Variation on a "Letter to Self"

My sister-in-law recently posed an intriguing challenge on her most recent bog: Write a letter to your 17-year old self. This was originally inspired by a Brad Paisley song: “Letter to Self,” a song that I haven’t heard. The purpose of the challenge would be to give advice to your younger self– for her it would be less than a decade removed…for me 1 and ½! I will loosely accept that challenge today, but may just do bullet points. It is something quite intriguing to ponder. Who would give the better advice? Me to my 17-year old self, or him to his 32-year old self?

Bullet points to my 17-year old self:
­ - Cheer up
­ - Don’t just read the Bible, but pray over the scriptures
­ - Make an effort to keep in touch with your friends
­ - Be nice to your family
­ - You have a lot to look forward to
­ - Maintain a work ethic – you might even be able to fool people into thinking that you’re smart with it

- Be very careful to stay close to God

Notes to my 32-year old self:
­ - Dude, you’re 32. It can stop being all about you.
­ - Hard work is good, but make sure it’s not just focused on “work,” but also on your family.
­ - Hard work is good, but make sure to also work hard on your non-family relationships.
­ - Don’t just read the Bible, but pray over the scriptures
­ - Your family life is awesome, Dude.
­ - Help the poor
­ - Help the poor in spirit

Okay…That’s good for now. I’m teaching Sunday School again on Sunday so could use prayers as I prepare. Scriptures are Acts 24:22 – 25:22, and deals with how Paul is received by 2-3 non-believers while he is in custody. Since non-believers react much the same way today as these gentlemen and lady, I’m hopeful to learn a lot as I delve deeper into the material tonight or tomorrow.

Peace…

Questionable Reflections...

A quick explanation regarding the accountability tracker. I intend to keep myself accountable to loosing weight by the new tracker. Each week I will weigh myself and put either the increase or decrease from my starting point on the tracker. Hopefully, this will make me decide to make healthy choices that my children can see as they grow up.

Okay...why are today's reflections questionable? Hmmm...maybe it's because I ONLY SLEPT FOR 10 MINUTES LAST NIGHT!!!! So, yes, I'm a bit slow and foggy right now.

Reflections:

1. I'm in the business of risk and I really like this quote: The day finally came when the risk to remain tight in the bud became greater than the risk to blossom.

Many people in my business view risk as something that needs to be mitigated or protected against. That's very true, but taking great risks can and should also reap great rewards. Just make sure that you've planned for the possibility of failure.

2. Toda porfía es demasiada, cuando no se espera de ella sacar algún provecho.-- All stubborness is exaggerated if no advantage can come of it.

I see plenty of truth in this!

3. We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. Pablo Picasso

I'm staring at a reproduction of Picasso's "El Viejo Guitarrista" ("The Old Guitarrist"), and it sure seems like the truth regarding the poor and downtrodden. Yet, maybe it lies by only telling one part of the story...the side that we too often don't want to see, or the "truth" that Pablo saw.

El Viejo Guitarrista

First Blog

Lindley used to get on my case about writing a blog, but I just never felt that I had anything that would behoove me to have on the internet (you don't really want to post regarding work-related issues, and, let's face it, that is about 63% of my waking life). But last night I began reading The Kite Runner. The book centers around (and I'm really not very far into the book so this could be wrong) a young boy with a passion for literature. As often happens with me when I get into a good book, I became inspired to begin writing something.

Aside: Unfortunately, with my 5-10 minutes in the morning that I get to read, I often choose more mindless books like James Patterson, Daniel Koontz, etc.... But every once in a while, I find a gem and just can barely stop reading. (You know, I'm talking Harry Potter type good! Okay, that's actually a true statement about the can't stop reading and Harry Potter, but that's not exactly the caliber novel I was discussing.) Though I haven't read this book since high school, one of those for me was Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. I wanted to write just like that...Create your own rules of punctuation, make the book pour out emotions like a country pouring out blood. Hmm...that doesn't make it sound quite as appealing as it was, but then again that was 15 years ago. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet was one of the more recent ones, and I was hoping to be inspired by Little Women, but other than a few chuckles, it's not really done it for me.

Okay, so back to the original point. Where were we: 1. Lindley always wanted me to blog. 2. I started The Kite Runner. 3. I thought I should start a blog. Since Lindley does quite a bit of blogging about the family, I doubt that will be much of my focus. Unfortunately, I don't really have much of a focus at all! I may post some of my much-in-demand "poems from a cubicle." I haven't decided whether that's a good idea or not...Plus there are only two or three of them. So, that could simmer down very quickly. I also know that most of you will not be able to bear through a blog this long on a regular basis so I will generally try not to go this long and ramble so much.

I will end on one note of recent interest to me:
1. I was reading in Matthew 6 the other day, and was definitely slowed down by the following:
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Whether I'm right or wrong, I do think I have a handle on this now, but in my current environment success is definitely defined differently than the above and I need to be careful.