The Birthday Hikes - 6

The Birthday Hikes

ikes

Year Five

Today’s Hike:         4.4 miles
Total Miles:            54.6 miles (2.1 miles ahead of schedule)

LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE

Back in the ‘70’s I worked for a subcontractor by the name of Jack Couch.  He would do the bidding on jobs from the FHA to refurbish vacant or repossessed homes.  I was on the painting end of the job, and often when Couch would return from a bidding negotiation, he would be mumbling about how some of the contractors would underbid the job in order to get work and then make up their profit by using inferior quality of materials and work.  Jack would rather lose a bidding contract than produce a shoddy job just to get work.  They would ”Leave the money on the table” as he would say.

Those were good days.  I had been laid off from the Boeing Company and Sharon’s dad Albert was working for Couch.  He had managed to get me a job working as a painter with him. I learned a good trade and work ethic while working on that job.

On a recent hike;

Along the trail is a small rock outcropping that I like to call Meditation Rock.  I stopped there for a while to enjoy the view and do a bit of meditating.  This gives me a quiet time to reflect, to assess, to plan.  Things are going pretty good for Sharon and me, we enjoy two wonderful homes with good friends at each, and good weather at both; we have a great family, both close and extended, we seem to find many opportunities for service and we still enjoy a good day of hard work. 

While reflecting I considered how we got to this point in our lives, how we are taking advantage of the opportunities which arise at this time, and just what we should be looking forward to in the future.    They say these are the autumn years of our lives.  We are still very active and constantly learning something, but it seems as though we seem to be attending more funerals than weddings.  Mortality is no longer all fun and games, but something which definitely has a purpose and an end to it.  

One factor that I am beginning to enjoy more and more is the service which I can give to others.  I never have been a “what’s in it for me” kind of guy, I’ve always enjoyed helping others.  I guess being a scoutmaster for several years instilled the “Do a good turn daily” attitude in me.  The road of life hasn’t always been easy, but it has always been good.  Things are smoothing out now, the road is not quite so bumpy and we are enjoying the ride.  Like Jack Couch we have always tried to “bid the job for the right price”.

My mom had a poem pasted on our bedroom wall all the years we were growing up titled “Be The Best of Whatever You Are”

Be the Best of Whatever You Are

By Douglas Malloch

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill,

Be a scrub in the valley-but be

The best little scrub at the side of the rill;

Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush, be a bit of the grass,

Some highway to happier make,

If you can't be a muskie, then just be a bass-

But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,

There's something for all of us here;

There's big work to do and there's lesser to do,

And the task we must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway, then just be a trail,

If you can't be the sun, be a star;

It isn't by size that you win or you fail-

Be the best of whatever you are.

Size up the opportunities that come your way and don’t let the good ones get away.  Constantly strive to better yourself; through continuing education, learning a skill and advance in it, specialize if you wish but keep a well rounded portfolio of wholesome activities.

Teach your family a good work ethic and proper principles.  Keep yourself in good health.  If you see yourself getting sick, depressed, or out of touch, develop a plan to reel yourself in.  We have all been given certain gifts and talents to help us through this life, learn what they are and develop and use them.  In short, Be the best of whatever you are.

Don’t leave the money on the table!