I have a dream....

Don't we all?  From the time I was a little kid, I can remember many dreams that I have had.  These dreams range from playing professional baseball and being the guy to hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to win game seven of the World Series for the Cleveland Indians (that dream never had a chance since I have never hit an over the fence home run - I have hit several in the park home runs- and the fact that the Cleveland Indians have not won a World series since 1948; we are not going to talk about the two melt downs in 1995 and 1997 - I am still mad at Jose Mesa for handing the Marlins that game),  to being a race car driver, or even being the president of the United States (8 more years and I am eligible to run - who is voting for me in 2020?).  Never did i dream of being a store manager of a Starbucks, living in Covington and having 2 daughters.  I don't think anyone actually accomplishes all the things they dream of as a child, but that doesn't mean we should stop dreaming.

As I mentioned above, I manage a Starbucks Coffee in Mandeville, LA.  While it is not the job I dreamed of as a child (I don't even like the taste of coffee - its like owning a bar and not drinking, ironic I know), it is a great job and great company to work for.  Recently, Starbucks has gone through a "re-branding" and there has been a major redefining of my position as Store Manager.  Just as much as serving a great cup of Joe, my job is to inspire my baristas to do great work.  Part of the way that I do that is to put inspirational quotes on my communication board to get everyone to think and respond in a positive manner.  This week I posted a quote that has stirred a lot of conversations - which is saying something considering I also posted a quote by Tupac Shakur.  The quote is a Chinese Proverb that says "I have dreamed a thousand new paths, but I woke and walked my old one."  

At first this seemed not to be the inspirational item I was looking for, but the more I have thought about it I realized something.  Sometimes our dreams are a little outlandish - i.e. the 9th inning home run to win the World series, but life often has a way of turning "the same old path" into new and better dreams.  As a child, I dreamed of being a husband and father, but never the father of two girls.  Like most guys, I always thought I would have 2 boys - 2 little baseball or football stars that would be the superior athletes that would be drafted in 2 sports, make a boat load of money and be able to put me in a nice retirement home, but ultimately carry on the family name (maybe I reached into the outlandish there) - or at least have a son first and a daughter second, so that my son could be the big brother and protect my daughter.  But life had a way of making sure that did not happen.  I married Janel, dream come true, who's family has a history of only girls (Morgan and Madison have about 8 cousins on Janel's side - only 1 boy), and we obviously have two beautiful girls.  

This may not have been one of my thousand dreams, but I would never trade what I have now for even one of those dreams.  Janel, Morgan, and Madison are the most precious things I have in my life and I could never dream of life without them.  My girls may never play professional ball or even be able to put me in a nice retirement home, but I love them with everything I am - I just hope I don't have to bust out my shovel and bag of lye on some guy trying to woo them away from me.  

So even though I never went on a different path to chase some pipe dream of mine, life had a way of making my reality exactly what I wanted.  A couple of posts ago, I wrote about perspective, and that seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life over the last couple of weeks.  Dreams are great and fun to remember but reality is so much better.    

Fake it 'til you make it

One of my favorite songs and music videos is a song by R.E.M. called "Imitation of Life."  If you have never seen or heard the song, I highly suggest that you take about 4 1/2 minutes to watch it on YouTube.  The song  has lots of meanings depending on who you ask, but one of the things that makes the song great is the is how the music video and song play off each other.  The video is of a pool party scene and through out the video you get to zoom in on different aspects of what is going on at the party.  The scene is actually less then a 30 second snapshot of life, but you get to see the scene from multiple points of view, and ultimately get to see that a lot of the people are playing a part and not being real with themselves or the people around them.  The reason that I have been thinking about this song and video is because my computer crashed and I lost all my music and apps that were saved on my itunes account.  When I was finally able to recoveedr all my stuff, I heard this song playing as my phone was syncing.  I was thinking "yeah, I wish I could have imitated this part of life," but then I realized that most of us "imitate" life on a daily basis. From getting the kids ready for school, getting ourselves ready for work, doing work around the house, our routine at work, and sometimes even the interactions we have with our spouses are just going through the motions.  (Don't lie to me and tell me that none of you have had conversations with your spouse where you knew what they were going to say/respond to whatever you said.  In fact, I just got in trouble for that.  I thought I knew what Janel was going to say, but I was wrong.  She shouldn't break the pattern after 7 years of marriage - it throws me off!)  Anyway, I was at the splash park today with a friend of mine and as our children were frolicking through the sprinklers it hit me - this is what life is really about, things that can't be imitated.  I don't know about you but I hate to get caught in the rain, but the kids were soaked to the bone and loving; whereas, a lite spring shower can ruin my entire day.  I had a blast watching my 4 year old daughter run around splashing and playing while catching up with my buddy (even if we did look like a homosexual couple with our three kids - thanks for hanging out with us today Dustin).  If you live in the Covington/Mandeville/Abita Springs area there are a couple of great splash parks to go to (for free), if not a sprinkler and a kiddie pool in the yard work just a well - go out and be a kid for a while. 

All of us have our routines and habits, but if we are not careful we can easily fall into the trap of just faking our way through life.  TPS reports and dealing with the Bill Lumbergh (umm, yeah, uhh) at the office should never take the place of the raw and unscripted moments that make you realize that life is pretty cool deal.  

Well on a real note, laundry is calling my name (I am going to have to go through the motions of folding clothes).  I do want to say how proud I am of my wife for completing her first 5k race today.  She did an awesome job and I am sure she will update everyone on her blog (covingtonmomof2.blogspot.com) as soon as she recovers.

You can follow me on Facebook (which is probably how you got here in the first place), but also now on twitter, and YouTube.  You can follow the links below to find both of those sites.

So, umm, until next time, I am going to need you to, uhhhh, live life for real.  Yeah, that would be great.

- Jonathan 

Old lessons, new application

Life is a consistently evolving maze of lessons to be learned.  I am only 27 years old, and while people tell me that I am more mature than that number suggests, I have a life time of lessons to learn.  Never has this been more real to me than in the past few weeks.  My wife, Janel (you can follow her journey via her blog - covingtonmomof2.blogspot.com  - BTW, Janel is an amazing writer; if you are reading my blog, you will soon find out that I am not), has started a journey of changing her lifestyle around food.  I am proud to say that she has lost over 30 pounds since February 1st, but her journey has put me under a lot of conviction about my relationship with food and has led to conviction is many areas of my life.  More on those topics in future posts.

Today was my "off" day from work.  I do not know how "off" pressure washing the entire house, 2 loads of laundry, vacuuming, getting 2 children ready for school and then picking them up really is - but I digress.  Anyway,  I had to go into my store this morning to put in an order (I know, sorry Janel), and life hit me with an old lesson.

Several years ago, a wise person told me that rules and laws were not put in place to oppress me, but to give me freedom.  Can anyone say oxymoron?  I never really understood what that meant - until today. Let me try to explain.  While at the store, it was very apparent that one of my workers was not in proper uniform which has become a major emphasis with the re-branding of my company.  Before I continue, this worker is one of my favorite.  He works hard, has a great sense of humor, and does his job well.  But the topic of uniform is his Achilles heel.  I had no choice to have a conversation, and it was in the midst of this talk that I finally learn the lesson from so many years ago.

Freedom to be myself comes from the boundaries that are set on my life, and those boundaries are in place to keep me safe and happy.  State law says that I can go 70 mph on I-12. Seventy-five mph will get me a ticket,  45 mph will get me a lot of dirty looks, but driving 70 mph with music blasting and the windows down on a gorgeous day is plenty of freedom for me.  Rules, whether they be from work, home, government, family, or whatever, are not meant to keep me locked down and living in fear, but to give me choices and ultimately live my life that way I want to.  Lets take this back to Adam.  God put Adam and Eve in the garden at the beginning of the world and told them they could do what every they wanted.  Eat, drink, and play were all at their fingertips with one rule - do not eat from this one tree.  God didn't put this one rule in place to be a jerk (no comments from my non-religious friends out there), he did it to keep them safe from the dangers that the one tree held.  Adam and Eve had freedom because of the rule in their lives.

Heres the lesson in short - Life is all about perspective.  If you focus on the rules, you get bogged down in what you "can't" do, but if you know the rules but focus on the freedom that gives you - life is awesome!  Like I told my employee today, you can look at the uniform policy and say "I can't wear my beach shorts to work" or you can be like Will Smith in "Men in Black" and say "the difference between you and me - I make this look good."

Enjoy your freedom

- Jonathan