My Journey

My Journey

I set up my blog originally just to talk about some of the amazing places Kathy and I have been blessed to travel to.  I wanted to name my blog something meaningful.  Kathy and I came up with The Joy of the Journey.  Recognizing of course that life is a journey so why not find joy in it.  That’s a choice we make.  We can find joy or just consider everything as one bit of drudgery after another.  After my stroke and subsequent physical challenges I had a choice.  I could continue life with joy and determination or I could just give up and say,“what’s the use.”  I decided to keep moving forward and find joy in everything.  Believe me, this was tough to do at times in 2019.  I struggled emotionally and physically but overall I have a lot to be thankful for.  I’m thankful for my wife Kathy.  If it wasn’t for her I don’t know where I would be.  Find love like I have in her.  Cherish it.  Live for it.  If needed, die for it.  She stuck with me.  Stood by me.  .  Stood behind me.  Stood in front of me.  Made me take stock of my life.  

One of the things I read in 2019 that shook me to my core was from John Maxwell:

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another.  And his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with the way he had hoped it would be.”  

I was forced through my illness to be still and take inventory of my life.  What I stood for, what I wanted my story to look like going forward with the time I have left.

Anyway, here I am, still standing… and waiting, as it turns out.  There isn’t much else I or any of us can do through this virus situation other than just wait.  In my opinion, in these times where so much seems out of our control,  what we need to do is concentrate on everything that’s in our control.  Our attitude and finding ways to help others. What we need to be mindful of is isolation.  We need community more than ever now.  I know it’s difficult because we are supposed to practice “social distancing” but with technology, social media, messaging and the good old fashion telephone we can always stay in touch without actually, you know, …  touching.  We also have our memories.  Memories of our journey.  Kathy and I are big on memories, remembering them, preserving them, and making more.   Take some time to look at old photos, cherish them, preserve them, relive the memories.  It will do you good.  It will remind you how rich and blessed your journey has been.

Carson, the butler in Downton Abbey said this:

“The business of life is the acquisition of memories.  In the end that’s all there is”

To me we should be concentrating on the journey of life not on the destination we want to arrive at.  The journey is way more rich by encouraging and loving.  By putting the interests of others before our own.  Too much of my life to this point has been about me.  About putting my interests ahead of others.  About looking good and being consumed with what others think about me.  The uncertainty I have faced over the last year has changed that.  I’m still a little selfish but I’m a work in progress.  I don’t care so much about what others think about me while at the same time caring about what they think, what they believe, what they fear, what makes them happy, what breaks their heart.

So in times like this we don’t have to be isolated.  We can still talk.  We can still listen.  We can certainly love. 

I’m writing this for someone.  I don’t know who.  Maybe a few will read it, most likely not many.  But I have to believe my words will bless somebody, even just one, in these times of uncertainty.

This is just a start. I hope.  

I don’t have much to do right now but I have things I want to say, things I need to say.  You can read, or not.  If you do read them I would love to hear from you.