Thoughts

I think what appeals to me the most about a zombie apocalypse is the simplicity of it...

I don't know if I've ever shared the story of why I got into photography but, if I have, it will be interesting to compare the two versions to see if I'm lying...or just ignore the previous version. I took photography as an elective class my senior year in high school and can honestly say that it was the one and only class that I ever looked forward to in all of the years from K-12...

I was getting my haircut the other day and there was this mountain biking in the snow racing deal on. I'd never seen that. They were putting spikes in the tires and testing out the traction by running their hands over a spinning tire and...

I found out last week that my uncle died...a month ago. We hadn't spoken in about a year and the last time was him snapping at me about something I "should" do. The details are unimportant but it bothered me enough to avoid calling him..

"Does eat oats and goats eat oats but little lambs eat ivy,I would eat ivy too, wouldn't youuuu" I've been hearing my grams singing that in my head for days now. No idea why and decided to look it up this morning...

I suppose if I spent enough time thinking about it, I could figure out why I've always been so fascinated with blacksmithing but I don't think it's important. What's important to me is that I feel like I found my purpose...

"Your mind can only hold one thought at a time and there's nothing at all to be gained from being negative, so be positive." That's a rough quote from Earl Nightengale. I've been listening to his stuff on Youtube as suggested by that paradigm shift book. I've been hearing about positive thinking pretty much my entire life...as have you. The problem is, we're surrounded by negativity...

Motivation is fairly useless. Persistence, discipline, consistency...that's what you need. Motivation comes in short bursts but won't sustain you through anything worth doing. I've never run a marathon but I'd guess that motivation isn't what gets them through...

I really can't stand that phrase...it's right up there with "that's the way the cookie crumbles". I was hardwired from a young age to believe that life is a constant grind and that the majority of people just live paycheck to paycheck until the day they die and the majority of you reading this are likely thinking "yup"...

I loved Dragons when I was a kid. Wait...I guess dragon shouldn't be capitalized. Ah well, too late to change it. I guess that shows you how much I loved dragons. I'm not sure why I started thinking about this the other day, probably an age thing, but started wondering where my fascination with dragons came from and it became pretty damn obvious after I gave it one minute of thought...

Time is all we have and what we constantly don't have enough of. I hear it daily it seems. "Not enough time"...

This image of my dad was taken around 2012, can't remember exactly, but it was the first time I had gone to visit my Gramps' "marker". He was cremated so this is just a memorial type deal. I don't remember what year he died but it was way before this was taken. I'd never visited the marker because I had no idea it existed. The Lawson's deal with death in an interesting way and it seems to be genetic and possibly a carry over from the mid-west in the early 20th century. We kind of just ignore it. We know it's inevitable and we know its sucks but there's no use talking about it. In fact, there's not much use in talking about anything. Just sit on the rocker and let it happen how it's going to happen. It's been almost six years since cancer got my dad and in that six years it took two of my uncles and is about to take my younger cousin. She's only in her 40's and has been dealing with it for quite some time. Of course, "they" don't really have an answer as to the cause but "they" have no problem telling her that she only has a couple of months.  When I started formulating this post in my head last week, the focus was all about what caused it and how to possibly prevent it and to plead with you guys to stop consuming this and that but, as I started writing, the "Lawson" in me kicked in and I came to the conclusion that there's no use talking about it. I know that's not true. I'm one of the few Lawson's that has had therapy to deal with shit but I still like to take my sweet time. So, for now, all I have to say is FUCKKKKK cancer.

Is there such a thing? I could look it up I suppose. This morning I woke up early with the normal pangs of guilt that I feel pretty much daily and I came to the conclusion that it's the reason I'm plagued by wanting to help everyone somehow...

"What do you do?" I hate this question. I never know what to say. In fact, it bothers me so much that I may have already written a post about it but here's another one. This time, however, the thought took me in a different direction. Why do we ask that question? What are we even asking? Are we asking how the person pays their bills? Are we asking what the person is good at? What they enjoy doing?...

I'm starting to realize that I've been hobbling my dear wife. See what I did there? With the title and the photo? Clever, eh? Anyways...

In my latest newsletter, I mentioned something about always being behind schedule with production and a long time member of our little community sent an amazing article...

Over a year ago, my daughter was leaving to head back to college. As we hugged goodbye, she whispered in my ear, “please don’t drink anymore mom, please stop drinking.”  Her words were the exact words I would say to my dad as a little girl, a teenager, an adult...

"Customers" isn't the right term. I also don't care for "clients". "Community" is more like it but that starts to sounds cultish. I'm struggling with what to call you guys because you've become more than "customers". Some of you anyway, the rest need to earn it...kidding...

One of the lessons from my dad that I'll never forget but, apparently, never listen to was "10-15 is the max". That was his sweet spot for making a product. Once he got to around a dozen or so, he'd get bored with the design...

One of the most interesting challenges we faced during our recent move was losing our daily routine. It's bizarre to me how thrown off you can be when you can't find the kitchen knives or your daily meals are all over the place...