Stepping off the path

Most of us go through life saying that we would like to learn how to (insert your interest here) water ski, weld, learn Spanish, play the banjo, whatever. When you reach 55 or so your realize that you never did most of those things things, and worse yet, you never will. I am pretty sure at some point in my life, I could have learned to play a mean banjo. Heck, I already own the banjo. I had really good intentions.

So what happens to us that we don't go for it? We all have lots of excuses, the job, the family, money pressure, peer pressure, and the list goes on. For most of us it turns out that it is just a basic law of physics - - inertia! We all learned it in school, Sir Issac Newton defined it, the resistance of an object to change its state of motion. That explains why it is so hard for me to get out of my recliner!

Most of us never step off the path and make that first step in a new direction. It is clearly our loss and leads to many regrets.

I have always admired those that don't seem fettered by the same chains that seem to bind me whenever I think about doing something different.

Take my buddy Rick. He does not seem to be bound by the same rule of physics that gets me all bound up. His feet move toward new things effortlessly, while mine seem stuck fast in clay. Rick is an engineer who quit a good job to go back to school to become a teacher! He learned to make beautiful furniture. He wanted to restore an old pick up, so he learned how, and is doing it. Metal casting, camping, cooking, welding, and metal machining are just a few of the things he is into actively.

All that said, that is not what makes my buddy Rick stand out. What makes Rick stand out is the fact that he encourages others to take the journey with him. He prodded me into welding last year. I had always wanted to learn welding, but I would never have done it. I talked about attending a class for years, but never overcame the inertia and actually signed up.

I encourage each of you to step off the path, and try that thing that you have always talked about doing. It is most likely worth the effort, and even if it is not, it will help you get rid of the "if onlys" and the "I wishes". You know "if only" I had takent the time, I could have - - - or "I wish" I had made that trip to Spain when I was younger.

Stepping off the path is hard. If you can't make yourself do it, then I hope you have a buddy like Rick with a cattle prod to help you along the way. I will warn you now, a buddy like Rick is hard to find, so you might want to try a little harder on your own to take that first step. If you do find that you can do it on your own, then maybe you could be somebodies Rick and help them make that step.

Now where did I out that banjo?