Taking Your Life For Granted, Not My Own, Obviously.

Good morning everybody, it's time to wake up and get busy. I'd like to start with an apology to my little sister, Shannon. It seems I have embarrassed her with yesterday's email. She's always wanted to be famous, I guess just not because of her habit of blaming the dog for her unpleasantries... So please erase yesterday's post from your memory. Didn't work, yeah I didn't think it would, but I tried.

So, lately I have been thinking about life and it's delicateness. Too much I think the majority of us take life for granted, as if we're going to live forever and anything that we're too lazy to do today, we'll just do tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is never guaranteed, though we'd like to think so and often live as if it is. How many of you have thought, "man, if I could go back to high school knowing what I know now, I would do a whole lot of things differently..."? Well, that's because we know now that we took those years for granted. You have a choice to live life the way you want to live it, but realize that when you get to the end of the road, whether you're expecting it or not, that you'll look back on your life and the things you've accomplished, the relationships you've built, and the things you wish you'd done differently, but you won't be able to go back and change anything. Don't do that to yourself, you don't deserve that, nobody does.

Do you really want to look back and think, "man, I can't believe I put myself through all of that torture staying in that abusive relationship because I thought it was better for the kids", or, "I wish I had confessed my love for her and asked her to marry me", or even, "why didn't I talk David Hillman into investing in my jazz club idea". (I know, that was cheap, but I'd regret not having taken the opportunity to throw that out there in the hopes that he would somehow, some day read this and be inspired).

First of all, nobody should put themselves through an abusive relationship, especially for the kids. How will your kids grow up respecting you or themselves knowing that you don't respect yourself? Stand up for yourself and for your kids, because even though you might think you're sheltering them from your unhappiness, you're not. You're only teaching them not to stand up for themselves and you will regret it later.

Secondly, I know there have been someone in some of your lives that you were completely in love with, but for fear of rejection you kept it to yourself, only to doom yourself to a life of mediocrity and someone that you struggle to be with day in and day out. My best friend, Bo showed me that no matter the circumstances, go for the one you know is right for you. He went right after the one that he knew would make him happy, even though she probably could have had anybody and she tried to pass him off in the beginning to a friend. He was persistent, and I think him and his wife will appreciate his determination for the rest of their lives. Okay, okay, wrapping it up...

Two last things, first I'd like you to check out this video when you have a chance on your free time (please don't try to watch it at work. I don't wanna get fired because I had a bunch of people spend an hour of their workday watching a video). It's the final lecture by a 47 year old college professor named Randy Pausch who is dying of cancer, and it is definitely eye opening. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HqdnjgkExY) And lastly I'd like to leave you with this quote I read a couple of years ago that has kind of stuck with me.

"Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."
- Mark Twain

It seems like a good outlook to have, why not? Have a good day everybody.