I’ve read American Gods by Neil Gaiman more than a handful of times and love it each read. The novel contains everything I look for in a book – suspense, depth, excellent characters, and an opportunity to think. Even though I know what’s going to happen I can quickly get drawn into the gravitational pull of the story.
A while back I happened upon the “Annotated” version of the book. The editor spent time with the author and explains why certain things happen and their relevance to the story. In reading this novel with more detail it’s added an even deeper dive into one of my three all time favorite books.
As Cinderella (not that one, the 80’s big haired one) once sang… “Don’t know what you got (till it’s gone).” For those who want to further embed that earworm, here’s the link 😉 https://youtu.be/i28UEoLXVFQ
After the past week and change of feeling like garbage I’m finally feeling good again. No brain fog, almost no fatigue, I can smell and taste again, and I feel almost 100%… and it feels AMAZING!!!
Much of my life I take my health for granted. For the most part I’m a pretty healthy dude with no complaints. It is so easy for me to file that fact away and forget it sometimes. When I get knocked down like this it can be quite the reminder to take a moment to appreciate my health.
Getting our bike ride in after supper was wonderful, looking forward to getting back to all the normal activity. Each time I’ll be sure to take a moment to appreciate my body’s ability to do so.
There are a couple of deeper ideas currently formulating in my noggin, but something pretty surreal happened as I was saying goodnight to the boys. The bigger ideas will now have time to percolate another day or two.
Dominic laughed out loud when he turned his computer on and told Gavin and I we had to see something. He pointed at the screen and we saw this…
Yup, that’s the mountain we stayed right next to in our last few days in Iceland! The house we rented was just beyond the hill on the left and we could see Kirkjufell from our living room. How crazy it that???
Hmm… My mind is going in a handful of different directions today, let’s see if I can work through this into one common theme. If nothing else, it’s been a while since I’ve had a totally scattered blog! 😉 In no particular order…
I’m slowly getting down to where I want to get for pictures from our Iceland trip. I’ve got an idea I’d like to pull off and I made some pretty big strides toward it today. I wouldn’t say I’m in the home stretch, more like I’m rounding first base and closing in on second.
Here’s an example of one of the pics.
Earlier in the day I spent some quiet time working on a handful of tasks to be prepped for my book launch (coming up before too long, takes way longer than I expected). None of the tasks were particularly “fun” but they were all necessary. Making progress towards a dream felt great. Funny how rewarding the grind can be at times!
Family games are always fun. They’re even more fun when the boys are asking to play. Good quality time around the kitchen table is music for my soul. Laughing and enjoying each others company is something I could blog about every single day.
Cooking is way more fun when it is 100% voluntary and there are no time constraints. Spending time prepping and grilling was very much enjoyable today. Playing an ’80s station on Pandora also helped provide the right mood.
After walking LuLu as a family I’m not sure what got into me, but I spent a little bit of time weeding. Again, not something I usually consider fun, but it felt productive and rewarding.
And there’s my theme of gratitude today!!!
I am grateful for how easy it is to appreciate the mundane work and tasks when there are no time constraints and the actions are fully voluntary. Throw in some chill music and I can find ways to be smiling all the time, even when it is boring work.
Scratch that, I’m more thankful for the insight I just had. Whenever work or tasks are “involuntary” they are still 100% voluntary. I always have a choice and I can choose to not do them. Yes, there would be repercussions, but I have a choice. Here’s my insight – how do I help myself remember more often that all my tasks and work are truly voluntary in nature and not involuntary? How much more joyful of a life would I live if I remembered that constantly? Hmm…
Thanks for sticking with me while I worked through that one!
When I woke up this morning it felt a lot like Saturday all over again. I even did many of the same normal Saturday activities. Based on timing there were no errands run and almost no work done around the house. lots of outdoors time took their place. In the afternoon there were games played as well as an nice long reading break. Movie after dinner and now time to chill before sleep.
All in all, it’s been a perfect bonus Saturday on a Sunday!
I like to be busy. I prefer motion and action. When given an option I’ll almost always take the one that doesn’t involve sitting around.
Today I’ve had to lay low to rest up and get healthy. It hasn’t been ideal, but it’s certainly what my body needed. I feel like I’m about to start climbing the walls but I know it’s what I need.
I’m glad it hit when it did and I’ve got the opportunity to chill and rest.
As I wrap up my day I was in a weird mood. My mind is wore out, but I wasn’t quite ready for bed. I wasn’t in the right mindset to read, but I wasn’t in for a movie.
Then it hit me as I was in the process of shutting the TV off. In a moment I was enjoying one of my favorite scenes of an old classic, a scene that always leaves me laughing out loud…
Dominic and I were going through some of our vacation pics tonight and he hit the nail on the head.
“I’m not sure if I was just numb to it while we were there because all of it was so awesome, but seeing the pictures is crazy. It’s desktop pic after desktop pic!”
Going through these pictures has been so surreal. The landscapes in each photo take me back to seeing it and leave me speechless. The beauty we witnessed in Iceland was spectacular!
Here’s a small handful of random examples of what I’m talking about. From arctic terns dive bombing Dominic to waterfalls out of a movie to wild horses in front of a volcano to icebergs and glaciers. Wild!!!
In the valley heading towards the hidden waterfallThis is inside the national park, this horse was roaming freeThe arctic terns really had it out for Dominic!For a sense of scale, the tall castle shaped iceberg was well over 16 feet tall.
Sometimes life throws a bit of a curveball that can catch me off guard. I’ve had to work from home unexpectedly for the past couple of days and was reminded of just how grateful I am to be in a career in which I can do that.
Back in the day, pre-COVID, I always thought it would be awesome to work from home. The idea of having focused time to work and the reduction in transportation time sounded pretty sweet. When the pandemic hit and forced us to change business I realized that it wasn’t quite for me. The balance is most likely a hybrid of the two, but certainly not home all the time.
Today, the opportunity to keep working through unexpected setbacks has been quite the blessing! Had this not been an option I would have had to lay low and fall behind. Had I not already had practice in doing this I wouldn’t have been nearly as productive as I was able to be.
Life is all about resilience and adaptation. When the curveball comes all you can do is adjust your swing. I’m glad I’ve had time to learn to adjust on the fly.
Timing is everything, isn’t it? Sometimes things are off by a minute and I’m left taking a deep breath and having to make a decision between reacting with frustration or a growth mindset. The timing was just a little bit off and what I wanted to have happen didn’t quite work out.
Other times the timing of something seems impeccable. I can’t help but pause and be grateful for the ways things worked out. In those moments I should also remember to pause and appreciate just how close to having poor timing it was.
Regardless of how things work out and when is neither good nor bad. It just is. It is up to me to put context to the moment, to choose how to respond to the situation, which mindset to react with.
Today I’ve been incredibly fortunate on a handful of levels, timing has worked out incredibly well. While I pause and appreciate how it worked out I’ll also spend much time thinking about how it could have gone the other way, how the other result could have happened, and how I would have responded to it.
I’m grateful for timing today – not good, not bad – but the opportunity to live in the moment in which timing was everything.
Thankful for Forty 