I can see our lines floating in mid-air
and the hair standing up on my brothers’ heads as the storm approached. The rain hadn’t made it there yet, but the clouds were ominous. The arcing lines and skyward reaching strands of blonde and black mops made the presence of the electricity more than evident. 
The wind picked up and the air cooled instantly as the bolts of lightning started to appear out of the steadily approaching black clouds. I eyed our 12 foot vessel, perched on the rocks, and made one simple inquiry of Dad.

“Daddy should we head to shore?” 

The answer was equally as simple. “We can’t beat the storm. We’ll just have to ride it out.”

All these years later, the wisdom in those words, as a metaphor for turbulent times of life, presented itself. Storms will come and we cannot run from them. Our boat is not fast enough to outrun a squall.

Running puts a small craft, in a storm on the Gulf, at the mercy of Mother Ocean. While the prospect of buckling up and powering through may seem as dark as the sky producing our fear, exiting stage left means we never deal with the flash flood. And that is all that it is. The water will recede. 

I recall the Lightning being right on top of us, and the cracking explosion of the thunder, immediate and deafening. We turned the little John boat upside down and balanced one edge on the cooler. Peering out from underneath, I saw a 4 foot shark breach the surface and shoot skyward. It’s gray and white body matched the colors of the lightening sky and made the scene black and white. 

The flashes of lightning moved further away and the thunder lessened as the rain softened. The midday sun started to penetrate the heavy air, and color came back into the world. The wind dropped to a breeze, and the hammering downpour turned into a steady flow of drops. 

As we emerged from our makeshift Tenement, I felt the rain. The drops were now individual. The kind you can count; the enjoyable sort. Heavy, but cool on your hand. They still explode when they hit you, but there is kindness in the release. 

Little by little the stream of tears softens and fades away. The sun returns and you flip your boat back over, re-enter the water and head for shore. As the gray clouds turn white, you can start to see blue again. When your boat hits shore, the sun is visible just before it lays down to sleep; A last little Wink to tell us it will be back tomorrow. 

The Sun will show its splendor, but Make no mistake there are treasures in the rain. We just might have to brave the sound of the thunder to find the drops that taste right. 

They come. So you gotta go ahead and love a good storm. 
Peace

Sent from my iPhone

To Analyze or Act
“It’s hard to comprehend.” That is a statement we have all made so many times, yet today I thought about it in an abstract way for the first time. Maybe some things are not meant for our comprehension. 

In love, pain, anger, happiness, distress; in relationships, business, sports, even card games, puzzling, wonderful and sometimes overwhelmingly heartbreaking events occur. Some are justifiably infuriating, others simply odd, but they are, in the end, “hard to comprehend”.

In my life the term has primarily been used for a few distinct powerful situations, and to emphasize the seriousness of such. In anger, sympathy, joy no matter, it is an emphatic place holder for that which we cannot wrap our heads around. Is it possible that in some of these instances we are supposed to just wrap our arms around one another instead?

I’m not the worlds best planner. In fact, unless it’s a fishing, hunting or a golf trip, I might be the worlds worst, but I’m a good liver. No, no.., I didn’t say I had a good liver, I said I am one. That “where the wind may blow me” roadmap leads to many ports of call, and thousands of differing relationships. This invariably presents “hard to comprehend” in droves.  

Life is a wonderful mystery. It is full of joyous moments as well as painful events. Unfortunately, We would not recognize one without the knowledge of the other. The events that cause the highest of highs and those that spawn the lowest of lows share at least one thing; they are very often unfathomable, unexplainable and “hard to comprehend”. 

We have a choice when these things occur; spend our time trying to wrap our heads around them, or spend that energy wrapping our arms around each other. I believe the later will Leave us in a Better Place. Together We will enjoy the Mountain tops of euphoria longer. Embraced by One another We will rise from the depths of despair sooner, allowing Us to climb the peak once more. 
Peace

Will

Sent from my iPhone

I received a note from an old friend last week. It was a late night letter, the likes of which I’ve penned many times before. It seemed to be an apology at first, then a reflection and ended as a letter of love and thanks. It was awesome.

Let me just say, I do not deserve an apology from anyone ( Well maybe from Bubba and John for the beatings, but that’s a different essay…). I have a Lisotta’s Store All full of my own apology letters to be disseminated by Tracie on my passing. However, I’ll take the thanks, love and nostalgia any day. I’ve also got a couple of those letters addressed and adorned with the correct postage.
In the end we all do the best we know how. Sometimes our best sucks a little… Doesn’t mean we don’t love. It just means we are perfectly imperfect. The more sunrises we see, the more we recognize the mistakes we’ve made. May I suggest we also recall the good we have done; the smiles we have created.

I have more regrets than Clinton had girlfriends. Luckily, I also have a treasure chest of love and laughter to hunt in when the need arises. We all have that pirate booty available. Ain’t nothin’ better than a little treasure. The note I got was equivalent to a bag of Lafitte’s gold coins.
Look for your map today and see what you find under the proverbial X. I’m betting at least a smile.
Good Mornin’ from Louisiana y’all. See you in Texas by lunch. Make the day a great one.

Will

It’s about the ride. Enjoy it.

Christmas 2014

Only A Ride

Every day I think about friends who have entered and exited my life. During Christmas the thoughts flood in. I’d like to reach out to each and every one.
The messages to be delivered vary greatly. Some speak of immaturity, others of deep thanks; Categories range from hope to prayer (which isn’t a very big chasm if you think about it), understanding to love (again not a country mile apart). I’ve written near all those letters, in a few cases multiple times… Delivery? Well.

It’s not because I haven’t wanted to. More than anything that’s exactly what I’d like to do (for me). Sometimes it’s just not the right thing for everyone involved. So on Christmas Day, to those who know the worst of me, please understand I write your letters everyday. I both shake my fist at myself for the pain and smile at all the good times.

I believe it’s true, in order to know pleasure you must experience pain. In order to recognize Good you must see evil. Finally, every beginning must have an end in order to “Begin Again”.
On this Day of celebration of the Greatest beginning, here’s hoping/ praying you all have a wonderful day. Don’t let love lie unspoken today. Who knows what tomorrow might bring. Thank you all for your entries and exits in my little world.

With Love, Merry Christmas
Signed
William
Will
Willie
Nelson
Willard
Vot
Smallest
Skilinsky
GMoney
And all the other Crazy nicknames y’all have given me…
Sent from my iPhone

Our experience, our lives, our journeys are just that, OURS. We all deal with a unique set of circumstances. Whether your pain comes from a past hurt as a child, a current battle with a disease, a loved one’s struggles, no matter what it is, it is real, unique and your own. The same holds true for our successes, joy and happiness. We all experience different types and derive pleasure from one of a kind circumstances. Wouldn’t life be mundane if that were not the case? Still we often can’t help but worry about how we stack up.

From a young age we are taught about comparisons. We start out free of judgment and ego, but invariably and rather quickly we are conditioned to measure ourselves against and compare ourselves to others. Take for example the height marks on the door jam in the kitchen. Multi-colored dated hash marks with our name on one and our brothers’ and sisters’ on the others. A small, but to me poignant, example.

As adults we spend time measuring ourselves against peers at work, to our neighbors, our relatives, our friends, and even our foes. Then we exacerbate the wasted time by judging both ourselves and the others who are unknowingly participating in our little obsession.

To me it is akin to what I have always thought about swindlers and hustlers. If they would simply put all that ingenious effort into an honest pursuit they would likely be extremely successful. If we’d put all our tape measures aside and focus on the next best right thing for ourselves we will experience a brighter, less stressful existence. After all, you can’t compare an apple and an orange and you sure has hell can’t turn one into the other, so why waste time trying?

Who cares whose pain is worse and happiness greater? Isn’t the point that we all experience hurt and joy? Do the degrees really matter? The types separate true from false?

Today as we deal with our own struggles and celebrate our own successes, let us remember those we come across are living their own set of circumstances. Whether they are smiling or scowling, singing or screaming, we are not privy to the cause so let us accept and be kind instead of judge and compare. Compassion and a desire for the success and happiness of all around us breeds the same for us and more of it for the whole of us. In the big picture we are all connected and that is heavy, good, great stuff.

Have the best unique day you can and remember whether the moment is up or down there is a new beginning every second.

Peace Out
William

9/3/2014

I woke up at two in the morning. Disoriented, I looked around to get a grasp on where I was. The items on the walls were familiar but a bit blurry. The speckled trout and wood duck settled it for me, but were still out of focus. It was then I realized I had fallen asleep with my readers on… I was simply getting a new perspective on a semi- familiar place; my bedroom. The semi familiarity is a story for another time…

As I chuckled about the irony of being virtually lost in one’s own bedroom, a thought struck me; A subtle change in view, simply looking at things “out of focus” can shed new light on anything. It got me thinking about the way we normally view and assess things.

Rules, man made rules, dictate how we read most people, their actions and situations in general. Guidelines give us a standard to compare things to; a list of criteria that tells us what we should think. Since we were children we have been taught right from wrong, good from bad, acceptable from unacceptable. Those rules, thought shapers as it were, give us comfort because the unknown is scary. Different is bothersome. In other words our mental 20/20 vision has been learned and is a product of our environment.

Might I suggest that sometimes we need to look at things with a different lens? When things look wrong to us, when judgement starts to creep in, we might only need to slip on our mental bi-focals. The different view may not ultimately change our opinion, but it could potentially help us more clearly understand the whole picture.

Understanding usually leads to better decision making. Better decisions tend to make for happier people. Happier people give way to more harmony. Harmony opens the door for love and, wait for it…. Love generates Understanding.

I’ll admit it, my 45 years have taken a toll on my “finer” vision. Looking through my receipts, I have begun to find more miss-added totals. Those figures never seem to be in my favor. I get “home cooked” by the vendor enough that waiters and waitresses seem to fight to get me in their section… I use to think it was my glowing personality. Turns out, it was simply my inability to see that caused the happiness factor in the service industry to increase at my local haunts. The addition of a new lens on the check has led to understanding, which has given way to better decisions, thus avoiding bankruptcy and allowing me to continue to frequent said establishments and given a boost to the overall economy. So, Everybody wins!

In my life I have made some really bad decisions based on “part of the story”. I will continue to make mistakes ’cause Im just not all that smart, but I am thankful for new vision that allows me to see the Forest and not just the trees.

If a situation or a someone is bringing you down, put on your mental readers and see if you can get the check to the right total. Here’s hoping your eyesight is adjustable in times of need.

Peace Out
Will