Stories - FD Thornton

A few years back a country artist came out with a song with the line " you find out who your friends are ". To me the song speaks of seeing who your true friends are when " the chips are down ", you can say. Who out there hasn't experienced that.  My reason for bringing up the subject is recently I had a setback. Not one that laid me out on the floor but, one that pushed me back a few steps I'll say. But just when it looked like what few friends I do have would thin out even more, some stepped up to make my day. even though they didn't know I needed it.     While I am very grateful for the support, most of us would do the same for a friend wouldn't we?  I was brought up being taught to be the same no matter who I'm around. By that I mean to treat each person with kindness and honesty. I mean I wouldn't disrespect an older person or cuss in front of a stranger but, I would treat each person the same.  Another lesson I learned was not to

Have you ever gotten up and just knew it was going to be a bad day? Well today was one of those days for me. I didn't sleep well until late into the night, and while I got up feeling ok. I just knew which direction my day was going. Still, I managed to get a few things going but, the main item on my agenda barely go off the ground. Now I'm telling you this to say, while I feel a day may have been wasted ( and maybe it was ). I can't let that issue cloud my mind. Because God willing, the sun rises tomorrow, and I'll get another chance to hit the ground running. This may not be the type of motivation you want to hear. You may rather hear something like, "seize the day" or "strike while the fire's hot" or something. That may work for some, but for someone like me that is happy just to be able to get out of bed. Just knowing tomorrow will give me another chance is pretty good to know.  

This morning was rough, I had a couple of pretty tough tests to past. After they were over, I was pretty anxious and started wondering, " why am still I doing this to myself? "  After a little while, I relaxed and calmed down, realizing that every so often these feelings are going to come. And, that those feelings are going to challenge me and make me question the goals I have set. So while I sit here a take a breathe, I'm reminded that when you can have shadows of doubt, and that's ok. Because when you put a few victories behind, you it get's a little easier to tell those voices to go.   My point here is fairly simple. When negative voices come to rob you of whatever you're working toward. First accept that it's there. Then allow your mind and that stress to clear away. ( How you do that is up to you. ) Then you can refocus on the task at hand.  This may not work well the first time. But in my life allowing the negative to have it's say (to a

I'm sure we have all heard the word's in this title used before, layman's terms. It usually means, "break it down into words I understand." It's a term I know quite well to describe what I do. I run a little one-man-show that basically does that, breaks things down to terms that laypeople can understand ( or at least that's what I try to do ).  I work as a Systems Analyst, my particular focus is on IT systems and software design. But, I can use my analysis training to breakdown and analyze other areas of IT and business.  My point in mentioning this is to discuss a void that seems to exist between software creators and those that use it. Spending the better part of my college life & career learning the in's and out's of system requirements, getting to know the stakeholders, and defining what end users want and what programmer's can give 'em. My job is to basically translating terms between stakeholders and programmers. Sounds like f

Every so often I get tired  Tired of staring at monitors, tired of reading textbooks, tired of sitting down at 7:30 am then realizing it's 12:45 pm and I haven't gotten up. ( Which is never good for your kidneys .) Just get tired of being tried. When experiencing this I take myself a break, maybe for a few minutes, maybe for a few weeks. But then you know what happens a short time after I do that? I get bored out of my mind. What is it that makes me do that? I'm sure a bunch of you know what I'm writing about. Are we messed up? Are we simple workaholics? I never thought of myself as being a workaholic, so why over the past few years have I become this way?   My guess is, I like what I'm doing. And, while a lot of you may say that's B.S. A few of you may say, yeah, that's true. A few of us get to do something we truly enjoy doing. Still for all of us, all work and no play can make you a bored person.  So what do I suggest to get us out of this bored wi

You know, I don't put much value in money. I mean, I do enjoy eating and like to see my A/C running during this heat. What I mean is money is more a tool than a desire or end all. Some of you may think, he only feels that way because he's loaded or he's plain crazy. Well the first part of that statement I assure you isn't true, the last part, well the jury's still out. I suppose my reason for mentioning this is, what do we place real value on? Is it the toys we can pile in our garages? Or is it the cash we stash for a rainy day? Either thing isn't bad in itself, it's just what are we doing to create value within ourselves? Does it take money for you to measure success or are you successful for far more important things? I've had a few epiphanies in my life that greatly changed me. One was my sad divorce from my first wife. Second, was finding my true soulmate and balance from my past. Then came the birth of my children and the real meaning of maturit

Yesterday evening into this morning, I haven't felt my best. I suppose it's my damned sinuses or something. But you know what I'm talking about when you just don't feel right. Still, I struggled through my morning routine of answering emails and school stuff. But as I finished, I shutdown the main work computer and fired up the laptop so I could sit on the daybed and continue to work at a more relaxed pace.  I know many of you don't have the luxury of working from home or have a daybed in your office. But I will admit having grown kids, a wife that works herself in another room, and a live in a fairly quiet neighborhood has it's perks. So now I sit here with the curtains drawn with some meditation sounds playing. Trying to work out this tension and prepare for the remaining tasks ahead. This doesn't mean I'm totally tuned out humming com-by-ya or something, it just means I continue work at a more relaxed pace.  I well know that most all work environ

After a week of trying to shake a valuable thought out of my head. This morning this occurred to me, how do we consider others in worse situations than ourselves? Do we give charity a second thought or are we I got mine now get yours? I know it's a long ways from Thanksgiving or Christmas, but our hearts should be mindful of those who need support. I guess my reason for this is, everyday I read post from friends and love ones on social sites about taking trips or dining out. Now there is nothing wrong with enjoying the hard work you put in, the point is being aware of those who have not.  A good example of loving thy neighbor is the idea I saw were a family in a drive thru paid the bill for the car behind them in honor for their late son, I'm sure you heard that one. Well this is one simple act of kindness we can do, with no guarantee you'll be paid back. But believe me, one day you will.  So this weekend as you go online or write a check to pay a bill remember a char

I wonder how many hours I have spent on hold with a business or government agency over my lifetime? I wonder if that time could add up to days or even weeks? Have any of you ever wondered about that?  My reason for bringing this very unpopular subject isn't to just vent about the hours wasted that could be used to do something else. It's to first wonder why someone hasn't come up with a better way of doing customer service. Then it's to wonder how many times in our own lives we have paused without a reason for doing so.  Sometimes the decisions and course corrections we have to make are simple too much. So instead of "biting the bullet" and doing it, we stay content with doing things the way we have been, even though it's bad for us and our careers. I can't tell you of all the times I have done this just because it made me uncomfortable or it was hard to do so. It's in these times I have to remind myself that when I do make course corrections

As any have figured out, I'm not much of a writer. But every so often, when the mood strikes me, I come up with a line or two. Well lately it's been one of those weeks, when the mood hasn't hit me. So day after day, I end up staring at a blank screen with nothing to say. I figured I'd write about that simply because, in the fog of motivational writing you gotta have an off day. For me at times it's ok to not be inspired to simply have a day where you just go through the motions.  Now that isn't to say I didn't get anything done. In fact, today was one of my more productive days this week. It's just that I shut a lot of brain function down and went on autopilot, doing the routine. Like I said, that's ok. So if you're one of the few that chew on the tidbits of motivation I put out, remember this. It's alright not to be inspired everyday. Sometimes it's a good thing not to think and take life as it comes. Who knows, maybe you can find