Moments of paradise

I was watching a Kenny Chesney special on GAC.  The man has an inspiring story.  He really never had anything given to him.  He earned it all.  Of course, people now remember him for being the entertainer of the decade in counrty music.

But, for 20 years he worked his heart out to be on top of his game.  He really never had the support of the established Nashville music community despite sell-out football stadium crowds and a string of number one radio hits.  He was too short, too bald, and had a terrible voice.  They never thought he would be good for the industry.  His bank account shows that established opinion was not well founded.

At the end of the special, as he talked about the last part of his career, he mentioned a particular music project he made for ESPN.  He made the program using his music as a background for showing how determination drives a person to the top.  He recruited coaches like Sean Payton and John Gruden and various football greats like Joe Namath and Brett Favre to make the appropriate sports applications.  Then he said that the project was his favorite moment in all of his career.

All of us have accomplishments and moments where determination won the day.  I certainly do.  But, after all is said and done, over a period of many years, I can look back on a particular year of my life and say, "It was my favorite year of all the years of my life."  I had a managerial job, but that was ancillary to the reason it was the best year of my life.  I actually had 4 jobs that year.  None of them really mattered.  I was able to break some of the fetters I had going on in my life, but that wasn't it either.  It was the following year, 2010, that I made more money than I had ever made in my life.  But the best year was the year before the money.

The favorite year of my whole life broadened my horizons, added spring to a tired step, gave meaning to a not-so-special existence, and trapped views, echoes, and marks on the walls of my heart's four-chambered caves... once-trapped attractions of beauty... oh, such beauty!... my favorite moments in all of life!

Moments I remember now as moments of paradise.