Theoriginalneanderthal

The idea that we are somehow safe and can pursue our lives with little thought towards risk is a hallmark of our civilization. We have comfortable homes we live in. Most of our jobs are not so physically challenging they could cause us injury. We drive to and fro and even travel long distances in comfortable, climate controlled automobiles. In every aspect of our lives the effects of our environment are mitigated by our technology.

The Neanderthal were much more aware of how vulnerable they were. In tune with their environment, living in harsh climates, exposed to the forces of nature in ways we experience only by choice, the Neanderthal had to survive in harmony with that environment. Even their bodies were designed for their environment. They had a dense bone structure, large nasal cavities, and thick skulls that helped them survive, maybe even thrive in intensely cold environments.

Dealing with the weather and terrain, the storms, the temperatures, the snow and ice, and how it affected their food supplies made them a tough, canny, and capable people. If they were not, they died. Even if they were, it didn’t always go well for them. The small family groups made it possible to feed and shelter themselves. Dependent on one another and their skills at hunting, foraging, and planning to have food, clothes and shelter available created a culture we are just getting small glimpses of as we investigate the history of our planet.

Knowing the history of our planet and how it has passed through different ages like tropical ages and ice ages; it amazes me how panicked we act at the thought of ‘global warming.’ It is a luxury to worry about an unknowable future when we know by our very existence our planet has survived great extremes. This is a give away that our lives are relatively safe and easy.

Every now and then we get a potent reminder that we are not as safe or as prepared or as smart as we believe we are. There are forces in this world outside our control. There will be unforeseen events that will reshape even our physical world in a matter of minutes.

I live in East Tennessee. The last few days of September brought Hurricane Helene to our corner of the world. It tore through the region without mercy. My community was spared the worst of the storms wrath. Close neighboring communities were not. In a matter of hours nature remade the landscape, rerouted rivers, reshaped mountainsides and wiped out people’s homes and businesses, bringing death, destruction and utter devastation on a scale unseen in this area.

Life is fragile. Watching the side of a mountain slide down into a raging flood of mud and debris where a river used to flow peacefully by, reminds us how vulnerable we really are. Life is precious. Watching the folks climb up from the rubble and get to work, I see a tenacious drive to survive, to reclaim, to rebuild, and eventually to thrive. Safety is an illusion. If you buy into it, you will be disappointed. Safety is an illusion, what is not is the human spirit that seeks to overcome and to be greater than the threat. Safety is an illusion. We were never meant to be safe. We were meant to rise to meet challenges. We were built to overcome.

Life is a mystery. We think we have a plan, that we have it all figured out. That is a comfortable lie we tell ourselves to get through our days. In reality, the story line turns on a dime, throwing all well made plans in disarray. We have no way of knowing how the story ends.

Along the way, life challenges us to grow. We were never meant to be satisfied with the status quo. We were meant to grow, to learn to become more. We were meant to rise to meet whatever is coming our way head on. The world would deny us this heritage as it tries to sell us on the easy life. The world pushes the idea at us that we should have no worries. The world whispers in our receptive ears that there should be a way to avoid hardships, and cruise around stubborn obstacles like they are nothing. We are special. We should be able to slip by any problems. And if all that fails then we can always chemically dull our emotional reaction to life’s darts and slings as we pursue the good life, the easy life…what we know we deserve in life. Unfortunately, the attempt to avoid difficulties usually just increases the suffering we experience as we are forced to navigate the rough terrain. No one gets out alive. Everyone has scars, internal or external.

Many of us have a ‘bucket list’ of things we want to do or see or experience some day. That list may be extravagant, depending on the accumulation of wealth before it can be realized. That list might be more down to earth or home centric. Maybe we want to spend more time with family, or travel to see distant friends. Maybe, we want to travel to see natural wonders, or go to great cities and experience what they have to offer. Whatever is on your list, don’t wait!

You may wake up one day and realize your health won’t stand the strain of travel, or those distant friends have passed on. Maybe that time you wanted with your family when the demands of work shrank is running into the time intensive career demands of grown children. Where did that time go? Here you stand, but where are they? Hey mom, hey dad we’ll have to work this holiday. We will see you soon!

Maybe that retirement with a beloved spouse is being spent nursing that spouse through an unexpected severe illness. As Jim Morrison so plaintively put it in Roadhouse Blues, ‘the future is uncertain and the end is always near.’ Don’t wait! Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have time. There are no guarantees.

What is on your ‘bucket list’? I want to drive through a giant redwood tree, to stick my toes in the Pacific Ocean, I want to see the bears catch the salmon at Katmai, and stand on an active volcano. I want to see the sun set over the western ocean. I want to stand in Death Valley at high noon in July. I want to camp on a semi-tropical island. I want to see the Northern Lights. I want to explore, to embrace the nomad that lurks in my soul.

Let’s go! I am done with the waiting.

Life rolls on. One day follows another. We make plans. We set goals. We work. We sleep. We dream. We think we have a clear vision of the future, and then the fog rolls in…and there we are. What was once so visible is now shrouded in mist. What we once believed achievable is reduced to a memory. We are left without a clear sight path forward.

I am all about movement. I like to be busy. I like to do things. It is actually difficult for me to take a time out. I operate best with a little bit of stress, so much so I have been known to create a bit of unnecessary stress along the way just to keep things interesting. There are times though, I find myself almost mindlessly pressing on, directionless and forcing things that should probably be left as they are.

There are times when it is most appropriate to just stop and be still. These times seem anti-progressive to one who feels most productive when doing and moving.

Standing on the trail on the side of the mountain in my favorite National Park, watching the roiling misty fog move towards me, knowing the clarity of my path forward was going to be compromised, knowing the change in my circumstances was totally out of my control, I paused. I watched the fog engulf the terrain and surround me. I breathed in the moist cooler air and quietly assessed the change in my world.

It is Ok to pause. Sometimes, events and circumstances overtake and overwhelm us. Our vision of our path forward is clouded over or lost. Going backwards is not possible. Going sideways is not advisable, but our way forward appears blocked. It is time to take a time out. It is time to be still, stop struggling against forces outside our control. We can loosen our grip on our contrived timelines. Life is always teaching us things about ourselves and what we are capable of.

When we pause, we are not done. We are not giving up, or throwing in the towel. We are resting up for the next surge forward. There is no set time for a pause. It is a time to assess where we are, to revise our expectations and reset our path forward. It is a time to refill our tanks, make sure we have all our supplies and the gear we need to progress. It is time to do a bit more research and expand our knowledge and understanding of who and where we are and just what we are seeking to achieve. It is OK to Pause.

Sometimes, well a lot of the time, things do not work out as we would like. Life is as full of disappointment as our heads are full of expectations. How a body weathers disappointment has a lot to do with determining a person’s quality of life. Quality of life has more to do with what is going on between our ears than it does what is happening in the world around us.

We live, we rise, we eat, we move, we breathe, what else is going on? Do we have a purpose? Are we seeking to better ourselves or our circumstances?

It is easy to get caught up in the day to day grind. It wears on body and soul. The world is designed to test us on a daily basis. If we aren’t being tested in some way then something somewhere is off kilter. We are tested physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If a complex system isn’t stress tested it is a weak, dangerous system just waiting to catastrophically fail.

Stress is the driver and the bane of life. We often say stress like it’s a bad thing. Somewhere along the road of life we decided that stress was not good for us; however without some form of stress we would all be indolent layabouts. A life of ease is a dream we chase like that carrot on the stick. We were really never meant to get there.

Knowing and acknowledging this lets us put stress and disappointment in the right place in our lives. Disappointment actually indicates we were doing something, working towards an outcome we desired. Not everything is destined for success. Not every thing we try is guaranteed. Meeting disappointment with the understanding that somewhere along the way the meeting was destined to happen gives us the proper perspective to accept disappointment and learn something from it. Disappointment does not signify the end of something, it merely signifies the current efforts aren’t going to get you where you need to be.

Gaining traction after disappointment can be a challenge in itself. So much of it is mental. Going back to the drawing block and redefining what success might look like is a good place to get grounded before takeoff. Not taking disappointment to heart is difficult when something is very important, but we mustn’t let our disappointment redefine us. Words have power and the word disappointment can drag a person down by itself. Just say I am disappointed and emotions respond. Acknowledge the disappointment and add…but we are not done yet! A positive affirmation has power too.

To truly gain traction one must move. Look at where you are and what it might take to shuffle one baby step forward, then do it! You don’t have to solve for world peace before you get some traction. Traction with forward momentum can be something more easily accessible than it might at first appear. Find a small thing to do that will benefit you or the project and do it. Leave your expectations behind and begin a slow crawl forward. Before you know it you will have…traction and it will be Game On!!!

This year is winding down. Looking over my shoulder at the tumultuous path, I can’t believe we made it this far. So much has happened in our little world that has forced us to focus on things closer to home and on the people who matter the most. Left struggling with what it takes to get along in a world that is no longer as welcoming or friendly as we imagined it to be, we have misstepped and stumbled a few times. But we never fell, we always managed to right ourselves and keep plugging gamely forward.

At the end of one year and the beginning of another most of us take time to assess where we have been and where we think we would like to go. Plans are drawn up and goals are set. Optimism rises as we set what is done aside and look out towards the unknown where all things are possible.

Studying on the plans from this time last year, I find I am holding a shredded collection of hopes and dreams. Nothing could have prepared any of us for what this past year delivered. I am hesitant to pull out a planner and set goals for the new year. Life is fragile. We are not in control. Basically, we are along for the ride and no matter how hard we try to steer, there are forces greater than ourselves that ultimately direct our path. What makes or breaks a year is how we handle what we could not know was headed for us.

The Neanderthal lived through tumultuous times, their world often dominated by a harsh climate and the constant struggle to survive in a world that was not nearly as friendly as the one we inhabit. The climate affected their food supplies and forced them to learn to adapt. The ability to adapt to changing environments has become less of a thing for us, but no less important for a successful outcome. The ability to let go of one’s expectations and embrace reality enhances one’s ability to survive. The ability to use reality to sharpen one’s skill set will allow one to thrive.

This past year has been a challenging one. As the months passed, and I stopped fighting against the changes that arose things began to settle. I have learned that the only thing I can see clearly is what is right in front of me. Accepting that all I really have is the moment in which I exist, has been liberating. Trying to look beyond this moment leaves me feeling overwhelmed and distraught. Trying to hang onto what has passed leaves me exhausted and saddened. Taking a deep breath and embracing the moment I am in is the only safe space left for me. In this moment I am free to just be. I am free to make it the best possible moment I can. I can share my moments, I can lift up or tear down, I can laugh or I can cry. I can share a burden or try and haul it all on my own weary shoulders. I can reach out or push away. One thing will lead to another and what I do will define me.

Wherever this year takes us, it is important that we keep our heads up and our focus on what we can see clearly. We cannot delve into the unknown with any certainty and no matter what we think we know, tomorrow will always be unknowable. Each day will offer us plenty of challenges and grace us with opportunities to shine or to dismay.

Everyday when we engage the world around us, our attitude has more influence over how we fare than almost any other variable. There are instances throughout the day we make unconscious decisions about our circumstances that cause us to veer off the track we would prefer. Life is not simple. Things are not black and white. We press forward on autopilot and often end up nowhere close to where we want to be.

On top of that our world seems to be geared towards maximum stress. Some stress is beneficial. Stress pushes us to perform. There is an optimal level of stress where we actually perform our best. Too little stress and we aren’t moved. Too much stress and we freak out and can’t function well. Our world right now seems to be pushing us towards that place where we will struggle to perform.

When everything seems to be going wrong and no matter how hard we try we just can’t seem to get it under control, what can we do? How can we reset when circumstances are beyond our control? How can we get ourselves to a place where we can still our thundering hearts and ease our worried minds?

Looking outside ourselves for a magical or medicinal cure, sends many down a pharmaceutical pathway that may not ever address or correct the path. Taking ownership of our emotions and asserting our dominion over the thoughts that plague us is not easy, but it is doable. Many of us live as though we have no control over the one thing we can control, our minds. Our thought life can make or break us. When I learned that just because a thought popped into my head I didn’t have to entertain it, I took a big step towards freedom from a self inflicted bondage I hadn’t realized I held the key to.

One of the first steps to reigning in our thoughts and emotions is deciding that no matter how we ‘feel’, we are going to find something to be grateful for. Gratitude is a game changer. Instead of embracing the negativity and looking at all the things we do not have, why not take a deep breath and consider what there is to be grateful for.

Everyone’s list is going to be different. Each of us values things a bit differently. But everyone reading this is breathing. Everyone reading this can see. Look around and start claiming the good things for yourself. Lift up your head and turn your back on what is holding you up. Make a list of all that is good. What makes you smile? What gives you comfort? Who do you get to share your time with? Who can you uplift with a word or a deed? What do you have to be grateful for?

Life rolls on hour by hour, day by day in a mostly ordinary way. Looking out my windshield at the world, I wonder where we are all going in such a hurry. Life seems so frenetically paced anymore and our purpose oblique. We get up and get busy. We need to do this and we have to get that done, and there’s just not enough time in the day to get it all done.

Looking at my day’s I am struck by their ordinariness. Pay the bills, get to work, clean the house, feed the dogs, etc… as I move through the hours I tend to get lost in the mundane. My greater purpose is suborned to a relentless pressure to bounce from one task to the next. So many little things to do, so many tasks to get done, I feel the stress as I measure my success by what I complete. So often, I do not meet my expectations of myself. Maybe it is time to pause and reevaluate what is actually important.

There was a day, back in the day, when I was going to be somebody, I was going to do great and wonderful things…and then I met reality and began to live the life I have been given in the little corner of the world where I settled. The days pass and sometimes I look up and wonder what happened to that idealist? What became of that purposeful young person? And in this great and wonderful world we share, just what is a purpose for one such as I?

How many of us are lost in the mundane, rising and falling with no greater purpose and than to get through another day? The lives of the Neanderthal were purposed on survival. Food, shelter, basic necessities drove them from day to day; however, our lives have been blessed with the basic necessities leaving us time to pursue other things to fulfill our purpose. We all need a purpose. What are we pursuing? What is important enough to get our attention and lift us from the morass? What lights a fire in the heart and drives one forward with passion and purpose? Is it enough to wake and get through another day?

We get to define success these days. In a world circling relative truth what value can we we ascribe to our notion of success?When I become lost in the mundane, I force myself to stop and look around me. I have a comfortable home, pets I love, successful sons, a good spouse to share the days with. I have family, friends, a decent job. I read, write, listen to audio, adventure some in the great outdoors. I have things I look forward to and things I do not. I try to be a positive influence in my little corner of the world. Perhaps, that is enough…what do you think?

The Autumnal Equinox is here, Summer has ended. The days are getting noticeably shorter. There is a coolness to the nights promising an end to the stifling humid summer air. Swimming pools have closed, school buses are rolling and the rhythm of daily life is settling in.

With every seasonal change a sense of anticipation rises. What will the season hold for us? Change drives us forward or dumps us backwards. Are we prepared? Autumn is historically a season of preparation. It is a reminder that nothing stays the same and darker, colder days lie ahead. If we want to survive them, we must prepare.

The Neanderthal survived in a much harsher climate than we have faced. The changing of the seasons held life and death for them. To live, preparation had to be thorough and focused on pure necessity. Warmth, some type of food preservation, and shelter that could withstand the bone-chilling cold of their winters. The taming of fire and the shelter of limestone caverns made survival possible. The preparation for the long cold winter carried out over the warmer seasons made survival probable. Without a deep intrinsic knowledge and understanding of the world and environment they inhabited, they could not have possibly lived the centuries they did.

Autumn is a season of transition, a time of evaluating where we have been, how successful our efforts have been and where we are headed and if we have what we need to get there and survive it. We still have time to get things in good order before winter. In my lifetime this season of transition has taken on more of a mental and emotional flavor centered on celebration of the harvest season without actually having to physically harvest anything.

As we move through this season of transition, it would be in our best interest to understand the world we live in and see it through eyes unclouded by the miasma of conflicting information birthed by conflicting ideologies. Reality is where we live. Reality is what we walk into when we set aside our TV and devices and interact with our physical environment. It is our neighborhood, our interactions with folks, our jobs, our families, our churches our communities. Reality is where we shop for food, where we toil, where we hug one another and laugh and cry.

The cold, dark days of winter are coming. We must prepare our hearts and minds. During this glorious season of cooler weather, hay rides, pumpkin spice everything and beautiful displays of color in our mountains let us embrace the change that is inevitable and claim it. We have the most influence on what is ours, this time and season belongs to us!

Stepping outside one’s comfort zone is never easy. The higher the motivation and greater the passion for the thing that drives one to expand one’s horizons; the easier it is to take that step into the unknown. Stepping into the unknown is a venture that inevitably leads to personal growth. Growth can sprout from obstacles and difficulties surmounted or disasters one must learn from then recover from. Almost everything about starting a business and building a brand from scratch has been a challenge promoting personal growth.

One of the things we have been doing to get our merchandise out there for people to see is setting up at different vendor events around our area. Needless to say, I am most comfortable with my own company, there is nothing better than curling up with a good book. When I go out adventuring, I like getting out on the trails and soaking up the peace and nourishing atmosphere of the backcountry. The in your face, constant need to speak and interact with strangers, that defines public sales is a challenge I am slowly growing into. I, like our business, am a work in progress.

Each event is its own little biosphere. The layout of the venue, the focus of the festivities, and the group of vendors sharing the space contribute to the atmosphere. I always go in with a mixture of expectations and fear, hoping to do well and fearing that we will not. It’s an adventure with no guarantee of success and it’s different each and every time. So many variables influence the outcome, from foot traffic to weather, that setting up and laying it out there is fraught with uncertainty. I sit or stand with my offering as people flow by. When people stop and look, checking out our wares, I engage, my enthusiasm sometimes catching. The interest and encouragement we get is as important to our mental and emotional well-being as the funds are to keeping our fledgling enterprise afloat.

Learning the best way to present the merchandise to the ever changing audience has been another challenge. One size does not fit all. The exact same setup has different results depending on where you are and who is coming around. Modifying the setup to engage folks becomes a necessary ritual at every event. I have fond memories and despairing memories. Some events I just knew when I booked us in were going to be great, they were not. Some of the events I went to just knowing it wasn’t going to amount to much surprised me. We took away different lessons from each of our events learning what works and what not to waste time on again.

I have learned much and I am still too new at this to be entirely comfortable. The support of my family and friends has been and continues to be one of the pillars that keeps the venture viable. I am looking forward to all the challenges arising from this undertaking. My goal is not only to establish a company that might grow into something great, but to live my life in a manner that touches others with something positive. I refuse to be satisfied with getting by. There are places to go and things to see and things to be experienced. Thank you for being a part of it.

We start out life with the building blocks of genetic and familial traits. These are the most rudimentary building blocks that we have to work with as we develop our personality and approach to life. Many things go into the mix that makes us into the person we become.

Our immediate family has tremendous influence, but outside influences like what we read, watch, and listen to; along with our associations with others go into the mold that shapes us. Who we choose to befriend; who we decide to admire; even who we decide to dislike all influence our behavior. As we grow these internal and external influences guide our values even if these decisions are unconscious. In fact, our culture molds us even as we define our culture in a circular relationship as old as civilization. What we esteem drives our ambitions. And our ambitions drive our activities.

In our thought life we have an image of who we are. That image also influences and guides our activities. Unfortunately, our activities do not always reflect the image we have created and cherish. What we believe internally and what we project by our words and actions may often be so at odds that the world around us does not even recognize us as the person we hold dear in our heads. This creates a good deal of the conflict in our relationships. Reconciling how others treat us with our expectations of how others should be treating us, based on our self image, creates a lot of discord in our hearts and minds. It can be difficult to live up to the ideal we have created. Good intentions and large egos aside, in the end what we do is who we are.

To get up and face each day as a genuine person is a challenge. The clearest way to grow is to embrace everything that is within us, the good, the bad, and even the ugly. We are all of us not as good as we think we are and better than we believe we are. Accepting that one is less than this complex mixture of conflicting ideals keeps us from growing. Honestly appraising and accepting our weaknesses and the darkness that is within each of us opens the way to growth.

How are you holding up as the world tilts on its axis? So much of the foundation I grew up on has crumbled and the struggle to stay upright has me floundering. The strong, positive, unflappable personae I was sure defined me has been stripped away by reality. I find myself reacting too often and my reactions are too often proving unhelpful. I do not always behave rationally, I find myself slipping and treating others poorly. I make my excuses to justify why my behavior falls short of my ideal , but excuses are just that. What is done is done, what has been said cannot be unsaid. In the end…what I do is who I am.

The best thing that can be said of this is that each day I get an opportunity to redefine who I am by what I choose to do with what is laid before me. My circumstances are far from ideal. Welcome to the real world, right? Each day, I choose to get up and enter the fray; I will not fail due to a lack of effort. I want the world around me to be a bit better because I passed through it. That won’t happen just because I am this great and wonderful person, it will happen because I chose to say kind words, I chose to do the right thing, I left the excuses behind and acted with thoughtfulness and integrity. It will be the ‘little’ things that see us through the difficulties and cause a better person to step out the other side. I am seeking to act like the person I want to be.