Are You Ok?

How many times have you been asked that question?  If you’re a little too long in texting back, you’re going to get it.  Truth is, there are a number of ways to get that question.  The problem is not the question, it’s the answer.

Okay will pay the bills.  Okay will give you a relationship you can live with.  Okay will get you there.  What it won’t do is fulfill your dreams.  Okay won’t make you squeal with delight at the end of the day or the end of your life.

Okay is getting by.  You were not created for okay.  You were created for great.  You were created to live with passion and that is okay.

Bear Encounter

I am blessed to live only minutes from the Smoky Mountains so it is like a second home to me.  Perhaps one of my favorite places in the world is Cades Cove.  In the event you’re not familiar, it is an eleven mile loop of historic structures of a bygone era.  It is serene and regardless of how many times I visit, it’s always like the first.

Wildlife is abundant in the cove.  Sometimes, too much so.  Wednesday and Saturday mornings are reserved for foot and bicycle traffic only.  The quiet and coolness of the morning is exhilarating.  It’s my drug and I’m addicted.

This past Saturday as I was zooming down a hill, a noticed out of the corner of my eye, a black object moving toward the road.  I turned just enough to see the male black bear sauntering toward the road and on a collision course with me.  Ok, I admit it.  I was a little freaked out.  The brakes were responding, the tires were not as I worked quickly through my options.  If I hit him, I knew my helmet wasn’t going to be of much use.  The bike screeched to a halt 20 feet from the bear who was now in the middle of the road.  He paused, glanced at me and continued across the road and into the woods.

As I continued, I began thinking about the close encounter just a mile back.  Suddenly, a deer crossed the road up the hill ahead of me.  I was awestruck.  I thought about the hundreds of miles I’ve ridden a bike, but never a ride like this.  I had two up close and personal encounters that most people will never experience.  Both were magnificent, different and rare.

Life is like that.  I didn’t start that morning anticipating seeing anything except trees, flowers and pavement.  The wildlife was a bonus.  Someone asked why I didn’t take a picture.  There were two reasons:  First, I freaked.  I really was watching the bear to see what he was going to do.  I’ve seen many bears, usually when there is a crowd around and at least one other person I think I could outrun.  It was just me this time. The second, a little more practical.  Some experiences are better with no photo.  I sat there drinking in the moment.  I didn’t want to think about anything except what was happening.

I’m convinced we need moments like that.  Time for just being and reflecting.  Those are the ones you don’t need a picture of, it’s burned in your memory.  If you cant’t find those in your album, get out and make some.  It may be in the mountains, by the ocean or just in your backyard.   We all need those times when, for a moment, everything stops and your total focus is on just being.

What Are You Doing?

I always hated that question.  Not so much the question as the tone that accompanied it and generally the situation.  Did it ever happen to you?  Usually, asked by one parent or the other when you were involved in something that at best was edgy and at worse was wrong and you knew it.

In my case, it was rhetorical.  It always involved some failure on my part.  My heart would begin to race, my hands get sweaty and my mind become like scrambled eggs.

I want to encourage you to turn the question on yourself.  Not for the “gotcha” factor, but for some introspection.  Are you doing what you should do? What you want to do? What you were created to do?

When we take a job with someone else, we instantly put on the “golden handcuffs” of the  job.  Regular pay, benefits, maybe even a company car.  Now, we’re stuck.  Just look at what we’d have to give up.  And the reality is, we give up a little more or ourselves each day.  One more day or one less, depending on how you view it.  A friend of my recently reminded me how short life is.  So true.

So, what are you doing?  More importantly, what are you GOING to do?  You’d better get started.  Time is running out.

Almost, Not Quite

There is an invisible line for each one of us.  Then invisible line I’m talking about is the line between, “almost” and “good enough”.  Often, the difference is one more step, one more climb or one final push.

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Authentic living requires risk.  There is no easy or cheap and the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.  The reason so many will never display their “magnum opus” is because they like willingness, not skill.

Unfortunately, it is often only in later years that we begin to realize the high price that we paid for the short cuts we took.  Buying something less to have it now as opposed to waiting and getting what we really wanted.  Investing our lives somewhere that paid well, but provided minimal satisfaction.  The list goes on.

Never accept second, never.  The inherent risk is that when you do it once, you may do it again and then it becomes a lifestyle.  Wait, hold out and never accept less from yourself or anyone else.  The legendary Adolph Rupp once had one of his Kentucky Wildcats come up to him and proudly report that he had just hit 23 of 25 free throws!  A very impressive display.  Expecting his couch to pat him on the back, Rupp retorted, “What happened to the other two?”

Open yourself and let your music play.  Some will not like your song, but that is their shortcoming, not yours.  The right people will love the sound and they will buy your record and learn to sing your song too.  Don’t settle, soar.

Failure Is Not An Option

Many years ago, I read a question that went something like this, “If you knew that you couldn’t fail, what would you do?”  Said another way, if failure was impossible, what would you attempt?  Much more than you have I’ll guess.

Fear keeps us from accomplishing many of the things that we could.  I know it has me.  Whether fear of failure, the opinions of others or fear of looking foolish, my life has been a shadow of what I intended.  It doesn’t matter about the past.  We can’t change it, regardless how much we wish we could.  The question is, what will you do now?

Maybe you, like me, have allowed fear to rule too many times.  I quit.  I’m not talking about being foolish, but brave.  There is a difference, although to the casual observer, the difference seems miniscule.  Ignore them.  At the end of the day, it is better to have tried and failed than to have never tried.  Refuse to live with the regret of not knowing what you could have become.