The holidays direct us to gratitude and emanate from self-formed /taught/learned and possibly partially borrowed adages.

My first are my Four A’s. It used to be my three, but added one on the end recently as my children advanced into their teenage years and this became required for sanity’s sake.

They are Awareness, Acceptance, Action, and Adaptability.

Walk through each step. Anytime we lose center, go back and think through those A’s. It works!

Reading Pearl S Buck’s book, The Good Earth in 10th grade brought appreciation for the value of the land and real estate ownership at a young age. Little to know then that the real estate business and its rough-and-tumble road would be a major part of life in the future. Real estate without greed and with purpose would also become a life mantra.

Huh? No, I wasn’t a punk rocker, but I was for one Halloween night when my friend Arly, King of Punks and pictured below, let me borrow his leather jacket that I think weighed about 100 pounds with all that metal and those doodads attached. Insane that he trusted me with it. It reminds me of the energy of the scene in the Deep Ellum Dallas world in the early 80s.

The best part about writing this dang thing is reaching back to you all grooving on the memories and actually reaching out and connecting with old and new so many people in our lives well lived

Let’s keep rocking and let’s keep sharing. That’s what we got - inspiring each other continually the next and next generation. Lots of negative shit going on out there, but we will never give up. We are going to - no matter what our allegiances are our religious political beliefs or otherwise going to be our best selves - and kick ass.