Bless me father/mother/brother/sister for I have sinned...
I have been really negligent of my blog recently... my last post was January 29th and the one before that was December 17th... It isn't that I have had nothing to say. There has been a lot going on in my life and a lot upon which to reflect. Theologically, I've been thinking about a lot. My work at the church is very positive these days and I'm feeling good about things there. I've been working more at my fretless bass playing and I'm feeling really good about it. Watching my two grandchildren grow and change really is the joy of my life and is simply transcendent.
Life is good... and full... but at the same time I find myself wasting more time these days and I'm not sure what that is about. I'd like to be spending more time practicing bass (and find more opportunities to perform on it). I should be writing more here and I even have an idea for a book that has been floating around for a couple of years without me doing anything on it. I'd like to spend more time playing with Corwin and Khloe or at least be more intentional about it. I worry terribly about both of my children and their families but really have no solutions to offer either and sometimes that immobilizes me a bit. So I have been spending too much time in completely non-productive activity (which isn't to say that all non-productive activity is bad, we do need some).
So, this post comes both as confession and as commitment to get my butt back in gear. Check back in a week or so to see whether it has worked.
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Life... Rich... Full...
It has been a while since I've posted anything here. Life has been full and a bit crazy. My son, John, got married. Cheryl and I celebrated our 41st anniversary. My grandson, Corwin, hit his first birthday. And life goes on in the midst of all of it. I am so, so very blessed and so full of joy.
I have to say again that this grand-parenting thing really is wonderful and Corwin brings me more joy than I can say. I'm looking forward to his cousin Khloe arriving sometime within the next few weeks and watching my heart expand even more.
In the meantime, here's a fun video of Corwin. A few weeks ago I had a great gig with a wonderful singer named Stefana who pushed me out of my wheelhouse a good bit as she does a lot of Middle Eastern flavored music. Corwin loved her music. Part of my process of getting ready was just to listen to the tunes while reading through the charts. Whenever I would do that, Corwin would sing along. Here's a little clip of him doing just that.
I have to say again that this grand-parenting thing really is wonderful and Corwin brings me more joy than I can say. I'm looking forward to his cousin Khloe arriving sometime within the next few weeks and watching my heart expand even more.
In the meantime, here's a fun video of Corwin. A few weeks ago I had a great gig with a wonderful singer named Stefana who pushed me out of my wheelhouse a good bit as she does a lot of Middle Eastern flavored music. Corwin loved her music. Part of my process of getting ready was just to listen to the tunes while reading through the charts. Whenever I would do that, Corwin would sing along. Here's a little clip of him doing just that.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
the fragility of life
The last week and half has been a difficult one. The fragility of life has been thrust into our faces yet again.
Misty Yurko, my niece, was 30 years old. She struggled with Crohn's disease for about five years and had had her ups and downs with that until last November she came down with pneumonia. She went into the hospital and never came home again. For eight months she had one issue after another - times when it looked as if she would get better... times when organs would stop working, seemingly at random. Two weeks ago she seemed to be on an upswing and there was hope that she might actually recover. We had seen her in June, and while she was weak, we did have some time to laugh and smile. I hoped that the next time I saw her she would be back to herself.
Misty was doing physical therapy and things were looking good. Then, in a day she went back from the physical therapy department to a regular hospital room. The next day she was in ICU, non-responsive, and on life support. A few days later she was gone.
We always lived a distance from her so we didn't know her as well as I would have liked. She was about 6 years older than Alexis and the times we saw her during childhood, she loved playing the "big sister" to Alexis. I'm left with wondering how things might have been different... how I might have spent my time better with her. My sister is trying to figure out how to face a world without her daughter in it.
Five days ago we received word that a cousin of one of our church members was killed in Iraq. I never met Jimmy but I have heard a little about him and can guess some more. He graduated from high school in 2005 without direction and the family says he joined the military as a way of growing up. I expect that he had to know that he would end up in Iraq so there may have been some patriotism involved, some hope for adventure, even the yearning for the testosterone thrill of the battle... all of the fantasies of an 18 year old who has never seen the horrors of war. I don't have any idea what he experienced while there. Perhaps he felt he was doing something of value, perhaps not... in either case, he is gone. His family is in tatters. All of the dreams for the future are gone.
I want to be furious about his death. Jimmy is the closest that I have come to this needless war. I want to be able to hold him up as the picture of the waste this administration has caused - the waste of resources, but more importantly the waste of lives. I cannot. All I can do is feel grief, and sadness, and loss. I never knew Jimmy but he sounds like he was a great kid. I never will know him now.
In a blink, it is gone. Life is fragile. It ends with a sniper's bullet, a disease that cannot be stopped, a bridge collapsing during an afternoon commute, the long wear of years... sometimes it is long and full, sometimes far too short. Sometimes it is filled with joy, sometimes with pain, most often a mixture of the two, but it is always fragile. And it is always precious. I hope that I remember this a few months from now when the press of work and the day to day is all around. I hope that I take the time to talk with the kids in my church and neighborhood, to hug my family, to smell the flowers and watch the birds... Life is fragile... too fragile to waste on the unimportant.
Misty Yurko, my niece, was 30 years old. She struggled with Crohn's disease for about five years and had had her ups and downs with that until last November she came down with pneumonia. She went into the hospital and never came home again. For eight months she had one issue after another - times when it looked as if she would get better... times when organs would stop working, seemingly at random. Two weeks ago she seemed to be on an upswing and there was hope that she might actually recover. We had seen her in June, and while she was weak, we did have some time to laugh and smile. I hoped that the next time I saw her she would be back to herself.
Misty was doing physical therapy and things were looking good. Then, in a day she went back from the physical therapy department to a regular hospital room. The next day she was in ICU, non-responsive, and on life support. A few days later she was gone.
We always lived a distance from her so we didn't know her as well as I would have liked. She was about 6 years older than Alexis and the times we saw her during childhood, she loved playing the "big sister" to Alexis. I'm left with wondering how things might have been different... how I might have spent my time better with her. My sister is trying to figure out how to face a world without her daughter in it.
Five days ago we received word that a cousin of one of our church members was killed in Iraq. I never met Jimmy but I have heard a little about him and can guess some more. He graduated from high school in 2005 without direction and the family says he joined the military as a way of growing up. I expect that he had to know that he would end up in Iraq so there may have been some patriotism involved, some hope for adventure, even the yearning for the testosterone thrill of the battle... all of the fantasies of an 18 year old who has never seen the horrors of war. I don't have any idea what he experienced while there. Perhaps he felt he was doing something of value, perhaps not... in either case, he is gone. His family is in tatters. All of the dreams for the future are gone.
I want to be furious about his death. Jimmy is the closest that I have come to this needless war. I want to be able to hold him up as the picture of the waste this administration has caused - the waste of resources, but more importantly the waste of lives. I cannot. All I can do is feel grief, and sadness, and loss. I never knew Jimmy but he sounds like he was a great kid. I never will know him now.
In a blink, it is gone. Life is fragile. It ends with a sniper's bullet, a disease that cannot be stopped, a bridge collapsing during an afternoon commute, the long wear of years... sometimes it is long and full, sometimes far too short. Sometimes it is filled with joy, sometimes with pain, most often a mixture of the two, but it is always fragile. And it is always precious. I hope that I remember this a few months from now when the press of work and the day to day is all around. I hope that I take the time to talk with the kids in my church and neighborhood, to hug my family, to smell the flowers and watch the birds... Life is fragile... too fragile to waste on the unimportant.
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