Dear David

Dear David,

The new year is approaching and there are a few things that you don't seem to understand about your life so I thought I would send you a reminder.

1.  Read this list more often.

2. Your son needs you. He is going through many of the same trials in school that you went through and he needs you to continue to build his self confidence. This would also be a good time to start him a savings account and teach him the value of saving money and making better decisions than you did.

3. Snowboarding. I should seriously kick your ass for this. Snowboarding is a sport and it is a major part of your life. Your snowboarding is an expression of you and it is your art. So why do you take days where you do not improve? Where you are not pushing your limit and constantly growing as a rider? The snow is not here all year and you need to fix this lackadaisical attitude toward snowboarding immediately.

4. You love paragliding and you live 2 minutes from the flight park. When you get up in the air you are in a whole new world and at peace. You have all the gear you live close and you have no excuses. You need to stop being lazy about walking down to the flight park and spend a lot more time in the sky.

5. Remember your Oregon family. Make it a point to start saving for that trip sooner than later.

These are your resolutions. These are the things most important to you and you need to focus on them this year. You can be a better boyfriend, father, snowboarder, paraglider and you can visit that piece of salvation called the Gorge. So start today and pull your world in.

Sincerely,
Future self.

A few truths i've come to know.

1. Duke is a good dog. He might not always do what I want or might not always not do what I don't but he always does. All I have to do is change the pitch of my voice to get his tail wagging back and forth and change his entire world. Each day he waits patiently for me to come home. Who knows what he does all day when I am gone but the second I walk through the door he is living. Duke knows when it's time for me to get up and I rarely see him more excited. A pat on the head or a quick snack and his troubles of the day don't even matter anymore. I wish we could all forget the daily stress as easily as him. Duke is my friend.

2. My best friends are not who I had expected them to be. It took a little while when the dust was settling to look around and see who was there but they were clearly there. I am hard to deal with on a day to day basis and half the time I make no sense at all. The best are the ones who really just don't care about that and want to be around me anyway.

3. Disappointment is a state of mind not a reality.

4. Cliches are usually right on.

5. Happiness is the journey (See 4)

6. When you stop growing, learning, trying, wanting, striving, living.... You are dead.

7. If you read a newspaper and then look at your own life, you will have so much to be thankful for.

8. Things change, even the things you wish would not.

9. Your children will grow up faster than you will ever be ready for.

10. Sometimes you just need to sit down and right down 10 things that you know for sure when the world leaves you wondering where you are.

Tumbleweed

Most tumbleweeds have the fortunate experience of gently blowing down the road with the ability to see what is coming even if the breeze is going to ultimately thrust them in to it. My life as a tumbleweed is a bit different, while I do get the feeling that there is some breeze guiding me and putting me on and off varying wind patterns, my breeze seems to be more of a gale force wind lately. The difference between me and the other tumbleweeds is that they know their fate before they lightly bump into an object, for me it's a smash into a brick wall with the confused look of "I never saw that coming." This isn't necessarily a bad thing, sure there are times when I crash into a brick wall of debt or collide with the steel tragedy of loss of a loved one, and the constant beating of the solid stress concrete. There is another side to being a tumbleweed in hurricane that most people don't think about, The Adventure. Speeding past the rolling hills of my outdoor adventure lifestyle from a full day of snowboarding followed by an evening of paragliding. There are the family Sundays spent teaching my son how to ski, watching Jessie gain confidence, and a cheers to the bar tender at Molly Greens. There is the snowboard competition season that brings quaint ski town travel adventures and new friendships. The mornings spent at the south side para-waiting for the right time to launch. The laughter of my greatest friends coming to visit for corn beef and cabbage. Each side of me is a different rotation down the hill.

I am a father.
I am a son.
I am a brother.
I am a friend.
I am an uncle.
I am a cousin.
I am a snowboarder.
I am a paraglider.
I am a full time student.
I am an entrepreneur.
I am a competitor.
I am a debtor.
I am a collector.
I am a dreamer.
I am a lover.
I am a fighter.

I am...

These are things that make up my shell. These are the things that allow me to tumble down long roads and smash into everything in site and keep on going. These things are my motor. No matter how fast I roll, no matter how much I spin, no matter how hard I hit, I will never feel dizzy, or pain. I will never feel tired and I will never give up the journey...

Because I am.

=Dave