One of the best things about being stranded in the treehouse and surrounded by 180 acres of Mother Nature’s finest is that there is plenty of time for reading. With only two television stations and a “high speed” internet connection that is too slow to stream video, I’m spending some much needed quality time tackling my summer reading.
I’m currently plowing my way through three really great books: Your Erroneous Zones, Biocentrism – and a blog buddy recommendation, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart. Most of us can relate to the premise of being “too soon old” and “too late smart”. Even looking back on my relatively short life, there are a number of things I know now that would have come in handy when I was younger.
Since it’s impractical to turn back the imagined hands of time (yes, time is an illusion), the best we can do is hope to impart our wisdom on others. We can scatter seeds of truth and hope they grow – an exercise done, perhaps, in vain as so many of us need to learn the hard way.
Nonetheless, with my parents visiting the treehouse for the weekend, I took advantage of their presence by asking them, “What wisdom would you like to share with the younger generations?” My mom was quick to remind me that her book would be more appropriately titled, Too Soon Fat, Too Late Sober. New title aside, her truth is as follows: Take risks and step outside your comfort zone. She learned this because she took very few with her own life. She’s very comfortable, but in a way that stunted her potential. And if she were doing things all over again, she wishes that she would have spread her wings and flown a little more – and a little higher.
My dad, after a few moments of thinking, reflected that each and every day is very important. When you’re young, you feel like you’ll live for ever – the days just keep coming. But when you’re older, you soon realize that the end is, in fact, quite near and fast approaching. “So long as the sun rises,” he said, “it is a good day.”
Words to live by.
What kernel of wisdom would you like to share with the generations after you? Share it in the comments below!
August 20, 2010 at 9:54 am
Be gay all the way lol woo, on a more serious note haha, i would say treasure those who treasure you, and remember that no matter what nice things you do, no matter how small, they will seem like the world to someone.
August 20, 2010 at 10:04 am
This too shall pass!
August 20, 2010 at 10:43 am
I follow the mantra: Live Simply, Travel Often, Learn Continuously. And thanks for putting up a picture from Hy-Vee. It is the best grocery store and supermarket Chinese place!
August 20, 2010 at 10:44 am
Don’t invest energy in jealousy, hate and regrets. Like a fire the more you give the more they consume.
Take a chance on people. Just because they are not a normal friend, have different interests, or don’t meet your dating criteria does not mean they can’t brighten your life.
Lastly love more, love more often, and love unselfishly. It can grow and be the greatest comfort and expression of your life.
Peace to you all,
T
August 20, 2010 at 10:47 am
I am what I am because of who we all are. You can’t be human all by yourself you need Ubuntu.
August 20, 2010 at 10:51 am
Sounds like you have some very wonderful parents. Your moms re-title made me laugh. Words of wisdom for sure.
August 20, 2010 at 11:14 am
i would have to say “take EVERYTHING in life with a grain of salt, NOTHING is worth wasting energy worrying about it”
August 20, 2010 at 11:17 am
Being who you are is better than being what people want you to be. Individuality is far more important than fitting in.
August 20, 2010 at 11:21 am
“What’s worth doing, is worth doing well.” My grandfather used to say this over and over when I was a kid. It’s true.
August 20, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Better to regret taking a few of the steps of your journey. Than to never have taken a step out the door in the first place.
August 20, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Oh wow. I am so happy your liking the book I told you about Davey!!
My entire face is red my goodness!
I would like to share;
“absence really does make the heart grow fonder.”
Like you have said yourself in your videos Davey. clingy is not the best policy. I have made that mistake more than a few times in my past. and it has led to me being even more upset than I should have been
August 20, 2010 at 1:03 pm
the man who sweats the most in practice bleeds the least in battle
August 20, 2010 at 1:05 pm
While forgiving others, remember to forgive yourself, too.
August 20, 2010 at 1:58 pm
“whats the point of living life if its not your life your living?”
I obviously mean live the life you want to live and not the life others want for you because in the end its going to make you happy
August 20, 2010 at 2:04 pm
what I always wonder is why so many people start feeling old at the age of 27 – 30 (not talking about you davey but in general).
when you already start thinking you are old after you’ve only completed 1/3 (or seeing the rising life expectancy even only 1/4) of your life span, that’s a bit early, don’t you think? You might start thinking that specific actions would be inappropriate at your age but come on, 30?!? that’s f*****g young in my opinion! (and I am saying this though I myself am even younger). yes you can allow yourself to be childish at 30. and yes it is totally ok to not yet have setteled down at that age. and it still is at the age of 40! Stop feeling old when you could just as easily still feel young cause f*****g Hell, you ARE young! (think about a day at which you are awake from eight till midnight. at 1:30pm you are nowhere near thinking the day is nearly over!! on the contrary, it’s still pretty young. you can start thinking about what you will dream about when you sleep around 10pm.)
August 20, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Don’t try to out run time. Run alongside it.
August 20, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Oooo.. This is a really great thread… There are so many wisdoms out there, i think all is great.
What i can share is that you can never regret on the mistakes you make, or else you’ll never learn from them.
It’s simple but honest truth, it’s true. I have abused drugs and im 3 months clean (whoo). I had an addiction with all sorts of drugs. It came to the point one day where i OD and it really changed my life. I did make a mistake and learned it the hard way, but since i learned from what i did, i don’t want to go down that road anymore.. I changed. Im going back to school and i’m bettering myself.
August 20, 2010 at 3:41 pm
I live life by a mantra you gave me: “If life gives you lemons, find a friend with vodka and throw a party!” In my mind that means to not ever take life too seriously. If you do, you’ll never have the time to enjoy the simple pleasures life gives out.
As for a piece of wisdom that I learned and am now living by everyday: “Don’t be afraid of the possibilities life gives out and take risks. It doesn’t matter if you fail, for without failure, there is no such thing as success.”
And here’s another one: “Don’t be afraid to be yourself.” I spent way too many years thinking about what other people thought, but when I took a step back and thought, “Why the f**k do I care so much?” everything in life seemed to go much smoother for me.
August 20, 2010 at 7:20 pm
your mother is a very wise woman! x
August 20, 2010 at 7:40 pm
wisdom…
1. dont get ahead of yourself..
2. dont sweat the small stuff..
3. things dont happen till they do..
4. its not their fault if they dont live up to your expectations.. after all, the expectations are yours, not theirs..
- cheers… david
August 20, 2010 at 10:17 pm
So true. I also like, “If you don’t have the time to do it right the first time, where are you going to find the time to do it over again.”
August 20, 2010 at 10:24 pm
When I was really young, I worked in a small shop for a 70-year-old guy who had retired from his regular career and mostly he didn’t seem old at all. Sometimes he looked old, but when he got excited about a project he looked young again. Most every day for him was a new challenge and he had the energy for it. I remember he was building a darkroom in his home so he could take up photography. It was a good lesson for me.
August 20, 2010 at 11:36 pm
I like the one that Joan Rivers recently said in an interview: “If you see a door [opportunity] open, walk through it!” I have some other words of wisdom that I’ve developed over the years on my blog wwww.AClearForestPath.com that have really helped me out over the years. I’m a school teacher and have devoted my life to helping people and the blog is an extension of that.
August 21, 2010 at 12:14 am
When I started out as a life coach, I distinguished my coaching philosophy and called it Mosaic Life – Your life by your design. I developed the philosophy based upon my experience of life and it has served me and my clients well over the past year since I started coaching.
Basically, in the past I saw my life as some magnificent thing that had been shattered by the events and occurrences along its path. When my mom died, for example, my life shattered. I always thought that in order to be happy I had to get my life back to how it was supposed to be. This pursuit made me terribly unhappy because it had no possibility for success. Life changes. Nothing is guaranteed.
I learned that life was never meant to be any particular way. I was never supposed to have a mom for my whole life.
If I saw my life as shattered and if I knew I could never restore it to what it was meant to be, I could certainly create from all its pieces whatever I wanted for myself. Just like making a mosaic out of shards of glass or pottery.
When I was really able to embrace my life for what it was I discovered that I could create whatever I wanted because I wasn’t wasting time resisting whatever was going on. And since then I’ve come to realize that when I truly engage myself in having my life be however I want it to be I get so much more out of it than I ever thought possible.
I advise each of you to embrace every part of your lives whether you like them or not. Accept them for whatever they are and learn to be with them and not resist. Then you can spend your time and efforts creating whatever you want for yourself and for your life rather than resisting what’s so.
I’d also like to include a few quotes from more eloquent people than I:
Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. — Goethe
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. — Howard Thurman
What we leave behind is not nearly as important as how we’ve lived. — Cpt. Jean Luc Picard
August 21, 2010 at 1:01 am
Thank you Davey, both your parents have a great philophy of life and great advices..i’ll take them for myself..wich is nice is that they are very complementary advices in different perspectives..Thnak you all and Mosaic dave..loved your comentary, i read not so far ago…that more you push people more they resist you have to pull them…it works for ourself with our own life…
August 21, 2010 at 1:15 am
Davey your so hot and informitive i would love to meet you.
August 21, 2010 at 1:20 am
Davey, you should also read The Art of Racing in the Rain. It’s a wonderful book about a family, from the perspective of a dog. It is so very insightful and a must read for any dog lover.
August 21, 2010 at 2:18 am
Who is the author?
August 21, 2010 at 2:38 am
reading all the posts – i realized that davey’s readers are a similar type of people. we should have a dw fan club and meet up
August 21, 2010 at 8:35 am
Everyone makes mistakes, though you may think some don’t. Forget the mistake but, remember the leason it taught you. Dwelling on the mistake serves no purpose, except it and KEEP MOVING FORWARD !
August 21, 2010 at 8:38 am
Sorry for the bad spelling !
August 21, 2010 at 9:29 am
Remember somebody loves you and that love is to be cherished!
August 21, 2010 at 9:43 am
I’ve learned that you are in control of how you feel. As the wise WWE fellow said, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional (oh, maybe that was the Buddha. Same, same). I’ve finally decided that I’d rather be happy than miserable. So I look at the world in a different way. I care more about beauty than ugliness, more about hope than despair, more about accepting than rejecting. It isn’t hard at all, it’s just a change in the direction of your eyes and heart. When I seek things out, I seek to see what is working and who is helping, instead of who is obstructing and who is a moldering pile of s**t (I still have my moments). It doesn’t change your involvement with the world or your commitments. Only the attitude – the heart and soul – with which you do them.
Blessings of peace to you this beautiful day……………
August 21, 2010 at 9:55 am
First enjoy your parents this weekend. They are your gift. Second, I love you and you know that. Third here is my kernel to the next generation. Itay have religious overtones so please don’t stone me for sharing. ” Keep looking up, that way you avoid the seagulls in life .”
August 21, 2010 at 11:04 am
Yeah, rolling back the clock to undo one’s mistakes that have blunted and blighted one’s life would be a wonderful possibility. I would have changed the way that I interacted with one of my boyfriends, whom I could have had as a long-time lover and companion, if I had not been so insensitive to his need to see more of me. THAT I would try to undo by giving as much of my free time — cuddling and f*****g, and everhthing else — as I could.
But I didn’t. I lost him. Rats!
Pax, Jerry Parker
August 21, 2010 at 12:58 pm
A vry old monk once told me: “Do what you CAN do, not what you can’t do.”
He added, “Pray as you CAN pray, not as you can’t pray.”
I asked him if it was true, “Love as you CAN love, not as you can’t love?” The monk just smiled with a twinkle in his eye. He had to say no more.
I’ve tried to follow each way. I’ve come to realize that my bf, lover or sex buddy must be accepted for “what they can do” at any present moment. And you know what? We discover over time that we can both do what we can do, be so relaxed with each other that love and sex become more passionate.
August 21, 2010 at 1:55 pm
Wow! TV and computer in your tree house? Have you considered going to the tree with books, clothing, food and a toothbrush only? You might find the experiences even more enlightening than the ones you get with all that AC power or batteries.
August 21, 2010 at 3:57 pm
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.
August 21, 2010 at 4:20 pm
What a wise monk. He shared what we should all take to heart and live by each day.
August 22, 2010 at 10:05 am
This made me smile. When I was a kid, I used to visit my grandparents at their summer cottage on a lake in Wisconsin. They had two signs with mottoes on them: “Too soon oldt, und too late schmart” (they were German!) — the “too soon old, too late smart” you are talking about; and “Even a fish wouldn’t get into trouble if he kept his mouth shut!” I’ve thought of both of those sayings over the years as wisdom to live by!
August 22, 2010 at 10:07 am
If you’re “too soon old, and too late smart”, it could be because of a bad comparison and not looking at what you’ve been able to achieve as an individual.
As you’ve stated in your fitness blog, your progress is based on what you have for goals and what you’ve been able to achieve with your efforts.
I prefer to think that everyone makes progress, and what may be a slow start for one person’s perspective who was focused on one singular thing, may be fast progress for someone multitasking and achieving many goals at the same time.
Cheers! (You could always download the video’s and look at them later instead of streaming, and that gives you the advantage of seeing them more than once without having to wait until peak times are over. Keep the ones you like of course.)
August 23, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Best to take the moment present, as a present for the moment…
August 23, 2010 at 3:13 pm
It doesn’t matter what goes on, what happens or what doesn’t happen – everything is going to be ok always and forever
August 23, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Our little group of friends recently became acquainted with a new group of slightly younger friends. After a holiday weekend together, we, the “older” generation realized, that it is really important to share our life experience with the younger generation. And how awesome it is when they listen and appreciate and are grateful.
Sharing your life with people that care is a really great “O” for the soul.
August 23, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Claire, I love what you’ve written here! Sounds like you’ve had an awesome transformation!
October 11, 2010 at 2:55 am
God I love Hy-Vee.
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