{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Gettin' Out of the Funk","description":"I had a tough day the other day. Thankfully, I know a recipe that gets me out of them. ----- My eighteen-year-old son is headed to Tuscaloosa next week for his Bama Bound orientation. My wife and I are going, too. I\u2019m wondering why the parents need a college orientation so I\u2019m tagging along. It\u2019s about a day and a half worth of stuff. As a student, my Tulane orientation was this: \u201cDon\u2019t mess with the New Orleans police department during Mardi Gras,\u201d some guy said from the stage, \u201cor you\u2019ll likely never be heard from again. Good luck at college. Don\u2019t forget to study.\u201d Thursday my oldest daughter left for a month abroad as a part of her college studies. We dropped my youngest daughter off at Camp Mac near Talladega this week where she\u2019s now a worker \u2013 she\u2019s a counselor in training. We are paying for her to be there to work, by the way. She and her twin brother turned sixteen on Tuesday. Long ago in a moment of parenting bravado, my wife and I promised our four kids we\u2019d help them buy a used car when they turned sixteen, but they\u2019d have to save a good bit on their own and we\u2019d be a multiplier for whatever they saved. Today we are on the hook for two cars. Suffice it to say it\u2019s quite expensive around here right now. I knew these days were coming and\u2026they\u2019re here. However, there are moments of doubt when I wonder how this is all going to work, how it\u2019s all going to get paid for and I get, well, a bit anxious. And I\u2019m certain there is no parent that hasn\u2019t experienced something similar. Regardless of the size of the family or the size of the income, parents wonder how they\u2019ll make ends meet. My father sure did. He\u2019d walk through the back door of the house at the end of his workday and we\u2019d ask how his day was and he\u2019d say, \u201cslow\u201d with an uncertain look on his face. Standing in front of him was my mother, my two young brothers and me. Mouths to feed. Clothes to buy. College tuitions. And I had one of those moments this week. In times past those moments immobilized me, but trial and error has taught me a recipe for getting through them. The key is to recognize what\u2019s happening and get started on the recipe. First, I remind myself that I have a perfect record for getting through difficult days. I\u2019ve had many before and yet here I am. One hundred percent perfect record. Two, I need to get outside. Something about being outside. I can\u2019t explain it. Three, I need to do some exercise. Any exercise. Get the blood pumping. And at this point I usually feel the stress dissipating. Four, have a good conversation with someone. Anyone. It gets the focus off of me and gets me out of my head. And five, reread the good books and relisten to the good stories. I just jump in and out of the books and stories randomly to remind myself of the messages. And I did all of this. Every bit of it earlier this week. And it worked. It usually does. I love my recipe. I hate that I have to use it. But I gotta be honest, thank goodness it\u2019s there. I\u2019m Cam Marston and I\u2019m just trying to Keep It Real. ","author_name":"Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston","author_url":"https:\/\/cammarston.com\/keepin-it-real-with-cam-marston\/","html":"