REFLECTIONS, PLANS, AND WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Where to begin? Thanksgiving was, as the name implies, a day of thanksgiving in our humble homestead.
It may seem a bit self centered but the list of things for which we are thankful begins with the fact I survived to see the holiday after a year that included interviews with Jay Leno, which required a drive to the Los Angeles metro area, skin cancer, and a bacterial infection that put me in the hospital. From that point the list of things for which we are thankful for include our 2.5 grandchildren, my family, and the opportunities to share my fascination with Route 66 and the road less traveled through books and photography that I hope will inspire others to chart their own adventures of discovery.
Tied in with the later are the wonderful people met along the way and as a result of the books written. These folks are truly the seasoning that make those adventures so memorable.
We are also quite grateful for the friends and acquaintances that have survived a year filled with even more trial and tribulations than we endured. With that thought in mind, I have a personal message for Cort – get better soon or the next music shipment could be very strange indeed.
The plans for the weekend, as is often the case in my corner of the world, are quite lengthy. They include a long anticipated trip to the auto show in Las Vegas, a shared birthday present for my son, finishing the photo file for the Route 66 encyclopedia, and preparing all of the related files for shipment ot the publisher on Monday. Then I can start on the feature for Old Cars Weekly, seek the top of my desk after locating the desk, and organize photos for future projects.
With the slate relatively clean I can turn my attention to other projects such as trying to interest the publisher in the next book, and planning a Route 66 adventure to promote the books as well as photography from behind the wheel of …If I get bored there are a few dozen jobs around the house that have been pressing for the past couple of years.
I have shared a few of these thoughts, these words of encouragement before but in light of the ongoing replay of the Great Depression they are worth repeating.
1) as bad as it seems today, if tomorrow is worse, then today will seem like the good old days –
2) no matter how bad the job is, you can bet money that it offers opportunity for a slower death than starvation –
3) if you start every day meditating on the worst case scenario for the day, you will be suprised by just how good the day seems to go –
4) if you focus on the past with little thought of the future, you most will not see the opportunity until it becomes a part of history –