Paul Merrill
Sometimes life is hard. We wish for more. More water, more sun, more fun, more life. But sometimes if we just dig a little deeper, we can see that there are enough resources to survive – and even thrive.
This is a concept you’ve heard before, but I’m just reminding you – and me.
My wife loves to garden. It’s a wonderful break from the grind of using her brain to wrap around the problems of website useability or being a mom. (Or being married to me, for that matter.)
So we went away to celebrate our anniversary and came across this beautiful garden. Running through the middle was a small stream. Incredibly picturesque.
Then Heather informed me that many of the flowers were annuals (you know – the kind that die at the end of the season and have to be planted from scratch the following spring). That’s expensive. And then there is the water (in this case, free) and all the time (or money) spent weeding.
Takeaway: Remember that good things are both expensive (not necessarily in terms of money) and take commitment. Stick with it! I say this to remind myself too – I often forget this concept and expect instant good results with little effort.
(By the way, special thanks to Robert Hruzek for suggesting this post!)
As I was photo-safari-ing two small west Texas towns, I saw this door. The owners installed several locks to keep their possessions safe. The last time anything valuable was stored on the other side of that door was more than 30 years ago.
Lots of time and energy were spent building that store. Its usefulness is fully over. The land is not worth the price of demolition. Chillicothe will never see a population growth again.
True – the builders of that establishment probably got good return on their investment during its lifespan. But what better way might they have spent their time? If they had invested the same amount of energy in a building that is still being used, how much better would that have been?
Takeaway: What are you investing in that will last? What ways should you change what you are doing to make those efforts last longer?
p.s. I’m taking a break. We’re heading for the hills as a family for about the next week. (No internet where we’ll be. And the break is much needed.) I hope to have a new post for you on Monday July 20th.
What goes up must come down.
It’s kind of a negative approach to this topic – but I think a little dose of healthy realism never hurts. You see, we always raise our expectations high. Often somehow in the back of our heads, we feel like that fun experience we’re looking forward to will last forever. It doesn’t. We all know that – but it’s good to remember that!
By the way, I took this photo on a backpacking weekend with my boys (and some friends) back in 2005. We had a great time. But driving back to suburbia wasn’t as fun as the drive to the trailhead.
Special thanks to Robert, who suggested this topic.
Dunno if you’ve checked out Alltop. (You have to go to the very bottom to see me.) It’s a great portal that Guy Kawasaki started.
Well, I just found out yesterday that I’m back in their “Life” section. Surf around and find lots of interesting stuff! (There’s more than just life.)
I was amazed when I read the new slogan for Frank’s Red Hot Sauce: “I put that on everything.” And to emphasize their point, they have put a giant splash in the middle of the slogan – underlining a lack of finesse in applying their hot sauce.
Lesson? A reminder to me about not applying one criteria to everything. It’s so easy to stereotype – when we see someone who is different than us, we like to put them in a box. That slogan also goes against American culture’s trend to niche everything. I’m surprised it successfully ran through Frank’s approval committee.
By the way, I love hot sauce. I don’t apply one kind to everything – or hot sauce to everything. Thus, I have about five bottles in my arsenal, ready for use on various dishes.
