I had crossed a truth. Did I find it? I don’t know, I think it found me. Why? Because I put myself in a place to be found. I put myself in a place to receive it. How do we know when we cross a truth or a truth crosses us? I believe the truth is all around us all the time. The anonymous angels, the butterflies, the answers, are always right there, but we don’t always identify, grasp, hear, see, or access them – because we’re not in the right place to. We have to make a plan.
I was falling in love. “What would I have to do to lose you?
As a father, I often contradict myself, and I know I could do a better job of practicing what I preach, but I’ve also learned that if the message is true, don’t forget it, and forgive the messenger, even if he does.
The first step that leads to our identity in life is usually not I know who I am, but rather I know who I’m not. Process of elimination. Too many options can make a tyrant out of any of us, so we should get rid of the excess in our lives that keep us from being more of ourselves. When we decrease the options that don’t feed us, we eventually, almost accidentally, have more options in front of us that do.
The first step that leads to our identity in life is usually not “I know who I am”, but rather “I know who I’m not”. Process of elimination... Knowing who we are is hard. Eliminate who we’re not first, and we’ll find ourselves where we need to be.
I hope to give my children the opportunity to find what they love to do, work to be great at it, pursue it, and do it. Rather than cover their eyes from ugly truths, I want to cover their eyes from fictional fantasies that will handicap their ability to negotiate tomorrow’s reality. I believe they can handle it.
We need discipline, guidelines, context, and responsibility early in any new endeavor. It’s the time to sacrifice. To learn, to observe, to take heed. If and when we get knowledge of the space, the craft, the people, and the plan, then we can let our freak flag fly, and create. Creativity needs borders.
Life is not a popularity contest. Be brave, take the hill, but first, answer the question, “What is my hill?
An honest man’s pillow is his peace of mind, and when we lie down on ours at night, no matter who’s in our bed, we all sleep alone.
I loved the work, the process, the construction, the architecture of building and owning my man.
We have to prepare for the job so we can be free to do the work.
This is a book about how to catch more yeses in a world of nos and how to recognize when a no might actually be a yes. This is a book about catching greenlights and realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green.
The only thing I ever knew I wanted to be was a father. To me, fatherhood meant a man had made it in life. Growing up, I said “yes sir” and “no sir” to my father and his friends because they were fathers. Fatherhood, what I most revered in life, what I was most impressed with, was now what I was about to become more involved with. The message of manhood that came to me at my own father’s passing had newborn relevance as I became one myself. Yes sir.
To never say I can’t. To never lie.
Earn it with you, then earn it with me, then we earn it for we.
Some people will never be more attractive than in that first impression, from a distance, in that light, at that time, in that way we saw them, when our hopes became highest and our wish fulfillment was fully leaded. They will never look better than in that initial, fuzzy-edged glimpse. The impression. The WIDE SHOT.
In the fact of fate that death and birth bring we recognize we are both human and God. We find the belief that our choices matter, that it’s not all for nothing, it’s all for everything.
I’ve never cared much for destinations. The idea of landing is too finite for my imagination and sense of song. Give me a direction and a sixteen-lane highway with room to swerve and explore along the way. Like jazz, I prefer to see life as a river.
If you’re not a starter and you think you should be, give em no choice in the decision. Play so well it’s undeniable.
The honeymoon, like Hollywood, is an animated movie. It’s larger than life, not a reality we should expect to see once we exit the theater.