Well, it certainly has been a while since we’ve met here, hasn’t it?
Yes, there have been many changes in my life these last few months, including a new title for my column on this wonderful site. I was re-reading an old column of mine, and got the itch to crank out a new one. We’ll see how this goes, but I have been wanting to “get back in the saddle” again, as it were.
I am now teaching at the Intermediate school for Brownwood ISD, in the computer lab. I have classes of 5th and 6th grade students, and I find that, for the moment at least, it suits me. I am still playing music, and looking for places for our group to play. (Hit me up if you need live entertainment!! Okay, shameless self-promoting over)
I’ve seen an awful lot of blessing in my life in a period that should have been devoid of any. It makes me realize that all the trivial stuff we rely on, all the things we hold dear that we shouldn’t, can all fall by the wayside, and we will still come out ok on the other end. Reinvention isn’t something I am unfamiliar with, as you know. I have worked in many different fields in my life, and each time I think how unusual my career path must look to a prospective employer!
But, isn’t that what life is all about, really? New experiences, new environments, and new approaches to familiar issues? We all find ourselves in places that we didn’t expect. Seriously, the one constant in life is change! How we handle these curveballs and fastballs screaming at our heads defines us.
Now I am NOT saying I handle all shake ups with grace and dignity. Not in the slightest. I am far from a perfect human being. My friends can vouch for that, and will probably stand in line to do so! (with friends like those, right?)
If you are facing a set of circumstances that you feel are insurmountable, take a step back, or two or three, or twenty. Get a fresh perspective, find the new footholds and handholds, and scale that mountain like a pro. Smack that fastball over the fence. Punt that football outta the world.
And, as a certain animated fish once said, just keep swimming.
(It’s now stuck in my head too, sorry!)
Ben Cox is a man of many parts. A frequent fixture of the Lyric Theater stage, the in stadium voice of the Howard Payne Yellow Jackets, mobile DJ, drummer, father, boyfriend, avid tv watcher, and has been known to be a teller of Dad-jokes.
