This afternoon I met up with some old friends who I haven’t seen in a while.  Way back in 2001 we met when I stopped out on a sales call with Express.  Since then we’ve worked together for over 18 years.  Over that time we’ve gotten married, had kids, had kids graduate and get married, and even have a handful of grandkids!  I had a great time reconnecting with them and hearing what’s new in their lives.  As I drove back to the office afterwards I kept smiling while I remembered old stories of our time together.  There was also an interesting realization when seeing just how long we’ve known each other and how little has truly changed during that time.

Over the past week or so I’ve had some thoughts and ideas starting to come together in my brain.  In looking at an ongoing challenge I finally saw it in a slightly differently light and from a different angle.  I’ve been struggling to see it completely in focus, but today it was the prototypical “aHa!” moment.  Funny how I can sometimes help my brain focus by taking the focus away for a little bit as I let the first bits of the thought ferment in my brain.  It was wonderful to see it so clearly today!

On my drive in today I was jamming out to some great music.  One of the parts I enjoy about the specific type of music the most is that it gets my brain turning.  There were several times I caught myself being deep in thought as I meandered up the Mississippi River.  The music helped my mind wander a bit in thought and it was an excellent way to start the day.

Thanks!!!

Sometimes I think I might actually be learning! Today was a day in which there were several times I paused and remembered past lessons learned. Every so often I catch myself rubbing the flat spots on my forehead from past experiences and I remember what was learned from those instances. Today they served me well and I avoided some mistakes I’ve made in the past. Heck, Gavin may be right, I’m slowly becoming a wise old man! 😂

Speaking of Gavin, I broke him into a new level of the Brotherhood of Nintendo… after playing baseball in the park for quite a while we headed inside. He asked if we had any two player Nintendo games that we could play together. I smiled, dusted off Contra, and taught him the greatest cheat code of all time before we took out some alien scum!

Life is good!

Thanks!!!

Today has been a wildly successful day.  Interestingly, it’s had its share of tense moments, stress, difficult challenges, and the like…  all of which have made it the successful day it has been.

First off, I’m thankful for grit.  Yeah, this is kind of a staple, but it’s truly amazing to me to see what we are each capable of when we push towards something we’re passionate about.  We persist through the pain for the end goal, and in a cosmic twist, we grow from and usually appreciate those tough parts of the journey more than the destination.  I have many dreams and aspirations that I am passionate about and I will find a way to do them.  Knowing that I will face obstacles I pause instead of getting frustrated with them and find the way to become stronger, smarter, and better for passing that challenge.  Which leads to my next point…

Breathing is truly an awesome action.  When those challenges present themselves the power of something so seemingly as simple as taking a deep breath can calm my mind.  In action tonight while doing yoga I was able to hold poses stronger and more correctly than expected when I focused only on breathing.  The same is true in life.  While I appreciate the challenges they don’t always happen at the most opportune times.  When I remember to breathe like I did today I can more easily transition from an “Oh Crap!!!” emotional response to a “well, that just happened, what can I learn from this?” reaction.  All by doing one little thing, breathing.

In the final rest tonight in yoga I was reminded again of one of the reasons I am so passionate about travel.  With my eyes closed and laying flat on my back in a quiet room my mind started to wander…  Before I knew it I was listening to my Alaska & Isle Royale vacation song in my head and I was floating in the ocean in Alaska, just cruising through the fjords.  Such a peaceful feeling, total relaxation.  From the places we’ve visited there’s a handful of epic vacation happy places that are burned into my brain and heart so deeply that just the thought of them can drop my blood pressure, relieve stress, and help me pause and focus on my breath.  I love those experiences so much and wouldn’t trade any of them for anything in the world.

Thanks!!!

Throughout the day I had no less than half a dozen blogs for today mentally started.  First I was thankful for working the kinks out in our morning run because I finally loosened up by the end.  Then I was thankful for a peaceful ride up the Mississippi River and I was also thankful for the reminders of the raw power of Mother Nature.  I was thankful for filling in while someone is out to remember what it’s like to go through a challenge.  Later I was thankful for the opportunity to jump in and take action and set the tone.  Intermingled was gratitude for lessons from the 30,000′ view.  In working through something I was thankful for the opportunity to learn from a challenge.  I was thankful for the return of a great friend and teammate.  In the afternoon I was thankful for Becky having a great day at work.  There were times I was thankful for others stepping up, a clear vision, and the opportunity to serve others.  On my way home I was thankful for a conversation with my brother and great music.  I appreciated the opportunity to cook and grill one of my favorite dinners.  I was thankful for a family dinner together.  Heck, at one point I was even thankful for being thankful for someone else’s gratitude!  For reals, that one made me smile huge!

So why is today’s blog not about any of these things (although it kind of is…  see what I did there?  Wink, wink)?  There was a moment as we were wrapping up supper that filled my heart with joy…

“Hey Dad, want to come outside and play catch for a little father son son time?”

Yes… that sounds perfect.

We went outside together, and it was perfect.

Thanks!!!

Today was an opportunity to step out of real life for a bit and just chill with friends.  A handful of my buddies and I headed up to the workshop for a day of gaming.  As luck would have it almost all of us were available to hang out at the same time – something that hasn’t happened often recently.

It was great!  No agenda, no plan, only us hanging out, shooting the bull, laughing often, and playing games.  How can you go wrong with that?  With a cooler full of soda, a never ending stream of frozen pizza, and more games than we could ever hope to play in a week we just hunkered down and had fun.

With as busy as we all are it’s wonderful to hit pause and spend time having fun while catching up.  At some point when our kids all get older I’m sure this will be a more regular occurrence, but for now these times are pretty rare and always appreciated.

Special thanks to Becky for keeping up with unerring the boys around while I hung out!

Thanks!!!

 

Just over three years ago I blogged about being thankful for the Parable of the Prodigal Son (you can read it here:  Day 161 – Thankful for the Parable of the Prodigal son ).  This evening at church the story was told again.  I find it interesting how the same story can have so many levels and how it seems as if I start to “get” different levels at different times.  Today I saw it through a different perspective and I’m thankful for it.

Sometimes it seems like The Big Guy Upstairs knows when there’s something I need to learn.  Fortunately He also knows that I can be a little slow on the uptake so some messages get repeated over and over in various ways for me to finally “get.”  Over the past couple of months there’s been a message that I’ve gotten through several different sources…  forgiveness.

What really struck me today was just how forgiving the father was.  As I mentioned a few years ago, there was no judgement, no anger, no bitterness, or anything like that.  The father welcomed the son back with open arms and celebrated his return.  He didn’t ask why the son did what he did.  He didn’t ask what the son did.  He asked no questions, he immediately forgave and took his son back in.  The father shows how we should forgive.

Tonight our priest mixed in a very personal story I’d never heard before.  The story was focused on forgiveness in a truly remarkable way.  As awe inspiring as the story was it still took him 20 years to finally forgive the individual.  I give him serious credit for forgiving the person in that short of a timespan.  While I’d like to think I could forgive quickly I know myself better than that and know it is something I need to work on.

And that’s what I am most thankful for today.  The Parable of the Prodigal Son coupled with the personal story from our priest push me to look at the gap between who I currently am versus the ideal version of me.  I’m also thankful for both stories helping me see ways to work on closing that gap.  Over the past couple of hours I’ve already had time thinking about those I hold grudges against of some sort or another.  Tonight as I lay in bed I’ll spend time praying to the Big Guy for their happiness and success.  In some cases it might be difficult and I’ll have to remember how the father so openly forgave without question, judgement or anger.  It won’t fix things, but it should help me start to get myself on the right track.

Thanks!

What a day it’s been!  So many great things to be thankful for, I’ve been in a great mood all day long.  It’s been busy, complete, full of purpose, and an awesome day.

The start of the day really got it all on the right track.  Sure, the alarm went off at 4:15am for me, but when I picked up my phone I had something waiting for me.  Like a kid at Christmas I was giddy – the new Strumbellas album dropped this morning and it was already downloaded on my phone waiting for me.  As I got ready for our long run I gave it a quick listen.  I love that band!

The reason the alarm went off so early was for Becky and I to knock out our long training run in preparation for our half marathon.  Today was a nine miler and I wasn’t super pumped to run that far this morning.  Luckily for me I have the best running partner ever and she motivated me to get off my butt and get going.  Throughout the run it was so nice having time to the two of us to shoot the bull and enjoy time with no calls or work.  It’s always nice to have great company and motivation while running, my running partner does an excellent job of both on our runs.  I’m thankful to have Becky as a running partner!

Thanks!!!

The boys and I went for a short ride down Fisherman’s Rd to see just how high the river had been creeping up.  It was a little more chilly than expected, but it felt like summer regardless.

While we were riding I saw Dominic start moving around on his bike and within a couple of seconds he was pretty much looking like Superman and parallel to the ground while letting his momentum pull him along.  Gavin hollered “Go kart!” and there he was with both feet up on the handlebars.  From there they kept getting more daring and creative and I just get smiling and laughing.

Seeing those two goofballs reminded me of exactly how I used to ride when I was their age.  From riding with no handlebars to moving my feet and legs into all types of unsafe positions I’d be swerving all over the road and enjoying life.  The boys were in the exact same mindset and it was awesome.  This old dog has learned a thing or two and opted out of the craziness this time…  but who knows in the future 😉

The boys also thought it was pretty interesting to ride their bikes in the Black River.  It looks like it’s continued to rise over the past 24 hours – yikes!

All in all it was a great end to the day, chilling with my boys.

Thanks!!!

Oh boy, cosmic justice, you got me good today!

Way back in the day, pretty sure somewhere in the college years, I had a few of my friends over while my parents and brother weren’t home.  Nothing nefarious or anything, just chilling in the basement watching TV.  For some reason we started goofing off and one of us hurtled through the air and right into the love seat.  With a sickening SNAP we knew we had our work cut out for us.  Sure enough, the leg of the love seat was snapped right off. 

Thankfully a couple of us are relatively handy and we went to town on fixing it.  In no time it was good as new and I crossed my fingers that I’d never have to tell my parents about it.

A few years later I got a very random phone call form my dad and he sounds pretty frustrated.  “Is there something you’d like to tell me about the love seat Mikey?”  I groaned and the incident poured out with full honesty.  After I mentioned how proud we were of the work we’d done on it he got a little weird…  was that a hint of a chuckle in voice or was it just cracking with more anger?  “Mike, it looks like a damn pin cushion with nails sticking out of it everywhere!!!”

With that comment I started laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face.  “Dad, did say ‘nails’?” I asked.  When he confirmed it I laughed again and he started to get angry with me while I composed myself.  “Dad, do you see the two screws in the side that were hidden away and do you see the thin line of glue we used?  We didn’t use a single nail.  I’m pretty sure you’re talking to the wrong son.  You should talk with the one who’s a little less handy.”  At that point I was again overcome with laughter as Dad paused…  “Okay, love you Bud,” and he was gone.  Dad and I would still joke about that incident every so often right up until the day he passed. 

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with that story…

After a couple of brief seconds of my blood pressure spiking that story popped back into my head this evening…  right after Gavin filled me in on how he’d broken one of the dining room table chairs today.  In a flash I could hear Dad’s voice, “just you wait Mikey, just you wait” in my head just like every time I did something that that frustrated him.  He always told me to just wait until one day when I had sons and they would pull the stuff I pulled or break things like I’d broken things.  He was totally right!  The cosmos doesn’t necessarily strike back swiftly, but it certainly exacted justice tonight. 

Quite honestly, it is frustrating that the chair broke, but there’s more to the story.  Gavin and I spent some quality time walking through the plan of how to fix it and we went right to town gluing it back up.  Time will tell if we can completely fix it, but regardless of the result I had great memories of my dad come back into my stream of consciousness, Gavin got to see me take a deep breath and not blow a gasket, and we got some great father son time together…  oh, and I know justice will be done on Gavin one day.  Just you wait Gavers, just you wait.  😉

Thanks!!!

Tonight’s kind of a weird one.  The day has been fantastic all around.  Great progress on things at work, a strong feeling of living towards my purpose, progress on some personal goals, a wonderful walk up the bluffs over lunch, and an amazing yoga class.  All good stuff, all day.  How weird is it then that I’m most thankful for a reminder of one of my faults?  

Yesterday I finally did something I’d been meaning to do for almost two weeks.  I send an email of appreciation to the boss and boss’ boss of someone who helped me out tremendously.  The purpose of the email was to thank them for a great hire and share an example of what a great impact this person has had on my teams and on me.  Essentially, a pumped up thank you going to her leaders instead of just her.  

When I spoke with her today she shared that her boss had shared it with her and how appreciative she was for the email.  I could hear the emotion in her voice as she thanked me for taking the time to appreciate her and thanked me for “finding the time in my busy schedule to write an email like that.”  My initial thought was joy in hearing the joy in her voice.  The second thought was a little disappointment in myself.

I’d meant to send that email weeks ago.  I could’ve sent a handwritten thank you card to her as well to accentuate how much I appreciate her.  The funny thing is that this person has sent me more thank you notes in less than a year than I’ve sent in total to everyone in the past year.  She is a living example of gratitude and I didn’t take action right away like I should have.

So while we talked I had this wave of disappointment rush over me and I took time to soak it in for a few minutes after the call.  After thinking I realized just how much I appreciated this reminder of one of my faults, my lack of follow through on showing appreciation to others.  Crazy, right?  The gratitude guy doesn’t spend as much time writing thank you notes as he should…  Argh!!!  Cue and apply facepalm.

This slap upside the head was something I was very grateful for today.  In this case my fault still led to her seeing my appreciation while reminding me of the gap I have to close between who I am and who I am called to be.  I can either wallow in my disappointment or I can get off my butt and do something about it.  How wonderful to have a reminder of my faults to remind me to push myself to be the best version of me.

The funny thing is that I’m pretty sure I owe her another thank you…  and this one I’ll be writing shortly.

Thanks!!!