Light Thoughts

     It was over a year ago in the summer when I first saw it. It was early on a Saturday morning. I was leaving the house to take a walk around my neighborhood. I had discovered an app on my phone that would tell me how far I walked, how long it took and how fast I went.  Life was good. I stepped out of my front door and there it was "Mount Killamoletomorow!"      At first the mole hills seemed to show up just on the weekends. I remember joking with my neighbor that the mole must have a regular job and this was just his weekend job. My strategy back then was to take away the dirt, dig down to the tunnel, and flood it with water. It didn't make the mole problem go away but it made it bearable as it seemed to slow it  down. When I bought my house in 2015 I got a $1000 credit because the front yard had drainage problems. During the winter season it seemed like the water did not pool as much down by the house as it had. I began to think that by all ...

     Last week I promised to tell you why I am writing a blog and why I think people should read it. Let me start by saying that I never want to come across as a know-it-all. I do not now, or ever will have all the answers. I do, however, have a lot of questions. I look at things that are happening in my life and in others around me and I ponder. I ponder a lot, sometimes too much. This blog then is my way to share my observations and my thoughts.      One thought I have is that to find our passion we have to find our purpose and our gifts and talents. Turns out that finding your passion might not be the best way to say it but I will talk more about that later. I like goals and dreams because they give me something to aim for. This leads me to think about the purpose of this blog and what my goals are in writing it. So I have come up with a short blog manifesto. It will help me to stay on course and you are all welcome to help hold me to it. However, sinc...

Scarface I recently had my second spot of skin cancer removed from my face which will cause me to have a scar. I know that there are ways to reduce the visibility of scars but because this has happened to me I have been thinking about scars, both physical and emotional. This can be a heavy subject but since I am writing a blog and not a book, I will try to be short and sweet. My first thought is that a scar represents where I have been but it does not have to represent where I am going.  The good news is that no matter what has happened, we get to choose how we respond and in doing so can have some say in our future. My skin cancer represents many years of living on a farm in Minnesota as a boy. It also represents 30 plus years of not letting snow or rain or gloom of night or sunshine keep me from my appointed rounds as a letter carrier for the US Postal Service. Let me give you some options I have when I look at my scar.  I know this is very simplified but I think yo...

     I've been thinking a lot about what it means to have a great day. Because, after all, who doesn't want everyday to be a great day. Most of us think that's not possible and will settle for more good days than bad. What's the truth here? Can we put together a string of great days like a baseball player who has a hit in every game? Hang on because my answer is yes.      To start we need to decide what would constitute a great day. Would winning the lottery count? How about getting a great price on a new car? Catching your limit when salmon fishing would be nice? As we get older, any day that we are healthy and have energy can be a great day. But these are things that happen to you, and you do not have a great deal of control if any at making these things happen. So can we agree that if we want to have a great day every day it needs to consist of things we can control? So let's look at what kind of things that we can control.      I am...