David Daniel's Blog, page 4

The Power of Yes

Many years ago, I was in a slump.  I reached a point in my life where my creativity had stalled and although my career was rolling along nicely, I hadn’t really taken my potential to the next level.  I knew I had to change the way I was thinking and my approach to life.  Since my background was in improvisation which is based on the idea of saying “yes” to life, I decided I would embark on a year-long journey of saying “yes” to as many things as I could and see what transpired. I began this journey with a […]

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Clark Gardens

Listen on Spotify Spring is in the air in Texas and with this turning of the season Clark Gardens in Mineral Wells, Texas has opened for business once again.  For those that have never heard of Clark Gardens, I was not unlike you until roughly five years ago.  A friend casually asked Adi and me, “Have you guys ever been to Clark Gardens?’ “I’ve never heard of it,” I responded. “Oh, you’ve got to go,” my friend implored us.  “Whenever I feel like escaping the hustle and bustle of the world, I drive out to Mineral Wells and escape into […]

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Evening in Roma

Listen on Spotify There is simply nothing as magical as an evening train ride through Europe.  This was a first for Adi, she had never taken a train in Europe and as our train departed the Venice train station we were filled with excitement as we sped through the night to Rome. This trip is one that many may only do once in a lifetime so, suffice to say, it wasn’t cheap. The first twenty minutes of the trip took place in a tunnel under the water that surrounded Venice. I can’t help but marvel at the pure ingenuity of […]

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Texas Hill Country

Listen on Spotify! “Is there any way you guys could leave for Valentine’s Day?”  I applauded the directness from our 21-year-old son.  He wanted to have our home to himself for his Valentine’s date and he thought that Adi and I might cramp his style. “I guess we could,” I responded, slightly shocked that we were being asked to vacate our own home for 24 hours.  When exactly did I lose control of our home, I thought to myself? “Yeah!  We can go somewhere,” Adi responded.  Adi wasn’t offended in the least and in fact, I wonder if she put […]

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Barcelona: Secret Lover

Listen on Spotify Have you ever fallen so head over heels in love with someone that you thought, at the time, there is no way I can ever find another person that I could love romantically like this only to find out later in life that you indeed could and did for that matter find another that lit the flame of your heart? Or when you had your first child and then thought that there was no way you could ever love another human being with the breath and capacity that you had for your first born only to have […]

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A Rainy Day in Paris

The flight from DFW to Paris flew by. Before Adi and I even knew it, we had touched down at Charles de Gaulle Airport to start our journey across Europe. We were so excited about our upcoming trip that we were five hours into our flight before we stopped talking and then realized when we arrived in Paris it would be 9:30 am and neither of us would have slept in 30 hours. We tried to fall asleep for a couple of hours before we landed but had only drifted off maybe 45 minutes when we were jolted away when the […]

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Blame It on the Barcelona

Listen on Spotify “Leave the keys on the table in the apartment.” Carlos’ instructions were clear. Both Adi and I talked about it as we were preparing to leave Barcelona to head to our next destination. Remember: Leave the keys on the dining room table. We were simply to set the keys down and then walk out the door of Carlos’ oasis in the middle of one of the most charming cities in the world, close the door and then go on our merry way leaving Barcelona behind us. Check. Got it. No need to worry, we got this; keys […]

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Venice: The Sinking City

Venice waits for her demise like a ship whose hull has been breached and has only a few hours before it is submerged completely underwater. I didn’t really think much of this as Adi and I boarded a city bus to take us to the water taxis that awaited the arrival of a mix of tourists and locals as they prepared to join the doomed on this sinking city.  Adi and I were only halfway into our bus ride when we mistakenly exited the airport bus 20 minutes early at a stop where only locals seemed to get off. We […]

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Amsterdam: A Love Story

Spring in Amsterdam brings the tulips. Big, luscious tulips that illuminate the city and breathes life into a community that has just awakened from a winter soon long forgotten. This is the city that Joy and I discovered as we paraded around town on our first day after our arrival. The smell of marijuana permeated the air and as I looked around, I saw a city that seemed exceptionally at peace with itself. All the things that many of us seem to suffer from—guilt and shame, prejudice and discontent, angst, and ambition—they all appeared to be noticeable absent from this […]

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When in Rome…

When the sun rises over Rome, a new city is born. Rome leaves behind her nighttime alter ego and becomes a much different city in the daytime. The tourists come out during the day pointing their cameras at everything that resembles history and the locals try and sell them every trinket under the sun in order to make a euro. Rome welcomes everyone and knows that she will be standing long after both the tourists and even the locals are long gone. Rome is a survivor. When you have been around as long as Rome there is nothing to prove. […]

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