Stories - FD Thornton

I may have mentioned it before, but I was born to a very typical working middle class family. We lived in a suburb of Savannah, Georgia in the sixties and seventies. My dad was the sole bread winner and my mom the all-american housewife. Me, my sister, and younger bother grew up in a three bedroom tract home that had the same floor plan as the other two houses on our little dead end street. We had one bathroom, no central heating or air, but we did have the dirt street to ourselves and a decent sized lot to play in.  We were by no means rich, but we did live well with our needs and most of our wants met.  My point in mentioning this is, while growing up with a stainless steel flatware spoon in my mouth, we all grew up with dreams. As a teenager in high school, I wanted to be an architect. But as soon as I graduated I abandoned those dreams for an easy route into the workforce and making money. I stayed that course for a number of years until I married and had the first of four kids. 

As both a team leader and as a parent, the way you teach both doesn't differ a whole lot. For one, both are looking to you as a leader and they are watching what you do. Rather we know it or not the people we lead and the ones we raise observe and learn from us. It's just that a lot of the time we don't notice it.  The thing that brought this fact to light for me was my resent illness. You see, I pretty much depend on myself for most personal things. But when I was down on my back, there wasn't a second thought from my adult children when it come to helping and taking care of things while "pop" was out of the game, so to speak. It's not that I thought they wouldn't help. It's just nice to see some of the values you worked to teach them, being put to good use. The same can be said for work teams. If you work to instill good core values and display those values in the way you work. You can be pleasantly surprised at how those values grow and spre

Recently, I spoke about what I learned while flat on my back. Which got me thinking today about learning moments. You see, a good number of us allow life to just happen. Allowing our busy, busy lives to over take us. Leaving us one day looking in the mirror and wondering where our lives went.  I have lived through a number of phases in my life. Suffering through childhood, finding escape in adolescents, discovering reality in parenthood, and just finding myself now. Each of these phases was ans is a learning moment. Still, most of the time we allow these things to happen without noticing or treating them as learning moments, we just let them happen.  So as you brag through your days, try and pay attention long enough to see the learning moments you live through. In examining those moments you can grasp what it is your mind, body, or spirit are trying to tell you. Rather it's a major message or not, look at them and reflect.  Getting caught up in the noise of life is one of th

Sorry, I haven't been on lately, but I had a good excuse. Until yesterday evening I was in the hospital being poked and tested every way you can think of and more. No stone was left unturned you can say, and no part left unexplored. But the good news is I'm feeling much better and while I have a ways to go before we beat this, I have the upper hand. But you know, while laying flat on our back, you get time to think. To think about where you are, where you have been, and where you want to go. During that time while the IV's drip and blood samples drawn, you can ask yourself the hard questions. Questions about how you got here and how you can get out. About mortality and your place in the world, and if you left it just a little bit better.  To many I'm one person when seen face to face. Yet when working behind the pen, I can be someone quite different. So while I crack a joke to lighten the mood of the moment. I can find myself just as scared as those I love. But unde