Life is spectacular, amazing, and difficult.
There are lessons to be learned each and every day. Failure is as important as success, as we learn from both. Parents, teachers, and family share knowledge and provide support. We make mistakes, become overwhelmed, get confused, say or do things that we later regret, sometimes hurting others or ourselves in the process.
We don't own anything. According to an American Indian proverb, "We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." We are stewards of everything. We came into this earth owning nothing, and we will leave it in the same way.
Is success being rich, having status, gaining possessions, that certain job, providing influence? Some people are happy with achievement, losta stuff surrounding us, being somebody rich and famous, being really busy; others are not. Both are successful if they are happy with what they have. We have tools and resources available to us, and the choice is ours to use them or not.
Life is spectacular, amazing, and difficult. What we make of our life is, of course, up to us.
On this day in 1985, the corporate executives at Coca-Cola lost their mind, changed the formula on its flagship brand of soda and released New Coke. The response? Negative, to the surprise of only Coca-Cola. The original formula, re-introduced as Coca-Cola Classic, was back on the market in less than 3 months.
It was the best of intentions that took Coca-Cola to the edge of faltering. New Coke is studied to this day in business schools as an example of how never to underestimate the attachment consumers have for some items.
Of course, nothing stays the same and things change every day. Some are easier to accept or are even welcomed; computers no longer take up entire rooms, medical imaging equipment is widely available and your cell phone, well, it still makes phone calls, but it is so much more than that.
Change is inevitable. We approach change in as many ways as there are people in the world. Some eagerly look forward to the newest items. Others reluctantly adapt because there is no other choice. Still others wait along the sidelines, hoping that change will pass them by. Some choose not to bother with it and stand their ground, looking change in the eye and sending it packing.
We all know the best laid plans are bound to go astray. Change hardly ever happens in a straight line but generally comes at us form many directions all at once. How we choose to manage the twists and turns of life, how we adapt and respond to these inevitable changes is entirely up to us. It is what makes us individuals, gives us opportunities to learn, gain experience and grow. Roll with the changes or get rolled over.
We signed up for rain when we moved to Washington State. The annual average precipitation in Bellingham is 34.84 inches with rainfall fairly evenly distributed throughout the year. Rain I can deal with; that's what jackets and umbrellas are for. We don't have to water the grass 
or any of the established plants. Things are typically green and lush, albeit sometime a bit soggy.
This time of year we long for the beautiful sunny day with a brilliant blue sky devoid of clouds. We run outside when the clouds part and rays of sunshine fall upon is, generating Vitamin D. A chance to clear away a few weeds, plant vegetables, mow the lawn, tidy the yard. The clouds return soon and rain follows, watering in the newly planted items.
Gotta go...there is a break in the clouds.
"There's too much sky and not enough blue, too many questions to why I love you. There's too many clouds and not enough sun; the clouds must fall on everyone." - Teitur
In human history, lack of sleep is a relatively recent problem. Sure, there were the occasional sleepless night when children were born, hunting season was at its peak or an emergency occurred. Historically speaking, humans, and the balance of the animal world, have had enough sleep.
Our ancestors
weren’t woken up by cell phones in the middle of the night, worrying about the mortgage or trying to sift through the information overload from the previous day. Our bodies use sleep to recover from the day of stress they were subjected to, recharging for the day ahead.
This week was one of those weeks. Multiple late night phone calls from work coupled with being down a person has resulted in too much to think about and not enough time to do it in.
After one day of sleep loss, animals compensate by increasing the intensity of sleep; in the short term, we try to balance things out. After a few days of sleep loss, our bodies no longer try to compensate for lost time; we don't sleep any more deeply or any longer than we would under normal conditions.
Things will eventually balance out, of that I am sure. Until then, I dream of sleeping, perchance to dream...
Some believe life is like following a path: education, career, kids, in some order or fashion. Sometimes the path veers to the left or right, but it continues forward, taking us wherever we need to go. Others see the path as cyclical and multidimensional, like pancakes stacked on top of each other, circling back around to similar points in time and experiences, always moving forward but not in a straight line.
I have circled around on some things more than I care to remember: multiple cities, different houses, various jobs. Now, twenty-seven years after completing college, I am headed back to school. While I've never really stopped learning, this is the first time I have circled back to formal education.
As a traditional college student, I was in an exploration mode, finding out what I was capable of doing, learning what would be the foundation of knowledge that my career, whatever it turned out to be, would later rest upon. As an adult student, I won't be exploring or laying a foundation, as I already possess considerable industry knowledge and can focus my learnings into real-life situations.
This time around the education pancake will not include parties, dorm life or free time between classes. Some things won't be different, as I will once again feel like a new student standing at the bottom rung of the academic ladder, faced with an increased workload and teachers who seem so incredibly smart.
