Listen to your BARK!

As promised, I am back for another tidbit from a dimwit hehehehe…

Over the years in our Recipe for Success Culinary Job Training Program, I was given the opportunity to touch the lives of many a student. There were sliced fingers, sore backs, flared tempers and inevitably…the one on one sit downs to talk about life. Each student had a different set of circumstances…but one thing most had in common was how much energy and effort they were focusing on things in their day that won’t benefit them.

Now…this story has less to do with “The Gipper” and more about me as jelly beans are MY favorite treat too (But NOT the sugar free kind…Jesus Mary and Jones spare yourself the anguish and learn more about THEM here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8dKpuvdbPM )

As I was saying yesterday…the best we have is 100%…so lets do some simple math and call that 100 Jelly Beans. Now…I LOVE my Jelly Beans and quite frankly…I want all 100 of them every day, but rarely do I succeed with such quantity consumed. Why…well, I do like to share from time to time, and that’s a good thing. Sharing IS caring right? So maybe on a good day, I will give 20 of my beans away to those I give 2 shits about. This leaves me with 80…whoa, I just gave away 20%…I hope I saved some of the good ones for myself! But then Wham! Life smacks you upside the head, you get a flat tire, the boss said something that rubbed you the wrong way, your fur baby got sick, the electric company wants full payment on your delinquent account or they are gonna shut you off….any of those things, even multiples of those things happen to the average person in a day.

When bad things happen, the common reaction is to be bothered….fester in anger, go over the circumstances over and over again in your head until it’s all you’re focused on. This is what we call a BAD DAY…some of us have lots of them all strung together. Ever ask someone how their day is and they respond with “Worst Day Ever!”? Giving up our energy and effort on these things (beyond reasonable worries/fears/solutions) is equal to holding your hand out and letting someone steal your jelly beans! How many beans are you willing to let someone just swipe out of your hand? Most of us will say none, but we are all guilty not only of letting someone else do the swiping…but being the swiper ourselves onto others.

Solution? We need a safe place for our precious candies to protect them from the swipers! But listen…if you intend on keeping your jelly beans next to your other beans in a warm lint filled pocket…you are no connoisseur of the finer things in life…you in fact need more help than this blog could ever offer lol. Maybe we associate a candy jar with a tight fitted lid to some personal boundaries we set for ourselves as to how upset anything can make us at any given time. You might still have to give up some of those beans…life IS real after all and it’s nothing like a box of chocolates Forest. But in the time it takes you to open that jar….perhaps you might spend a moment contemplating how many of these sweet, bright colored and chewy morsels you are really willing to part with. Sometimes we just need that buffer of time in the transaction to think about if this is a fair deal or not.

Put your Jelly Beans where your mouth is, and savor them. They are a treat after all…just like each and every day starts off for everyone of us.

If you are wondering how my drive was today…it was a white knuckler! I drove from Boones Mill Virginia to Salisbury North Carolina on what I believe to be the windiest mountain road I have ever been on. I went off course from the direct route as I wanted to get some water for the RV at a campground 20 minutes away from my departure. The problem with google maps is that it really doesn’t prepare you easily for changes in altitude…I found myself on a snowy Blue Ridge Parkway that reminded me of driving a big rig over Donners Pass. Now 50 gallons heavier, the challenge was on. Fortunately there wasn’t anyone else on the road to speak of…so I could take my time on the hairpin banks going up and down whatever mountain I was on.

I arrived at my destination to find that I am parked within peeing distance of an active railway lol….In thinking of my above philosophy about the Bean of Jelly…I decided to laugh at myself. I mean…who else would sign up to stay here? And besides…I have an old co-worker who’s son LOVES trains, so I will be taking some videos and sharing them with her for her boy. It didn’t end there though…I left Freedom in the trailer so I could go inside and get some take out food…20 minutes later, I come back to learn that Freedom doesn’t really care about our privacy and decided to demolish the aluminum blinds on one side of the trailer…not just with his paws mind you…he actually CHEWED through the aluminum. Well…I couldn’t be mad…he was too darned cute looking all guilty, and having him in the truck as long as I did today and then leaving him alone expecting that he wouldn’t act out was asking a lot. So tonight, I either cover that window with a blanket, or just let the light shine out like one of those tin candle shades with the patterns all punched out lol. LIFE goes on…plus I want my Jelly Beans for dessert tonight!