Belated New Year's Resolution

I'm home after several days with family enjoying the coast along Florida's panhandle. It was my plan to publish a couple of posts while I was there. I wrote quite a bit, but after reading what I'd written I decided it was all wrong. My attitude was bad, I had been fighting a painful medical issue for a week and a half, I was trying to pretend it wasn't bothering me so it wouldn't mess up the trip and all that really showed up in my writing. Combine that with the fact that I have a very old Dell laptop running Windows Abacus. It works fine for..., for..., it works fine for.... If you put a small blanket on it when it is plugged into the battery charger the dog loves to lay on it. Yeah, it works fine for that. Anyway, it was just better that I didn't try to publish anything.

But here it the best thing. After getting back home to Podunkville and spending a few days reflecting on (don't you hate it when someone says they're "reflecting back" on something?) the trip, I have come to an amazing realization. I believe I've had an "apostrophe". An awakening. I've identified a major problem. You want to know what it is? It is this; I've been trying to get away from things I don't like instead of trying to get to things I love.

I love saltwater, bays, seashores, and access to open water you only find along the coast. But I've allowed circumstances (that I really don't like) make me feel like a tourist the last few times I've been near it. Like the coast was only a place you get to see once a year. That is just plain stupid. I'm a Florida Cracker. I grew up less that 30 minutes from salt water and 45 minutes to the beach. I could always tell you where the speckled trout were biting, where you could get mullet with a cast net and where you could fill a quart jar with fresh bay scallops if you had a dive mask and some fins. We filled up ice chests with Florida lobsters and barracuda fillets every year in the keys, and camped, hunted, fished and boated from Apalachicola on the west coast to Matanzas inlet on the east.

If you live in Florida you are never more than about 50 to 55 miles from the coast and salt water. About an hours drive will get you there from anywhere in the state. It took me six and a half hours to get there. There is no excuse for that. I'll admit sitting on the beach looking out into open water, listening to the sound of the surf breaking on the shore and breathing in the smell of the coast is worth the drive. In fact, it's worth driving a lot further than that for the experience. But it doesn't make sense for someone who loves it as much as I do to have have to drive that far when it is in my ability to live closer to it. Why have I not seen this before like I'm clearly seeing it now? I used to call folks like me "eat up with the dumb ass".

In some of my recent posts I've talked about taking responsibility for your choices. Well "shazam", why am I not doing that to my potential? Because it's easier to preach it than do it that's why. Well, now it's my turn.

So after several days of self evaluation, consideration, thanksgiving and medication I've come up with a Belated New Year's Resolution; I'm going to put all I have into getting to where I want to be instead of blaming all the things I don't like for keeping me from getting there. I'm stating it publicly so I'll have witnesses. I want you to to hold me to this. Remind me of it. Ask me how the plan is working. Keep me accountable. I've wasted too much valuable time already. Lord willing I'm moving closer to the seashore. You know, come to think of it I think He may have liked the coast as much as I do.