December 21, 2005

• Endings and Beginnings

  
  

  I love beginnings.  There is so much potential when starting or getting something new.  I started a new job in my existing company last week and it is so much easier to get up and go to work each morning.  The department has existed for over 3 years but everything they do is new to me.  I am getting to look at everything with a new perspective.  We are planning a day long session on a weekend in January at a hotel in Galveston to flow chart some of the processes that are used on a daily basis.  This has never been done and I have convinced everyone that they will in fact be able to look at these with new eyes once they exist on paper across the wall of a conference room.  Hence we will be able to see new ways of doing things that are flawed with many hand offs and multiple opportunities for the ball to be dropped.

  
  

   

  
  

  The department revenue grew by 25% last year and we have a goal of 50% growth this year.  From talking to the employees who work with the customers on a day to day basis this is very achievable by simply closing some of the cracks that are inherent in processes that have not been defined much less refined.  My new blood in the department has already led to new ideas that have been implemented and decreased the amount of time needed to perform some of the simpler tasks.  It was not me that came up with the ideas, I simply applied new blood questioning that provoked ideas from the existing employees.

  
  

   

  
  

  I am glad I know nothing about the department I have entered because everything is new to me and I have no ownership of how things are done.  Therefore I can ask questions of each and every process without already knowing the pat answer.  What is cool is that most of the processes were not thought through but simply thrown together out of necessity and have much potential for improvement.

  
  

   

  
  

  I have a cartoon on my monitor at work from “Family Circus” that is of the youngest boy PJ who has just started walking and his brother who is probably a year older.  The older brother is saying “PJ’s lucky.  Almost everything is new to him.”  I like that.  Seeing the world through the eyes of a child brings a new glow to everything.

  
  

   

  
  

  We bought a VHS to DVD recorder for our gift from Santa.  I have been transferring our old VHS home movies over to DVDs this week.  Each tape has to be transferred in real time so that means if the tape is 6 hours, it takes 6 hours to copy it over to a DVD.  The cool thing about the recorder is that you can just set it and come back later to complete the process.  The better half and I have been sitting up watching the tapes as they are playing and have the memories been flowing.  The first one we watched was from 10 years ago when we took a trip to California with the boys to Disney Land, Knotts Berry Farms and then up to San Francisco.  Ten years makes a difference in children.  The boys were still full of wonder at everything they saw and we were a bit younger ourselves.

  
  

   

  
  

  The most recent one we watched was from 19 years ago when we first moved into the house we still live in.  I was amazed at the amount of time we recorded each other just playing on the floor with our 3 year old and 1 year old boys.  We played and played and played and laughed and laughed and laughed and time seemed to stand still.  The rush of emotions was awesome.  The woman I am married to was as beautiful back then as she is today.

  
  

   

  
  

  This is the first time I have reviewed some of these tapes and I look forward to having them on DVD so they will not be lost with age.  Watching them on DVD is so much easier since you can pause and see the picture much clearer as well as being able to jump to an event on the chapter screen in the menu.

  
  

   

  
  

  Looking back on the beginning of my life as I know it, I can see how everything we were doing was new.  The same can be said for each day we have above ground.  Someday the breath will be gone from our bodies just as it is from some of those in our videos but our spirit will live on new in the lives of those we have touched.

  
  

   

  
  

  As Christmas approaches, I am reminded of my Mom who was born on Christmas day.  She died 3 years ago.  She lived each day as if it was new and always had time to spend with children.  It occurs to me now that she had discovered the secret of seeing everything new through their eyes.

  • 5:49 pm
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