Well it feels like the Texas summer has lost its fire a bit and what to most of you is early fall (we have no such thing) has brought the rains. Glorious rain! Living out rurally under very dry southern conditions, rain brings us a peace it’s hard for city & suburb dwellers to know. Like many ways, living close to the land puts you very close to nature and this incredible setup of circles & cycles that all works to its own rhythm and has its own rhyme; you fall in with it at least somewhat or you fail out here, it’s as simple as that. You give the terrain and time of year and temperature your respect or it takes you out. It brings its own challenges, but September rains ease a bit of that for sure.
This is the time of year when I look back over my shoulder at the year so far and ahead to what can realistically be finished in what remains of it, make a game plan and throw myself and the workshop at it “balls out” as they say. Thankfully for all involved that is not to be taken literally – folks might get a little testy, heh heh. But we’re rolling strong, though I do want to thank you all for your patience as things have rolled a little differently this year after so many at almost 24/7. A bit slower than I thought but I’m not going to be of much use to anyone if I try to run the road like it’s still 1995 and I’m still that guy who has to move the mountain. That mountain moved. Now starting to look forward at needing to maintain at a pace more sane, I took what I could of weekends and started really trying to… well, SLEEP – both firsts in my life of keeping things rolling. I punched my last time clock in my 20s, and though I understand that grind well, when you go your own way it requires YOU to be consumed as fuel.
Even decades in it still does if you’re the quarterback, if you’re the Stephen Stills of the band, if you’re the Captain Manyhands. There IS no clocking out. So while I’m actually getting good stretches of sleep and working into that, and there haven’t been ANY night shifts in 2018, there have still been reeeeeally early mornings – as any seeker on a path knows, that is when the deepest work is done. It sets you up to be up at that time getting yourself together and then hitting the day with the inertia of steadiness in your who and why; then you bring & APPLY that to what needs to be done. It sets up a very productive day when the sun has to rise to greet you and you’re already into your list for the day. The hours are still long, because I still love what I do and there’s this glorious pile of build sheets I have the privilege to be working through bringing to life and looking forward to… all of this blessing and I am very, very grateful.
And I’m very grateful for you and for all of the everyday heroes mixed in past, passed and present – those who walk among us in times of relative calm but when big things happen fast they throw themselves at the situation to help, running the other direction, often risking their own very lives to help others they don’t even know… who might not look or talk like they do, might even (gasp) vote differently. Imagine that. It’s a heavy week in the history of our nation, one in which so much was lost, but so many awakened. It was difficult NOT to have shifts in priorities, importance of dreams, and things personally that needed to change all bubble up inside of us with the emotion of the moment. Many life paths were altered by what happened but many more by its ripples. I’ve known some who completely changed life paths in the weeks and months that followed, or were moved to do things that THEN changed their whole lives, and affected the lives of others, and of those yet to fill the chairs of tomorrow’s dreams… the people, heroes, and seekers yet to come. Spread far on the winds like seeds to bloom and beautify… by tragedy. Amazing how that happens. I will forever remember where I was, and so will they. Wherever any of you are today, I wish you wellness – wholeness – and beauty in your gardens.
This is up a day early on Thursday this week as the computer is going to be shut down for 3 or 4 days, so if you need to get a hold of me call me on the phone like the old days – (512) 395-5126. It might shock you, but I don’t text. So call. And if you don’t leave a message, I won’t know who you are or that you called! So please leave one and I’ll get right back with you post haste, forth with, and ipso facto. If you follow on Facebook, I’ll give y’all Monday’s sunrise inspirational post to get you started on kicking Monday’s ass so the rest of the week falls in line for you and you feel good about that here now, so you can start working on it over the weekend. After all, why wait ‘til the last minute? And I’ll leave you with this until we talk again next week.
“Be strong along your path but malleable enough to be shaped and sharpened by it into who will be needed when you get where it goes.”
Listening to: Lots of Delta Blues – Mississippi Fred McDowell, early RL Burnside, Jack Owens, Bukka White.