Todays and Tomorrows.

Well, life moves on, but doesn’t. Last week, we lost a friend and this week we begin to live life without him. The world is not the same, but the sand continues its trek through the hourglass and doesn’t stop for want or need or even death. Life moves on. It’s just what it does. The world spins and we must spin with it. We do, however, have some control over where and how we rotate and how we feel about it.


Watching the sun come up over the mountains this morning as my CrossFit girls were doing overhead squats, I felt encouraged and inspired and understood that good things still exist. They are all around us, all the time. With eyes opened a little wider following last week’s tragedy, the crisp morning air smelled a little sweeter and the moments of reflection scratched a little deeper into the heart of what matters. Moments matter. This morning mattered and tomorrow morning will matter. The day after that will matter, too. Each day and every moment matters. In time, they become the sum calculation of our lives and the utility and value we place on these moments is our box score.

After the usual morning battles of finishing homework, cooking breakfasts that weren’t eaten, searching for socks and shoes and making lunches that I will get complaints about later, this day moved on. As I look out my office window and decide my day’s path, I realize that these insignificant choices are in fact, quite significant and that this is a prized day, an award winning day!! The sky is clear and wind is light. I have lots of work to do and will do it. In between this, I will live. I will talk to friends and have lunch with my wife. I will mow my lawn and produce outcomes that will allow me to sleep well tonight. This day will not be wasted. Some days are and that’s a shame. With the ever-increasing speed of my life’s time passing, an urgency is taking hold and an intense, almost desperate, need to “get there”. I don’t know where “there” is, though, I am not sure this is very important or if “there” even exists, but I believe that trying to get there is very important.

We all have things we want to do and ways we want to be or become. This quest is personal and is perhaps the best reason we have to do anything. With this in mind, I will continue to explore and seek and try. In my previous travels through this world, I have a decent understanding of where “there” is NOT. Knowing this helps shrink the field and maybe narrows the focus a bit. While what I want to do and/or be may not be super clear, I know very well what I don’t want. Sometimes it is easier to define the negative. Eliminating things that we don’t like or that make us feel bad seems a good place to start. Also, adding more of the stuff that we like helps. Doing more of what we like and less of what we don’t changes us. Attitude is everything and nothing changes our attitudes more than joy. It is contagious and permeates a day. Beginning a day with joy makes it nearly impossible for it to suck. It just can’t. With this in mind, I will remember the things I enjoy and do some of those things in the midst of doing the stuff I don’t like, but have to do. That should make it all a little easier. And that, to me, is the point.

Life should not be hard. It should be easy. Only when I have to do things that are inconsistent with my natural order or aptitude is it crappy. One of my favorite quotes is, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Today, I will be alive. We’ll see about tomorrow when it gets here, because good Lord willing, it will.