Life is Good

Hey all,

First, the photos:




(don't forget to double click on the photos and you can see the detail)

This was the awesome house we stayed at for the first leg of our trip. Front of the house, what you see when you walk in, the deck and the view from the deck. The last one is the picture of the back of the house.

We did some boating. We did some hiking. I can't believe how much I loved it. Mainly I loved the weather. My assistant has a daughter that lives in New Jersey and she said it was 102 there!

But in the mountains, the weather was so beautiful. Oh and here is one of the sunsets:


And I know I told you how I started my Mountain House Fund, but since that time I started thinking (I know, this is very dangerous). It all started at a clothing store. You see we did a lot of driving around.

People would tell us, "Oh, you have to go and see this town." This town that we went to was really quaint. We did some shopping. And we went into a store that sold Life Is Good clothing.

And since I have been in this store I haven't been able to stop thinking that Life is Good. Not about the clothing but the reality of how good life is. I look at my kids every day and say to myself.....Life is good. I look at my marriage and how much my wife loves me (in spite of me) and I say to myself....Life is good.

I come to work and I think about what I have and say to myself....Life is good.
(Of course we all wish it was a bit busier but really it is pretty good. We work in air conditioning. We have a job that affords us to do lots of things, see above photos, we work with nice people... Come on, you know it is good).

I look at my house and my neighbors, my church, my friends and say to myself....Life is good.

I have to admit that I think for the last month or so worth of blogs have been talking about me not realizing how good I have it. I definitely have contentment issues.

I know we all are wired to want more. We fight our way through undergraduate because we want to go on. We fight our way through dental school so we can move on to bigger and better things. We get into practice and there it starts. We start to build. But for me, it seems, the quest has only begun.

We are wired to want more. But when does it end?

I have heard and always try to think back to it..."No one ever wins the rat race."
We work our butts off so we can have more? But is that it? I just told you that I have a great family, house, office, and I work with nice people. What is in me that always wants more?

Why can't I just look at my life and relax. I am writing this and I can feel my shoulders tense. I can never just sit and take a big sigh and say, "Yeah, this is all good."

I want, I want, I want. I want bigger stuff. I want more stuff. I want bigger and more and I want it faster.

I think it sucks that I have this personality. SEE? There it is again. I am not even happy with my own personality. I even want a better personality.

I don't really have an answer but... If I really think about it and (I wasn't going to go here but it is the only explanation I can think of) I don't mean to get all God all over you but I think He made us this way.

He made us want more.
He made us want more than what earth can give us.
He made us want more than money can give us.
He made us want more than one house can give us.
He made us to want heaven.

Nothing can fill this want void.

I had heard once that someone asked Rockefeller, "How much is enough?" And he responded, "Just a little bit more."

That is kind of sad isn't? That we work and work to get more and then when we get more, but it doesn't satisfy.

Sorry about all this but I have been dealing with it so now you have to deal with it. It seems that I may once get that mountain home but it is probably not going to satisfy me. I guess I will just want a bigger mountain home. Another thing that I am going to ask God about when I get to heaven. I hope I will be able to just sit, relax, sigh and say, "Life is good."

Do you have contentment issues? Or are you able to sit in your back yard and sigh saying, "life is good?"