My father, Pasquale Anastasio’s passport pictures. One is with his three sons and the other is a standard image. I am on the far right.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:52 — 10.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS | More

Watching my father die of lung cancer was not really on my list of life experiences. It was truly one of the most difficult 8 months of my life. From the moment he told us he had a lump in his throat to the moment he took his last breath every day was an unknown experience filled with doubt and hope. However, there was some good in there!! My parents were at the time was living in Boise, Idaho. Therefore, I was able to spend a lot of time with my father and also was able to comfort my mother.

This short story is about two of the greatest moments I have ever shared with my father as a child giving back to their parents. Despite being both in the last week of his life, these two “slice of life” moments made differences in both our lives in very different and impactful ways.

 Show Notes:

• There is always a bit of good in the midst of the bad. We just need to look and be aware.
• To comfort people near the moment of death

Resources:

• Repaying the kindness of our parents – A Buddhist perspective.

Contact. Follow. Share.

instagram | facebook | twitter | pinterest

How to review the podcast on iTunes

If you enjoyed, benefited or were impacted by the podcast, it would be beyond cool if you’d take a minute and write a review on iTunes.  To do that, just launch the iTunes podcast app on your computer or phone. Search for One Hand Speaks, select the album art for the show, select ratings and reviews and then write your review. Big thanks and appreciation. Please spread and share if you feel other will benefit and enjoy.

Play your hand,
AlejAndro

AlejAndro and his two new friends who he met because they asked about his hand

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:43 — 8.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS | More

I could tell the dark haired girl wanted to ask me about my hand only minutes after arriving at the Grand Coulee Dam Visitor’s center. I was there on work. The staff did not know I was a Reclamation employee. Therefore, I took the opportunity to just be a regular visitor and enjoy the displays. That is when I noticed little Chloe looking at me. She wanted to tell her friend to look at me when I “kinda” caught them staring. They seemed more curious than anything. So I gave them so room to just look at me while I pretended to view a display case. I knew if I got closer they would have a better chance of asking me a question. Working with kids in my martial art Aikido school and traveling around the world as a professional speaker and youth empowerment advocate has allowed me to create potential greatness to unfold. As I approached the display case right next to them Chloe did not ask me a question. She actually made a statement. And from the opening I created our moment blossomed into a most beautiful, special, and enjoyable interaction.

Show Notes:

• Inviting people to ask me “the Question.”
• Giving children (and adults) the opportunity to look at me.
• Making everything OK.

Resources:

• Me Speaking to Children – Sage International School of Boise. 
• Grand Coulee Dam – The eight wonder of the world.
• Grand Coulee Dam Visitor’s Center – Just a great place to visit and meet people.
• Bureau of Reclamation – This is where I work.

Contact. Follow. Share.

instagram | facebook | twitter | pinterest

How to review the podcast on iTunes

If you enjoyed, benefited or were impacted by the podcast, it would be beyond cool if you’d take a minute and write a review on iTunes.  To do that, just launch the iTunes podcast app on your computer or phone. Search for One Hand Speaks, select the album art for the show, select ratings and reviews and then write your review. Big thanks and appreciation. Please spread and share if you feel other will benefit and enjoy.

Play your hand,
AlejAndro

A beautiful scene of a rainbow in nature. What is at the end of a rainbow?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:35 — 11.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS | More

Here is a great short story of the time I actually saw the end of a rainbow! Or was it the beginning of a rainbow? Regardless it was certainly one of the two. It was when I went to pick up my Buddhist Teacher, Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche from the Boise, Idaho airport. He was here to teach a weekend retreat in New Meadows, Idaho just past the city of McCall.

After his plane landed and we were walking out the front doors of the airport we were both stopped in our tracks at the sight we were seeing. I almost could not breathe and we both could not move. The sight was beyond anything I have ever seen in nature. To this day I still have not seen anything so beautifully profound and rare. In that moment I realized what is meant by the, “pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.” And I have my Buddhist Teacher with me!

Show Notes:

• I am telling a story of seeing the end (or the beginning) of a rainbow.

Resources:

• Cool things about rainbow – 6 not-so-known facts about rainbows.
• Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche – AlejAndro’s Buddhist teacher.
• The science of rainbows – The Smithsonian Science Education Center.
• Rainbow facts for kids – Some info for the young lovers of rainbows.

Contact. Follow. Share.

instagram | facebook | twitter | pinterest

How to review the podcast on iTunes

If you enjoyed, benefited or were impacted by the podcast, it would be beyond cool if you’d take a minute and write a review on iTunes.  To do that, just launch the iTunes podcast app on your computer or phone. Search for One Hand Speaks, select the album art for the show, select ratings and reviews and then write your review. Big thanks and appreciation. Please spread and share if you feel other will benefit and enjoy.

Play your hand,
AlejAndro

AlejAndro Anastasio smiling and happy being employed in a two handed world with the Bureau of Reclamation

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:05 — 21.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS | More

Here is a talk I did for the Bureau of Reclamation about Disability Employment and the benefits of hiring people with Disabilities. I was asked to speak as part of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. This talk covers mostly the good side of my experiences as a one handed worker. However, I do cover some areas that were not so cool. And in all do fairness finding work with one hand was incredible difficult at times. I found it more challenging to work with other people’s perception of me and my potential as an employee than dealing with my own disability. My experiences looking for work in my late teens and early twenties truly had me look and myself and others. In my late twenties I was hired as a graphic designer by the Bureau of Reclamation under the Schedule A hiring practice to help hire people with disabilities.

So much can be said about the human condition. And in my standard process of sharing my one handed life with a positive overtone, humor, and life lessons I hope to bring a higher quality of human to our condition. Please enjoy my stories and unique perspective as I take it to the job workin’ it 9-to-5.

Show Notes:

• Secret techniques for getting hired with one hand.
• Talk giving offering my perspective as someone with a disability looking for a job.
• Dealing with other people’s discrimination.
• Why I would rather not work for some people.
• My first truly bad experience trying to find a job with one hand in a two handed world.

Resources

• USAjobs.com – Uncle Sam hires people with disabilities. Things you need to know. 
• Disability Job Exchange – Looking for work? Look Here!
• OPM.ORG – Federal hiring guidelines for hiring people with disabilities.

Contact. Follow. Share.

instagram | facebook | twitter | pinterest

How to review the podcast on iTunes

If you enjoyed, benefited or were impacted by the podcast, it would be beyond cool if you’d take a minute and write a review on iTunes.  To do that, just launch the iTunes podcast app on your computer or phone. Search for One Hand Speaks, select the album art for the show, select ratings and reviews and then write your review. Big thanks and appreciation. Please spread and share if you feel other will benefit and enjoy.

Play your hand,
AlejAndro