I popped a button on a pair of pants today, a sure sign I should probably work out a little harder and eat a little less. They say your metabolism slows down every seven years. I think mine has taken a nose dive. I remember as young man I could eat a mixing bowl of mashed potatoes and a quart of ice cream and I weighed 165 lbs dripping wet. I think my left leg weighs that much now. I went to the gym tonight, and had a Subway sandwich for dinner without mayonnaise or cheese, so I should be in shape in a couple of days.
What's not in shape is my finances. Like the entire country I need to go on a credit diet. I have way too much debt. The dumbest decision I ever made, other than marrying my third ex-wife, who could throw a conniption fit if a child jostled an imitation Tiffany lamp, was buying the Vista Cruiser. No working man should have a $400 car payment. It was absolutely ridiculous decision, utterly crippling and illogical. I've done a good job and made all the payments on time, but there are about 33 to go. I bought the car for our first date, to impress a girl. A thoroughly romantic and foolish thing for a grown man to do. But it was the best first date in history, driving that pretty blonde girl in the moonlight with the top down. What's six years of an exorbitant car payment next to that? A poet once wrote, "spend all you have for loveliness." I'm not sure which poet anymore, though I used to know. In the words of the immortal Casey Stengel, you could look it up.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
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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.
3 comments:
Sarah Teasdale, and I only had to look it up to make sure my leaky memory had it right.
Interestingly, the name of the poem is "Barter," the implication being that you give something in return for what you get.
In these uncertain times, when so many of us are necessarily focused on our bank accounts, 401(k) balances and job prospects, we would do well to remember the rest of the line:
"Buy it and never count the cost,
for a breath of ecstasy,
Give all you have been, or could be."
In other words: Life is short. Live the love you feel.
Problem is we don't just spend "what we have" but more than we have. That's the problem.
As Dave Ramsey always says, "Sell hte car!"
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