There’s got to be something more to this life than what we see. I mean more than the status symbols that we were taught to envy or admire and more than money or who has the most toys. There has to be something more than who we are in the ranks of popularity or where we live or work or how much we earn.
Life has to be more than an exclusive address or club memberships.
There’s more to us than that.
I know there is.

Yet, the grass is always greener, as they say. Or, we can learn that the grass is greenest where it is cared for the best.

And you run sometimes. You know?
You try to find someplace safe or, if anything, you try to find someplace away from everything that’s been going on behind you.
But it trails – you know?
Life seems to follow you . . . and
You run and you run but eventually, the question becomes, “where are we going?”
What the hell are we doing?

There was an idea that I heard the other night.
The idea is to smile in the face of adversity. Imagine that. To smile at the face of an otherwise enemy – to breathe regardless of the things that would otherwise leave you breathless.
I say this is an amazing quality to have.
I say to have this ability is more than heroic. I say this is almost a superpower – to smile in the face of hatred or outrage; or to smile regardless of the unhappy or the ugly features of an enemy or to smile at a life less desired. But more, to smile as an action instead of retaliation or a means of response.

My morning drive is early. Then again all morning drives are early, at least mine are.
I am up long before the sun, which is fine because it has been this way for a very long time.
I am an early riser. I always have been and I always will be,which, again, this is fine because I like the quiet before the world wakes up.

I like the early stillness and the sleepiness of the towns which I have earned the right to call my own.
I am used to this – my routine.

It is to the best of my understanding that there has never been anyone in the world who can say or claim that they have either monopolized or cornered the market on happiness.
With that being said, I do believe that happiness is a craft. It takes work. In fairness to ourselves and to our own lives as we relate to the world and all the jazz we have to face, or at minimum, with all that we encounter or deal with on a daily basis, we have to understand that life is not a work-free environment.
Not at all. In fact, life is quite the contrary.
Nothing worthwhile comes easy – or so they say.
No one walks onto a field at practice and automatically becomes an expert.
This is a process and so is happiness. 

I can’t help or hide the fact that yes, I’m crazy.
There’s no question about this. However, instead of complaining, shhh –
Be quiet –
I’m trying to learn how to enjoy this!

Life changes. This happens all the time. And I think back to the things that used to be important to me. I think about the fads and the different fashions. Sometimes, I look back or I’ll see a photograph of either the fads or the fashions from back in the day.
I’ll either shake my head or I’ll laugh or I’ll think to myself, “What the hell was I thinking?”
What the hell was I wearing?
It’s amazing though. It’s amazing how the rebellions of my youth have all faded away like an old handwritten note from middle school.
If I think about it, some of my old rebellions take on appeal of an old page from a newspaper, yellowed with age, and brittle to the touch.
But me? I don’t want to be brittle to the touch.

I saw an old photograph the other day. I found it –
It is the simple laws of attraction. What am I attracted to? Or, would we say why?
How did my life take on this kind of shape?
It’s a question I wondered after seeing this photograph.
And here it is, November . . .
Families are about to sit down at a table – soon enough and to give thanks for Thanksgiving. 

I have seen people offer themselves to either an unfair gamble or the trade for a lesser value. I have watched as people either flushed their lives away or suffered through a tried forfeit because they either never believed in themselves or they never believed that their dreams could be real.
And sure –
I get it. This is all fear based. And as for the gamble, that’s okay. You took a risk. You gave it a shot, which is fine. You put something on the line in hopes that your desired outcome would come true. But there’s a difference between a gamble and a sucker’s bet.
I get that. However, I do support what it takes to “give it a shot” and take a risk.
I admire this too.

This note is a means to find that thing we have always been looking for and yet – it was always where it was supposed to be, which is right here. Right in front of us.
Right before our very eyes yet – we’ve looked everywhere just to find this one, simple thing.

I call this self . . .