Chistmas, New Year & my last resolution.

Christmas:
Well, the snow came, I worked about 60 hours in 4 days, came home exausted with a cold and completely not ready for Christmas (which came right on schedule a few days after). Christmas was wonderful and filled with loving family, good food, and the wonderful smiles of children who believe in Santa. The last week went so fast that I almost feel like I missed a day or two in there.
New Year:
A wise singer once wrote the following lyric - 'Guess I'll make a resolution, that I'll never make another one, just enjoy this ride on my trip around the sun.' I would be foolish to assume that Jimmy Buffet has it all figured out, but I am with him on this one. Resolutions are too easily caught up in the day-to-day craziness that is life and then we are left feeling like we failed or let ourselves down. I see the new year as an opportunity to be a better Father, Husband, co-worker and person that I was before. If I focus on this big picture, it will be easier to do all the little things that are usually wrapped up in 'resolutions'.
Last Resolution:
I encourage everyone to join me in proclaming the last resolution:

"I resolve to never make another resolution"

Feels good, doesn't it?

Zen and the Art of Snow Removal

Can you smell it in the air? Snow is coming. Staring down the barrel of the first snow event of the season is like getting on a roller coaster for the first time in 10 years - at least it is for those of us who have to go out and clear it as part of our vocation. Every storm has a personality, a life of it's own. You have to make fast friends with the snow or it will make your life miserable. In the end, it all goes away and we forget how good or bad it was because it moves so fast. I guess in a way, working snow is like many things in life. New events create trepidation, then acceptance and adjustment, and later the event passes, we move on and the memories fade. Until the next one comes along. Can you smell it in the air? I can.

Clarity

It is so very rare that we experience clarity these days. Everywhere you look there is someone or something pushing or pulling for your attention, your support, your allegiance and of course, your money. How do we clear through the clutter and haze created by this crazy world we inhabit? How do we walk our own path with so many fences and signs in our way? More to the point, is it even possible? Of course there are those who claim to have clarity and they want to share it with us - take us to where they are. Strikes me as being another layer of the clutter. I believe that clarity is a singular experience for each of us, one that cannot be shared. Because it sounds right to me to think of it as a journey rather than a destination. You can take someone to a place, but you cannot make them see and feel the exact things you did in the exact same manner as you did on the way there. Pretty deep stuff for a Tuesday, but it was on my mind. The end of the year always gets me to thinking how I could have done better and what I could have done different - more on that in the New Years Blog.

Clarity is the journey.

Happy trails!

Just me and my boys.

Today I was blessed to be able to spend the entire day with my sons. With my hectic work schedule I it is rare that I take a day off that does not involve travel, getting ready for travel or work around the house. Today was different since my job was to 'keep the kids entertained' while my lovely wife did last minute prep for a conference this weekend. Good news is, I have this job for three more days. These are the days that make fatherhood the best job on the planet - talking to my sons, watching them use their imaginations in wonderful ways, seeing how much they have grown, being able to help them when they get frustrated and getting the spontaneous hugs that kids give just because 'you are my dad'. I know it will not always be this way, that some day they will barely notice me as they are on their way out the door with their friends, but today is today and I had that rare moment to take it all in without an overriding schedule of places and things. Just me and my boys.

We are.

While this is not a sports blog, I will occasionally reference sports (since I am a sports fan). This week I saw the Phillies lose the World Series to the Yankees, Penn State look awful in a loss to Ohio State (saw that one in person), and the Eagles lose to the Cowboys. The football match ups included intense rivalries and the baseball match up; well, it was the world series and WE were playing the holier-and-more-expensive-than-thou team from New York.

Which brings me to my point.

We.

We.

That small two letter word has much significance. Everyone uses 'we' when talking about their team, their group, their Alma mater, their company, etc. It is not just shorthand that saves us from using the longer proper name, it is a connection word, letting the listener know exactly where our loyalties reside.

We.

It identifies us with a group of like minded individuals.

We.

It binds us together so that our abilities, our power, our figurative voice and at times our actual voice can be amplified tenfold.

We.

One of my favorite parts of going to a Penn State game is the stadium cheering WE ARE! - PENN STATE! Having 100,000 people cheering anything in unison can be pretty powerful. More so it is the meaning behind the cheer that gives me chills. The cheer is not just for the team that is taking the field, it is for everyone who has that connection to Penn State. Everyone's connection is going to be different and unique, but WE are all standing and cheering together not just for a team, but for ourselves and for each other.

We.

We are.

Perspective

Had a challenging day at work - typical stuff: stress from the boss, too much work, too little time, clients that will not answer or return calls. Frustration sets in and I get to gripping the steering wheel and the phone that much tighter. Then I get the call - buddy in another location that asks if I heard about the accident involving one of our trucks Monday afternoon. Everyone is alive, but it could have been MUCH worse. Horrible, scary and totally avoidable. Then I start feeling slightly embarassed for wasting emotional energy on the small stuff when people I know are dealing with much more serious situations. Why do we have such difficulty keeping perspective on a day in - day out basis? It seems to ebb and flow with whatever is going on at the time rather than being measured on a fixed scale. This is the real challenge of my day - finding a way to keep perspective today, tommorrow and beyond. Something to work on now once.

Indisputable

The only sure thing is uncertainty. Oh, there is that death and taxes saying, but the reality is that even it is only half right (before civilization there were no taxes, and if civilization ever breaks down into anarchy there will most likely not be any taxes again). We are constantly striving to insulate, insure, prepare and plan so that things will be as we want them to be. In the end, what happens is dictated by so many variables beyond our control that all our efforts seem laughable. One could say that even when things go right it is at best half due to our actions and half due to chance. That being said, why do we not just throw up our hands and let the tide take us where it will? It is the challenge, the fight, the contest, the game if you will that keeps us engaged and always working the next angle. This is our nature. Our successes, our failures, our greatest moments of compassion and our darkest moments of destruction have all come as a result of this. Some of you are thinking 'if this is our nature, then this is a sure thing and your argument collapses in on itself'. There has always been a minority of people who have given up on the challenge. If that minority becomes the majority, if there are more people willing to drift on the wind and let others dictate thier path, then we will all be lost. Some would have you believe that this would create more certainty, that fewer people making big decisions would stabilize things more. I beleive that this would only serve to magnify the destabilizing consequences of the aforementioned chance. To boil it down - uncertainty on a small. personal scale can be overcome, delt with and absorbed without widespread chaos, but uncertainty on a large scale can be catastrophic with little chance of recovery. Remaining engaged is the only way we can have any hope of continuing the advancement of civilization as we know it. Game on!

Kinder, Gentler

This past week I had an old friend mess with me regarding an inflamatory post on FB. He was messing with me because, well, we have been friends a long time and he knows how to push my buttons. Needless to say, we lobbed a few verbal grenades at each other and when the dust settled we were talking about where we were going to get together and watch game 5 of the World Series. It did get me thinking a bit about how I presented my very biased (read fanatical) point of view. I was talking about sports at the time which generally brings out more love and hate than anyting else in peoples lives - most times without us even realizing that we are going too far. So, with that in mind, I vow to try and keep the bombast and extremism to a minimum in this blog. Granted, there are no guarantees in life so forgive me if I fall off the wagon, but I will try to keep the gas can in the garage now once.