Writin' Forty

I think we all deserve happiness. Meaningful, genuine happiness. It just takes time. Last weekend, I may have seen an example of two people getting exactly what they deserved. I’ve known Doug for well over 10 years. While I know I’d seen him before I remember, distinctly, our first interaction: I’d noticed…hmm, how do I say this? I noticed an emotional tell of Doug’s and I let him know about it. What can I say, I’m very good at observing when I choose to be. This surprised Doug, I think. No, I know. You know how I know? Doug is about one of the most straightforward guys that you’ll ever meet. He’s also one of the smartest. What you see is very much what you get and what you get from Doug as a peer and friend is a loyal person with a good heart. Sooner after my observation we became friends. I could argue that we became near best friends because we hung out quite a dang bit over the next year and half. Doug got to meet my girlfriend at the time who is now my wife (and

I just had a breakthrough of sorts at work. I’m at the same job still. We’ve had several members of our team leave due to some level of discontent and I understand fully the reasons why they have left. Basically, the direction of the team from up top is lacking. Not gonna go into it too much because who knows who reads this dang thing, but suffice it to say if you’re ever on a team and you see senior level people up and leaving the team it is a loudly clanging klaxon, to be alliterative about it. Anyways: the breakthrough: Sister Hazel. I’m not gonna look up the date but the music group Sister Hazel came out with a song called “Change Your Mind” about 15 years ago or so. A key lyric from the song: “If you want to be somebody else? Change your mind!” The point being that you can be anything you want to be if you change your mindset to be that thing you want to be. Right now, work is a raging dumpster fire and I haven’t gotten satisfaction from work. But guess what? I