Hello to the new normal! Whoever would’ve guessed a couple of weeks ago that we would be in a situation like this?

This morning the weather was pretty gross so we decided to sleep in and catch our run after work. Talk about a crazy change of pace! I never realized a change of approximately half a day would create such a different experience. Running in full daylight felt wonderful, getting some exercise in after work was relaxing, and getting some seemingly extra time talking with Becky was awesome. All in all I’m thankful for our post work run.

For quite some time one of my groups of friends has suggested that I do some online gaming with them. Usually after a long week of work and the boys’ activities I’m usually ready to crash early on the weekend nights. With the sudden change in our evening schedule it seems like there may be a little more time available.

Tonight was the first time I spent time hanging out with a group of friends online. It wasn’t quite the same as hanging out with them in real life (IRL from what my boys have told me). Seeing as it will be quite some time before we hang out in person it was great spending time hanging out with my friends. I’m so thankful we live in the times in which we live to have opportunities like this. What a gift to be able to hang out when we’re not able to hang out.

Thanks!!!

Due to the rain yesterday morning Becky and I didn’t do our normal run.  She hit the treadmill and I slept a little longer than normal.  This morning I decided to catch up and go for a run.  The dogs have been getting a lot more exercise than normal with the boys being home and LuLu has been showing her age a bit.  With that in mind I decided to take a very happy dog with me on the run.

As luck would have it I forgot to bring my headlamp so Skywalker and I had a beautifully peaceful, serene, and dark morning run.  As we pounded the pavement we ran along the river and enjoyed virtual quiet.

With as fast as the world has been changing our run was a beautiful reminder that everything doesn’t have to change.  The outside world didn’t matter.  All that there was in that moment was a dog, a dude, and nature.  Between the calm and the physical activity I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to completely and fully lose myself in the present moment.  It was so wonderful to feel the weight of the past week lift off my shoulders as I ran.  Seeing the smile on Skywalker’s face the whole time made it all the better.

Thanks!!!

During the course of the day I was contacted by a local television station for a quick interview.  Based on advice from our HQ I immediately called for advice before talking with the reporter.  Before I knew it I was having a conversation with one of the most positive, upbeat, and friendly people I’ve spoken with since the world has been tilted.  When I wrote about being the light a few days back she was exactly what I was talking about.  Afterwards I sent an email thanking her for her upbeat attitude and energy.  I also mentioned that it felt like we’d been separated at birth.  Her response?  “I feel this is a ‘Step Brothers’ moment… ‘Did we just become best friends?!?!?  YUP!”  Dang, we must be related!

I’m thankful for the smile she provided me today.  Her energy was contagious and I was able to use that to keep me going at several moments throughout the day.  There’s a sales rep from another business that should be thanking her today.  When he called me and sounded all nervous I remembered how much better I felt after my conversation with her and did my best to provide the same positive and upbeat energy.

It was an incredible reminder to me of the power of a positive interaction.  Reality is pretty wild right now.  People need a source of joy.  Be the light.

Throughout the week I’ve had several calls to our Express HQ asking for help and advice.  With 800+ franchises in the Express system I can only imagine how crazy busy they’ve been over these past few days.  Each and every time I’ve talked with them they’ve been upbeat, positive, helpful, and patient.  I am so thankful for all of the stressful work they are dealing with daily to keep all of our teams running as effectively as possible.

We had a few things to grab at the grocery store tonight and Gavin decided to come along with me.  There was a definite observance of social distancing and we only touched what we had to and only after sanitizing our hands before walking into the store.  While I could almost write a complete book about the trip together let’s just say it was an eventful one!  Long story short, it was so awesome to spend time alone with Gavin.  During our time together there was no stress, no issues in the world, or anything like that.  There was only a dad and his son, two friends, hanging out and getting something accomplished while laughing constantly and doing our best to help others smile.  It was awesome and I’m so thankful for that time together.

Thanks!!!

Two of the three are very simple and straightforward today.  The third one is all about my history lesson this morning…  from just last week!

Last night I went to bed early, slept in (until 5:40am).  It felt amazing!!!  Nine great hours of sleep was close to what I really needed.  In times of stress it is so important to keep myself healthy and sleep is one of the best ways to accomplish that.  For reals…  what an excellent reminder for me to get enough sleep!

On my way to work this morning I lucked out and happened to time the drive just right.  The sun was just about to pop up as I crested the bluff heading into Arcadia.  The sky was a beautiful red glow.  With all that is going on in the world I took an extra moment to appreciate it and soak it in.  What a reminder to appreciate the beauty of nature!

Also on my drive I took some time to get caught up on a couple of my favorite podcasts.  Over the past week I’ve had quite a bit going on and had spent more time than usual driving in silence so I could think.  When I listened to the one podcast it was like getting a mini-history lesson.  With it being just about a week old I heard about the process and build up leading to Italy’s lockdown/shelter in place.  Instead of it being news as it was when it first came out a week ago it was now an interesting piece of history.  Within a short period of time it was easy to see many parallels and start to get a better guess on what to expect next.  Whoever would’ve thought we could have a history lesson form only a week ago?

Much sleep, time to appreciate nature, and using history to help predict future events.  Three very different things, but all three that helped me navigate a day with mental stability and mental flexibility.

Thanks!!!

Another day, another round of changes and updates.  At some point it’ll be interesting to look back at this time period and see just how much happened in such a short period of time.  Think about it…  it was only about 100 hours ago that the NCAA Basketball Tournament was cancelled.  In just 100 hours much of life as we know it has been tilted, stretched, flipped, bounced, and altered.

There are two opposing forces that must be very much balanced in these times of uncertainty.  We must have mental flexibility to adjust to the changes and mental stability to keep us living our core values.  They must be working in tandem in order to save our sanity and allow us to keep a positive and optimistic outlook.

Mental flexibility seems very self evident at present.  The flow of information is constantly changing and revising our direction and recommendations.  The ability to stay open minded to the shifts is our way to keep a growth mindset.  If we stay mentally stiff we will break, shatter, and most likely fall victim to anger and depression when things don’t go our way.  Maintaining our agility is the only way to be able to roll with the punches.

Mental stability is also necessary.  We must maintain our values, personalities, and humanity.  It would be so easy to go off the deep end to go off the deep end due to all the changes and be caught up in the chaos and hysteria.  Without mental stability we end up raiding the grocery store for three years worth of supplies.  All this does is continue to validate our own selfish inner demon while causing more issues for everyone else.  By keeping mentally resilient we’re able to ward off the panic and continue being the people we were meant to be.

Today I had moments of doing well in each.  Today I also had moments in which I didn’t do very well.  I will continue to pay attention to the pull between these two forces and do my best to walk the fine line.  Occasionally I’ll need to be more flexible and other times I’ll need to be more stable.  The trick will be to observe, determine which is correct, and choose to be the right one in the moment.

Tomorrow I will continue to view my actions through this lens and do my best to find the balance.  Today wasn’t perfect, but I’m thankful for the awareness of the need to balance mental flexibility and mental stability; it could make a huge difference in helping me be my normal upbeat, optimistic, and positive self.

Thanks!!!

Inside the sanctuary of my workshop there is only peace, serenity, and calm… until something doesn’t go as planned.  If I choose the right mindset I roll with the punches, joke around with Dad (yes, I still talk out loud to him in my workshop), roll up my sleeves and set myself to learning how to correct the issue.  If I’m cognizant of my mindset I can quickly get frustrated and obliterate the serenity of the shop.

Today was a beautiful day full of workshop time.  As I think about it now it may only have been a few hours, but it was exactly what my should needed.  Dominic helped out for a while.  Gavin kept me company for a while.  Becky came up to check on me a couple of times, and I had a ton of alone time as well.  It was my first time really putting the new table saw to the test and I was trying several things I’d never done before.  All of my focus was required to figure out the how and why behind what I was doing.  I was in an insanely peaceful state of flow for much of the day even though almost nothing quite worked out as planned.

By the time I shut off the lights and went in the house for dinner my soul was feeling full.  I am so appreciative of the time I have to create, learn, and work with both body and spirit in my workshop.

Another thing that really filled me up was our family game night.  When no one fired off an idea of which game to play right away I paused and thought.  Within a second I was thinking of the many eagles we saw throughout the day and I immediately said “Scrabble.”

So how the heck do eagles lead to Scrabble?  My Grandma and Grandpa Lamping used to play Scrabble with us when we were younger.  I still remember sitting around the dining room table playing with them and other family members.  My Grandpa Lamping loved eagles and when I see them I think of him.  Put those two together and it was a pretty cool combination.

As a family we busted out the same board we used to play with Grandma and Grandpa on.  There’s something so beautifully nostalgic about seeing the label stickers they’d made with Grandpa’s name on the box.  Fishing tiles out of the bag makes me smile thinking that they were touched by my grandparents so many times as they had fun as a family.

We all did really well even though at times it felt like we weren’t making much progress.  By the time it was done each of the four of us had placed ALL of our tiles, not a single remaining letter was left!  As you can most likely tell from the pictures that followed Dominic may have stolen a very sweet Triple Word Score corner from Gavin 😉  All joking aside, we had an awesome time playing with each other and forgetting about the outside world.

Thanks!!!

Last night we watched a movie Becky recommended, About Time.  If you haven’t seen it, don’t worry, I won’t spoil it.  The overall concept is about someone who learns that they have the ability to go back in time.  I know, it’s an idea that is overdone, but trust me on this one.  This movie takes a very different angle on it that is very meaningful on a few different levels.  All in all it was an excellent way to spend some time as a family and let to some fun conversations afterwards.

The movie left me thinking about Dad a lot.  Over the past 24 hours his memory never has been too far out of my thoughts.  As I was laying in bed last night I took a deep breath and realized that I had the ability to time travel.  Yes, for reals.  Sounds crazy, right?  But it’s actually true (kinda).

When I was missing Dad last night I pulled up my phone and went into my photo app.  In less than 10 seconds I was transported back in time to 7:34pm on May 25, 2016.  At that time I had just about wrapped up a blog about a pocket knife I had gotten from Grandpa Kreiling way back when I was in Scouts.  (You can read it here if you’d like)  I was texting Dad about few things and next thing I knew we’d gotten into a quite deep text chain.  Just as I did when I read one specific text the first time on that night I had tears well up in my eyes.  It was something I’d heard him say many times so not only was I remembering what the text read but times when Dad said those things in real life.  For a moment I felt like I had truly traveled back in time and it was amazing.

From there I opened up a different folder of photos and went back to more and more different dates and times.  So many of those photos caused me to dive right back into each moment.  It was amazing how many details I found I could recall when thinking deeply about each.  When I close my eyes and really focus it almost feels like I’ve found a way to go back in time to spend more time with Dad.

One other moment in time that really feels like I can go back to is the last time I hugged Dad.  That moment will forever be burned in my brain.  When I think about it too much I can feel my eyes start to mist up.  It is a powerful moment that I relive often.

What a beautiful gift, the memory.  I’m so blessed to have created so many moments with Dad.  There are so many places in time I can go back to with him.  Sure, it’s not exactly the same as time travel and it’s not the same as spending time with him in real life, but I’ll take it regardless.

I can’t help but wonder if part of the reason for the memories is something Dad used to tell Nick and I often.  “I wish I could have five more minutes with Dad.”  He’d say this and we could hear the emotion in voice and see it on his face.  I’m not sure if he then went out of his way to create a memory or if I was just practicing what he’d shared.  I always knew there’d be a day when I’d wish for five more minutes with him.  Knowing there’s not a way to accomplish that I could at least pack my brain full of so many memories that I could go back to.

My blogs and frequent picture taking have greatly enhanced that memory and have enabled me to be able to quasi-time travel.  All it seems to take is seeing a picture or the title of an old blog post and I can go back to that moment.  I’m so thankful for being able to re-live so many wonderful moments and for finding a way to get an extra five minutes with Dad.

Thanks!!!

The world certainly has changed in a big hurry today, hasn’t it?  When talking with friends and Dominic my mind is struggling to fully comprehend just how many things have jumped the tracks.  And how many of those things are under our control?

Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.

We have no way to control or change the world around us.  It is happening and there’s nothing we can do about it, right?  Hmm…  That’s not quite true either.  There is something very much under our control.

Be the light.

You could look around and say these are dark times.  So much panic, fear, anger, and hysteria.  There are so many unknowns.  You can’t seem to go more than a few minutes without something else striking you.  If you take a moment to soak it in and dive into the news it is so easy go completely unhinged and lose yourself in a downward spiral of confusion, depression, and fear. or…

Be the light.

So many people are nervous, scared, frightened, and so unsure of what to do next.  Do you know what would help them?  Someone to be the voice of calm.  Someone who helps them smile.  Someone who reminds them that cooler heads will prevail and all will be well.

Be the light.

In order to avoid the crowds Becky and I went shopping early this morning; after our run and before work.  We knew we only needed our normal groceries and a couple of non-perishable extras in case the boys didn’t have school.  When we were in the produce section a nice lady pulled up alongside of us and looked at the little pile of bananas that were left.  “Are we supposed to stock pile those too?  I don’t think they’ll last.”  I  smiled and assured her she didn’t need to buy extra.  Her face had a serious and concerned look on it and the giant couple of packs of toilet paper told me all I needed to know.  “Aren’t you nervous,” she asked me.  I gave her the biggest smile I had and spoke from my heart. “No, it will all be okay.  We all just need to stay calm, take a deep breath, and know we’ll all be alright.”  With that she smiled, looked more assured, and thanked me.

It really hit me in that moment what she needed.  It wasn’t stuff or supplies.  She just needed assurance, love, confidence, and fellowship.  All she needed was for someone to be the light and to smile and help her smile.

Over the next few days I’ll continue to look for ways to be the light for others.  I am choosing an attitude of peace, optimism, and joy.  Whatever is thrown my way I will take with a smile.  If I have a curveball thrown my way I’ll appreciate it as it is proof that I’m still alive, I still have that ultimate gift.  I’ll focus on what I can learn from that curveball and see how I can change and adapt to not be thrown off by it again.  I will be thankful for what I have learned from it and take joy in knowing that I’ve found a way to turn an obstacle into the way.

I can not control what is happening around me.  I cannot control the virus, the responses to it, the cancellations, the volatility of the stock market, or anything else related to those things.

I can control keeping myself healthy.  By focusing on ways to stay healthy I am in the best position I can be to help others.  If I let stress win I am unable to serve others or myself.  I can do much to keep myself healthy.

I can control my calmness.  Instead of making knee jerk reactions I can take a deep breath and think.  I can make sure I have all the data needed to act correctly.  I can make sure I know how much time I have to make a decision and force a decision if one must be made by a certain time.  I will not panic, I can control my calmness.

I can control my mindset.  It is up to me to look at each setback and challenge and determine what I can learn from it.  Each obstacle will make me stronger as I grow and learn from the experience.  The experience may not be pleasant, possibly quite terrible, but it is up to me to find the meaning in it.  Regardless of what the challenge is I am in control of my ability to be thankful for it.  I control my mindset.

I can be the light.

The situation we are experiencing together is dark.  The world needs light.  Be the light.  Remember to control what you can control and be the light that others need so desperately right now.  Let your light shine and it will ignite the light of others.

Thanks!!!

PS  For clarity, I know this post has flexed between the words “you,” “us,” and “I.”  This wasn’t intended as a me telling the world how to be type of post.  Rather, it is written by myself to myself.  It’s a reminder to me of what I need to do.  I know I must be the light.  Sometimes it is going to be hard to do that.  Like others I can get caught up in the hoopla and get nervous and scared like everyone else.  This post is something I plan on going back to when I have moments of weakness like that.  I cannot control what happens around me.  I can control how I respond to it.  I can choose to be the light.

Whoever would’ve imagined that so much would change in less than 24 hours?  Isn’t it crazy to think of just rapidly the world has changed due to something so physically small?

Around each and every corner of the day there seemed to be something else waiting for us.  Cancelled sporting events, travel bans, school closures, immediate changes to procedures.  The stock market plummeted, gained some steam after the Fed announcement, and then went right back to diving.  Heck, from the sounds of it there isn’t much for toilet paper in the La Crosse area anymore (that one still has me perplexed).

It’s so easy to point out all that is wrong and ingestive throughout the day.  You know me, that’s not my jam.   I’m thankful for taking the time to look for them, they kept me upbeat and focused.  What were the bright spots today?  Some of them included:

• Enjoying outside sales – this might have been the last time I get to do it for a while so I savored the feeling of going into businesses to start conversations about employment
• Listening to a great book to get my brain started in the morning
• Hearing the Elton John song Tiny Dancer and only hearing “Hold me closer Tony Danza”
• Multiple conversations with my little brother giving the cynical commentary we both seem to excel at in times like this
• Playing a game with Gavin
• Enjoying a dinner of corned beef
• Shooting the bull and joking with Dominic
• Thinking of new ways to do the usual tasks should everything continue to change
• Remembering to take a deep breath and breathe
• Hanging out with and texting friends
• Taking time to appreciate the beautiful views driving back from Menomonie even when it is cold and dreary
• Becky putting me in a good mood first thing in the morning even from a long ways away
• And this pic from Dominic…

Yes, there are definitely some changes in the future.  This is going to be a very interesting time in our history.  I’m going to continue to focus on the bright spots and find the positives in this.

Thanks!!!

 

 

This morning we went out for our normal run just a short distance from our house. Technically it is still in town but it truly feels more like being out in the wild. There are no houses, only a couple of small buildings. Other than the lights from the airport there’s only the light from the moon and stars. It’s quiet, peaceful, and we run along both the river and the woods. Dang near perfect peace to start the day.

We had a bit of a surprise visitor running at the same time we did today. Skywalker had just gotten to the beach when out of nowhere we saw a shape gliding across the sand. In the light of the moon we saw a coyote running full speed back to the woods. It was a surreal sight as it ran so fluidly and silently back into the woods. Thank goodness it stayed away from Skywalker and she didn’t chase after it too much.

Put together the quiet and serene time in nature with the experience with a coyote and it was a beautiful way to start the day.

Over the past few years there’ve been a pretty sizable handful of books that have made a significant impact in my thought process, attitude, and actions. This morning I realized that there was one in particular that would be just what the doctor ordered and I was dead on.

This is probably the fourth or fifth time I’ve read it and each time I pick up a little more. I’ve also noticed just how many portions I’ve already taken to heart and have been weaving into my life. Funny how incremental changes can really start to add up!

Thanks!!!