(20120215)
Recently I've come to find a bit more time on my hands than I usually have available to me which has given me some much needed time to evaluate where I've been in my life, where I am now, and where I am potentially going. These are not the things that I normally spend much time debating as I generally tend to view life with a "take it as it comes" sort of perspective however; I must admit that even I can recognize the fact that if I spent more time evaluating and planning, I might be in a much better position.
In terms of where I have been, I have had my shares of ups and downs through the early years of my life. In my younger days, I tended to make decisions "on the fly". Things that came my way generally came in batches and were most usually dispatched with little to no hard evaluation. The results of this style ultimately created the base of who I am even to this day. It is possible that maybe that's not the greatest thing but, overall I don't think it has all turned out so bad. Did I make some bad choices, oh yeah, most certainly. Did they seem like bad choices at the time I was making them, I'd like to think that I remember that answer as no. Does this need to decide on the fly influence the way I approach some aspects of my life today, most certainly!
I've never really tended to be the kind of person who spends time wringing my hands over the choices I've made in the past as generally, I feel that there isn't much that can be done in retrospect to adjust those choices. I just don't think that even if I had to the chance to go back and choose all over again, that I would have made any different choice based on the circumstances and information that was available to me at that time. We all do the best we can with the information and resources that we have available to us at the time and I'm no different in that respect.
As time has slowly passed and I have come into my adult years, my decison making process has evolved a bit more towards more cautious evaluation. In my mind, this is only natural. I have much more to lose now should I make the wrong decision(s). The circumstances have changed considerably. I now have a wife and a daughter that rely on me to be a provider, a husband, and a father. I have a mortgage company that relies on me to send them their money each month. Utility providers start to get a little surly if they haven't heard from me or seen my check in the mail around the 3rd or 4th of every month. My homeowners association gets crazy shortly after they feel like my lawn has grown a quarter inch past the 2 inches of growth that they find uniformly acceptable! The point here is that with all of these emerging situations and responsibilities, the need to evaluate decisions and choices has greatly increased.
Going forward, there are certainly many more choices and decision points ahead which will require an even greater level of debate and consideration. I am at a point right now where I can certainly anticipate some major changes to my career path forthcoming as well as, to my daughter's education path, and my overall economic posture in the troubling economy which we are now enduring. Looking at all of this from a very high level, I am able to anticipate that some of these changes may not be for the best part in the immediate future but may wind up being judged as the best path for the long term. This need to evaluate decisions with longer term consequences in sight is where I need practice. As I mentioned earlier, I have always been the take it as it comes sort when it comes to decisions but now, all of that is considerably different and I must evolve to a more refined process that considers not only the "What will this get me now?" portion but the, "If I make this choice now, how will it affect me in the longer run?" portion.
If only there were some magic crystal ball to gaze into to assure me that I was making the right decisions now for not only mine but, my faily's future. I suppose if there were such a thing though, life wouldn't be the wonderful mystery that it is. That I will need to practice making these decisions and that I will most certainly not always make the right choice is a given. What I hope is that my "gut" and my past practice of usually trusting it, will carry us forward into new and better experiences.
Of course, it couldn't hurt to throw in a prayer or two here and there.
All things through faith!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The things that might not be
(20120207)
Each day I get out of bed in the early morning hours to get ready for another adventure. Some of these days, I go to work. Some of these days, I enjoy my weekend. Some of these days, it's not the overall activity that makes the difference so much as it is the thoughts that come to me in that time. The one thing that I find in common with almost all of my days recently is that the thoughts that make the most difference to me are of things that might or might not be.
What will today bring? Will I like it? Will it make me a better friend, colleague, parent, or spouse? How will I know? Will I be aware enough to realize the good or potential bad that is right in front of me? So many questions, all of them good but, none of them always so quantifiable.
Everywhere you look nowadays, we are constantly bombarded with words and images from the mass media that tell us to buy this, use that, go here, do this thing or the other but, how often do we take a conscious moment to stop and really think about what the real underlying message of all of this noise might be? When was the last time you stopped yourself and thought, "Do I really need this? Do I really think that is the way cool people look or act? Maybe I'm happy with my overall body image and weight and I don't need to stop eating real food to slog down another can or two of Slim-Fast!".
I would encourage everyone to take a moment or two each day to stop, clear your mind of all of the immediate, and to contemplate for a moment or two the things, images, words, and ideas that are invading your almost every waking moment and consider whether or not those ideas are the things that you truly in your heart of heart's want and need for you and your family or, on the other hand....
If they are just the things that might not be......
Each day I get out of bed in the early morning hours to get ready for another adventure. Some of these days, I go to work. Some of these days, I enjoy my weekend. Some of these days, it's not the overall activity that makes the difference so much as it is the thoughts that come to me in that time. The one thing that I find in common with almost all of my days recently is that the thoughts that make the most difference to me are of things that might or might not be.
What will today bring? Will I like it? Will it make me a better friend, colleague, parent, or spouse? How will I know? Will I be aware enough to realize the good or potential bad that is right in front of me? So many questions, all of them good but, none of them always so quantifiable.
Everywhere you look nowadays, we are constantly bombarded with words and images from the mass media that tell us to buy this, use that, go here, do this thing or the other but, how often do we take a conscious moment to stop and really think about what the real underlying message of all of this noise might be? When was the last time you stopped yourself and thought, "Do I really need this? Do I really think that is the way cool people look or act? Maybe I'm happy with my overall body image and weight and I don't need to stop eating real food to slog down another can or two of Slim-Fast!".
I would encourage everyone to take a moment or two each day to stop, clear your mind of all of the immediate, and to contemplate for a moment or two the things, images, words, and ideas that are invading your almost every waking moment and consider whether or not those ideas are the things that you truly in your heart of heart's want and need for you and your family or, on the other hand....
If they are just the things that might not be......
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
So much to do, so little time.
It never ceases to amaze me that I can never quite seem to get everything I'm "supposed" to do in any given day, done.
To say that life in today's society is filled with so much to keep us all busy is a given and certainly I am no different than anyone else in this matter. I've had a decent amount of time to think about this concept lately and I thought it might be useful to jot down a few thoughts and feelings I had to remind myself in the future of where I've been in the past.
A typical day for me usually starts around 5 a.m. when the unpleasant shrieking of the alarm clock pulls me unwillingly back into this plane of existence for another fun filled day. To say that this is the least pleasant part of my daily routine is a clear understatement! Now I'll tell you right up front, I'm a bit of a snooze button abuser! Yes, shocking, I know but, who amongst us isn't? So, right there is the first time waster, I mean after a good 2 or 3 whacks at the button I get to settle back into the pillow for a glorious 9 more minutes of what best could be described as "Almost getting back to sleep just in time to be yanked right back into reality with a hard and fast jerk!". Kinda makes me wonder why I bother snoozing at all!
After having wasted a good 15-20 minutes of the beginning of my day wrestling with the clock, I manage to pull myself up out of the wrack and head off to shower and prep for the day. After the prep, there's a moment or two to dress and then kiss the wife goodbye before heading out to wake up the Teenager to get her started on her daily journey. (That's a whole different story for another time!) (Time Wasted ~ 15-20 minutes)
Now comes the start of the glory of my daily routine, and by glory I mean, that thing that will test my resolve, validate my insane desire to be subjected to dealing with the commuter portion of the human race, and that will test my patience in a way that only the people that are actually forced to do this can understand. That thing is my daily commute! Included in this commute is at least an hour on the DC Metro Trains and roughly about three hours a day in a car. For those that ride Metro or know someone that do, I thank you for your pity in advance! (Time wasted: ~4 hrs.)
Of course, I expect absolutely zero sympathy from anyone for the next portion of my day which all of us who have yet to hit the Lotto share, work. I'm fairly lucky in that, for the most part, my work usually stimulates me and gets me through the day fairly quickly however; which one of us wouldn't rather be lying on a beach in the Bahamas sipping on a nice cold tropical drink than spending even 5 minutes at work? (Hey look, there's one guy in the back that didn't raise his hand!! "Hey buddy, what's yer problem?!! Get with the program and get out here on the sand!") (Time Wasted ~ 8hrs.)
Once the evening commute is completed it becomes time to complete that day's chores and running around. Play practices, school meetings, trips to the hardware store for miscellaneous "weekend" repair jobs that I'm probably never going to get to ("Sorry honey."), and anything else under the sun that can eat up the precious small amount of time that I have left in the day, seem to be the normal order of things. (Time Wasted ~ 3-4 hrs.)
At this point you, like me, have likely come to the conclusion that there just aren't enough hours in the day to accommodate all of this stuff. Not that startling a revelation I know, but to me, the real question is "Why do we do it?" All of the running around, commuting, working, prepping, snoozing, what's the point?
Wouldn't it be better if we could somehow find a way to balance all of this noise out and to tune our lives to a more peaceful and pleasant song that would facilitate things like time with family, enjoying pursuit of our hobbies and interests without guilt, and just appreciating what life has to offer us on a daily basis?
I wonder how fast I would get bored with that!! ;)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Snow thoughts
(20120123)
This past weekend went by in, what felt like, a blink of the eye. There was a company New Year's party to attend, errands to be handled, naps to be had, and we even threw in a little bit of a snowstorm late Friday night.
I got to spend a little bit of time on Saturday morning getting acquainted with my newly purchased yet slightly used snow blower. On the good front, my back is grateful to my wallet in a most wondrous fashion. (Really you two, get a room!) On the downside, I quickly discovered that heavily water laden snow and early morning-after cold fronts conspire together in a most evil way so as to construct a sort of slush, slash polar ice-cap that is all but impenetrable to my new toy. So, while I got to use the new blower to clear off a decent percentage of my driveway and nearby sidewalks, I also got to re-experience the joy that is shoveling snow and scrapping ice! For the record, I think I'll pass on the shoveling in the future if at all possible thank you!! ;)
During my time outside on Saturday morning I got to thinking. I am a relatively sure that there must be some possible way to avoid this whole mess of digging, scrapping, snow-blowing, salting, and general bodily torture that is known as winter. I mean after all, my wife and I did manage to go through the effort of raising a new human being into her teenage years. Certainly there must be something that could be done to "offload" a bit of this experience onto a self professed "lover" of winter and "All things SNOW"? Hmmm...
As the blower cheerfully ground its way through the upper most levels of newly fallen snow that covered the nearby sidewalks, I casually gazed back towards the house and up towards the window of my teenagers bedroom window. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, I wish I could sleep-in till all hours of the afternoon and then get up just in time to go sledding and then over to my pals house for Cocoa and Tea!". I imagined that if I had such a luxury, perhaps I would still like winter and snow as I surely must have in my youth.
Upon my second pass at the sidewalks to get to the underlying and previously mentioned ice, I patiently shoved the blower up the walk to the sound of the whirring blade on the machine. CHUG, CHUG, Brrrr.. So much ice filled up the eject chute of the machine that the engine quickly cut out. "Grrrr", I thought to myself as I cleaned out the chute and quickly restarted the machine. If only I had a helper who could go in front of me to break up the ice. If only! Another gaze up to the window only showed me the same tightly closed curtains. "Nope", no help would be forthcoming from that direction.
Eventually, I finished up the snow cleanup duties giving my work a final admiring glance. "Not a bad job for an old guy!” I thought to myself. I put away the snow-blower and hung up the shovel in the garage and then, proceeded to head inside to sit down and catch my breath. The clock inside the kitchen reminded me that I had been outside cleaning the snow for over an hour and a half. No wonder I felt so tired. "I gotta get out of this Winter Wonderland", I quickly thought to myself.
I headed upstairs to get cleaned up from my work and to get ready for the rest of what Saturday was to provide me still thinking that that crazy kid was still in bed. As I hit the top stair of the flight, I heard my daughter's dog stir within her room. I figured that it was so late that he was probably dying to have his morning walk. Of course, as soon as I opened the door to her room, a short and tan flash shot past me at ankle level. Just like that, Moo-Shu (our Pug) was down the stairs and making a dash for his water dish and bowl full of breakfast I had left for him, like he had been water and food starved for a hundred years.
That's when I saw it. The sweet sleeping face of one of the most precious things in the world to me was slightly exposed from the quilt that had been drawn up around her shoulders and wrapped her like a mummy’s wrap. All thoughts of grabbing her by her toes and dragging her out of her bed to help me do snow duties quickly disappeared from my thoughts and were as quickly replaced by an admiration and love that I have never been able to fully explain to anyone who does not already have kids of their own. Just then, she slightly stirred from her sleep in order to adjust her position to a more comfortable angle. I quickly took a step back, shutting the door to her room on my way out. No cleanup duties for you today. Sleep till you wake. Enjoy youth and winter for a few more restful delights.
This past weekend went by in, what felt like, a blink of the eye. There was a company New Year's party to attend, errands to be handled, naps to be had, and we even threw in a little bit of a snowstorm late Friday night.
I got to spend a little bit of time on Saturday morning getting acquainted with my newly purchased yet slightly used snow blower. On the good front, my back is grateful to my wallet in a most wondrous fashion. (Really you two, get a room!) On the downside, I quickly discovered that heavily water laden snow and early morning-after cold fronts conspire together in a most evil way so as to construct a sort of slush, slash polar ice-cap that is all but impenetrable to my new toy. So, while I got to use the new blower to clear off a decent percentage of my driveway and nearby sidewalks, I also got to re-experience the joy that is shoveling snow and scrapping ice! For the record, I think I'll pass on the shoveling in the future if at all possible thank you!! ;)
During my time outside on Saturday morning I got to thinking. I am a relatively sure that there must be some possible way to avoid this whole mess of digging, scrapping, snow-blowing, salting, and general bodily torture that is known as winter. I mean after all, my wife and I did manage to go through the effort of raising a new human being into her teenage years. Certainly there must be something that could be done to "offload" a bit of this experience onto a self professed "lover" of winter and "All things SNOW"? Hmmm...
As the blower cheerfully ground its way through the upper most levels of newly fallen snow that covered the nearby sidewalks, I casually gazed back towards the house and up towards the window of my teenagers bedroom window. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, I wish I could sleep-in till all hours of the afternoon and then get up just in time to go sledding and then over to my pals house for Cocoa and Tea!". I imagined that if I had such a luxury, perhaps I would still like winter and snow as I surely must have in my youth.
Upon my second pass at the sidewalks to get to the underlying and previously mentioned ice, I patiently shoved the blower up the walk to the sound of the whirring blade on the machine. CHUG, CHUG, Brrrr.. So much ice filled up the eject chute of the machine that the engine quickly cut out. "Grrrr", I thought to myself as I cleaned out the chute and quickly restarted the machine. If only I had a helper who could go in front of me to break up the ice. If only! Another gaze up to the window only showed me the same tightly closed curtains. "Nope", no help would be forthcoming from that direction.
Eventually, I finished up the snow cleanup duties giving my work a final admiring glance. "Not a bad job for an old guy!” I thought to myself. I put away the snow-blower and hung up the shovel in the garage and then, proceeded to head inside to sit down and catch my breath. The clock inside the kitchen reminded me that I had been outside cleaning the snow for over an hour and a half. No wonder I felt so tired. "I gotta get out of this Winter Wonderland", I quickly thought to myself.
I headed upstairs to get cleaned up from my work and to get ready for the rest of what Saturday was to provide me still thinking that that crazy kid was still in bed. As I hit the top stair of the flight, I heard my daughter's dog stir within her room. I figured that it was so late that he was probably dying to have his morning walk. Of course, as soon as I opened the door to her room, a short and tan flash shot past me at ankle level. Just like that, Moo-Shu (our Pug) was down the stairs and making a dash for his water dish and bowl full of breakfast I had left for him, like he had been water and food starved for a hundred years.
That's when I saw it. The sweet sleeping face of one of the most precious things in the world to me was slightly exposed from the quilt that had been drawn up around her shoulders and wrapped her like a mummy’s wrap. All thoughts of grabbing her by her toes and dragging her out of her bed to help me do snow duties quickly disappeared from my thoughts and were as quickly replaced by an admiration and love that I have never been able to fully explain to anyone who does not already have kids of their own. Just then, she slightly stirred from her sleep in order to adjust her position to a more comfortable angle. I quickly took a step back, shutting the door to her room on my way out. No cleanup duties for you today. Sleep till you wake. Enjoy youth and winter for a few more restful delights.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
(20120117)
Welcome to "Your message was Deleted Without Being Read"!
This is a new adventure for me to try to learn a bit about blogging and to determine if I can make it of any use to myself. I have no real idea as to whether this will be interesting to anyone beyond me but for now, that will have to be good enough!
So, right off the bat, I suppose the first question is, "What's the deal with the odd title of the blog?" Well...I guess a bit of an explanation might be a good place to start. You see, I work in the Information Technology industry (That's Computers for those of you not familiar with the technical name of the job.) and as such, I send and receive a fair amount of email in any given day. Now, you might being saying to yourself, "OK, big deal, he sends and receives a bunch of email. Woo-hoo. Who doesn't?!" and, you'd be right except that, lately I've been getting a good many receipts from that sent email that indicate that the person I sent the email to not only did not read my email message but, Deleted the message without even reading it!!! Can you believe that? I know I struggle with it. After all, who wouldn't want to read something that I took the time and energy to compose especially for them? (Queue the "Irony" background music) ;)
Seriously though, I have always found it highly unusual when I receive such receipts in my email that indicate this message but then, it got me to really thinking. How often in our lives do we respond to people with the same underlying message? Email is a written form of communication that most people use on a daily basis in our work, school, and general interactions but, let's not forget that speech and human interaction is still the most important medium for getting through our daily lives. Remember that time when your folks were trying to talk to you about whatever it was that was so important to them at that moment but meant almost less than nothing to you? How did that conversation go? Mom: "When I was a kid we walked to and from school, up hill, in two feet of snow! We were just happy to even have feet! Blah, blah, blah....", You: "Yeah, Yeah. What-evs!! (Rolls eyes)" That response was functionally equivalent to the "Deleted without Being Read" message that I was mentioning earlier. You heard that your Mom was speaking but, you weren't really listening.
This phenomenon is not unique to children alone. We all interact with our family members, friends, and acquaintances on a daily basis and it would seem that there is sometimes a tendency to deliver the "Deleted Without Being Read" message even though that might not be our original intention. We're all busy in our own pursuits and daily drama, and it is easy to slip into that mode of not really hearing and appreciating what those who want to communicate with us want to get accross to us. The solution here is to remind yourself to stop and consider who is speaking to you, why they are speaking to you, and what the message is that they are trying to get accross.
Ok, so, maybe that wasn't such a brief explanation of the blogs title but, it was something that was on my mind, that I wanted to share with whoever cares to read this, and that I hope you did not "Delete Without Being Read".
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to "Your message was Deleted Without Being Read"!
This is a new adventure for me to try to learn a bit about blogging and to determine if I can make it of any use to myself. I have no real idea as to whether this will be interesting to anyone beyond me but for now, that will have to be good enough!
So, right off the bat, I suppose the first question is, "What's the deal with the odd title of the blog?" Well...I guess a bit of an explanation might be a good place to start. You see, I work in the Information Technology industry (That's Computers for those of you not familiar with the technical name of the job.) and as such, I send and receive a fair amount of email in any given day. Now, you might being saying to yourself, "OK, big deal, he sends and receives a bunch of email. Woo-hoo. Who doesn't?!" and, you'd be right except that, lately I've been getting a good many receipts from that sent email that indicate that the person I sent the email to not only did not read my email message but, Deleted the message without even reading it!!! Can you believe that? I know I struggle with it. After all, who wouldn't want to read something that I took the time and energy to compose especially for them? (Queue the "Irony" background music) ;)
Seriously though, I have always found it highly unusual when I receive such receipts in my email that indicate this message but then, it got me to really thinking. How often in our lives do we respond to people with the same underlying message? Email is a written form of communication that most people use on a daily basis in our work, school, and general interactions but, let's not forget that speech and human interaction is still the most important medium for getting through our daily lives. Remember that time when your folks were trying to talk to you about whatever it was that was so important to them at that moment but meant almost less than nothing to you? How did that conversation go? Mom: "When I was a kid we walked to and from school, up hill, in two feet of snow! We were just happy to even have feet! Blah, blah, blah....", You: "Yeah, Yeah. What-evs!! (Rolls eyes)" That response was functionally equivalent to the "Deleted without Being Read" message that I was mentioning earlier. You heard that your Mom was speaking but, you weren't really listening.
This phenomenon is not unique to children alone. We all interact with our family members, friends, and acquaintances on a daily basis and it would seem that there is sometimes a tendency to deliver the "Deleted Without Being Read" message even though that might not be our original intention. We're all busy in our own pursuits and daily drama, and it is easy to slip into that mode of not really hearing and appreciating what those who want to communicate with us want to get accross to us. The solution here is to remind yourself to stop and consider who is speaking to you, why they are speaking to you, and what the message is that they are trying to get accross.
Ok, so, maybe that wasn't such a brief explanation of the blogs title but, it was something that was on my mind, that I wanted to share with whoever cares to read this, and that I hope you did not "Delete Without Being Read".
Thanks for listening!
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