FIRST POST OF 2024: THE HOPE PLAN

The first post of the year feels like the other 365 from last year, more or less.

Every one has had the potential of searing an idea into someone else’s brain.

When something makes an impression on you, don’t you write it out until it makes sense?

Let’s dedicate 2024 to writing it out until things make sense.

Begin with the proper attitude, which I channel in my baby picture.

Let’s step off into 2024 and figure shit out with intention.

It’s a clean slate?

Come on, it’s never a clean slate, but why not clear off some of the stuff that keeps clinging to the edges.

That’s what a first post of the year does.

It’s fertile ground?

All ground is fertile to the farmer with the right resources.

Clear skies?

Sharpen your vision to see what’s there, not what you want to be there.

Look at the picture of your life, then look at the bigger picture.

The things you do may not echo in eternity like they did in GLADIATOR, but the ripple effect of living your best life bumps up on others.

Try not to knock them over, and if you do, help them up.

Remember, it’s not your job to light up every room you walk into, be the life of every party, just like it’s not your job to be morose and self-absorbed with your own reflection.

Here’s the picture I see:

Everyone you know would get along without you just fine.

You know this because you get along just fine with the memories of people you’ve known.

I asked my kids about their memories of my Dad.

They didn’t have many on hand.

Their main Grandpa was Grandpa Glenn, my mom’s husband of nearly thirty years until her passing.

He didn’t cross over into step-dad land for me because I was twenty-four and living on my own when he came on the scene.

Grandpa Glenn was the main male elder for eight grandkids and he got it done without a hiccup.

His memory is a blessing.

 

You And Your First Post

If the people you know will lose their memory of you, why not live it up while you’re together?

Turn the dimmer switch up and take a good look around.

This is the year to claim your time, to claim your space.

Just be sure and make time and space for others when you can.

Is that asking too much?

It’s not me asking, it’s you asking.

Take it from an old drag-ass with barely enough energy to get out of bed and get dressed, barely strong enough lift any spirits, too weak to open any arms.

Yet somehow by the grace of all that is good, we discover the hidden reserves in our hearts and spread the message:

Move it and let others help you move it.

What’s the ‘It?’

Whatever it is that is in your way.

So, dear reader, tell your favorite blogger what is in your way? What are you hoping to do?

You’ll find me walking the dog on the local hills, lifting weights in the garage, cooking dinners that turn into a week of lunches, and patrolling our beautiful outdoors here in the Pacific Northwest.

Or leaning on a blue velvet couch watching football and tipping an adult beverage.

Go Ducks.