Happy Sunday Everyone:
I have ridiculous gratitude for the relationships I have in my life. Fairly certain when I’m laying down for my final rest, I’ll reflect on the greatest blessing of my life being the relationships I’ve had the opportunity to hold while here. I can’t imagine anything mattering more.
In the last two weeks I’ve had a couple of friends lean on me for advice on some serious life decisions (none of which I’ll share here). I’m hopeful this doesn’t come off as arrogant or braggadocios, but I did in fact sit back and contemplate the meaning of my friendship, and what it meant to be invited to have a seat at the table to advise, the honor of it. So many times, we can be critical of ourselves, me included, in this instant I’m asking myself what I did right to be a voice of reason in these friends’ eyes. Might sound silly to you, but it’s overwhelming to me, and I love it. Funny-as I sit here, I’m listening to Chris Stapleton Radio on pandora, and his song “friendship” just rolled in…weird.
When both of my friends asked for input, I went to back to what my dad always told me, “Get out a t chart and write down the pros and cons of each decision”. Takes me back to what I wrote in his eulogy… “People talk about having a personal board of directors, dad was chairman of mine and Hillary’s too. Every decision either of us ever made in our lives that mattered was run through my dad. I can hear him saying “let’s get out a t chart and write down the pros and cons of each decision”. He was so genuinely interested in our lives. He cared so much about our progress, our setbacks, and the path forward. He was honored to be invited to the table to solve a problem. He would listen like no other. He never gave an answer, he asked enough questions where the answer became obvious.” The simple clarity that comes from asking big, fat, important questions and then charting the pros and cons on a T chart, you can’t go wrong. Anyone that saw “A beautiful mind”…When Russel Crow/John Nash was seeing numbers come together on a chalkboard…that’s my equivalent of when you get out a T chart to get clarity on charting decisions that matter in your life.
I’m sitting here questioning why I’m sending this today. Two points-Friendships are an honor to have and T charts create clarity.
Go NINERS!!!