My life has always been about decisions. Years ago, I based my existence and life around a poem called The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost. And although I choose to live my life on the road less traveled, I still found myself wandering back to the other.
I can’t recall at what point my life took that turn, but here I am, back at the same place I stood so many years ago. Writing has always been a way out for me, and it’s so easy for me to lose myself in the fantasies of thought. Call it imagination, I suppose. And tonight I look forward to some much needed time of reminiscence.
It’s sad for me to think that I have spent so much time doing and trying – and not enough time being. I hope that this is the beginning of a new season of life. One in which I will realize and understand that my heartfelt desire is to slow down, and actually taste what life has to offer.
“I have spent so much time doing and trying – and not enough time being.” — What a great thought, Brian. I needed to be reminded of this.
By the way, I really like the (simple & clean) redesign.
I’m right there with you.
Greetings Brian! I flipped through your site searching for the Revolution series templates for WordPress, which I was reading about in an earlier blog archive from 2008 — it was praising your designs and subsequent choice to go Open Source (Yay! I’m a firm believer in Creative Commons, GPL, Sharing/Derivative Works, that sort of thing, so congratulations are in order for that!)
I see this as the similar choice we make in how we earn or living; Some of us choose to be self-employed (indeed, self-empowered) while others work for someone else, under their rules, tenure, or policies. As with any art, public or private, marketed commercially or freely given, each course we choose has its advantages and disadvantages.
Back on the subject of templates though, I value your sense of clean design and use of space, though I am stumped as to where these templates may have ended up — rather, I could only find the ones tied to the “Genesis” plug-ins. Are there others that do not require it to be a child theme under Genesis framework? Thanks for any reply.
Thanks for the reminder of what’s important, Brian. I feel like I’ve found myself standing at that same fork in the road again, too. I don’t regret the past, though. I suppose I needed all that trying and doing to better appreciate the return to the road less traveled. Stay warm…
Brian,
Being on the road less traveled means that we have to give up where others are going, what they are doing, or not focusing on what the world says we must do in order to be “successful”.
I still remember our conversation in Boston and I want to encourage you to slow down as you have written. Life passes by quickly and our children grow so fast. What matters is not the amount of hours you put into your work but the time you put into your life – ALL of it.
Don’t let the world or the critics pull you off the road for which only you must travel! Stay true my friend and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Wow… I have been here before. All the best as you sort through some of the issues at hand!
I always feel the same way. Spend so much time doing and trying – when will I just be? Maybe my being is just that; trying and building…
At the end of the day, I do enjoy the road I walk on…
I NEED to get on this path… Ocassionally I try, but keep getting sucked back in to the grind… Good Luck!
Thanks Jim. And hey, long time no talk – how the heck are you?
Brian, it sounds as though you are indulging yourself in the spirit of another poem:
“Though nothing can bring back the hour
“Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
” We will grieve not, rather find
“Strength in what remains behind;”
I disagree with your sadness. You say “I have spent so much time doing and trying – and not enough time being.” I don’t comment a lot in your blog or the forums, but I have been a fan and a follower since Revolution 1.0. You have kept me in your fold in part because of your integrity. Each time you have made new business moves, you have treated your “previous” clientele / followers / generously, not just “fairly.” The communities you have built around Revolution / Studiopress / Genesis, etc. are helpful, respectful, worthwhile places.
As a cancer survivor myself, I have cheered and celebrated your peripatetic pink perambulating, and even have contributed in your name.
Brian, you are “being,” and I for one am grateful. Recalibrate your thinking. The time that you are spending “doing and trying” is time that you are building upon your being, time that you are, well, becoming.
God Bless You, Brian Gardner.