Gail B. Hyatt

I just got back from my morning hike. Michael and I have been doing this every morning and we love it. Each day we try go a little bit farther. Today we got up to 9500 feet—our cabin is at 8900 feet. It took us 1 hour and 16 minutes, from start to finish, stopping to eat a little snack before heading back down the mountain.

It’s pretty cool to see that my body can adjust to the thinner air and climb the trail before me. I wasn’t always so willing to take this walk:

(I wrote the following post two years ago. I loved rereading it and thought you might enjoy it as well.):

(All photos for this post were taken on my iPhone.)

Let’s admit it. When it comes to doing things that you know are good for you, you can act like a little child. There are those times when you just don’t want to. Inwardly you feel like a rebellious little brat who just refuses. “You can’t make me.” “You’re not the boss of me.” Read more…

Michael proudly displaying his catch. Our daughter, Marissa,
took this unretouched photo on Michael’s iPhone 5 camera.

We went trout fishing last night in the little pond close to our cabin and Michael nabbed these three beauties for supper. It was a GORGEOUS evening.

There was a rain storm on the mountains off to the southwest, creating the most amazing, everchanging scenes—moving shafts of sunlight, highlighting various portions of mountain forests and flat, sagey valleys below. The sky above our pond was constantly changing as well. Every couple of minutes one of us would say, “Stop. Look at the sky now.”
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Marissa, our youngest daughter, was home for the weekend. She’d been at college for over a year and occasionally came home on weekends to see high school friends, do laundry, and sometimes even hang out with Mom and Dad.

On one of those weekends, we managed to coax her to stay for a leisurely Sunday dinner and catch us up on all the latest events in her life. While the food was being dished onto the plates, she blurted out, “Let’s do Best Things! I’ve been missing it like crazy! Dad, you go first. What was your best thing?” Read more…

Today I’m launching my new site, GailBHyatt.com “because life is a constant treasure hunt.” It’s still a work in progress. I’ll be doing a lot of tweaking in the months ahead,  but I’m excited be off and running. I hope you like it. Glad you’re here.

I’ve been trying my hand at blogging for several years now. I started on BlogSpot.com and then moved to WordPress.com. After five years, and deciding that I want to take blogging more seriously, I made the decision to move my blog to a self-hosted site. I wanted my own domain name, more control and flexibility over my design, and also more security.

Michael and I have been on vacation for the past two weeks, and while we were away, he helped me to get set up on a BlueHost.com, self-hosting server, install WordPress, and pick a new theme. Read more…

What does flying in an airplane make possible? I’m about to land in Austin. The flight from Dallas to Austin is just under an hour. In the twenty minutes that we could have our computers out, I wrote this blogpost.

The flight from Nashville to Dallas was about two hours. Just enough time to get some significant work done. Read more…

As the mother of five daughters, I have had no greater joy than watching my girls grow up into remarkable women. Sure I miss watching them take their first wobbly steps, struggling to master the pedals on a bicycle, and assembling shadow boxes for a 5th grade history project. But watching them grow up and leaving those childhoods behind has been my greatest joy.

Three weeks ago today, Madeline’s (23 year, old daughter #4) boyfriend Shawn was hit by a car while riding his bicycle. It was a hit-and-run accident and he has no memory of it until he woke up in the ambulance. His hip was badly fractured. He had minor spine fractures, numerous cuts and scrapes and a terrible road rash on his hip and leg that was about two feet long.  After being hospitalized following major surgery he came to our home to recover. Read more…

Sunday night. I think it’s my favorite night of the week. Last night Michael and I were sitting in the library. He was working away on his forthcoming book, Platform. He was in the zone. I was catching up on email, blog posts, Facebook, etc. No real agenda. Just reflecting on the past week and planning for the one in front of me.

I love Sunday nights. It’s like a reboot. “Old things are passed away. Behold all things become new.” A brand new week awaits. A week to laugh, to cry, to grow and learn. A week to live.

The past week had been one full of challenges. Read more…

I was at a seminar this past weekend where music was used to enhance the different exercises we participated in.

Upbeat, dance music was played while we all entered the room. This got us excited about being there and put us in a real state of expectation about what we were going to learn.

Beautiful, epic, instrumental soundtracks were used as we reflected and wrote thoughts pertaining to our life and our future. Uplifting and positive songs put us in a state of gratitude and plenitude. Read more…

Yesterday, the Hyatt’s had to say “good-bye” to Nelson, our velvety-soft, floppy-lipped, forlorn-looking, co-dependent, devoted companion.

I’m still in shock. My eyes well up with tears at the mention of his name.

Four days ago, he got into some trash and did what English Setters are notorious for doing—he ate it. Quite a bit apparently. It was the second time he’d gotten deathly ill from eating trash.

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July 8, 1978. Thirty-three years ago today.  Read more…