Keep it fresh

For 10 years I’ve been writing a weekly “mental snack” that I share with subscribers of my free e-newsletter. The mental snacks are on various topics, from perseverance, teamwork and vision to excellence, endurance and relationships.

Once in a while one of these brain nuggets resonates and elicits a strong response from readers, which is what happened a few weeks ago. I had just celebrated a birthday and was reflecting about the daily life that we all live. I was having a challenging morning, so I went back through my personal journal to re-read some of the ideas I’ve journaled about that gave me a healthier perspective on life.

From a plethora of sources, I’ve compiled 16 thoughts that have helped keep my personal and professional life FRESH. I hope they encourage you as they have encourage me.

1. Play more games and read more books than you did in the last year.

2. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and your mind, and let new, fresh and flowing energy into your life.

3. Always do the RIGHT THING.

4. Don’t take yourself too seriously because no one else does.

5. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

6. Eat breakfast like a KING, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a college kid with a maxed-out Visa card.

7. Pray more and worry less.

8. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

9. Remember, you’re blessed to be a blessing.

10. Live free. Forgive everyone for everything.

11. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum, but will soon pass and fade away like algebra class. However, the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

12. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less processed food.

13. Cultivate your relationships and call your family often.

14. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

15. Laugh and have FUN!

16. THE BEST IS YET TO COME!

Celebrate the ?Latin flavor!

Latin culture is alive and well in the Baton Rouge area, and this month provides a great opportunity to relish this vibrant part of our culture. Festival Latino is Oct. 4 and will celebrate Mexican, Honduran, El Salvadoran and many other Latino cultures with music, food, arts and cultural activities. One of the festival’s treats each year are homemade pupusas, grilled and stuffed delights that came out of El Salvadoran culture. Contributing writer and photographer Frank McMains takes you in the kitchen to meet the ladies behind this popular dish here.

Fantasy or reality?

You probably know someone who follows NFL football a little more avidly than the average fan because they are rooting for their fantasy football league players. With the season well under way, local fantasy leagues are in full swing. Contributing writer Chris Frink and photographer Tim Mueller take you to draft day in the living room of one local fantasy league “commissioner” to help us understand why fantasy is such a big part of so many football fans’ realities, click here.

Big-time Hollywood hits B.R.

Baton Rouge and Louisiana continue to nurture our homegrown movie business, but the biggest news yet may be the big-budget movie Battle: L.A., which is now being filmed and produced right here in Baton Rouge. Celtic Media Centre, with its state-of-the-art facilities, landed the $25 million film not only for shooting but for post-production work. Entertainment Editor Jeff Roedel takes us behind the scenes of this exciting new project in this month’s cover story here.

For the record

I have three words to share about our monthly feature in the back of the magazine called The Cayenne Report. They are perhaps the three most important words I or anyone else can say about Cayenne Report: it is satire.

Its purpose is to make you laugh, to poke some fun, to entertain. By definition, satire is “the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule or the like in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly” or a literary composition … in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.”

The Cayenne Report is our attempt at humor, providing a light-hearted ending to each issue of the magazine. Still, some readers get confused or, worse, angry about its content.

We hope you remember the old adage: don’t believe everything you read, and when it comes to Cayenne Report proceed with caution—and laugh a little.