I've always found it interesting how many people purport to hate the ostensible status quo, and will go to great lengths to find ways — real or imaginary — to essentially "stick it to the man."And yet?Oftentimes these people who protest the way things are offer up virtually tangible and functional solutions as an alternative.

We live busy lives.Pretty much anyone you talk to is likely to explain that they are close to overwhelmed with everything they need to get done, every day... even allegedly retired people.Japanese maple leaves against the bright blue sky

Being a "misfit" is an interesting piece of terminology.I'm willing to bet that most of us — at one time or another — I felt like we were a misfit in some way. So what does it even mean to be a misfit?The closest I've been able to get to a reasonable explanation is that whatever it is you or whatever it is you believe or whatever it is you feel or think, it requires further explanation in order for people to relate to it. There are questions.

Life is messy!It doesn't matter how I turn it, and no matter what angle I look at it from, my life always seems to have been messy.I am not saying this from the perspective of being a hoarder, by any means, although I do come from a long line of dedicated collectors of various things.

Hazy afternoons — like we had today — remind me of earlier parts of my life when I would often sit out in my driveway and watch the sky slowly cloud up in advance of a fierce thunderstorm.We don't really thunderstorms where I live now. Or, at least, they are a considerable rarity that occurr maybe once or twice a year and then only amount to a bit of rolling thunder echoing through the nearby mountains.

Many of us live lives in which we feel like we are perpetually trying to juggle half a dozen balls while also keeping half a dozen plates spinning in the end of long thin poles.It's not easy to keep an even keel while doing these things, and it's even more difficult to make progress on any projects and aspirations you might have that fall outside the domain of juggling/plate spinning.