Autumn Ahhs

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.” ― Henry Beston

We are well into the autumn season that brings with it lots of changes. The leaves begin to fade and fall from the branches. The leaf rake comes out and a battle with the wind to keep our yard looking neat fills my weekend. The cooler weather helps but this year the eighty degree temperatures seem to be holding on longer than usual.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

I have watched many weather changes through out my years of living. While the general nature of those changes remains the same, I always seem to notice something different. And maybe it really is no different than other years, but only that I took notice. My attention was somehow captured by something different, something new to me.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

This year the smells of autumn have captured me in remembrance of my growing up on the farm. Those days of knowing the cold winter would be upon us but before then the preparation of the hay in the barn loft, and finishing the harvest. It could be considered the end of something but I always viewed it as a beginning, a start of something new.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

The life we live, the particulars of what is happening around us and what the future brings is what a change in seasons is to me. It might be the current politics we have, the relationship we are in, a job or one of a dozen things that puts us in a particular season of life. But those seasons change and those changes can bring great things.

Ahh, those autumn evenings.

You might be in a good season of life right now, but change is inevitable just as the changing seasons of nature are. The change does not mean it will be bad, just different, a "new normal" in your life. The change brings opportunity to improve, correct or simply adapt to. This is how life is and we need to embrace the change if only because of "ahh, those autumn evenings."

Stay inspired my friends!

Cult of Personality

“The master key of knowledge is, indeed, a persistent and frequent questioning.” – Peter Abelard

Who do you look up to these days? Is it the latest reality TV series star, a super hero character from the movies, someone in our military forces or a highly viewed Twitter account?

Some would argue we live in a cult of personality period when it comes to our politics. A political "cult of personality" occurs when a political group or even individual is able to use mass media, propaganda, or other terms as defined in Wikipedia "...to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise."

One can find in history a long list of people who fit this title. And I am sure there will be those who will tie this to modern day politics. And yes, I would say it has been a topic of great interest.

It is true of any personality obsession we have in our culture today.

I would say we need to question ourselves when the admiration and unrelenting support of a leader, sports, movie or other person becomes an obsession. We should question why the "cult of personality" draws us in and captivates our support. We should do so regardless of political leaning, religious belief or any other aspect of life.

Question, ask, inquire, query, yearn to know and quiz the reasons why this cult of personality has been given.

Stay inspired my friends!

Whose Side Is Time On?

“It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” ― Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Does the past justify the present or does the present justify the past?

It seems like a paradoxical question I suppose.

We struggle with what happened in the past through the lens of today.

There are many different subjects one could apply today's thinking on yesteryear's events.

Sexual harassment, racism, health or a whole slew of other topics come to mind if you scroll through social media feeds.

So much changes as time passes by and what one person calls society progressing, another yearns for what once was.

If something happened five, ten, twenty or even more years ago ... does time resolve everything?

Or does time merely delay the eventual reckoning?

I guess only time will tell.

Stay inspired my friends!

Holding On Tight

“You're going to make it; You're going to be at peace; You're going to create, and love, and laugh, and live; You're going to do great things.” ― Germany Kent

A couple of months back, a fairly strong storm came through our neighborhood where we live. It was early morning and the wind was incredible for the short amount of time it took to pass through. In the aftermath, damage to a couple of trees in the backyard was quite apparent including a large Maple tree.

Over the next two weekends I took my time cutting down and cutting up the broken branches and limbs from these trees. Yet there was one particular tree branch too high for me to risk or really worry about. I figured that it would die and break away to be cleaned up at a later time.

The branch continues to hang on and live.

So here we are at least two months post-storm and the branch hangs lonely, broken but still living. Its leaves are just as green and vibrant as those on much stronger branches. It has not given up and somehow I believe it will be interesting to watch nature repair itself.

I have witnessed and I have lived a broken life. Many of you have probably had your limbs broken from the main branch of life. Maybe shattered or fractured but holding on in some small manner pulling what little sustenance you could from the the pieces still attached.

Some view this broken attachment as the final end, waiting for the main tree trunk to snap the remaining connection. What little remains though is meant to hold on. It is meant to hold on in both directions the connection between you and others.

The connection allows you to hold on tight.

While you still have breath, you have a connected piece to those around you. The broken can be mended for there is laughter and love for you in this life.

It comes through the life giving connection to others. It comes from not giving up. And watch as the green of growth will shine brilliantly and strong, just like the others around you.

Stay inspired my friends!

Life Shapes Our View

“The darkest night in someone's life may be the brightest day in another person's life. Life rests on perceptions and conceptions or missed perceptions and misconceptions.” ― Israelmore Ayivor

I have been in the technology field for over 38 years and feel I have stayed pretty close to the leading curve of all things new and cool. The advances being made in all fields of human progress continue to grab my interest and time. Even new music, trends and ways of thinking how we live our lives.

But I have a confession on this perfect late summer morning.

We still have a house phone cradled in its base. In our defense, it is not attached to the wall in our kitchen with a rotary dial and fifteen foot long twisted cord connecting the hand set to the base unit. It is a hand held and we have remote hand sets in various rooms of the house.

This phone serves 98% of the time as a place for telemarketers to waste their automated call time selling great insurance deals, lowering my credit card rates and attempts to ensure my Microsoft operating system license is fully paid for. Caller ID and the answering machine make for a great way to monitor and ignore the calls.

The blinking yellow message light, blinking, blinking, blinking.

Each hand held has a small yellow LED light that blinks when a message is left. It is very easy to push the key sequence on the phone to delete the messages. Some days it is part of my regular bed time routine. Many nights though I forget to delete the daily messages and fall blissfully asleep.

In the darkness of night there are moments I wake to this bright yellow beacon filling the room. It might as well be a road construction warning light sitting on the dresser. Seriously, one night in half sleep I combined the rumble of our AC unit and the yellow light into wondering why a garbage truck was parked outside of our home. My wife barely notices it.

And there it is, how we perceive things in life.

One definition of perceiving is to interpret or look on (someone or something) in a particular way. Shes perceives the light as nothing more than the small dimly lit LED that it is. I perceive it to be a lighthouse guarding ships from coastal dangers. Her view is perfectly normal and rational. Mine is probably exaggerated.

In an article by Gregg Henriques, Ph.D., professor of psychology at James Madison University titled Perception and Perceptual Illusions, he states "Through experience, the mind/brain builds perceptual categories of objects. ... The matching process is what gives us the experience of figure/ground relationships."

Our life experience has us wired differently.

If we read Twitter, Facebook, opinion columns and listen to all of the noisy differences, one might wonder how we accomplish anything. The conversation can be good for advancing humanity, but we need to understand how we perceive one thing is perceived differently by others.

One could apply my blinking yellow message light to current politics. What I may view as bombastic deception, another will view as quiet guidance. Our frame of reference is simply different.

In our haste to send off eye popping Tweets only results in widening our divide. Maybe the starting point should be acknowledging the difference. If we try to perceive things slightly different we can lessen the divide.

Maybe that little yellow message light is warning us.

Stay inspired my friends!

Blink of an Eye

“Time flames like a paraffin stove and what burns are the minutes I live.” ― Irving Layton

Not long ago I heard a story from a pastor talking about the words we use and how we understand those used by others. The story began with a question to another person in which she asked, "Do you know what a fetter is?" This person responded, "Sure, I grew up on a farm and my Dad would always ask if the horse had been tended to. My response was always yes, I 'fed her' today."

To understand where this is going, a 'fetter' is normally defined as a chain or manacle used to restrain a prisoner. But I am going to use it to explain how our lives are chained together in many different ways. The interlinking through family, marriage, work, and lots of groups, institutions or other connections binds us all. So how we treat those connections remains important.

Take the binding of two people in marriage. The words spoken as a vow are, "...til death us do part." The life of two bound together is full of words, at first only words of love, then others enter in as they become comfortable with each other. Sometimes too comfortable as we try to mold the other into what we wish them to be, forgetting the "who and why" we married them. Those words spoken can create disharmony, cause conflict or turmoil instead of enjoyment of life and togetherness.

... and then time catches up and the 'til death do us part' arrives.

Life passes by, gone in the blink of an eye. And for what have we wasted with words the time bound together. Was it in bliss or in conflict of each other. And if in conflict, what was the most likely cause of a continued conflict in our life?

I would suggest the answer to that question is pride. Pride keeps us many times from living a more peaceful and enjoyable life. I am talking about the kind of pride that prevents us from being honest with ourselves. In other instances, we do not want to admit defeat. And for many reasons, we do not want to be seen as weak or incapable.

But our vulnerability is exactly the thing that could help us build connections and stronger relationships. Pride gets in the way of our fettered relationships. It gets in the way and prevents us from enjoying the time we have together.

Yes, there are many reasons our relationships dissolve. There are many reasons we cannot seem to get past the walls of division we build. But remember it all goes by so quickly and in the end, was pride worth it?

Stay inspired my friends!

Blustering Came The Wind

“Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.” ― Samuel Johnson


Recently I was listening to a colleague complain of a slight taken upon him by another person. The words used were "...he stabbed me in the back." The remaining parts of our conversation were filled with an over abundance of colorful verbs and exaggerated adjectives. It felt as though this person had a compelling reason to convince me of the wrong that was enacted upon him.

He had me at hello.

In actuality, it did not take all of the bluster to convince me of the wrong. And in all of the bluster, the wrong did not rise to the explanation of a knife being inserted into the back of this person. So why was the use of a bloody physical attack needed as the described result of a wrong done by another? Does exaggeration have to be so bold in order to prove one's point?

Is it self importance that we feel the need to do so? Well, sort of it is, but a few reasons people explain things in exaggerated ways are;

- To communicate a certain trait: In the case of my story, was the fellow trying to exhibit his strength to sustain a bloody blow of a knife. That no matter what befalls him, he is a survivor and cannot be defeated?

- To prove something: Maybe he felt I would not believe or consider his concern valid without the graphic explanation. He really was not injured by a knife firmly incised into his back. This could be a common sign of low self esteem. While he raised the wrong to such a high level, did he really think it would have generated greater belief on my behalf?

- To support a point of view: It is said that many people would rather be believed even if they knew their argument is invalid rather than changing their opinion or admitting they were wrong. To me the knife in the back description has always seemed quite over the top in any explanation.

Can we just call it "Twitter Bluster"?

I have a healthy respect for what social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook can accomplish in keeping all of us connected. In business I use it as a tool to teach others how to be succinct, to the point, with their updates on various subjects. With a pre-defined number of characters, how well can you get that point across quickly? Think of it as the 30-second elevator pitch to the division vice-president or to a promising new customer.

But these social media sites have also given birth to the "age of unfettered bluster" in making our point known. Our politicians are not the only ones, but we ourselves have raised the level of exaggerated noise to new levels of just noise. In all of this noise, we are simply trying to shout louder than the next person. We are likely trying to be more important than the next person.

Take the story of a gnat sitting on a bull's horn for a long time. Eventually, he asks the bull whether he would like him to leave. The bull says he had not realized the gnat was even there in the first place and will not miss him when he is gone.

Self importance will soon be forgotten if ever noticed in the first place.

The wind blows through the grass, bending it for a short amount of time. The wind is here and gone, unseen, only temporarily noticed as is the exaggerated word. What remains is the grass, standing tall and proud.

Stay inspired my friends!

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!

Walk In The Park

"Reality is hard. It is no walk in the park, this thing called Life." ~ Patty Duke

Most of my days are spent working and not taking much time off from that work. It is a habit instilled in me from my days growing up on a farm in eastern Nebraska. At sun up before school, the chores had to be completed summer or winter. After school, after basketball practice or homework, the chores were to be done. All of this seven days a week, every day of the year.

When I went off to college, I had thought I no longer needed that discipline and into my second year of college that lack of discipline failed me. Poor grades and easing off on my own expectations gave me no choice but to leave school. It was then the reality of LIFE hit me hard. Much harder than if I had applied my father's work ethic from those years on the farm.

I was newly married and now a child on the way, no degree and in need of a paying job. It was at this point where I went back to those old learned habits of hard work and perseverance. I would say that opportunity and others taking a risk in me also played a part. So many years, now counting at 38 years which includes a most influential six years at the Nebraska Typewriter Company.

Typewriter repairman?

I say yes these days because to do so is much easier then the real explanation of what opportunity was afforded me by the Beaurivage family. It was these early days in which I applied myself the way my parents had taught me. But I did miss a few things along the way which is why the map is shown above. For many of those years I forgot that one must also take time to relax and enjoy LIFE.

This is not to say there have been no vacations or times of relaxing. What I am saying is that I failed to learn HOW to relax and enjoy. There are reasons for that and you would know of those reasons. Reasons you probably experience and reasons that simply cannot be unexplained in a logical sense. But I am learning and I am trying to figure out how to enjoy the LIFE given to me.

The map shows a part of that learning. It shows a boat ride from a marina to a state park where we spent three days. In earlier times I would have said that is a waste of time, too far and too crazy to take a boat nearly 25 miles. But we did it and what I experienced was the awe of how large this man-made lake is. A lake that hydrates nearly every person in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

Our learning never ends.

It is an experience I could not have had driving the freeway or simply flying over on my way to another meeting. To feel the bump of the waves, the mist of water as it sprayed the air nor the excitement of finding your way. This was my few days of learning how to walk in the park. It was another step at finding ways to enjoy LIFE and all it can offer.

When I reflect upon the path we took on our boat journey, it reminded me of how I had gotten to where I am today. The twists, turns, ending up in the wrong inlet. Having to find my way back and to re-chart a way knowing all I had to do was keep looking, keep moving, and keep enjoying the ride.

And just maybe I am starting to learn how to enjoy a walk in the park.

Stay inspired my friends!

Where Has The Time Gone

"Why do we waste our time worrying about it when we should be using time to enjoy life?"

I have been asked on several occasions, where have you been? You have not written your blog for several months, why not? Have you given up on writing?

My answer is that I have been here all along.

It is correct to say that I have not been writing my blog for quite some time. Neither have I been working on my next book much during this time I've been away being here.

Time passes quickly that is for certain.

I sit here observing nature after a passing rain fall. The leaves are glistening with steam rising from the neighbors roof top with the sweet conversation of my wife filling the air.

These are the places in time to capture in memory.

In the everyday of life, we divide ourselves taking sides that keep many of us, a great nation, a great world, a great gathering of humanity apart.

And time keeps passing us by without a care of its own.

I am sure to keep voicing opinion and trying to leave a legacy that is good and decent for generations to come. It will only be time that knows if what we do in life has been impactful. And when my portion of the clock has passed, the memories I have created for others will have to suffice.

Stay inspired my friends!