General Jackassery

Here’s a bit of perspective to get you thinking about why we love the holidays and what they mean to us. I have to admit that I don’t out right celebrate Christmas like I should. What I mean is I don’t really think of Christmas as Jesus’ Birthday. That said I do think that I celebrate it the way God would want me to. Christmas to me is a time for family and friends, it’s a time for the whole world to be NICE to each other and to treat each other with respect, it’s a time for people to think about the needs, wants and desires of the people around them instead of focusing solely on themselves. It’s really nice because there’s the one month out of the year that many of us act like we should act for an entire year. We’re nice to each other, we’re nice to our families, we’re caring, generous, thoughtful. It’s unfortunate that as soon as Christmas is over we all seem to go back to living our lives the way we normally would, with “ME” being the center of my attention. Don’t get me wrong, you have to think about yourself from time to time, but I think it wouldn’t hurt most of us to think about the rest of us from time to time.

Here’s an email that someone sent me that was what sparked this post.

“Who started Christmas?

There was a woman who was out Christmas shopping with her two children.

After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else
imaginable, and after hours of hearing both her children asking for
everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the
elevator with her two kids.
Finally the elevator doors opened and there was already a crowd in the
car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with
her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed she couldn’t take
it anymore and stated, “Whoever started this whole Christmas thing
should be found, strung up and shot!”
From the back of the car everyone heard a quiet calm voice respond,
“Don’t worry we already crucified Him.”
For the rest of the trip down, the elevator was so quiet you could have
heard a pin drop. ”

Everyone spends too much time thinking about the commercialism of the holiday and not the real meaning. In reality we should celebrate Christmas all year long. I think the world would be a better place for it.

That is all!

Todder

That’s kind of how I feel today. Like I’m on one knee and don’t quite have the strength to stand on my two feet.

It’s funny how life is! If you count the number of good things that happen in any given day I feel pretty certain that they would out number all the bad things that go on. However, the bad things are all we seem to be able to remember. It’s kind of the same with wants and needs. Once you finally have something that you wanted or needed there’s always something else that you want or need and people just never seem to be able to make themselves happy with what they have. I guess it’s the thrill of the chase.

My Dad used to always say that when things get bad, he just looks to the sky and say’s “Thanks God! I have no complaints!”

Okay, take all of that stuff an wrap into a tortilla and you have the burrito that’s been stuck in my head all morning. The question of “why can’t you just be happy with what you have?” is continually going through my head. If I count the number of things that have gone right for me or been good for me this morning and I count the things that have gone wrong, they are clearly in the favor of the good. So why is it that I’m done?

I don’t need anything! I have everything I ever wanted and I have somethings that I wasn’t sure I’d ever have.

I’d love to be able to say that I’m going to stop wanting and just be happy with what I have, but I can’t say that! Not wanting makes you complacent. You get stuck in ruts that way.

I’ll never forget, getting on my bike a couple of weeks ago in the pouring rain. I had forgotten to turn the crockpot on and I was planning on having dinner cooked when I got home, so my only option was to go back to the house and turn the crockpot on, but I didn’t want to drive. If I drove to the house I would waste my chance at getting my ride in that day. So I road my bike the 14 miles to the house and the 14 miles back to work, in the rain. As I was riding that day I passed three little signs on the side of the road. I have no idea what their intent was or why they were there, but they said Do……….You………Desire?

The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes” there are SO many things that I desire and I’m not going to stop until I get what I want out of life for me!

I AM going to do my best to stop dwelling on things that don’t go my way, but I’m NOT going to stop wanting.

Okay, back to the real world where work awaits

Todder

Okay, so I didn’t think I was going to post again today, but the urge to write has been in me for the last couple of months. I’ve really missed having clubtodder.com to vent my frustrations from time to time.

Anyway, I’m still at work and despite an intense desire to go home and sleep I sit here pecking away the keyboard. I feel like I’m getting nowhere fast with the project that I’m working on. It’s funny because I told Sarah last night that the funny thing about mountains is they never change size; they just look bigger the closer you get to them. Now I’m staring down a design package that has to be out the door by Monday. This package will consist of 130 pages of drawings give or take a few and I just can’t seem to motivate myself to really get going on it.

So much has happened in the last 4 months that I could probably write a book about it. Needless to say I’ve learned a lot about myself and about the people that I’ve surrounded myself with.

I’ve learned that my friends and family are the absolute best that anyone could ever ask for. You guys have been so loyal to me and so supportive over this period of time that’s been very hard for me to get through. I’m so proud that I have you all on my side.

I’ve learned that I made a huge mistake several months ago and to this day I regret it. There are some things and some people in life that are SO special that to throw them away is a mistake that cannot be made up for. I’ve never been one to intentionally hurt people, but sometimes when you’re lost you don’t know what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s up and what’s down. I was lost! You truly amaze me that you’ve been able to forgive me!

I’ve learned that God has really blessed me; that even when I make bad mistakes there always seems to be a solution to the problem that I’ve gotten myself into. Things always seem to work out the way they are supposed to. God has blessed me with gifts that I never could have imagined and those gifts aren’t material they are my friends, my family and a person that I will never again take for granted.

Life is sometimes very hard but over the last 6 months, since I bought my house, I’ve learned to love again. I’ve learned to love my family and my friends more than I ever did before. And I’ve learned to appreciate them because you guys are the reason I am what I am. You’ve helped me keep going when I didn’t think I could.

Okay, I know it sounds like I’m being sappy, but these are things that I truly believe and feel. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been in my life, despite the amazing amount of stress that I’ve been under the last couple of months. You know what they say though, diamonds are formed under intense pressure and hopefully one day I’ll turn out to be a diamond. Until then I’ll just keep pedaling and one day I’ll get there.

Somewhere, some how I found the drive and the desire to make changes in my life and I thank you guys for that!

Todder

P.S. Bebo Norman will probably never see this site, but many thanks to him. His music has been an inspiration to me and sometimes it keeps me aware of some of parts of life that I don’t think about all the time.