Never Alone

Posted on April 9, 2025 by richrockwood

Regardless of how I feel, I am connected.  I am connected visually to those who see me at any given moment in time.  I am connected by line of sight to everything I can see outside my windows.  I am especially drawn to the trees.

I am connected by blood to my mother and father, sisters and brothers.  I also carry the blood of my ancestors, from older days in faraway places.

I am connected by faith to everyone who believes in God whether they use that name or not.  I am connected to all who name the name of Jesus as Savior and Lord.  I am connected through hours of bright and moving worship in my local church through the power of the Spirit of God.

I am connected to all who inhabit the same city, the same state, the same country and the same planet.  I am connected to every citizen of every place I have ever lived.

I am connected by gravity to the earth and at night find my eyes drawn to the skies above.

With all these connections, I cannot believe any feeling that tries to convince me I am all alone.  I am never alone.  Never.

Posted in Acceptance, Connection, Culture, Family, Friends, Identity, Life, Loyalty, Perspective, relationships, Sibling | Leave a comment

Just for Fun: The Mouse Boy

Posted on March 31, 2025 by richrockwood

The boy was tiny as a mouse and easily spooked at night.  So, in that darkness, he awoke with a scream after hearing the crash.  What was that? He scampered to the door and looked through the crack at the bottom of the door.  All he could see were black, furry feet.  What could it be, he wondered to himself.

Then he heard a cat.  What was that?  He couldn’t see it, but he certainly could hear it.  It was a cat all right.  And what was he doing?  He had to find out.

He crawled through the crack at the bottom of the door and stretched up to his three inches height.  He saw a monster shadow coming at him and ducked behind a crumpled paper.  

There it was…a monster cat making noises so loud it hurt his ears. What could he do?  Well, nothing really.

He hoped the feline would not spot him, so he held his breath and stayed perfectly still.  Well, almost perfectly, but not perfectly enough.  The monster saw him and bounded to him.  He shivered behind the crumple, wondering what he should do.  No idea!

He yelled at the top of his lungs, but the cat kept coming.  There next to the boy, he swept his paw toward him.  Missed him.  The boy sighed.  Then the giant cat swept again.  This time he pulled the boy to him, paper and all, to within mere inches of his mouth.  

The cat’s giant eyes were blood red.  The boy looked away.  He smelled the cat’s breath and gagged and gagged from it.  The cat made a booming meow sound which shattered his ear drums.

The boy thought he was going to be eaten, but he wasn’t.  Instead the cat put him on the ground and began batting him back and forth between his front paws.  He eventually knocked him across the room behind the sofa.  

The little mouse-boy had been shaken so much by this cat game, his tiny stomach began to churn and boil.  Before long, the morsels he had gulped for dinner were coming up and on to the floor.  The dime sized upchuck gave off a disgusting smell so the mouse-boy scampered to the other end of the sofa.

However, when he got there, he saw one big bloodshot cat eye above an open mouth with stained teeth.  

He would not escape the monster this time.  His luck had run out.

Downstairs, an elderly man bent down to pick up the remnants of the broken dish which up until ten minutes ago had held his night time snack.  

Posted in Fiction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Universal Point of View?

Posted on March 5, 2025 by richrockwood

We each have our individual point of view which is of course limited by only what we see. Wouldn’t it wonderful if we could see things from a universal point of view…like God has?

“Vantage Point” was a 2008 American political action movie which focused on an assassination attempt on the President of the United States. The story is told from the vantage points of several eye witnesses: a Spanish police officer, a Secret Service Agent, the President and an American tourist. It was a clever attempt to make us realize that not everyone takes in what happens in front of them the same. Each has their own points of view.

Finding people, nevertheless, with our same point of view allows us to establish groups (eg. political parties, religious organizations). What draws individuals to a certain faith or political group is a common perspective.

However, while it is constructive to have people come together with the same point of view, these distinct outlooks can actually become a source of friction between groups. People with no ability to tolerate others, can clash with people whose view is different from their own.

Wouldn’t we all be better off if we could somehow reach outside our personal vantage point? If we tried, what would it look like?

Two possibilities come to mind: empathy and compassion. 

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Psychologist Marshall B. Rosenberg wrote this about empathy: “It is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. Instead of offering empathy, we often have a strong urge to give advice or reassurance and to explain our own position or feeling. Empathy, however, calls upon us to empty our mind and listen to others with our whole being.“

Empathy is a way for us to expand our point of view to include others. It creates a community of a different, probably healthier nature.

Another way to expand our point of view is through compassion: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others:

The name William Booth might sound familiar to some of us. One night, he could not sleep, so he went for a walk. He walked down to the poor side of London and there, in the cover of darkness, Booth saw the impoverished and beaten half lives that existed in that setting. The rain was beating down on some of London’s outcasts who were sleeping near the curbsides. Out of that nightmarish experience came the dream and the reality of the Salvation Army. Had Booth not left the security of his own home, expanding his point of view, he might never have become aware of the needs of the homeless masses. 

While it is impossible to view all things in life the same as others do, are there not enough common areas to bring us together? We all have the same human parts (eg.eyes, ears, noses). We all experience pain and disappointments. We all experience loss, getting older, body aches, and finally death. To close oneself off from learning from others, keeps us locked in our own thoughts about life. Being open to new ideas, struggling to understand them , allows us to evaluate them and maybe even embrace them. The American Declaration of Independence put this idea of great value in everyone this way “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–“

William Blake, English poet, painter, and printmaker who has become a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art wrote “The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.” Although we can’t have the precise point of view that someone else has, nevertheless we can react with empathy and compassion to others who are in our lives. 

Reactions?

Posted in Acceptance, Adaptability, Choices, Diversity, Humanity, Letting Go, Politics, Religion, Unity | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Right Kind of Faith Makes Life Easier

Posted on February 11, 2025 by richrockwood

I have been walking the road of faith since May of 1977. Prior to that, I was walking a road which I thought was faith, but actually was quite off the mark. Growing up in church, I accepted its set of beliefs or facts about life, death and the after-life. Part of those beliefs were the Ten Commandments which prohibited certain thoughts and actions. Along with those, the church taught other things like the importance of works of charity and regular giving. The beliefs were summed up in writings like the Apostles’ Creed which I read regularly in church services. All these beliefs were my faith, as I understood it.  I believed it was important to show evidence of it by doing good works. Underlying all of this was the belief that someday the All-Knowing God would judge my life.  

In May of 1977, all that radically changed. With the help of a guy named Dave, I came to see all of that as probably pretentious. I came to see the rituals and regulations as performance which could easily be insincere. I was seeking to please a distant, divine being called God. My motivation was not from the heart, but wanting to persuade Him I was really a good person. 

The problem with this approach was that I often sought meaning and happiness in material things. I couldn’t control or understand my emotions. As a young boy, I was in the habit of confessing my sins to a priest and feeling forgiven. However, by that date in 1977, I couldn’t figure out what I needed to confess to a priest. I just gave up on the whole idea of forgiveness. 

So, in conversation with Dave, I began to see faith as deep longing for an honest connection with God. It was putting aside my fiction of goodness while coming to God just as I was, asking for His forgiveness and a brand new life. I remember saying to him “I can’t come to God. I’m not good enough.” Dave’s reply was “that’s not how it works, Rich. First you let God come into your heart and the change happens from the inside out.” I felt like shouting, but said, “That’s the only way it could work with me.”  Later I accepted the fact Jesus covered or atoned for my sins by His bloody death.

In that special time, I understood faith as coming simply to God, trusting Him for my access to Heaven. I saw that the Bible made clear this access is based on complete honesty about my total and complete need for His amazing grace. So, faith seemed like a surrender of all my thoughts of self-righteousness and coming to a firm trust in His goodness and the promises in the Bible. I finally came to see how this type of faith makes every day life simpler and more manageable.

I see now that stressful, worrisome situations surrendered to God bring great relief and ease into my life. I recently had to interact by phone with support persons regarding a purchase I had made. The first two times I talked with them, I struggled to comprehend their words. They each had a thick accent and spoke too fast. So the third time I had to call for help, I simply whispered “God is greater than the internet.” The person I talked to that time spoke slower and with no accent. She actually gave more than I even asked for!

I am not saying I always have wonderful results like this. What I do experience is a sense of relief when I surrender saying something like “this is too much for me, LORD. I give it to You.” Regardless of what happens next, I always feel relief and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. Other times I just know that I have asked for help from God who has shown He cares and is so much smarter than I am.

So, I have learned that faith in God is a practical and simple tool which can make life much more positive.

I no longer fear death. I have found the reality underneath the words I was first exposed to as a boy.

This kind of faith moved me from a something stiff and stuffy faith to one that I can use every day to make my life easier.  

Posted in Belief, Bible, Church, Contentment, Faith, Fear, Feelings, God, Grace, Guidance, Heaven, Letting Go, Materialism, Perfectionism, Persistence, Providence, Religion, Spirituality, Trust, Values | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Slow Time Down??

Posted on January 29, 2025 by richrockwood

Did you ever wish you could apply some brakes to time? Have you ever spent a gratifying day with a friend, a loved one, or doing something you really enjoyed on an unsurpassed summer day? Toward the end of that day, did you wish you could freeze your life in it for a very long time? 

I can recall thinking after one of those days, “well, now that the weather is as it should be, could it stay just this way every day.” It never does. The world turns, the winds blow, machines break down. Things in our life are in constant flux.

One of the interesting things I have noticed about myself is the older I get the more I appreciate time I can spend with children. I love their innocence, their enthusiasm, their excitement from new (for them) things which I have known about for a long time. Along with this I have wanted those little people to remain as small children, clinging to my hand as we walk across the street, paying rapt attention as I read a story to them. They pay attention and are endlessly fascinating in their cute ways.

During my life, I have seen so many children become adults (which I still enjoy), and I feel a bit of loss that they are no longer children.  Life seems to move so fast and it seems that children grow up too fast. I thought about this recently and came up with some ways we can stop time and re-experience it in heart-pleasing detail.

Most people seem to have phones that have a camera feature and I’ve noticed many use them to chronicle the growth of their children. My wife’s youngest son and his wife have a three year old girl and now a months old baby boy. My wife received a digital picture frame from her sons for Christmas a few years ago and they and their wives now send pictures of themselves and their activities to it so we have constantly changing pictures in a frame for us to enjoy. Pictures and videos are a wonderful way to freeze the way children looked and acted at those certain moments in time. One might even say with a camera we can do more than slow life down, we can actually apply brakes at special moments in our lives.  

Another feature many phones have is audio sound recording. How precious are the voices and sounds of children. As the child matures, his or her voice changes. What a wonderful abilitiy we have to freeze the sounds of their voices right now. Isn’t it a treat to hear special people’s voice when they are not around.  One voice I would dearly love to hear again is the sound of my late mother. Using our phone’s voice recorder is another way we can temporarily stop the movement in time

Also, I have adopted the practice of keeping a journal of each day’s activities. It’s a way to stop life in words so I can go back and relive my experiences. It’s also an aid to memory when certain parts of an experience can’t be recalled. Journals are yet another way we can freeze bits of time and look back at them in the future.

Getting back to the children, another practice is to get down to their level and play with them. I think it is common knowledge that children learn about life through their play. When we get down to their level, listen and play with them, we may be helping them learn something about life and, at the same time strengthening the connection with them. 

The song “Turn Around.” by the Kingston Trio, written by Alan Greene, Harry Belafonte, and Malvina Reynolds has these lyrics

Where are you going, my little one, little one? 

Where are you going, my baby, my own?

Turn around and you’re two. Turn around and you’re four.

Turn around and you’re a young girl going out of the door

The swiftness of life can seem dizzying at times, but we have some tools to halt and relive the good parts, or even the bad parts we’ve made it through. We have phone cameras, phone audio recordings and journalling to apply the brakes for the special times of our lives.

 

Posted in Aging, Attitude, Cameras, Children, Family, Grand children, Grandmothers, Grandparents, Home, Old Age, Parenting, Photography, Priorities, relationships, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

It Was Sixty Years Ago this Year

Posted on January 22, 2025 by richrockwood

They will always tell the unvarnished truth
You can’t go back in time
Never go back to the days of your youth
Blocked from reliving your prime

But truthfully I want to get back to the days
When “cool” or “hip” were the words
We used when we wanted to give out praise
If we didn’t like you, you were a “nerd”

We knew ‘the times they were a changing
And we thought you’d understand
We thought everything needed rearranging
And only wanted our girl friend’s hand

And in the place, the House in New Orleans
All were warned never to go
O Mothers tell your sons to just flee the scene
It’s ruined many a poor boy

The answers we sought were blowing in the wind
But all we heard was the silence
Our parents thought we were much too thin skinned
Yet we grasped each issue in its essence

So we took to the streets, marched with our signs
And we sang “this land is our land”
We wanted to rise up and shine, shine, shine
And as for war, we wanted it banned.

So we rocked and rolled with no satisfaction
For every time there was a season
We demanded there be pure, righteous actions
For every virtuous act has a reason

We remember Sergeant’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
And their hair that was soft and lengthy
We were surprised that hair belonged to a band
Who were able to please please us quite musically

I don’t accept that “unvarnished truth”
‘Cuz maybe I can go back in time
All the way back to the days of my youth
Enjoy again the days of that prime

If you’d like to try to Get Back or sample the 60’s for the first time:

Search for “Sixties” at one of these sites or one of your own choosing

  • You Tube-for clothes, culture and music
  • Spotify-music
  • Amazon Music
  • Apple Music

Posted in Adventures, Aging, Beatles, Clothing, cool, Culture, Entertainment, Hair, Hippie Movement, Memory, Music, Peace, Seasons, War | Leave a comment

The Realities of Getting Old

Posted on January 13, 2025 by richrockwood

Someone once said “getting old is not for wimps.” As I approach my eighth decade of life, I can wholeheartedly agree with the statement.

Thoughts about it started with my first warning about old age: “old people do not regularly get a full night’s sleep.” I used to sleep straight through the night, but for the last several years I am usually up at least twice every night and sometimes four or five times. Now it feels like my night’s sleep is a series of two hour naps. When I first heard of this change in sleep habits, I thought I would not like it. However, I can honestly report that I have adapted easily to this and accept it as my normal sleep pattern. 

Another change has been the recurring difficulty of remembering details I want to share with another person. I come to the point of including the name of a central person, thing, or place and I can’t seem to pull it up at the right moment. It’s frustrating, but I am learning from other people around my age that memory lapses are happening to all of us. So, rather than feel bad or inadequate, I just laugh it off. And, the good part of this is, sometimes the word I couldn’t recall comes to me later. This recently happened when I was with my brothers and I finally remembered the name I couldn’t think of ealier and I just blurted the name out even though it was no longer a part of the conversation. I think we older people are in the habit of giving each other grace with some of these things happening to us.

One of the truly hard things, however, is people who were a part of my life dying. I get used to people being a part of my life, never imagining at some point they will leave it. When I lived in upstate New York there was a man I used to see and greet who seemed larger than life. I never imagined that he would someday not be around, until it happened. On a different occasion, I was talking to a man older than me who casually mentioned that he didn’t expect to be around much longer. That was a jarring statement.  I recently heard Jerry Seinfield say in a monologue that all the young people we see around us are “our replacements.” That too gives me pause. Someday I’ll not be here.

The color of my hair has gone from reddish brown to white and the top is disappearing like melting snow. My wife recently took a picture of me holding our little grandson, August, and I was shocked at how bald I am.  I still have enough hair in the front to brush so when I gaze at my reflection, I don’t see the vast open spaces in the back. And I’m not alone in the changes. I see other people my age gaining weight and losing hair. I see formerly handsome and beautiful faces look more serious and weathered. Then there are the discussions when we older folks get together and talk about our physical issues. Someone recently humorously referred to these talks as “organ recitals.” It’s true. When I was young I thought such conversations were boring. Now I find myself needing to talk to friends and family about the changes in my body. The physical changes in my appearance are indicators of the changes going on in my thinking, emotions, and overall feelings. 

The last thing I will mention is my loss of desire to travel. I am quite content to spend each day at home going through my normal routines: exercising, Bible study, getting together with friends, having Date Night each Friday with my wife, worshipping in church with friends. I am content with my life the way it is. When I was young, I wanted to travel to different countries and learn about other cultures. This is no longer the case. Some of this may be due to my physical challenges and part of it may come from knowing where everything is and what I have to do each day.  Change is difficult.

Reading this, someone might think that I am depressed. I am not, actually I am content. I am finding that my mind and heart are resilient and I have been able to adjust and accept these changes as challenges and opportunities to grow and mature.

Getting old is a natural part of life too and I can honestly say I am enjoying it. We humans are great at adapting to change. However, I believe that old age is an individual experience. Not everyone has the same time of it. For me, faith in God and an openness to His plan for my life have made a great difference for me. I see signs of His love and care which give me the ability to power through and accept the many changes, if  not as they come then a little later on. One place where I find comfort and assurance written with such clarity and force in our Catechism put together by Christians in Heidelberg Germany which is accepted in my faith tradition.  

Question One: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

Answer. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Posted in Acceptance, Aging, Appearance, Contentment, Faith, God, Health, Memory, Old Age, Reality, Retirement, Spirituality, Time, Worry | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Living the Ideal in the Real World

Posted on January 8, 2025 by richrockwood

In my life, there has been one large, painful lesson to learn. A problem appears when something in life affects me in a manner that does not match my ideal. Starting at an early age, I was taught to be kind and loving to other people. And they, in turn, would be kind and loving to me. It’s called the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The assumption being that when I treat others kindly, they will treat me kindly. 

What If Others are Unkind?

What are we to do when someone bullies us? What about a situation in which someone less deserving (in my opinion) is chosen over me? And I was doing everything right as my mother had countless times told me! How am I supposed to handle things and people in the real world that do not match the ideal I’ve heard so much about. And what about you? How do you handle situations when the “real” falls far short of the “ideal?” I wanted to take some time and write about this because I have found these discrepancies are both confusing and stressful. 

Where Do Ideals Come From?

Where do these ideals or ideas come from? Much of mine came from my mom who was a single mother raising five children by herself. She was the only wage earner for the family. She was not given the luxury of careful reflection on her beliefs and how best to impart them to her five kids. I know it was rough on her because sometimes, she would get our names mixed up. At the time, I laughed about it, but it may just be that it revealed a mind often working in high gear to keep up with all the challenges she faced. I have to give her credit for doing the best she could to uphold the ideals while living in a pressure cooker real world. How was she able to do it?

A big help from what I saw was her faith. We had to attend church, say our prayers, confess our sins to a priest and try to live a sin-free life. I desired this above all else in my early years. I even told her I wanted to be a priest, which meant full immersion into the laws and traditions of that faith. However, seminary for me lasted only two years because I found I could not handle being single the rest of my life. In that situation, I was able to recognize and accept that I was a young man who wanted some day to marry. In that decision, I was able to keep my ideal, wanting to be close to God, while dating in hopes of finding a godly wife.

A Painful Lesson 

During the course of my life since, I have faced situations in work that made me feel unappreciated. In one situation, the promotion I thought I deserved was instead given to someone who seemed more interested in corporate politics than doing the work. In the end, I quit that job and moved to the West Coast where I lived a few years earning minimum wages. I finally came to believe that God actually cared for me and that many of the difficulties I experienced and would experience were tests of my faith. I had first thought of them as punishment, but was able finally to see them as tests which could actually make me become a stronger person. 

Coping Methods Used by Some

Some may resort to addictions to give them a temporary high while undergoing a stressful and confusing time. I can include myself in this group at times without going into specifics. My experience and the experiences of many others I have listened to is that the high from addictions last only a short time and are always followed by feelings of guilt and shame.

Some choose to become angry and resentful because the disconnect is more than they can bear. The outlook on life in general and their life in particular can turn sour because of physical, emotional and even spiritual suffering. I have also walked this dark valley at times of my life. This approach tended to isolate me from others and was mentally exhausting.

A Way That Works For Others

Some, however have found strength in their faith. Along with them, I have learned that we can turn our troubles over to God. When we come into a situation that doesn’t fit our ideal, we can accept it as a chance for growth and development. In our acknowledgment of the challenge, some of us will say a prayer asking for divine strength to power through. These discrepancies between our ideal and our reality can actually be pathways to growth.

I recognize just knowing this truth is not going to make a difference in my life. I have to practice these surrenders every time things seem too much for me. I recently had to deal with technical support for an issue I was having with my computer. I had already had two interactions with persons who had thick accents and spoke quickly. I had to ask them continually to repeat what they said. So, the third time I had to call them, I surrendered the outcome to God saying softly to myself “God is greater than the Internet.” This time, I got a person who spoke American English, was an older person who spoke slower and was able to help me more than I even asked for. I was greatly relieved to get the issue finally solved and to have a great experience in the process. This type of blessing has happened a number of times when I encounter a situation or problem that is too much for me to handle. Technology seems to be one of those areas where the ideal of smooth handling of all my work does not match the stressfully complicated issues I run up against. 

It’s An Ongoing Process

Trusting God with these discrepancies is an ongoing thing. It’s never “one and done.” I have to remember and to trust God each time a discrepancy comes along. And…they will keep coming.

For anyone who can relate to an inconsistency in their life, this alternative might be just the way through the confusion and discomfort. When the situation can’t change, you and I can better cope with it, by changing how we respond to it. 

The following verses give advice from the Apostle Paul, who endured many high stress and painful circumstances. Philippians 4:6-7 (English Standard Version) “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Posted in Acceptance, Adaptability, Addiction, Adversity, Alcohol, Attitude, Belief, Bible, Choices, Christ, Conflict, Faith, Feelings, Letting Go, Peace, Persistence, Relaxation, Religion, Scripture, Spirituality, Suffering, Trials, Wisdom | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Appreciating the Human Body

Posted on January 1, 2025 by richrockwood

I don’t understand why but for the last year or so I have become fascinated with the things my body is able to do. I see these abilities as insights into the genius of our Creator.

The first one I mention is one I actually have been impressed by since my youth.  That is my ability to walk. When I focus on it, I see it as a wonder that I can move my body from one place to another without really focusing on the commands my brain must give and the responses of my legs. When I first saw this as a wonder, I hoped I would never outgrow my appreciation of this simple bodily action. This ability often comes to mind making me appreciative of my body’s complexity.

Recently, I was aware that each of my arms were involved in different sweeping movements on on the front of my body. Then, while those were happening independent of each other, my mind was aware of the two movements. So, my brain was split into handling more than one assignment at a time. I think in current terminology this would be called multi-tasking.  Along with this, I have noticed that when I want my arm to take an action, there is no complicated process that slowly takes place. As soon as I think of it, my arm responds. It’s a split second reaction. Being aware of this makes me view my brain like a computer. What a gift from our creator for every functioning brain.

Along with the ability to generate commands a functioning brain is also able to look at situations and people and sometimes comprehend them. It draws on things learned either formally or generally in life and applies those things to what it sees or is experiencing. I remember a professor in seminary saying that he believed one of the proofs for the existence of God was a person’s ability to look through a telescope into the skies and understand what he sees out there. Compreshension is another gift generously given us by our Creator.

Another gift is memory. This is something I am appreciating more as I get older. It’s not as quick as it once was to bring memories to mind. But there still are things from my life long ago that I can vividly recall. For example, I remember in grade school, another boy and I were kicked out of the class play because we couldn’t stop giggling. I felt helpless and cool as I thought he and I were in a better place somehow. It seemed more fun to laugh at what was going on. And, after being tossed out, I didn’t feel any shame. I felt relief. Now, how could I remember something so unimportant in the scheme of things. Somehow I still can. I’ve noticed events like this one seem to have been stored in a place in my brain that was more easily recalled. However, memory is not so good as it used to be because right now I can’t remember what I did this morniing. Still, like Bob Hope used to sing at the close of each of his overseas shows for US Armed Forces. “Thanks for the memories.”

Although there is more to list here, I will close with my attitude of thankfulness. I was taught by my mother to be thankful, but she has been gone from us for a long time…and I am still regularly thankful.

So, when I think of only some of my body’s parts and abilities, I am reminded to think of the intelligence and creativity of the Creator.  

Posted in Adaptability, Aging, Appreciation, Belief, Computer, Creation, Exercise, Gifts, Humanity, Life, Medical, Memory, Old Age, Providence, Self-Discovery, Self-Worth, Spirituality, Thankfulness | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Happy? New Year

Posted on December 27, 2024 by richrockwood

We’re here again-at the start of another new year. The typical greeting (or is it a wish?) we give each other is “happy new year.” Is that what we all really want? To be happy, according to the Apple Dictionary is to be “cheery, merry, joyful, jovial, jolly, jocular, gleeful, carefree.” Could anyone go through an entire year this way?

I suspect what we are really saying, in the exchange, is that we hope each of us will have a year free of trouble and difficulties. This is certainly desirable, but is it the best way to go through a year?

Let’s say a person goes through an entire year without one single challenge, trial or difficulty. What would that person have learned? Trials and difficulties are challenges during which we can grow mentally, emotionally or spiritually.  

When I was on a temporary ministry assignment, I contracted Hepatitis A (a virus spread by contaminated food) which meant I had to stop working. Before I knew what I had, I spent three days in a motel room alone, feverish and nauseous.  I did not have health insurance, so I needed to keep expenses down. I attended a health clinic where I was told what I had and that I needed to be in isolation for about a month. I flew back to Michigan and stayed alone in my mother’s apartment while she was down in Florida.  

When I got back to Michigan, I questioned why this had happened to me. I thought as long as I was doing what God wanted, I should have a life free of troubles and difficulties. Little did I know or realize that this experience, languishing on a bed in a motel for three days, would help me understand what it feels like to spend hour after hour on a sick bed. The memory of that experience reminded me, through all my years in ministry of the importance of visiting church members who were hospitalized. That knowledge never would have come to me any other way. 

As uncomfortable as trials and challenges can seem, they actually are opportunities to learn more about ourselves and our world.  

I don’t expect the whole country is going to change their New Year’s Greeting because of this blog. But if the blog serves to change some people’s thinking about challenges and tribulations, it will have served its purpose.  Seeing challenging times as opportunities for real and permanent growth, would give us all better perspective on the difficulties 2025 has in store for us. Maybe a better greeting would be “A Successful, Strong New Year.” Some alternatives might be: “A Year of Growth to Ya!” or “God be with You this New Year!” or “May You overcome  all the challenges this year holds for you!” or something you come up with.  

All the best to you in 2025!!!

Posted in Acceptance, Adaptability, Adventures, Attitude, Balance, Challenge, Choices, Courage, Fear, Holidays, Learning, Life, New Year, Perseverance, Prayer, Spirituality, Stress, Tests, Uncategorized | 2 Comments