Selling out.

We have all got to find something to do for a living and when you get right down to it we only have two choices really: goods or services. Everyone has to sell something to someone else in order to make a living. Lawyers provide legal service, doctors provide medical service, and ministers provide spiritual service. Construction workers provide construction services, educators provide educational services and so on; you get the idea. So while many are selling a service you may not otherwise be able to do or want to provide for yourself, others still are actually selling something tangible you can feel in exchange for your money. As human laborers we really only have two choices as to what type of sales we want to be in, but any way you slice it, we’re all salesman (except maybe fireman, law enforcement and those in the military).

To a certain extent, this can be sort of a letdown. You grow up being told by your parents and in school, you can be anything you want to be. Most of us will spend between twelve and twenty years in pursuit of an occupation and for many the arrival there is not as enjoyable as the journey. Each of us must ultimately ask only one question though with regards to occupation.

Does what we do to make money define who we are as people?

We spend maybe half of our life laboring, but is labor the defining element of who we really are? I’d hope we are more than our jobs, but think about how when you meet someone for the first time how quickly and how pervasive the topic of work is in our conversation and this isn’t to say that there is something wrong with talking about work. But who are we really?

We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being. As a result, men are valued not for what they are but for what they do or what they have - for their usefulness. -Thomas Merton

Best Day: January

It's a toss up. Bookends round out the month. January first found me in Taos riding up a chair lift on a day with a high temperature of five degrees. It was biting cold. At one point I had to stop skiing when I started to loose feeling in my toes and fingertips. However I was skiing under otherwise pristine conditions. It had dumped nearly fifteen inches of snow the two days before and Taos is what Taos always is when the conditions are good: great. Ordinarily I would say a day like this would be a lock for a best day.

However last Sunday sort of slipped in and stole the month. The day started early. My wife was running a half marathon and I was charged with getting her an early breakfast and primed for her long run. Ordinarily you won't find me out of bed before 7am. My biorhythms just aren't synced up that early and I typically try to avoid the early mornings. But I wanted to help see her out the door to start her run. She didn't ask for much, a simple breakfast of toast topped with peanut butter, bananas and honey and that was within my culinary capacity, so I obliged and she was off. Next I woke up my boy Fischer, stuffed a pop tart in him and we headed off to stand by my friend Ian and his Bicycles Outback rest stop where they were serving Shiner at thirsty runners. Fischer and I waited there for Kristi to pass by. Making good time she passed by (Fischer cried when she kept running) and we then headed downtown to try and catch her at the finish.

We made it, she finished in under two hours and we had a great time hanging out at the finish line and then headed home. Oh yeah it was like 70 degrees all day too. Later that day I got in an amazing bike ride with two good friends and then fired up my big green egg for some wood fired pizzas and beer with some good friends to round out the day. It was indeed the best day.

Best Days Series Intro

Everybody deserves to have at least one really good day each month. For that reason, I'm going to begin a series of post that will continue for the next twelve months entitled “best days.” They will come at the end of every month and will be a summary of what I deem as my best day each month. Some may seem exciting to you, others may seem boring, but either way they are my best days and not yours, so your opinion doesn't really matter.

I might post the best day when it happens and then expound on it later, or I might wait until the end of each month to tell you about it. There is even a chance that I might tell you about an event that is great, but then remember a moment of a day later and then convert that moment to my best day. Or I might not tell you about my actual best day at all. I might keep that day a secret and tell you about some other day instead.

The goal here is to remind us that best days aren't about what happens in twenty-four hours, but what happens in moments. Best days are about laughter, friendships and moments worth remembering. What's relevant is that we remember to create such moments.

So here's to you; and here's to me. Do something great each month.

The Chills

I thought of you when I walked outside tonight and burned one down. You were in the moon and stars shining down from above and the ocean below. That seasons change when you least expect it and motion occurs when you hardly feel it is a mystery. We can only stand there and wait for what will come and what we'll be. Will we be better or worse than we were last year? Will you be better or worse than you were last year? Will we merge at once and flow downhill or will we carnage overtake us when skill falters? Only time will tell.

No Plans

What if there were no long term plans? Nothing to save money for, nothing to wait for, nothing to project for? Only the short term, whatever that means to you, and nothing beyond. How would you live? With no destination and only the journey? Would you wait to tell that someone you haven't seen in a long time how you feel? Would you hold back? Would you work? Would you cry? Where would you be? What would you do? How would you feel?

A lot of owning a small business is consumed around planning for the future, placing orders far in advance of their receipt. It's my least favorite part of my job. I've never been a planner. I just don't like to make plans because I know there is a real possibility that something more exciting could creep into my periphery and divert me from the planned destination. I'm a wanderer.

Seasons

As the seasons change from winter to spring I've been thinking a lot about the many transitions that life brings. A new website, a bigger store, a baby who is now two years old and the realization that I'm getting a bit older. But I cannot let go of my youth and desires are seeping out of my pores. I want to do more, feel more and be more; and my body is telling me to drop that winter weight off at the curb.

I hope the spring calls you to get outside and enjoy what might be the best time of the year to be a central Texan. Over the next three months the temperatures will be perfect from sunup to sundown for running, hiking, climbing, camping and fishing. So get outside and if you happen to be in the neighborhood stop by the shop.

Keep checking the blog too, there's more to come.