Sometimes...

Sometimes one just looks at the sky and thinks wow... with all the tragic happenings around the world that we see night in and night out on the local and international news - we can be humbled by the sight of just one sunset. The ability to take a step back and appreciate the simple things is so important and something I think we all should try and do each day. I know it's not always easy, life can be tough on each of us, things happen for no good reason and sometimes it seems unfair and one can even think 'why me' and all that...but I believe in redemption, forgiveness and understanding that being free to do just those two things are what makes us true and free to ourslevs. 

For me - seeing a sight - a simple one like the sunset above makes me see the wonder of life and what makes it so precious and of such value, each and everyday. One has to see that? Right? I hope that my readers do and accept that as an individual we can't really change world events maybe but we can change our outlook on life and maybe as a whole - if everyone does it - maybe things will fall in the right for all of us... 

Believe in love - forgiveness and redemption for past mistakes and the ones that we all are going to make in the future to come. No one is perfect - that's for sure but when we see something like this sunset we can for a short time see that perfection comes in so many shapes and sizes - that the world can give us so much if we are willlng to see it - accept it into our hearts and believe. I do -  I really do and I'm not sure if it makes me stronger for real but the sunset above is and for me it was just perfect... Have a wonderful day wherever you might find yourself in this world and try to take just a few minutes to take a look around and see - what is perfect around you -even if it's just the sun saying goodbye for one day...💜💜😊😊

What A Day!!

The picture above did not happen today - it was maybe about 6 years ago and it's without a doubt one of my all time favorites - my boy putting and he's still playing golf as much as possible. Today was a beautiful day with sun and blue sky. A bit cold being that it's almost the end of November here in Norway. I got to practice with my 58 degree today for almost 3 hours and really enjoyed myself. Not sure if it's climate change or what but if I am being selfish then I have to say good for us golfers that live almost above the artic circle - it's been a long season in the sense of the amount of time we could have hoped for when the course opened in the end of March. 

I know for folks that are so lucky to play golf year around maybe can't realize for us what that really means...well, it's almost 9 months and that's not very typical to say it mild. Hoping that this winter will be a continuing of what we've experienced this Novemeber. I know, I know the chances of that happpening is almost none... we'll get snow at some point and maybe a whole bunch too. One can hope 😊😊

Seen a lot of people playing the last two days and that is great, I have not taken a good walk spoiled this fall...it's most because of the greens and that the tee boxes are closed. Maybe I should get out there even though but I guess the scoring game is the part I like the best and that's not that easy this time of year because the green keeping staff let's the greens grow a bit long - something I understand and support with thoughts about what's best for the baby grass - but then I choose to work on the 58 degree every chance I can - do spot practice and length control...Rambling on here...hehe.. thanks for checking in - no matter where you are in the world - from Mountain View, California to New Deli, India...keep swinging and good luck with everything that comes this winter 👍😊👊🏁💪😊

Looking forward...

Looking forward...always a good thing and something I have been doing, or at least trying to do, to the best of my abilities I am trying to look forward and see the options that are there and the ones that are not. Seeing the difference between the two are is not always easy sometimes, but something a person has to learn. Thinking ahead. Planning ahead. Seeing the future ahead....always moving forward. Not easy.

The past is something that always one carries, it's not the future because that is unknown, while each of our pasts is a fact, something we cannot change - even if we want to. It's one of the impossibilties we have here in life - you can never change the past - never. The only possible thing you can do is learn from it and that's the real key isn't it? I know for myself I have not always learned from my past, I have at times lived in the common expression that if one dosn't learn from it, then one is destined to repeat it. That is something I know a lot about, but, it is never to late to learn from it and sometimes we are not ready to do so until the time is right for moving forward,....

It's a feeling, a private knowledge that one feels inside that is hard to explain, at least for me it is. Some things are obvious and easy to learn, while other things are hidden from us, and maybe, just maybe, they stay hidden until we are ready to learn from them and move forward - looking forward without the baggage that keeps us there in the past....learning to put it down - set it down and leave it. It's not an easy thing to see at times, and I would go so far to say that sometimes we don't want to see it - we are afraid to see it - accept it and then feel nothing when we are strong enough to lay it down and move forward free of it and it's power to influance us in any way - good or bad.

I wish all my readers good luck in just that - the battle that each of us has inside of ourselves and I hope you all eventualy can lay it down, put it aside and look forward without feeling one way or the other. Indifference to it - letting it just be, with no acceptence of it anymore and live with the thoughts of moving forward, looking forward into the great unknown that is the future each of us has as individuals....good luck everyone.

Smokey Gutt and Me - The joy of Whippets

Love, it comes in so many different shapes and sizes and I can try to begin to describe the feelings I have for the dog in the picture above, my Smokey Gutt. I can remember what life was like, all the years before he came into my life, but, I cannot understand now, what kind of life I'd have without him in it now.  He is such a huge part of my everyday life, the choices I make and the results of the love he gives back to me are understandable in ways that maybe I am the only one to comprehend. Whippets as a rule are different than most other races of dogs, they are very fast, the fastest dogs in the world from 0 to 70 kilometers an hour, only the Greyhounds can reach a higher top speed of around 90 but Whippets reach 70 before them - every single time. 

Created by the working class in Great Britian in the 1800's - a combo of Greyhound and Terrier - a little weird to think about in the sense of just the size difference between the two races - one can think, how is that possible and it is a strange mix but thank goodness they made it. Whippets are one of the only few races that are used for compainionship theropy - it all has to do with how they are naturally, they seek contact, want to feel the physical connection between themselves and their owner. Smokey is really nothing special in that regard, he loves people, maybe I have had in some small way created a safe enviorment that gives him confidence that people are just good and not dangerous? I hope so. 

Nothing had prepared me for him, the goodness he has, the kind way he gives of himself each and everyday, The way he seeks and gives affection is humbling and makes me think how lucky I am to have him in my life. I talk with him and he looks into my eye's for the most part and I wonder, does he understand much more than I can imagine? Does he know how much he means to me? Is it possible for him to actually understand any of it? Sometimes I think so, without a doubt and I wish he could talk back and let me know how I could love him better - give him more of what he really wants, because I would -  I would do anything for him. Love is wonderful and loving a Whippet is easy and one of the most rewarding experinces I have had.... 

Not a usual post for me this - not sure why I feel the need to either - but I do feel it and hope that if you,  the reader of my blog, ever think about buying a new dog - buy a Whippet and I promise it will be one of the best things you ever do... it will change your life in ways you would have never expected. The joy and love you will recieve is beyond the words I have tried to use to explain my feelings... way beyond.

Smokey Gutt - My best friend - I love you!!

Gore Vidal - American Presidency

This book is a must read for all who really want to understand the complex and somewhat disturbing history of the office of the President. For those who don't know who Gore Vidal is, well, I would go so far to say that if you have not read him, then you can't even the begin to understand what has and is happening in the United States today.

I wish everyone would you tube this man and see the plenty of videos there if reading his works is maybe to much for some. It's important to see the military industrial complex for what it is and how it came to be. Many many good vids out there not to mention the books written. 

Have to be honest, have read about one third of his work... he wrote, if I remember correctly, somewhere in the range of 30 pluss books and many other essays. He became a public celeb and even ran for political office twice. Never did win though which is sad. He might just be the right type of person for the right job - but tu var we lost him and now all that is left is his books, essays and recorded speeches and shows on the www. 

It's important to see all sides of the history which is often not considered and hidden to that which is of most importance - the people. 

The Foutainhead - The battle between individualism and collectivism and the modern day....

Read this book once in college many many years ago and finished it again yesterday. Now all these years later I got much more out of Rand's book than I did as a History major trying to get though the pits and falls of being a college student athlete. Funny how one learns almost more about something when one chooses to do something as read a book like this instead of having to based on a college courses outlines. 

'From the beginining of history, the two antagonists have stood face to face: the creator and the second-hander. When the first creator invented the wheel, the first second-hander respomded. He invented altusim.'

'The creator- denied, opposed, persecuted, exploited-wnet on, moved forward and carried all humanity along on his energy. The second-hander contributed nothing to the process except the impediments. The contest has another name: the individual against the collective.'

'The 'common good' of a collective - a race, a class, a state-was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every major horror of history was commited in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfisness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altrusim? Does the fault lie in men's hyprocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere.....The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is ---Hands off!!!!!'

Ayn Rand---1935 The Fountainhead

Deep deep deep. 

Everyone in this day and age should read or reread this book. There are so many things she wrote that are perfect for the discourse that we read about everyday in the modern world. Facebook, Twitter and the like are alturism in it's almost perfect form.... divide and conqure. Scary that this women almost a hundered years ago was EXACTLY right in her views and our leaders today would do themselves a huge favor in figuring out what she is trying to say.... 

We are headed down a very slippery slope folks and the individual is the one that is going to pay the price. Having to join the crowd might just be what she says... it's another form of slavery- just one that people don't see and often give themselves to without knowing.....OPEN YOUR EYES and see the truth people and we need to express our individualism in this society- in the correct way now. More than ever in the course of history we need to stand and fight for our individuality and being the creator of our own history and lives. 

Palmers truth and Rod Pampling

It's just beautiful, is it not? A true and honsest statement by a man who was the perfect example of both those words. It's hasn't been a a couple months yet but I still miss him. Strange? Maybe so, but the truth. I know he was growing old and his time was in. He lived a charmed life, worked hard, played harder and made a huge impact in peoples lives, for thousands upon thousands of people, golfers and non-golfers alike. I can't really get over it, what he did in his long life on and off the golf course. The reverence is unmatched actually and totally deserved. 

His statement rings true and it's why I love the game like I do. There is no game in the world like it, enabling people to play over several generations together, being able to compete against others that are many many years younger or older. Golf is that way. It's fair. It's hard. But, nothing is so rewarding in the sense of self achievemnet when one competes against onesself or others and coming out on top. Watching the last PGA tournament this past weekend, it rang true again, Rod Pampling won in Vegas, beating guys half his age and doing it with solid ball striking and last round flat stick magic. I think he one putted the last 7 holes, draining a 30 foot bird to clinch his first victory in 10 years. His jounrey to the winners circle this time was long and hard. Coming back from The Web.com tour and fighting his way to it. Very motivating and something I keep in the back of my own mind and soul... Anything is possible. If you have the desire and ability - anything is possible. Anything. 

Stories like Rod Pampling's are the reason I don't give up or give in - keeping the dream alive by watching and feeling it deep down inside the golfing soul - thank goodness for modern day tv and the chance it gives us to see things just like his victory and in some ways his redemption for all the years of hard work. He never gave up on himself and beleived in his ability to do it and he did. Super cool and a beaken of light for all us old farts that still have dreams of playing against the odds and winning.... 

Great played Rod Pampling!!!