Opening paragraphs.............

It's five-fifteen in the morning, and my father is waiting outside my door.  As I open it, I'm struck by his size.  In my late twenties, I'm now bigger than Dad, but I don't feel it.  In my mind, I still come up only to his shoulder.  He has the weathered quality of a lifelong outdoorsman, his skin like tanned leather—a bit worn, but hardened by the elements.

-Boyd Varty,  Cathedral Of The Wild:  An African Journey Home

Fifty years ago.....................

The Jackson 5..........................................................I'll Be There

Value first..........................

My sales philosophy is different.  It's called "value first."  Simply put, I put value in the hands of my potential customers before I ever ask them the buy anything.

-Jeffrey Gitomer,  Little Red Book of Selling

the grace needed...................

Value is, at bottom, simple.  The balance of values is complex, and how to trade them, to choose the worthiest course, is the problem of how to live.  Life has its absurdities, which we might expect and find humor in.  As for the meaning of life itself, in human history, we have yet to formulate an answer.  But we have found good enough reasons to potentially find meaning in our own situation, enough so as to find personal peace.  We needn't resign from life or withdraw, but can instead ready ourselves for being ever more attuned, in faithful practice.  For the basic joy in the surfer's kind of relational connection, even in an ordinary surf, is a real basis for peace in the sublime mix of the beautiful and the grotesque, of the fortunate and the unfortunate, of the just and the unjust.   One can relax the perfectionist scruples, ease up on the angst, and be less anxious.  One can get stoked and simple engage in worthy activities that give one the grace needed to call the present good enough within a life that's being well lived.

-Aaron James,  Surfing With Sartre:  An Aquatic Inquiry Into A Life Of Meaning

Writing..........................

     Kenyatta and I had been together for nine years, and during that time I had never been able to consistently contribute a significant income.  I was a writer and felt myself part of the tradition stretching back to a time when reading and writing were, for black people, the marks of rebellion.  I believed, somewhat absurdly, that they still were.  And so I derived great meaning from the work of writing.  But I could not pay the rent with "great meaning."  I could not buy groceries with "great meaning." With "great meaning" I overdrew accounts.  With "great meaning" I burned through credit cards and summoned the IRS.  Wild and unlikely schemes often appeared before me.  Maybe I should go to culinary school.  Maybe I should be a bartender.  I'd considered driving a cab.  Kenyatta had a more linear solution:  "I think you should spend more time writing."

-Ta-Nehisi Coates:  We Were Eight Years In Power:  An American Tragedy

but it just might give them a better chance at having a life filled with grace and joy...

But the world looks different from the perspective of middle age. In her last 19 months of life, Ruthie showed me that I now had important work to do back home. Hers was a work of stewardship—of taking care of the land, the family, and the people in the community. By loving them all faithfully and tending them with steadfast care, Ruthie accomplished something countercultural, even revolutionary in our restless age.

-Rod Dreher, from this incredible essay on life its ownself

Fifty years ago................

Creedence Clearwater Revival.....................Who'll Stop The Rain

Let's dance............................

. . . the numerical, chronological age has no power within itself.  It is our belief about it, how we hold it in mind, and how we genuflect to all the belief systems that go with it and that we have bought into throughout the years that have power.  How is it that some people are dancing and performing at age eighty, and other people at age fifty-nine are ready for the grave?

-David R. Hawkins,  Healing and Recovery

Yep........................

"The world defies our attempts to confine it with neat definitions."

-Tim Harford, from this post

A crimble wish......................

..............................the actual return of Sippican Cottage.

Fifty years ago

The Five Stairsteps................................................O-O-H Child

Housel on risk.................

Risk gets ugly when you think it requires a specific forecast before you start preparing for it. It’s better to have expectations that risk will arrive but you don’t know when or where than to rely exclusively on forecasts – almost all of which are either nonsense or about things that are well known.

Two things happen when you’re caught off guard. One is that you’re vulnerable, with no protection against what you hadn’t considered. The other is that surprise shakes your beliefs in a way that leaves you paranoid and pessimistic.

-Morgan Housel, as extracted from here

On comparing things.................

     People who have been trained in decision-making understand that you can't evaluate things in isolation. . . . If you have a strong opinion about a proposed plan but you have not compared it to the next best alternative, you are not part of a rational conversation.

-Scott Adams, Loserthink:  How Untrained Brains Are Ruining America

About that 80/20 thing.................

     When everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equal.  We become active and busy, but this doesn't actually move us any closer to success.  Activity is often unrelated to productivity, and busyness rarely takes care of business. . . . In other words, in the world of success, things aren't equal.  A small amount of causes creates most of the results.  Just the right input creates most of the output.  Selected effort creates almost all of the rewards.  Pareto points us in a very clear direction:  the majority of what you want will come from the minority of what you do.  Extraordinary results are disproportionately created by fewer actions than most realize.

-Gary Keller, The One Thing:  The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

Fifty years ago.......................

Rare Earth...............................................................Get Ready

Do yourself a favor.............

 "Put down your cell phones, put everything away, and feel your blood pulsing in you, feel your creative impulse, feel your own spirit, your heart, your mind. Feel the joy of being alive and free."

-Patti Smith, as lifted from the essential blog where cool is the only rule

On habits..................

Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. Men form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the kind of man you are because you have formed the habit of being that kind of man, and the only way you can change is through habit. 

-Albert E. N. Gray, from his speech, The Common Denominator of Success

Fifty years ago....................

Guess Who...........................................................No Sugar Tonight

On letting go..................

     God is life.  God is life in action.  The best way to say, "I love you, God," is to live your life doing your best.  The best way to say, "Thank you, god," is by letting go of the past and living in the present moment, right here and now.  Whatever life takes away from you, let it go.  When you surrender and let go of the past, you allow yourself to be fully alive in the moment.  Letting go of the past means you can enjoy the dream that is happening right now.

-Don Miguel Ruiz,  The Four Agreements:  A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Execute......................

I am consistently amazed and disappointed at the small number of people willing to execute the simple daily self-disciplines needed to reach higher levels of success.  They know it will bring them the success they dream about, yet they fail to execute. . . .
The victory we call success goes to the best prepared, self-believing, right associated, self taught, responsible person, who sees the opportunity and is willing to take a risk to seize it - sometimes a big risk.

-Jeffrey Gitomer, from his Little Red Book of Selling