Not Just Another Fall Season
Just when I was getting somewhat used to the heat of a brutal 2016 summer, I pulled up behind a big yellow school bus with red lights flashing as it loaded the little kiddies up for the beginning of another school year. It’s still August. When I was a kid, yes they had automobiles and electric lights way back then, the school year didn’t start until September.
So, everyone is thinking about fall now that the children and grandchildren are trying to settle into their new routines. As a community of folks whose hobby or business is turning things out of wood, I would encourage you to make plans now and get started for a fantastic fall season for 2016 and I would like to suggest a method. (This will work in many areas of life, not just woodturning)
Make a list with three columns divided into half a page eachTop Half
First column – Wish List. Things you would like to get done this yearSecond column – Short List. Things you really should get done this yearThird column – Final List. Out of everything on your short list, pick the three most important things you will do this year.Bottom half of the page, still three columns
List each of the three items as a column heading – three columns, three itemsMake an action plan for each task, the date you will start, the date it will be complete, things necessary for accomplishing that particular task.List the reward for completing each item (it doesn’t have to be tangible)Go to work!Many folks make toys for tots to help the US Marine Corps. Set a goal and start now. Others visit nursing homes with holiday gifts made in advance. Start now. Then there are the myriad of fall festivals. Maybe this is the year you build enough inventory to do a few. Start now. You might even make a few bucks, but you will have a ball meeting folks and showing off your stuff. One year, I made turned lidded boxes from exotic woods for everyone in my family. I have some customers who make special Christmas Ornaments for their families and they have to start now. Last year, Sweet Janice and I enrolled in evening courses and have completed three semesters so far! We even completed one semester online while we were out on the show circuit in a hotel room far far away. Maybe this is the year you begin a new family tradition for the holidays. Maybe this season you teach a class on how you make your favorite Christmas gifts for your own family. Maybe this year you invite a young family with no relatives nearby to share Thanksgiving dinner at your house. How about helping a single mom with Christmas for her kids this year? Set a specific amount and start saving for it now.
This year, for sure, purpose to make time to vote in this very important Presidential election. I ask you to join me in praying daily for our country, our military, and our leadership as well as for those dear to us. It seems like we are losing friends and family more often these days and when they are gone it’s too late. Call someone this week even if you just say hello and let them know you are thinking of them. Because, wherever you go, there you are.
Here is my inspiration for this message:
Prov 14:23 BBE
In all hard work there is profit, but talk only makes a man poor.
1Pet 3:12 ESV2011
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Jas 1:27 [ESV2011
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
