From time to time,
I’ve written about the need to keep focused ahead rather than living in one’s
past. We don’t get very far when we look over our shoulder. We trip, stumble
and run into things if we constantly look back.
I mean, looking
backwards serves a purpose. The first is to let us know just how far we’ve
come. For some, the journey wasn’t easy. So by looking back, we can appreciate
how far we’ve grown, how much we’ve overcome, how much we survived.
And the second is
to literally and figuratively gauge where we’ve come from and appreciate where
we are now. Sounds like I’m repeating myself, but I’m not.
I am sixty-three
years old. Worked in five states. I’m happily married with three great kids,
one deceased. I have a job that I love so I don’t see as a “job” per se, but as
a vocation. I work with kids and I have the best staff in the world.
I’ve come a long
way from the wet-behind-the-ears kid, who at age twenty-two began teaching and
coaching about a thousand miles from home and family without the benefit of
having anyone near me. I confess I didn’t know what I was doing at the time.
I’ve had some patient mentors along the way. Mostly, I learned from the kids.
As a dad, I’ve
learned a lot and know I have so much more to learn. It is as a dad that I find
myself looking backward and wondering how my kids survived me. Mistakes,
sometimes harsh words I wish never left my mouth or entered my head. My heart
hurts thinking about all those mistakes. Wish I could “do over” here and there
and make things better. Best I can do is learn from those experiences and vow
to do better.
As a husband and
friend, I find myself shaking my head as I wonder how Kim puts up with me. I
have done nothing to deserve this gift I was given, but I am so appreciative of
the love and the friendship I have.
So with those
thoughts . . .
Today, I’m asking
you to take a look back and ask yourself the rhetorical question, Where Would I
Be . . .
without that one
painful experience you suffered through and yet survived?
without that one
relationship you regret and learned from?
without the push
and pull from that one teacher who never gave up on you?
without that
painful family relocation when you thought life as you knew it was going to
end?
without that one
boss, that one co-worker who made life miserable for you?
Where Would I Be .
. .
without . . .
Or perhaps, Where
Would I Be . . .
with . . .
Because it works
both ways.
We learn because
of and we learn from. We learn from others as well as learn without others.
Without others, we learn to trust our own heart, our own head and listen to our
own soul.
Where Would You Be
if you had remained in that one relationship, with that one person who you
thought was “the one”? Where Would You Be if you had stayed in that one job?
Where would you be if you had stayed in one place and never moved? Where Would
You Be? Something to think about . . .
Live Your Life,
and Make A Difference!
To My Readers:
I just finished my
fifth work of thriller/mystery fiction,
Caught in a Web and it’s currently
being edited. I’ll keep you posted as to when it will be published.
Please feel free
to connect with me at:
Twitter at
@jrlewisauthor
Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/Joseph.Lewis.Author
If you like Thriller/Mystery fiction, check out my
novels:
Available on Amazon for .99 the Lives Trilogy Prequel,
Taking Lives:
FBI Agent Pete
Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys
left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though they don’t know
one another, the lives of FBI Agent Kelliher and two boys become interwoven
with the same thread that Pete Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them
are on a collision course and when that happens, their lives are in jeopardy as
each search for a way out. http://bit.ly/Taking-Lives-JLewis
Stolen Lives, Book One of the Lives Trilogy:
Two thirteen year
old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI
agents have 24 hours to find them or they’ll end up like all the others- dead!
They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. And the possibility exists
that one of his team members might be involved. http://bit.ly/Stolen-Lives-JLewis
Shattered Lives, Book Two of the Lives Trilogy:
Six men escaped
and are out for revenge. The boys, recently freed from captivity, are in danger
and so are their families, but they don’t know it. The FBI has no clues, no
leads, and nothing to go on and because of that, cannot protect them. http://bit.ly/Shattered-Lives-J-Lewis
Splintered Lives, Book Three of the Lives Trilogy:
It began in
Arizona with death and it ends in Arizona in death. A 14 year old boy has a
price on his head, but he and his family don’t know it. Their family vacation
turns into a trip to hell. Out gunned and outnumbered, can this boy protect his
father and brothers? Without knowing who these men are? Or how many there are?
Or when they might come for him? http://bit.ly/Splintered-Lives-J-Lewis
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Thank you for your comment. I welcome your thought. Joe