Grateful

Too common it is that we all go through our daily lives without realizing what we have. We grow to just assume that we will remain unimpacted by anything short of disaster and that our world around us will remain as is indefinitely. It is unfortunate that for most of us it takes tragedy, to have our world shaken a little, to remind us of what is important and by extension what we should be grateful for.

For myself it has been a series of things over this past year that have repeatedly made me take pause and assess where I am at and what I have. Lost some friends this year to varying diseases, car accidents, and even suicide. Cancer has become an ongoing conversation with a number of people I know. And not their older relatives, but they themselves having it. Heart disease is another concern on the rise... Seems that I have officially hit that age where this is a thing to be mindful of. Another one, and one that has seemed to be a looming cloud for over a decade now, is suicide. Guys that I knew that were struggling, I was ready for, sometimes. It was the guys though that seemed to have it all together, and had everything going for them that really caught me off guard. Seems that demon chases a lot of us and sometimes catches one of us at just the right time then goes to work. It’s tough… both to process and put into words.

But enough doom and gloom, I am writing this evening to talk about adversity being turned into opportunity and being thankful. For my family and BC Limited we had a bit of a sudden shift. We were working with our landlord on our lease over the next 12 months when things turned south and we were served with a 7 day notice to vacate. As I wasn’t about to agree to their egregious terms I called the bluff and we moved the business in its entirety from our commercial warehouse to our home (yes, just like the good old days but without the basement which I miss right now). Yes it was unforeseen, jammed us up a bit, and the timing was off this was actually a blessing for us. See we were wanting to leave that area and move both house and business north this summer. Being strapped down with a one to three year lease demanding 5 digits per month rent would have made that plan tough to implement. Now we have the freedom to move when we want. Funny how things you ask for show up sometimes but never at the time you want them to. So I gladly handled the stress of a sudden move, jamming up my house, and even selling off my gym (which was the hardest thing to stomach) in exchange for the freedom to get us someplace better.

At the end of the day the move and all, is just a bump in the road. I have a healthy family and I have a business which allows me to provide for them. I have an amazing wife who wholly supports my vision of having the business and works her ass off to help, she puts up with my craziness, and is my place to go when I need to quiet the world around me… I am truly thankful for this. I have amazing kids who are all excelling both in school and their personal pursuits who are growing too quickly into dynamic responsible young adults who I didn’t screw up but maybe instead helped along a time or two… I love them all and are thankful for them. And our dog Max.

Just a reminder and a simple personal reflection. It’s been a hell of a year full of trials and tribulations for most all of us. Instead of falling to the addiction of complaining let's look at what we do have and what we can do with what we have.