The sound of distant thunder.

My charming wife of 24+ years calls me overly optimistic. And tells me that I set my aspirations to unattainable heights. To be fair she is not a pessimist, she merely is concerned for me. She doesn't want me to explode if fate deals me a let down.

Given the current economic and political climates I guess it would be easy to 'hunker-down'. Be conservative. Mind the fort. Make as few waves as possible. But I have some genes that keep me determined to prevail. History is full of success stories that began in the midst of adversity. Phoenixes constantly rising from the sooty messes.

If you look around you can find all the rationale you will need to justify doing absolutely nothing. Yup. Just sit and wait. But for what? Times to get easier? Chaos appears to be the new status quo. So I would just as soon set my resources to figuring out how to function within a chaotic environment than to just wait for it to improve. That feels a lot like relying on a lottery ticket as a retirement strategy.

Even if you aim at the highest peak and fall a bit short, you are still higher than where you started. Setting low goals just for the satisfaction of attainment seems like cheating. If you listen hard enough, you can hear opportunity whispering to you. Faintly maybe, through the forest of obstacles, but it's there.

There is some strengthening of the species going on here. That which doesn't kill us.. and so forth. I truly believe that adversity makes us more creative and respectful of the resources we have. We quit wasting time, money, breaths. We focus on what is important and imperative to our lives.

While, like everyone, I would prefer a nice smooth bed over a bed of rocks, I remain positive that good things come to those that are persistent. No matter what the circumstances.

Back to the grindstone.