It is Thursday of the week that began on a Monday.
It is the 8th day of the month of May and I have not gotten enough done of what I started out to do last Friday when it was Friday and held the distinction of being the only day to start off the month of May in the year 2014.
Where does the time get off to and why does it not return?
It is early and looks to be a nice day ahead. I got up around 3:30 and am feeling the effects of not enough sleep…again. Too much on my mind I guess.
There is sports excitement in town: the White Sox swept the Cubs in Wrigley; the Hawks are up 2-1 against the Wild in the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs; and (OMG!!) today is the first day of the NFL draft.
All of that is fine of course but there is much more to be involved and concerned with. Like the world—or at least my family and our position in it.
I feel rather estranged from the world. My wife and I struggle for various reasons and I hope we can get past and move beyond our struggles. My kids are growing up fast but are not growing fast enough to do as well at the sports they like as they would like to do. Though they are good baseball players their present team is providing little opportunity to prove that to others. I have to simply tell them to continue to do their best and hope that time, experience, and a bit more size will help them.
You see, I would like to have them do well in high school. Play a sport or two that they enjoy, have the chance to succeed in it and have a great time doing so. Continue with their music development in concert as well as jazz band. Get a great education without all the left-wing, liberal-leaning, politically-correct, continually apologetic notions that have insidiously and pervasively invaded our school system (hence the plan to send them to private school and avoid some of that perniciousness- it would be a Catholic school though and we know how the Catholics like to shun their beliefs when they enter the voting booth). I would like them to make good friends, some of whom may hopefully last a lifetime; maybe meet and date a nice girl or two or three (no sense rushing into anything fellows!). Join a club or two and really enjoy the experience. Somehow keep the four years from seeming like two when they are done.
In other words, some of the things I had the chance to do and either did or didn’t do. To propel themselves toward whatever comes beyond high school. That is most likely college but who knows what level of indoctrination those previously-fine institutions will have attained by then.
I hope that I can begin to see some success myself on the newer road that I have chosen but I either find myself short of the time needed or too full of the excuses to actually get there. Still, I promise myself I will bear down. Always, bear down!
So, as the sun also rises, I rise to meet and greet this new day. Quite tired mind you but filled with the hope that I am able to muster with the pressure all around.
My kids have another game tonight and a chance to do something there to gain some notice. Just keep working and learning fellows- stay at it and as long as you enjoy it you cannot really fail.
My wife and I have another day to renew ourselves and gain back some more of what we once were when we started out long ago- but not too long ago.
I have the chance to “buckle down” and get stuff done. And sometimes a chance is more than most receive.
So I rise to the challenge of the opportunity to live and succeed; to live and to flourish; to live and be good, be fresh, be counted.
I live to be me and I live for all those who still have some level of affection and interest in what I am and what I still may become.
I live for my family while I can still do things of value for them.
I live. I live while the good Lord still offers to me the chance to do so…
And I should be ever aware of and thankful for the slightest sliver of hope.