What are Your Lessons Learned in 2020?

 This is the final day of a year we will all long remember.  For most, tomorrow will be filled with high expectations because it marks day one of a new chapter.  I believe these new chapters have little meaning if we don't carry over all the lessons learned in previous years.

Think for a moment about the most important lessons you learned in 2020.  Are you a better person because of those lessons learned?  Will you be able to apply those lessons in 2021?  How will the new year be different?  Today is a great day to reflect.  Have a great day.

We're Digging Ourselves Out of the Snow This Morning

 By the time you read this, we will be out of our predicament.  Mother Nature did it again yesterday.  She dumped 9 inches of snow on us in a matter of hours.  Her cacophony ended dramatically with thunder, lightning, and a layer of sleet.  Her sheet music, as long as she follows it properly, is now displaying a series of rest notes signaling our opportunity to undo what she did to our driveway.  

"Fifteen minutes," my wife cautioned when I walked outside and stepped into the fresh snow piled onto our driveway.  My boots disappeared.  I realized that jeans are not the appropriate attire when my lower nerve cells sent out an SOS message to my brain.  Our youngest son teamed up with me to remove the layer of ice on all the windows and we cleared a narrow path to the end of the driveway where our biggest challenge awaited – three feet of snow about two feet high left by the snowplow driver when he cleared our street.  An hour and fifteen minutes later we called it a night.  I have just enough time to finish the job this morning so my wife and I can head to our day jobs.  I have a cacophony of my own to complete my day – Tennis with my teammates.  Maybe we can generate our own thunder indoors.  Have a great day.

Something Borrowed

Please forgive me for my philosophical tendencies today.  Perhaps it's thoughts of this year and everything that happened that are persuading me to share.  Reality and imagination are separated by a razor-thin line. There are times when my perceptions of the world are challenging to interpret, like those days here in my home state when we are in a blizzard and I'm doing my best to find my way home in near white-out conditions.  According to today's forecast, we have a major storm front arriving by midday and we will soon be blanketed by up to a foot of snow.  Although I hate to admit it, on days like this, there is an unwanted occupant in my SUV.  No words are necessary when we're together.  I can read his mind and he can do the same, especially when the road conditions are hazardous.  His name is Fear.  

I'm sharing my most recent conversation with Snow Devil, the nickname I'm giving my hitchhiker companion because that's usually when he shows up in my life just like Frosty the Snowman, SD's much kinder and gentler cousin.  Snow Devil taught me that my last vehicle, as much as I cherished it, was something borrowed.  Even though there was no lien on the title and I supposedly owned it free in clear, I lost the vehicle in an unfortunate accident on an icy road in poor driving weather.  It was borrowed.  The truth is, everything in our lives is merely borrowed.  Snow Devil is right.  Even our own lives and our children's lives are all borrowed.  All we can do is live for the day and enjoy all the "borrowed" things in our lives.  Deep down, I really do wish Snow Devil would find a new ride-share buddy and that he could somehow be returned to wherever he comes from just like a library book that is borrowed for a finite time.  

I'm learning not to hold on too tightly to borrowed things.  Letting go is often the best option.  My focus is centered on appreciating everything in my life and utilizing borrowed things to the best of my ability.  I have a stack of borrowed books to read and two books to finish writing before my borrowed time on this planet comes to a conclusion.  Snow Devil is trying to stop me but I won't let him no matter what is going on in the world or in my imagination.  Today is a great day to celebrate we made it through one of the most challenging years we have ever seen in modern times.  Have a great day.

Anticipation Plays a Role in Your Happiness Journey

 When it comes to family gatherings, vacations, and other fun events, there's not much we can do right now other than plan for them.  Even though we are in deferral mode, there is something we can do – plan and anticipate.  There is great joy in anticipating.  The focus right now need not be on the finish line.  Planning each mile can be almost as fun as the actual miles driven on that road trip to visit relatives.  

Think back to when you were a kid getting ready for summer vacation or Christmas day.  Wasn't that a great feeling?  I recall a story of a prisoner who planned his dream home while in captivity during the war.  He built his home, brick by brick, in his mind.  When he was set free, he actually built his home just as he planned.  Many of the other prisoners died in captivity because they had nothing to look forward to.

In a way, we are all in some kind of captivity right now.  Don't let the current situation take away your happiness.  Plan something fun for down the road.  Pay attention to all the details, just as a bride does when she's planning her wedding.  Have a great day.

What are You Fishing For?

 You may not be aware of it, but you are fishing.  It's the same as traditional fishing.  You go somewhere, put some bait on your line, and cast away.  Your bait attracts what you're searching for.  If you're patient enough, you might catch what you're looking for.  If you're not having any luck, you may need to improve your skills, just like real fishermen.  

You are uniquely equipped to catch something.  Your haul won't resemble anything like what others are catching unless you're trying to copy them.  This is highly frustrating because you're not focusing on your own talents.  I recommend fishing alone so you can search find your own sense of purpose.  When you discover what you're fishing for, your life will dramatically improve.  Be yourself.  This is what the world needs.  Have a great day.

The First Step on Your Happiness Journey

The best way I can share how I feel about this last year is to mention how much meaning these twelve months have given me.  The calendar is getting ready to flip again soon.  If you feel your life is lacking in happiness, perhaps we can journey together in a new year filled with endless possibilities.

Fear may be our most common enemy.  It has a way of sucking all the happiness out of our lives.  There is this fear of dying the media loves to capitalize on.  They can't reach me because I tuned them out long ago and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.  What about the fear of living?  COVID-19 has a way of trapping us into thinking we can't live right now so we must put our lives on hold.  I disagree.  I simply refuse to let fear to occupy any space inside my head.  If you made it this far in today's story, perhaps you're ready to take that first step.  You can wait until the new year begins or you can take that first step today and get a head start in what could be your happiest year ever.  Ready?  Here goes:

LET GO!

Here's a partial list.  You get to add to it between today and the remainder of the year and we will work on this together for the next 12 months.  Deal?

List of things to let go of

• Gossip
• Judging
• Prejudice
• Anger
• Pride
• Jealousy
• Sense of Entitlement
• Control
• Past Hurts
• Unforgiveness
• Inferiority Complex
• Anxiety

I realize that I have a long way to go in my own personal happiness journey.  The next year will not be a repeat of last year – it will be an enhancement to every lesson I learned last year and all the years that came before all the way until my childhood.  Let's work on this together.  Have a great day.

Merry Christmas!

 When the weather outside heated up a couple of notches to 3º here in the frozen tundra of Iowa this morning, my wife looked at me and said, "At least we're not in the negative."  Before the clouds whisked away in the ferocious winds, they blessed us with a stunning picture I captured yesterday morning.  The "sundog" phenomenon occurs when the sun is near the horizon and a halo resembling a rainbow forms around it.  In Native American culture, this halo is a sign from the Creator which marks a time of great change.  

While sundogs can resemble a full rainbow around the sun, the one I saw along the interstate looked more like three separate suns than a rainbow.  It reminded me of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  I believe that the three are one, just like the three suns I saw yesterday were also from one star.  By the way, did you happen to see Saturn and Jupiter in alignment the other day?  That only happens about once every eight hundred years.  Some think maybe that's what the three wise men saw foretelling where Jesus was born.  I find these appearances and their timing rather remarkable.  

May you and your family have a Merry Christmas.  Stay in the positive, even on those days when Mother Nature may be teetering on the negative.  We are thankful for the warm fireplace we will be using as we celebrate the most important birthday in our history today.  Happy birthday, Jesus.  And my dad, too. Have a great day.