It’s been a difficult year. This past month has been like climbing Mt. Everest with an anvil in my pants. An exhausting slog… (Hey, is that an anvil in your pants or are you just horribly disfigured?).
There’s been death; both physical and relational. There’s been terrific disappointment; both professional and personal. There’s been a sense of hopelessness. A general malaise festering beneath the surface and more open wounds airing out in the wind than I care to count.
In short, there’s been some pretty crappy stuff going down.
But…
There’s also been some amazing things. My son is doing fantastically well. My friend Melody Pool released a record I co-produced, with her and Brad Jones, to both critical acclaim and commercial success. I finished up and put out the best artistic achievement of my life, “Terra Rosa”. My brother Dan Cohen got through some very difficult times relatively unscathed. My grandmother pounded out a recovery from life threatening illness. My mother and father continue to do well; physically, spiritually and otherwise. I have a handful of friends that do their level best to meet me where I am and love me anyway! And I have opportunity. Good God. The opportunities I have frittered away due to negligence, laziness or plain old stupidity! It’s embarrassing. But, we live, and if lucky, we learn.
We truly have no idea what life will throw our way. We can control so very little. But those few things we can control, or at least manage, those should be our focus. How do we spend our time? How do we spend our money? Who are the people we spend our time with? Are we taking care of our health? These are big determiners of our “fate”.
We cannot always choose our circumstance, but we do get to choose our attitude towards that circumstance. Choose wisely. And please remind me to do the same.
Here’s to 2014 being an amazing year for you, my friends.
Yours,
Jace Everett