&lsquo;Tis the season of commencements galore (tonight our family had to divide and conquer to attend concurrent graduations), so the once original &ldquo;Oh, the Places You'll Go!&rdquo; has now become tired and trite, BUT, I must say: Seeing a tight-knit group of 52 graduates whoop, holler, embrace one another, and eventually cry with joy&hellip;is a breathtakingly beautiful sight to behold. Especially right up close.
These kids have worked SO hard, for SO long, and often in concert with one another, that it really is rewarding to see them graduate. Something so deceptively simple, but 18 years or nearly 158,000 hours in the making.
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21;">
I do hope they will pause, though&mdash;savor the moment&mdash;before leaning their shoulders into whatever&rsquo;s next.
I don&rsquo;t know about you, but I spent three decades too many looking ahead, living in the future and rarely in the moment&hellip;when all we REALLY have is now, and now, and now, and now. The future is merely a concept, a mental construct, until it manifests in the present as another now.
&bull; &bull; &bull;
&ldquo;I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You&rsquo;re the one who has to walk through it.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Worry is interest paid in advance on a debt that never exists.&rdquo;
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1558224469/z3kzy404nuurhi7czrsb.jpg" width="270" />
"If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended: that you have but slumber'd here while these visions did appear."
&bull; &bull; &bull;&nbsp;
Sure, carpe diem, but stop and smell the roses for cryin&rsquo; out loud. You&rsquo;ve earned it and will never be as young again as you were today.
</div>

My Charge to Graduates

<blockquote>
&ldquo;For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.&rdquo;&nbsp; &mdash;1 Timothy 6:10
</blockquote>
&bull; &bull; &bull;
Beneath the stars and beside a roaring fire, I stood and listened to the words of a wise man the other night; one who has literally seen it all. &ldquo;My mentor told me,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;that all manner of depravity&nbsp;can be traced to five simple sources: sex, substances, money, power, and pride.&rdquo;
All my life I'd heard about pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth.
I don't care how one counts these things,&nbsp;as they&nbsp;feel like "six of one, half a dozen of the other," be they five or seven!
The bottom line is that&mdash;after 49 years on this&nbsp;giant, orbiting hairball&mdash;I'd say&nbsp;the&nbsp;path to peace is&nbsp;not paved with good intentions or great deeds, but rather, with contentment.
Faith, hope, and love are the inward and outward manifestations of a life deeply rooted and well-lived,&nbsp;but&nbsp;contentment is a consequence of self-control (one of nine fruits of the spirit) or, said another way, without self-control there&nbsp;can be no contentment.
Happily, contentment also leads to peace (and peace is a force multiplier), so consider it a two, three,&nbsp;five, seven, or ninefer.
Want for too much more, and one welcomes the wrath of self-destruction into his&nbsp;head and heart.

Contentment

<img src="http://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/w_240/v1512356865/cpzdnt53suqabxh6hhhh.jpg" alt="" width="240" />&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h4 style="text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;">"perseverance, Coming of age, COMPETITION, grit &amp; THE GRIDIRON, Finding father figures, becoming promotable, AMERICAN AIRLINES DAYS WITH BOB CRANDALL, vision &amp; mission, entrepreneurship&nbsp;&amp; personal ownership, parenting &amp; social styles, correctness &amp; culture, the pence rule, surrendering to god, the magnolia miracle, chip &amp; joanna gaines, focus, balance, family, and finally: perspective for trying times"</h4>
&nbsp;
&bull; &bull; &bull;
&nbsp;
FIRESIDE Season One&nbsp;concludes in very much the same vein with&nbsp;which it began: a gesture of remembrance, appreciation, and honor.&nbsp; 
This final installment of 2017&nbsp;goes out as a&nbsp;Christmas gift to&nbsp;a dear mentor of mine, and to his precious family.&nbsp;
I trust the gift fits, for I can think of few other&nbsp;treasures I&nbsp;might be in a position to facilitate beyond that of capturing&nbsp;the&nbsp;poignant oral history of a first generation for enjoyment&nbsp;by the second&nbsp;and&nbsp;third.
What better gift than love&nbsp;itself,&nbsp;anyway, and to hear&nbsp;a father reflect with pride upon&nbsp;his son's roles as husband, father, brother, employer, friend and, most movingly, a man of faith?
And what a wonderful opportunity for&nbsp;each of us to&nbsp;say&nbsp;thanks&nbsp;to a family that has given so much of themselves, so thoroughly, so fully, so authentically, so honestly. I count myself among the many people who have been buoyed by the Gaineses, by their private and public example, and altogether stirred by their testimony and&nbsp;demonstration of goodwill toward men during otherwise and often divisive times.
This being the backdrop and context, then, I offer&nbsp;FIRESIDE No. 17 with Bob Gaines&nbsp;as&nbsp;our finale and last hurrah (presented&nbsp;in the&nbsp;spirit of&nbsp;Paul Harvey's "the Rest of the Story"), primarily opening wide&nbsp;the curtains&nbsp;to Bob's personal and professional journeys (remarkable on&nbsp;their&nbsp;own merits),&nbsp;and secondarily to his exceptional, front-row seat&nbsp;to son Chip's impacts on business, popular culture and, increasingly, altruistic causes and philanthropic endeavors. 
My 2-hour interview with Bob is presented in three parts in two formats.&nbsp;(Whichever medium you choose&mdash;audio or video&mdash;I suggest starting at the beginning, with Part 1, as succeeding parts build upon&nbsp;and reference those preceding.)&nbsp;
Podcast/Audio:&nbsp;
<a href="https://leath.podbean.com/e/fireside-no-17-with-bob-gaines-part-1-the-formative-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 1: The Formative Years</a> <a href="https://leath.podbean.com/e/fireside-no-17-with-bob-gaines-part-2-career/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 2: Career</a> <a href="https://leath.podbean.com/e/fireside-no-17-with-bob-gaines-part-3-magnolia-fever-the-fixer-upper-phenomenon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 3: Magnolia Fever &amp; The Fixer Upper Phenomenon</a>
&nbsp;
YouTube/Video:
<a href="https://youtu.be/YzQhJPZ0LCA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 1: The Formative Years</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/HRPg2H4g_DY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 2: Career</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/MzVDMw6usi4">Part 3: Magnolia Fever &amp; The Fixer Upper Phenomenon</a>
My&nbsp;hope and belief is that Bob's life experiences and powerful words will be&nbsp;an&nbsp;inspiration to you and your family in the coming year&mdash;whatever your role or situation&mdash;as we&nbsp;each endeavor to&nbsp;build better lives&nbsp;(often against great odds of our own) and to more positively impact the lives of those around us.
To that end, and on behalf of all my colleagues at Leath Group and the Leath family, I wish you a&nbsp;wondrous 2018,&nbsp;and thank everyone&mdash;like Bob&mdash;for bringing&nbsp;their tremendous personal and vocational stories to life, and for making&nbsp;FIRESIDE Season One possible.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;
&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1518046755/abi6nuvngjnk3fawdd7w.jpg" width="270" />
&nbsp;
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1514233890/prbvrhxowdkxbj9y7xci.jpg" width="240" />
&nbsp;
<img src="http://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1512880239/nf0qxxkpng29islnobmd.jpg" alt="" width="275" />
&nbsp;
E N D
&nbsp;
Visit&nbsp;Magnolia Market at <a href="https://magnoliamarket.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">magnoliamarket.com</a>, the <a href="https://www.target.com/c/hearth-hand-with-magnolia/-/N-4k98u" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hearth &amp; Hand with Magnolia collection at Target</a>, or the silos themselves (and garden, baking co., and so much more) at 601 Webster Avenue, Waco, TX 76706.
When in Waco, be sure and&nbsp;grab a bite at&nbsp;<a href="https://magnoliamarket.com/our-restaurant-update/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Magnolia Table,</a>&nbsp;opening soon.
Subscribe to <a href="https://magnoliamarket.com/journal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Magnolia Journal</a> for inspirations for life and home.
Catch current and prior episodes of <a href="http://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fixer Upper</a> on HGTV, and <a href="http://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper-behind-the-design" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fixer Upper: Behind the Design </a>beginning this spring.
Follow @chipgaines and @joannagaines and @magnolia and @MagnoliaHomesTX and @MagnoliaRealty on Twitter or Instagram for comings, goings, fun projects, announcements, and general happenings in the year ahead.
&nbsp;
&bull; &bull; &bull;
&nbsp;
AND FINALLY&nbsp;&mdash;
&nbsp;
My heartfelt thanks this&nbsp;season&nbsp;to you, the faithful reader, listener, and viewer, for engaging in and supporting this&nbsp;autumn experiment.
To&nbsp;Rheagan Baker and Amy Taylor for interview coordination and the Herculean task of&nbsp;transcribing approximately 34 hours and 215,000 words of conversation (more than enough to fill four mainstream books).&nbsp;To Sharon Anderson for proofreading and editing&nbsp;it all.&nbsp;To Dave Rigdon for research and&nbsp;FIRESIDE&nbsp;branding, identity, and logo stamp creation.&nbsp;To JR. Forasteros, Richard and Heather van der Dys, Jen Cho,&nbsp;Clay Morgan, and Scott Cornelius for technical,&nbsp;web, podcast, YouTube, and social media leadership.&nbsp;To Stan Chou for 17 beautiful illustrations. To&nbsp;Rob Rigdon for all things engineering (audio and video recording, music, effects, mixing, and sound editing).&nbsp;To Katie Byrd and Dawn Leath for turning this sow&rsquo;s ear into a silk purse or, more specifically, two gorgeous leather&nbsp;volumes for&nbsp;each guest and his/her family.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1514359076/ucqcyzkt17zmx4doabbj.jpg" width="240" />
And of course, my&nbsp;everlasting appreciation to Joe Brouillette, Bob Pennington, Mary Ober, Lou Romero, Gary Moreau, Alan Friedman, Dr. Knute Sorenson, John Moore, Dr. Howard Johnson, Michelle Kinder, Susan Thoma, Bob Spencer, Dick Reynolds, Dr. Steve Buchholz, Ray Harmon, Dr. Charles Lowery, andBob Gainesfor leaping without looking into my tiny dinghy and joining me on&nbsp;her maiden voyage with nary a map, compass, star, proof of concept, nor body of work to&nbsp;preview. I am forever indebted to you for your courage, trust, participation, and setting such an exceedingly high bar in this,&nbsp;our&nbsp;inaugural season.&nbsp;
To learn the impetus behind&nbsp;FIRESIDE, <a href="http://www.leathgroup.com/blog/post/introducing-fireside" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here</a> or <a href="http://www.leathgroup.com/blog/post/fireside-coming-tomorrow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @blakeleath and @leathgroupllc, and (God willing), please consider joining us again next autumn for&nbsp;FIRESIDE Season Two.
To nominate or recommend future interviewees,&nbsp;please contact us at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:connect@leathgroup.com">connect@leathgroup.com</a>.
###

FIRESIDE No. 17 with Bob Gaines

&nbsp;
<img src="http://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1512356320/sppiq7rjhlblrhmkze4s.jpg" alt="" width="240" />
"the adam suit, difficulty changing, instant gratification, blessing others, thank you, position vs. personality, q-tip, burnout, the emotional tank, truth-tellers, the mission in miniature, church lady, the problem with layers, the power of personal, valleys &amp; peaks, the power of belief, psycho-logical, seligman&rsquo;s three p&rsquo;s, practical vs. platitudes, pursuing your dream, looking back &amp; looking ahead"
&bull; &bull; &bull;&nbsp;
In honor of Advent, we present FIRESIDE No. 16 with Dr. Charles Lowery&lt;&lt;in stereo&gt;&gt;.&nbsp;May his words be both a blessing and an encouragement to you this Christmas.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<img src="http://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1512879984/emrm6xngossvbxvcazm7.jpg" alt="" width="240" />
&nbsp;
From&nbsp;our Leath Group family to yours,&nbsp;we send you our warmest holiday wishes.
&nbsp;
<img src="http://res.cloudinary.com/leath-group/image/upload/v1512880123/e2pjisxyvviwta9lpnrw.jpg" alt="" width="275" />
&nbsp;
E N D
&nbsp;
Visit Dr. Lowery at <a href="http://charleslowery.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charleslowery.com</a>.
To learn the impetus behind&nbsp;Fireside,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.leathgroup.com/blog/post/introducing-fireside" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="http://www.leathgroup.com/blog/post/fireside-coming-tomorrow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>,&nbsp;and&nbsp;please join us again next Wednesday, December 27th, for the very special 3-part finale of&nbsp;FIRESIDE Season One.
&nbsp;
###

My Charge to Graduates

Contentment

FIRESIDE No. 17 with Bob Gaines

FIRESIDE No. 16 with Dr. Charles Lowery

FIRESIDE No. 15 with Wilmot "Ray" Harmon

FIRESIDE No. 14 with Dr. Steve Buchholz

FIRESIDE No. 13 with Dick Reynolds

FIRESIDE No. 12 with Bob Spencer

FIRESIDE No. 11 with Susan Thoma

FIRESIDE No. 10 with Michelle Kinder

FIRESIDE No. 9 with Dr. Howard Johnson

FIRESIDE No. 8 with John Moore