Big Wheel Birthday

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." -Robert Brault

This past weekend a birthday was celebrated for my son Dan. No longer a young boy but a man in the second half of his twenties. A man that changed around his life and as with all of my boys is making a difference in the lives of other people today.

One thing that always stands out in my mind and his grand father's is an incident way back in 1988. The incident still plays in my mind like it were yesterday. It starts with the thought that serious injury was about to take place. It ends in giggling and laughter.

We were in the process of moving temporarily into a new apartment building until we could find a house to buy. The apartment came with a garage but since it was newly constructed, the interior garage walls were not yet completed. Only the bare wooden studs served as walls, but we unloaded our items from the large rental truck.

My father helped in the move and we placed the long metal ramp such that we could bring items down directly into the new garage. But the truck was at an angle so that others could get around us in the parking lot.

By this time, Dan was old enough to ride those Big Wheel tricycles. It was his favorite thing and somehow we had lost track of Dan as he made his way up into the rental truck. My father and I were down in the garage moving items when we happened to look up. Dan had found his Big Wheel and was zooming through the truck and down onto the ramp.

It happened so fast that neither of us could catch him as he came down the ramp and towards the stud wall. What raced through my mind in those fleeting seconds were the injuries that were sure to occur. He would either come off the side of the ramp and crack open his skull, or slam right into the wooden studs, breaking an arm or even worse.

Down he came though and seeing what was about to happen, he made a sharp left turn and rolled off the Big Wheel right between two wooden studs. He received not a single scratch from the incident. My first instinct was to admonish him, but he came up giggling.

As I look back, that was a sign that he was going to do just fine in life. So it is these many years later, he is doing just fine. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son and keep on rockin' it with the Big Wheel.

Remembering a Brother

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -Heraclitas

It was on January 4, 2011 that my brother John passed away. It was a day that came as a sudden and unexpected life event. It was a day that changed so much in the life of his wife Karin, son Taylor and daughters Ali and Liz. It also changed the lives of many people in his adopted hometown of Gillette, Wyoming.

Even though life changed that day for everyone that knew my brother, each of us hold the memories of life with him. We replay those moments in which he entered, impacted and moved through our days.

So while we "nor the river" are the same for having encountered John, each of us can hold tight the memories in our heart. In my life, I will always remember and love him. So it is that I delight in listening to the music my brother John loved so much. It was not the only type, genre or group, but one that he did enjoy.

Stay inspired my friends.

That Old Car

"Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it." -Greg Anderson

Recently one of my boys left Phoenix, Arizona on a car drive back to Atlanta, Georgia. The vehicle he is driving leaves me somewhat suspect but adventure was on his mind. He had choices and decided that driving back in his marginal car would be just fine.

I can remember in my younger years that I would have probably embarked on a similar journey. Adventure and possibility were the driving factors in doing what older people may have considered differently. Now, I am one of those older people.

I'm not certain when I lost a bit of that adventure and invincibility. But I work on it daily and push myself to understand that possibility exists at any age. The road ahead can be as long and far as we want it to be. No matter the distance, what really matters is what happens along the way.

Your own journey will look different from others. You will encounter many different sights, sounds and circumstances. The important thing to know is that a journey can be started at any time, any place or any age. Don't limit yourself just because the timing isn't perfect or you have a sub-standard car. Just get up and start moving down the road.

The scenery you encounter will be the most important part of where you are headed. The destination may be the ending point where your goal exists, but how you get there is the exciting part. Enjoy the journey, enjoy the possibility and crank up that old engine and get moving.

Stay inspired my friends.

Bad Habits Out

"The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones." -Somerset Maugham

I am like everyone else out there and have some bad habits. It doesn't matter what or which ones. All it means is that they are bad habits in my view and I need to continue working on ridding myself of them. But how does one go about getting rid of a bad personal habit?

There are many habits that we can easily get rid of. The difficulty though is that many habits have multiple aspects to them. This means that one thing will trigger an event that triggers the bad habit. I'm not trying to make this an overly difficult task (ridding yourself of a bad habit). But you need to considered changing other habits that support the one you are trying to get rid of.

Some good ways to find out if the habit you’re interested in removing has other aspects to it is to ask the following questions:

- What are the benefits of this habit?
- If I got rid of this habit, what would change?

A good example is smoking, which is a very social thing. Many people feel that it helps relax them. Additionally, they feel it is a good and nonthreatening way to meet people (“Got a light?”). If the smoking habit was gone, you would than have to find another way to meet people, relax, etc.

What it comes down to is seeing what the triggers are and understanding how to change those triggers. Change the triggers and you give yourself a fighting chance to rid the bad habit. And when you change those triggers, what else will change in your life? Other habits will probably cease to exist, leaving room for better things in life.

If you don't change, there are still consequences associated with the bad habit. Bad habits will tend to beget other bad habits, so on and so forth. The same is true for good habits in that better habits will be born of good habits.

Change is never easy and can be hard to sustain. I'm working on change, every day, evaluating and trying to understand myself. You can do the same and together we'll make our lives even better.

Stay inspired my friends.