When things are not going the way we want them to, we become frustrated and often feel powerless to change our current realities. We try distracting ourselves with other activities and keeping our minds occupied. But while that may make us feel better, it does little to improve our situations and often just makes things worse. We end up dwelling on the past and obsessing about the future—anything to escape. But we forget, we are not expected to correct what has happened and know what is coming. We just need to deal with the present openly and with compassion.
Our days are not independent from one another. We begin each day with the results and experience from all the preceding ones. As much as we’d like to forget or change some things that have happened, they can’t be undone. That doesn’t mean, however, that the outcome is permanent. Our world is dynamic, never the same moment to moment. This continual evolution impacts everything around us, including our ever-changing selves. While we can’t alter the past, we can reshape our present by the choices we make each day. We are the link between the past and future we desire.
Life presents us with a continual stream of choices. We travel down the path, coming to one fork in the road after the other. We consider the outcomes carefully, afraid whatever we choose will surely be wrong. Once we make our selection, we know the other realities presented to us fade and the choice we made becomes our truth. The pressure to make the right decision can become quite debilitating. But this uncertainty is a sign we are not ready to decide. When we are aligned with our future, there is no choice. We accept the determination has already been made and move forward.
Doug’s three-time award-winning novel Outside In will be available at the Tremont General Store during the Taste of Tremont on Sunday, July 10th from 12p to 8p. Doug will be at the store from 2-4 to sign books and talk about his new novel The Investment Club, available in stores on October 11 from Rare Bird Books. If you’re in Tremont for the festival, stop by and say hi and check out all the interesting things the Tremont General Store has to offer. The first twenty-five people will receive one of the official Investment Club gambling chips.
Over the past 13 years the Taste of Tremont has quickly become one of Cleveland’s “must attend” events of the summer. This free event brings over 30,000 visitors, rain or shine, from all over the region. There will be a Beer & Wine Garden located at the North end of Professor between Literary & W 10th that will serve craft beers from Portside Distillery, Butcher & Brewer and Forest City Brewery and a variety of wines for $6.00. Rum cocktails from Spotted Owl will be $7.00. Bottled water will be $1.00. Food will be available for purchase from the amazing local vendors that have helped define Tremont as one of the best food neighborhoods in Ohio.
To celebrate the arrival of the advanced reader copies, aka galleys, of The Investment Club, we’ll be giving some away to a few lucky readers. There are two ways for you to enter:
> Share this page or another post for this contest with your contacts on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Use the share icons above or copy the link to your page and be sure to tag Doug in the post so we know to enter you in the contest.
Each unique email will have two chances to win, one for the email and one for sharing with friends. Jump on this chance to have a copy months before it is for sale. Doug will personalize the copy by signing it with a personal inscription and ship it directly to you.
Thanks for your help in building the ByCooper community and generating buzz for the release of The Investment Club.
