Safe and Sound
Thank Goodness Life is Hard!
We couldn’t have done this without help. The moving, the moving….did I mention the moving?
Thank you all for the help you gave during this stressful moment in our lives. We are safe and sound within the home of my dearest friend, who welcomed us with open arms. That’s saying a lot when his lovely house in being invaded by 10 kids, 2 adults and Grandpa. We have 2 lovely bedrooms upstairs and we’re together, safe and warm. We’re grateful.
A friend also helped me get a freelance writing job (thank you Tim and Sarah), which will help as the next Wanted Hero book is written. Evan and Leilani are still up north, Leilani working to pay off her car by next week and Evan, bless his heart, sleeping on Uncle Bob’s floor to watch over his sister while they are away from me. Love those kids. Evan has had the support of the Board Game Designers Guild of Utah while he works on his Trench Wars game, with game shops already setting up demo nights through my brother Jordan (thanks BRO!).
What has touched my heart the most, however, is the love of this community down here. It didn’t hit me until after we arrived that many of our dearest friends had moved this far south over the past 18 years. In just 3 days we have bumped into many familiar faces, smiling and grinning, and arms wrapping around us, telling us how much we have been missed. Wow. What a blessing. Even as I write this, an old friend of Kathi’s rang the doorbell for the first visit in nearly a decade!
So what’s the next step in this new adventure? Well, the focus is always the Wanted Hero story, while working any job I can find to pay back those who have helped us…then onto finding another home. It all balances on the story catching on and selling, which includes the games based on the stories. It’s our future. We know it takes time and so we endure and work as diligently as we can, praying for the best while being ever-so-grateful for the mercy of others.
Oh…and one other thing.
I know you’re having a difficult time as well…but don’t give up.
You know who you are. Yes,…you.
Life has hit all of us and I know you’re struggling just like us, though in your own way.
Don’t give up. It may be hard, it may be painful and you might not know what to do…but don’t give up! Have faith, have courage and take that next step. Be grateful for everything, good and bad (as crazy as that may sound) and I promise you that all will work for your good.
Remember that you’re loved. You may not feel it, but you are. Even if it’s only by me.
Don’t give up.
Talk to you soon.
-Jaime
Working as a family
It’s been a while since I was able to make a post, mainly due to the stresses and rigors of everyday life–coupled with the deadlines (self-inflicted) to publish another book (or three) in the Wanted Hero series.
The experiences we have been having are worth noting, because I have seen a tremendous change in my family…especially the children. As challenges arise from our poverty, each of the children has stepped up in their capacity and assisted the family as a whole. From Evan and Leilani working jobs to keep diapers on the baby and gas in the car, to Jessica and Asia helping mom around the house with meals and laundry, to Nathan who has become my master gardener. Even the smallest ones, Jami on down find ways to come to mom’s rescue by keeping Wynnie smiling and laughing.
That has left dad freed to write with all his might, day in and day out and to focus on the primary bills of the household, which have become substantial.
It may not sound like much to you, but the point I’d like to make is: we have a certain level of harmony in our home.
Harmony that could not have been achieved unless we had been blessed enough to experience the opposite. To appreciate the food we eat every day because we have gone without for a time–always making sure the little ones had enough first. To be grateful for heat in all its forms, when we were forced to cook by firewood and take sponge baths with a bowl of warm water in the shower.
The funny thing is…no one ever remembered or complained about the TV, or the radio or the Internet being gone. Hmmm.
The great blessing I have seen as ‘dad’, is my family working together…as a family. Like they should: lovingly, patiently and with an eye focused on the body as a whole.
We were blessed to go camping this last weekend and to be with our extended family in the mountains. A new friend of ours was so kind as to pick us up, with our gear, drive us there and then come pick us up again a few days later. Just so we could have the experience and get away from the struggles of life for a moment. Thank you Ryan.
It was heaven. Everyone was happy, we worked together, we had rationed out our food and even brought some home. But when I asked the children what they liked the most about the whole trip, the answer was unanimous:
They liked that we were together.
So though life is providing greater challenges, I would suggest that you consider working more closely as a family.
…because when you do, those ‘challenges’ become blessings and experiences you’re not likely to trade for anything.
-Jaime Buckley
Share Tweet Read MoreWhat do you want to be when you grow up?
How often do you think about your future?
Is there anything in your mind or heart that tells you a change needs to occur in your life? Perhaps a small voice or feeling that says there’s more to life than what you’re experiencing?
What do you do with those feelings? Ignore them or act on them??
Being the father of 11 children–schooling them to be self-thinkers and powerfully willed souls increases my desire to encourage others to reach for all they can in their own lives. When I watch my kids learn, make choices day after day …and especially when they come to me asking for council–my heart literally burns with a desire to assist in any way I can, without getting in their way.
If you don’t mind, I want to share something I tell my loved ones: Life is an experience you need to learn in motion. It’s based on choices. Day after day, one choice after another–your choices hinder or help you.
The great part about life is the choice is always yours.
Oh sure, you don’t control anything,…except for how you react.
It was never about control. It’s about making choices to create a flow.
Ever wonder what LIFE means? Let It Flow Effortlessly
It’s about making those choices that guide you to what you want…or take you further from that very goal.
How many opportunities will open when you choose to be kind? When you choose to be respectful? When you choose to exercise manners? When you choose to endure? When you choose to get up one more time than you get knocked down!??
You, my friend, will have the world opened to you.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Choose.
Read More
Keeping Up
When you run dozens of web sites, have a large family and work 100+ hour weeks more times than not, life gets a tad overwhelming. It also makes it very difficult to keep up on your personal blog, which I miss often.
There are times when the lists of projects on your plate can get overwhelming and seem nearly impossible to accomplish. It makes it even more difficult if you have performed so well that impossible becomes the expected standard by those around you.
However, I believe I have found the cure: priorities and lists.
Make sure all you have to do is boldly placed on a list according to priority. Now, when the co-workers, your boss or even your clients approach you with their ‘emergency’, you have a system to take care of being overwhelmed. Simply smile and say you will be happy to assist them, so long as they remove something from that detailed list of yours…and are responsible for the consequences of such as decision. Let it become their worry, not yours and you will find that life suddenly becomes simplified…and a bit more quiet.
It’s wonderful to be needed and even to be a bit important to those around you.
…no one said we had to be driven insane in the process.
Read MoreRoad to Recovery: When is enough enough?
I finally have internet in my new home, with so many adventures to share I wasn’t quite sure where to begin.
Life has certainly had it’s ups and downs, but what has caught and held my mind is: when is enough enough?
When do we stop settling for what we get and reach for more? When do we stop relying on others opinions and develop our own? When do we look at ourselves and say ‘I can do better than that’?
When do we, for Heavens sake, look around us and think that society, our circumstances and the way things are done is nothing more than screwed up?
Have we stopped believing in ourselves to the extent that nothing matters anymore? Sure, life has changed–but isn’t that a good thing when we receive an opportunity to learn, to grow, to become a better self and therefore create a better world? All I saw in the last few years, including my glances in the mirror, was a world getting soft, mean, greedy and out of control. Well that spin hasn’t stopped yet and now is not the time to get complacent.
So what are you going to do about it?
I for one am shooting for the impossible. Not quite sure what that is, or what it will become, but I know that in the limited resources, time, energy and overshadowing evil this world has spawned of late, only the impossible is worth anyone’s time. Playing for second place doesn’t help anyone and holding back your talents and gifts makes you a hindrance, not help.
Arrogant? No. Hopeful is what I’m leaning towards. I don’t know about you or your family, but mine is worth fighting for. It’s worth kicking down those walls of my box and stepping into the light of the New Era and taking a hold of every blessing god has for me.
Mind, body, spirit and environment…a whole new life and world is what I want to build.
Possible? I think so, but let’s see if I have the tenacity and gumption to walk the walk.
Good news is, I never was afraid of being a guinea pig.
Read MoreMy Latest Book
