Chris Anderson: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
(*****)
Marcus Buckingham: Now, Discover Your Strengths
Great read! Consider this my "Book of the Month"! (*****)
Jacob Slichter: So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star : How I Machine-Gunned a Roomful Of Record Executives and Other True Tales from a Drummer's Life
For aspiring musicians who think they want to become professional. (*****)
Jim Collins: Good to Great : Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
For those wanting to build and lead their organizations with excellence. (*****)
In celebration of Valentine's Day I'd like to simply share a few recent pictures of my beautiful wife. Erin is more than I could have ever asked for in a wife - beautiful both inside and out. Every day with her is Valentine's Day. I love you, babe.
(Photos by Jessica Lewis.)
Erin and I have some good friends who are still single, and every year when Valentine's Day rolls around I think about them and the many Valentine's Days I spent without a "special someone". I can't say I ever looked forward to it!
One friend in particular is a fantastic writer and has been struggling with her singleness for a while. On her blog this past week she posted the following, and I felt it worthy of proliferation:
"I know those of you who are single may have a hard time with Valentine’s Day. I know it’s one more reminder of the romance and companionship that are not a part of your life. As the day approaches, be gentle with yourself. Do what you need to do to get through it, be it a quiet evening at home with a book and tea or spending time with the people in your life who care about you. It’s okay to be sad and it’s okay to feel like crawling in a hole until February 15th, but hold fast to the truth despite your feelings. Remember that Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness. He is strong enough to handle your feelings of sadness, He understands your loneliness, and He will never leave you. May you find peace despite your circumstances this Valentine’s Day."
Finding peace despite your circumstances... a good reminder for all of us everyday - not just for singles this week. If you know someone who needs to read this, please make sure to pass it on.
Last week my wife and I celebrated two years of marriage by going out for dinner to a nice restaurant (read: a restaurant that involves a bill at the end of the evening that, on any other day, would make me choke on my "free" bread and pass out). At Randy's suggestion, I chose Sandy's Downtown Grille and was not disappointed. We had a wonderful evening and leisurely enjoyed a four course meal. Located on the corner of Main Street and 4th Avenue in downtown Franklin, the building used to be a hardware store and belongs to the National Registry of Historic Places. The food was excellent, the service was okay (I think he was disappointed we didn't do the wine tasting as well... although he did give us a scoop of lemon sorbet "on the house" for our anniversary), and the ambience was fantastic. Definitely worth the stop if you (a) are in the area and (b) are looking to spend a little extra on a meal. One suggestion: go Monday or Tuesday nights to get the four course meal - rumor has it that those are the nights the chef likes to show off a little!
Technorati Tags: food, franklin, fine dinning
Today - May 15th - marks the second anniversary of my marriage to Erin. I can still remember with absolute clarity the way it felt when I first held her hand. And our first kiss... boy, was that electric! I am so thankful she said, "Yes!" And she continues to say "I do", each and every day. Erin, I want the world to know that I am honored to be your husband and LOVE waking up by your side every morning. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing these last two years with you, and look forward with great anticipation to every day we have together. I love you very much.
Your Prince Charming
This past Friday night Erin and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in style. Our actual anniversary is May 15th - however, we were away from home on the road that day, and so we (a) didn't get to spend much time alone together (although we did visit Hearst Castle our in California - if you are EVER out there on the Pacific Coast Highway, this is a MUST stop!), and (b) didn't get to eat our "one year cake". So I surprised Erin on Friday with a night in a hotel, a movie, and a nice dinner. The hotel? Holiday Inn Express (hey - it's WAY nicer than it sounds!). The movie? Pixar's "Cars" - make a point of seeing it! The restaurant? Nashville's Aquarium Restaurant in Opry Mills. If you enjoy seafood and don't mind dinner distractions, this is a great place for a special night amidst 100 species of colorful, tropical fish in a 200,000 gallon centerpiece aquarium that allows exceptional floor-to-ceiling viewing from all tables. We shared a shrimp and crab dip appetizer and one entree - the macadamia nut encrusted trout - and were more than satisfied (read "stuffed"!). 
Finally, back at the hotel, we cut into our cake (which was amazingly still moist and tasty after being frozen for a year - way to go Publix!) and sipped champagne (a gift from a pizza delivery man on the night we were engaged - that's an entirely different story that I may tell you sometime...) out of hotel plastic cups. It was a great night - and a fitting way to spend our last evening before Erin flew off to Montana to spend a month helping her sister with our new niece Ella.
So I will be batching it here for the next few weeks - expect more regular posts as I attempt to distract myself with productive things instead of moping around the empty house wondering when my wife will get home to clean it up... JUST KIDDING! It will be spotless, babe - I promise!
Later...
I've been on the road since Wednesday morning and won't be home for another week. I just got off the phone with my wife and we're getting rather frustrated with the whole thing. It really is no one's fault - the issue is two-fold: (a) we're tired of having a long-distance marriage, and (b) we're having a hard time finding the time and space each day to actually have a decent conversation when we can be completely focused on each other, not distracted by conversations that are going on around us, not exhausted and unable to stay awake, not pressed for time needing to be somewhere else. Throw into the mix the whole cell phone reception thing and you've got a recipe for disaster!
As I was bemoaning my frustration to the Lord this morning, this is what I heard very clearly:
"Now you know how I feel."
Ouch.
The truth hurts sometimes, doesn't it. Our prayer lives - my prayer life - is far too often dictated by what all is going on around us. Have you ever tried praying with the radio or TV on? Try talking with someone who's watching a movie for the first time or in the middle of a LOST episode - you never really have their full attention, and it just gets frustrating trying to have a coherent conversation. We cram a prayer in before a meal because that's what we're supposed to do (it's like our food won't taste as good or be as healthy if we don't pray for it first!); we say a prayer as we drift off to sleep late at night, quite possibly not even aware of what we're saying (speaking from personal experience here!); we get up early in the morning to read our Bible but never get out of bed, only to find ourselves nodding off until we realize we're going to be late for work unless you double-time it and skip breakfast. And then we wonder why we're not getting any direction from God - "Why is God not speaking to me? I mean, I'm praying every day, and I'm still not hearing anything!" I don't doubt that - I'm sure you are praying every day. But I call my wife (and she calls me) multiple times a day and we don't get many opportunities to get past the this-is-what-I-did-today into the critical, "How are you really doing?" conversations... do you really expect things to be different with the Lord? The wonderful part of our relationship with Him is that it's only our schedule that we have to reprioritize/restructure in order to have those meaningful conversations - He has all the time in the world (He created both time and the world!) and is just waiting for us to "look Him up".
My relationship with my wife is important enough to me that I will work hard to make time in my schedule to talk with her - there are times when everything else around me has to wait until I am finished with my wife. If we - you and I - feel the same way about our relationship with the Lord, don't you think we would do the same thing?
Marriage is a wonderful thing. For those of you who have not yet experienced it, hang in there - your time will come. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, can I get an "Amen!" My wife and I just celebrated our 5-month anniversary last weekend; two days later we found ourselves wrestling to work through some of the baggage that inevitably comes into a marriage when two broken vessels become one. Marriage is not all kicks and giggles, but it is still amazing.
One of the things I am learning from my wife is how ungenerous a person I really am. Take last night for an example: it is 8:30pm, we're on our way home from dinner, and we have to stop at Kroger to pick up some groceries. One of my wife's co-workers is celebrating her birthday today, and so Erin (my wife) decided that she wanted to bake a cake and decorate it for her. On top of that, she wanted to buy her some flowers and a nice card to go along with it. So, when all is said and done, the total bill for this gift was roughly around $30 dollars - a gift for a co-worker. Now understand: we don't usually spend that much money on gifts for family members (although I'm thinking I may need to up my Christmas gift budget projections pretty quickly here!) - I would have been happy to just buy the card and write a nice little anecdote in it... and I'm sure the co-worker would have been thrilled.
But here's the rest of the story: this co-worker is a single-mother with a 5 year-old daughter. She is taking online courses in the evenings to earn herself an undergraduate degree so that she can better support her daughter in the future. Her family has never made a big deal out of birthdays - in fact, I don't think she's ever had a birthday cake. And there's no telling when she last received a dozen roses.
And so my wonderful wife jumped at this opportunity to bless her co-worker beyond what would ever be expected. I will have the pleasure of delivering the cake at lunch today (and hopefully partaking in its demise!) and watching the tears well up in co-worker's eyes. And I will see tangibly what I already know in my heart: my wife has a lot to teach me about what it means to be generous.
I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures from my wedding here - check out Erin's photo gallery for some pictures and the captions. If you're REALLY into wedding pictures, you can still see all our professional pictures done by Kevin Wimpy at Collages.net. The username is Fairytale (case sensitive - I didn't choose the username, just for the record!) and the password is 7300. Enjoy!
So my uncle gave me The Husband Book: A Guy's Guide to Marriage for my wedding, and I've been reading it periodically before I go to bed. It's really a fun read - some good, goofy, practical, and sentimental nuggets for how to serve your wife best. As I'm kind of doing the same thing tonight, I thought I would post some of my favorite "nuggets":
Don't ever come between her and her hairdresser... unless she comes home after spending two hundred dollars and looks no different.
Shower often.
Don't forget she will never understand your fascination for bodily noises. Never.
Help her chase her dreams. This could be going back to college, starting a company, or writing a book.
Ask her for help.
Make sure she hears exactly what you're saying. Have her repeat your words. It will amaze you what she's heard.
When she's pregnant, ask yourself how you would like to carry a baby around for nine months, throwing up, swelling, unable to sit up or lie down and being regularly patted by strangers and prodded by doctors. She feels the same way.
If she's just had a rip-roaring scream-out with her mom, you have two options: seek shelter or comfort her. Neither decision will really be right.
Focus on what's good and right and wonderful about her. Soon that's all you'll be able to see.
When you have an argument, forget the ridiculous ideal that one of you can "go home" to the parents. You are home. Work it out.
Remember these words: "How would you like to go to Hawaii?"
On vacations, you'll want to get there in a hurry. She'll want to enjoy the drive. It's up to you to compromise.
I could go on, but I'm sure you're tired of marital advice from a definite newlywed. So I'm going to go to bed... maybe the deep-thinker juices will be flowing in the morning...
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