We all travel a road where we try to get somewhere. We have plans, ideas, looking for the right exit.
But sometimes, the right play is to keep driving, sleep when you are tired and eat when you are hungry, until you get to the destination you wanted to get to in the first place.
But there are no turn around lanes on this highway, just a lonely road of twists and turns that anger, confuse and sometimes sadden us.
But the road continues on and we have to travel to places where we intend to go even if the path is long and winding.
The last month or so, I’ve seen my friends come close, my acquaintances move further away and the people who would back my plays actually back my plays.
And it feels good.
Yesterday the boss called me up out of nowhere to tell me that I had been doing an exceptional job on the project that I was working on.
Did he have to? No.
Did it make me want to drive further on the road, probably.
Because the road is whatever you want it to be, your career, family or your play at the tables. You have choices and sometimes you get lost making the left turn at Albuquerque.
But you never lose by taking the trip. Sometimes the best trips are down to the store where you learn something just by watching someone.
This evening I had a moment like that. It started at a mirror at a retailer. I passed by the mirror and looked at my face. Not at the person, but at the face. And in some cases, I didn’t recognize who I was. I saw the body, but not the soul. But I saw the maturity and the gray hair that had accompanied my receding hairline.
I’m not 40 and I look like this.
But as I’m trying this year to look at the gold and not the just the wood slivers in my soul, I saw a man.
A man pushing a cart down the aisle. His hair was mussed and he smelled of urine. He was obese and looked like his life was challenged enough in the first place.
He had a box of cereal, and a spoon in his cart and he paid with pennies and change, refusing all help from the checker and myself.
“This is the road I’ve chosen and I’ll go as I please,” he said as he was escorted from the store.
The man was happy in what he had, and I couldn’t understand that.
Why would he be happy as miserable as he looked and probably was? Where did he live and what did he do?
But as I ran out of the store to look for the man in the snow and the ice, he had disappeared.
Was he there in the first place I thought as I slugged the groceries to the car?
But I realized that the road I was on wasn’t one that made me happy at all.
And that realization was the beginning of it all.
Categories: My Writing... Tags: Choices, Homeless, My Writing..., The Man
What the hell am I talking about? I'm a very allergic man, and that's the way I'll (ACHOO) like it. The Wedding... Now I'm really getting excited for the wedding coming in 60+ days, why? A new start? Yes, but not exactly. A chance to see my kids? Yes, but not exactly. It's change. (Actually there is more of it, well thought of and written for your consumption at http://www.donahue.org It's tax free!)
Categories: Instant Sean Tags: Inspiration, Instant Happiness, My Writing..., Sick, What's on my mind
Anthony looked at the end of the bed. As he stared as his cold bare feet he knew that his live-in maid/ on and off girlfriend had somehow screwed with the blanket. It isn't easy being 6' 10 and he usually can't have a bed with a foot board at the end. Some hotels (especially Lisbon) he would find himself hanging off the bed. But then again, this is his story... ... "Honey, don't you understand I don't ask for much from you," she started. "Expected what which time dear," I asked wishing that I could find the aspirin. My head was hurting and I took one of those headache powders. I could down these damn things like they were my ex to white powder.
Categories: My Writing... Tags: Inspiration, My Writing...
Tonight I played a tournament, trying to win.
But in the end came up a bit short of winning.
When I was intensely intent on winning, I overthought things and didn’t have the results that I wanted.
However I played my best when I was just playing for fun of it.
Sometimes you have to just have to relax and just play to play.
I think that all the success I’ve had lately are due to the success of me just playing for fun.
I’ve had a project that I’ve been working on and off the last couple of months. When I tried to sit down and write , working on rewrite after rewrite, nothing came out.
But when I sat down to just write, everything came out nicely.
Now I just have to find a buyer for my project.
Step 2.
FYI, I didn’t have time today to make the visit to the person that I wanted to see, but I’ll let the cat out of the bag.
I’m considering going back to any school that will take me so I can get a piece of paper that means I have a piece of paper.
It’s about time for me to have a piece of paper like, Joanna’s that sits on a chest of drawers staring at me saying “DO IT!”
Categories: Instant Sean Tags: Instant Happiness, My Writing...
John was a hearty boy. He filled out his bib overalls and had a little top over the sides. He loved to eat. Every morning , before the sun would rise, John would start with a stack of flapjacks, three eggs, a pound of bacon, a plate of hash browns and a bowl of grits.
Which would satisfy him till noon.
As he normally got finished with his chores he headed into town for his second breakfast at the Cracked Egg Diner.
As he walked in the door the cry went out.
“Maurice, kill a whole pig, lathering em up with sauce and kill 6 baby chickens while you’re at it.”
“Hello Doreen,” he would reply to the woman of his dreams as he sat at the counter.
She would look back at him with her red hair, bloodshot eyes and a body that ten years ago won her beauty pagents. Now, she was divorced, squirting out two kids that she worked two jobs to support.
“Hello, John anything but the usual?”
“No Mamm not at all,” he said as she brought forth two glasses of whole milk. He downed one while glaring down her dress. The “uniform” was not really uniform and no matter how many times she washed that red and white tablecloth looking dress, she could never get the stains out.
“So how’s the crop looking this year” she said while making small talk?
“Well daddy says as long as we gets the rain we need without the hail we’ll be smiling at the end of the year. But as long as that damned run for the hills Ron don’t be calling up no ‘naders.”
‘Amen to that,’ a couple of men around the bar echoed. ‘We don’t need no hail or ‘naders.
As Doreen went back into the kitchen to pick up some orders a couple of the old men sipping coffee at the front of the diner looked around and then motioned to John.
“When are you going to ask her out John?”
John blushed crimson and put his head down where his third chin hit his chest. He said nothing.
Doreen walked through the doors from the kitchen bringing the pound of bacon and six eggs with gravy on top.
“You eat up hearty son,” she said as she slid another glass of milk in front of him.
“Yes M’amm I will,” John said as he started shovelling down the food.
“And you two busybodies, get back to drinking your coffee. Mind your own beeswax,” Doreen said as she started cleaning the counter that was clean only minutes ago.
As she started to wipe the counter down in a circular path John’s eye glanced at hers for a moment. A small smile crept out of the right side of her mouth.
He looked at her as her lean over the counter was more deliberate, more sensual. He was given a glimpse of what the Lord had given her
And John started to turn red and he collapsed to the floor.
Doreen screamed and Blake came out of the back starting CPR. Doreen kept screaming as the ambulance came up and followed with John in the vehicle.
What happens next, you’ll never believe…
Categories: Instant Sean, My Writing... Tags: My Writing..., Quick Story
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