MoneyWatch

Athena financial & insurance services, inc.

Registered Investment Advisors
Text Box: If the cliché “it is always darkest before the dawn” has any truth to it, then those of you who know me personally would probably agree that I’ve been forced to wander around in pitch blackness for about three years now. In fact, as each day goes by I find myself identifying more and more with Howard Beal, the eccentric newscaster from the movie “Network” who urged his viewers to get up and declare “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Screaming about your frustration at the top of your lungs may work in the movies, but in real life such behavior draws strange looks from the neighbors and hushed comments to their children “not to pay any attention to that man.” So rather than continuing frightening the neighbors I decided to pray on it. And then Sunday morning as I was having my umpteenth angry conversation with God about all the challenges he as seen fit to throw my way (enough already Lord, please!) I suddenly realized (or maybe it was the Holy Spirit helping me to realize) that I was really focusing on the wrong things. Rather than worry about how I was going to handle the burdens God has sent my way, perhaps I needed to spend more time thinking about the blessings He has bestowed upon me and determine what it is I should be thankful for. You know what? I am a far richer man than I realized. I’m thankful for a wife who I love more than she could possibly know who has resisted the urge to “throw me overboard” at various times during our marriage even though, Lord knows, I have certainly given her enough reason to. I’m thankful for a sister, who’s been like a second mother to me and who, despite battling a life threatening disease, spends more time caring about the woes of family members than she does worrying about herself. I’m thankful for having incredibly broad shouldered friends like Marvin and Richard and Jim and Judy and Lou and Annie, who never let much time elapse without checking on my emotional well-being and who are never too busy to listen whenever I need a sympathetic ear. I’m thankful for a grandchild who rushes into my arms each time I return home and exclaims “Papa, I missed you soooo much” even when I’ve only been gone for 15 minutes. I’m thankful for two nephews who have grown into fine young men, especially my Godchild who is a walking pro-football encyclopedia and my Sunday football buddy. I’m thankful for having a brother-in-law who is a “handy man extraordinaire” and completes every odd job around my house that I am clueless about doing (which is all of them) and who always keeps us chuckling with his constant mispronunciations of California streets and places. I’m thankful for an oldest son who seems to have righted his ship and is working hard developing a career and is blossoming into the kind of person we all knew he was capable of being one day. I’m thankful for a youngest son who is funny and articulate, and seems to have avoided the “inhabited by an alien” syndrome many kids in their mid-teens go through. But what makes my wife and I even more proud is when the parents of his friends go out of their way to tell us “what a great kid he is”—not that we didn’t already know. I’m thankful for a niece who is what every attorney should aspire to be—tenacious, smart and caring. I’m thankful for business partners who have steadfastly stood by me even though it would have been easy for them to say “take a hike”. But most of all I am thankful that I got this chance to say thank you, to my wife, children, family members, friends, clients and business associates. Thanks to you, (and with a little help from God) I realize there is nothing I can’t handle.▲

Taking stock of things...

Volume 17, Issue 17

August 28, 2006

Thanksgiving in August