Fall Colors in New Jersey.... and football season!

Well I've been very busy over the past two months with a work assignment that requires me to fly to New Jersey on Sundays and return home on Thursdays. It has been a great experience of many angles. Invaluable business knowledge, new relationships, travel proficiency, patience, and tradeoffs.

We often have to make decisions in life that involve tradeoffs. In my case, this would include my family time. This is very important to me and one I've not done well with in the past. I'm very close with my family and really cherish spending time with them. In our family I'm the breadwinner, father, husband, disciplinarian, leader, and anything else required.

My absence not only impacts my wife and kids, it also impacts me. Everyday I'm reminded of my roles and decisions in life. Not to mention my blessings.

We lived in the northeast for a while and were exposed to the beautiful fall colors of New England. Once you see them, they're hard to forget. It's been about 10 years and now I find myself right in the middle of them in the month of October. I even took a picture and emailed my wife. What a wonderful time of year to be in the northeast US. They serve as a reminder that nature and time move on and wait for no one. You have to make the best of what time you have or sit by and let it move on without you.

Football season started. One son broke his arm and will miss the season, the other made Varsity and is having a blast. Welcome to the tribulations of life and sports. You can learn fortitude, sacrifice, pain, and joy. Lessons we all should embrace in many forms.

That's all I have this month. Holiday season will start soon. We'll all begin to think about the end of the year and what we accomplished in 2009. It's been one hell of a ride. I hope everyone counts their blessings, appreciates what they have, hopes for the future, and lives like there's not tomorrow.