I was contacted by a music teacher in Guam. She wanted to know if she could use the title cut from one of my CDs for a show her students were going to perform.

see: http://animalsonparade.com

In fact… see the coloring book pages that father drew for the album at:

http://animalsonparade.com/ColoringBook.cfm

They’re superb! He used to draw for Disney. My dad raised us by drawing caricatures at the major county and state fairs.

I wrote out lead a sheet (lyrics and chords) and sent the music teacher a copy along with the entire song to reference.

About three months later I received a package in the mail (from Guam). It had a number of hand made thank you notes from all the kids in the program and a video of their performance from their teacher.

Check the video out on the Internet.
http://ngws.com/animals/

Now, I’ve been back stage with Paul Simon, Donovan, toured with the Doobie Brothers, travelled in Russia with Cyndi Lauper and Michael Bolton, been in the recording studio with Julio Iglesias, been asked to give my assessment of new songs by the Beach Boy’s Bruce Johnston (I Write the Songs that Make the Whole Sing) while sitting in his limousine listening to his demo being played by Little Richard… and I can go on and on naming the major recording artists I’ve interacted and worked with.

When I opened this package from Guam, I was never so touched and impressed by something to do with my music endeavors as I was with this. At the time, I was driving to a rural school in the San Joaquin Valley to teach underprivileged 9 year old children how make videos and use digital cameras. I received a grant to purchase the cameras for my educational programs.

Tears streamed down my face when I heard those little voices from Guam singing a song that I wrote. I called a close friend of mine who writes music for Disney and (while still emotional) told him about this package from Guam. He confirmed that it is things like this that are truly where it’s at. I was absolutely overwhelmed. In my own way, I had just won my “Grammy” award.

When you go to measure your successes in life, it seems to me that the measuring stick you use will very from one type to another depending on your life’s situation. How fragile we all are and how blessed we all are to have opportunities to affect the lives of others.

I generate income from teaching and training others to be better at the things they aspire to be. I also help a number of manufacturers grow their businesses. I’m involved in photography, video production, web, music, marketing, writing, education and more. I’m always busy. I work from 8:30am to 10:30pm seven days a week. Even then, there’s still not enough time for me to do all I aspire to do.

I get quite a bit of personal fulfillment from the creative projects I do. When I see that I’m helping others with what they seek it makes me feel successful.

Come on and sing…. “Animals on Parade!”