"Just a Thought" Column continues in La Prensa of SA, 2-15

Just a Thought: Just one more thing

By Steve Walker

Ever wonder why some well thought out plans for the starting of a business or a career change miss the mark? How about pending details of an anticipated marriage/relationship that also fall way short of the anticipated goal? Could there be just one more thing missing in the equation that makes the difference between success and failure?

Have you ever sat down and put pencil to paper to devise a marketing strategy that will make your life’s financial or personal aspirations come to fruition only to realize again that something is missing to ensure your success?

What about that steak you cooked but miscalculated by not putting the right seasoning on it to make it taste just like you liked it? Missing an ingredient?

As I grow older and hopefully wiser, I have posed the question many times, “What is missing in my life?” I know I am not alone as there are many others even my age who ask the same question. At 68+ one would think by now I would have figured out life’s missing ingredient for a successful and productive life.

But then again some of us are slower than others when it comes to decisions that can be life changing for the better rather than the worse. For a few of us who are oblivious to our surroundings due to an apparent bout of attention deficit or an inability to concentrate on one thing at a time, we fail. Guilty as charged.

Obviously many of us are unable to deal with the challenges we face in this life or interpret them correctly for our benefit as we progress in life. The English Playwright William Shakespeare once wrote in one of his plays, “To Thine Own Self Be True.” There are days when I still attempt to fully embrace that one. Notice I said “attempt.” I try to contemplate the true part and sometimes get confused as I search for what is actually “true,” as compared to the alternative. Again it is about just one more detail that is missing.

Growing up I was bombarded with comments like, “one of these days you will hopefully figure it out and make something of yourself before it is too late.” My father’s prognostications were not too positive as I struggled to survive my formative years and especially the teenage years and even into young adulthood. Apparently it is a lifelong process. (Or so I have heard)

In my earlier columns when I first began writing, “Just a Thought,” I related how my father, the nuns in Catholic school and others seemingly placed bets on the eventual outcome of my future success in life or lack thereof. Fortunately for me in most cases their conclusions were off the mark. I chalk it up to being a late bloomer vs. their take. I forgave them.

All those years I felt there was a just one more thing I needed to be successful. Others apparently thought so too as I was stuck with the moniker “one brick shy”  or “my elevator didn’t go all the way to the top,” and “the lights are on but nobody is at home.”

But at the ripe old age of 68+ I believe I have finally discovered the “just one more thing,” I have been looking for all these years and it was right in front of me, inspired by divine revelation. It can be summarized in one simple word. The “just one more thing,” is ‘faith.”

And as always, what I write is “Just a Thought.”

Steve Walker is a Vietnam Veteran and former Justice of the Peace and Journalist