http://garretgillespie.com/blog Slaying Dad's Demons Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:35:19 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Essays & Insights By Garret Gillespie Garret Gillespie no Garret Gillespie ggillespie@garretgillespie.com ggillespie@garretgillespie.com (Garret Gillespie) 2006-2007 Slaying Dad's Demons http://garretgillespie.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://garretgillespie.com/blog http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2010/03/dont-blink/ http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2010/03/dont-blink/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:18:07 +0000 Garret http://garretgillespie.com/blog/?p=261 http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2010/03/dont-blink/feed/ 1 Don't Blink,Family,Kenny Chesney,Life,Music My cover of Kenny Chesney's Don't Blink released in 2007 on his Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates CD. Life truly does go faster than you think, so start living now. My cover of Kenny Chesney's Don't Blink released in 2007 on his Just Who I Am: Poets and Pirates CD. Life truly does go faster than you think, so start living now. Garret Gillespie no 4:22 http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2010/02/keep-breathing/ http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2010/02/keep-breathing/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:59:57 +0000 Garret http://garretgillespie.com/blog/?p=259 http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2010/02/keep-breathing/feed/ 0 Amalie Maren,Ingrid Michaelson,Keep Breathing,Life,tough Today we're again featuring guest vocalist Amalie covering Ingrid Michaelson's Keep Breathing.  Released by Ingrid in 2008 on her Be OK album, I have to say she has a point...Sometimes life gets tough and all you can do is keep breathing. Today we're again featuring guest vocalist Amalie covering Ingrid Michaelson's Keep Breathing.  Released by Ingrid in 2008 on her Be OK album, I have to say she has a point...Sometimes life gets tough and all you can do is keep breathing. And you know what? That's OK. Garret Gillespie no 3:28 http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2009/10/mule-sense/ http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2009/10/mule-sense/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:54:39 +0000 Garret http://garretgillespie.com/blog/?p=211 http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2009/10/mule-sense/feed/ 0 Abraham Lincoln,D-Day,depression,doubt,dream,Dwight D. Eisenhower,faith,fear,great leaders,hope,Life,mule sense Choices. I still have choices. Sometimes the turmoil surrounding me tries to make me feel helpless. Like my situation is hopeless and out of my control. It’s not true. If there’s one thing my situation is teaching me, Choices. I still have choices. Sometimes the turmoil surrounding me tries to make me feel helpless. Like my situation is hopeless and out of my control. It’s not true. If there’s one thing my situation is teaching me, it’s that I can lose control of almost every aspect of my life except my attitude and my freedom to choose. I choose to get up each morning. I choose how to face each day. I choose to be positive or negative. I choose to keep going or to give up. Which reminds me of an old dry well and a wise old mule. You see there was a farmer that had an abandoned well on his property. Though the well had been dry for years, all he’d ever done to close it up was throw some boards over it. Well, as luck would have it, one day his old mule wandered over those rickety boards and Crash! Down she went. Incredibly, the fall didn’t kill her, but it definitely scared the bajeezes out of her and her brays attracted the attention of the whole farm. Everyone came running. Initially pleased that she had survived the fall, their joy slowly turned to despair as their attempts to rescue her failed one after another and they slowly ran out of ideas. Finally, the farmer made the difficult decision that they would just have to bury her right there in the well. He gathered his neighbors and they went to work. Of course, as the first shovelfuls of dirt landed on her back, that poor old mule’s cries intensified, but as the farmer and his neighbors continued; her cries slowly faded and were finally silenced. Amidst sadness and tears, they continued their work and it was some time later that the farmer thought he heard something. It was the sound of shuffling, and it was coming from inside the well. He stopped his work and, while the others continued, leaned over to look into the well. To his astonishment, there was the old mule! She was much higher now and his curiosity about why she wasn’t buried compelled him to watch as his neighbors continued. As each shovelful of dirt landed on the old mule’s back, she would shake it off, take a step up and be closer to the surface. Eventually the level of the dirt that was supposed to bury her was high enough that she simply stepped out of the well and walked off. Like the farmer’s old mule wandered over that hidden well, I’ve made mistakes and find myself in a deep hole from which no one can save me. In my situation, I’m faced with choices. I can give in to my depression and discouragement and simply stand idle while the problems and challenges heap up and bury me. I can panic amidst the challenges thrown down on me and waste huge amounts of energy throwing myself against the walls or trying to claw my way out until I’m exhausted, bloodied and beaten. Or, I can get a little mule sense and do everything in my power to stay calm, fight back my fear and doubt and confront the challenges before me with a clear head. Instead of being overwhelmed by the enormity of my problems as a whole, I take each shovelful as it comes, shake it off, learn how to rise above it, and then use my new knowledge to take a step up. With each problem I overcome, I find myself rising higher and drawing closer to the top of my own dry well. Shaking off future challenges is less difficult as my confidence grows from my successes, and eventually I’ll reach the surface and regain my freedom. There may be someone who can just lift me out, but if that’s the way I make my escape, this hole will remain and I will have gained little knowledge of how to avoid it in the future or how to get myself out when I fall in again. I want this hole filled in, which means I have to overcome these challenges on my own so this particular dry well will no longer be a risk to me. I want to remember the lessons I’m learning. The knowledge and experience I’m gaining by shaking off and overcoming the problems and struggles heaped on me in this hole will make it far less likely for me to fall into the same hole again. Garret Gillespie no 8:41 http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2009/08/the-fight-of-your-life/ http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2009/08/the-fight-of-your-life/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:14:45 +0000 Garret http://garretgillespie.com/blog/?p=200 http://garretgillespie.com/blog/2009/08/the-fight-of-your-life/feed/ 7 101st Airborne Division,Abraham Lincoln,Darcy Andries,Diabetes,Fight,John Sarkett,Life,Success,Thomas Edison I’m flying down to my hometown, Phoenix, this weekend. I’ll be saying goodbye to my sister. At 53, her body is wasted by a lifelong battle with diabetes. Miraculous kidney transplants have carried her nearly a decade beyond her predicted life expectanc... I’m flying down to my hometown, Phoenix, this weekend. I’ll be saying goodbye to my sister. At 53, her body is wasted by a lifelong battle with diabetes. Miraculous kidney transplants have carried her nearly a decade beyond her predicted life expectancy, but her strength is exhausted and she’s too weak to be on the list for another. She’s tired of the dialysis roller coaster, and ready to concede her battle to the disease brought on by a pancreas that couldn’t keep up. I’m awed by the fight she has waged, and I can’t fathom what she and her dear husband must be going through in making this decision. Soon her fight will come to an end and the disease will have won…or will it? She’s beaten the odds for her life expectancy; she’s touched countless numbers of lives for good; she’s been at death’s door more times than I can remember, each time fighting back to have a little more time with her husband and family. Many times and in many ways she has cowed this disease that has slowly deteriorated her body. For that I consider her victorious in the fight of her life. And she leaves on her own terms… How are you doing? I was in a class recently and the teacher shared an experience that got me thinking. He described conversations he had engaged in with a couple of close friends.  During the course of the conversations, each of his friends shared that they were giving up on goals or commitments they had made to themselves or to others with the explanation that “they are just tired of fighting.” They’re just tired of fighting. Of course, they also could’ve said they’re just tired of growing; or climbing; or improving; or learning; or changing. Sadly, few of us ever have the pleasure of knowing when our “fight” is going to be over. One of life’s most daunting mysteries is that the future remains unknown until we arrive. Our challenge is to keep fighting; learning; increasing, with no knowledge of how much time we’ll be given, or how long our fight will go on. Often, even the desired objective changes in the midst of the fight. There’s a billboard along the highway near my home displaying an image of Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President and one of the greatest leaders who has ever lived. Written beside his image are the words, “Failed, failed, failed, and then…” Do you think he ever got tired of fighting? According to John A. Sarkett, in Extraordinary Comebacks, and Darcy Andries, in The Secret of Success is Not a Secret, Abraham Lincoln could have decided he was tired of fighting after the death of his fiancée Ann Rutledge, or after his first or second dry goods store failed. He could have decided he was tired of fighting when he was defeated in his bids for Speaker of the House of Representatives, for the U.S. Senate, for Vice President, and again for the Senate. Instead, he chose to fight on. And how grateful we are that his “greatest concern (was) not whether (he had) failed, but whether (he became) content with (his) failure.” Which failure do you think should have given him enough reason to be tired of fighting? Almost a century later, on December 17th, 1944 the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division joined the Battle of the Bulge arriving in the city of Bastogne ahead of German forces. The 101st formed a perimeter around the city and withstood German artillery with minimal supplies and with many members of the division having been deployed so quickly they arrived without winter clothes. On the fifth day of the siege, the German artillery barrage paused and two German Officers delivered a letter from the German Commander, Generalleutnant Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz, requesting the surrender of Bastogne. Acting commander, General Anthony McAuliffe’s single word response was “Nuts!” In the end the 101st held Bastogne until reinforcements arrived never allowing it to fall into enemy hands. At what point do you think they were tired of fighting? Another half century later, Garret Gillespie no 7:42