Hey Cade,
I just wanted to tell you again Thank You for all of your help. This truly is a big step for me and I know that this opportunity, that you have helped me get started in, is going to lead me towards changing some of my normal habits and accomplishing the goals that I have set for myself.
I live my life in a feeling of consistant gratitude. I am very thankful for all the opportunities that are handed to me in life. It seems like as long as I am focusing on my goals, helping others, feeling truly grateful, and keeping sight of all of this, then Life really is more simple and brighter.
Cade, your job is kind of like this, if you look at it with the grateful eyes. You get the chance to help many people through your occupation. By accomplishing this, your job is not the only thing great, this makes you great too!
I wanted to share something with you that helps me think about love everyday, from my first waking moment, instead of the all the dislikes that use to plague my thoughts. It may seem like a silly thing, believe me - I have received many funny looks from my friends when I tell them that I have done this, but this object and act has helped me change my focus to a more positive, bright side.
Ok Cade, I have built me a "Love Stone". I know it sounds strange, but hear me out. I enjoy walking more than I enjoy driving. I know there are times when I have to drive, but if it just a 45 min walk then I would rather walk. Walking gives me time to think without having to be preoccupied with all the steps, signs, lights, and other drivers involved with driving. Well anyway, back to my stone...
One day I was walking to the work and I found a rock about the size of a baseball. It was wasn't completely round like a baseball, almost like an egg that had been flattened a little. It didn't look like any other rock you find here in Arkansas. There are a lot of rocks in Arkansas. This one looked like it was made to be purchased and placed in a fish tank.
It was a twenty minute walk to work and I had found this stone four blocks into my walk. For some reason that I am not sure of, I started thinking of this rocks purpose of being created. I was not sure but I was convienced that this rock was man made. Some person or machine had built this rock with the purpose of it being sold to someone for their aquarium.
Now I had found this stone in the street and I know that man made rocks just do not naturally land on the land. This meaning that someone had bought the rock and it had been lost or discarded after it's purchase. It's first step and second step in it's inanimate existance had been accomplished, it had been made and sold.
Cade, I have a wonderful imagination that took these thoughts on a entire journey of their own. I gave life to the stone. I started thinking about when the rock first woke in life and how young it had been. Who knows what it's goals were, but it was created for one purpose and grew up in this environment. Everyday it may have been reminded of what it's purpose was and it received the training needed to fullfill this purpose by whoever trains rocks for their life in the big world:)
All of a sudden many more comical thoughts sprang through my mind that made me smile. I thought about it growing up with other rocks. The many friends it had. The birthdays that were celebrated. Growing up as a rebellious teenager. And then finally leaving the nest to try to make it on it's own, fullfilling it's purpose of a man made aquarium rock.(These happy thoughts made me laugh out loud, Cade. Heck man, it's my imagination and I can do what ever I want with it:))
When I arrived at work I set the stone on the desk. Every time I looked at it, the thoughts that I had while on my walk with that stone ran back through my mind. Anytime something that tried to bring me down occured, I would just look at that stone, think about the life it had lived, and just smiled.
On my way home a thought occured that probably tipped me a little more towards the crazy side of the scale. I thought about after it fullfilled it's purpose, it had been discarded and ended up in the gutter of the street. I don't know where this thought came from, but it was there. I felt pity for the rock.
My pity was soon comforted with happiness when I realized that this rock, since I had personified it, felt that it had accomplished all that it was meant to be and was satisified and content. I laughed to myself about this and once again wore a smile the rest of my walk home. But the story doesn't end here. Remember I said I built me a "Love Stone", Cade.
Now, I am not sure who found who. Did I find the rock or did the rock find me. That doesn't matter. All that matters is that we both were found. Maybe this rock did have life and wanted more from it. Maybe it was my life that wanted more. Maybe it was both. I like to think we both received something from meeting.
When I made it home I collected up some paint markers and started painting my new stone. I painted it in a rainbow pattern that I broke up with white paint into a brick pattern. I normally use black to make the morter around bricks in paintings, but this one I wanted to show more purity and openness so I used white. Yes Cade, I painted a rock like some kids paint a turtle.
As I painted the stone I thought about all the things I was grateful for and loved in my life. My family, my friends, the material things, the steps that had brought me where I was, and all the love that I had received from all of these things and more. Everything Cade, I mean everything that I could be and was grateful for, I put these thoughts into the stone as I painted it. That's why I broke the color up with white instead of black. I didn't want any darkness in this rock.
I put this rock on the table next to my bed. Everyday when I wake, the first thing I see is this rock. Everynight before I go to sleep I look at this rock. And everytime I think about something new that has happened to be grateful for, this I think about while looking at this rock.. I am always adding more love to the stone. When I look at the stone I think about all the great things in my life and how grateful I am that I was able to experience them. Ever since the adoption of this stone, now I think more about the things I like than the things I don't like.
I smile even more when I wonder if this stone knows that it is accomplishing more than just being an aquairum rock. I wonder if it is aware that it has graduated to the title of a "Love Stone" in my eyes. It's creator probably didn't even have a clue that this life was possible for a stone that he had created just to sell and make a profit from. Who knows? Maybe it is my imagination that wrote a story for the life of this stone. Maybe the stone was telling me it's story and my imagination heard it. Who Knows? All I know is that I am glad I picked up that rock.
Cade, I'm not asking for you to respond to this email. I just wanted to share this story with you. Sometimes I wonder if I am the rock and maybe someday I'll be picked up out of the gutter to be filled with love. Maybe it already has happened and I was just paying it forward. I have had some low times but some how I have always been lifted up out of them.
I do know one thing Cade. Once I realized that the things I have to be happy for out weighed the little temporary things that made me worry, then I was able to see the silver lining in every worry. This silver lining even gave the doubts I had less mass and shrunk them down to their true little size.
Don't get so caught up in the things you want and just choose from the things that are offered to you, Cade. Quickly, and with hindsight, you'll soon discover that you have been on the right path the entire time no matter how dark it gets sometimes. Once this happens...(this is my favorite part)...You will see that you have been working your way towards the things you wanted the entire time without even realizing it:)
I know this is a long email and I thank you for your time. You have helped me out with accomplishing a goal of a business degree and I apprieciate it. I hope this short story helps you out. It's what I have to give in return right now. I am so excited about learning. It's what I do best.
Find you something that helps you remember all the things in life that give you unconditional love, family, pets, and true friends. Remember these things because they are all that really matters. Everything else is just a cherry on top.
Talk with you later,
Greg
Here We Go Again! Achieving Success One Step At A Time.
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