Little late today getting started. Between Goddess and the stuff that I absoultely had to do I feel incredibly behind schedule which is funny as hell because at the moment I am not doing anything. Ah the pressures of being a Type-A personality who struggles to be a beach bum.
Speaking of which, it seems that all of the people of Tybee Island where I live are really pulling for me to succeed in losing the Type-A stuff and just slow down, roll around in the sand, keep salt water in my hair (as Summer Teal has pulled off today!), and attend the entire sessions of both Bored meetings.
At the Tybee Market, Nancy the cashier looked at me and told me, "When I pass you while you're running and you have a smile on your face, I'll know that you have finally slowed down."
It is true that for years now I would run and during that time be contemplating how in the hell this person was going to be helped or that program was going to get advanced or how to get that particular elected official would stop bothering us. Heady stuff that I no longer have to think about.
My friend Jenny Orr hugged me the other day and said, "I'm sad for Savannah but happy for you." What a thing to hear!
And to be honest I've only been to Savannah a couple of times since I've been back. A lunch with a dear friend at Johnny Harris' and with another at Soho Cafe. Negotiations with attorneys. To meet my C.P.A. The rest of the time I've been an island boy. I've only been in my car a few times!! It is a bit of a shock after the relentlessness of the past 30 years of trying to save a corner of the world.
This morning at the Breakfast Club, I slid in with my friends Dave and Sandy for a moment. They were laughing at the story of the gun shooting in the haunted house when I was in college with my friends. Then Sandy said had never done anything like that. I laughed and said, "Well....seems I've done them my whole life." They laughed and it made me laugh.
And I must say that there has been little conventional about my life.
My Dad used to love Elvis singing "My Way" and I remember watching him just love it. He often struggled doing things his way. Many times he would assume that the worse was going to happen, even during those times when he was on top of the world. "MY Way" was what he wanted more than anything.
My friend Tracy Thompson tells me that I am the eternal optimist. I had to be to survive the depths of human suffering and triumph that has marked my professional carreer. During all of the crap of the past few years, she would look at me, or scold me, and say how can you be so upbeat? She was angry with me most of the time that she was asking.
I dunno.
I believe in good. I believe good things happen if you believe in good. If you consistently do good things then good things happen all around. Even when you are in the middle of a shitstorm! Good is stronger than that. Serendipity prevails. Grace abounds.
Good Karma is what it is all about because karma comes back to you (and lets be honest again, there is some bad karma that is going to come around that I really am looking forward to unfolding and hope that I have a front row seat for it...sorry...just saying).
But that is my way. And while it has cost me a lot, I can't imagine doing it another way. There is just this one me. I am doing the best that I can with it. I think that I've done much more good than bad. At least I feel that way, but others will judge it as they will. They are the jury. I am just me. Doing it the best way that I know how.
My Way.
(I love you Dad)
