–50 is the new 30

–60 is not so unsettling when I see how well it can be executed.

–TIME FLIES!!!!!!…don’t hesitate!!!

–We rarely get to spend long periods of time together, so I really appreciate the current small points of contact I have with both…the texts, the phone calls, the occasional book, card or postcard in the mail–I love the tangible ones best.

–I really appreciate the history we share.  They have introduced me to one of my favorite applications of Hazelmail–old photos scanned and that history arriving in the mail…makes me smile.

–There is a lot of comfort and fun to be had in the company of minds who share your same memories.  Wings are great…so are roots.

So, reach out to your old friends (and, I mean OLD!   Share your memories and your current adventures.  Give people memories that the can hold in their hands.

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite people on the planet.

The summer season is beginning…time for a break.  Take a break from your routine, try something new, take a vacation from the completely familiar, or find the new in the day-to-day places that you frequent.

For an adventure, you don’t even have to leave your home, office or computer.  Look around.  There’s new everywhere…give some of it a try and let it work on you.  Take a new way home from work, go to a different supermarket, try that ethnic cuisine about which you have no idea, see what the museum had added to it’s collection.  It a big world, and the most adventurous explore the far reaches of it.  But, a new path in a familiar landscape has a lot of surprises waiting for you as well.

So, this summer remember to be that person who tries new things.  Be an explorer…even in your own back yard.  See what you haven’t seen that’s just outside your front door.

And, share what you learn with the people you love…via HazelMail.

Wherever you go or stay, have a great summer!

Their story reminds me of many things about love and parenthood.  I think it’s possible that the human need for love maybe be exceeded only by a human’s need to give love.

On Mother’s Day, spread love like wildfire.  Let your people know that you care.  Food is a good way to say “I love you”, so are flowers…and you can’t forget the power of a good custom postcard 

Have a great Mother’s Day and make your poeple (and even your pets) feel loved.

This spring, we at HazelMail wish you lots of seed-planting!  It’s a time of renewal, new growth, and rejuvenation…don’t miss it!   And (here’s the pitch), plant some seeds and cultivate some relationships this spring.  Send some memories that people can hold in their hands.  Send some postcards, and make your people feel special.

“Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”

from For A New Beginning by John O’Donahue

It’s a beautiful country with a very diverse landscape.  The Blue Nile Falls lie in the north, the desert in the east, the Simian Mountains in the west, and the Great Rift Valley takes over the center.  

My first trip to Ethiopia was in 1992 shortly after the country was introduced to democracy for the first time in its history.  My last trip was two weeks ago.  The changes that have taken place in the last  18 years are remarkable.  It’s still not a robust economy, but it’s growing fast.  Kids who would have begged me for money years ago are now too busy texting buddies to be concerned with a tourist; the country is wired for cellular and internet access–it’s pretty amazing.

There is always beauty in imperfection.  Ethiopia–rough and raw– is a safe place; it the strongest case for proving  that poverty and crime do not go hand in hand.  It’s not the easiest place in the world…Day-to-day life does not always cooperate–roads are rough, electricity disappears on occasion, etc.–, but locals learn that acceptance is a great way to protect your happiness…words to live by anywhere on the planet.

Ethiopia is stimulating, challenging, and it makes you a better person if you let it.

How does this relate to HazelMail?  Well, I think I was the only customer from Ethiopia that week, the site itself was a really nice touch of home, and my postcards arrived long before I returned home–that in itself was a BIG difference from 18 years ago.

Make your people feel loved…send some postcards via HazelMail.

Quadrille

John loved Teresa who loved Raymond
who loved Mary who loved Jack who loved Lily
who didn’t love anybody.
John went to the United States, Teresa to a convent
Raymond died in an accident, Mary became an old maid,
Jack disappeared and Lily married J. Pinto Fernandez
who didn’t figure into the story.

by Carlos Drummond de Andrade

The moral of the story to any and all…there is ALWAYS a J. Pinto Fernandez 

Make your people feel special and send some postcards to all of your loves…past, present and future!!!!

Holidays create the same opportunity without the misfortune.  This holiday season is the chance to show your people that you care…a card, some food, a phone call, bringing people together–all so appropriate this time of year.

It’s also an opportunity to develop that muscle for showing you care all year long.  It’s not hard to make your people feel loved…it’s just a habit that you can get into, an exercise that you practice.

The Hazel who inspired the site was all about making her people feel loved…amazingly so.  If Hazel loved you, you knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt.  This holiday season, don’t allow any doubts about how much you care to exist in the minds of your people.  Express it in any number of ways (…of course, we  want you to do it postcard-style…including the post-holiday thank you note).

So, the message remains…Make your people feel loved.

The HazelMail team wishes you a very happy holiday season filled with love…starting with the love that you give.

Sincerely,

Michael

I am grateful for family and friends…and my dog.

I remain grateful that we at HazelMail get to see how people are communicating with photos and postcards…it’s beautiful.

I am grateful that my mom and I had this project to talk about and that it is infused with her spirit.

I am grateful for all of the good people around the globe that we work with.  They expand our world view, make us smarter, and help us in ways they cannot imagine.

I am grateful for the HazelMail team.  You learn so much from others, and the good always rubs off on you.  I am a lucky man to spend time regularly with my coworkers.

I am grateful for our good health…the rest comes easy.

I am grateful for the opportunity to make someone feel loved.

I am grateful that we live in a world of possibility.

We wish you a very wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely,

Team HazelMail

It’s a city filled with a wild mix of sites, cuisines, architecture, random good stuff and people…all shapes and sizes and types and colors.  The way everything mixes and the way everyone coexists is really interesting and …nice.  I spotted a very succinct poster of cartoon representations of the many of the types of people be found in SF all lined in a row…the title was San Franfamily.  Beautiful.

The approach to San Francisco in any vehicle is dramatic and memorable.  The hills of the city that rise out of the bay are dotted with great architecture– old and new, and they’re sort of bookended by two incredible bridges.  All of this is best seen from the glass walkway on the 40^th floor of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel downtown (if you’re not staying there, just act like you belong and take the elevator…that’s what I did).

My short trip included lots of walking, some great meals, a little shopping, one new favorites spot, and 30 minutes of great pleasure and pain.

The renovated Ferry Terminal at the Embarcadero is a great place to spend time.  The restoration of the terminal brought together a collection of artisan bread, caviar, chocolate, sausage and wine makers. A unique bookstore, a seafood market, and an excellent French restaurant set around an open kitchen round out the collection.  You can shop for things you never knew existed…and, the prices aren’t bad.

The farmers market happens weekly in front of the Embarcadero building, so you can sample a whole lot of the best of San Francisco all in one stop.

In the Chinatown district, you can get some fairly total immersion into Chinese culture.  I found many Chinese people in the shops who do not speak English.  It is definitely a neighborhood that has maintained it’s cultural integrity.  After two days of heavy walking around the city, the sign for Chinese Foot Massage spoke to me.  Don’t let the first relaxing minutes of soaking your feet in hot tea fool you.  The poking, grinding, pulling and beating that follow send you on a journey that you won’t soon forget.  It was wildly painful in the moment, but I have to admit that my tired dogs felt great when it was over…maybe my feet were simply relieved that the experience was behind them.  Nonetheless, it was good.

San Francisco is a survivor.  Fires, earthquakes, riots, protests, economic downturns have all hit San Francisco hard at one time or another.  The city has been spared very little pain in its lifetime…felt by everyone.  There is something interesting about the resilience of San Francisco…it’s sort of like Rome–it makes the most of its past.  Things aren’t frequently torn down in order to rebuild…they build on what they have.  And what they have is a lot.  Diversity?…Good Lord–it’s everywhere.  Go see San Francisco for yourself, eat a lot, and don’t let any Chinese people touch your feet.

Also, take some photos, and use them to make some people feel special.  You know what to do…at www.HazelMail.com.

Los Angeles has been home for a while.  So, it’s tough to give you the impressions of a tourist, but I’ll give it a shot…

The Hollywood Walk of Fame, Mann’s Chinese Theatre, Rodeo Drive, Mullholland Drive, and every other famous landmark in Los Angeles definitely deserves a visit.  After that, you might check out some of my favorites.

Where NYC mixes all ethnic types on the same sidewalk, Los Angeles has distinct pockets of ethnicity sprinkled throughout the city:  Little Saigon, China Town, Little Tokyo, Koreatown, Little Ethiopia, the British Blocks, Thai Town, the Crenshaw District, Little Armenia, East L.A….  To paraphrase Alex Haley, L.A. is not so much a “melting pot”, it’s more of a tossed salad.  Grab an unforgettable meal in any of those neighborhoods, and you will feel like you’re in another part of the world.

The museum scene alone will keep you very busy here.  The Getty museums (the old one and the new one), the Broad Modern Art Museum, LACMA, MOMA, MOCA, and the Petersen Automotive Museum are some of the better known.

Of the lesser known is The Museum of Jurassic Technology on the way to Venice Beach.  It is just too quirky and weird to explain…but, I’ll try:  If, as a kid, you enjoyed the vintage Ripley’s Believe It Or Not books or the Johnson Smith Co. catalog, you’ll love this museum. It’s full of things that you never guessed existed.  There is an exhibit of  microscopic collages depicting flowers and other objects, made entirely from individual butterfly wing scales.  And, who can forget the sculpture of Pope John Paul II carved from a single human hair and placed within the eye of a needle.  Don’t ask me why it exists, but it does…and that’s reason enough to see it.

Speaking of Venice Beach, today was the Abbot Kinney festival.  God bless Abbott Kinney…he was the founder of Venice Beach which has the most interesting history of all of Los Angeles and was probably the original seat of out-of-the-box thinking on the West Coast.

Abbot Kinney Festival 2009

Abbott Kinney was a very rich bachelor who loved Venice, Italy.  In the late 1800s, Kinney decided to create a beach community for the working class–the only other beach community at that time, Santa Monica, was reserved for the very wealthy of the silent film industry.  So, Venice Beach was built.  Homes were built on canals, a haunted mountain ride sat in an amusement park near the beach, and a replica of St. Mark’s Square was built 2/3 the size of the real St. Mark’s Square in the Italian Venice.  Legend has it that Walt Disney was so impressed by Venice Beach that 2/3 scale became his standard as well—all replicas at Disneyland, DisneyWorld, and the Epcot center were built to 2/3 scale because of Abbott Kinney.

When you’re at the beach, explore the miles and miles of bike path that stretch from Hunington Beach, past LAX, through Marina del Rey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and reaches toward Malibu.   It’s well-maintained, safe, and runs close to the ocean–you’re never without a view of the water.  You’ll never forget a bike ride along the L.A.’s beaches.  The pelicans, the dolphins, the surfers, the vendors, the sailboats, the Santa Monica mountains, the Santa Monica Pier, the view of the Palisades, beach volleyball…it’s very beautiful.  You’ll leave that ride with great peace of mind and a clear sense of what is the beach lifestyle in Southern California.

While peddling through the Santa Monica State Beach, stop at the Annenberg Community Beach House…a brand new public beach club, pool and playground that was made from the Marion Davies Estate—the beachfront mansion is also open to the public.  It’s a grand beachfront souvenir of the heyday of old Santa Monica mixed with the latest and greatest in smart modern architecture…and, again, it’s open to the public.

Another Annenberg creation that you should not miss is the Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City.  It is an interesting, powerful, modern space filled with select moving photographic exhibits that remind you of the very incredible power and beauty of the still image.  It’s an unforgettable visit that is guaranteed to move even the most casual observer.

Sooo, the moral of that story is to take a good still image, upload it to HazelMail, and let us make you a star!!!   ☺