Just stop fighting it. Rambling episodes of thought.

We should stop fighting who we are. We should also understand and stop fighting that we change. Sometimes couples change so much that they should stop fighting it and separate. Sometimes losing a job is good if we learn to stop frighting it and grow.

I cannot be so bold. I preach and a few folks hear my words. I write and a very few read my words. I speak but only to loved ones at any length. I like my life. Others seem to like me. I like everyone I meet.

Just today I walked up to a plant. It was so ugly. It made me feel handsome. I took water from my bottle for my hike and cleaned her wings/leaves/peddles. We appreciated each other for a few moments. Probably she has forgotten me. But I shall never forget her.

My friends and colleagues and wife want more from me. They are amazed at my talents and skills. However what they see is capacity to produce. Me I see the ability to be in the moment and absorb beauty. I love a good nap in the afternoon. I like just watching my youngest squirt the hose. I like trimming roses and cleaning my fish tank. I think chamomile tea is better than coffee, although I love coffee.

A really bad ass hike is better than a win in court. A sermon that that moves, is better than a corporate presentation.

So am I a bad man? Am I wrong to put on the armor of love in the morning instead of that sword of battle?

Like I said I probably need more testosterone ;-)

Probably far less. Far more die in childbirth than war.

Have you ever had a job that required you to be armed with a gun? Go ahead and just imagine it. There is a 9mm on your hip and you have it there because you are authorized to use it. And circumstances require that you do use it. One in about 3/4 of a billion people do that every day. Oh many have the weapon but the use of it is tiny.

The guard was "on patrol" a forty five was aimed at him. The guard jumped as fast as he could out of shot. Dialed 911 and everyone is alive today. The guard had a gun. That is how it goes down. TV is cool. But not real.

His britches were tossed as they were soiled. The gunman is in a mental ward. And the guard's child seems to like to have him around, as does his mother -- at least they seem to.

I was sucking down Clausthauler beers and she was dosing on coke a cola. My eldest daughter and I were flying at 8k feet just below the San Francisco peaks and about ready to drop into the Oak Creek canyon just above Sedona Arizona. A place that is my home, but an attraction for over 10 million per year. All four hands went up in the air. And I quickly decelerated and we pulled of and drank from a little known spring.

My daughter and I have gone our separate ways. She is Director of operations of some huge group that puts more folk in congress than you can imagine. I counted up and my children and I have 9 degrees between us. A few magma cum laureate tee das and one doctorate and two masters. But we also have a nanny headed to Mongolia and a young man who is and artist and the face on posters for Men's warehouse and the leader of a rockin roll band in SF.

Life is a trip. Sign on. go for the ride.

Life is not a novel. It does not have smooth transitioning parts. It is short soundbites and trailers. It is disjointed paragraphs and dangling prepositions with quotation marks out of place.

If your life is all smooth and comes out in a proper order --- get a hold of the author and demand a rewrite. Internally we can be all calm and serene but it is a mistake to try and make the world conform. I suggest you be a part of the play and not the director and producer and writer.

Carpe Diem --- Old Horace gave us this notion: Used as an admonition to seize the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future.

I suggest we would do well to allow ourselves that gift. Plan your trip, but make allowance therein for detours.