Out of the pocket, perhaps

I received a grand jury summons for tomorrow morning.  I’ve never been summoned for jury duty, let alone grand jury, and am not sure what to expect from the process.  The weather has finally turned for the better here in Oregon, so it’s pretty rough timing as far as potentially being sequestered goes.  I suppose there is no good timing for these things, but I would rather be on the course than stuck in a hotel room in downtown Portland for the next few weeks.  For all things Dan Plan, let’s hope that they don’t like the looks of me..  Honestly, I wouldn’t mind serving, it’s part of being an American citizen and we all need to hold the candle from time to time, just wish it was in January and not during the short window of perfect weather Portland provides.

Nothing you can do but show up and see how it goes.

This past weekend I took a short break of three days.  It was needed and I feel all the better now for taking it.  I went camping on Sunday with my girlfriend and we had a glorious time in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington.  We played in a river, cooked some good food and went on a 7 mile hike to the top of some waterfalls.  It was time for a short respite and both my brain and body are recharged and ready to hit the training hard yet again.  Over the past few months, the only time I had taken away from training was roughly one day a week and that is almost always doing things to catch up from not being able to do them during my busy training week, so I never feel like I get a true moment of rest.  These quarterly excursions are just what is needed to keep focussed and instill the fervor to continue pushing.

I always have moments of clarity in the woods.  This trip was no different.  I realized that I was forcing some things, assuming too much about my game and putting unnecessary pressure on myself to perform at my top level every single day.  Learning cannot be forced and I know that it is a long process, but I get frustrated from time to time when something that I “know” I can do suddenly disappears for a day or week.  It is important to be able to step back and both analyze where you are and where you came from; and, it’s good to be able to summon some inner peace when the proverbial shit hits the fan.  From here on out, when the day or round isn’t going according to plan, I’m going to remember the calm of the woods and push through the hard times without letting them get me too down.  It’s easier said than done, but I know that it is inside of me and if I step back from the situation at hand I can calmly solve the self-induced crisis with relative ease.

The new irons are not in yet.  The new driver, fairway wood and hybrids have been amazing to hit and I can’t wait to get the irons, but the shafts are still on order so it might be another week until those are finished.  There’s no way to say what will happen once I have a full set of clubs that are actually fit for me, but I can say that I already have great confidence in the four new sticks I do have and I hope that will translate to better scores down the road.

It has been almost 27 months since I started this journey.  Everything in my life has changed towards the positive and I couldn’t imagine being in a better position.  If there are dreamers out there, I encourage you to find a way to follow those dreams.  It will pay off no matter the outcome.  The struggles of the journey is what life is all about.

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