“And some from among you shall build the old waste places; raising up the foundations of many generations; and be called The repairers of the breach, The restorers of paths to dwell in.”
Isaiah 58:12
“far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you.”
1 Samuel 12
There’s always going to be plenty of excuses… If you’re looking for them you’ll find an endless supply of them… There’s takers in life People who wait for some hero to come along … Or you can be someone that is a problem solver… Someone who gives back … Builds up those around them … Someone who takes initiative … Dreams dreams even… It’s ok to understand reality… Yes, it will take longer than you think… Be harder than you want … But the reward is so much greater than you dreamed… You can’t live in a harvest time all the time …but you can sow seed… You can prepare… you can see a need and meet it … You can build back what’s been forgotten… Walk firmly and gently in what you can control … You can give …
“How you do anything is how you do everything.” -Martha Beck
“Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything will rise.”
-Michael Jordan
Get the basics down. Don’t “practice” just live it out… Life isn’t waiting for you…there is no waiting room… Flip the switch… Be about your life, your business, When you’re at work be at work when you’re home be home… But be there… Someone said leaders can’t be tired… Notice they didn’t say don’t get tired … They said, can’t be tired… Show up… Everyday… You set the tone for your home and your team… So it’s going to be hard… Ok… It’s going to be uncomfortable… Ok… Get the basics down … How we do anything is how we do everything… The world will tell you… Dive into your emotions and your feelings and live there … Your happiness is the most important barometer for your life and health … But there’s something stronger than all of that… Pride and respect and responsibility… It rises above the status quo and raises the standard… Get the basics down … Write your personal philosophy and live by it … Lead your family , show them grace and strength… Lead your business…Develop and build, impact your community…
There is so much more than what we have seen and heard…
So it gets hard … You get tired … Flip the switch … Be a leader … There’s something deeper and stronger than what you’ve been sold … It’s a life well built … It’s a legacy … It’s a culture that can’t be bought… In the home and business … It’s rooted in the process… The fundamentals… The small details … Day in and day out … Whether you win or lose … You show up… Living the fundamentals … Raising your sons and daughters … Developing your team… Leading your family… That’s how champions are made … That’s how legacy’s are built … There’s pride in that that can’t be bought or stole. It’s yours.
President Kennedy was living daily with so much pain, from his Addison’s disease and colitis, along with back pain from a deteriorating spine and back surgery, that it took over 12 medications and seven injections a day along with a back brace, just to keep him going …
He couldn’t even bend over to put his shoes on…
The fact that he even got out of bed was a miracle …
I often find my self thinking about how he projected youth and vitality and strength and change…
This ability to challenge people to be better…
He refused to wear an overcoat on his Inauguration Day
Needing to project youth and strength…
He understood probably better than any of us the power of images and what they do
And the power of
Media ….
This was before an assassination
And before America lost touch with itself
And lost faith in itself
We know how the story ends
We know all the things that he started
However he is forever fixed in our minds as he worked so hard to be fixed …
Young and filled with hope.
Change is something uncomfortable
Courage, Virtue and faith is something vital to our existence …
As Joan Didion said the center is not holding…
It seems we’ve lost ourselves
And our faith
We don’t trust even our own instinct
From my side of the mountain
After struggling with Crohn’s
Divorce
Moving and changing careers
Getting sober…
I can only say
I’m writing this on the side of new beginnings
And the shadows we fight against
Just within ourselves
The urge to run
To just forget about the cost
To just forget about the thing
To cop out…
The ability to rebuild yourself
To trust yourself
To reach for change
To stay true to your convictions
Is courageous in and of itself
But it is a future worth fighting for
Worth staying for
Worth getting up in the morning for …
So keep your hope
And build
Brick by brick
And line by line
Create a future
And a home
You would like your children to come home to…
Because it’s worth the fight
Even if you hide your shadows and your struggles
Your pain…
You can still build …
It is the courage to continue in the face of everything ….that counts…
I don’t think any of us knows where it comes from, not really. You can set yourself up to be ready for it but you can’t always make it happen. Nora Ephron said writers are cannibals. We eat our own. I’ve always said we were vampires. Dottie Rambo believed in keeping notebooks near her and being ready always. It just comes to you, the writing, and you turn it over and see how many lines you can get from a single ray of light. You try to make it as clear as possible, So the reader sees what you see, hears what you hear, feels what you feel. You try to understand it. What it is to be alive… To be living…
Maybe our Hearts are like caves With burdens of their own Unique Beneath the earths crust And tho Sometimes they give in Like Samson pushing the pillars down they still hold, where it matters most… And Our hearts like caves Still have rooms To discover Still have new ways Waiting to be mapped You are still you You are still new You are still undiscovered Even after all this time -E Regardingsamuel.com
There’s a deep ache in the art… There’s a place you can go Where nobody knows How the love you held Could So easily be ashed from a cigarette … we move from mountains to valleys So easily used to the news Are we surviving ? Or are we just numb from trying … There’s a dream I keep remembering Where we follow the shadows down, we keep creating Lines across paper Making our own way … The sun keeps on setting… Blood in the water Says I don’t have much time… I still have the scars From all of those nights… There’s just enough room To build a new line word after word … Chasing some kind of Immortality a shade of sky There’s some kind of pain Some kind of rain … I’m not looking for anything But my own peace of mind … My own solitude I think I remember But I soon forget Wherever we’re going We have to leave behind …
This morning, I was not feeling it. I was anxious, sore and tired. I had 10 pallets to work and it was 3am (That’s a relatively small truck for us too) It was my sixth day in a row. On top of that, we were short handed. But my boss came in at 4am, Just to help and give me some pointers on small adjustments I could make to be more efficient with my time… You see, Every minute counts and those add up. And the truth is, it’s hard to see and hard to hear sometimes but it really is time management that either makes your day or breaks your day. It’s usually not the big things killing us. For example, Small adjustments, So easy I was almost mad that I overlooked it…but once I adjusted …. I had 7 out of 10 pallets broke down and done by 6am.
You need other people to help you grow You need that other perspective You can’t win on your own…. You need smarter people in the room You need to surround yourself with people who force you to grow and challenge yourself You need people who tell you no… You need people to help you level up.
That’s how you make it That’s how you grow That’s how you learn and how you help those around you grow And achieve their goals.
Come on back To the outside of town Where the dust and the earth and the moon get down … Get gone now, past the interstate The city lights The on ramp The mile marker My hometown My big mistake God only knows We’ve been working hard Forever now… Sinful as they come Can I lay down with you, I don’t have time To carry all this hate Got to lay it down Got to lay it down Got to get gone now Got to get away … —— We’ve got to lay it down We’ve got to drive it out Past the interstate Further on out Where the dust and the earth and the moon get down…
3. Double check and don’t forget to add the butter.
4. Hand written letters
5. Cheesecake
6. Family.
7. Be forgiving as you can. When you reach your thirties everything levels and you understand you don’t have forever or endless opportunity. But you also know, you don’t know all you will know, you have so much left …
8. Reading on Sunday’s with coffee.
9. Thunderstorms.
10. Old films.
11. Nora Ephron’s essays and books.
12. DVDs and 90s films (it’s really interesting to find out why we don’t have films like these anymore …you lost the dvd and vhs market so they have to have a win right out of the gate and that’s a gamble they aren’t willing to make…Matt Damon talks about it in a couple of interviews.)
13. Used book stores.
14. Halloween
15. Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
16. Sweaters and naps
17. Cooking for company.
18. Coffee dates and walks
19. Writing essays
20. I’m particularly thankful for Humira and my doctors and specialist…sometimes it sucks taking shots every week but then I remember all those weeks in the hospital and NG tubes and surgery
I’m thankful for stories
The power of language
We can be anything we want in life but not everything – but with writing, we very nearly do …
Regarding Samuel 