We Had a Dog. Dog(s) pt1

We had a dog. 

For the better part of seven years Happy Thanksgiving Jones was everyone’s dream/nightmare, she was a 60lb bundle of retrieving-howling joy. She didn’t enjoy 2016, much like many of us. While 2016 was very young she was attacked and expensively wounded by a coyote (presumably). In May she returned the favor to the universe and not so happily attacked a fellow canine. We said good-bye to her two days later.

I don’t remember crying that unexpectedly/uncontrollably, ever.
We’ve missed her terribly but there have been several things about not having a dog that we enjoyed.

No poop. No Hair. No Barking. No “Did you shut the gate?”

But, we’ve felt a little Blank Space that a only a furry friend can fill.

This story is quite fluid, stay tuned for parts 2 & 3 coming soon.

 

 

Texas is Orange

We’re a little more than two weeks into 2017 and it’s been a whirlwind.

• I’ve said goodbye to my thirties-YIKES!
• Celebrated with a good friend who took his nuptials in Minnesota #naomiandjeff
• Walked 9.2 miles around the block
• Learned the colors of states from Bobby (Texas is orange, Michigan is green and Florida is yellow & blue).
• I finished 2 of the ten books that were hanging out (The Zero Game by Brad Metzer, Fatal Error: A Novel (Ali Reynolds Series) by J.A. Jance) I’d be happy to pass either on.
• Unburdened myself with 121 things on my way to 496 participating in the #minsgame you can see stuff I’ve dumped on Instagram
• Enjoyed some more deep dive counseling with Kelly & Dr. John at PCS Counseling 
• Kate encouraged me to use proper punctuation &  capitalization…guess it’s time to grow up.

Every step has been one forward. It takes Motivation, meaning,  and purpose.

Each young day of 2017 has been done with intention.

I’m going forward, are you?

celebrate somebody else

resolutions are somewhat maligned in the circles i travel. does anyone else hear that stuff?

i hear things like:

you should always be the person you want to be

jesus makes it possible for us to overcome things everyday we don’t need special times

there’s nothing special about the new year ‘his mercies are new every morning’

while i don’t disagree with those statements, i do wonder why we don’t celebrate the desire of those around us to grow or mature as the calendar turns to the next year.

if we follow, serve, believe in a god with the power to transform our lives. would it make sense that we rejoice when that same god inspires some one to transform-even as the calendar turns?

i’m making a change. something’s stirring in me to do something different this year. i resolve to live the truths buried in me by the god of the universe and illuminated by scripture. it’s as of yet uncertain how this will play out. I’m confident that this passage has  a lot to say to me a resolver.

Romans 8:9-14 (ESV) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

and if i don’t make some changes. i’m in trouble. i’m missing it.

there are a lot of things i’d love to do this year, some of them are silly some of them are loooooooofty and some of them are just like drop dead serious and if i don’t do them, i could be in a world of hurt. so here goes here’s my list of resolutions. in no particular order (except maybe the last one.

• blog (and really it’s just journaling, cuz i almost hope no-one reads it) regularly
• define what regularly means
• pursue health (physical, spiritual, mental, relational)
• read daily (like i make my kids)
• check in on this list and give some status reports

fairly routine.

routine is a fun word to say, try it.

roo teen.

isn’t that nice?

roo teen.

sort of funny, that a simple word that rolls off the tongue so easily can be anything but. the idea, the practice of routine is much grander and more rich than the hum drum feel and thoughts that come to mind when we first say routine…

commute.
bedtime.
work.
workout.

not all routines are menial…

breathing.
dating.
heartbeats.

some things that we do over and over are powerful forces for good in our lives.

several years ago i read a book called Axiom. an axiom is a statement or proposition that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true.

Yogi Berra is famous for them-

Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.

The game isn’t over ’til it’s over.

You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.

one of my favorites is this, and forgive me if it’s stolen,

structure breeds creativity.

my thought here, is that it’s time to add some to my roo teens. try some new structure to see some creativity flow.  yup, i need some structure in my life, so blogging will act as that structure. buckle up, it’s likely to be a meandering, slow, Sunday drive kinda ride. 

start finishing.

 

not much of what i ever do gets finished. come on over, take a look through the house, you might notice it. there are projects that are just about there; drywall patched, but not painted, lights mostly installed, caulk jobs pretty much complete and so on.

the list of books i’ve read 70% of is 70% longer than my inseam.

all these little things to me just say i’m awesome at starting stuff! i’ve got vision. i’m a dreamer.

but, there’s something about going all the way, that just totally escapes me. you should see the drafts behind the scenes of this blog.

a few weeks ago, i attended a seminar from @jonacuff called “3 ways to crush your goals” one of the key take always about goal setting was simply to make milestones in goals small enough to build momentum.

I’m not sure what my goal is here, but i’ve wanted to write some thoughts out for quite a while. and my first simple milestone is to just post something. so here it goes.

it’s time to start finishing.

remarkable title

Today is gonna be the day
That they’re gonna throw it back to you
By now you should’ve somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don’t believe that anybody
Feels the way I do about you now

wonderwall-oasis 1995ish

let me say first if you don’t know this song just listen to it now.

now, i can almost smell @pizzahut pizza when i hear that song. i worked at the restaurant of the same name in my home town of greenville, mi from the fall of 1995, right before nigel dick and the boys made their splash on this side of the pond, to late spring of 1996.

not sure why but every time i hear that song, i’m back there pumping vegtable oil into those mmmm mmmm good pans.

i could tell you story after story of pizza  deliveries  that would no doubt be riveting, but the most important thing I took from that job was perspective.

the two managers, that I remember, kent and steve both had in the  mind of a nineteen year old dan, had something, sketching pretty special, something i don’t recall witnessing in too many other adults before them-or honestly after.

contentment.

it’s still difficult for me to comprehend how two grown men could be content managing that restaurant in our small town. both steve and kent genuinely seemed to take pleasure in the work we did slinging hot fresh pizza to the masses.

in reality though, those guys got it. being happy with what you’ve got, leads to happy. there’s no way that the path to happiness is whine, complain and grump your self to a better tomorrow. i’m not suggesting that just choosing to be something makes you that thing, but it goes a LONG way.

my aspiration-choose to be happy and maybe, just maybe i’ll end up that way.