Musing

[written and published from south Calgary, near Fish Creek Park]

3C/38F, more sunny and warm awaits; our walk was calm and uneventful as folks rush to work while neighbourhood traffic the opposite way brings construction workers to their job-sites, amazing how quickly these homes go up . . too quickly I think . .

the choices I made that mattered most were not the ones I agonized over, the ones with the most dollars involved or the ones supposedly leading to the promised land or to have me laughing all the way to the bank; they were little forks in the road; I met JJ the same day I met many others for the first time; 26 years later JJ, YF & VS remain part of my treasure chest, but why is that . . I met SC the same way I met many of the women I dated over the years . . why did life altering connective tissue grow from those meetings when countless others did not?

I closed deals last year with 30 new clients I’d never met before; this year I’m on a pace to do quite a few more . . but why did THOSE clients and I connect, why did WE make a connection that was beyond the moment, beyond the transaction, beyond utilitarian

shooting lots makes heroes of a Gretzky or a Jordan . . shooting accurately makes you a Nash or a Kurri; in sports, the ultimate life metaphors are everywhere . . ‘Opportunity, you’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’ . . . ; shooting/taking chances – lots of them – is not AN answer, it is just cute phrasing; in life we do not make right choices simply by making lots of choices; that comes from making incrementally better ones

choices . . like who to like or not to like

choices . . like who to remain friends with for 26 yrs . . who to choose to leave in the past

choices . . like who to be curious about . . and why

choices . . about action rather than reaction

choices . . about when to state your feelings . . about when to sit silently

choices . . about what to attend, when to stay home

choices . . about reaching out . . . about speaking out . . about thinking out . . loud!

choices . . about telling someone who matters what matters about them

life does not happen by chance, but how we live it has a lot to do with combining ‘what we are made of’ with ‘taking chances by making choices’

each day I reach out to connect with certain people . . and each day I publish my musings to nearly 11,000 readers of these musings; some people respond; some people delete, delay, discard or avoid . . others, like you who have read to the end, prove to me I made the best choice I could have this morning

I choose a lot, a lot of the time; yesterday, last night, today . . and I hope tomorrow . . I’ll make better choices by making more choices, many more choices and practice will help me to keep getting better; I like making choices, I like the choices I make, I choose my choices . . . which I think means I choose my quality of life on every level

so do you

Mark Kolke
225,332
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Responses/comments welcomed; send an e-mail to musing@maxcomm.ca – please give me your feedback.