What a week...WHAT...A...WEEK.

If you happen to have Facebook and checked in at all during the week, you'd see that I hinted at this not being a very good time for me with my "status changes". I'm back on a bit more solid footing now that I'm at the weekend, and I know I peaked a lot of curiosity as to what I was hinting at. Without going into gory details, I was reminded, rather bluntly, that I was nowhere living up to my potential. It may seem rather silly for me to "emote" about this online, but, I can't help but say I was rather devastated. My force of personality I think makes up for some deficiencies in my life, but my charm and natural rugged good looks (yeah...whatever Turner) weren't going to save me. It took me two days of licking my wounds to sort of grapple with things, and a dear friend who told me to get up off my ass and get to work (she said it nicer than that).

There's no lack of "things" in my life. I have 3 children, a wife, a home, a career, my marching band business that can be whatever I want it to be, opportunities to judge and announce galore, really great friends, a faith that if not strong is at least there in something BIGGER than just this stupid life...and I was reminded that (to paraphrase a popular "feel good" self help expression) "For every horse that bucks you off, there are 10 more waiting for you. Some are going to buck you off, some are going to take you where you want. The difference between Ryan H. Turner and the rest of humanity is having the courage to chance success or failure by getting up off your ass and picking the next horse."

Believe it or not--I just made that up. Just right now. But it's appropriate isn't it? Life got you down? You got a plate with a big steamin' pile of poop on it sitting in front of you? You feel overwhelmed? You got a boss that smacks you down? You got a love in your life that's not loving you back? You got more things to do on your list than you have space on the paper for?

You take it all one day at time. That's allllllllllllllllllllll you can do. One. Day. At a time. Slow down. Take stock. Take a deep breath. Chill. Reeeeeeeeeeelax. And remember those things that are far far far more important than trivial everyday-ism's.

Who loves you? Who do you love? Who do you appreciate? Who makes you smile? Who is important to you? Who do you wake up everyday thinking to yourself about? Now...ask yourself...did you tell them in the last 24 hours, 48 hours, 2 week, 3 years...did you tell them they're important to you, that you are grateful they're around, that they EXIST, that they bring meaning and significance to your life beyond the old "Hey how ya doin' dude" or "Let's go watch Sex and the City girlfriend!" pleasantries.

Because nothing is more important. And if your priorities are out of whack, if your focus is on the money, or the woman, or the man, or impressing this, or buying that, or looking like this, or losing that weight, or climbing that corporate ladder, or crushing that opposition...whatever...WHATEVER it is...if you're out of balance in your life, whether you tend to get bitch slapped like I do (and did), or you're oblivious, I can guarandamntee you some part of your life is suffering. And more than likely, some ONE is suffering because of you.

We are toooooooooooooooooooooooooo engrained nowadays in the riff raff. We're too ready to go ($1 to my friend Bill in Illinois) "chase the butterfly". We're forgetting what's REALLY important. We're forgetting.

And this little rant is only brought to you from recent personal experience. If my life was balanced, I probably would have been doing a better job at what i was supposed to be doing, and I would never have been slapped. Or, if my life was balanced, and I still got slapped, I would have brushed it off, recommitted to doing better without any drama, and would have hit the ground running.

So I was definitely out of balance. And it's been my experience after a 42 year career of being Ryan H. Turner that these...what I call..."life's bitch slaps" tend to, at least for me, realign my priorities a bit. Sure--this is probably just an exercise in "verbal judo" ($1 to Kino, and old boss of mine), a slightly metaphysical/self-help type rant from yours truly...but that's what a blog is for. It's my thought right now that I have to get out. Partly to explain what the hell was wrong with me this week, partly to show by example that even idiots like me can stand back up and persevere, and that really, truly, I was reminded by that same dear, dear friend of mine that no matter what, don't forget who you REALLY are, and don't forget to share with those in your life the fact you're grateful they're there.

I have someone who I regard as my best friend (not my wife...a long time band/corps geek brother) who I use regularly (and he reciprocates with me) as a sounding board for WHATEVER. Crazy business idea? We yak. Crazy drill design idea? We yak. Crazy vacation idea. We yak. But we're not scared to thank each other for being each other's friend during these crazy times while we both have to deal with our own "spheres of responsibiity" in whatever we're dealing with. How grateful am I that I have at least ONE person that I can rely on that way.

Sorry for the rant. Sorry the time it took to have to wade through this. But this has been a very strange and very wonderful week.

So...there you go.

Now get outta here.