Love Never Dies, a tribute to children taken too soon.

My friend, Mr. David Wright, wrote this poem in tribute to two young children who died in a tragic house fire in La Porte, Texas last Sunday.  I wish their family and friends all the love, time, and support they need to heal.

"Love Never Dies"

This can't be real, It isn't just denial.

I can still hear you laughing, I can still see your smile.

There's no way you can be gone, you were just right there.

This morning I hear birds singing, I see the wind in your hair.

How can this happen to such precious little souls

To never fulfill their dreams, to never reach their goals.

Like a thief in the night You tore our lives apart.

Left our community weeping, and full of broken hearts.

Just give me one more chance to roll back the hands of time.

Get me up so I can get them out then everything would be just fine.

Please give them back, they deserve so many more years.

It would be so easy to mend the broken hearts, and wipe away all these tears.

Today is weighing heavy, I'm not sure I can last.

Trying to fight back the tears, but my strength is fading fast.

I turn to go to work, but sorrow replaces my cares.

Overwhelmed by the vision of a charred home, Balloons and Teddy Bears.

God has called two angels to be with Him in a better place.

Our lives must move on, but we will never forget your face.

There will be many long days "without you my friend."

"And I'll tell you all about it when I see you again."

-David L. Wright, Jr.

Simper Fidelis

One goal bucket lists.

Every new year one of my best friends e-mails me a list of her goals for the year, but these aren't just your standard lose-weight, eat-well, live-meaningfully goals you see on the fronts of self-help magazines while you're waiting in line at the grocery store.  These goals are a do-in-case-I-die-this-year list of learning adventures.  There are 50 of them every year, and with each new list comes an accounting of how many of last year's adventures were achieved.  There is no hard and fast rule that goals cannot be repeated from year to year, but it is understood that they should not be--as that means the goal was probably bad to begin with in the sense that it wasn't interesting enough, or realistically achievable, etc.  That isn't to say these goals have to be sane or practical, but they should be motivating and achievable by you, within the year.  I think the purpose is to push yourself a little outside of your comfort zone, with all the right protective safety gear in use, of course.

Climbing Mt. Wheeler in Great Basin National Park

But the really interesting thing about these lists is that each item in every list all really serve one goal:

Find joy through continuously living multiple learning adventures.

Even when an experience on the list turns out to really suck, like learning how to vaccinate an ostrich say... that experience usually generates some joyfully absurd stories and lessons for approaching the next learning endeavor, like always pack baby wipes and tampons because they're good at cleaning ostrich crap off puncture wounds and stopping the bleeding in the middle of nowhere.  Oh, and bourbon never hurts either.
So in that spirit I challenge you to come up with a one goal bucket list--what learning adventures must you do or risk dying unhappy without?
And in case you need help, I give you some personal past examples:

• Write a novel.
• Write a song.
• Get certified to dive and go diving with my wife.
• Learn how goat cheese is made.
• Infuse tequila.
• Play rugby.
• Bicycle Ireland with my best friend.
• Be the first one on the dance floor.
• Climb a real rock, outside.
• Take a picture with a pelican (the getting bit was unexpected!)
• Get greasy helping restore an old truck.
• Land a flight simulator (without puking).
  
   

And even if you don't accomplish a single goal, even if all you ever do is talk about them and dream them up with someone you love...then I can tell you from experience, you've already served the one real goal of your bucket list by finding joy in learning to make your list of learning adventures.

So what will you do?  Feel free to give me ideas for next year!

Hot off the presses! My new book is available now!

Kat and Rand’s daily worlds are 2,100 miles apart, but something about their meeting on the magical shores of the nation’s oldest national park east of the Mississippi sparks questions that neither woman can just walk away from without answering. Sometimes chance brings you to the right person to help you resolve some of your baggage, and you learn to like yourself a little more. Kat and Rand are smart enough to recognize this chance in each other, but they also find that there is a catch to every opportunity—walking toward something is always walking away from something else. To read Chapter 1, click here.

To buy it directly from the publisher in any eBook format visit:
http://affinityebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_book_info&cPath=1&products_id=212

To buy it from Smashwords in any eBook format visit:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/539615

To buy it from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Away-Lacey-Schmidt-ebook/dp/B00WYN2J1O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430482088&sr=8-1&keywords=A+walk+away+lacey+schmidt

More retailers coming soon...