A Change for the Better

I have never been good at relaxing. I’m great at working and playing and being productive, but for some reason I struggle when it comes to allowing myself some down time. So I’m trying to learn how to relax and Sunday morning, I actually slept in for a change. I wanted to start the New Year out right, you know, by being really lazy. It felt pretty good and after enjoying a huge breakfast of corned beef hash, eggs, and toast made by my awesome wife, I wandered out to our deck that faces the ocean to continue my journey of relaxation.

I had nothing to do and fortunately all day to do it. So the first thing I did was to take in the view, and wow was it beautiful! A bright clear morning. The ocean never looked more transparently turquoise. Rolling waves were washing ashore every few seconds down below, and up above were just a few puffy white clouds dotting an enormously beautiful blue sky. Birds were singing and palm trees were swaying while Catalina Island loomed on the horizon.

It could not have been a more perfect morning in paradise. I stretched and yawned as I grabbed a beach towel and propped up a chaise lounge to lay out on. The lounge chair was so comfortable and the sunshine so warming, that I closed my eyes and started drifting off, letting my thoughts wander as I pictured myself in a true tropical paradise like Hawaii.

That’s when it hit me… dead center of my chest! It was warm and wet and gooey, and it wasn’t good. Some bird, surely a sly seagull, had decided to take target practice on me. I could picture him gliding above me giving high five feathers to all his buddies, laughing at the unwitting dope down below who thought he was going to relax for a change. I jumped up off that chair and washed myself off three times, then took a shower, and then moved my lounge chair under an umbrella. But alas, the spell was broken, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to relax after all.

And that got me thinking…  

·         If you’re trying to make a change for the better… and fail… keep trying!

·         Or better yet… if birds of a feather flock together… keep your shirt on!

I have never failed. I have just 

found 10,000 ways that won’t work. 

~ Thomas Edison