It's Awful Easy to be UNgrateful

Have you ever rolled along and been passed by a Big shiny new rig that just powered on up the mountain... while you rumbled along at your 29 mph... doh dee doh dee doh...

... and thought; "Geeze... lucky bugger... it'd be nice to have a rig like that!"

... or ... wrote a book and only sold a few a day... while you see others have the Break Out big sellers of hundreds in the same time, and thought; "Man, wouldn't that be sweet?! I wish I was as good a writer."

... and had those feelings of inferiority pull you down?

It's an easy thing for such feelings to bushwhack a fella... or fellerette! ... but stop a moment and look around... ??? Do they really have it "Better?" or just... flashier?

THIS... is the Home my worn old rig hauls me to...

That guy pushin' the big fancy rig down the road is likely limited to the camp in town that costs the better part of a motel room. And his neighbors already breathed the air he's using... He never even get's his "fancy" digs to a spot like this... and that's more than OK, if it works for him.

But that is one of the limits of "Flashy"... there's a part of you that says; "This thing COSTS too much to take it places like that!" ;)

How many times have you seen a driver runnin' an $80,000 Hummer down the interstate? ... and ... How many times have you run your dinged up lil' Samurai up some narrow, rock littered trail with the trees scrapin' the paint on the doors... and EVER found that high dollar "Hummer" anywhere around?

Riches can often be a bigger anchor than any sort of empowering thing.

So... I don't sell books like the "Break Out" authors... well... I DO sell enough to be a significant part of our pantry filler! and THAT actually puts  me in a relatively small group. There's a hell of a lot of writers that are every bit better than this old word butcher... that haven't sold a letter...

{um... an eagle eyed reader spotted the result of a worn editorial eye... probably the result of two many ours sitting at the desk lewking for tye pohs in my last book ;)  so... I returned and co-rected the OOPS! ;) }

Whinin' about how I wish I could do better is just a waste of energy. I'm doin' Fine!

I wonder if this guy realizes how lucky he is?

*Working Hard*

I mean... Do ya think he even has an idea of the place he gets to work? or is he all about; "Gotta get more pollen... load up the pollen... pack, stuff, load up the pollen, gather the pollen, gotta go go go."

Kind of sounds like a lot of lil' Worker Serfs don't it? You can get so focused on Gathering Pollen that you miss the beauty of the life you're passing through.

I'm as susceptible to such foolishness as the next guy... Every once in a while I've got to sit down and tally up where I am... and where; if I wasn't so fortunate... I could be.

I have to sit down and deliberately put things into perspective.

This... is where I get to work!!! and... walkin' through these forests and meadows and splittin' the wind down twisting ribbons of asphalt is HOW I get to work! :) What in tarnashun do - I - have to feel inferior about?

*Walking to work!*

 When I'm walkin' along... or ridin' the scooter... taking pictures and scheming the big ideas... I'm working! :) I've got that; "I can't believe they pay me to do this" sort of a life these days.

Could life be easier? Fewer stresses and pot holes? I'm pretty sure it could... But all I've got to do is look at half a page of news articles... look around me at the masses toiling away, gathering their Pollen... and I can know for sure and for certain; This Old Buster is riding through Shining Times!

Sometimes though, as I'm takin' the portrait of another mountain flower... or a high mountain meadow... I feel sorta like the guy walkin' on the beach with a few hundred pretty bikinied gals struttin' by... and he don't even notice any more...

Like that tourist who says..."yeah, I been there, done that"... ??? seriously??? 

Just what is the worth of whatever it is that folks spend so much money huntin' for, that if they find it they quit lookin'?

Do you only listen to a song one time? Do you only read the "Classic Book" one time? Do you hang pictures in your house and then never look at them?  Why plant flowers in your back yard if you're only gonna admire 'em one time?

To be of huge value the pleasures in life don't need to be high dollar and flashy. They don't need to be spectacular places. They don't need to leave you giddy and breathless...

They don't need to be risking life and limb, or wallet and reputation! ;)

The best things might could be just those that leave you breathing easy and calm. The things that just tickle a small smile... the things that make you comfortable.

Sometimes it's the small pleasure of finding a bit of shade to rest in... after a hot uphill climb, sheltered from the cooling breeze by the fir scented forest...

... or sitting in the sun beside a high mountain meadow... enjoying the views while you eat your lunch...

You may not be where you want to be. You may have a ways to go yet to get there. There's likely to be pot holes and detours along the way. I'd offer a word of advice (that I have to remind myself of on occasion); Learn to admire the journey. When you Get There... the trip is pretty much over! :)

Kickin' UNgrateful to the Curb
Brian

 and now for jus' a lil' commercializin'... Jeb Taylor Day, for readers of westerns is comin' on Monday! ;)