Swimming In Life

“There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.” ― Michel de Montaigne


I would have to guess that the older we get, the more we realize how much we do not know. Of course we know a lot of things. We attend school, we get our degrees and through years of work the knowledge grows exceedingly within us.

But we learn to know what we do not know.

There are depths of learning that are described in different ways. Norman Webb defined these as DOKs or Depth of Knowledge stages. Another descriptive way has to do with water. Learning can be like walking into the water, finding the depth of what you know and understand.

In Webb's use of the DOK Wheel, there are four levels the first of which is DOK-1. This is the simple ability to recall and reproduce data, definitions, details, facts, information, and procedures. This level is known as knowledge acquisition but I call it wading into the water ankle deep.

The second or DOK-2 is the building of skills and concepts. This means making a decision on how you will approach your learning process. It includes decisions that require more than a single step such as comparing, organizing or estimating. Here we have knowledge application or entered knee level depth in our water approach.

We now move onto DOK-3 where we think strategically, with reason about the how and why various concepts can be used to get and explain those things we have learned. This is a point at which we can analyze our knowledge in a waist deep way.

With the fourth or DOK-4 level, this requires the most complex of thinking. It is a multitasking of thoughts and knowledge, using multiple sources and multiple ways of solving problems. This is what Webb called knowledge augmentation but I call it swimming.

Swimming in the deep end.

Do we allow our perceived intelligence to be the end to all we know? Are we ready to swim across the lake or an ocean for that matter? Or are we willing to explore a fifth level, the level called wisdom. It is a level brought on by time and age. This is the point at which true knowledge is revealed.

Never let yourself be satisfied with just the gaining of knowledge. As we swim the waters of life, enter the level of wisdom to grow until the end of our swim.

Stay inspired my friends!

The Crashing Waves

"So bend to your trouble and meet your care, for the clouds must break, and the sky grow fair. Let the rain come down, as it must and will, but keep on working and hoping still."
- Edgar A. Guest


In the time since I last wrote to you, the waves kept coming one after another. The list kept growing and the rains have continued to fall. The feeling of being over-whelmed is easy to succumb to during these periods.

So what happened?

The storm that blew in tore down some trees started it all and I will lay the blame on that storm. While it is foolish to assign blame in this fashion, it simply establishes the timeline. The next thing to happen was my upper level air conditioning unit had a humidity drain hose leak that went undetected until it was. What that means is my upstairs hallway ceiling became a mushy mess of water dripping. I quickly fixed the water leak and the ceiling will be repaired by someone more capable then myself.

Yet the fun decided to continue.

The next morning it seemed our home was not keeping up with the cooling during the heat wave we were having. My downstairs air conditioning unit was unable to cool and the unit was frosting over. Winter frost on the pipes during summer, how delightful. This was then repaired at a none too inexpensive cost by our Heating & Air specialists, replacing the blower fan unit. This resulted in much cooler heads and thinking.

I now appear to be a proper whining blogger.

If you have remained reading to this point, or have read my blog posts over the years, I am actually a very positive person. And the story here is really about how we react to these endless waves of issues that come at us. In fact, these things do not happen just to me or you alone. In fact I can state some folks close to us have gone through (excuse the book reference) "A Series of Unfortunate Events" lately.

These folks have a SUV which has had issues from day one and have accumulated frustration and cost over the past year or so. They made a wise decision to cut their trouble and sell back the vehicle to the dealership. With that wave passed, they are now a one car family adjusting to their new transportation situation.

And then wave number two came along.

A very well meaning recall notice on their remaining vehicle arrived from the manufacturer. The recall was for safety and they dutifully took the car to the dealership which performed the work necessary. The dealership also did what was right and did an inspection of the car as a courtesy. The items found would cost over one thousand dollars to fix. Wave number two felt bigger then wave number one, or maybe it felt more like a punch in the gut.

You know it is coming.

Now these fine folks have two small boys and boys can be quite inventive, inquisitive and tornado-like in their adventurous day. Wave three comes in as flour not only spread upon the table, but the floor, in various non-food containers and in places flour just should not be. In fact, their lovely brown haired dog was now an equine coated spectacle of flour.

There are pictures of proof later in life that I am sure these two boys will be reminded of. But the great part about their reaction is that they could only laugh at the situation and know the good things in life actually out-weigh the bad.

To focus on the crushing wave upon wave is to forget the sea breeze, the brilliant blue sky and the exhilarating excitement life provides us with.

We all go through seasons of turmoil and discombobulating events. What may seem trivial to one person has a most upsetting impact to another. Our problems are all relative in the context of our personal lives. What we do have commonality in is that we all experience these waves. Like the normal rhythm of our breathing, or day turning to night or the changing of the seasons, the joyful will return.

Stay inspired my friends!

Grateful For Being Late

“Each day brings new opportunities, allowing you to constantly live with love—be there for others—bring a little light into someone's day. Be grateful and live each day to the fullest.”
― Roy T. Bennett


I might be late but at least I'm here to be late.

One could say I am being a bit obstinate if you were to read the above statement without context. Not having or not reading the full context of a statement seems to be an issue in our politics these days and more importantly in how we communicate with each other. But I will hold off on that subject for another time.

What I really want to talk about is being thankful or grateful for what I do have in life. I hear many times whether at work, in the store or generally hearing people talk regarding just how rotten their life is. Or it might be this went wrong or that is never right and on and on. In simple terms, everything is a negative.

Now do not misunderstand me. I have those same thoughts from time to time and have on occasion struggled with "woe is me" type of complaints. But in every instance of doing so, it never solved the problem. And when I sat down and examined what was happening, it really was not as big of a deal as first thought. Most definitely there are circumstances in peoples lives that are truly mind boggling in pain and suffering.

That is not what I am talking about.

Recently during a thunderstorm near our home, it came close to me. As the thunder cracked and the lightening lit up the early morning sky I made a decision. As the rain was coming down, I walked onto our covered back porch deck to move cushions from the chairs so they would not get wet from the blowing rain. As one would ask, what could go wrong? As I peered to my left, I could see my trees bending to the east nearly 45 degrees. In an instant I realized the wind was increasing at a dramatic rate and then I heard a loud crack.

My instincts told me that was not a good sound.

Into the house I rushed just as a large portion of a tree came crashing down onto my porch deck. Did it come close to hitting me? Sure, I could have wildly told of a near death experience like others with a microphone and camera pressed to my face. The "Lord Almighty shouted out to me and said son get in that house right now" coming from my lips could have been on the nightly news. But it wasn't and no, it was not all that close to harming me.

Stepping back and thinking it over without the exaggeration of the moment or the need to be heard above all the rest, I simply realized it could have been a lot worse. It could have slammed into the house and hit the windows where our daughter was sleeping. It could have been high winds ripping the roof from my house. It could have been a lot of things but it was not.

One could go on for days about the trivialities of life spending all of our energy on the negative aspects of such things. But I choose to look at the positive side as much as possible. To be grateful for what did not happen and how I can learn, grow and use the experience to make life better. If I apply that kind of thinking in everything I do, life really is pretty good.

And if you should happen to show up late, at least you are still here to be late.

Stay inspired my friends!

Dogs Are No Different

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


We have a very cute and lovable dog in our household. This dog goes by the name of Snickers due only to the coloring she has which reminds us of the candy bar of the same name. Plus with nuts inside, she kind of matches that persona as well.

Snickers is a Fox Terrier who believes her backyard world and anything within two miles is her domain. Another dog walking by, someone talking too loudly across the street or the UPS driver delivering a package are to be barked at. Even an early morning run out the back door can elicit a shrill bark just because. My neighbors were none too happy about that going on.

She is also a dog who can jump over fairly high fencing or finding a perfect spot to dig under in order to go figure out why others would be so bold to come near her territory. And it is this battle back and forth at which I firmly believes she toys with me.

This week it is the perimeter collar. Next week will be the bark collar. Both work to perfection but she figures out which collar it is and decides it is the other she can pursue. So if barking is out of the question, she knows the fence is her's for the taking. When I put on the perimeter collar, well the barking begins as she deploys her tactics to keep people, animals and noises away.

What is interesting is she learns only by being reminded.

As humans, we are very much the same way. We only remember if reminded. The past seems so distant we forget what lesson was learned and the shock of repeating the same mistakes brings the reminder home. So we toy with the jolt to see if it were real. And by golly it was! Our politics, our jobs, our relationships, our health ... so soon we forget.

Just be comforted in the fact that dogs are no different.

Stay inspired my friends!