The Weekend Trader - Raising the Sails

On the heels of Wednesday's "Getting Restless" post, and as I approach several mile markers over the coming weeks and look to the next phase of my trading & life -- and at the risk of sounding a bit like "always but never retiring" Brett Favre -- I can't help but again wonder if this public trading journal has run its course.

Such a question also comes at a time where I wonder where my true focus should lie as I get ready to enter a new phase in my life.

Whether you call it a mid-life reassessment (I refuse to use the word "crisis", as it clearly isn't) or some other term, the fact is that I'm about to reach several mile markers which are getting closer to the end of the road than the beginning.

I had a similar feeling about a year ago.  Instead of duplicating the content here, I'll simply direct you to last summer's post of similar reassessment as focus shifted for a brief period from self to group.

I've always told myself that I'd keep blogging as long as I felt it was helpful.  And as I look back at two years of writing, I feel I've fully accomplished my initial goal of open and candidly sharing the ongoing challenges, successes, and stumbles of a bona-fide trader in this performance-driven field.  For such was always my goal, from that day when I ended my self-imposed exile from public view to this very moment.

It's all here, with many of the highlights listed in the Key Post list in the lower left hand margin.

And I mean all, with specific and purposeful emphasis on the occasional pain, disappointment, frustration, burn-out, and momentary (but long forgotten) October '08 and May '10 daggers to at least try to offset the forever-rampant industry hype.

Yet most of all, this blog was intended to be a documentation of the human spirit.  A formal record showing how, with the grace and strength from God and support of others, we can strive to overcome life's imperfections.

How else can we explain one trader coming off the mat again and again and again -- and again -- to overcome his humanity and achieve what some might consider the improbable on a sustained basis?

How else can we explain Chelsea's incredible story of managing a daily life-threatening situation to overcome the odds and accomplish more in 18 years than many do in 90.

And as I approach various markers over the coming days -- including the 2 Year anniversary of the blog, 1 Year anniversary of the Boston Bamboo Trader's Picnic, 1 Year anniversary of the Jellie launch, Chelsea's graduation party & 18th birthday (both yesterday), and beginning of our empty nest years -- I'm convinced more than ever that in our case, part of our mission is to inspire others to never give up on life.

Not only not giving up on life, but living it abundantly and to our fullest potential.

For as in this video which I first posted last July, life at times is going to do its best to shake us to our very core.  The winds and rains will come -- hard -- and try to drown our strength and motivation.  Some will even revel in seeing us flounder.

Yet as Truman did, perhaps it's simply our job to hold onto that rope and raise the sails so God's wind can direct us to that open door.  And we all have the rope burns to prove it.

So long this remains our mission and there's more to share, the virtual blog pen will remain in hand.

And if life's sails direct us otherwise?  We'll try our best to go where the wind carries us.

Happy Father's Day.