Be Ready For It

It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m writing this Monday Message early for a reason. I’m writing it early because my daughter is scheduled to go into the hospital on Sunday to give birth. She already has three children, two that are still young, so I offered to help her with getting those kids to and from school and their many other activities. So I will definitely be very busy this weekend and all of next week. And yet I can’t stop thinking about how my daughter is about to give birth to a precious new baby girl.

The only problem with the timing is that I’m trying to finish up a huge portfolio of pole inspections for my largest client. I still have 60 poles to inspect, but since I knew I was running out of time, I decided to go to bed early Friday night and get up way before dawn this morning to head out and try to finish those last 60 poles. I left the house at 5:30am and when I arrived at the site, the sun was just cresting the horizon. I thought to myself, well I wanted to leave early and be ready to start the job by dawn, so I definitely accomplished that goal.

After unloading my tools and equipment, I surveyed the surrounding parking lot light poles. At the same time, i just happened to glance up at a nearby building. That’s when I saw a huge sign at the top of the building, shining ever so brightly in the early morning glow of the sunrise. The sign said, “Ready at Dawn” in brightly illuminated letters and I know you’ll think I’m crazy, but my first reaction was to laugh and then I thought to myself, “Is this a sign from God?” Is He trying to tell me something?

You know what… I think it was a sign from God! Especially since I’ve been praying like crazy lately for my daughter to stay strong and her baby to be born healthy. I decided that God was answering my prayers by telling me to remember that every new day is a blessing, and that we have to be ready for it, no matter what the day brings. In this particular case, I finished the job and the very next day brought forth the blessing of a healthy new baby granddaughter by the name of “Blakely Rae”. Now I know that not every day that springs forth at dawn is going to be a happy one, but I think I get the message… whatever happens, be ready for it!  

A new baby is like the dawn of all things – wonder, 

hope, and a dream of all things possible.

~ Eda J. LeShan

Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day

I just know today is going to be a good day! Why you ask? Because yesterday I learned something important!

I wanted to go golfing but didn’t have a lot of time. By the time I parked my car, unloaded my  clubs, got a golf cart, and checked in at the pro shop, I only had about 7 minutes before my tee time. So I rushed down to the range to warm up and hit a few balls.

As I parked my golf cart I checked my watch, and I was down to only 5 minutes before my tee time. Why am I always in such a rush? As that thought crossed my mind, I realized I had left my sunscreen behind in the car and started to panic It’s already 90+ degrees at 10:00 in the morning, so I really need that sunscreen, but I desperately need to warm up before I tee off, but of course I can only play 9 holes because I have so much work to do, plus my wife needs me to stop by CVS to pick up her prescriptions, and I didn’t have time yesterday to drop off a shipment at UPS so I need to do that, and, and, and… why am I always in such a rush!!!

That’s when I looked up and saw him. He was staring at me with a quizzical look on his face and I’m pretty sure I know what he was thinking, “Why is this idiot always rushing around like a chicken with his head cut off?”

I had seen him before on the golf course, but only briefly. Mainly because he moved at such a fast smooth pace. He was a handsome guy, with long hair and big brown eyes, but he was freaking me out because he just kept staring at me. I know what he was thinking, “Dude, you need to chill!? (Was he really thinking that or was it just my own stress case paranoia overtaking me.) Eventually, he just shook his head and turned away.

And that got me thinking… If even the super speedy, always moving, rapidly running, Roadrunner can slow down once in a while to enjoy life, maybe I can too!

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. 

Comes into us at midnight very clean. 

It’s perfect when it arrives, and it puts itself in our hands. 

It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.

~ from the headstone of John Wayne

Rhythm in Your Soul

Did you know that the human heart is a muscle? I read about it recently in a health article that said the human heart is “an organ containing a group of tissues that work together to perform a specific function, which is to pump blood throughout your body”. Well, that got me thinking about how I need to get my heart into better shape as I get older… or I might not get older!  

So I began this morning by jumping on my bike and pedaling along the sidewalks and streets of Coto de Caza where I live. The area is beautiful, but unfortunately it’s mostly hills, so it wasn’t long before my legs were hurting, and my lungs were burning. But I figured the pain in my legs and lungs would be a gain in strength for my heart. So I kept going.

At one point, I was going a little too fast down a steep section, hit a rock and almost lost control. I saved it, but my water bottle went flying. When I went to recover my water bottle, I noticed one of those wireless “ear buds” laying on the sidewalk. I remembered seeing a woman walk past me a few minutes earlier, so I pumped the pedals and climbed back up the steep hill to track her down. When I got to her, she was really nice but informed me that her “ear buds” were the old-fashioned ones with wires. At the same time, she informed that she had passed a friend of hers named “Goysha” 15 minutes earlier going the other way. She said Goysha lives a mile or two down the road in the “Greens” complex and she wars wireless ear buds.

So I thanked her, got back on my bike, and started pumping the pedals again going the other way. I made it all the way to the entrance to the “Greens”, but no sign of Goysha. I turned into the complex and hit a fork in the road. I looked both ways but didn’t see anyone, and wondered which way to go? Then I remembered what “Jack Reacher” always says in his adventure novels, “When in doubt, always turn right.” So I turned right and when I reached the top of the cul-de-sac I caught a glimpse of a lady going in her front door. I pedaled furiously and yelled out, “Hey Lady!”, just as she was closing the front door. Two seconds later she opened the door, wondering who the crazy man was yelling at her. Turns out her name was Goysha, and she had just lost a wireless ear bud, and she was very happy to see me!

As I pedaled all the way back home, I was exhausted but happy that I was able to help someone out. And that got me thinking.. Maybe there are two ways we need to exercise our hearts. One is with cardio and the other is with caring. Because it seems to me that if people have both a strong heart and a good heart, everyone will be in better shape!

Every beat of your heart can create rhythm in your soul.

~ Emily Dickinson

The Real Challenge

From a young age, I’ve always been a person who likes challenges. So I would often “challenge” myself and set lofty goals for things I wanted or things I wanted to achieve.

Unfortunately, as a young man my goals were often shallow and frivolous and to be honest, a little bit embarrassing as well. They were mostly about dating a certain girl, or buying a faster car, or keeping up with my peers, which should never be your goal at any age.

However, as I grew older my goals changed. What’s interesting is that my goals didn’t change just because I got older, they changed because I changed. For example, as I matured and started a family, my goals shifted more towards helping my wife and children and less about helping myself. And when I started my first business, my initial goal was to make the business successful. But as I started hiring employees, my goals shifted to include helping my employees achieve success as well. I discovered that it felt really good to watch one of my children win at a sporting event, or get an award at their High School. That same great feeling showed up when one of my employees earned a promotion, or when my wife and I were able to afford to give out awards and nice gifts to our employees at Christmas time.

So in my opinion, most people do change over time and so do their goals. Now that I am much older and semi-retired for example, my goals are a lot less lofty and probably back to being a bit shallow. One example, 12 years ago I took up golf and gave myself the goal of becoming a single digit handicapper and also to shoot a round in the 70’s. I admit that’s a bit frivolous, but those are two very difficult goals. At this point in time I will probably never become achieve a single digit handicap, but last Friday, after 12 years of trying, I did finally score 79 in a round of golf. It felt really good to achieve that personal goal, but it also brought back a flood of memories of other goals achieved over the years that were so much more meaningful because they involved helping others.

And that got me thinking… Having goals, and working hard to achieve those goals, is a good thing. But what’s more important is to make sure to have goals that matter, not just to ourselves, but to others. That’s the real challenge!

God gives us dreams a size too big… so that we can grow into them!

~ Anonymous