Little Boogies
I was somnambulantly driving home around 10:30 PM and I was deep in introspective cognitive employment. As I was quietly thinking I could tell my brain was eagerly trying to grasp at something. I began going over all the things I am a part of, that I am doing, and that I want to do. It helps keep me sorted. I do have an assistant who texts me each morning with all the things I have to do for that particular day but it helps to run things over in my head as you will see. It went something like this:
I am about to start teaching yoga at the Corepower studios as soon as I do another demonstration for Becky. This is just a matter of me having availability in my schedule. I need to find time I thought.
I already have a private in-house client who wants to build his core so he can become a better swimmer. I have to create a yoga plan for him that best caters to his desires and abilities. I need to do that tomorrow I thought.
I also clean the studio twice a week and basically I spend a lot of time practicing and focusing on yoga. Yoga is my life and I am not entirely sure how that happened as quickly and completely as it did. It is how I start my day at 4:45 AM seven days a week and I usually don’t leave the studio until almost 9 AM. On Wednesday mornings it is almost 11 AM because I clean the studio in the morning. It is almost Wednesday I thought.
Also, I just picked up a contract for a statewide storage facility that needs a handyman. This is a huge deal and I might actually have to start a side business with a vehicle and a person who can dedicate themselves to this contract full time. Maybe even two people. I already have my assistant putting these things into place for me. I have to meet Kim in the morning.
I took out a workmans comp policy and a nice insurance policy on my company vehicle as well. I also have a 2 million dollar policy on my painting company so I can take on these bigger contracts. Furthermore, I made over $9,000 just painting, hanging pictures, and other handyman stuff back in January, not counting my income from the restaurant and I already have a huge 2 million dollar home to paint for an extremely wealthy lady who sells real estate. She said that she and many of her friends are in need of a good painter and handyman. This job alone is worth $8,800. If you consider my income from the restaurant I am already going to make what I did last month but with less jobs and effort and we are not even two weeks in to February yet. I fully anticipate making $300,000 this year if not more. I need to start saving my money.
I was also thinking about how well things are going at the restaurant I mange considering I have never managed a restaurant before. I just never imagined I would be such a great restaurant manager. I actually didn’t know that I could do it. But again I have all the right people in the right place. I am so glad we have such a great dishwasher. What a great guy.
That’s when it began to occur to me as I was driving that if I had all the right people in the right places for all the things I want to do I probably could take over the world. By that I mean there are no real limits to what one can do with the right people in the right place.
“You know Jason, the White House could really use a guy like you,” Joe Biden 2024.
As I was driving I began to think about how much I have improved myself just in the past 6 months. It didn’t have to happen. I had a few reasons here and there to get drunk and sit around and cry about how I am a victim and life is not fair. But it is an established fact that you can focus on these particular thoughts and let them take over your life or you can mourn the loss and focus on the fact that you still have a life left to live. You can still be a force for good in the world. I knew back in August that I was facing an opportunity and I mentioned that to those around me but nobody was listening.
I have been wanting to start an organization so I could at least perhaps leave a legacy someday that may benefit others. I keep thinking about naming it after two little girls who were taking out of my life for no real reason at all. I was told that no such thing like that would ever happen but adults can be very self-serving. Again, I still have a life to live. Life is suffering so it is best to just not make it worse than it has to be.
“It’s been said that hell is a bottomless pit. That’s because even though hell is bad enough there is always some son-of-a-bitch like you who could make it worse than it already has to be.” Dr. Jordan Peterson.
I remember growing up in Mississippi there was a restraunt in Sumrall called La’Tori’s. It was, no kidding, the only place to eat in our town. It was named after the owner’s two daughters, Lauren and Tori.
So I have tried to think of a way to combine the names of the two little girls I love so much so I could have, perhaps, a unique and catchy name for my organization. I can’t say I have really come up with anything at this point.
I was standing in line at the gas station and I saw the little rack near the counter that has all the Hello Kitty toys that I used to randomly buy these little girls. Everytime I would see the kids, while wielding gifts and toys in my arms, they would run to me with open arms and I would call them my “little boogies.” I sure miss them and I am sure they miss me but adults only care about themselves and winning, proving points, and convincing you who is right or wrong. You can’t actually have a conversation with people who want to win rather than listen and understand so it is best just left alone. Hard to believe that even the children’s feelings are not taking into consideration.
Either way, staying true to the topic, I was driving home about 10:30 PM after a very long 14 hour day and thinking about all these things and how it would be really cool to start an organization and name it after the girls almost like La’Tori’s. Again, nothing came to my mind. I thought about calling it Little Boogies but I am not sure what type of organization that would be. I was just brainstorming and yes I was trying to come up with a name for the organization before I even knew what type of organization it would be.
Yoga has transformed my life. I have probably doubled my strength since November and I can tell you that it is a running joke at the boxing gym that those guys no longer like to get hit by me. Another story for another day but one that is funny as hell.
So I was talking to my friend, Tara, who is an instructor at the yoga studio and I asked her if she would like to start an organization with me. She asked me for the details and I simply said it would be yoga for children. She lit up like a Christmas tree.
“I love working with children. It’s my passion!” she exclaimed.
After we talked for a bit she told me she works with children who have slight mental disabilities. So, I was driving home that night thinking about a way to combine our powers and it occured to me that it would be really neat to start a yoga practice for children with disabilities. I began thinking about the mindfulness that yoga offers to anyone who takes it and how it could benefit children. I remember a child who needed “emotional regulation” and thought about how much yoga could have helped her, plus it’s fun. I texted Tara and said . . .
She asked if it would be nonprofit. I hadn’t actually thought of it as a non-profit but it was a spectacular idea. I thought about Little Boogies Yoga for Children with Slight Mental Health Concerns but I just couldn’t get it to stick. Finally, I came up with Little Yogis instead. I still had the children in mind that I miss so much because yoga really helps children like them through self-regulating techniques.
Now all I had to do was start the organization, get an accountant, and find a facility to rent, maybe some volunteers, and find lots of people with children who needed to self-regulate. Before you start laughing I was already making phone calls.
But the more I spoke with Tara about this idea the more it occured to me that she was indeed the exact person I needed to help me. She is motivated, loves children, beautiful and smart (which is great for the children) and the best part? Everytime she spoke about the organization I noticed that she was telling me how we could format the program to make sure the children and parents stayed interested and benefited.
“Rather than, like, ‘find your core’ and things like that we can do balloon pose and downward facing dog. Then the next class we could focus on bear hugs and breathing,” she would say while showing me how to do balloon pose.
Me: “What about pull-ups?”
Tara: “No, not pull-ups. It’s not competitive.”
Me: “Find your inner strength?”
Tara: “Bear hugs.”
Me: “So you have it all figured out?”
Tara: “It’s what I have always wanted to do but I could only find people interested in after school programs that would be given on campus. No one wants to stay after school.”
Me: “So you really don’t need me?”
Tara: “I don’t know how to run a business.”
Me: “Well I can certainly do that if you will work with the children.”
I found that all I was doing in our conversations was agreeing with her great ideas. I couldn’t believe it. I had found the right person. She would work with the children and now I just needed to do my part; start the organization. How the hell do you do that?
I was about to Google “how to start a nonprofit organization with no money” because even though I am not poor I am always broke. When I grabbed my phone to pull up Google I realised that I needed to call my boxing coach. He has some texturing and painting I need to finish at his house and I wanted to get the code to his garage.
When I met up with him he asked me for a ride to the printing store to get some business cards; his Mercedes was in the shop. It is not everyday one gets to chauffeur a heavyweight champ of the world or Ring Magazine’s “hardest puncher in the world” with an impressive 88% knockout rate. His amatuer record was 120 wins with 103 knockouts. I was rambling on about Tara and starting a yoga class for children when he said . . .
“You know the gym is available after lunch on Sunday’s? You and her can just use the gym. I mean it’s already there.”
It was slowly occurring to me that I might already have all the right people in the right places if I would just ask. So a couple of weeks go by and I asked coach if he would be available to talk about the gym as a potential landing spot for our yoga program. He said 10 AM on Sunday. I texted Tara and a few days later at 10 AM Tara and myself were talking to coach about our program.
When coach asked me about a timeline I mentioned that it would take a few months probably to start because there would be miles of paperwork. He asked why and I said because she and I (even though it was basically all her idea) decided to run the program as a nonprofit.
Coach: “I already have a nonprofit. Just piggyback off of mine. It’s easy. The parents just sign the waiver on the back of the door. We can get you a banner and everything.”
Tara: “Yes, I think that’s a great idea!”
Me:
As I sat dumbfounded and listened to coach and Tara talk about the details of my organization (MY is just a joke by the way) I honestly began to feel tears swell up behind my cheeks. I could hear “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong playing in my head. I really could feel my cheeks start to tingle and then coach made a joke which saved me from crying.
“So yeah, and I don’t how long you two have been married but it sounds like a great idea.” I think I actually blushed for the first time in my life. Tara is indeed sweet and beautiful, competitive and strong. But I quit asking people out in that way probably ten years ago. I’m just not cut out for relationships.
Again, to sort of recap I guess, you might have things in your life that bother you but I firmly believe in trying to turn them into something positive. You have to accept the challenge and make the decision to take the bad and negative things that cause suffering, like seeing a Hello Kitty and thinking about the two kids I miss so much, as a sign for something positive waiting to happen.
Even though no one else will know that these two little boogies were the inspiration for the organization it is I who will always know and rejoice in that fact. Yes, there are many hateful things I could say about the adults who are responsible for making things the way they are now but that doesn’t help with the healing. That can only be done through accepting responsibility, hard work, and kindness to others. And when you accept too much responsibility you delegate it out to others who are willing to help.
“Living well is the best revenge.” George Herbert.
If it wasn’t for me being absolutely miserable deep in my heart everytime I see a princess coloring book or a unicorn stuffed animal I probably never would have tried to find a way to make their memory work for the better. I am thankful for the time I did get to spend with them and I am completely sober, still, because I promised them when they were only about two and three years old that I would be a better role model and I would never smoke pot or drink again no matter how much I felt like I needed to.
I will never forget their toothless grins when they were just so little and tiny. Those were the happiest moments I have ever experienced and nothing will ever come close to those memories. It is sad that those moments are gone and can never be lived through again. I can’t say there is much I would have done differently given another opportunity but perhaps made more time to actually hold them in my arms.
I still remember how their tiny little eyes would follow me around the room quietly watching me until I would look at them and they would grin with bare gums and grubby hands in their drooling mouths. Those are always going to be my happiest memories. Always.
The End
Think Dragon
A big shout-out to coach and Tara for putting this nonprofit organization together in about 20 minutes or less with no headaches and a big bear hug to the two little boogies who have helped make me a stronger and better human than I honestly ever thought I could be. And a shout-out to Hello Kitty as well. Thanks for the memories.
Sincerely,
Jason Holliman, Co-Founder and President of Little Yogis Non-Profit Organization for Children with Special Needs. Little boogies welcome.
