Loafers

While spending time in Hill City, SD and then continuing on our journey to Kansas, I kept reflecting on the shutdown of the federal government, the inspiration of the Crazy Horse Memorial, and the books I’d recently read about the American-Indian conflict written from the perspective of the Native American. Continue reading

Things Aren’t Always What They Appear to Be!

We awoke on day five of the Road Trip to Kansas somewhat disoriented, and had to get our bearings. Think of the many maps you’ve seen that advise “You Are Here” so you can orient yourself to your surroundings. Continue reading

Lemonade!

When Life Gives You Lemons…

In July I wrote, “The path of life is often very crooked, no matter how straight we think we can make it. We are in control of very few influences, with the rest well beyond our reach.”

Our plan for day two of the Road Trip to Kansas was to spend another day in Yellowstone Park and then drive east to Cody, WY. Unfortunately, the United States Congress couldn’t reach an agreement on funding the Federal government, so what would become an extended shutdown of non-essential Federal services began on October 1, day two of the road trip. Highway 14 through Yellowstone was closed! Continue reading

Hope!

Or, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Retirement

The path of life is often very crooked, no matter how straight we think we can make it. We are in control of very few influences, with the rest well beyond our reach. Here I am, preparing to conclude the first half of my life and redeploy for the second, and a funny thing happened on my way to retirement. Continue reading

First Half?

We all learn from our life experiences, especially those that are particularly challenging. In the first half of my adult life I did what we all do—made every effort to “succeed”. Success early on was synonymous with getting married, finding a decent job, buying a small home, and starting a family. As time went on I pushed forward toward more success—borrowing money to buy a bigger house, finding a better job to pay the mortgage, accumulating “stuff”, engaging in some community service-lite, etc. You know the drill. Continue reading