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.
Our minds are expansive, able to adapt to a broad range of experiences. When we feel we have reached our mind’s limit, somehow, some way we always find more open space. Unfortunately this never-ending searching can also work against us. Too often we become attached to things that have happened, are happening, or could happen and forget the limitless capacity of our minds. But we must remember that these occurrences are never what they seem to be. They are just clouds or waves distracting us from the blue sky that is always up there somewhere even if we can’t see it.
We all wish and hope for things to happen. It is the seed of all our ideas. We envision the desire in our minds and put it out into the world in the form of dreams. While this may be soothing and steady us during trying times to believe that someday our lives will improve, if we do nothing, most likely that is exactly what will happen. Our dreams will remain Pollyannish visions with minimal chance for success. Hope is only the first step. We must follow up with action and perseverance. Then and only then can our dreams become reality.
We want life to be simple and for things to be exactly as they appear, for our journey to be a series signs directing us to turn right and left, speed up and slow dow. Unfortunately this is rarely the case. The world communicates in a subtle whisper. If we interpret and react to everything literally, we are prone to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. We need to look past the surface of the sounds and symbols around us. What happens to us does so for a reason, but it is usually not the reason we think.
Our ambition and desire to succeed propel us through difficult and trying situations. We don’t allow ourselves to get weighed down by adverse outcomes and stay focused on our long term goals. Unfortunately this same enthusiasm and passion often land and keep us in negative situations that we struggle to get out of even though we know we should. We end up competing and obsessing about winning rather than being committed to our own healthiness and helping those around us. Sometimes the best move is to let go and extricate ourselves from toxic environments and put ourselves in games worth winning.
We always want to know the right words to say. We search for the perfect sentiment to express our meaning and help the people around us. Unfortunately what comes out of our mouths in those moments too often is less than ideal. In our desire to communicate our true thoughts and feelings or from the tension and pressure of the moment, we utter some pretty stupid and sometimes hurtful things. But if our intentions are pure, our meaning will come through regardless of the words. Using the wrong ones is just the first step to knowing the right ones.
