This entry is about living your life in excess but bear with me for a few moments as I share a story with you from my recent past. I was working at The Tiki Tobacco Barn – a name that may not make sense except that it was a cigar shop located on the property…
A long time ago a friend of mine told me that psychologists are just overpaid bartenders who don’t serve you drinks. While that’s an oversimplification of both professions, if you stop and think about it there’s some truth to the outlook. A great many people with problems talk to their bartender… and the more they…
From the book – Cigar Lounge Wisdom For much of my life I lived under a mistaken belief based on something I had been taught by my adopted mother and then reinforced by many a sergeant in the Army. That mistaken belief was this: That if I was relaxing I was accomplishing nothing; I was…
This morning I saw a quote that said, “Even bad days have an expiration date of 24 hours.” The editor in me wondered if a time limit was a date and then I realized I was missing the point. The point is that even bad days have a limit to them; they only last a…
Some years back when I was responsible for fleet maintenance for my police agency, we kept track of the service life of our patrol vehicles by how many miles they had on them. Another agency I knew of tracked the service life of their patrol vehicles according to service hours. We scheduled maintenance according to…
Recently I saw an image through the wizardry of social media and, after having read through it, thought about just how true it was. The title was “Simple Formula for Living,” but that didn’t really describe the list of items included. As I read them, I felt they more described lessons to be followed for…
A long time ago (in my lifetime) a Drill Sergeant told me that every day I woke up above dirt was a good day. It was hard for me to appreciate that when I was cold, tired and miserable doing morning exercises and preparing for a run in the rain. After some years I realized…
From dictionary.com, the definition of “Warrior:” A person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier. A person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics. I would submit to you that all too often in today’s society the term “warrior” is too narrowly applied to a profession and inadequately…
How many times have you been out in public some place – it could be the mall, a city street, a restaurant – and you see those folks who are so busy looking at their cell phones that they are completely oblivious to what’s going on around them? How many times have you seen someone…
As happens with most thoughts we consider to be deep or memorable – worthy of remembering – this one came to me in the middle of the night, as the result of a dream I had woken from. In the dream I had been discussing religion with an older gentleman and he had been sharing…
Some years back (as I type this) I was scheduled to take a trip to New Hampshire from my home state of Maryland. I had a number of people quite shocked that I chose to drive rather than fly. After all, why would I waste so much time driving when I could fly so much…
It’s a reality of life that we can’t incorporate just one positive characteristic into our personality make up and be a complete person. Instead, we have to incorporate numerous positive characteristics, molding them together, finding the proper balance between them, and leveraging the sum of the whole to reach an improvement in who we are….
One of my favorite birthday greetings to offer someone is, “Happy Birthday! Celebrate like it’s your last; live each day like you want 100 more!” While I’ve had a few people express dismay at the very thought of having their last birthday (completely understandable reaction), the also express delight at the idea of “celebrating large”…