The talk of the town

There is no doubt what the talk of the town is today. I could write that the talk of the town is the talk of the Country and even the world. The Coronavirus, or simply Covid19 is what folks are talking about everywhere. In December 2019 I know for me, I wasn’t thinking that in September 2021 we would be talking about this virus as I am writing and thinking about it today. Over 200 Countries in the world with over 76,023,488 individual cases as of December 2020. A lot transpired in one year, and now, 9 months later, we see the variant continues to impact the lives of thousands upon thousands alone here in the United States. It was January 21, 2020 that the first case was documented in Washington State. The person to person contact has been devastating on every imaginable front, and worse, every front unimaginable. Who would have thought automobile production would be halted because parts were unavailable? Food shortages as suppliers and distributors were unable to gather and ship food because of the spread of the virus. Who would have thought that students would go to school as their classrooms would become virtual as their schools would be locked down because of this pandemic? Did you imagine that tiller parts and lawn mover production would be halted or even the fact that Mason Jars would become an item stores would be unable to stock? The impact of Covid19 has touched every aspect of normal living to the point where today, the conversation of what is normal is challenging to describe or predict. What has become normal is that no one knows. The government has not been reliable with information. Our medical family practitioners, the doctors we have known our entire lives, or at least for many years, the doctors we refer to as family, they have been wondering, shaking their heads and at a loss as to what to advise, prescribe or how to explain this crisis that continues across our land. The talk of the town is our disbelief as to the impact on our families, the hospitalizations, and the most costly impact, the deaths of our loved ones, close friends, co-workers and those we know through life's travels. The talk of the town is now at a point where people are mad, confused, angry, stunned ad not sure what to do as we all should be looking for our role in this crisis that is not somewhere else, but that rather is right here at home, in our communities, in our churches, on our son or daughters sports team and in our schools. There is no facet of life not impacted today. My heart breaks for those whose lives have been lost, for those who have battled for their lives and for those standing around wishing to find someway to make things better. I personally have taken the vaccine, I took two shots. Having been someone who has faced serious life health issues, and as someone who has taken plenty of medications where I signed to release liability understanding the medical communities suggested treatment was all just a trial test. It was a guess with a hope that things would help me and I gladly signed up. Why you might ask, well thanks for asking, my answer is simply. I will choose quality of life over quantity of years every time. Everyone must make their own decisions, I get it, but your decision also has a huge impact on those you know and don’t know. I’m asking those I know to please do the right thing, if not for you, for those you know. I believe it really matters. Until then

No one wants to be dependent on anyone or anything. Independence is the goal. We love the idea of freedom. Being able to pick and choose, do what we like and want to do. The thoughts of being dependent on someone else makes us feel weak and we might even have the image of “us” waiting around, just twiddling our thumbs, waiting on “that” other person to show up, to let us in, or do what we can’t. If that’s you're thinking, there is no questions about those feelings. We’ve all been there a time or two in our lives and we might even be in such a situation right now. That is the feeling of helplessness and most of us immediately reject such type of thinking. Being strong is considered a positive image and I’m not disputing that is a positive image, because it is. However, strength can be demonstrated or measured in many ways. The word strength does’t seem to match with the word dependency. The word independence doesn’t seem to match well with the word dependency. The word freedom doesn’t seem to work well with the word dependence. However, I am suggesting that to recognize appropriate dependency is a great strength. Recognizing needs and solutions is a great strength. Recognizing surrender is a step to freedom, might seem to be totally out of step, but dependency and understanding work hand in hand when properly applied. In an attempt to be wise, I heard an individual say, “I make my own decisions.” I like the confidence and resolution of the statement, I even like the thought and attitude, but such a position that eliminates the clear need of help, assistance, direction, support and aid in life, will leave you stranded along life’s highway if you don’t take due notice. Dependency identifies a condition. I have been many things in life and I continue to remain dependent upon God. I am not writing this to be spiritually superior, I am sharing this because it is a truth that took the repeated experience of Him carrying me, to finally recognize. Being dependent Sid the best spot for me. I’ve branched out enough, I’ve done my own thing, and repeated that process over and over, thinking that I might discover a different result somehow. Sounds like insanity, because it is. I know I have no ability to control anything. I can share this because I’ve attempted to control many things. I have thought, I had things figured out, to just discover myself broken down along that same road of life you might be traveling today. I found strength in surrendering to God’s plan and purpose for my life. I found strength in acknowledging my survival depended totally on the shoulders of another. That other person is Jesus Christ in my life. I found strength in confessing my need for direction, wisdom and help. I have actually found more than I could have ever imaged through faith, because of God and His plan and because of Jesus and His obedience to God’s purpose for His life. The best decision I ever made in my life, was to begin my journey of faith and following God’s call on my life. I am confident you too will discover this same truth, but trusting God’s plan and purpose for your life. Until then

Two wishes

Of all the things one could wish upon another, here are two that I believe we can all use. Thankfulness and purpose. We will often overhear someone say “I wish you well”, “we have confidence, you can do this”, which are positive, but the same can be said for hearing the negative too. People wish a lot of thing on others and it is not always good. Hearing another say “I hope they get what is coming to them”, that is normally a negative expression, as if when this happens it will be an opportunity to get even or see justice performed. I never want to wish negative things on folks. To be honest, the positive can be challenging enough to handle so I’m staying away from any negative wishes on any friends or foes of mine. Thankfulness and purpose are attitudes that I believe are a benefit that also work hand in hand with each other. Being thankful one could describe as a needed discipline almost. It appears that there are many that have no sense of thankfulness for anything, anyone, any experience or any opportunity. The only way, I suppose one develops such an attitude, is because of the lack of exposure to gratefulness. I can easily create a list of things that I’m thankful for and that list always begins with a list of names for me. People who took time from their lives and their families and who gave themselves and their time to invest into my life is a gift. Their gift I want to be thankful because I recognize its impact on my life. Time is a beautiful thing, especially after we have granted time the opportunity to grow and we can clearly spot the impact of another’s investment into our lives. Purpose and thankfulness work well together because once we can count the contribution of an opportunity before us, we can clarify our interest in things, we can consider directions we could go and we can set goals that will help us fulfill our new found purpose or we can re-established that which we allowed to fall by the way side because of distractions. Purpose is that moment in our lives when the lights go off, purpose is that moment when things align together and we see the bigger picture for the first time. Wishing luck, sending out good vibes, and hoping the best for folks is positive and I’m confident that no-one in their right thinking would reject such an attitude suggestion of good wishes. Yet, thankfulness and purpose, when embraced, appreciated and understood have a lifetime of change and impact. There are many expressions that describe a hand in hand connection. We comfortably say without any explanation, peanut butter and bread, cheese and crackers. These things we understanding clearly, but thankfulness and purpose might need little more attention on our part. An action plan for being thankfulness and an action plan on living with purpose changes everything. The next time you get ready to wish anything on a friend, neighbor or a family member, I’m suggesting you wish thankfulness and purpose. They might be a little taken back by your expression, but tell them “preacher” said, these two are good traveling companions, Until then

During the midst of challenging times

Sickness, illness, chronic health problems, challenging times, some folks are blessed to never really ever experience. I’m not talking about avoiding the doctor, we all know those folks that refuse to go to a doctor, but I’m talking about folks who have been blessed to avoid any significant health issues in life. For individuals who have faced some aspect of health moments in life, if they were short lived, you are never so happy to have gotten that moment behind you. Of course time is always a relative matter when it come to comparisons, but I’m not attempting to compare sickness or illnesses, but short term and long term chronic health issues have their own set of challenges that are different from one another. The impact on family is also different depending on the circumstances faced, that care required and ones availability to render aid to their loved ones or friends. There are plenty of folks who face such moments in life totally physically alone, their constant contacts and interactions are with health care providers, facility staff members, aids, or others helping in their care that are unrelated. Having spent time in 5 different nursing homes I can easily write about those moments from my personal experience too. What becomes an overwhelming force in ones life because of health challenges, is the manner in which we embrace the experience and the attitude and understanding we hold too, when we experiencer or walk through these types of moments in life. This embracing philosophy is important for the individual and the family alike. Often times one side of this equation is either the positive to the negative or in worse case is the demonstration of negative no matter what. Doom and gloom are real factors in life, I know individuals who have like a bachelors degree and even one or two who holds a masters degree on the subject. If you have avoided health challenges in your life to this stage, congratulations, you may very well be an individual who never faces such moments, but if you are the flip side of this coin of life and if you are a Christian, then elements of doom and gloom are not us. We have been eliminated them with sunshine and hope because of our faith and confidence that God does all things well, in His time. We have accepted sunshine and hope because of Romans 8:28, and I can easily testify to what I have learned and I can share examples of how this single scripture has molded my mindset and my life. Christians who experience and endure health moments in life have a testimony that some can identify with, while others can only hear and believe because of the words and experience shared. We Christians who have experienced and endured also have a unique moment to demonstrate through the midst of such times, the Grace of God. Don’t miss your opportunity, if I’m writing about you. Until then

Carson Cade Elliott wants to be a "Skeleton"

What do you want to be when you grow up? Just typing the question causes me to reflect about the way the question changes from childhood to adulthood. As adults the question shifts from a desire to learn about your interest in what you want to be, to more of a statement of you haven’t a clue. It normally reads something like this: “You had better decided it’s time for you to grow up” or “when are you ever going to grow up?” I’m smiling because I don’t recall the various individuals who might have asked me the first question as a child, but I can easily recall the last person who told me I needed to grow up, lol. I am going to save the last statement for another column. We will title it something like how difficult it is to grow up or don’t be a child when you are an adult. My youngest nephew Carson Cade Elliott, upon entering his very first day of Pre-K1 was asked, “what did he want to be when he grew up?” His response caused everyone to smile thinking, kids will make you laugh with the things they will say and they will indeed. His parents don’t ever recall him saying he wanted to be a skeleton before. but that was his answer. He wanted to be a skeleton when he grew up. For children they have 300 bones in their body, and as adults we have somewhere between 206 and 213 in ours. Childrens bones are more flexible than ours as adults. They are still growing where we have become more rigid and have reached our final growth. The last bone to grown in the body is the clavicle. It normally reaches its maximum growth by the time we are 25 years old. The idea of being a skeleton when we grow up is really not that far off in truth or reality. We want our bones to be covered up with skin and tissues but we all know what it is to scrap a knee, fall or have an accident where the skin exposes our bones, or at lease some of us will know what this is like from life. I’ve learned that our skeleton makes up between 30-40% of your total body mass. Nearly half of our bone matrix mass is water, the other half is collagen protein and solid crystals of calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate. Our bones allow for attachments of muscles and inside our red bone marrow is of course red blood cells. Our bones actually serve as our body's warehouse. I’m thinking about nicknaming Carson “Skelton” for his teenage and adults life because his wisdom as a pre-kindergarten was spot on. He is a developing skeleton as a child and those strong developed bones will play a major part of his overall health throughout his lifetime. Oh the wisdom of children! The idea to be a skeleton might seem laughable for adults and yet remain cute for a child to say. Kinda like the idea that “Jesus loves me” serves for those who have heard those words or even sung those lyrics. The thought might seem cute for a child but the truth of its wisdom is certainly most perfect for adults today. It may seem impossible, it may seem far stretched, it may not even make any sense on the surface. Nevertheless, if we were to simply take a moment to pause to take time to see how this truly connects to our lives and it might just be that you discover how love serves as our personal warehouse that is our connector and sustainer in life. Until then

Oh NO.....I'm 306 days late!

Have you ever been 306 days late? I don’t mind to share that as of the writing of this column, that is the exact number of days I am behind on a project I began, yes you guessed it, 306 days ago. I am granting myself credit for such a behind schedule achievement, because I had thought originally I would write everyday regarding my thoughts and accomplish my goal. Great plan right? Absolutely, I even write to myself, with the exclamation you’ve got this. It is funny how easy it is to get behind and to spend what seems like forever, yet never catching up. Truth is we are probably already behind before we even added anything else to our plate of goals, yet we keep setting new goals, because after all, without goals we will surely fail, right? In two short paragraphs I’ve clearly defined the issue and I’m confident that everyone reading can clearly identify with me by saying, been there too. I’m just writing it out for official documentation of my short fall, I just appreciate all who know where I’m coming from. Life can be so much fun and yet a burden of weight that buckles our knees too. I am a planner, I enjoy thinking things through, working our issues, setting goals, and pushing myself toward a milestone I’ve set. Self discipline is that internal control switch that we turn on and off throughout our lives. The biggest issue most face with respect to self discipline is that the switch is off 90% of the time. It is very challenging when we freely surrender to our impulsive self without restraint, reminder or recourse for our actions. (Yes that’s a sermon, 3 R’s). Because I like planning, I attempted to establish my game plan for my 365 day writing project before it began. My own strengths sometimes become my weakness, especially when the goal itself becomes my pusher toward action. I’m aware that I need passion, energy, thoughts, ideas and time to accomplish my goal, yet I seem to eliminate all of that just for the accomplishment of checking a box off my to-do-list. My personal project that I began 306 days ago, I’ve titled for the moment, simply as #56. To give myself some credit, I can share, I have written 306 daily thoughts, I understand where the motivation or inspiration comes from, I’ve got a good foundation for the project, I’ve just not written out an additional 250-300 words of thought to further my belief statement for each reflection. Process is an important detail to goals. Open to direction and even change of direction is important to process, just as goals are general and details are bullet points. Knowing if my involvement in a project is a “God thing or not” is a link of encouragement and motivation, even if I’m behind in my own thoughts and planning. Understanding that God’s timing is the clock to be timed by is important to know. If you want to be on time, His time, stay engaged with your inspiration. For me, Jesus is my inspiration, stay aware of your goal, stay away from rigid compliance for its sake alone, and trust that He does all things well in His due season, if we continue to contribute our part, even if we are behind in our way of thinking. One might not be as far behind as thought, if we just keep pressing toward the mark. Until then