Be thankful and extraordinary...

Each day I make an effort to remind myself to thank God for all that He has given me. Yesterday I got to work two jobs and spent 18 hours out of the house. It was a good day for pay doing jobs that were by most people's standards fun to do without a whole lot of effort. I worked with someone else yesterday who also had both gigs booked, actually he was the one who got me on the first and we were both scheduled to work the second job together but for separate crews, so we rode together all day. After an extremely long day and the end was near, unfortunately, my carpool companion was under the gun, as his call time for the second gig was earlier than mine and unknown to me he was almost 2 hours late for his crew call (I was 10 minutes early, so it hadn't entered my mind). The people in charge were somewhat upset the discussion was uncomfortable to say the least. Hopefully, this episode will be worked out and no one will ultimately be harmed from this scheduling miscommunication. It occurred to me on our drive home how fickle and easy it is to be on the other side of the equation. I seriously empathized with my friend and really couldn't provide to much comfort, other than understanding and letting him talk it out. Where I was praised for being early (10 minutes) and doing a good job, he was being berated and put upon to explain a issue that he had thought was resolved and under control. I thanked him for getting the gig in the morning and apologized that he had gotten in trouble for being late. He said to me as we neared our destination and were about to part ways after nearly 18 hours of being together, that he had wanted to tell me for a long time how much he envied my life, my family, my children and how I handled things. Quite a compliment coming out of the blue and one that I sincerely appreciated. I made sure to express exactly that to him and let him know that have God in my heart and on my side was a key component to the way that I try to carry myself in my daily life. Communication or the lack there of is the most common factor in relationships, be it business or personal.

On that note, I am back to thanking God for the extraordinary relationship He has graced me with as my long time girlfriend and wife is spending the weekend in Ellensburg with our daughter working our housing and lease agreements with landlords and three other teenage girls and I am home alone with the dog. It is easy to get complacent and comfortable in a relationship. Many marriages grow to a point of becoming stagnant. Where both parties in the marriage contract are more tolerant of one another but also more disconnected. Almost to the point where the relationship is more one of roommates then a happily married couple. Being happily married is much more than just tolerating your spouse for a number of years and calling it successful based on the longevity. The goal is not just to last but to love and live. I desire a relationship that is extraordinary! One that takes effort to maintain and grow. I want to be extravagant in my love for my wife, telling her each and every day at every opportunity how much I love and adore her. How beautiful she is and praise her for all of the wonderful things she does. We are nearing our 23rd anniversary of being married, but we dated for seven years before making a life long commitment to each other, so she has been my girlfriend for 30 years! She will always be my girlfriend, which means that I will continually try to make sure that I am the one she wants to be with, that I am the kind of person and type of man she desires. I look at myself in the mirror and don't see the body of a man that a woman would be proud to say "he's mine". What does that say about me? It is a reminder to me that at some point I have become complacent and let myself forget that my body is hers and how I maintain it is a direct reflection on her as well as me. To be extraordinary in a relationship means putting the other persons cares and concerns ahead of my own, not just in words, but in action. I need to be proactive and seek out opportunities to take care of my relationship, cherish the woman who has taken my hand and stood by me all these years. She is spectacular in so many ways, wife, mother, household CFO, girlfriend and lover! Thank you God for blessing me in so many ways!