One More For Ray Wylie Hubbard!

Al the Barber and Shoe continue to stress the importance of self-awareness to me. It's funny because the two of them have never met. And they are more DELUSIONAL than me. But I find both of them to be entertaining and they challenge me to keep things in perspective.

That being said, I continue to FORGET the original premise for this little experiment. CTT was never supposed to be about you! YOU make me nuts! I don't DO you very well! YOU are the reason for my neurosis! So, why am I stressing about this little experiment and what, at times, feels like a DEADLINE instead of a little Therapy? Self-awareness clearly points out that this thing is dying a slow death. All the stress in the world is not going to change that.

It's not uncommon for me to start hearing from some of you on Sunday night regarding the next morning's post. That happened again last night. As I sit here, a dear friend just hit me up in Facebook Chat inquiring as to where today's post is? Oh, my precious ego! Stop it!

Have no fear. I am not out of ideas. I keep a list going of potential topics going. I fear that I'm getting a little repetitive and, quite frankly, a little boring. But, Number 41 is happening because these  are things that I NEED to hear. As the list of NEW bloggers grows, I chuckle at what they think I NEED to hear. Good luck to you NEWBIES. Drop me a line when you get to 40!

It was one of THOSE weekends! Remember those weekends? Completely out of my comfort zone. My brain is too big for my head. My nerves are five inches out of the end of my fingers. I am completely self-absorbed. Wallowing in self-pity! Restless, irritable, and discontent do not even begin to describe how I'm feeling this Monday morning.

You already know the reason. I'm not going to look back at the archives to see which Post it was. But I am certain that it has been addressed. EXPECTATIONS! The sheer weight of my expectations are once again crushing me and driving me insane!

I think it started last Monday when no one really cared to challenge my "pro-judging" stance. I was certain that a backlash would ensue! Maybe there was no backlash because I was 100% correct in my analysis. Ha!

Anyway, last week was an entire week of UN-MET expectations. The major change was that, in this particular instance, I was failing to meet my own expectations and your failure to meet my expectations was not near as troubling. Progress? Perhaps.

A few months ago, Spring suggested that I search on Youtube for a performance Ray Wylie Hubbard on David Lettermen. I met Ray about 20 years ago and was literally star-struck that I was shaking the hand of the Author of "Redneck Mother!" True Greatness!

So, I searched and found Ray's performance. It's an interesting song about singing in a little bar in Dallas, back in the day. I won't tell the story. At the end, however, this true Texas Poet concludes:

"And the days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really GOOD days."

It's that time of year. Gratitude is about to be shoved down our throats at every turn. I suppose I've never written yet about gratitude and it's very likely that I never will. The main reason is that I try to write about things with which I have a little experience. Gratitude seems to escape me. I'm not talking about this "30 Days of Gratitude" on Facebook crap! I apologize if you are doing one of those exercises. I find them as annoying as the annual Christmas letters we are about to start receiving in the mail. But if it's your thing, knock yourself out!

I'm talking about real gratitude. Gratitude that exceeds expectations! I'm not sure what real gratitude is. And I'm not real sure what real gratitude looks like. And I'm certain that I have a long way to go before my gratitude will exceed my expectations. But, Ray Wylie Hubbard seems to think it results in REALLY GOOD days. I hope to eventually have one of those days!