Minutes and Years

Benjamin Franklin said, "If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves." One minute.  It doesn't seem like much.  However, never underestimate the cumulative effect of each minute we live.

Let's suppose, for example, a minute is worth one penny.  You see a penny lying on the street but pass it by because it is hardly worth the effort of leaning over to pick it up.  But suppose you began to double that penny each day for a month.  At the end of a week, you would only have sixty-four pennies.  I know that's not much but at the end of a month you would have 536,870,912 pennies.  Translated into dollars, that's $5,868,709.12.

The value we place on each minute of every day will have a cumulative impact on the remainder of our lives. Glenn Van Ekeren

Itchy

I promised to write something every day. Today I am not only thoughtless, but itchy as Hurricane Irene bears down on the eastern United States. And I mean physically itchy. My skin itches and it’s so annoyingly distracting.

It’s Friday and I am ready for the weekend. I have a full day at work to get through however, and my boss is a powerhouse of energy. So the day is going to chock full of activity.

Guess I better get to it.

Finally ME Time

In my effort to write once a day for ten minutes, I have been frustrated that I can’t sit down at the same time of the day. However, it occurred to me through my work that the key to success is to be adaptable. So I am here instead of in my pjs in the dark before the dawn, fully dressed for work with the light streaming into my quiet house because everyone has been sent on their way.

This morning, running through my mind are a multitude of thoughts. There is a hurricane coming, thought to hit us earlier, that is now making her way up the East Coast. I wonder about all the people I know up there and how they are going to fare.

I am grateful. Always. I never forget to be grateful. But today, despite the hurricane not coming here, I am always most grateful that we all have our health. I have been dieting and exercising as of late. Yesterday, I stretched. I have not been very physically fit for a few weeks, and definitely slacked over the past few months since I have a job now out of the house. The stretching felt so good. And today as a result, I am a bit stiff, but it’s a good stiff. I can’t wait to do more.

I am also wondering about people I heard about recently and how human nature works. A woman who was a nurse or doctor’s assistant married the doctor who of course left his wife to do so. They have oodles of money, kids go to private schools, colleges of their choosing and now they are traveling this year. Globetrotting essentially. Israel, Europe, all over the U.S. and I hear the woman is still wanting. What could she possibly want you ask as I did naively? Better sex.

So I ask myself, and you? Is that the bottom line? Is having great sex the bottom line to happiness? I wonder.  

Keys and a Credit Card

As a result of my research and writing romantic suspense with heros from the Navy SEALs, I have been fortunate enough to have developed a friendship with a former 20-year veteran of the Teams. This is a friendship I cherish not just because he’s a great guy, but because every day I learn from him. These are life lessons, gems, he serves up and they always take the form of something obvious, turned smart and edgy, and delivered bluntly as only he can.

The most recent lesson was called keys and a credit card.

We were talking about vacations; vacations, in particular, with other families. And he said he was going to relax until anyone in the group decided to start making plans. He said that plans were what his assistant made for him during the work week and on vacations he stayed away from plans. So I asked, “What would happen if they make plans?” He said simply, “I have keys and a credit card.”

I laughed, of course, as I always do, for two reasons: the obvious simplicity of the statement

and his deadpan delivery.  

But his words stayed with me. And I took them to heart. Many times, in recent years, I have found myself using my husband as my pocketbook. I leave my bag behind, no cell phone, no wallet, no ID, certainly no money or credit card and definitely no keys. I have nothing. And it occurred to me how much of my independence I’d given away and gotten accustomed to living without.  

So this past weekend, I took my purse. I had keys, cash and a debit card. I even drove. It was a start.

"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have
the courage - pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically - to
say no to other things. And the way to do that is by having a
bigger yes burning inside."

-- Stephen Covey 

Writing Prompt

Today is the first day of my new routine. It coincides with the first day of school, cause I have to be up early to get my kids off, but I thought what a better time than now to start my own new productive and healthy routine. “Writing to the Bone” is a book I am going to order to get me going. My radio co-host Alex Crabtree, an exceptional writer, turned me on to this concept. It’s just to dedicate 10 minute a day at the same time of the day to writing. So I am and while this is not anything earth shattering, it’s a start and my second blog post in eons.

My Man Alex

My man Alex, the person behind the satiny voice as my co-host on blogtalkradio.com/extremewritingnow, is a lover of many things:

He prefers color to black and white and is a backwoods rock and roll music lover.

He likes his breakfast full of comfort foods; his coffee and his women apparently sans whipped cream.   

He likes to be tied up with rope by a tall, shapely street-smart barefoot Italian brunette w boobs who is way too young for him.

He likes her hands but prefers her more oral abilities using her mouth and tongue

He’s into satin and leather, wears his beard with a day’s growth of stubble.

He takes his Patron or Rum and Coke with steak but hold the veggies, cause he prefers fruit.

He will be dressed in jeans (briefs underneath) his tatts proudly displayed. He will bring you flowers then take you back to his place for a quiet night at home, watching Goodfellas on DVD, listening to Dylan and reciting Edgar Allen Poe.