629 MILES

 

I filled up the tank of my hybrid and started out of the gas station. A look at the dash stopped me. It read 629 miles to empty. To the East was the ocean, to the North the giant east coast cities, to the South the low country and the grade B movie that is Florida. To the West, was the rest of the country where I had lived most of my life. It had been too long since I had been on the road.

They say with age that your world becomes smaller. It’s true in some ways. You don’t walk as far or as well as you used to. A few medical detours take their toll. Your just not as sure about things as you used to be, maybe life has shown you too much.

But I remembered when I did live out west and was young. How you thought nothing of driving eight hours from Seattle into the high desert to find peace and dreams. Where had those years gone?

All these things weighed on my mind, still there were new places to go in the East. Maybe a story or two to write. I looked at the dash again, 629 miles to empty…

NEVER DONE

 

 Great painters will tell you that their works of art are never done. There are always the detail to be added, the balance to be gained, the colors blended. Often these not added until years later, when the painter gains the next level of skill and experience.

How often is this so true in business, where we look back and realize how we could have done things better. How we could have made a difference for people. 

It’s hard but overtime you forgive yourself for this and realize like the painter you now have better strokes to make on the work you do…