Give Thanks
You know those rare moments when you sit back and look at your life from a million miles away? Like it’s a movie being played out in front of you, suddenly you can step away from the minutia of the everyday and appreciate the whole of it all.
Had one of those during a bout of nasty stomach flu yesterday. I suppose there’s a plus side to everything.
Anyway, I began pulling the pieces of my life together. One by one.
1. I’ve always loved the coast. Nearly ever summer as a child, no matter where I lived, I would spend time on the Oregon coast with my grandparents. It’s a constant source of inspiration.
2. Writing is one of my favorite past times. It not only helps to clarify thought but it harnesses the chaos of my mind.
3. Moby Dick is my all-time favorite book. For a lot of reasons. Not the least of which are the depictions of life at sea.
4. I’m a pretty independent minded person. It’s what drew me to start a business four years ago. In other words, I’m ok without a safety net.
5. This is an awesome and amazing country. Truly blessed to have driven all over it this past year with my family, I have the “wanderlust” in me that needs to be satiated from time to time.
6. Creating opportunity. That’s fun. Building something without a predefined blueprint is exciting.
7. My entire life has been either city or suburb living. Never have had the opportunity to live in the country but have always dreamed about it.
8. Learning new stuff is cool. Period.
9. Heavy equipment is also cool. And the opportunity to learn how to use it is even cooler.
10. Fish is tasty.
They say if you do what you love you’ll love what you do. In other words, choose to do the things that bring you joy and fulfillment and somehow it will pull together. You’ll find yourself doing exactly that.
Going over these basic truths of my personality in my feverish state yesterday, I had to kneel in thanks. My life now encompasses all of them.
I live and work on the coast (1) and much of my work consists of writing (2). I hang out with fishermen all day telling their story (3) and work in a culture that expects self-motivation and “git’er done”-ism (4). I’ve seen a lot of this land driving cross country, and a big part of my new job consists of driving up and down the coast. Two weeks ago it was to Sacramento. Today it’s Portland. (5). These cats have never had a PR/Marketing person. I get to create this job from the ground up (6). I live in a town with one traffic light. The closest McDonald’s is 26 miles away (7). I am learning something new everyday about fishing, sustainability and politics (8). I’m taking forklift driving lessons. (9). And I get basically all the fish I can eat when it comes into port. (10).
Seriously, I might be hurling right now, but I have nothing to complain about. It’s not as if I planned this destination. It seems more of a culmination of choices, that suddenly I can now be in a place to see it from a distance as a whole picture. It’s important to have those moments of clarity. To see your life in broad strokes and appreciate your fortune. It’s been a roller coaster of a year and this new adventure seems to have taken the best pieces of it and turned it into a new ride all together.
Can’t wait to see what happens next.
