Category Archives: Home-Based Business

Jan 24 2010
Home-Based Business, Music, Personal

The Year of “DO”

“I should have been a great many things.” This is the response of Jo March in Little Women to a man who declares that she should have been a lawyer because of her abilities to make a strong argument. This line often echos in my mind when I think that I have just had a good idea that could be a great idea given the proper care and feeding.

There are rare moments in time when a great idea meets with the proper circumstances and something larger is born. I mostly believe that these moments of serendipity are fables. When you eventually hear the details behind the birth of something great, more often than not you hear the story of the large effort which was expended to bring an idea to the point of critical mass. It often turns out that there are many long hours of “doing” preceding the moment of “happening.” Thomas Edison’s famous quote quantifying the ratio of inspiration to perspiration comes to mind.

This brings me to a phrase which I cannot seem to shake. Not sure where this came from, but when I think about the dreams that I have for my life, the phrase, “The Year of ‘DO'” seems to stand in my mind, hanging like a large banner in front of me.

I need to be about the business of doing… active and productive. These dreams that I have carried for years will not spontaneously erupt one day. They will need to be planted and tended to with daily activity.

SO… I have enrolled in grad school. This is my long-term doing. In about 2 years I will have more options open to me in terms of career choice because I will have my masters in mass communications. This is my first act of doing for the year.

Others that must be done include: writing at least 3 songs, writing a completed short story, losing twenty pounds and laying the ground-work for Underhill Creative to thrive.

There are many things to do. Time to start doing.

Jun 16 2008
Home-Based Business, Personal, Society

The Stuff Of Earth

Last Friday I ended the day smelling like sun block, sweat and dirt… with just a hint of chlorine. It was the perfect end to a busy day. It was a day spent working and playing in the sun, and it was the way things should be all the time. Modernity has forced many people, including myself, to spend most days confined to air-conditioned boxes with artificial lighting provided to dull our senses. This is not the way to be, and I have determined to reclaim the stuff of earth back into my daily life.

I know that I harp on my days and SFR a lot, but those days were pivotal in forming me as an individual. In the summer of 1992, I can remember walking up a gravel road each morning to meet the staff for prayer. The heat of the day was still a couple of hours away, and the air was always moist and cool. The sounds were soft that early in the morning… just the stillness of the air and the gravel under my feet. Over the summer I memorized the road. I could walk it in pitch black. Each tiny dip, rise and curve settled into my mind. This connection to the land is something that I miss.

This last week I had a list of things to be done before my vacation week ended. The wind had finally finished off the teetering fence on the east side of the house, and I had to get a new one built. I started by clearing the old fence away and began digging new post holes. Under most circumstances post hole digging is a unique kind of torture akin to busting rocks and digging ditches. It’s not on anyone’s list of recreational activities, but that morning I reveled in it. It is sweaty, hard work and my muscles have longed for the challenge.

After digging four post holes, and setting up two of the main posts for the fence, my wife asked me to take a break to go swimming with she and the kids at a neighbor’s house. The temperature outside was holding at around 95 degrees, so the water in the pool was perfectly cool and the smell of the chlorine reminded me of being a kid. We all played in the pool for about an hour, and then I went back to the fence to get a little more done before dark. I stopped working just before dusk. My muscles were spent, and I was hungry for dinner.

It’s a day that will stand out in my memory because it reminded me of the way that I prefer to live. I enjoy the smell and feeling of the outdoors, and I enjoy working with a saw, hammer and nails. These are the times that I feel the most freedom, and the most like myself.

Sarah and I had a vision this last week of the way that we want to live. We want to live simply. We want to have a connection to the land. Somehow over the years we have worked our way to the opposite of this vision, and we are now beginning to work our way back. If our plan ever sees the light of day, we will be living on about five or six acres somewhere northwest of Ft. Worth. We want to work and live on the land. We want our kids to experience life connected to nature. We aren’t quite sure of how the mechanics of this will work out, but that’s the vision. Simplify. That’s the direction.

Apr 28 2008
Home-Based Business, Personal

Off The Grid – Part 2

I think I know what my problem is. It’s a simple problem to define, but not so simple to solve. I don’t like being anywhere at a specified time. I don’t like to stay anywhere for a set amount of time. I want to come and go as I please. I want control of my time… period. Is that so hard to understand?

I know that there’s nothing special about that desire. Everyone wants to control their time. My problem is the “crazy” that starts bubbling up in me whenever I feel trapped somewhere. I start getting irrational when I feel trapped. I simply desire mobility.

I can remember standing in the back of a semi trailer when I worked for the now defunct Roadway Packaging Systems. I was a truck loader. I stood at the end of a giant conveyor belt while box after box rolled my way. I was supposed to: 1. take the box, 2. look for the last three digits of the destination zip code, 3. write the digits on the box with a red wax pencil and 4. stack the box in the front of the trailer.

As the boxes rolled my way I would catch glimpses of the sky between the brick wall and the trailer opening. I wanted nothing more than to squeeze myself into the six inch space and escape. That day I fought this desire until my lunch break. At lunch I called work from a pay phone and quit my job without explanation. There was no good reason, but I had to quit. After I hung up the phone I went to a city park where I used to play as a child at sat under the open sky for an hour. I felt weightless.

No matter where I work this desire to be free lies in wait, just under the surface. When I was a Kinko’s delivery driver I enjoyed a nice level of freedom, but even then I would fantasize about driving away in the delivery truck. Just keep going north on 75 and figure out the rest later.

Now I find myself behind this computer. My view of the world for eight hours a day is through a computer monitor. I can see what the weather is like at weather.com, because there are no windows in this small office. I’m stuck in this chair each day, and I talk to people almost exclusively over the phone or IM… rarely face to face. I can feel the crazy bubbling up a little more each day.

I’m no longer in the place where I can just walk out and go sit in a park. I have little people who depend on me. These little folks keep me sane… or at least responsible. For that I thank them.

My escape will need to be better planned this time, and it will need to have some staying power. This is part of dropping off the grid for me. I need to find a way to generate income while avoiding a position within corporate America.

There are options. More to come.

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