Random thoughts

"Success is not final, Failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." (Winston Churchill)

Cindy and I are both being challenged by our current career choices. Each day or week brings new opportunity for growing and learning. We are excited at the prospect of those opportunities and head to work each day with a smile (okay - I do, she may not always). We may not be smiling at the end of the day - that doesn't mean we are unhappy, it means we have expended all the energy we could to rise to those opportunities as they have come our way. Something we both learned from parents who always worked hard to provide for their respective families.

I worked for a man a few decades ago who understood that making mistakes is a part of the growth and learning process we all need to experience.

"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." (Henry Ford)

No, it wasn't Henry Ford it was a contractor I worked for as a teenager. He assured me after a minor accident occurred involving a cement mixer that he had learned from his own mistakes to account for minor incidents in every bid he ever sent to a customer. He smiled at me and a co-worker who had contributed to the problem and said simply, "We'll have it fixed by tomorrow and I won't worry about it as long as you both learned a lesson today." It was fixed and we never had an issue with that piece of equipment again while in his employ.

My thought process over the past few months has tended toward how to begin something new while not disrupting the pattern of life we have established. I've concluded recently that it may be beneficial to have some disruption in those patterns, after all it is those patterns that have brought us to the point at which we reside currently.

"Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I've met people who don't want to try for fear of failing." (J.K. Rowling)

Thoughts like this from J.K. Rowling make me ponder on the things that have been set aside, in part, because of fear. I also wonder at times about how to begin? New beginnings can be hard if too much time is spent thinking about rather than doing. In doing we may find (usually do) traction that will take us in the right direction; even if that direction is different from our original idea.

For now new beginnings are at the top of my mind. If successful, terrific. If not, perhaps a lesson that will change my direction for the better.

This Memorial Day weekend we will be spending time with family in Grand Junction, Colorado. We have several grave sites of men who served in the military that we will visit and decorate. They did not die while in the service so really don't fit the real definition of this holiday - but we will visit and we will decorate anyway. It helps me remember the roots of our family and makes me think about the good memories associated with such honorable men as my father and hers.

We may also take in a baseball game at the Junior College World Series which begins this weekend and continues through the coming week. These games are just very enjoyable and often provide opportunity to see future Major League players like; Lorenzo Cain, Albert Pujols, Brock Holt, Bryce Harper and many others. Always fun games to watch with a great atmosphere in which to do so.

Enough for today.

Thanks for checking in. More to come soon. See you then.