Yikes...!!!
As some olde cartoon character (I can't remember who...) used to say, "Holy Moley!!!" Did the first two weeks of this new year zoom by for you? Sure did for me, for us here...
This year, Judy and I celebrate 49 years of marriage. When we were younger, only olde people had anniversaries with that number, or larger. Now we are there. Talk about decades zooming by.
This wonder woman I'm married to is gone for a few days with her family in Arizona to celebrate the life of a special relative who lived out 9+ decades of his own life. His commitment to staying alive and healthy until the ugly "C" word showed up a few months back has been an inspiration for me. None of us know when the "thin veil" will part for any one of us.
Except for attending church this weekend, working out mid-day each day at the rec center rather than first thing each morning, going with one of the significant leaders I mentor to watch his young son play basketball, I'm looking forward to catching up on my reading and writing. Naps are in order, whenever I want to take them. ;-) Even now, sitting here at our kitchen table and watching the birds snap up the seeds in the bird feeder...there is a unique peace settling into this olde soul.
I will be finishing two books that have been of significance to me. One for the fourth time in two years: The Great Dance. One for the third time in three years: Daring Greatly. It's crazy, wonderful, good how reading these two together is adding to the fact that this is the best, most meaning-filled time through each one of them. Most of the men and women I'm mentoring are being encouraged to read them...again...and/or...for the first time.
A major personal goal within the first six months of this year is to go through our entire extensive library and identify the 100 books that, to date, have meant the most to me, been the most informative, life-changing, nurtured my olde soul, have encouraged me to live life to the full. Some good books do not need to remain in my/our library. They will be moved on...most likely to make room for new tomes. Others will remain for reference. A few more I've already tagged to read again..."treasured friends" rediscovered.
Three questions, in a variety of consistent ways, I will often be asking others, as all 366 days of 2016 races down to 2017 are:
Who are you? Who do you long to be? Who do you need to be?
And I will also be asking these questions of myself. The best of mentors/leaders are always willing to ponder for themselves the questions that they ask of others:
Who am I? Who do I long to be? Who do I need to be?
Most of we humans have a tendency to answer those questions with reference to "what" we do with the various dimensions of our lives. That, we assume, is the question.
But "what" is significantly different from "who."
Thus, in the self-imposed quiet of this treasured weekend*****, Who am I? will be pondered care-filled-ly, quietly, with a deeper commitment to living life to the full in all the rest of my own days. If we were having the sacred delight of an "in-person" conversation, how might you be willing to be answering those questions for yourself...beginning with (you reading this for yourself..)
Who am I?
*****...and, just maybe, I might be found watching the Broncos game late on Sunday afternoon. :-) Colorado is going nuts with the possibilities. I'm already looking forward to my lady being home later on Monday!
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