Old Oak Doors

"Keep looking up! I learn from the past, dream about the future and look up. There's nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day." - Rachel Boston

In a book I wrote a few years back was a chapter named "Choice at the Crossroads" which talked about my early years growing up. These early years of our lives tend to form the first you and who you will become. These early years will cement much of who you are.

Each of us have to learn where we came from in order to better understand who we are today. With that knowledge, we can better make choices that will allow us to change. And it was during those formative years I developed a ‘good son’ mentality.

Do what was told of you.

Do it to your best and then do it even better. Being raised on a farm in eastern Nebraska allowed one to work hard as well. It was not always easy, but there are no complaints from me though.

My father had a depression era view of many things. Save as much money as you can, reuse as much as you can and old stuff can be considered new if you are seeing it for the first time. Take old oak doors for instance, old heavy ones you rarely find these days.

There can be many uses for these doors if you put your mind to good use. On our small farm we raised hogs; the kind which end up in the grocery store and on your dinner table. If you read storybooks of pigs, they are cute and seemingly very sweet.

To raise them is a different story and is a lot of work.

There are days which require you to separate the hogs, some for fattening and others for market. The process can be quite challenging and it was the oak doors we used for that purpose. An oak door with door knobs intact makes a great way to separate hogs. You hang onto the door handle in order to maneuver the door into place where you need it.

These doors are also quite heavy for a young boy who did not have the physique of a football player.

We would find these doors at the old trash dump near our farm. This dump was a ravine, back again during times before much stricter regulations. Most times we returned with more then we took. This is the ‘new stuff’ I referred to earlier.

My father had a great eye for things that could potentially be used on our farm. He could spot an old oak door from many yards away. One such day he found an old oak door laying halfway down the ravine. All we had to do was climb down, attach a rope and pull it back up.

I was the available son and was instructed to ensure I tied the rope to it securely.

So down I went....

What are those things stuck in your mind which form who you are today?

At the time, many years ago, climbing down into that ravine to fetch an old oak door, I am sure I wasn't thinking of tomorrow. My best guess is that I wondered if I was going to make it back up the pile. And if I lost the door on the way, would I make it once I did get back to the top of the ravine.

We each take these pieces of our memories, our experiences and stitch them into who we are. We learn from those experiences and grow from them. Open the old oak doors of your past to reveal who you are.

Only then will you be able to understand.

Stay inspired my friends.

Not the Past

"Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect!" -Owens Lee Pomeroy

Not long ago I was involved in a conversation regarding how good things used to be. The point being made that life was simpler, better for all that we had or didn't have. This person waxed on about how great life was. There were many examples being given to illustrate their argument;

- No social media to glue our attention every moment of the day.
- No cell phones that keep us constantly connected to work.
- No economic hardship of harsh unemployment rates and low wages.
- No ... well you get the point.

I kept thinking to myself what kind of nirvana was this person living in? It is very possible that the cycle of economic, social or philosophical change had jaded this person. The past may have seemed better relative to this person's condition in the present day.

In fact, each of us could possibly trace a period in our life when things seemed more clear or comfortable then what exists in our lives today. But for many obvious reasons, we can not live in the past nor can we stop life from changing around us. All we can really do is adapt to the ever changing world and control our own attitude.

When I thought of the points made, I could only think of how far we have come and in many ways learned from the past.

- Yes, social media to expand our connection to others around the world.
- Yes, cell phones that give us wonderful technologies to keep us safer.
- Yes, a workforce that is evolving in the always cyclical nature of business.
- Yes, an opportunity to adapt and change with our ever changing world.

We can lull ourselves into a sense that life was greater, but we must also remember that the past was once our present. We need to learn from that past in order to make our present even greater. Use the experiences lived long ago to make the experiences of today ones that will advance our lives.

Life is like that of an electronic component called a diode. It has low resistance to current flow in one direction, but a high resistance in the opposite direction. Live your life in a forward direction. Live life having learned from the past and not one in which you remain in the past. Embrace the changing world and marvel in all that is possible.

Stay inspired my friends!

1968 Torino GT

"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." -Oscar Wilde

Just yesterday I had the pleasure of a momentary jump back into my past. As I was driving back from the office, there in a parking lot was a 1968 Ford Torino GT. It was very much like the one I owned in high school, so stop to look and admire it became a step back in time to 1977. The sleek lines of the car covered the 325-hp/390-cid engine just waiting underneath the hood, longing to roar down the road.

A four-speed manual transmission with a stick shift waiting for the driver to put it into action. Yes, I had a 1968 Ford Torino GT in high school. No it certainly was not as fast as other muscle cars in its era, but it did make for a few fun rides down the flat highways near Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska.

Every now and then it can be good to look backwards into the past. It reminds us of where we were and helps us rediscover how we got to where we are today. Stay inspired my friends and enjoy the ride!

Fishing Advice

"The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself." -Oscar Wilde

The following article was originally posted on February 13, 2007. I thought it was a pretty decent article about taking care of your relationships. What I didn't expect was how the title "Mending Fishing Nets" would become a search item for fishermen.

I was getting so many hits to the article, I had the sense that maybe it was a great article. Yet I tempered my excitement and soon realized the majority were from coastal locations. These were people actually looking for advice on mending a fishing net.

To make sure I didn't turn away those people, I changed the articles to give links to some actual sites offering that advice. I also gave these people an offer to return to my site later for motivation and inspiration.

I still get quite a few hits to these articles. So hopefully I'm providing a good service. In a way maybe I'm helping fishermen become fishers of men.

So here is the original posting:

Your life is like a series of connections, like the knots of a fishing net. Each knot is a relationship with another person. As these knots or connections grow, the larger the net becomes. Your impact on other peoples lives grows as well.

But you can't simply create a connection and forget about it. Each knot of the net has to be tended to. When a weak spot develops, a hole can develop. Not only your relationship but a piece of your life slips through.

When this happens, what is left will be difficult to gather back in. So mending and caring for each connection is important.

These relationships are more important than having all of the money in the world. These relationships define who you are. An old saying goes something like this, "he who dies with the most toys wins." But the reality of it is that "he who dies with the most toys still dies."

Tend to your life net connections, those relationships that will improve your life and others. The net will be there when you fall and help you when you recover. It will impact and connect many people to many others. It is your impact on other lives that will mean the most when life ends...a lasting memory to guide others when you are long gone.