| |
I’m writing from my “circle of control.”
The first time I came across this term, I was entering my rookie year as a high school English teacher/football coach and J.R. Eldridge gave me The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
I really dug those habits. They’ve stuck with me. I strive to be proactive. I work hard to sharpen the saw. I seek to understand before being understood.
But sometimes, I still get my circles crossed.
Author Stephen Covey says the circle of control contains all the things you can control. Your circle of concern, conversely, encompasses stuff you care about — politics, the environment, and that one post your friend made on social media — but cannot control.
Most people's circle of concern is much larger than their circle of control. In other words, they worry about things they can't control, and as a result, they worry a lot.
For reasons I won’t get into here, my circle of concern has been ballooning over the last few weeks. So much so, I could feel the circle’s outer edges — the brightly colored latex, if you will — encroaching into my mental space, my daily activities.
This distraction was most apparent when I was with my kids. It was almost like I couldn’t see them, couldn’t hear them, rattling off the highpoints of their day or asking their never-ending stream of questions. I was in a daze, a funk, a cloud of worry caused by things outside of my control.
Thankfully, a book came to my rescue.
No, it wasn’t The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It was a thin little volume called The Tao of Pooh written by Benjamin Hoff back in 1982.
I found the book while thrift shopping with my family. Its cover, which features Winnie-the-Pooh dressed in a monk’s robe flying a yin-and-yang-themed kite, caught my eye. The book cost me two whole bucks.
When I got home, I put aside the tusking Library of America edition of Charles Portis’s collected works and dove into Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, Roo, and how Taoism works within the confines of The Hundred Acre Wood.
Taoism, simply put, is characterized as both a philosophy and a religion that emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao.
But what, exactly, is the Tao?
Roughly translated, it means “the way,” which is, of course, the path that Pooh follows, the path of least resistance. It’s why he’s always smiling, always content with where he is, what he has.
Outside of honey, Pooh doesn’t want much. He doesn’t worry about things he can’t control. He doesn’t force anything. Pooh just does. He is.
Which brings me back to Stephen Covey’s circles. I’ve finally gotten mine back in order. My circle of concern is roughly the same size as my circle of control. The balloon, to put it another way, has deflated.
I’m sure this newfound peace won’t last. It never does. The summer will bring something new to fret over, but at least next time I won’t be alone, next time I’ll have Pooh.
| Books authored by Eli Cranor |
Broiler
Buy the Book
Commissions earned
The troubles of two desperate families—one white, one Mexican American—converge rest in the ruthless underworld of an Arkansas chicken processing plant in this new thriller from the award-winning author of DON’T KNOW TOUGH.
Gabriela Menchaca and Edwin Saucedo are hardworking, undocumented employees at the Detmer Foods chicken plant in Springdale, Arkansas, just a stone’s throw away from the trailer park where they’ve lived together for seven years. While dealing with personal tragedies of their own, the young couple endures the brutal, dehumanizing conditions at the plant in exchange for barebones pay.
When the plant manager, Luke Jackson, fires Edwin to set an example for the rest of the workers—and to show the higher-ups that he’s ready for a major promotion—Edwin is determined to get revenge on Luke and his wife, Mimi, a new mother who stays at home with her six-month-old son. Edwin’s impulsive action sets in motion a devastating chain of events that illuminates the deeply entrenched power dynamics between those who revel at the top and those who toil at the bottom.
From the nationally bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author of Don’t Know Tough and Ozark Dogs comes another edge-of-your-seat noir thriller that exposes the dark, bloody heart of life on the margins in the American South and the bleak underside of a bygone American Dream. |
Don't Know Tough
Buy the Book
Commissions earned
In Denton, Arkansas, the fate of the high school football team rests on the shoulders of Billy Lowe, a volatile but talented running back. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his mother’s abusive boyfriend. Billy takes out his anger on the field, but when his savagery crosses a line, he faces suspension.
Without Billy Lowe, the Denton Pirates can kiss their playoff bid goodbye. But the head coach, Trent Powers, who just moved from California with his wife and two children for this job, has more than just his paycheck riding on Billy’s bad behavior. As a born-again Christian, Trent feels a divine calling to save Billy—save him from his circumstances, and save his soul.
Then Billy’s abuser is found murdered in the Lowe family trailer, and all evidence points toward Billy. Now nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the whole town apart on the eve of the playoffs. |
Ozark Dogs
Buy the Book
Commissions earned
In this Southern thriller, two families grapple with the aftermath of a murder in their small Arkansas town.
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt.
Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend—or in some cases, destroy it. |
| Previous columns: |
• Writing from the morning after a Greta Van Fleet show
• Writing from a Tee Ball Field
• Writing from My Office
• Writing from the shadow of a total eclipse
• Writing From Columbus, Ohio
• Writing from a Dusty Floored Gym
• Writing From: My office with an icepack on my lap
• Writing from the Waffle House
• Writing from: Two-years into this "author" gig
• Writing from: Trut grit county
• Writing from: The rafters in the basement
• Writing from: A land of dripping noses and all-night coughs
• Writing from: Another Dimension
• Writing from Fearrington Village, North Carolina
• Writing from My daughter’s basketball game
• Writing from My thirty sixth year
• Writing from Forrest City, Arkansas
• Writing from Nap Time
• Writing from Winter Park, Colorado
• Writing from the end of the year
• Writing from First United Methodist Church
• Writing from the end of the first semester
• Writing from the cusp of another visit
• Writing from a Razorback Game
• Writing From: The End
• Writing from Oyster Island
• Writing from Jayne Lemons
• Writing from Bed
• Writing from Witherspoon Hall
• Writing From: Coco
• Writing from the Beach
• Writing From: Crooked Creek
• Writing from a Nursing Home
• Writing from a Firework Tent
• Writing from a Boat
• Writing from the Stars
• Writing from the Pool
• Writing from the Kitchen
• Writing from Summer
|
• Writing from Kindergarten
• Writing from Mom
• Writing from a Plane
• Writing from Home
• My second novel’s publication
• A New Marriage Milestone
• An Invitation to the Party
• Writing from a Thunderstorm
• Writing from a Soundbooth
• Writing from “Jazz Beach"
• Writing from the Sabbath
• Writing from somewhere between Little Rock and Russellville
• Writing from my back deck
• Writing from the morning of my thirty-fifth year
• Writing on the day of the college football National Championship
• Writing from the space between breaths
• Writing from 2022
• Writing from the glow of a plastic Christmas tree
• Writing on a rollercoaster of triumph and disaster
• Writing from the drop-off line at my daughter’s elementary school
• Writing with Thanksgiving on my mind
• Writing from the crowd before the start of a Shovels & Rope show
• Writing from the depths of a post-book-festival hangover
• Writing from the Ron Robinson Theatre
• Writing to you on Halloween Eve
• Writing from my bed on a Saturday morning
• Writing from my office with two darts clenched in my left hand
• Writing from the shade of my favorite tree
• Writing from my desk on a Tuesday morning
• Writing from a pirate ship
• Writing from the airport
• Writing from the hospital
• I'm writing from the water
• Writing from my wife's Honda Pilot
• Writing from my office |
|
