I've Become an Oregon Duck Fan

I can't help it.  I tried to resist for as long as I could.  I didn't grow up in Oregon, I didn't go to school here.  Instead I went to a small school in Minnesota.  When we first moved here back in 1998, I thought everyone was nuts.  Fridays people were either in Green or Orange.  Emails were finished with "Go Ducks."  Flags hung outside of houses on game day.  I just didn't get it.  Then I was invited to head to Eugene on a Saturday.  The sea of green, helped by the endless flow of beer, the loud crowd, and an exciting quick scoring team slowly started drawing me in.  It didn't hurt that the beat Stanford.  Two weeks later I found myself in green.  I was shouting a yelling with the rest of them as UCLA, was sent sadly back to Los Angeles.  As I have started to quack, I feel myself experiance feeling I thought had left me.  I am recapturing a part of me that I had suppressed.  I am yelling at the tv, learning the names of players and coaches, and looking forward to a national championship.  I will be in Green on Friday.  I can't help it.  I have become an Oregon Duck Fan.  I think I'll send one of my kids there next year so I have an excuse to drive down during the fall.

Slowing Down to Be Me

Last weekend I was in Camas WA. with a bunch of friends.  We found ourselves sitting around a few tables drinking beer, eating pizza and enjoying each others company.  While the beer and pizza were awesome, the conversation was even better.  We talked about life, how to be authentic, and discussed when in life were we most truly ourselves.  As we told our stories, I was stuck by the common them, that for most of us it occurred when life was moving at a slower pace, when we were not being pressed by others to be what we were not.  For some it was a time of less responsibilities so there was more freedom to do and be.

I continued to think a great deal about the conversation this last week while at work.  Pressed by timelines, projects, and important decision, I found myself in a place where I was unable to slow down enough to make sure I was being true to myself.  As a result patience  ran short, I could feel the internal pressure.  I was unable to be and respond to others in the way I most wanted to.  As a result, I am asking as I look inward, how can I do this coming week better?  How can I slow life down enough to live it the way I desire to and not get caught in the trap of becoming what I am forced to become.  As you can see I have a ways to go on my Deep Look Inward, but each day I figure me out a little more.  Here are a few pictures from Camas that capture a slower, simpler, side of life

Thinking at the Beach

I find myself sitting at the beach once again.  In Oregon that usually means through on a rain jacket instead of a swimming suit, lighting a fire in the fire place, rather than a beach fire, and snuggling up with a book instead of tanning under the sun.  Interestingly, I find that I enjoy the typical Oregon beach trip more than I did the beach in California.  In Oregon I find myself slowing down and thinking about life.  I check in with myself regarding how I am doing, how I am feeling, where I am at.  Sometimes I like the answers, other times it is a starting point, a place to leap off from, a change in direction.  I continue to ask the question am I doing what I am uniquely designed to do?  The question assumes that we were uniquely designed to do something, and that we know what that thing we were designed to do is.  I find the second have of that assumption to be difficult.  How do I know what I was designed for.?  Is there a manual on Rick Samuelson?  Is there a Yellow Brick Road I should be following.  My guess is that if I am doing what I was designed for, I will be enjoying it, I will be energized by doing it, I will find myself wanting to get back to it when I am not doing it.  I am not sure if doing what I designed for always has to be my job.  It could be my hobby, or what I invest the majority of my time and thought to.  Bonus if it is your job and you are being paid to live out your purpose.  As I look out the window and see the wind blow and the rain fall, I know I have not answered the question what am I designed for, but it is what I will endeavor to discover, for in that answer is the key to my next steps in life and the unfolding of the direction I will head in.  I am passionate about being fully who I am suppose to be.  I just hope I will like the answer.  I love Oregon beach days and the chance to contemplate.  May you find your beach as well.  Until you do enjoy a few of my recent beach pictures.