SOC Sunday

Bob Dylan is singing Knocking on Heaven’s Door and I am reading about Noah Pozner. He was six years-old, Jewish and had a twin sister. He is gone now.

Murdered for reasons we can’t understand.

My 8 year-old still hasn’t heard about what happened at Sandy Hook and I am grateful, but my almost 12 year-old knows. He doesn’t know many details but he knows enough.

Enough doesn’t describe the emails I have received and the anger/sadness in my Facebook feed. I just shake my head thinking about it.

Noah’s story isn’t any worse because he is Jewish or a twin but it resonates with me for obvious reasons. My youngest sisters are twins so I am very familiar with what that sort of relationship looks like and the massacre took place during the middle of Chanukah.

My heart really aches for all of the people but I take solace in the stories of all those who helped. Yeah, it is like that Mr. Rogers story that is going around but it works. It is reminder that the overwhelming majority of people are good.

I don’t think that banning guns will work but I don’t need to see people with automatics or assault rifles. Would like to see technology used so that guns can’t be fired without some sort of fingerprint ID system.
It is not a perfect solution, but maybe it will stop some of these things from happening. More than anything else I want to see us take a hard look at mental illness and try to find more ways to help people.

There are no good answers.

Last night was the final night of Chanukah. After the kids went to bed I spent a while staring at the lights and thinking.

Things have been hard, but we are lucky and I am grateful.

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post.
• No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar). .

Is there such a thing as too many gifts? As a child I would have laughed in your face and said no way, but as a parent I feel differently.

It surprises me a bit to feel like this, but I do. I think sometimes relatives go overboard with the gifts and my kids get more than they need. The children deserve the moon and I am frustrated because right now I simply can’t give them gifts as I would like to, but that doesn’t mean they go without.

They don’t.

They get and they receive and they give back so good things are happening.

In the grand scheme of things my concern about too many gifts is a good problem to have. It is far better than what we could face and I am grateful for that. I know from experience how things can go a different direction.

Maybe that is part of the issue. Maybe it is because this week I spoke the siblings of a friend we lost long ago. Maybe that is why I feel the weight.

Yet there is so much joy now too. When we lit the candles last night it was impossible not to smile and be excited. The look on their faces and the smiles that we saw were amazing.

Real hugs. They stopped fighting and worked together.

They are normal siblings. Don’t fight or argue more than any other set, but sometimes you forget.

All I want to do is raise kids who will grow up to be productive members of society and who understand there is more to life than gifts.

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar). .
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

I am listening to Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss singing Whiskey Lullaby and thinking about the moments in life that shape and mold us into who we become.

That song just hits me on so many different levels. Sometimes when I am writing I use it as a tool to take me to places I’d rather not visit and stir up the ashes so that I can hit the deeper levels.

It is about layers to me, peeling them back and showing someone and something that is not wooden and two dimensional. When I write I want to paint a picture with my words and know that the readers see what I see or something close to it.

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I took my son to the LA Auto Show yesterday and had a fabulous time. We wandered among the cars and got lost in the fantasy. I showed him some of my “old” cars and talked a bit about what they used to look like.

Got behind the wheel of the 2013 Camaro and remembered my ’77. It looked different and probably drove differently than the new one, but I loved it. Loved this one too.

Wish I could have started it up and rolled on out of there. Stared at the Aston Martin that James Bond drove too, and got lost in memories, thoughts and ideas.

That show was just begging for someone to spend real time there digging up the stories of the people and places that were there. I could hear the whispers of the past and the echoes of the future.

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar). .
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

The game is starting but I am not at the field yet and I am feeling a bit crazed about it. I should be smart and not play this year. I should sit it out because I don’t recover the way I used to but I love playing.

I am not old. I can still run. I can move and make an impact. I am not ready to lie down and give up, but I can’t ignore the clock and the impact of all of the years of pounding upon my body.

It will hurt tomorrow and the day after, but the adrenaline rush that comes today is powerful.

Fell in love with a post I wrote The Secret Behind Post Secret- Everyone Has A Story because it really touched a nerve for me. It is part of the click I have been waiting for.

Can’t find my cleats, where are my cleats. Yeah, I know my mind is bouncing around but I am always a bundle of energy. Sometimes you can feel the sparks fly off of me.

Live, love and laugh is the goal.

Can’t wait to see the guys. Don’t see most but a few times a year and today is one of them. Chance to say hi, catch up and remember what it was like to be in college, young and stupid.

Mix in the present and the joy of talking about what we do now, fun times. Got to run the boys are back in town.

 

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar). .
Link up your post below.
Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Music sets the mood. I Am A Man by the Spencer Davis Group is playing in the background and I am trying to clear my head so that I can do the work that needs to be done.

I am on deadline in multiple areas and places.

Got six articles that are due within the next few hours and day. Got hard decisions to make about life, career and kids. Got chaos and clutter swirling around me and I feel like I am both master and slave to it all.

The music is moving me and I am starting to dance in my seat a bit. Probably look ridiculous to everyone else but in my mind’s eye I am cool, slick and in control. Confidence is building that I am going to figure the out the right answers to these questions but I admit to being concerned.

Sometimes there are no road maps to follow and all you do is blaze a trail. I am good with that for me, used to it but I am cautious about it with the kids. Don’t want to wrap them in invisible bubble wrap because you can’t and I won’t cripple them. They need to learn to roll with it, but I am dad and I wonder.

Six articles, what am I insane? Can I meet the challenge of time and quality? Can I get it done. Yeah, I will becuase I don’t give myself any other options.
This SOC post is a warm up. It is me stretching out and finding my rhythm so that I can do what needs to be done.

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spell checking. This is writing in the raw.
Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (in the sidebar). .
Link up your post below.
Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.