It's not about the cards you're dealt, but how you play the hand.

Yes.  You heard Rachel right.  I’m chasing a puppy instead of my dreams.  I guess I should be reading Good Dog. Stay.—but I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m gonna have to work up to that.  Baby step to four o’clock. Baby step onto the elevator.  Baby step to dog lovin.  

The week did overtake me, maybe even tackled me.  The puppy, the kids’ welfare, college-essay deadlines, grading, laundry, the puppy, whole food decisions, raise money for charityvision, the puppy: it all adds up.  But my last few posts have left me wanting…to write about The Last Lecture, and well, to eat some jujyfruits.  So here’s a Throwback Thursday on Friday.  Is anyone surprised by this?

If you loved Tuesdays with Morrie, you’ll love The Last Lecture. (If you haven’t read Tuesdays with Morrie, do whatever it takes to put that book at the top of the stack next to your bed, you won’t be sorry.) Randy Paush, professor of smart subjects at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to speak as part of an ongoing series of speeches where top academics deliver wisdom they would impart if they knew it was their last chance.  Ironically, Paush was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer one month before he was to give his “final” lecture entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.”

The Last Lecture beautifully fleshes out Paush’s advice on achieving childhood dreams, advice he wanted to leave for his three children.  Maybe it’s the sort of advice that comes when you know you have months to live, not years.  It’s wrapped in perspective.  He gives important reminders: “One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.” Or simply put, “When we're connected to others, we become better people.”  Of course the advice to live with child-like wonder resonates with me.  So, if you’re overwhelmed, or spent, or maybe you’re just shy of exhausted…some life reminders may be just the medicine you need?

Posted by Tracy