I've been reading Jon Acuff's new book Start.    I won't even attempt to paraphrase the book in this post (or any other) but basically it's about breaking free from "average".    I wouldn't consider it a motivational book or a self-help book.  There are no cutesy catch phrases and no "power of positive thinking".  It's more or less an "if you don't like where you are in life then do something about it" book.  I like that.
   So, in reflecting on what I had read the other day I asked myself " Kip, if you could make a living doing anything in the world what would you be doing?".   To which I promptly answered " I don't know."   
     I discovered that I lost my dream.   I know I had it with me but now I can't find it.  I set it down somewhere between changing dirty diapers and paying for college and now I don't know where it is. In fact I haven't seen it in so long I'm not real sure what it looks like.  I know for sure I had one though.  I used it all the time when I was a kid.   Maybe I wore it out or got to big for it.  I don't know what happened to it!   I will find it! I promise you that!!!

I think most men have a natural desire to be successful and most of us measure our success in our accumulation of pictures of dead presidents.  I'm no different. I have spent the majority of my life pursuing things that always seemed to be just out of my reach.  But I was struck by a thought this morning as my oldest daughter hugged me and then left to go back to college.  Somehow, without even being aware that it was happening, I have reached a level of success that outweighs my bank account.

I have a college age daughter who posts on her facebook page how much she loves me and is proud of me. 

I have a daughter in high school who still thinks it's cool to hug her dad in front of her friends.

I have middle schooler that still thinks it's funny to pull my finger, and loves to share her dreams with me.

I have wife who has stayed in this rodeo for 21 years and still smiles and hugs me when I come through the door.

I know the race isn't over.  Life could change tomorrow, but today I'm a successful man.

     I embarassed my youngest daughter tonight.  I won't say how (when you have a house full of women it really isn't that hard).  In doing so I was hit with a bitter reality.  I no longer have a house full of little girls.  Somehow, while I wasn't looking, they turned into young women.  My days of skinned knees and cooties are behind me.  "Yucky boys" have turned into " he's HOT".  All  I did was blink.  For just an instant my eyes closed and then they opened but in that instant life flew by.  It was disguised as work and paying bills and getting to practice and another Prom dress and...and...and...then it was gone.   My oldest daughter was home from college the other day and as I watched her bound up the stairs my mind replayed the picture I have of me holding her the day she was born.  I blinked.  You can't prevent it, there is no delaying it, life is happening and in it's happening it is passing. 
      So if reality is "you can't take it with you" why do we spend so much time and effort to get it? My brother reminded me one time that " fifty years after you die nobody will ever know you were here." I believe he is almost right.  Fifty years after I'm gone nobody will know my name, but I bet I can leave an influence in the lives I touch today that will last longer than fifty years!   The only thing that will last forever are the souls of the people we touch today.   Start with the people you have to remind to take their laundry downstairs, and brush their teeth, change their clothes because nobody with your last name is wearing that to school.
      Our job as men is to be men. The future may never know your name but it will recognize the pedigree.
  

Starting over

I've been away from the computer for awhile.  Can't say that I've missed it but now I have to start everything over again.  This seems to be the theme of my life.  More to come....maybe.