Today

A while ago, like 10 years, all I wanted to be was one of two things; either a professional baseball player or a professional fisherman. Believe it or not, both of these were very possible, of my friends from ten years ago, some are professional baseball players and some are professional fisherman, and none of them, ten years ago, were any better at those things than I was.
When neither of those dreams came to fruition I changed my mind, I would just get really rich, retire by the age of twenty-five, and fun-fish everyday. This is about the time I moved to Gainesville and college. Sometime between those two things I decided that retiring at twenty-five and fun-fishing every day would be selfish, so I decided on the opposite; I would become a missionary. I got really excited about this. I spent two summers in Ecuador and absolutely loved it. I got to spend a lot of time getting to know local people there and learning practical ways to help them (this is what led me to pursue aquaculture). Also during this time something else was going on, I was falling and being in love with Valerie. I think sometime in the course of my undergraduate education I realized that maybe I didn't exactly know what I was going to end up being.
Although people close to me may have thought I had my life plan figured out, that was just because I talked about it a lot. In reality I was certain that I would just pursue whatever ended up landing in my lap. Really i think this is what leads most people to what they do next. I was offered the chance to go to Ecuador those two summers, so I went. Through circumstances with figuring out my thesis project, I began a project that was abstractly related to the missionary field, but not very closely related. From there I decided I would become a fish farmer. Valerie and I would make enough money to support YoungLife in Gainesville. This was the new plan, and throughout the first year to year and a half of my master's program, I obsessed about a couple of things, finding a farm, and farming fish there. Shortly after that it changed to less adventurous ventures, like finding a house in Gainesville we like and my being some sort of high school teacher/inspired writer and citizen. Recently it has all changed again...I want to start a microbrewery with my friends Jon and Steve.

Why mention all of this? Well, mainly to make the following point: This whole time I have been worried about the future, and it has stemmed from a discontentedness with the present. This hasn't been an utter discontentedness, but one that allowed me to be just a little unhappy with the present.
I think a lot of people are probably very similar to this. I know for me it is probably what leads to complaining, stress, impatience with day to day things, etc. There are a few people who seem to me like they are content with their lot in the healthiest way, and this is either because of, or it leads to, an utter appreciation for what they have and what they already do. The first few people that come to mind are my Brother-in-law Dan, and my Grandpa and Grandma. Dan really knows how to appreciate what he has to do today, and in turn he probably ends up enjoying today a whole lot more than if he was unhappy with his lot. At least this is how he seems to me.

Last night all of this finally hit me like a ton of bricks. By all this, I mean everything that I have. I won't list it all because I already have and it really isn't that important for you to read. I guess my encouragement to anyone reading this is that it is really important to assess the lot you've got; your job, your wife if you have one, your home, clothes, food, comfort, town, the weather, people who care about you and so on. Man I can get so distracted from the present because of discontentedness. I think if we could realize what security and blessings we have, we would be able to pay so much more attention to where we are today and what we're doing; and I think that would change the way we deal with other people, the way we take care of the environment, how faithful we are to our jobs and families. I think it would effect every aspect of our life.

Remember when Wayne was so stuck on making their show a really big hit and winning over Cassandra? Well, I think Garth summed up the problem pretty well when he said, "live in the now!"