Just when it feels like everything’s going along smoothly, and the universal tumblers are clicking into place, I’m reminded of how hard it is to be a parent. Maybe hard’s not the right word. It’s always hard. But you don’t really notice how hard it is because it’s so amazing and life moves along so fast that all you can really do is hang onto the safety bar and scream. But then something happens and you realize what an awesome…
Here’s what I’ve discerned in my 48 years: Happiness does not occur as the result of the big, important moments that we *think* make us happy, but rather the small, seemingly insignificant moments that we tend to take for granted. What I mean is that if you can find gratitude in small things like sleeping in a house with a good roof, or having enough food to feed your family, or safely making it home at the end of a day…
We all like to think we can have a perfect life. We dream and scheme and execute intricate plans over long periods of time in the pursuit of things that we think will make us happy. Homes. Cars. Jobs. Even relationships. Why? Because these things are attainable. We have some semblance of control over them. And because of this, we pour our idea of happiness into these concepts – empty moulds waiting to be filled. The more we control, the…
Until I was 18, I never lived above Interstate 10. My idea of a New Yorker was everyone I’d seen on television. Guys like Archie Bunker, Oscar Madison, George Jefferson, and Louis De Palma. Angry old men who wore permanent scowls and who lived in a smog-filled city occupied by millions of other angry people. I was 25 when I first arrived New York via a Greyhound Bus from Houston. I landed in Port Authority back when it was still…
My father was completely sliver by the time he was 50. Silver is encroaching on me from every direction. My father was an alcoholic. I took my last drink 21 years ago. My father committed slow, indirect suicide. Tick tock. *** Jim Mitchem
[BEST READ WHILE AUDIO FROM VIDEO IS PLAYING] Twelve years ago I was just this married guy who enjoyed life. It was good. Really good. I didn’t think about world peace anymore, as I’d outgrown that concept. I mostly cared about what I could get out of life. It was all about me. Then we had a child. A daughter. And when she arrived, everything changed. And I don’t mean just because I had to start changing diapers. Or because…
