Thoughts at Age 67

Now, as the snow falls outside my window, in the early winter of this season of my life, I sit down and attempt here to pass on what has seemed to work for me in my life. This is not advice for others, but simply truths, that on some reflection, seem to me to best apply to the unspoken way I’ve operated.

This isn’t easy, for even to myself, I’ve not concisely expressed the goals or values that I’ve lived by. Over the years I haven’t even given much thought to personal goals or values. Sad.
I’ve somehow always managed by being impelled to action by some unexpressed and unarticulated gut feeling. Therefore, looking back I never really talked “values” or “goals” to any of my children. Although such talk filled my work with others.

For better or worse, at home, I seem to have flowed into simply relying on the model that Hermie and I vibrated to others. Certainly it was mainly her beautiful vibrations that rightly were the most powerful with our growing family.

So now, am I able to put words to the gut feelings that have guided my life? Perhaps.

However others of my generation have left more of a footprint on time, gathered more personal resources or impacted life and culture more completely. So these ways that have worked for me may not have a great deal of relevance for discerning generations.

Yet, looking back on my life, it has been a life filled with piles of love, reasonable achievements, transitory and mostly undeserved admiration and I’ve earned enough to get by.

Throughout their childhoods, and now in adulthood, my children have enevitably been, and remain, remained thoughtful, lovable people, who are, in the words and goals of Love and Logic, “respectful, responsible, and fun to be around.” They are raising grandkids with Love and Logic.

Maybe this is enough. But I have an edgy feeling that much more might have been expected of me. (Check out dream ___).

Here are the unspoken ideas, those "gut feelings" that I believe best express how I have lived:

• Time, not money, is life’s most precious commodity and God’s greatest secular gift.
  
  
• Money simply allows options in choosing how time is spent.
  
  
• The purpose of a car is to get you from point A to point B as inexpensively as possible. Period.
  
  
• When deciding on what to do in life, simply take the path that leads to the most paths.
  
  
• Folks can relax by doing something or watching something. To me, the wise choice is a no-brainer.
  
  
• Take nothing for granted.
  
  
• Tomorrow is:
  
  Uncertain
  A gift
  A chance
  And will provide a life changing opportunity if I discern and take it.
  
  
• Showing humility is not a virtue. It’s wisdom.
  
  
• Success comes from investing time, energy and resources into good people and then collaborating with them to create something meaningful.
  

• Living life to the fullest may mean taking risks, the most painful of which is risking hurting the people we love most.
  
  
• The key to enhancing one’s life is simply to enhance the lives of others.
  
  
• I go into debt only when the value of the investment has a chance of outrunning the interest. That means home and my own business...... never something that will lose a fourth of it's value on the drive home from the lot.