Category: Uncategorized

Thankful for a Day of Long Walks Bookending a Garage Clean Up

Day 3,639

Growth:

Remember to not have too high of expectations and to appreciate something as being different even if it is related to something similar.

The Long Walk by Stephen King is one of my favorite novels, a nonstop story of a competition in which 100 people enter and only 1 survives to win at the end. The boys have both also read it and are big fans.

This evening we watched the movie version of it together and I caught myself remembering to keep low expectations and to appreciate it as being different than the book. Without giving spoilers let’s just say that last piece of advice was very helpful!

We all enjoyed the movie and had a great conversation on the way home afterwards.

Appreciation:

Today’s biggest goal was cleaning out all the old construction and woodworking materials from the garage. It is amazing to see just how much can pile up so quickly! Taking time to get everything deep cleaned and loaded into a dumpster was much more rewarding than I’d expected. Nothing like a good purge to help clear the mind!

My theme for 2025 has been “Less, but More” and this certainly fit that mindset!

Presence:

This is funny, I just realized I’m blogging reverse chronologically today!

My day started off with a walk with Becky and Leia down Fisherman’s Road. I love starting Saturday mornings with a nice long walk, taking in nature while talking with Becky. It’s such a peaceful time of day, and I appreciate the time to be 100% focused on the moment. A wonderful start to my day today!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Outside My Comfort Zone, Looking for the Helpers, & a Road Trip

Day 3,638

Growth:

While I may really appreciate time alone and time with a small group I also need to remember that time with larger groups or with people I don’t know very well is how I best build a sense of community, how I best live into my purpose, and how I best focus on love of others.

Appreciation:

Becky reminded me of an old saying from Mister Rogers:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping’

Fred Rogers

All around are so many opportunities to focus on those who are helping, who are making a positive impact in the lives of others – especially during times of difficulty and challenge.

Presence:

This evening was full of laughter and fun with an RV full of other football parents. The road trip was invigorating, the food was delicious, the game was fun, and the company was outstanding! Definitely a trip I’ll remember fondly.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Nudges, an F1 Day, & Lunch Outside

Day 3,637

Growth;

When the universe seems to nudge you in s specific direction, pay attention. It’s probably helping you see something you haven’t noticed yet.

Over the past week or so there has been and more nudges to stay focused and to be more social, time to lean into that a bit more!

Appreciation:

This was a very full day! from start to end it seemed as if I were on a mission of doing something at full speed while occasionally slamming the brakes, hitting the hairpin corner, and then accelerating in a different direction. I am exhausted. Very productive, very positive, and all good – just a lot of a lot! Looking forward to pausing to breathe…. eventually? 🤷‍♂️

Presence:

Today I took the advice of one of my teammates and ate lunch outside at the picnic table. Such s perfect day for sitting outside to decompress for a little while!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Love Over Hate, Hard Moments, & Reckoning

Day 3,636

Growth:

No matter how deeply we disagree with someone’s ideas, murder is never the answer.

No matter how much we disagree with someone’s ideas murder is never the answer. There are so many other ways to deal with disagreement, taking a life cannot be the resolution.

Tonight a family has lost their dad due to hate and fear.

There is always a better way of overcoming. As people face fear and hate with more fear and hate there is no positive end to the story, only a sickening spiral of more and more hate and fear. Is it so difficult to face fear with love instead?

Appreciation:

I don’t know about you, but when I think of “gratitude” and “appreciation” I usually think of happiness. That’s not always the case. Sometimes life hands us challenges so inconceivable that appreciation feels impossible. That said, those are so often the moments in which we have so much to be grateful for. We don’t have to be grateful for the tragedy itself—let’s be real, it sucked. But we can choose how to move forward. But we can’t change it once it has happened, we can only choose how to move forward, how to use that as an opportunity for growth.

Today was rough for me, much more than I ever would have expected, but I think it was largely because it caused a very necessary moment of awareness. While I wish Charlie Kirk would not have been killed, I cannot change it. I can remember this moment, remember the lessons learned about the true vile ugliness of hate and fear – regardless of whether you feel the other person is right or wrong – is never the right answer. Love is. Rather than lashing out in anger or in fear, reach out in love.

Presence:

Oof, this one hit hard today. I’m still not one hundred percent sure why this one after so many others, so many that one seems to almost become numb to all of the ongoing gun violence and loss of life. I wasn’t a fan of his—I disagreed with him on so many levels—but the sudden, instant loss of a life was still jarring. I really don’t have a better way of stating it, the clarity of that moment, the awareness of the wrongness… maybe it had more to do with the frustration and anger I’ve felt over so many things related to politics, seeing where it can go if completely unchecked and unhinged to such an insane extreme, made me instantly aware of how wrong my low level anger and fear are, how wrong I am to fight fear with fear rather than love.

In an instant, I saw where unchecked fear leads—and it was horrifying. Violence, hate, and fear are never the answer. Sometimes there will be pushback, disagreement, but it should always be with love rather than hate.

A wise man tried to teach us that 2,000 years ago—and we killed Him for it. His response was forgiveness. His response was love. That’s the path we should choose too: love over fear.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Leading, Challenges, & Purpose

Day 3,635

Growth:

What is it about leading others often a causes us to push past the discomfort in effort to help bring out the best in others? How can one muster the confidence to do the difficult even if leadership isn’t pushing us to do so? There’s a magic to be found there for sure!

Appreciation:

One of the things I’m most grateful for today are all of the frustrations, challenges, and mistakes I’ve made that have led me to today. In the moment they were incredibly maddening and humbling, but with the beauty of hindsight I’m able to see that they’ve all led me to here.

Here’s to the bumps in the road, the uphill challenges, and all of the difficulties. They are typically far from joyful in the moment, but they can lead to the growth and grace we need.

Presence:

This evening we had an opportunity to live into our purpose in a small but clear way. The sense of connection, of helping, of being a part of something much bigger than either of us was awesome.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Simple Solutions, Adventure, & a Cool Breeze

Day 3,634

Growth:

Sometimes the most simple small action can save so much future time. A quick reminder of a long term goal can quash a short term desire. The little actions that make it difficult to make the wrong decision, they are the right call every time!

Appreciation:

One of my favorite genres of books are outdoor adventure, stories of people getting outside and exploring the world and themselves. People getting outside of their comfort zone towards a a crazy goal, sometimes achieving it and other times coming up short.

As I start another book along those lines these two paragraphs really caught my attention:

“People need adventure in their lives to give the tedious day-to-day struggle meaning, to create a purpose greater than going to work and paying bills. Most of the adventures in my life were planned. It was easy to forget-and it happened to me-that we must make time for adventure or run the risk of living life without it.

I sought to put my physical and emotional energy into something positive, energizing, and expansive rather than allow myself to dry up and waste away in a life of unwanted expectations.”

Patrick Taylor, Lost on Purpose

Presence:

Our yoga class tonight felt extra hot and sweaty. So many chair poses, so much uncomfortable twisting, I got totally heated up and melted.

As we went into final rest I covered my eyes with my towel and let my brain go. Our instructor opened the windows and I spent the next several minutes trying to figure out where the sublimely chill breeze was coming from. With no vision I was fully focused on the sensation of the cool breeze blowing across my legs.

My mind went from the glacier at Kenai Fjords, the hidden waterfall cave in Thorsmark, the ocean of the coast of Chilean Patagonia, or by the shore of Lake O’Hara. So many different places in which the invigorating cools breezes have felt like heaven. Thankful for each of those moments as well as moments of presence like today, the reminders of the past moments.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for the Journey, Book Webs, & a Simple Task

Day 3,633

Growth:

Two very interesting quotes about enjoying the journey, not just the destination that both echoed in my mind:

But I’d had many great moments in the last few weeks, and I couldn’t help feeling a touch of sadness at the thought that it was all over. – Sir Edmund Hillary, High Adventure

There was loneliness, too, as the sun set, but only rarely now did doubts return. Then I felt sinkingly as if my whole life lay behind me. Once on the mountain I knew (or trusted) that this would give way to total absorption with the task at hand. But at times I wondered if I had not come a long way only to find that what I really sought was something I had left behind. – Thomas F. Hornbein, Everest: The West Ridge

Appreciation:

Throughout the years the boys and I have traded many great books. We’ve all encouraged each other to pick up different titles based on our overlapping interests and have created quite a web of book reading crossover. This evening Dominic was telling us about how far he was into a specific book, one that I’d initially read and then gotten Gavin hooked on. Gavin in turn talked Dominic into picking it up. I then shared with Dominic that I was just wrapping up a book he’d referred to me, High Adventure by Sir Edmund Hillary. So many of the books the three of us have read started with one recommendation from someone else and then expanded within our family. I’m very grateful for the shared taste in reading we all have!

Presence:

There was an oddly still moment of presence this morning in a very unexpected place. While making lunch I intentionally did not have any music, audiobook, or podcast going, I was working alone and in silence. With the main ingredients slowly cooking on the stove I got into a rhythm while slicing a couple of small blocks of cheese. Without realizing it I became quickly in tune with how focused I was in that moment, how nothing else mattered, and I was enjoying such a rudimentary task with much more joy than one should expect. The task itself was not important, it was the act of being fully present in the task at hand, in the that moment. Wild, so oddly soothing and gratifying!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Unbecoming, Choice, & Stunning Sunbeams

Day 3,631

Growth:

“Maybe the journey isn’t about becoming anything.  Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so that you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.”

Paulo Coelho

Appreciation:

When I am unhappy, who do I blame? How do I move toward joy?

The truth is, the source of my frustration, guilt, or anger isn’t another person—it’s how I choose to respond. My unhappiness grows when I react without intention, instead of pausing to choose my attitude and my next step.

I can’t demand others change how they think or act—that’s their work, not mine. What I can do is decide how I’ll respond. I can coach, encourage, or adjust my interactions. If needed, I can create distance. But the choice is always mine.

They control themselves. I control me. My unhappiness doesn’t come from what they did—it comes from my resistance to their choices.

So I remind myself: choose wisely. Choose joy.

Presence:

Our morning run was great, engaging conversation, running through the 20+ mph winds, and very invigorating. As we wrapped up and got close to home we could see the tops of the eastern clouds glow a dark orange.

On my way in to the office the sun had come up but was firmly seated behind a thick dark gray cloud. Fortunately for my visual enjoyment there were a couple of very small gaps in which the sunlight blasted through and lit up small pockets of the woods on the bluffs. It was such a stunning and sharp contrast, certain areas absolutely light by the sunlight while the majority was held in dark shadow. Stunning!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Cleaning the Clutter, Learning and Growing, & Sleeping In

Day 3,630

Growth:

Once in a while it is so important to pause and clean up all the clutter surrounding us. In my case it was taking a moment to pause and clean up my completely cluttered home screen on my computer. Over the busyness of the past few months there have been more and more files placed on the desktop as a way to hurry through a process. While transitioning between activities today I realized how this extra clutter was getting in my way and causing completely unnecessary stress. As soon as the clean up was completed I could feel a sense of satisfaction and a lightening of my shoulders. From that point on I was able to work with more focus on the specific tasks at hand rather than losing small amounts of concentration on the mess.

Appreciation:

One of my favorite parts of my career path is the opportunity to get to know so many different people and learn about the how and why behind what they do for a living. Quite often this leads to conversations about purpose, motivation, and how they work towards their goals.

Today this was focused on a couple of specific conversations which were very eye opening. We quickly found common ground in how we enjoying leading and helping others. There was an engaging back and forth as we learned from each other and shared ideas and compared notes. I’m very grateful for opportunities like this to learn, grow, and connect!

Presence:

Sleeping in a little bit, taking my time getting up and moving, and still getting to work early. Not ideal to take a few extra zzz’s instead of working out, but it felt like exactly what I needed this morning!

Thanks!!!

Thankful for Rolling with It, Learning from History, and a Rainy Run and Yoga

Day 3,629

Growth:

Some days go just like they’re scripted. Other days go off the rails due to a server issue chased up with a phone system problem. Life is so much easier when you roll with it rather than struggle to push against it.

Appreciation:

This may seem rather simple, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn about all of our history – good and bad. As people we’ve accomplished some incredible things, but we’ve also committed some terrible atrocities. The key is to remember both, to learn from both, to attempt to grow into better people than those before us.

As I dive into a book about the beginning of the Civil War and the horrific history of slavery I’m sure there will be many moments in which I cringe, but I hope there will also be some in which I can learn from the successes of those who fought evil.

Presence:

The day started off with a cool rainy morning run and wrapped up with a hot sweaty yoga session. Both moments were key components of creating and sustaining an excellent day!

Thanks!!!