Keep It Simple

Caddo Lake on Drizzly Morn
Uncertain, TX

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

Henry David Thoreau 

For many of our generation, success is often measured by the accumulation of things. This measurement fails to account for our personal happiness and our physical well being. Suppose you have lots of stuff but have spent years of abusing your body to the point of ill health, are you truly successful? What if you have spent a life time accumulating but have neglected spending time with your family and friends are you successful? What if you have everything that you could want or imagine, but you feel no joy are you successful?

Please don't misconstrue my appreciation for money and for those that have accumulated money, but I find myself realizing the trap that I have personally dug for myself. My personal stress and my current "job less" situation, have forced me to revisit my definition of success. I ask myself what I want most and the answer comes up freedom to do what I want not what I have to do. Our credit crisis is driven by what we want and not by what we need.

During my travels these past ten years through out Mexico, I've always been fascinated by how happy cab drivers in Mexico appear to be. They all have less than me but they seem to be content with the fact that they provide for their families and have plenty to eat. The same holds true for many of the people I have met in the local towns and smaller cities of Mexico. Children are happy, people meet and greet each other and embrace the mornings and the church bells call to worship and celebration. The simple life has rewards beyond cash.


Please consider what Thoreau meant when he said: "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone." Your ability to walk away from stuff is what measures your true wealth. Do your possessions own you or do you own them? This truly is the root cause of our global credit crisis.

End of The Line

End of The Line
Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY

I would hate come to the end of my life to find out that I had not lived

Henry David Thoreau

Mom's journey is coming to an accelerated end.  We've been fortunate to enjoy her sense of humor for all these years and equally fortunate to have been well fed by her incredible cooking.

Yesterday, I said good bye for perhaps the last time.  I held her hand and mentioned my name;  she opened her eyes and said my name.  I stroked her face and forehead and brushed back her hair.  I kissed her, as I had all these years, on her forehead and asked her blessing perhaps for the last time.

The circle is near complete.  All the preparations are in process.  Some details will be ironed out.  Now I need to start thinking about what to write and say to all the people that loved my mother, my family, her surviving brothers, nephews and nieces, grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

The sorrow I feel  needs to be offset by the joy that my mother left us with.  She made life better that was her gift to all of us.  Now I have to give back something to all those that will attend.  I want them to feel my mother's presence and humor.

Life is good.  It has moments of despair but darkness always precedes the morning light.  I am so grateful that I can enjoy the morning light.  I will always recall the clatter of pots and pans that my mother awakened us with as she commenced her morning cooking.  Mornings are also good.  The darkness never lasts too long.  I am grateful for the promise of light and feel awakened once again.

Shoulds, Woulds, and Coulds

Excalibur
Las Vegas, NV

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. - Henry David Thoreau

The hardest lesson to learn this past year has been to focus on the present.  My finance training taught me how to analyze and make sense of historical data and trends and to forecast into the future.  Unfortunately, there were no courses readily available on how to handle right now or living in the moment.  Please don't misinterpret my remarks.  There is value learning from the past and in preparing for the future.

What I am referring to is that it is equally important to just enjoy today.  That you should live today and handle that fraction of time you can do something with, today.  Each of us has a measured amount of time before us.  It's important to value what is happening in your life today.

My father-in-law has mastered this concept.  He enjoys the company of his friends and revels in their fellowship.  Although he keeps up with current events, he doesn't obsess with planning for the future.  He drinks his beer, watches Nascar races, and enjoys old westerns on TV.  Financial planners would be appalled that he can live with less than what most of us are told we need.

Imagine for one moment that you were living in a northern coastal town in Japan.  You didn't know that in a few hours your life would be imperil and that you might not survive.  How would you choose to live the remaining minutes you have in front of you?  Would you spend them dwelling on the past or would you make plans for tomorrow?

Go ahead and sing that tune as you drive down the road.  Don't worry about who's listening and even if it's off key.  Enjoy your life each day at a time.  Put it all in perspective.  Tomorrow is nothing more than stitched up today's.

Live the Life...

View From Franklin Mountains into Juarez

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

The playground of the Mary P. Hinsdale Elementary School faced the "Gilbert High School" which was perched on a hill above.  On indian summer days and in the spring, while others played, I dreamed about how some day I would also go to that school and graduate victoriously on my way to college.  That was my dream.

I didn''''t '''''think about how I would achieve my college goal.  I didn't wonder about the financial impediments or even the academic challenges.  I simply visualized going and nothing was going to stop me.

Many years have gone by since those days of day dreaming about that hill.  In hindsight the obstacles were pretty formidable but the reality was that without that dream, I never would have achieved my goal.  Without vision followed by action, we can never achieve what we want.

As adults many live lives of voyeurs.  We entertain ourselves wishing and fantasizing of what might be.  Few attempt to try to turn ideas into realities.  We hold ourselves back.  How differently would things be if you just resolved to pursue your passions?  What would happen to you if you just abandoned your shackles and lived the life you have always imagined for yourself?

I don't claim to have all the answers but I am not afraid of asking the questions.  There's lots of living that I intend to do and the only thing holding me back has always been me.  Again I find myself looking at the hill; I can feel the momentum pushing me forward again.  "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams."

Now

I would hate to come to the end of my life

 to find out that I have not lived....

Henry David Thoreau, Walden 

The most difficult task for me is not mastering finance or marketing or even figuring out how to beat my friend Carter on our continuous scrabble game; it's learning to master living now.  You see the business side of me taught me to analyze the past and forecast the future.  This is great for the companies I've worked for but lousy for me.  You miss out completely on what is happening now.

The camera only captures the present.  When I look through the viewfinder and compose my shot,  I am interacting with the now.  I am in the moment.  History is meaningless at that point and the future does not even come to play.  If I become distracted, I miss out 100% of what is in front of me.  The shot evaporates and I miss an opportunity to see the details of what is actually transpiring in front of me.

As I look through the viewfinder, I see that life is happening right in front of me, right now.  I take time to focus on what I see and what I feel.  It's as if through the tap of my shutter release, I absorb what is and I capture now.  It's never history and it certainly is not my future.  It's just now.

The moment is right in front of me.  I choose to capture it and process it.  At the point nothing else matters.  I tune out my historical record keeping and my what if spreadsheets.  The only thing that is relevant to me, is insuring that I see and enjoy the life that is going on in front of me.  It's not easy to do; it requires patience and time.  I didn't realize that living required taking time to just be.  I thought living was simply about doing.