Passion

In this time that we live, when someone speaks of passion, often thoughts turn to today’s current images from the movies, typically swirling around sex.  This is not the passion I want to consider.  The passion I write of today is the “fire in the belly” passion each of us has about something in our lives: family, sports, politics, or woodworking.

Earlier this week, I was invited to a political rally for one of Iowa’s state candidates.  This is not typically something I would attend, but the request came from a person whom I respect and like, so off I went to the rally.  I must say, what I expected and what actually occurred were two completely different things.  I expected a loud, cheering crowd and what actually presented itself was the candidate sitting down with twelve of us.  It was a very interesting conversation, one that made me think about those days when politics worked; but those are thoughts for another time and a different article.

Anyway, when the rally was over, I had an opportunity to speak with a man I know only in passing. Our businesses intersect and I know very little about him personally.  I do know, however, that woodworking is his hobby.  I asked him what he had been working on lately and he told me that since his children had gotten older he really didn’t have much time to spend in his shop. 

Then, the miracle happened.

His face brightened as he began to tell me about his weekend. One of his daughters had asked if they could make a birdhouse together, so they had gone to the shop to do just that.  It was obvious in his face and the inflection of his voice that time in the shop with his daughter had been joyous. As we talked about the project, thoughts of times with my children in the shop washed over me, bringing a flood of emotions.

This is one of the things seldom talked about in woodworking - connections.  There are connections you make with your family and friends as well to others who work in the hobby.  Our hobbies are one way we humans truly connect, in a time when many of our connections to the world seem superficial.  A speaker I heard a few weeks ago said your passion is the thing that you have insight about. I believe him.  When you talk to others who are truly passionate about woodworking, you discover they have come up with solutions and plans that are often inspired and many times surprising, even to them.  These are true signs of passion.

It should be obvious that one of my true passions is woodworking.  As you finish reading this, I hope you identify your own personal passion; something that brightens your face when you talk about it, something that creates a fire in your belly. I encourage you to do more with it.

Today I am inspired to do something more with my passion.  I hope you find inspiration to pursue yours.

Have a miraculous day.

Honey Badger Bad

I know many of you have walked with us during the past year as my daughter went through the healing process from osteosarcoma which we discovered on May 15, 2011.  Osteosarcoma is a malignant bone cancer that often attacks children just as their bones stop growing.  It has been a long and exhausting year, but now that we are three months out from her last round of chemo, and the doctors tell us her immune system is back to normal, I am happy to let you know they’ve announced she is in remission.  We are now on a five-year journey to an announcement of “cancer-free,” which seems like a long time, but we have made it this far, and I know we can do the rest.  It’s just the beginning of another “paper-chain” for us to work our way through. 

What does this have to do with the title of today’s post?  For that I get to tell you the story of Meg’s Make-A-Wish trip.  Meg wanted to go to Hawaii, and in early August, we got to do exactly that.  Our cottage on the ‘garden’ island of Kauai had a beautiful view as it was within a hundred yards of the beach. We had a great time as a family playing cribbage, eating good food, enjoying good sleep, wandering around the island and finding plenty of time to just talk with each other.  Meg found a Hawaiian Shaved Ice stand she really liked, requiring almost daily trips.  Andrew seemed to enjoy the trip and food as well, and it was glorious to have him around.  Sometimes you don’t realize how much you really miss someone.  We missed him.

During our stay, we had the opportunity to SCUBA dive four times.  All the dives were glorious, and Meg realized she could still dive, even with new challenges she faces from the cancer.  We dove with Aquatic Adventures from Kauai, and the level of care and expertise they brought to our experience was amazing.  They handled all our needs and made sure everyone was taken care of.  I would recommend them if you are ever in the neighborhood.  Say Hi to Neil for all of us.

Meg had scheduled the activities for our first day on the island.  She’d worked with an outfitter to be able to do some zip-lining.  Now, before any of you get too tickled by the image of me zipping across the landscape, forget it.  Even with high tension cables and reinforced everything, weight limits and I chose not to work together.  The adventure Meg had scheduled also involved a mile or so of hiking over very hilly terrain, kayaking about the same distance, followed by another short hike to the zip-line location.  Following the zip-lining adventure, we ate lunch and then reversed our trek to return.  Andrew and I were beside ourselves as we just knew this was much too strenuous for our girl.  She showed us.  Meg accomplished every bit of the adventure, including the last 300 yards up a 30° slope to get back to the truck. And, just to show us how tough she was, she did it all while wearing a pack she wouldn’t relinquish. 

That girl is tough … honey badger tough.  Sara, Andrew and I now only worry a regular amount about her, not a special amount.  So, off to college she goes …

I am sure there are more adventures to come.

Little Things

Lately, I’ve spent some time thinking about what really matters and I’m struck by something that many of you may well have known your entire life. It really is the little things that matter.

Earlier this week, I met a friend for lunch. We went to a popular local restaurant because we like the chips they serve as an appetizer before the meal. The person who seated us obviously did not care whether we were there or not. He asked us how many for lunch, grabbed our stuff and by the time we reached the table, he had dropped off the menus and was long gone. We discussed leaving, decided that would be too much trouble and just stayed. Let me be clear, the meal was very good, but at the end of the experience, all I could really remember was the manner in which we had been treated at the beginning of lunch. It is the little things.

Those who know me well, know that I love QuikTrip. I believe they are champions of the little things. Think about the last time you were in one of their stores. When you walked in the door did someone say “Hi” to you? If you used their coffee machine or got a fountain drink were the machines clean? If you went to the bathroom was it is excellent shape? Did you notice that they spend extra money on good lids for their fountain drinks, and extra money to score them so that a straw goes in without crushing it? Is their food always the temperature it should be? It is all of the little things that they do so well.

So, if you agree with me that it really is the little things which matter, what can you and I do about it?  Here are some things to consider. You might already do some of these regularly, but today, try to do something new. Remember to smile, too. You can make someone’s day a bit nicer. At the same time you might make yours nicer as well.

- Hold the door for someone for no particular reason.

- Slow down and let the merging car into the flow of traffic rather than trying to cut them off.

- Clear the table and wash the dishes even though it is not “your turn.”

- Allow someone to step in front of you in the checkout line at the grocery store

- Call a friend out of the blue just to tell them that you miss them or are thinking about them.

- Say “Good Morning” (or Good Afternoon or just hello) to someone you don’t know.

We live in a world that continues to get more and more high tech all the time and it's easy to rely on that to do everything for us, but what really matters to people are the little things which happen between two human beings. Take the time in the next few days to bring an unexpected smile to someone’s face. It will do a lot for them, and it won’t hurt you in the least either. Take care of each other. After all, things whether big or little, are not at all important, people are.

Priorities

OK, I am going to say it out loud.  Sometimes, this ‘being an adult’ crap is for the birds.  I know we all get this and struggle with it occasionally, but once in a while, you just want to scream it out.  I had one of those lately. It came to the top of my head today and I really need to share it.

I watch a television show that I LOVE, called American Restoration.  For those of you who haven’t caught this, it is on The History Channel on Wednesday nights, and has turned into my only real ‘must-see’ of the week.  Rick’s Restorations in Las Vegas will restore virtually anything back to the luster it had when new.  Sometimes, their restoration of items I remember from my childhood turn out better than when originally purchased.  Suffice it to say, you really need to watch this show.

Two months ago I attended a meeting in Las Vegas with our software provider.  Looking through the itinerary, I identified a gap in the schedule.  We had a one on one session with Darrin from INxSQL (software company) from 3 to 4 pm and then we were done for the day.  I planned everything out: getting a taxi as well as recognizing I would only have about 30 minutes at Rick’s Restorations.  I had taken several pictures of a meat scale from The Eastside Market that I wanted to discuss restoring and loaded them on my Kindle Fire.  (Side note: The Eastside Market was my grandparent’s meat market which sat between the Garden Theater and Votrebeck’s Jewelry on the east side of the square in Sigourney, IA.)  I was ready to go.

The meetings were good, but as the day progressed I became more and more like a kid sitting on the curb waiting for a parade to go past.  I could barely hold still.

So, 3:00 finally arrived and we began our meeting with Darrin from INxSQL.  I was within sixty minutes of the part of the trip I had anticipated the most.  And what happened?  Although the entirety of the meeting was very good and highly educational, it figured that this discussion was without question, the best and the most helpful.

No problem, we weren’t going to finish early, (which had been a secret hope) but, an hour is an hour.  Unless, of course, the person you are meeting with doesn’t have another one after ours, and the conversation continued to be very good.  And there it was.  The conversation with Darrin was nothing short of great.  I sat and talked with him and watched the clock approach and then pass 4:00.

We didn’t finish until 4:30. Darn it.

I did the adult thing. I stayed at the meeting, learned a lot that I’ve used since returning to work, and missed the opportunity to go to Rick’s Restoration.  I could have excused myself early from the meeting, done my own thing, and it would have been ok.  But, that wasn’t the right thing to do.

We’ve learned to be adults and take care of our responsibilities.  And, we look back at the time before adulthood with fond memories of doing what we wanted to do, and not what we needed to do. Kids, enjoy your time as a youth.  Setting priorities stinks.


Next time I go to Las Vegas, I’m going to Rick’s Restorations!

Paper Chain

 When my children were young and a big event was approaching, one way we kept track of the time was to make a paper chain with the same number of links as there were days until the event.  Later, this became a discussion of “how many sleeps” until an event occurred.  It always seemed like my family was counting down to something; a birthday, Christmas, family vacation, something.

Today, we are in the biggest countdown of our lives, and everyone knows it.  My daughter, after fighting cancer for the last year is down to only four more chemo treatments.  Four! That is all.  We started a year ago with forty treatments and major surgery ahead of us.  Now, we are down to four.  In a world and a time that seems to move at warp speed, this countdown has taken longer than I can even put in words.  But in the midst of that, what we have discovered is true strength of the human will.  I’ve watched my daughter give up major events in her senior year of high school.  I’ve seen tears - more than I care to admit; way too much of the inside of a hospital (although nothing compared to Meg and Sara) and times when Meg couldn’t get warm, no matter how many blankets.  I will never completely shake some of the images and words from this last year. 

But in the midst of all of this, I’ve also seen strength that is beyond words.  I have watched my daughter, while fighting for her own health; organize a fund raiser with the swim team to raise money for the Cancer Society.  I’ve listened to her talk about the hurt she feels for the ‘kids’ - those still in their first ten years of life - on the floor at University of Iowa Hospital.  I have listened to her tell her own family that she understands her grandfather’s decision to say no to chemotherapy, and that if she were in the same place in her life she would probably make the same decision.  I have watched this young lady, already wise beyond her years; take a quantum step forward in her understanding of the world around her.  It has been an honor to watch her grow like this.  It has also been crushing that she had to.

We are coming to the end of this paper chain.  Four more trips to Iowa City and we will be done with this part of the journey.  Meg’s hair will grow out again; something we all look forward to.  She will regain her strength, and keep it, unlike what has happened to her time and time again in the last year.  She will go out with friends and have parents worry about where she is.  She will get ready for college. 

And we will all start another paper chain as we wait for the doctors to tell her she is cancer free and doesn’t have to come back in regularly for checkups. That will be a long part of the journey, but it is the part we have fought to get to.

Thanks to all of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers.  We appreciate it in ways we will never be able to explain.  Know that we are here; remembering and thinking of you, even when there may be big gaps in our communication.  We have made a long trip and you have been a part of it.  Let us hope that we will be able to spend quality time together in the near future.

Workshop

Isn’t it interesting how a word can bring to mind more than just its common definition? For me, as well as some of you, I’m sure, the word ‘workshop’ means a place to accomplish something, and to a great extent, a refuge from all of the everyday things we each have to manage, overcome, and sometimes just flat out survive.

For children, the word conjures up images of a magical place - Santa’s Workshop - a place where childhood hopes and dreams can be packed in a sack and put under a tree.  This of course includes candies and books, electronic games and software, even clothes and pajamas. 

As you know from my last post, I recently spent a week in China.  The things I learned while there will have a tendency to slowly come out over time.  This is largely due to the fact that I was in such a state of sensory overload, I was seeing and learning things I didn’t even realize I was learning. 

One was another meaning of the word ‘workshop.’ Where for us the word conjures a vision of a small, intimate place where artisan quality work is done, either for self, family, or a select group of acquaintances; in China, a workshop is the factory itself.  The workshop is the production floor where all the work is done for a particular manufacturer and it is a completely different working environment than you and I have ever known.

The workshop I visited manufactures shaped and threaded parts.  In the part of the world that we live in, this would mean steel-toed shoes, safety glasses, and hearing protection at the least.  In China, there is probably enough electricity to run the machinery but not to run the lights in the building.  When I tell most people this, they ask, “Well, then there were skylights, right?”  No, there were not.  There was virtually no safety equipment and some of the processes had the very real possibility of removing an operator’s finger.  The amazing part of the whole thing is that the product being produced was a very high quality, beautiful product.

I realize there are times we all feel that the US has been beaten in the world market, but I am here to tell you that there are offsets we should never be willing to make.  The United States moved through times when we had children working in factories and families owed their lives to the company store.  Those times are behind us. I’ve been able to look first hand at those times and can say with certainty, good riddance.  We must be proud of what we produce and the manner in which we treat our people. 

And let’s continue to encourage the definition of ‘workshop’ as the place which produces furniture for the home and toys for kids and grandkids. 

Remember, I still want pictures and words about your workshops to share.

Tripod

Wow. In my last conversation with you, I talked about diving deep and decompression when coming up.  I had no idea exactly how deep I had gone.

Earlier this week, I came back to the surface, and found myself in China, not figuratively, literally. It was the moment in time when I came to the realization that I needed to write again, hopefully to be enjoyed by someone else, but if not, at least to help me keep my wits about me.

In the last few months, I have come to discover the strength that exists in my family and in the friends I have surrounded myself with. In a time when I was incredibly low on strength, they just kept filling me, pouring strength into me so I could continue. I will never know how to say thank you in an appropriate way, and I will never know how to pay them back. 

I have learned how to behave with grace and strength by watching my daughter move through one of the toughest times that she will probably have in her life. It is my prayer that if ever faced with the same type of situation; I will be able to act in the manner that I have come to not only appreciate but expect from her.

Alright, enough about that.  Those of you who know me are completely up to speed with what I am talking about and those of you that don't, keep reading and I am sure that over the next weeks or months, it will all come into place. 

As I rose from the funk that had been my recent days and months, I found I was up against a trip to Shanghai that I had been ignoring for quite some time because I really did not want to go.  The trip ended up being much better than expected for the business that I was going to handle, but way beyond that, I met someone I really should have met years ago. This is a person who can not only have fun, but make you think all at the same time. In the middle of getting to know a new friend, here is the mantra that I learned:
   
    Creativity
    Spontaneity
    Positive cash flow.

Through all of our lifetimes, we have been told about "tripods" that will not survive if one of the legs is removed. Examples are our own government, or the fire triangle. This new tripod is that with three items: creativity, spontaneity, and positive cash flow, you really can have fun.  With removal of one of the "legs," the tripod falls apart. 

This really struck a nerve in me as I would be willing to say that in the last few months, at least two of these have been missing all of the time, and maybe even all three of them.  That’s kind of shocking when you stop to examine this and find out what the truth is.  So, in China, on business, I worked to embrace this new tripod, at least as much as possible. As a result, I had a great time, and I brought things home to my family they truly enjoyed.  It also gave me something to think about and use as some type of guidance moving forward. As an added bonus, I made a new friend for which I am very thankful.

I am back, hopefully for a long time, working through the decompression sickness that has been several months of family medical crisis. 

IN ADDITION, I need to get back to talking about shops and “man caves” If you know someone that has a cool workspace, let me know about it and we will share it.  I have pictures coming up in the next week or so, as to what a shop in China looks like. Look forward to that.