Sometimes I wake up and see the awesome beauty that God majestically creates every single day… and I am deeply humbled and eternally grateful!
It shouldn’t be sometimes.
who plies
his bright trade in the skies,
With
fleecy white cloudlets for brushes,
and
the souls of flowers for dyes.
~ George M.P. Baird
I was doing a Light Pole Inspection at a property in Irvine when I felt something strange. I had this weird feeling that somebody was watching me. I looked around at the empty parking lot and between the buildings, but didn’t see anyone. But when I looked up to check out the light fixtures on the pole, I saw him. And he was beautiful, fierce looking, and majestic!
There are a lot of Red Tail Hawks in our area, but they usually get spooked by humans. Not this guy. He stared straight down at me without flinching. So I offered up a greeting, “Good morning Hawkeye” and went about my inspection procedures at the base of the pole.
When I finished and started to leave, so did he. His long, beautiful red tail floating behind him as he soared skyward. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only bird in the sky. Immediately, a flock of crows descended on him and started attacking him. They flew straight at him, cawing loudly, and creating chaos all around his air space. Those crows made me mad because well, first off they’re ugly crows, and second, they were attacking my newfound friend!
Hawkeye took it all in stride though. He never seemed to get flustered or irritated. He simply began to fly higher, and higher, and higher until he was far beyond the reach of the crows. Red Tail Hawks and other birds of prey, like Eagles, can fly as high as 10,000 to 15,000 feet in the air. If something, or some other bird, is bothering them, they simply fly higher.
And that got me thinking… How many times in my life have I felt attacked or insulted by someone and then gotten upset and angry about it… and then regretted it later on. Anger never solves any problem and usually makes things worse. So from now on, I think I will take my cue from Hawkeye… and simply rise higher!
My back hurts. It hurts all the time, every single day, and it has for many years now.
Sometimes the pain isn’t so bad. On those days I’m able to do my job, which I enjoy and I’m able to play the game of golf, which I love. On other days, I can barely move at all because of the pain. And it’s my own fault. Too many years of hard work and heavy lifting, mixed in with a couple of fairly spectacular motorcycle accidents when I was younger. “Go hard and go fast” was my motto back then. My motto now is “take it easy dumbass”!
Last week I spent some time with a friend of mine who is an outstanding golfer. He’s a single digit handicapper, a former winner of his club championship, and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. He graciously agreed to give me some tips on my short game and chipping, which I sorely need. I haven’t seen him in a long time because he has been undergoing chemo-therapy treatments, for the second time. His weight is down 40 pounds, and he feels sick most of the time, and yet he is willing to show up for me… to help me out. All I could think of was… I wish there was something I could do to help him out.
We talked about golf most of the time, while chipping and pitching at the practice green at Coto Golf Course. He smiled a lot and we laughed and joked at lot because hey… we’re golf bros and golf isn’t easy. But then again, neither is life sometimes.
When we finished and went back to the parking lot, I hugged him. As I drove away and headed back home, I cried. Here is a good man, a loving husband and father, and good friend to so many people, who is in real pain, life altering pain, and yet he is not afraid. But I am afraid… for him, and I can’t do a damn thing about it. So I have been praying, every day, and I give it to God.
Two important things occurred to me this morning about the time I spent with my friend. First, I never once thought about my back pain the whole time we were together. It just didn’t seem important anymore. Second, was what he said to me in the parking lot before leaving. “When you know who stands beside you on the path that you walk, fear is impossible.”
As much as I try to honor God, I fail. It upsets me and makes me feel stupid, but it’s a fact.
Like I said, it upsets me to fail at anything, let alone the most important goal in my life. But as I laid there in bed this morning, thinking about failure, I had a bit of an epiphany. And I think the idea came from watching football Sunday afternoon. The Raiders lost badly 24-0 to the Saints, and I remember how great the Raiders were back when Al Davis was the owner. He was a polarizing figure for sure, and not very popular, but he knew how to win. His motto… “Just Win, Baby!”.
And that got me thinking…
So my epiphany…
If winning is the goal and winning is good, can
any good come from failure? Yes it can… But only if we choose to “Just Win
or Learn, Baby!”
