Ann

It's not Christmas without the love and spirit of my dear Aunt Ann, God rest her soul. I have so many pieces, handmade with shear talent and love for me as a child, hanging on me tree today. Such an artist, story teller, jokester and gem of my family. I miss her, and wish she could share a joke or two with my kids, they would love her. I wish we could share a Christmas cup of tea.

Thanks Giving

This morning, Thanksgiving, was a bit crazy. Jenn and I are both stuffed up, so sleep and breathing is not the best. We woke to two kids full of, let's call it spirit, because calling my kids crazy at 6 am seems a bit rough on a holiday. Oh, never mind, they were absolutely crazy people this morning. Whining, crying, fighting, not listening, you name it. It was not the optimal way to wake up. I love my kids, but we cancelled Christmas three times this morning. Note to self, that does not work. Amid a hectic start to the day, I scrolled though my many feeds, and saw everyone posting notes of thanksgiving. After a shoer, some cold medicine and a couple cups of coffee I am ready.

I have a lot of things in my life for which I can give thanks. First is my lovely wife. She shows more strength than I can muster, and is the person I am lucky to spend the rest of my life with. Jenn is also the person that gave us our beautiful family. It was a long journey to get our house to be a home for our family, and we are blessed with a beautiful family. Our kids are the soul of our family now. Ruby too.

Family I am thankful for, the Miller and McDonough sides. The best part of our family is that they do not feel like three "sides," they are just all family.  The picture above was from our wedding day, one of the best days ever, and a great day to start out life together. This little kids in the picture amaze me with how much they have grown since then. We will pass the torch on to out little kids, who I am sure will look back at photos from Uncle Ian's wedding next year, and marvel at how little they were that day.

I give thanks to my wonderful group of friends. I have old friends and new friends, but no matter how you slice it, I have some of the best friends a person could ask for.

Hopefully you have some loved ones to spend today with, hopefully you have things to be thankful for. I am overwhelmed with the amount of things I need to give thanks for. So I give thanks today for my blessing named here, and those not named.

You Never Know

You never know when someone is watching you. On Halloween I ran in the Dead Sprint 5K race in with a good friend. It was a race for me to shake off the rust from an injury, and fun to see all the folks who ran in costumes. I accomplished my time goal, and settled in for a post-race breakfast and pint of Guinness for some time to catch up with my buddy. While we were chatting a woman approached me and said "excuse me sir, I just wanted to say thank you." This took me back a bit, I didn't know her from a hole in the wall. She continued, "you kept me going in the race, I wanted to slow down and walk, but I could see your green jacket ahead, I just kept telling myself, 'keep up with this guy', and you helped me run a really good race." At some point I know she passed me, because I remembered her and I were thanking the police officers at all the intersections for helping out. I always try to thank the volunteers and officers during races, and she said she did too. The she added that she had just gotten off a long overnight shift at the hospital, and had no sleep. She went straight to the race, and was just hoping for the best. A little while later she came back over "hey, I placed third in the women's group for my age and got a medal! So, thanks again for the motivation!" While I did joke I would take some credit for her medal, it was so nice of her to let me know I helped without knowing.

This whole experience draws me toward the thought of how you act when no one is watching. Simply acting how you should when you are at work, in class or around friends and family is only a partial measure of who you really are. What you say you believe is just words. All these public events or statements are not the real test. The real test is when no one is looking, when you have the opportunity to compromise your beliefs, values and ideals to cut a corner, save some money, or just avoid a difficult situation. This can be as small an effort as starting the next pot of coffee at work, when you take the last cup, picking up some trash someone else left behind, or leaving an area cleaner than when you arrived. These are small examples of behavior that really set who you are and build your integrity. If you try your best when no one is looking, the times folks are looking will come that much easier, your personal integrity will shine through and be natural.