More to do than just chili sauce 10/14/08
I can't tell you all how excited I am to be doing this. I have to
most thank Mr. Sturm my high school English teacher at St. Joseph's
Collegiate Institute (Buffalo, NY) for my writing becoming what it has.
I was diagnosed a slow reader in first grade and throughout grade school
I was one of two students no one wanted to get the turn to read because
I was so slow. Consequently I didn't have a fondness for books. It was
rare to have the same teacher for all four years at St. Joe's but that's
what happened with me having Mr. Sturm. Early in my freshman year as I
recall Mr. Sturm held up a regular sized notebook and said we all were
going to write a journal. Most everyone groaned but I was intrigued. All
he wanted was half a page a day and it could be on almost any topic. It
started kind of slow for me but I enjoyed it. Before I knew it I was
filling up an entire page with no problem. The breakthrough happened
when in the course of the same entry I had to avoid expressing a
situation the same way I did earlier in the journal. In other words I
didn't want to describe a new situation the same way I did another
earlier in the entry. The result is it forced my brain to think of new
adjectives and words to express myself. Novel idea eh?

Flash forward to today and I'm writing journals about every 6 weeks
for both my children. I'm on the fourth book for both and my good friend
Rich Keene (CEO of Eagle Newspapers and whose company designed and
maintains this web site) gets the pages laminated for me so these
journals can basically last forever.

The idea to do this notes/blog section is something that has been
tugging at my heart for the last couple of years. I have a circle of
friends who are dry Riesling fanatics and we had talked about developing
a web site to officially post our rankings and have the site include
other things such as possibly a notes/blog section. That idea is still a
possibility but hasn't gotten off the ground yet. With my wife working
full time now I am doing most of the chili sauce demos and have met some
wonderful people, both local to the Central NY region and well beyond
including a lot of folks from out of state. Some of the conversations
we've had had so much more to do than just chili sauce...they had to do
with life and what moves us, what touches our hearts and souls, what we
want to do with our lives.

I believe the final link to my doing this was an incredible
conversation I had with a young couple from Pennsylvania last month at
the Six Mile Creek harvest festival. They are expecting their first
child and they both had this glow of excitement about them. I proceeded
to tell them how children changed my life especially with my daughter
being born 8 months after my Dad died which was 5 years after my Mom
died. I told them if not for my baby girl I wouldn't be standing before
them as I was. Then I described for them my Dad's teaching of
unconditional love and how it can only really exist between a parent and
a child. I told them their lives would change forever and I meant that
only in a good way. It was a very emotional exchange between the three
of us, one I will remember forever. I hope they see this because I
forgot your names and hope you will keep me posted on things!!

What does my writing really involve? My time, and for the five years
I volunteered at East Hill Elementary reading once a week to the
children, above everything else, they came to know me for two sayings: "Try to end each day having left the world in a better place than
when the day began" and "The best gift we can give someone is the gift of our time" Time...what a concept eh? Sometimes it seems like we have too much of it
and others wish and pray we had more. There's so much in daily life we
can't control yet too many times we let that lack of control bring us
down. While nothing works 100% of the time I do have a strategy that
I've used since the 1990's... wake up each day, regardless of what day of
the week it is, and be grateful just to be alive or as that telecom
customer of mine from Oregon said "John if I can start each day upright
and vertical how bad can it be?". I'm not saying that you ignore
problems and issues just don't let them consume you. Each day has so
much promise and potential but we have to start the day in the right
frame of mind or we'll miss it all. And there are so many simple ways to
bring happiness to your day and, in doing so, bring it to others as
well. Rather than being in a rush to get out of the supermarket take
literally a few seconds and say hello to the cashier. It doesn't take
away the fact you have to get somewhere but look at the impact? A few
seconds made two people smile. A few seconds of your time. With the
holidays right around the corner avoid the temptation to get all
stressed out by them either because you'll be hosting
family/relatives/friends at your house or you won't have enough cash to
buy presents for Christmas. Or both for that matter. What does getting
stressed out about those two situations get you? Nothing really. Embrace
life as best you can, in all the forms it takes. Take the time to talk
to a relative that you haven't in a while. If you're young or middle age
take the time to ask an older relative about what life was like when
they were young. You'll see a twinkle in their eye as they harken back
in time. For those older folks never hesitate to take the time to impart
your knowledge to those younger. Believe me there is never a bad time
for any of us to learn something new.

A final thought for now, especially in light of losses a lot of
Americans have felt in their 401K retirement plans recently... it's long
been said you can't take all your riches when you die. You know what
else? You can't take your debts either!! I'm not saying to ignore
responsibilities but keep it in perspective. We have but one life and
none of us know how long that one life will be for. That we can not
control. We can control the attitude we try to start each day with.
Peace...