The days slide by .....

My last "regular" paycheck, from work completed in September .. before ties were dissolved in preparation for the truck drivng class ... passed through my palms only long enough to be deposited last Wednesday.

One would think there would have been a sinking feeling of fear as the hard earned funds were fed into the slippery jaws of an ATM machine. Living from paycheck to paycheck doesn't hold so much value when there isn't another paycheck in sight. ;-)

Despite all that seems logical, there is no fear in my heart or mind ... just a "knowing" that better work, better people and a better future await me. Every day is a search for that income producing avenue that will take me to the next "Pass GO...Collect $$$$$" place. But as I patiently (or not so patiently some days)wait for my number to come up on that self-employed GIVE ME SOME WORK bread line ... there are important thoughts to think, valuable words to write and journeys to be taken. :-)

As I rolled Maggie (my faithful Harley) out of the garage last Tuesday and pushed the ignition button for the first time in almost 6 weeks .... I doubted if the ease of riding almost 2000 miles this summer would re-surface. Thought I may be a bit rusty, bein fairly new at this bikin' thing yet. Waited for the newbie rider butterflies to flutter back to life after being absent from my ridin' partner for so long, while exploring what had seemed like a new career.

Not only did the butterflies not awaken ... Maggie, the road and ME .... became one and the same. Welcome home never felt sweeter then the few hours Dave & I spent on the road that day. To Skull Valley for a root beer from the General Store, seated on the worn picnic table in the shade of a gold-leafed tree, sharing conversation with a local couple taking a lunch break.

We rode beside a freight train between Skull Valley and Kirkland Junction and as we overtook her and roared past, the engineer gave a few long, loud blasts of her horn, sayin' "HI fellow travelers". I gave a "whole-arm-wave" back to him ... he honked a few more times in playful recognition.

We're all just traveling through aren't we? No 1st class on this train of life .... just one-life-fits-all seating. We push. We shove. We try to outdo each other. Why? I've never quite understood why.

For everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, worth having is already within our reach. It's right there. In the friend who just emails to say "HI, have a nice day" to a Mom who still brings you homemade cookies and kids who still irritate each other, but love each other unconditionally.

"What more can there be"? I asked myself as we continued the last miles of our ride that day, leaning into the mountain curves of White Spar Road, knowing God doesn't create days like this just so you can disregard life as a money hoarding, job hating, keeping-up-with-the-Jones' whom ever dies with the most STUFF WINS kind of deal.

Struggles come and go. Prosperity will come and go. The only constant is what we choose to do with it all, where we choose to hold it in our hearts, minds and souls. Knowing when to hold 'em and knowing when to fold 'em ain't no easy task but most times ....


it's all we have. Choose wisely my friends ... choose wisely. :-)