Tag: Mid Life Crisis

Please Keep Me Humble

Good Thursday morning everyone. Thank you for following jeff noel.org Of the five blogs I write everyday, jeff noel.org has the most opportunity for improvement. Why? It’s a mystery at the moment.

The reason for asking to remain humble is this. Just yesterday, in real time – not some made up story – I received two updates:

  1. A friend celebrated his 100th blog post
  2. Another friend celebrated his 1st blog post

One friend posts six days per week (26 per month). The other friend has set a goal to post once per month.

Here’s the crazy part. I post 150+ per month.

Quantity versus quality. It’s not a competition. More isn’t always better. So why so many?

Simply this. I am driven. Driven to serve (and I’m fairly inadequate at it). The Internet is my soapbox. God’s message of Faith, Hope, Love, Peace and Joy is the purpose. Are ya with me?

The Joy of Living

The Joy of Living is one of the most elusive of all endowments.

Why? Just watch a child and you’ll find your answer. Having a child (9-year old boy) in our home is a daily reminder.

We all, at least I do, need daily reminders of this simple fact, don’t we? Why? Because life is hard, especially in today’s challenging and uncertain world.

Every day is an opportunity to count our blessings. Anyone need a calculator?

The Joy of Dying

Is there Joy in dying? Is there Joy in death?

There certainly is Joy in birth and obviously Joy in being born. Right?

In the past 30 days, I’ve been exposed to nearly one dozen deaths. And these deaths have involved people close to me, or people close to people I’m close to. Ya with me?

Just yesterday, a good friend told me how peaceful the death of her family member was.

It started with tragic news, and there was little time to accept and deal with the impending reality.

And yet in the end, she spoke of it being Peaceful. Joyful.

Perhaps, with a little (or a lot) planning, death will be something we don’t fear, but something we view as simply part of life. Not to be feared, but to be embraced.

Maybe then we can look forward to it. Joyfully.

Holy Spirit

It felt good to be back in the classroom last night. You could sense, and feel, and see God’s Holy Spirit in the classroom.

This is our son’s third year in Catechism. This is my second year having the privilege to be a classroom helper. However, I missed all four September classes due to my business travel schedule.

A colleague commented at the end of the business day, “I don’t know how you do it”.

I asked her, “You know I write five blogs, everyday, then run five miles, and volunteer for things our son is involved in”?

And she already knows how hard I work as a professional speaker – she is, after all, a colleague, and a parent, and Catholic, etc.

What I have learned is that being incredibly busy is part of life. Or not. Figure out what you want to contribute and then go from there. Carpe diem.

Simple Man, Simple Post

Visiting today, here in Portland, Maine. On the phone last night my wife (and son) asked how my day was.

“I left the house at 7:30AM. I got to the Hotel room to finish the day’s activities at 8:30PM”, I said, not complaining, just stating the facts.

We all should feel blessed beyond measure for what we get and what we make of what we get.

Otherwise, life might get the best of us.

It’s a daily choice. Sometimes even an hour to hour or minute to minute choice.