tales of a part time pirate

The great sage Ferris once said: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

That’s so true, but what happens when life’s turns slow things down? Over the past few years I experienced a life “slowed down”, almost at a stand still. Uncertain of what directions things were going to move, not sure where and when I would land on my feet a lot of what is great about “living” kind of got put on hold.

A recent song by the Foo Fighters has truly struck a cord with me. Over the last year or so, I truly learned how to walk again, embrace not just life, but embrace the “act of living”… Enjoying everything there is about what makes this journey so enjoyable. Feeling the ups and downs, in all of their joy and pain.

After having an extended time where I found it incredibly difficult to get my career on track with steady work, working odd jobs and doing my best to always stay positive this particular song recently cried out to me the first time I heard it. I’m starting to move forward again, and not standing still.

Learning to walk again

I believe I’ve waited long enough

Where do I begin?

Learning to talk again

Can’t you see I’ve waited long enough

Where do I begin

Where do I begin? After putting many aspects of “living” on hold, and then finding yourself capable of doing more, where do you start? Well you begin by just putting one foot in front of the other, and soon you’ll be walkin’ cross the floor. That’s where I’m at now, but “living” has changed, the past few years have given me a different perspective on what’s important and what’s not, at least in my world. It’s those decisions now that are helping to determine where the next “first steps” will take me.

One line from the song in particular strikes a chord. “I never want to die”… Initially it isn’t the most pleasant of lyrics. I don’t hear them sing that though when I listen to the song. I hear “I never want to stop living!”… That’s a new montra that I’m going to try to never lose hold of, to never stop celebrating the moment, experience new things, and most importantly never stop loving.

Now fast forward to the present, it’s my birthday! (Yay me!) and I’ve recently celebrated my one year anniversary with my new job and I hope new career. It’s a fun time for me. Over the past year+ I’ve definitely seen a change in me for the better. I’ve allowed myself to start walking down that path of life and be a participant and not a wallflower. Have I made all of the right choices? Probably not, but that’s not the point, is it? It’s about allowing yourself to be out there and be in the game called Life… By learning to walk again I’ve remembered what it’s like to live, like I said earlier, it’s a fun time for me.

So, my recommendation to all of you is to never fall into a place where you allow life to get in the way of living…

Yeah, I’m what some might call, a sentimental…

(and is there a better time to post about being sentimental, than the Christmas Holiday season) I ain’t lyin’…

You might say one of the following ‘mental’s’ accurately describes you at different points and to different degrees:

• temperamental
• elemental
• compartmental
• incremental
• judgemental (ick-but we all are at different points)
• monumental
• just plain ‘mental’
• etc… you get the point

I think in reality most pirates have a sentimental side to them, treasuring things old and new, so long as they have some sort of value. Value is really a perception though, some things that are valued by some, are discarded by others as garbage. For me, I find tremendous value in friends and family and the memories associated with them. Pictures, oh how I love the old pictures that I’m lucky enough to possess. I’m sure I’ll chat about that sometime in the near future.

However, today I’m sharing something extra special. I am lucky enough to have in my possession an audio interview with my grandma done by my cousin Bruce. Of course there’s no earth shattering dirt that’s shared or old family sins revealed. What is there is a snapshot in time or one woman, her story, and it’s importance to me because in many ways it lead to the man I am today. So let me take you back to June 2nd, 1983. My cousin Bruce and my Grandma sitting alone having what she thought was just a conversation (the family still debates whether or not she knew she was being taped)

01 Grandma Obuch 1

02 Grandma Obuch 2

03 Grandma Obuch 3

04 Grandma Obuch 4

I love it, every time I listen to this. Not only because it gives me a chance to listen to my Grandma once again, but because it exists. I might never have know about where my Grandma was from, how she came to America or how she met my Grandpa. All amazing stories, at least to me.

After reflecting on this, I think my main goal of sharing this little treasure is to encourage each of you to do something similar if you are in a position to do so!

It’s truly an amazing gift to have this, and if one of you chooses to do the same and someone else in your ‘family circle’ happens to be a ‘sentimental’, like me, I promise you they will love having it.

So this part time pirate has actually shared a treasure, an uncharacteristic trait of most pirates I’m sure, but the best thing about it is that by sharing it, it becomes that much more valuable to me.

Life’s pretty good, and why wouldn’t it be? I’m a pirate, after all (at least part time)

Now that I’m hear I’m wondering what exactly I want to say.

Welcome to a new avenue for me to share some thoughts, pictures, events or anything else that doesn’t fit nicely into some of the other vehicles available to me (aka Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc). I think you get my point. I hope some people will get around to following this site, once I actually tell them about it, for now I think I’ll just poke around a bit, set up the page and let the events unfold as they will.

Life’s pretty good, and why wouldn’t it be? I’m a pirate, after all (at least part time)

a part time pirate