Last night after blogging I was about to head off to bed when Dominic appeared in the living room. With no agenda, specific topic to discuss, or anything like that, we started talking. Well over half an hour flew by while we shot the bull with each other. Moments like this don’t have too much longer to happen as the calendar slowly reminds us that he’ll only be living at home with us for another year and a half… Depressing thought, he’s over 90% through his life at home with us already. Where did the time go? Moments like last night, spending time relaxing and talking together, are some of the highlights of my life. I’m beyond appreciative for the bonus time with him last night.

The drive to work was a chilly one, but dang was it scenic! The air was so clear due to the extreme cold (-18 degrees F with windchill dropping the feel below -29) and helped color the sky even more spectacularly when the sun rose. The pinks and purples combined with the dark orange of the rising sun was beautiful!

On my way to work I finished an old favorite… Tribal Leadership. When I read it the first time it rocked my world and I basked in the glory of “knowing” what an incredible job I had been doing. The first time made me feel like I had it all figured out and was more of an acknowledgement of my infinite wisdom. This time? Holy shit do I have a lot to learn! This time around I realized the arrogance I had in the past and saw in painfully clear ways how I’ve done the wrong things at the wrong times. There were glimmers of hope and I can see the path, but it was mind rocking to see just how poorly I’d misjudged and over estimated myself the first time around. As one of my favorite thought leaders has often said, “We never read the same book twice” because we are a different person when we read it again.

On my drive home I fired up a new book that has been blowing my mind for so many reasons. More to follow on this one, but the short story is that I have had it on in the background for many hours today while driving and in the quiet of an empty home. A story of someone riding a bike from Oregon to Patagonia? Yes please! To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins has already been blowing my mind.

Each night before I blog I read my blog posts from the same day for each of the past six years. I cannot begin to get over how fun it is to see the cyclical nature of life. Lessons learned, lessons forgotten, lessons remembered and found, and lessons lost again. The circle continues in so many ways, yet it always seems to revolve around a small core of things: family, the outdoors, travel, and presence. The point on which so much of it pivots is gratitude.

Thanks!!!