Before everyone gets upset, there are a few mitigating circumstances. First, it was early in the morning and still dark, so I am not entirely sure that I ran over the toad. Second, if I did run over the toad, it would have been a total accident. The toad came out of nowhere and I didn’t have time to swerve to avoid it. Third, it was a cane toad, a nasty, invasive species that is overrunning southwestern Florida. These animals have the potential to kill dogs simply by touching our beloved pets. Most of the people in my community have dogs and as you might imagine there is no love lost for cane toads.

And finally, the toad was so entranced while watching the streetlight that it didn’t see me coming. What happens is that the cane toads spend time by the streetlights because the lights attract bugs during the night. And what do cane toads eat? Bugs. The cane toad didn’t see my car because it was only focused on the problem at hand which was its next meal.

But anyway, welcome to the official website of our new company: Blauw Shack Media! It is our hope and prayer to offer hope to the world today through the printed word, blog posts, videos, and anything else we can create. We will be releasing a few books in the last half of 2022, all of them designed to instill hope in those struggling through adversity.

Back to the toad. Often when we are in times of struggle, we are so hyper-focused on making it through the struggle that we miss things right in front of us. Those things, those distractions, that’s where life happens. You’ll see a lot about thriving on our website. The reason is simple: We make the world a better place when we step outside of our struggles and focus on improving the lives of others.

Too bad the toad didn’t understand this concept. He might still be with us today.