What are you thankful for?

It is 12:15 am, and I am starting to write yesterday's post. I was in bed with blankets giving comfort from the blustery winds and real feel temperature of 16 degrees Fahrenheit outside, but I had not written a post.

I reasoned the community would let it slide.

The topic this week is thankfulness. America celebrates Thanksgiving this Thursday by getting together with friends and family. We eat a lot of rich food, renew relationships or argue about our differences, watch American football, and if all goes well catch a bit of a nap in the afternoon.

I live an abundant life that includes; a marriage of many years, children I love, meaningful work, vibrant spiritual community, and a writing project to inspire others to a richer life. I am a thankful man and have experienced many blessings.

On two occasions this weekend, I met gentlemen, that while not wealthy, said that if they were to die today, they are pleased with the life they have lived and are very happy. All three of us are content, and this is a good place to be.

While we are content, we are not complacent. There is much work to be done and it requires getting up out of a warm bed to do what is necessary.

My important task is to thank you for your attention and kind encouragement over these past several months as I brought this idea to life. We have covered many topics through the gift of inquiry. Most people are unwilling to pause, think, and encounter who they are deep down inside. This work can be time-consuming and scary, which is not popular in today's world.

Thank-you for the likes and comments of prose or emoji love. For the followers that stick around to see the new weekly topics and consider how the questions influence or impact your lives, I am grateful.

Seth Godin discusses the importance of consistency and showing up to do the work. Gary V talks about the #hustle and #grind of putting in the work. The easy response is to listen to the howling winds, duck further under the covers, and hustle off to dreamland. You are worth more than the easy response, and I am thankful for your presence at the other end of the Internet.

What have you learned during the dark moments of pursuing your dream?

Each pursuit is different, but each follows the story arch of dream defined the struggle and completion. Not every dream story has a happy ending of a record IPO and the founders raising a toast on a faraway beach. The glossy pictures in the magazines make the idea of success a sure thing. After all, the rack is full of new stories each month. As the artist recounts their story; the ten years of anguished uncertainty, living in obscurity, and the families push for a 9 to 5 is all captured in a paragraph or two. 

The memes tout the benefits of the failures, setbacks and grind during the pursuit. The reality is, the trials suck. The dark days of the world not understanding what you are creating can be very dark. The creditors are calling, too much cheap pizza, the boot of responsibility to produce firmly pressed on your neck, the stress keeping the gut in a permanent knot, wreaks havoc on the mental state.

I am pursuing a vision and struggle with demands and responsibility of husband, father, and employee. At 46, have the possibilities passed me by, and I should expect to be a dust farmer, dancing on the razor's edge, for the rest of my days until the reaper comes? The unfulfilled and unexplored dreams buried with me. The resistance continues to fire the cortisol to ensure there is no relief and the dark clouds coalesce.

I

must

get

up.

I can do one more rep. I can write one more song. I can code one more string. I can submit to one more publisher. I can practice the fundamentals one more time. The injustices against the dark fingers typing the poetry will not stop the rhymes from changing the world. The slurs hurled because of my caste steel my resolve to upend the corrupt system. I must halt the cycle of drugs and poverty ingrained in the family tree, so I study another page of engineering.

What are the lessons this pursuit is teaching you and crafting your unique story of the one you greet each morning in the mirror?

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt