Let The Vacations Begin

"Spend some time this weekend on home improvement; improve your attitude toward your family." - Bo Bennett

A three-day weekend has come and gone here in the United States. It is a weekend that celebrates Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for those fallen in service to our country. It is marked with patriotic parades, flags, salutes and solemn ceremonies.

This weekend is also the official start of summer vacations, the end of school and the madness of celebration with picnics, swimming, boating, fishing, family trips and all forms of fun. It can actually be quite hectic in all of its madness.

This rite of passage into summertime living is also a time we can use to refocus upon our relationships. Families are gathering, spending countless hours in the car traveling, kids out of school creating adventures and parents reconnecting watching them in the summer heat.

And what of the trip to see relatives for picnics, beach sand castles and amusement park rides. The flurry of activity, planning, driving, packing, unpacking, checking in, checking out, fast food, sit down, stand up...

Take a moment and breathe.

Do not allow the summer madness get in the way of your spouse, your kids, relatives and friends. Find time to "just be" with them. There will be other firework shows, other opportunities to catch a show or ride "THE" amusement park ride.

It can be very easy to miss seeing your kids growing up, enjoying their happiness and innocence. It can be very easy to miss the thrill of your spouse holding your hand while driving to the next summer event. It can be easy to forget how much you miss your friends and relatives.

It is also easy to slow down and allow summer to envelope you in the warmth of connection. To dig your toes into the sand and watch the kids in the surf will allow the connections to seep in. Holding your spouse's hand strolling in the park on a hot and sultry evening. Drinking a cold ice tea on the back porch with relatives reminiscing of gone by days.

Yes, summer is a time to work on our attitude. A time to work on our connections. A time to enjoy.

Stay inspired my friends.

Its A Small World After All

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."
- Mother Teresa

Just how big is our earth? Watch this video to put it into perspective.



Do we still feel small? Of course not because even the smallest can have a large impact upon that which surrounds it.

Our sun is small in comparison to the larger objects in our universe but it has a tremendous impact upon our lives. The moon is small in comparison to the Earth, but it impacts the tides of our oceans. And the stars in the night sky seem small in our eyes, but they inspire great artists and the dreams of many a child.

We might feel small, but our ability to impact others on a large scale does not require a large object.

It requires a large desire.

Stay inspired my friends!

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.

Atomic Bomb Fears

“You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.”
― Edwin Louis Cole

In 1946, the United States conducted the first two tests nuclear bomb tests conducted after the WW-II bombs denoted over Japan. These tests were called Operation Crossroads and occurred at the Bikini Atoll string of islands.

The first, named Able, occurred on July 1 and was detonated from an altitude of 520 ft. The second, shown here called Baker, was detonated at a depth of 90 ft underwater on July 25. Many, many more tests would occur but the awesome power of destruction man can unleash upon ourselves was now a part of our lives.

Fear of no tomorrow had begun.

As the years followed, many thought the world was near an end. Parents worried, children practiced ducking under their school desks and politicians pounded many a podium. There was a race to complete destruction of all human life as many worried.

Yet we have continued to survive and continue on with life.

Parents were able to raise their children. Children came out from under their desks, growing up to carry on full and productive lives. And the politicians continued to pound many a podium. The race to our destruction was just life passing through another period of man.

Many more events occurred previous to this and since. As humans we have found a way to get through the worry and fear of each event. We have survived and will survive today's event and many future events.

Tomorrow had come and will come again.

Yet we must not be paralyzed by fear of what is or what may come. William White wrote, "I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today." We can not allow fear to stifle this beautiful thing we call life.

We must live.

And we must stay inspired my friends!