Todays a birthday...

Just so everyone knows, today happens to be Cliff's Birthday.. so I apologize for posting so late, but I would like to say Happy Birthday to a marketing Genius (in my eyes and many others). Cliff you are an amazing person, father, husband (from what Josana says :) ) and friend. I wish you all the best in life and I could not be more excited for this trip, and appreciative for everything you have done.

-Dima

2 am revelation..

You know, sometimes your best thoughts come late at night. This seems to be a trend among a lot of the people I know. Today was a good/bad day for many reasons. Let me start off saying it was good because it was finally the day that a close friend of mine realized that he no longer can live the fantasy life he's in. At some point in your life you need to be accountable for your actions, take responsibility, and the way I see it, learn from it. I hope that the time has finally come for this friend of mine, because the support network that he has behind him is larger then he can imagine. In my eyes, the problem lies in his belief in himself. I feel he does not know how strong he is, and how he effects others around him. All I can say is that I hope he knows that no matter what, there are people to support him, help him, and will be with him no matter what.

The reason why I felt this is appropriate for Live Life, Look Forward is because this fits in with our ideals, beliefs, thoughts, and everything we stand for. At some point in your life you find yourself lost, and with the help of others, you can get back on track, on the path of success, righteousness and the path that you were born to follow.

I say Life Live, Look Forward because, you only get so many second chances and as we all know, there comes a time when you just need to realize that you have to change eithor your lifestyle, your habits, your actions or even some parts about yourself. All I can say to this person is that, we are behind you 100%, no matter what, please understand that and most importantly, learn from everything and move forward. We may be hard with you, but the reason we do this is because we truly care about you.

The bad news, you know, I can't say anything is bad. The way I look at it, no matter what you can learn from anything that happens, you can look back and smile or look back and cry, but in the end, you take away something from it. Hence, there is no bad in my eyes.

So.... Live Life... Look Forward.. its a message, thought, belief, words of advice, slogan, title of this blog, 4 words, or anything you want it to be... it is something that we all can relate too...

(hff)

The meaning behind... Live Life, Look Forward...

I wrote these words and find special meaning in them, but they belong to us all. To put it simply, I never looked at life quite the same after my heart attack in September 1999. Mainly because I realized I had a “day I lived” day… as it was clearly not the “day I died”. I had birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, but never one of these. It was and is empowering and humbling.

And, it lead me to create my website- www.lifeonthecliff.com that I launched on September 26, 2008 to celebrate this special year, with 365 very human insights, one per day, into life, love and even my love of dogs. So, the idea of having a “day I lived” led to “life on the cliff” that morphed into part of where we are today…to “Live Life”!

While the idea of “live life” was new to me, look forward was not. As a natural born passionate optimist, I look forward to most everything. But, it is its dual meaning to “look forward”, to look beyond “today” to inspire people to start living life more actively and healthfully- that’s the hope and promise of a simple idea we’ve named “Live Life Look Forward”!

-Cliff

have you ever noticed..

I have decided that no matter how busy you may be in your regular everyday life, when it comes to helping someone, else you magically have time to accomplish any task you yourself to.

I recently decided to help Cliff and Matt with there bike trip, not because I had too, or I was getting paid for it but I liked the cause and reason behind it. I was sitting explaining to my mom about their trip and she stopped and said "wow, you really have done your research on this". The truth is, I have. I cant say I was too interested in biking, or reading blogs about other people and there trips, however this has caught my interest.

I realized that when it comes to helping others, you seem to forget about all your troubles, and you make time for the cause. If you stop and look around, you will notice that many people will not just come up with an idea and hit the floor running with it, instead, they need that motivation. Something to spark their interest, and they go with it...

Just a something I had realized while working on this trip...

I am Living my Life and Looking Forward...

-Dima

The day that I will never forget... 10 years later- a day to celebrate

What's up everyone, I just wanted to get my first post up here and tell you guys how excited I am for this trip. I realized that today is our 2 month mark till the trip down to Florida and thinking about this made me look back to that day almost 10 years ago now that I heard the news of my dad being in the hospital. I find it almost weird that certain days stick in your mind so clearly that you remember where you were, what you were doing, and who was with you. These may be days that make history, or are just events in your personal life that stick with you. Do you have any days that you can look back to like that?

For me, I was in elementary school, it was fourth grade, and a Wednesday. I remember Wednesdays as the days I was able to go to my dad’s so it ment that it was our day during the week to go to the park, bike around, or just chill, you know, father/son bonding time. While sitting in class I was called to the principles office and in my mind I started trying to figure out what it was I did wrong, this time that is. Upon seeing the principle, she told me that it was not me that was in trouble this time, but my father had an “accident”. Now that I look back on it, I guess that’s all a kid my age would be able to understand. She told me I was going to get picked up and was going to head over to the hospital. She kept me as calm as possible and frankly for me, that’s not an easy thing to do even without news like that. My dad was not just my dad, he was the person I looked up too, and hearing this just put me in a state of shock. This day is one that I will never forget, and frankly I feel as though being bike down to Florida 10 years later, with my dad, is another day that I wont forget.

I will end it there for my first post, but look back for more about our trip, and I want everyone to know that this is not just for my dad and I, but for everyone. For any event in your life that you stopped and realized that what you have to do is stop, think, and LIVE LIFE and LOOK FORWARD.

- Matt -

Our Trip- Introduction

A lot of people have diabetes, survive a heart attack and even live to commemorate it 10 years later. A lot of people also ride bikes for exercise. Not too many people get to live out a dream with their 21 year old son to ride their bikes from NYC to Palm Beach, FL to celebrate the date of the 10 year “survival” anniversary with their father and grandfather, respectfully. So on September 8^th we will begin our ride of about 1,300 miles, some days covering 100 miles, other days getting less in but meeting people and sharing our story, to arrive at my father’s on September 26^th 2009- literally 10 years to the day that I lived! My daughter Samantha will also be there as will my wife Josana…some things are just too important to miss! That’s something I learned many years ago