and was established several years before Arizona became a state in 1912.  Like our experiences living in the Azorean island of Terceira or what you might find in Hawaii where we discovered the concept of “island time”, we also found the same philosophy known as “Bisbee time”.  When planning anything you must consider the fact that most time stamps end in “-ish”.  The unofficial town motto: “Bisbee: Like Mayberry on Acid”.    

 

Lavender Jeep Tours

With no industry to speak of anymore, Bisbee caters to tourists who fill the streets, especially during summer months and weekends when the temperature is 15-20 degrees lower than in the Tucson or Phoenix valleys.  They offer a Lavender Jeep Tour, and we chose to take a ride in the open-air Jeep to see what Bisbee had to offer.  After seeing Old Bisbee’s unique houses, the Copper Queen Hotel, mercantile, Brewery Gulch and learning about its western cowboy and mining roots, we headed past the open pit mine down to Warren along a wide stretch of grass called Vista Park where folks have a picnic, play with their dogs, throw footballs to the kids, enjoy a game of tennis or visit the Farmer’s Market each Saturday. 

 

Across from the market is the oldest continuously used baseball field in America. Warren Ballpark was built in 1909; 5-years before Wrigley Field. Through its long history it saw the likes of such baseball legends as Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe and Hal Chase.  The New York Giants and Chicago White Sox were the first major league teams to play there in 1913.  Along with many major and minor league teams, local teams beat up the turf as well.  Today it’s the home of the Bisbee High School Puma’s who play both baseball and football on the field and is host to a variety of other events such as the annual Mariachi Festival and car show.  It was also the site of the forced gathering of striking mine workers in the infamous "Bisbee Deportation" of 1917.

Warren Ballpark

Along the Vista and a stone’s throw from the farmer’s market and ballpark, our Jeep tour stopped in front of a lovely old craftsman style home that the driver told us was the John Treu Home, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  John Treu was a butcher who owned a meat market in Old Bisbee in the early 20^th century.  He had lived there with his wife and three children after it was built in 1919. Several years later it was sold to a local legend in mining and banking, Lemuel C. Shattuck after marrying his new bride, Mary. Along the wrought iron fence in front was a nice big sign.  For Sale!

 

The John Treu House - National Register of Historic Places

Without boring you with details…we sold our house in the Phoenix valley and bought the John Treu house, moving to Bisbee within 2-months.  It was in this home that we celebrated our 40^th wedding anniversary on 26 November 2017.  To our friends it seemed like a sudden and snap decision.  But after 30-years of military life, it seemed like just another move.  But this time, to a cooler (literally) and quaint small town where we could enjoy life at a slower pace and actually get to know our neighbors again.

 

So, I offer my advice to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are bound to come along.  Be very very careful who you make a corny one-liner to in your youth.  It may just come back and cause you to live happily ever after.

 

Come visit!

 

-          Papa Chief