Originally posted on Facebook HERE

Just when you think you have life figured out, you don’t.

Right about the time you think it’s all figured out and organized, your routines are in place, and life is gonna sail from that point on… it isn’t.

Life doesn’t work that way. It will attack you out of the blue. Things will be sailing along, and wham!… you meet someone new who throws it all upside down. You get a job offer that forces you to rethink everything. You get news about your own health, or the health of someone close to you that forces you to make decisions you never thought you’d have to make.

Sometimes, we just have to learn the value of surrender. Surrender to the moments we are presented with. And often, when we get hit by a life event — it means having to make a decision. Accept the date?… take the job?… have the surgery?… and these decisions can, and often do, change our lives from that point on.

We’d all like to control everything. We’d all like to just sail through life and die peacefully in our sleep. We’d all like our pets to live forever. We don’t want anyone close to us to ever feel any pain. We’ll do whatever we can to live a life without any upset. But life doesn’t work like that.

I’m in the middle of everything going everywhere right now myself. My office is in transition. My band is adapting to a change we certainly didn’t see coming and wish we didn’t have to deal with. I personally am dealing with an annoying medical issue. And everything is demanding attention at a rate I can’t give it because there’s not even close to enough time to handle it all efficiently. My wife recently told me that I thrive on the chaos. She’s retired, and from my vantage point hers is a much more relaxing and subdued existence…

The truth is I do consider myself pretty good at handling chaotic situations. You kind of have to be to be in the business I’m in. Really — either business I’m in, I guess. If you think the music business isn’t chaotic, well — you’ve got another think coming. But in reality, I can kick back and relax with the best of them, too. It just takes me a while to get out of “focused and determined” mode and into “simplicity and relaxation” mode… But once I’m there, I love it.

In my mind I foresee a time when I’m done with work, no longer playing live shows with a band, and just doing what I love to do with the people I love to do it with. I’m already kind of doing that — but no matter how much you like what you do, jobs also come with responsibilities. Meetings, deadlines, etc… I’m talking about a schedule that’s really free and open… and I’m gonna totally rock it when that day comes, too.

It’s at least five years off, though. I plan on working until I’m 72. Then what?… “you’ll be bored”, you say…

I will not. I will be doing something every day to stay mentally and physically healthy. I will continue to write and to play music. I might develop my YouTube channel a bit more. Write a few more books. We’ll continue to travel, although maybe cut back on things that need a long flight…

And the one thing I plan on continuing to do through it all is to spend time every day being grateful for every moment. We get so few. There’s no time in life to second guess yourself. We do the best we can with what we have when we’re presented with a situation. We make mistakes. Forgiveness starts at home within ourselves. A grateful heart attracts love and abundance. We are all as rich as the love we have within us. And gratitude helps us unleash it. Because within us all is an ocean of love just waiting for us to tap in.

Tap in today. Spend time being grateful for the moment. What an incredible life you have. There is love and beauty everywhere. We do not conquer hatred, fear and anger by fighting back in kind. We conquer it by creating a world that has no desire for it. We create things rather than destroying them. We help others whenever we can. We are all connected. We are one. Let’s do our part today to make this the best world possible. It’s easy to start. Just sit in gratitude every day for a bit. Live your life from that place deep within you that knows only love.

It’s much easier said than done. But we always miss 100% of the shots we don’t take.

Shoot for love and gratitude today…

I’ll be right there with you.