One of the lag measures of a successful trip is the number of times I have to pause and remember, wait, we did that on this trip too? When my brain has become jumbled with so many new memories I know we did it right. There’s also often a direct correlation to the number of miles put on by foot each day – this one was also a success.

There was something a little different on this one than in past vacations. Wait, maybe that’s not quite right. Maybe it is more of something I remembered again which fades slowly to the sands of time. There was a different level of peace, of feeling at home, and hearing more of a calling to the outdoors.

On our short afternoon hike yesterday Becky and I spent some time in a little cedar wood along the beach of Lake Superior. The sound of the waves continually crashing against the icy shore in a perfectly imperfect rhythm was such a peaceful soundtrack to our walk. At one point I caught a deer observing us from a short distance away in the wood. Shortly thereafter Becky pointed out another three enjoying their time in the woods as well. Later there was yet another deer. Becky pointed and I thought I’d attempt to get a quick pic even though I was positive I would miss it. It wasn’t until later in the evening when I reviewed the pics form the day I chuckled at my fortune! Check this one out and look in the distance to where she is pointing 🙂

The sight of each of the deer had an interesting emotional impact on me. I laughed, I smiled, I looked in awe… I felt a sense of wonder.

I grew up in northern Wisconsin. I’ve seen literally thousands and thousands of deer in my life. Why should I be so excited at seeing some more of these brown furry creatures which are all over?

As I slowly start to unpack so many previous thoughts and ideas it seems as if several of them are beginning to merge into a more complete whole. Just as a little stream slowly connects to another little stream to become a river and then joins another river to become a giant sea, my thoughts are starting to coalesce into a greater thought.

Here are where some of my thoughts are going:

• The more I appreciate what I have rather than wanting what I don’t have the more joyful I am.
• When I intentionally act towards my goals rather than reflexively doing something unproductive or counterproductive, I feel a stronger sense of purpose.

• The less “stuff,” the more simple the way I live life the more often I am in the present versus being distracted.

• The more intentional I act, the more I am able to spend time in a state of flow doing the things I love so much – like being out in the woods.
• When I am out in the woods I feel a deep sense of peace and presence.
• The times when I am most at peace, most in the present, and the most joyful I am overcome with a sense of wonder of all that is around me.
• When I am lost in a state of wonder my default mindset is gratitude for all that is around and the opportunity to experience it.
• The more I feel a sense of wonder the more connected I feel to The Big Dude Upstairs (my way of “seeing” God or a higher power, call that higher power what you will)
• The more connected I am to The Big Dude Upstairs the more I can live into the purpose of who I am called to be, the more I can intentionally live into that self.

Hmm… Okay, there is still a lot to work out and sort through there, but I am starting to see it. More time, more thought, and more action needed to rough this one out. Probably a few more blogs in the future as well.

Thanks!!!

Walking in the woods today had such a different feel than it did in our last summer trip to the Minnesota side of Lake Superior. While there was much familiarity with the types of wooded areas, rocky outcroppings, and the crashing of waves on the shore of the lake there was also much completely different.

Case in point, when looking at rocks in the summer I’m usually in the lake past my knees. Today I was on the shore, trying to gauge my footing on the ice, and attempting to avoid the waves rolling in. Rather than the beautiful rocks jutting out from the shore I kept a stronger focus on the thick coating of ice which encased the stone. There was no greenery to watch in the forest, only shades of white and gray. Such contrast from season to season.

What an inspiring opportunity to remember that there is much to be grateful for throughout each of life’s seasons. Rather than wishing away one season for the next there is a beauty to be found within each moment of each season. Enjoy the present, find the reasons to be thankful for it, and savor it. Whether a season of growth, life, death, or dormancy, each is natural and equal in its importance. Without one the others cannot exist. Watch for the gifts of each and I will be rewarded.

Lake Superior presented a very different experience over the past few days, I’m grateful for the opportunity to soak it all up!

Thanks!!!

While hiking today I realized just how at peace my soul was. Much of the time was spent not so much in thought as in appreciation of the majesty and simplicity of the outdoors. My inner voice was quiet as I soaked up the wondrous sights surrounding me.

Snowflakes lightly floating through the sunbeams shooting through tree branches creating a glittering fairy tale like scene. Clouds moving out of the way for the sun to light up a small portion of Lake Superior. The ice from mist off the lake creating sheets of crystal encasing the scrub pines on the shore. The labyrinths of icicles surrounding the maws of almost frozen waterfalls.

With all of this surrounding me I felt a deep sense of peace and calm. The sense of peace which seems to only be found in the outdoors.

Quite often in daily life I have to focus on taking a deep breath to help find stillness in the midst of busy-ness. As much as I practice it still requires me taking action to do so. Stillness is not my default mindset. In the outdoors my default response is stillness.

How can I rectify this so that it is my natural response in all of life? What is the root cause of the calm in the outdoors? How do I more readily replicate it in the rest of my life? Is this a default I could actually work towards and attain? Those questions will all have to wait for another day.

Today, I’m focusing my appreciation on the stillness which can only be found in the outdoors. It wrapped itself around my soul today and gave an increasingly warm hug.

Thanks!!!

The weather outside maybe be a little chilly, but it wasn’t too cold to prevent Becky and I from hiking. In spite of the sub zero wind chill we were able to bundle up and spend a few hours wandering through the woods. The air was so cold that the condensation from breathing froze my beard hair into ice balls. It was wild!

The trails themselves were nice, but the frozen waterfalls were definitely the highlight of the hikes. Watching the water flow in an open window of ice and then go below the snow was mesmerizing. There were points when we could see the water behind a semi transparent sheet of ice. Adding to the awesomeness were the wolf tracks walking out of the woods, to the open water, and then back into the woods.

The normal waterfall sound was, at times, choked out by the layers of snow and ice above. The contrast of normal waterfalls sounds with the deep silences of water muted by snow was surreal. At one of the waterfalls there was a place in which there was a small opening in the ice above the drop of the waterfall. The sound emitting from it was a low rumble of the crashing water reverberating back up through the icy tube and back into the world. At times it sounded similar to Wind Cave.

One of the things I found most interesting about the frozen waterfalls was the notion of complete stillness as the ice and snow hid the intense pressure, movement, and power below. It reminded me that there is some much more to everything in life than what meets the eye. The combination of power and beauty is one I’ll remember for quite some time.

Thanks!!!

Hmm… another interesting blog kind of day! Definitely one that is going to take some typing to unpack. I feel like there were a handful of times when I was pausing to appreciate something in the moment, but I’m struggling to pull the moment to mind. We’ll see what happens 🙂

While riding my bike on the trainer today I caught an unusually insightful quote from the TV series I’ve been watching as I exercise. This quote from Gerald on Witcher is one for me to remember.

“Our best chance is to kill the hatred we hold onto and move on.”

One of the things I enjoy about life with Becky is the ability to shift between engaging conversation and enjoying the quiet. On a drive today there were periods of both. Neither felt tedious, forced, or unnatural. We both enjoy conversation with each other and we both enjoy quiet time to think and process. The ride today was a reminder of how much I appreciate the balance we have.

On several occasions our conversation went back to our backpacking trips last summer to the Porcupine Mountains and Isle Royale. We walked back through the trail and experiences we had. So many memories were made on that trip. In looking back my heart is full of joy. We were outside, enjoying life at its most simple, breathing in fresh air, soaking in the beauty of the outdoors. Perfection! I swear I could feel my shoulders relax my heart rate slow as I thought back to those times.

Another thought I spent time on this afternoon was a focus on one of my biggest failures in business. It was a mistake which caused several other challenges that I still work to repair. What is interesting is that now that time has passed I’m able to better review the situation without much emotion. It has happened, I have learned from it, and it is time to move on. Time really can really help to heal wounds. How do I change my mindset to allow healing with almost no time going past? How can I remind myself in the heat of a moment that in a matter of years I will look back at this with the clarity of years? How do I skip the years and go straight to better self assessment? Today I didn’t find the answer, but I am grateful to have realized that I should ask the question.

Thanks!!!

Earlier today I encountered a situation that I was not prepared to handle as well as I know I could have. My emotions were getting the best of me and I knew it. I paused. I rolled my chair back from my desk, looked up, and took a deep breath. Then it hit me. There was a quote which caused me to chuckle. Next thing I knew it was the answer to the challenge.

“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…”

Epictetus

Looking at this situation through the correct lens solved the challenge.

Thanks!!!

Hmm… interesting day today on many fronts. Let’s see if I can pull it all together into one cohesive whole. This one may be too splintered to splice together. Guess we’ll find out 🙂

Over the past couple of weeks my teams have had a bunch of illnesses, COVID exposures, and whatnot. All of this has led to an empty office as people worked from home, many absences, re-scheduled meetings, and a general sense of disjointedness. In the past I would have tried to force fit my goals for the new year into the mix, it’s after the first of the year after all! This time around I paused, took a deep breath, and decided to focus only on what was most important. With that focus on the essential few it’s been relatively easy to say no to the extra. In some ways we’ve found opportunities to do both. In others we’ve just pushed back the start of a project until February. It’ll be okay. Resilience and adaptability remain two of the most important life skills anyone could work on over the past couple of years. Of course I’d love to execute on the grand plans we have, we made those plans for a reason. That said, sometimes you just need to take a deep breath, hunker down, and stay focused. Once the storm passes we can get right back at it.

Another lesson I’ve learned through too many mistakes is the power of collaboration. Yet again I almost went off to slay some dragons on my own. I had some wonderful ideas, why not run with them right away, right? The little voice in the back of my head reminded me that there was a lesson to remember. Realizing the error of my ways I got a small group of people together to pick their brains on the project. After adding their input and insight to the mix the potential solution got exponentially better! Adding the insight of others is a fantastic way to weave a greater tapestry of ideas and strategy.

Without getting into too much detail I was reminded why I am largely staying off the internet this year. In a training session on a difficult topic I saw people lose their minds with anger misdirected towards the instructor and those who were trying to help them. I quickly thought of my own fallibility – how many times did I react emotionally when hiding behind the screen? How often have I made remarks that were not well intended or borderline rude when I had a keyboard to type my thoughts? So often I wouldn’t have said face to face what I had typed online. This was a reminder for me to a) stay away from chats, and b) remember to be kind and stoic. It was difficult to watch on many levels, one of which was because I realized how wrong I’ve been to join the chat mob (or even incite it) in the past.

Yeah… hmm… I don’t know that there’s really a common theme here. Or is there? Reminders of past life lessons? Take a deep breath and stay focused on the essential. Collaborate to create something truly beautiful. Don’t be a jerk, remember to be me even in a chat situation. There I go, reminders of life lessons – some lived better than others.

Thanks!!!

As I’ve written before there are many benefits to journaling in this fashion – a daily blog. One of the greatest is the time focused on pausing to reflect on the day, to stop and think, to allow my mind and soul to work out some meaning and lessons form the busy-ness of the day. The daily writing helps me keep the set pace of taking this time once per day rather than all willy nilly. Left that way I’m sure to have just wrapped up maybe my fifteenth blog in 6+ years. Today I’m most appreciative of another benefit, the daily reminder of days gone by.

Each day I’ve been loading up my blog from the same day for each of the past six years. What I’m doing is digging up a time capsule of my life. In that little sealed chamber dug up from the past are the remnants of memories long since gone. Many of which would have disappeared from memory had they not been packaged up in a weather proof container and buried.

The memories from today include logrolling, silence, discouragement, spending time in a gym for a futsol tournament, loving my work, and a new perspective on an area I love. Each of these moments were important to me in their own present. Somewhere in my brain the memories are carved into the wrinkles like ancient hieroglyphs. They’re waiting to be found by someone walking by, my blog provides someone to walk the trail of nice each year. Without a process to send an explorer through the labyrinth of memories the majority would slowly be lost to the sands of time, less likely to be found again.

Reading my blogs bring back those memories. My hard learned lessons remain in mind and are less likely to have to be relearned. The old blogs remind me of smiles, are measuring sticks of progress, and notes from my past and present self to my future. My messages in a bottle to be collected at the right time.

Thanks!!!

One of the activities I did today was one that I often see as more of a chore. It was very different this time. A deep clean of our living room floor was quite relaxing and rewarding. Moving all the furniture out of the way, getting into all the nooks and crannies, the sweeping and the cleaning – totally peaceful and relaxing. What made it something I enjoyed today? Purely the choice of attitude.

Is there anything better than reading an old paperback novel? Physically turning the pages. That scent of an old and well loved book. Yes, an e-reader of some sort would be way more efficient, but the real deal is truly a treat. Also, if you haven’t read The Godfather by Mario Puzo I’d highly recommend it. The movie was fine, the book is a masterpiece – and I am not into mafia storylines.

Pausing to design and map out a handcrafted project was also on my agenda today. It’s been a while since my last project, picking up a pen and paper to start designing the next idea was awesome. At the beginning the opportunities are endless, the genesis of the design so freeing and exciting. Each step of the process has its own unique benefits, I just need to remember to choose that right attitude.

Yesterday afternoon we went on a family hike in the bluffs. Today Becky and I took the girls for a walk. Yes, it is crazy frigid out, but time outside, regardless of the temperature, is sure to warm the soul.

Thanks!!!

This evening I had an opportunity to step out of life as I am used to. The experience provided a glimpse into a life I’ve never lived and challenges I have yet to have to face.

Wow, I’m really struggling for words tonight, my brain is still attempting to wrap itself around the experience.

What I experienced this evening has hit so many different emotions. Sadness. Empathy. Appreciation. Growth. Compassion. Joy. Love. Faith. I am struck by how completely different we can be as people while simultaneously seeing how totally similar we all are. Our experiences can be so varied, but we are all still the same.

When gifted with so much, how do I rectify how much I have and how seemingly little I’ve given? There is such a gap. My heart is hopeful as I look across the the gap between who I am and who I am called to be. This evening the gap seems even wider than this morning, but I’m more hopeful I can help close it. Much to do, to grow, to improve… and the ability and tools to do so all around me.

Thanks!!!