Stories - FD Thornton

Earlier this morning I had a different post on my mind. Then a got a sad phone call of someone's passing. It's never good to lose a loved one never, but it can be worse when it comes around the holiday season like now. So if the family is reading this, my heart felt sympathy goes out to you. Due in part to this tragedy and to the pain anyone out there may feel at the holidays. Let's not forget to be thankful. To be thankful for the moments we had with our loved one, the joys we shared, the pain we went through. For all of it lets be thankful.  Around ten years ago I lost my mother, her death left us in total shock. Just a few days before her death we had spoken and she was looking forward to seeing the grandkids. Well two days before our trip home I got the news. So during what was to be a happy event, visiting mom for the weekend. We spent the weekend planning and attending a funeral.  Like I said, it's been ten years, it's been over twenty since my father pa

This morning I was going through my emails and my other morning routines, thinking about a couple of extra errands I had to make. While doing this the thought crossed my mind about how I hated it when I have to deviate from my usual routine. It's not that my routine is a fine tuned instrument or anything, it's just that I gotten into some frankly lazy habits. Which brings me to the idea of this post, that none of us are perfect.  I'm sure that most all of you reading are thinking, "duh!, like I didn't know I wasn't perfect. My big nose, pot belly, and greying hair tell me that everyday" , they all say cynically. Seriously, those are not really the imperfections I thinking about, although I could lose a some weight and a little Just for Men . What I'm bring up here is the idea that we each have a grasp of the areas within ourselves that are lacking. But instead of being critical of ourselves for those shortcomings, we use them as advantages in our liv

Recently, I started a new course at school. It deals with my weakest subject but with two classes to go, I don't have much choice but to "bite the bullet" and do my best. So it should come as no surprise that I've spent the last three days bangin' my head against the wall trying to answer one little question. You know, agonizing over one thing has taught me this, that either I'm really stubborn, or I'm just really stupid, or I'm both.  Oh, I know your saying to yourselves, "now don't of think it that way, your tenacity will serve you." But in reality stupidity is not always bad, but being stubborn and stupid, now   that is not what I'd call a great combination.  The thing is, it's okay if you're not the smartest person in the room, but if you're the one who ignorantly holds on to failed or flawed ideals, well? Being willing to correct your course is one of the qualities that creates a good leader. The problem is, a

No matter how jealous I get of other successes, all I really want to do is be a better me With roadblocks laid out by others, including myself, all I want to do is be a better me When the haunting voices of hatered and fear awaken me, all I want to do is be a better me To be a better me is to struggle To be a better me is to work To be a better is to try  

Forgive me if this gets a little jumbled, but this didn't come to my mind until after reading few about.me bios. Looking over the introductory statements of many of the about.me pages I come across, I noticed something interesting. A vast majority of those profile/introductions always mention that they (person who wrote it) are still growing and haven't reached their full potential yet.  On the surface, it's such a common statement that you may simply not notice it. But for whatever reason the words stuck out in front of me like a neon sign in a dark alley. Seeing all these individuals from across the world making the same profession that their potential got me wondering. What if you made it to your fullest potential already, what do you do then?  Maybe I'm being a bit silly or I heard this conversion sometime back, but at the moment I feel it's a valid question to ask. Along with the follow-up question, why do you feel your best hasn't happened? Remember

A little while ago, I sent an email to an old friend whom I haven't spoken with in a while. His name came across my radar, so I decided to drop him a line. That may seem to be a bit old fashioned, but in this busy crazy world we live, dropping a little note seems to me a perfect ice breaker to unthaw a cooled relationship.  As I was lightly updating him on how things were, at the end I dropped a few lines of hard learned wisdom. I am not sure why I feel the need to do this with younger people I know. It just seems to come out of me, like it's a requirement of getting your AARP card or something.  After I finished my masterpiece of a note (at least I thought so), I sent it hoping to find him and his family well. After finishing, I had no real urgency to write a post here, but thinking about my habit of dropping unsolicited advice, I thought, "lets see where this goes" . So here we are.  So here I am, thinking about some of the advice I received over my lifetime,

This morning I was going through my emails when I came upon a couple from people who follow my about.me page. The messages they sent were little notes about enjoying my page and what I say. While notes like this are nice to get from the great variety of individuals that have sent one, the thing that stood out as the first reaction that came out of my mouth which was, " I don't know why these people are so impressed? "  Don't look at this post as a sly way to point at myself, this is an honest question about the balance between poor self image and good self image. As mentioned in previous post, I have a real problem with self image. So much so that it has lead me down some dark paths of self abuse, as well as, a total feeling of dissatisfaction with who I am. It is these factors that have led me, despite some victories, to believe my whole world has been a total failure. So hearing those words so easily come out of my mouth, really threw me back a step or two. For

I remember many years ago I DJ'd a local AM radio program from 10 pm to after midnight. This was on a station that after 10 pm reduced it's broadcast power by half, which meant my limited audience was even more limited. I basically kept the equipment warmed up for the morning DJ that came in around 5 am.  Still word of mouth about our little program grew to the point that we had a live studio audience. Mainly because I let them in from out of the cold when they started hanging out outside the studio. So for a number of months we would bring in our eclectic little collection of music and poetry to the studio and basically have our own version of the Dead Poet's Society . (For those of you that are younger, please Google.)    Things were going pretty good with the program and I admit, I was having fun. Until one night the request line lite up and I received a call that changed everything for me. Without dragging out too many details or names, the call was a criticism of w

I freely admit I am a bit boisterous and loud, I guess that comes from my love of attention. What I didn't want people to confuse that with is that I'm egotistical or not genuine. The fact is yes, I'm loud, but at the same time I'm real and have a pretty good idea of who and what I am.  To be honest with who you are doesn't have to be a bad thing. By that I mean, some would have you think having a handle on yourself and knowing your limits only limits you. That maintaining some unrealistic vision of yourself is what creates greatness. While I have nothing against confidence or setting goals. My point here is your goals and drive need to be in balance with who you are and what you realistically need to do to meet those challenges.    Using myself as an example, in 2008 I was 46 years old, worked at a totally unchallenging job, and had tried and failed to continue my college dreams for 28 years. Still ever since my twenties I knew I could do anything I put my mind

Before I started thinking about this post, I was looking at some of the individuals that had viewed my about.me page . As I was reading some my visitors bios, I noticed how some of these people wrote about themselves in the third person. For me it reads a bit weird, but for some English maybe a second or third language, so I try not to judge. Still to me, it's strange to read and even stranger to write when putting together a research paper.  In a way it gives me the impression the person writing is " putting on airs ", as the old saying goes. For the heck of it I decided to Google the term "putting on airs" what I found out it's an old saying about tooting your own horn . But to me, even more interesting was the word airs itself. When I Googled it besides being the stuff we breath or try to breath depending on your location, it means to " express, voice, or make public ."  I suppose my point here is, from my perspective I was raised to think

Like most of you, I got up this morning and hit the ground running. Taking care of this situation and that one, putting out as many fires as I could. By the time it was 10:30am, I was still in my "night clothes" and had spoken or emailed at least 10 people or businesses.  One of the beautiful things about working for yourself and working from home is, you can get a lot done before most everyone has finished their 2 hour commute. Plus unless you're on Skype, you can do it in your birthday suit (don't worry, I'm fully dressed, for now). My point with this little post is to comment on how, when I do poke my head out of my rabbit hole, I'm barraged with this and that interruption that can slow down my day.  A few posts ago I mentioned getting my first "smartphone". Mainly because all my clients, friends, and family told me, "it would make your day so much simpler and more organized". While I don't which little Fairy (or Imp) told them t