Hog Heaven

I’ve always said that if I won the lottery I would start out by visiting a few of my favorite stores with an empty eighteen wheeler to stock up on the fun things I love for myself and all my friends. One of the first stops would be Cupertino, California, home of Apple. I’m having the rare pleasure of spending a day in the main corporate headquarters today. Our PMTR (Professional Market Tech Rep) meeting for this week will be held in San Jose with an all day visit today to the home of the Mac, iMac, MacBook Pro, the iPhone, iPod, and the new iPad.

Our team had a nice dinner at an English Pub last night, The Duke of Ellington. As I sat at the table, on the out side terrace, with a dozen people, and looked around at my team members and our leaders, I thought again what and honor it has been to work side by side with such talented and wonderful people. Some of these people have become some of my closest friends and associates.

You may get tired of hearing me express my thankfulness, but I hope it serves as a object lesson.
One of the most important things I’ve learned in my walk with our Lord is the absolute necessity of
reminding yourself how much God has blessed your life. Praising God is an act of recognition that He “is” God. When we offer thanks to Him it is also a recognition that it is not us, but Him that matters. The beginning of a great fall from grace starts with the the sentence, “I must be pretty great, look at where I am today.” I believe with all my heart that God’s plan for us is; to work hard, take responsibility for our own actions, and then trust Him with the rest.

I once heard a story about a reporter that asked the then young Arnold Palmer an interview question. It went like this, “Mr. Palmer, you must be the luckiest golfer in the world with all the tournaments you’ve won?” Arnold, always the gentleman, answered, “Well, I’ve been very fortunate, and I’ve also learned the more I practice the luckier I get.”

So there it is a good formula for life, practice and trust God. Most important of all, when He does bless you, remember where the blessings came from and don’t fail to put credit where credit is do.
If you do that, you’ll never find yourself in praise of the wrong source for all the good in your life.

the pilgrim

*Photo note: Apple headquarters at Cupertino, CA. Nikon D3s and 24-70 AFS f 2.8 lens.

The Nikon Professional Services Team