Every one is talking about the Olympics, about Michael Phelps and the gymnasts and volleyball matches. I haven't watched any but I glance at the headlines in the paper. I got my quarterly review at work today and I earned a small promotion and a 5% pay bump. More money for the ice cream budget. Tomorrow is Friday and I still have an eighth of a tank of gas. I rode the bike to work today; the afternoon temperature approached a 100 degrees but on the bike you create your own breeze. I stopped at one of those little Korean mini markets and had a Gatorade and a big water on the way home. They are all hard working people and I don't begrudge them anything, but how is it that certain nationalities gravitate to certain businesses? The motels are run by Indian immigrants, the mini marts by Koreans, and the nail salons by Vietnamese. Was there a list drawn up or a summit meeting I missed? Certainly they all deserve their opportunities and their success--I think the reason they all succeed is that the shop owner is working the counter 12 hours a day, six days a week, and much of the time the rest of the family works there also. It's just curious to me the division of the spheres of influence. How did it come about in such a pronounced way?
My roommate Richard and I went to dinner at Chang's Mongolian. We feasted and talked about our kids. I won 11.00 in a $2 satellite tournament after I got home but I'm going to bed early tonight. I'm just a little worn down. There's a beautiful moon out and it's a perfect summer night, the kind you would beg your mom to sleep outside in the back yard. The moon is bright and unobscured and nearly full. I have Monday off from work, a three-day weekend. I'm taking a vacation day. I like to space them out like that, take a little piece of my retirement now and then while I'm young enough to enjoy it. Stephanie and the grandbabies are in town and we'll have dinner. I won a little green football in "name the new service code" bingo and I'm going to give it to Ethan, one of those tiny palm-sized ones. He's about to start teething and he'll enjoy chewing on the rubber. Never too soon to get a ball in his hands. Especially a green one. I hum the fight song to him when his mother is occupied, though I realize it's a losing battle. He'll wind up in that atrocious Orange and Black. I haven't got a chance.
I'm looking forward to the weekend, to catch up, take stock, organize the finances, finish the other load of laundry, win a jackpot or two, maybe see a movie, sit down to a meal with my beloved progeny. Maybe Roger would come, though he's probably busy with hanging out with his buds and Call To Duty 4. I'll call and invite him.
Marie and I exchanged a couple of nice messages earlier in the week but we haven't talked, since Monday I think. The Ducks are wrapping up the second week of preseason practice and they have a scrimmage on Saturday. The Husky game is in two weeks.
I like hanging out with Richard. He's a good guy, thoughtful and reflective. His son is entering high school in a few weeks and he has some concerns for him, the usual guilt and anger and rebellions teenaged boys display, plus the pain of an absentee abandoning mother. Jacob Ryan is in foster care; Richard tried but he couldn't get custody. He remains involved and has him over as often as he can. They go to the youth mass together and it's been a focal point, a blessing and a rock for both of them. I listen. Some of the road they're traveling together is famiiar and it's easy to relate.
I haven't worked out in two days so I feel out of shape. I'll go tomorrow and feel rejuvenated and razor sharp. It will be good to get a full night's sleep. Abiding in mercy and grace, I wish you good night and good luck.
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This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
2 comments:
Watching the Olympics together is something the Mortensen family has always done. This time we don't have a very good picure since we don't have cable and only get network channels with rabbit ears antenna but none the less we watch every night. Victoria cheers loudly and full of energy and passion for most sports. Dimitri gets confused and ask the same questions over and over, I usually fall asleep on the couch but we are together and we watch. I think of all the other times we have watched as a family. I remember the first time Doug and I watched together, the year Nadia Comenic was the star gymnast. I think about other times: the year Adrienne couldn't get enough of watching Mary Lou Retton, the diving was always a family favorite. Skiing and ice skating are not to be missed. Of course swimming. I am missing my grown children and wishing we were watching with them too. Tucker is watching but at his house because he has a much better TV and DVR so they record what they miss because of work the next day so they are behind us. Coming here would mess up their system and order. Jenn said she heard about how the Mortensen family always watchd, she laughed and said so now they watch. Watching the Olympics is some great family times and memories that I will always think of and makes we miss my children so much.
Gretchen,
This is a great comment on the Olympics, and the sharing of an experience together like that, the memories and stories and moments, is the best use of TV, a truly wonderful thing that it can do. Some amazing triumphs and tragedies spill out of Olympic competition, Mary Decker's fall after a lifetime of hard training, Dan Jantzen slipping on the ice and winning multiple medals, the gymnasts and skaters who capture the hearts of the world with their talent and personality. It's a lovely thing to watch together and cheer and cry as a family. I would love to share an evening of Olympics with all of you--I would bring the watermelon and the wine.
I think it's wonderful also you have maintained such a deep connection to your grown children and their families. You are really an old softie and it's obvious they all adore their mother and gramma.
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