Possibility

“Impossible is a word humans use far too often.” -Jeri Ryan

As I end up a week of providing short excerpts from my book CHANGED LIVES, the lasting impression should be one of possibility. I firmly believe that you can make a change in your life if needed. I also believe that we can each achieve quite a bit by first believing in that word again, possibility.

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Without grabbing hold of a new way of thinking, a new way of approaching life, I could not move to a better life. I began to shed the ‘victim’ mentality and accepted a new attitude. As the days passed, I even returned to the building by the crossroads. Possibility was once again in my heart and mind.

Then it happened as it does to everyone that chooses to change. For some it is a chance encounter, to others it is a friend making a suggestion. It comes in many different forms and not always as a bolt of lightening. Many times it is a subtle change of wind that causes us to take that next step. From that moment of change, in the pouring rain in the depths of sorrow, my path was now brought back to this door of opportunity.

“And I stepped through the open door.”

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For myself, possibility was to move on from what was a very difficult time in my life. It allowed me to start this web blog to encourage others. It allowed me to write two books so far. None of this is my professional work and I earn nothing from a monetary view point. What I do earn is knowing that people get moved to action in their own lives.

All of us need that little bit of encouragement or push to move on in life. This blog and the books are meant to help in a small way. So I hope you read the book, take a little bit of something from it and then pass it along. You can think of it as that pebble dropped in the water. The ripples that you set in motion will impact another and another and another....
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Change In Latitude

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better." -King Whitney Jr

What happens when you open the door and the whole landscape is different? Are you ready to step through that door of change?

In the book CHANGED LIVES, there is one such man that changed everything.

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After ten years as an assistant pastor of a church, I moved to the South American country of Peru. I started my own non-profit organization and began helping others in need. Wow, that was so easy to write; a few keystrokes that contain a major life reroute.

Leaving my old life proved to be a tough assignment. When D-Day arrived I needed some coaxing. There were good friends of mine that gently pried me out of my familiar world.

Those birthing pains continued as I arrived in Lima, Peru on a cold and clammy July night. You must remember that it would be the middle of winter in the southern hemisphere.

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A change in latitudes is sometimes what one needs to truly make a difference in their life. When you decide change is needed and you open the door, be ready for the unexpected. And then walk through and embrace all that it has to offer.
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To Climb The Mountain

"To climb a mountain, you must first walk through a door of decision to climb it." -Joseph Primm

In the book CHANGED LIVES, Kristien talks about a life spiraling out of control. So many things had happened in his young life and he was allowing those circumstances to be his excuse.

Many people find that succumbing to circumstance is an easier route to take then overcoming. If we can blame it on something else, we feel it justifies our pain or guilt. Yet we only drive ourselves further into the ground.

As Kristien told me his story, I wondered how many 'bottoms' one could reach.

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One night, at my mother’s home, my brother was having a party. Naturally we were drunk as can be. I had started that morning with my brother. My mother was not amused by the party and started trying to talk some sense into a few of us. It escalated to an argument and I lost my mind.

I pulled a knife on my own mother. I started screaming while cutting myself and pointing the knife at her. Luckily my oldest brother was there to beat me down and take the knife away. I can still remember to this day the way I felt the next morning. I called my mom and apologized.

We talked it through a bit and we got a number for a psychiatrist from our pastor. This was one of the best things I could have done in my life.

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The process isn't simple and the set backs can be many. It is the choice to walk through the door that is the first step in climbing the mountain of change.

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The Oak Door

“Every wall is a door.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In my book CHANGED LIVES, the chapter called "Choice at the Crossroads" talks about my early years. It is those times of your life that tend to form the 'first' you. These early years will cement much of who you are.

We each 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.

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It was during these formative years that I developed the ‘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 when one doesn’t know anything different.

My father had a depression era view on 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, the old heavy ones that 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 type that end up in the grocery store and on the dinner table. If you look at pictures of them in story books, they are cute and seemingly cuddly. To raise them is a different story and is a lot of work.

There are days that require you to divide them up, some for fattening, and others for market. The process can be quite challenging and it was the oak doors we used. An oak door with door knobs intact makes a great way to separate hogs. These doors are also quite heavy for a young boy that didn’t have the physique of a football player.

We would find these doors at the old trash dumping location near our hometown. This dump was a ravine, back again during those times before much stricter regulations. That which we could not burn was taken to this dump.

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 be potentially used on our farm. He could spot an old oak door many yards away. One such day he found one laying about half way 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 that I tied up to it securely.

So down I went....

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What things stick in your mind, that form much of your thought process today? Tomorrow, pieces of other lives.
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