I guess there is no choice but to look back at New Year's. It was a very eventful year for Katrina and I. We lost her father, Sonny, in May. We opened our own business. I left a company I had been with for 9 1/2 years. We sold our home in Clayton and bought a house at the beach.
We attempted the retired life and now I am set to start a new job with a new company, in a week. We close on a new house in Goldsboro at about the same time. In the middle of all that, someone stole our travel trailer, so we got to experience what the world of theft and insurance was like.
Lots of stuff. If you live a boring life, you are either on life support or living under a rock. You cannot live a life interacting with people and not be entertained, at the very least. Life is a river, and if you can't figure out how to float on it next to the beer cooler, you can get very, very depressed. I am not depressed.
There is nothing good about losing someone that you love. That pain never goes away completely, it just gets easier to maneuver around. But, the other changes in our life have ended up for the best.
The salon, Kreative Looks, has been a wonderful adventure. Neither Katrina nor I have ever owned our own business before. Honestly, never thought that I would. But, now we do, and it has been a great experience. Wonderful people, the best people, and a great time. You could find it intimidating and nerve wracking, but we have just enjoyed it all. It has not all been easy, nor have we done it all correctly, but we have had the time of our life doing it.
I deserved to leave the position I was in at the start of 2016. After 5 years of being in the same position, only the boss changing, and with a raft of really significant upper management changes and bad business decisions at the corporate level, it was time to move on. My life experience had never given me any experience at that situation. You did not get to choose to leave a ship that was headed to a bad place in the Navy. You were stuck for the journey until rotation time or EOS. And, I was stuck in plenty of situations that made it a painful wait for rotation and EOS.
I just kind of thought, if you hunker down and wait, eventually it gets better. What I discovered is that when your boss has no sense of your value, you have no value. And, waiting will not increase your value. All it does is make you stressed, angry and can make you bitter if you are not careful. It is nothing personal, just business. But, waiting makes you take it personal, and that gets bad for your health, physically and mentally.
So, after stating my case, when it was clear that I was waiting for something that was not going to come, and I was never going to have significant worth in my boss' eyes, regardless of what title or job they dreamed up for me, I stopped waiting. Again, business life is business. I like all the people involved personally, would give them the shirt off my back if they asked. But, because it is business, you have to be able to calculate your own business profile with some detachment. I think the organization made a big error, but that is opinion. Facts were facts and it was me change, or just accept it for the rest of my working life there.
I will be starting a whole new chapter. Felt healthy and at peace for the first time in a year, when I turned in all my crap and left the property for good. I think you should take commitment seriously, and my word is very important. But, only when it is respected and appreciated. When it is not, then it is a slow kind of cancer on your psyche. No one should put up with it. My parents drilled into me that you did not walk away from a good job, good benefits, security for your family. Except I watched my father do it over and over again, when he felt like he was not respected.
"I can go get a damn job, that is no problem son. What I won't put up with is any son of a bitch treating me like I don't matter. When that happens, Joe Hill is going to pack up his tools and hit the highway."
I heard it when he left Guy's, when he left Ritter's, when he left Barnes and several times at Farrish, though he never really left there until the cancer made him retire. I don't know why I did not actually understand what he was saying until 30 years later and years of stress. I guess I am just dense at times. But, when I finally get it figured out, I don't waste any time.
So, my first take away from 2016, you better listen to your inner voice of worth and appreciation. If you are not getting it, things are not going to get better until you change. When I changed and said I was not going to take it anymore, and got told to just wait some more, and that I was a stupid waste of time, made the decisions simple and clear. I have not regretted it an instant. I can get a job, that is no problem. What I won't, and you shouldn't, put up with is any son of a bitch that treats you like you don't matter. You get one life in this life, live it like it matters.
We have had an eventful 4 months since I left Novo. Whew. We have sold our home, that was not on the market when we got a contract for it. We bought a house at the beach, that has been a true blessing. We moved and spent the last 60 days up and down I95 and I40, taking care of the salon and trying to do it living in Myrtle Beach. Yeah, that plan was a bad one. It didn't work.
So, next week, I start a new job, in a new industry. We will see if my old tricks have the same impact in a new place. We are getting ready to close on a new house here in Goldsboro. It is the exact opposite of what we set out to find. Originally, we were just going to move into an apartment, no maintenance, landlord to fix everything, just enjoy. Then, it got to be obvious that the smart financial move with the relocation package was to buy a house. So we started looking around on our own. The relo package required me to wait until the relo company got an agent to contact me, so we were just driving around on our own, looking for new house signs.
We had decided to try to find a brand new home. Neither of us has ever bought one. It would be available immediately for closing and we would not inherit anybody's past problems. We kind of liked the thought of getting to be the past problems for someone else. We looked at small homes, it is just the two of us. But, we drove into a neighborhood having a neighborhood open house. We went into 211 first, because it was the first one open. It felt right. It is huge, I have no idea what we will do with all the rooms, but it felt right. We went into 15 more houses, but none of them felt as good as the biggest one we went into.
At this point, I have given up with what I think I want. I am just working hard to live with what I get from God. While everyone else in the world seems to find that 2016 was a "bad" year, I can't. I did not like the political stuff. But, then, who ever does, all the time? I felt bad for all the people we lost, in the family, and in the public eye. But, every year brings losses and sorrows. The only time that changes is when you are finally one of the lost.
We had tremendous change from the start of 2016 to the end. I am happier today than I was on January 1, 2016. I was happier then, than I was on January 1, 2015. I am pretty sure I will be happier 365 days from today. I am married to a woman that makes the world happier for me every.single.day. I am blessed.
While there are things that were very difficult about 2016, and times that were sorrowful and confusing, never once did Katrina or I face those times with fear. We had concerns, and times when we were burdened. But, we have not been afraid. We know, without doubt, that we are blessed and favored by God. Not because we deserve it or earned it or bought it. But, because we accept it, and treasure it. Nothing will ever be able to stop that.
So, Happy New Year! It is. Next year's will be even happier. Don't look back to confirm how bad the days were. Look back to accept that change is inevitable, and the whole scale is for the better. I do not know where this New Year finds you. But, if you feel like you are in a ditch, put some time in prayer and just start climbing. Put your faith in God's grace, and protection. You will soon discover that it was not a ditch at all, and that God never let you fall further than He held you. No matter how bad, how rough or how deep the trouble you have found is, God has a ladder tall enough to get you out of it.
And, if you count your blessings, instead of your curses, it is a much easier climb. Blessings are like elevators up out of your hole. Curses are like other people's bricks in a backpack you carry on the ladder. I prefer elevators to ladders, and I don't carry anyone else's bricks.
It is a beautiful dawn, and a beautiful day. Hope life finds you enjoying 2017. And if it doesn't, I hope you decide to make the change and find the joy in it. That is entirely up to you. And, in 365 I pray that you found the way to accept the blessings of God. You will be amazed at how many and how fast they come, if they become what you focus on. Peace.
