Opening Day

In an effort to post some fun things on here I give you this picture. The Hamon family are all Red Sox fans. Thanks to Avo and Nana Carol for providing the hats for the kids. I know they don't play today, but baseball is back! Let's go Red Sox!

Woodworking: A paralell to my life

A friend asked me to describe why I work with wood. Being the parent of a three year old my first reaction was "because I want to". Although that was meant humorously my three year old actually helps me understand why I DO work with wood. He has a great book that we enjoy together. It's by Max Lucado and is called: You Are Special.

The main character of the book is a "Wemmick" named Punchinello who is your basic ugly duckling. Eli is the wood carver that made Punchinello along with all of the other Wemmicks. The idea of the book is that the Wemmicks give each other stars and dots (good vs. bad marks) based upon outward appearances and abilities. Punchinello gets a lot of dots for his appearance and silly mistakes. One day Punchinello goes to visit Eli at his workshop. Eli comforts Punchinello by telling him that outward appearances and abilities don't mean much to him. He doesn't put any weight behind the stars and dots. He loves Punchinello because he created and formed him. He explains that when Punchinello believes that truth the stars and dots won't matter to him either. What a great children's story and life lesson about how we should view each other.....in the light of who created us not our own view on creation.

So what does this children's story have to do with woodworking? For me it is a direct parallel to why I work with wood. I love taking a stack of ugly, rough and unfinished wood and turning into something beautiful. I like owning the idea of the piece. I enjoy the trials of sketching out the piece. I find great joy in choosing the materials. I love hearing the "swish" of my hand planes across the surface as the wood is transformed from rough to smooth. I like smell of fresh plane shavings from my bench top. I love to see the inner beauty of the grain patterns in the wood appear as you take the time to work with it. I love finding the growth ring patterns that make each piece unique and matching them up. I like the accomplishment of seeing a finished project. I like the joy that it brings others to create something we can all enjoy and use. I like knowing where all the flaws of my piece exist and not pointing it out to anyone else. I like knowing that no one can take away my inner joy for a job well done. I love the satisfaction of hard work.

The greatest reason I work with wood is because it parallels my life. I realize I am the stack of wood that is being created into something new. I am being daily transformed and molded. The people, places, experiences, joys, hardships and lessons learned are the things that are making me into who I am. Each one of those things has made its mark, taken its cut on me, rounded my rough edges, exposed beauty & ugliness and allowed me to show myself to others. Each day I am being refined into the perfect Wemmick. It may not be what I think of as perfection, but it is perfect in my Creators eyes. I am daily reminded that I am loved, created and set free. Most importantly I am reminded that I am a work in progress, will only get better with time and attention and that the maker wants to give me those things. That is why I work with wood.

Midlife crisis

Recently a friend of mine challenged me with a question that has truly influenced my thinking as of late. He asked me simply, “What is your purpose?” On the surface it seemed like a rather simple question to answer, but when I drilled down to look at the heart of the question it overwhelmed me. To be honest, I don't know that I could answer his question. I don't know that I could state my mission statement or purpose statement for anyone.....most importantly the guy in the mirror.

In a separate conversation I was speaking with someone else about how the age 35 seems to be the new midlife crisis age. There was a degree of humor in that statement when I made it. The more I thought about it the more I had to admit its truthfulness. I remember when I was young people age 45-50 getting the new sports car, buying that “toy” they always wanted, going skydiving, taking that trip etc. During those processes I found they were asking some interesting questions. Why do I do what I do for work? Why shouldn't I enjoy this life more? Why shouldn't I treat myself to something nice? What is the meaning of all of this? They seemed to be searching for a “feel good” experience to justify the previous 45-50 years of living. Having arrived at that place they came to a crisis of self. For some having those experiences validated what they did. For others it made the question even more vibrant.

Today, and in my generation, I believe the mid life crisis looks a bit different. I have little interest in buying a sports car, skydiving or anything of the like. I would suggest that the “new” midlife crisis is a crisis of purpose. Questions I am asking myself in that vein include: What do I want to do with my life? What legacy do I want to leave? What gets me up in the morning? What is important to me? What moves me to action? What excites me? Does this sound familiar to any of you?

I am 35 and find myself at that crossroads in life. I am struggling to figure out what it is I want to do. I am struggling to figure out where I want to go. I am looking for my purpose in this life. I am seeking the “reason to get up” in the morning. I ask myself, "Is this enough?" "Can I do more?" I've had some cool experiences in my life. I have lived and traveled over much of this country. I have 2 wonderful children and a woman who stands beside me, championing me on. I have been very fortunate to make good money along the way. I have a "sandbox" full of friends who know me and are willing to tell me how it is. It's not for a lack of things/people/experiences that I ask those questions. It's completely out of a desire to be fulfilled.

The answer to those questions above for me are a resounding YES. I want to do more, know why I get up in the morning, know where I am going, understand my purpose, start pursuing my dreams etc. Answering those questions leads to yet another question.....So now what?

I read a great post by someone who I grew up with and someone I would consider a friend even though we don't communicate much or run in the same circles anymore. The question he answered was when do you start pursuing your dream? Click here for a link to the post by Jon Acuff. The simple truth of his writing is that we can start today.

I may not have all the answers/whys/hows/whats yet, but I am going to start pursuing my dreams, doing what gets me up in the morning, understanding my purpose.

How about you? Are you really doing what you feel fulfilled by? Are you happy with the person in the mirror and what they have become? Are you starting your dream today?

2010 Christmas Newsletter

Core Values

So I have been spending a lot of time thinking about core values lately.....namely my core values. What are they? How do I define/put skin on them? How do they affect my daily life or my long term goals? Have they or are they changing?

One of the things I have come to learn/understand is that if I don't define these values someone else will for me. Case in point: my job requires that I work long hours in the summer when the kids are here for camp. One of my responsibilities is to see that everyone is safe and order is kept at camp.....mind you this is while we have upwards of 250 people at a time here. It can be a tall order and a great and rewarding challenge. One of my core values (more about this later) is my family. I want to be able to know my family and for them to know me. This require time spent. This summer I let someone else define how that core value would look for me and my family. Not by my action, but by my lack of action. Mind you, my job is important and I am needed at this place, but I am not the only one to handle every situation.....I am not irreplaceable. I let my employer contradict that very statement this summer. I allowed myself to be worked for an average of close to 100 hours a week. How does that allow me any time to see my family? How does that allow me to be true to my core value of family time? You see my lack of action or in this case my lack of saying no and standing up for myself, allowed my core value to be changed without me doing a thing about it. I let someone else define what was important to me. I don't want to be that kind of person. My core values need to shaped and molded by my faith, my future and myself.

Here are some of my core values.

-Faith: Those of you who know me well, know that my faith is of the utmost importance in my life. I value that more than any other thing. It completely shapes who I am and what I am doing. It is my most important core value. Picture a dart board......faith would be the bulls eye of my dart board.

-Family: I grew up in a great family. We are much like any other family and we have our struggles and challenges. I want the best life for my family that I can possibly have. I believe that only comes through time spent and life lived together. My kids/wife might love that I worked and bought them nice things, but they will remember with vivid memory the time we spent together. Time is a gift that you can't get any more of. You can't buy any more time. You can't get it back either. Once you spent it, it is gone. I want to spend the resources of my time with my family and make memories.

-Hard work: This may sound incredibly contrary to what I just wrote, but I believe they go hand in hand. Again, those that know me know that I work hard at whatever I do. I believe in doing it well and many times that takes hard work. I believe that hard work pays off in the long run. I believe this is one of the best lessons I can leave my family. Work hard at the things that matter the most. This means I work hard at not only my job, but my faith, my family time etc. I work hard at my core values.

-Community: This is an idea that is central to who my wife and I are. We thrive in true community. I am not talking about some David Koresh type of thing, but a community of like minded people who are pursuing some common goal. That can be very simple or very complex. I like to think of life as a sandbox. At the end of my life who and how many people do I want "playing" in my sandbox? This is my defined community. People that value me and I value them. People that are willing to give as much as they take. People that need me as much as I need them. People that are willing to pour into me and I into them.

-Being debt free: This is not some manage your money plug or anything.....I see great value in living your life, as much as possible, without debt. It allows me the great freedom to do the things I want to do. If I have it then I can do it, if not I can't. It works really well for our family. There are often great freedom in boundaries and living debt free is one of those boundaries for me.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a starting point. A place to work from. A place to start to define and shape.

So, how about you, what are your core values? What things do you model your life around? What have you found that is central to who you are and what you want to be?

What lessons can we teach each other?

Cross Roads

I know it's been a while since I last wrote.....something like 10 months. Much has happened and changed in that time. Actually to much to list, but maybe through this blog some more of that will come out. For now this is what I have for you......

Here are a couple of cross roads that I am facing at the moment. No answers......just questions for the time being.

Why do we continually find ourselves at these places in life where there are major decisions to make? Will we ever find that peace of knowing that where we are is where we are supposed to be?

How can so many people who claim to believe the same thing that you do treat each other so poorly? What drives us to be "about" that? Not only why do we do it, but why do we seem to find so much joy in doing it?

Will I ever have a job where I have a summer off to spend with my family?

If I come up with any answers I will let you know.......

8000m peaks

I just finished a great book that I would highly recommend. It's a very easy read and is so much more than a mountaineering book. The book is titled "No Shortcuts to the Top" and it's by Ed Viesturs. He is the first American to climb all 14 of the world's 8000m peaks ( at least 26,247 feet tall or 4.97 miles high) without supplemental oxygen.

I could be really tempted to make this post about climbing mountains which has always been a hobby of mine. Personally, I haven't gotten anywhere near 8000m, but I have had the privilege of climbing some really cool places: Yosemite's Half Dome, many of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks, Mt. Shasta and a few others in the north Cascades of Washington. I would be lying if I said climbing one of those 8000m peaks wasn't on my "bucket list" of things to do in life though. My wife would kill me if the mountain and my body didn't. I digress.....

The point I really wanted to make about the book is this. When Ed started climbing mountains he didn't have the goal set to climb all 14 of these peaks. He didn't even dream of such a thing. He just wanted to climb the first one which led him to take the first step. Then the second one and so on. Eighteen years after he started climbing the first one he finished the last peak.

What impressed me most about the book is that Ed started someplace and that led him to the next place until he realized what the end goal was. He didn't plan it out at first, he didn't have a map of what life would look like, he couldn't have told you when and how it would be done. I would venture a strong guess (because I have read the book) that he wouldn't have allowed himself to think that far in the future when he started the first one. He just wanted to get through that one.

Probably time for me to back up for a minute and give some perspective on how/why this applies to my blog. After all I'm not here doing book reviews for you all to read. So here comes story time again.

After college I moved back home with the parents and started construction work. I didn't major in construction at school, but I wasn't super excited about what I studied at school at that point in my life (another post for another time) so construction would do. After a year or so I decided to move on from the construction (many, many other factors that I won't go into here led me to this choice as well) job and pursue other things. I had always wanted to go out west, Colorado especially, and decided it was time to go. An acquaintance at the time had told me a simple phrase that has stuck with me and I in turn have told it to many others.

"Home is always home and you can always come back, you'll never know what you might be missing if you don't go."

This is coming from a guy who lived out the motto not just spoke it. He decided that he wanted to learn to surf after high school He and his brother scraped up enough money to purchase one way tickets to Hawaii. They lived (literally in tents)on the beach and learned to surf while working during the days. He not only went to try out his dream, but also came back home. I have given this advice out to many people who are thinking about doing something different in life. It's great wisdom for even the smallest of adventures.

Within a couple of weeks I was packed up, had rented a trailer for my belongings that I would tow behind my truck, applied to grad school (why not, I needed a solid reason to go to Denver anyhow.....why not spend more money on education!), said my farewells and was off for the great adventure. A week or so later I arrived in Denver with no place to live, no job and not knowing anyone. I had found out along the drive out that I had been accepted to grad school so I guess in hindsight I had a purpose to being there. It didn't really matter to me anyhow because as soon as I saw the Rocky Mountains I knew this was it for me. I am not sure what it is about those rocks that draw me in, but I knew I had found it. I quickly found a place to live and started moving in. Quick side note, don't move to the third floor of an apartment building with no elevators when you have just gotten up to altitude, it will kick your butt. I was so winded and tired from moving my few things upstairs I decided I needed a break. I had seen an advertisement for this place called Tommy's Slalom Shop in the back of my Waterski Magazine and thought I would try to find it. Long story cut short, I found the place and was offered a job working there. Very good luck for me.....I went from no job and no place to live to employed and shelter over my head all within a couple of days. Needless to say I never ended up going to grad school in Denver.

I had found myself in the watersports industry almost by accident. I worked hard (3 seperate jobs), played hard (mountain biking, hiking, waterskiing 5 days a week, snowboarding, etc) and generally enjoyed life in Colorado. What I didn't realize is that I was climbing my first mountain (watersports industry) so to speak. I spent 4 years working at Tommy's and then applied for a job and got hired by a larger company out of California. This company was opening a new store in Seattle and needed someone to co-manage it. How could I pass that up? (see my previous post for information about Seattle's weather and you might change your mind.....I did after I was there) I did a good enough job with that store that they offered me a position down in California managing another one of their stores. The great thing is that this store was to be all mine. To be honest, my view of California at the time wasn't the greatest....I thought it was all Hollywood and so forth, but why not. The money was good and the opportunity was great. I won't bore you with the details, but I climbed the ladder and made my store very successful very quickly. It went from being the number 12 store out of 14 in the company to the number 3 store in one year. Eventually I left there to work at some other companies which turned out to be a huge blessing. After I left the company went under in about 2 years. I wish I could say I was smart enough to see it coming, but really the Lord was just looking out for me.

All of this leads me back to my first post. I had climbed the ladder so far that there wasn't anything left for me to do. I really had two choices: I could pursue a different occupation or I could look to the next logical step, be an owner in the boat business. The ownership idea left me with possibilities for the future whereas the different occupation options was the great unknown. I opted for the ownership route......you can read about that above.

So by now (if you are still reading) you are asking so what does this have to do with the book. Good question. I guess I see it like this. Ed was inspired to keep going, not for the quest of all 14 peaks (although he does admit at some point it did turn to that), but because it was what he needed and wanted to do. That is to say, he needed to keep moving on, needed to keep stepping in a direction, needed to continue to pursue what drove him, needed to continually scratch the proverbial itch. At this point in my life I have a great opportunity that most people don't have. I can start from scratch, a "do over" if you will. I have the ability to find new mountains to climb (the analogy is wearing thin, I know) The questions I have been asking myself these past few weeks are where do I want to go, what do I want to do and how will I do it? I am inspired to believe at this point it is not about the end goal, but finding the place to start (the first or new mountain). For me it may be this opportunity in Portland and a chance to start a completely new career. It might be something else. I can't say that I know right now.

As I sit and wait on the Lord to lead I am comforted by the fact that I am not out of His will at any time throughout this thing. I am not doing anything that surprises God in the least. He didn't look down and go "Whoa, Sean you threw me a curve ball there with the job loss thing. I'll have to get back to you with what's next." He isn't surprised by us and the course of our lives. He isn't wondering what will be next. He knows and is waiting to unveil it in His time. So if all that is true then why am I surprised when I feel so lost with a starting point for whats next? Why is the waiting so hard and so painful? Why do I get filled with anxiety over things I can't control? Why don't I drink deeply of the time that I do have now? I feel kinda like a "connect the dot" picture, but I can't see all the dots and therefor can't see the bigger picture. The truth is I may not ever get to see the big picture. Maybe all I need to worry about is the "dot" in front of me....the first step on the journey.

I know the skills I have honed and acquired in my other jobs will be part of the picture. I also know that Elissa, Evan and I will make it through this thing. I know we have many people who care deeply about us. I know there is a perfect plan for us, but it sure looks fuzzy right now. It must be like looking from base camp up to the top of the mountain.....not sure how I am going to get there (where ever there is), but I'll start with the first step and see where it leads me.

Hopefully you are inspired to read the book, not by what I said or how it applies to my life, but by what you might see in it for yourself. Let me know if you do as I would like to hear your take on it.