Category Archives: WHATEVER

Can you do the hustle with passion at 90?

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What an eye opener for me this morning. We’re just a few days away from Christmas and if you are like me there is always a lot that flows through your emotions – for me they range from being exhausted and depleted to being downright sad and anxious.

The old year bringing in the new – the joyful spirit of giving to others – the exhilaration of being together with family and friends – and of course the pure joy of celebrating the birth of Christ and all the hope He brings.

Yet, for me, there is always another side of the season.

The emotions of joy are tempered by worldly concerns accompanied by an inward look into my inner-self. Thoughts about the happiness of my wife and I – the happiness of my eight children and their spouses and children – questions about what the future holds for all of us as we embark in new directions – and a desire to make up for all the things I should have done differently over the years. In short, I can’t help but wonder how to become a better husband, father, person, professional and of course a better Christian?

But then just as I begin going down the road of disquiet God steps in and shows His hand. He offers a glimpse of Hope and Joy and what both can look like even if you are a frail 90 year-old living in a nursing home.

You see, my wife and I have a commitment to attend daily Mass. But today she mixed it up a bit and took me to a nursing home operated by Carmelite nuns where just about all the people are in a wheelchair and really old. Yet, one after one they were wheeled in to the beautiful little chapel. Some with their heads slouched low because age has caught up with them, others a bit perkier yet still totally reliant on someone pushing them into the chapel.

As we waited for Mass to begin I whispered to my wife that I didn’t want to become like that (old and in need of so much caring) but my wife began to gently point out the beauty of the situation. What she saw escaped me at first but as she talked to me quietly in our pew the wisdom of her words hit me between the eyes.

My wife was right, although she didn’t actually word it this way; these elderly people have passion and hustle for life and a remarkable faith in God. Here they sit, maybe a former CEO of a major corporation, or a famous celebrity, or a great military officer, or a mother of a large family, or consider the elderly nun sitting in the front row in her habit (she was clearly approaching 100 years old in my opinion). She probably touched thousands, if not millions, of lives during her countless years of service to others.

And here they all sit – dressed with holiday flair, smiling, joyful, and alert while attending Mass in a small chapel at a nursing home in Illinois. By many human accounts you would sit back and say that you don’t want to become that way. And that you can’t imagine being so alone and not needed, or maybe even not wanted – I don’t want to think about how many of these wonderful people don’t even have families that care enough to visit them. On human terms we can only view this scene in a negative light and perhaps even consider it “sad”. Yet, if you look into their eyes you see pure joy and simplicity and a sense of abandonment into those that are serving them.

Just imagine someone that was a professional big-shot always giving direction and orders to subordinates and now, late in life, she has to rely totally, I mean totally, on someone else to help get around, and maybe even for feeding and bathing.

It was inspiring to me. First to reaffirm that life is truly a mystery of epic proportions and that even in old age you can have a passion for life and even a bit of hustle. If these elderly folks didn’t have a dose of each they wouldn’t have been up so early in the morning, dressed, happy and attending Mass – just an impressive site to see and a reminder to me that even though life is fragile, it is a true gift from God to be cherished, nurtured and celebrated.

As we walked out of the building an old and frail woman caught my eye, straightened herself up in her wheelchair and with a big smile, holding her head high, enthusiastically said to my wife and me – “Merry Christmas”.

Wow.

 

Soul Surfer – and Passion and Hustle…

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WOW. That’s really all I can say after watching “Soul Surfer” a movie everyone should watch.

I am not entirely sure how much is factual and how much was based on creative license… but either way it is one of the most inspiring and motivational movies I have ever seen. The casting is simply perfect… Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid – how can you go wrong?

But beyond the casting there are many, many lessons to be learned; not just from the dialogue but from the interactions of family members and friends throughout the movie.

Early in the movie Bethany says, “Surfing is my passion; my way of life; the stoke I get from catching a wave is pure joy”. Wow, what a statement.

Later on in the movie after having her arm removed by a shark her doctor says something along the lines of -

“with her heart and will she will go far”.

Again a big WOW – what an observation and testament to Bethany’s passion and hustle for her surfing and commitment to this vocation in life.

Well, in any event… it was interesting for me to see the correlations between this movie, Bethany’s passion for her vocation, and my thoughts on passion and hustle!

If anyone has passion and hustle its Bethany Hamilton. I mean really, she had the passion for surfing before being attack by a shark and she had the same passion after being attacked by a shark (and losing her arm in the process). But what is most remarkable, is that after losing her arm she didn’t lose her passion or her hustle for surfing. What an accomplishment.

I only wish I could have this same commitment! Don’t you?

 

Passion and Hustle = Happiness and Success

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I was driving my daughter home from freshman college orientation and decided to make good use of our time together to do my fatherly thing – offer lessons in life. After all, I am her father and she is heading into her next big phase in life. A phase that means she will be living about 1,000 miles from home for the better part of each of the next four years; which means I will have limited opportunities to offer, well, fatherly advice.

So, as I started offering advice (or going into the boring lecture mode depending on your viewpoint) – I began with my usual sermon about people needing passion in life – or better put – to be passionate about whatever they are doing. Whether it’s schoolwork, a professional job or even a hobby – you have to have a passion for something I explained to her – otherwise what you do in life becomes drudgery or “just a job” or something “I have do to pay the bills.”

I waxed eloquent about those in life that don’t have a passion for what they do – and explained that people in this state spend the majority of their waking hours either depressed or unhappy or both. They “live for the weekend” as some people say shamelessly with a dose of pride.

Don’t get me wrong, I continued, we need to look forward to diversions from whatever we are passionate about – otherwise our passion can turn into drudgery or worse an obsession and keep us away from important passions like our family. This ultimately means we need several passions in our life; which will include your spouse, your family, your profession, your hobby, your spiritual undertakings and so forth. Frankly, we need all of them to have a well-rounded life.

But the one thing we do during the majority of our waking hours has to be something we are unabashedly passionate about.

And so the ramblings continued – this doesn’t mean your passion won’t include hard work and that sometimes we need to do something we don’t like. Let me explain this through an analogy I stated, in spite of the abrupt, momentary sigh accompanied by a murmuring “I hate analogies” from my innocent eighteen-year old. I stated that even if you’re passionate about fly fishing you most likely are not passionate about unhooking a line from the tree behind you. The same thing holds true for any passion.

As I concluded part one of my Fatherly Passion Speech I asked her what might be the second most important thing to consider. She quickly responded – Hustle – I almost swerved off the road as I smiled and laughed uncontrollably. I said how did you know? She responded – “it’s what you have always told me.” I was flabbergasted.

All these years never really knowing if what I was saying was sinking in or not. It was a total WOW moment. These are truly the moments that make parenting worthwhile.

So, yes, she was correct. Hustle was my next topic… but I will continue that in my next post.

 

Blogging…

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I often wonder what’s going on out there in cyber space. I have been posting off and on to my blog for over four years – some months very consistently and sometimes very seldom… but I do check the web traffic to the site and have found it’s not too bad considering its just little old me in my corner of the world speaking to an audience I have no direct connection with. I write stuff that I feel is important and post it on the site when I get a chance or the mood moves me – like tonight.

That’s it… No fan fair. No full court press. No mention on the Drudgereport or other highly visible websites. No, this site, www.oculusdirect.com/blog  goes fairly unnoticed in the grand scheme of things. But I do get traffic that I find fascinating. Based on the analytical reports I review, people search certain terms such as “development audit” or “challenges nonprofits face” and they end up finding this blog. They might be from the US or they could be from Russia or England or parts of Africa – but they find me and hopefully get some benefit from what I have written.

And that’s the point of this post – I write this blog because I want to impart something that I feel is important to others out there that may need a little support or perhaps an insight that will help them do their job just a little better.

But the crazy thing for me is that very few people leave feedback… so, I ask myself – why is that?? I really don’t know. But what I do know is people do visit the site and spend time poking around. I assume they learned something and perhaps received a great benefit from something they read before they leave the site. And I feel grateful if someone out there received the slightest tidbit of information that will help them be more effective in their work as they face challenges in their nonprofit job.

But I do wonder why people don’t post a comment –but then again I think back on my web searches seeking information or support and realize I visit site after site and take what I want (information) and never leave a note of thanks or even an ounce of positive feedback – basically I am a taker of information when I visit other websites…

This led me to the realization that a blog has to be maintained and published for the benefit of others. Period. Otherwise what’s the point? It’s not about us – it’s about others. And that’s the beauty of it. Giving something back even if you don’t know who benefited from your information or knowing you may never receive a thank you.

Wow, that’s really cool when you think about it… you can potentially be making a profound impact on someone you don’t know and in all likelihood will never know. That is the power of the internet for sure – but especially blogs like this one.

So happy blogging and surfing for information – and if you can find it inside yourself please leave a note of gratitude for those of us out there sharing what we think is relevant information!!