THANKSGIVING 2021

 THANK YOU FOR BEING YOU. FOR BEING IN MY LIFE. I ASK FOR NO MORE. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2021 MY FRIENDS

November 17, 2021

Days, weeks, months and years pass so effortlessly, and before you know it eighteen years have slipped away. November 17th is the anniversary of Lindsay's crossing over into the arms of Jesus. We were blessed to have the years we had. Gratitude for God's goodness and mercy continues to be the balm for loss when the unthinkable enters your life. 

Thank you, Lord, for your every present love and care for our loved ones. We have the joy of sharing each day with our family. They lift us up with their grace and love. Your love sustains us daily as we claim that "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus!" 

See you later Lindsay! Love ya lots. 

Dad and Mom

IT'S STATE FAIR TIME AGAIN!!

First Day at the State Fair... found the Bench:

 RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CROSSROADS CHAPEL!!  

A PERFECT PLACE....

 

FATHER'S DAY 2021

 

I am a father and grandfather. What more could I ask for this Father's Day? Seven grandkids with wonderful parents bless my life each day. Thirteen years ago, I had just started R-CHOP chemo for mantel cell lymphoma. My hair was starting to fall out. I was losing weight. One grandchild on the way but not sure if I was to see that little guy. 

Our lives were never to be the same after 7pm on November 17, 2003. As a father, I watched our young daughter slip into the hands of Jesus that night. Who would have thought such a thing would come into our lives after 30 years of marriage, but it did. It seemed to engulf us like a thick dark cloud. Grief is a strange thing. It is real and necessary. We do not seek it. It finds us. But it would not define us. Out of the darkness came light. Memories of the joy and laughter we had shared together sprang up from our friends and family. Little did we know we were being changed ever so slightly by the unthinkable. God's mercy and goodness would shelter us through the pain and darkness of grief.

As I lay in a hospital bed on Station 94 at Mayo, receiving my own stem cells on October 13, 2008, I was filled with hope not despair. I had been visited by my new grandson, Haakon, a few days earlier. It gave me such joy. I prayed on the day of transplant that the power of Jesus' presence would be in each stem cell that entered my body and that they would rescue my immune system. I have survived to see six more grand babies born into our family. Thanks to God's mercy and goodness, I survived. Not that I deserved to survive but that Jesus chose to give me the gift of more days and more grand babies!

On this Father's Day, I am grateful and in awe of the gifts God has given me over the years. My wonderful wife, children and their families are precious to me. I pray I never forget God's great love poured out on my life through the unthinkable and the amazing times of my life. I have been the recipient of the Father's love and mercy. May I share the Father's love with all the lives I might touch in the rest of my days.

 

New phase of the Journey...May 25, 2021

Heading for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester today to prepare for a knee replacement surgery on Tuesday May 25th. It's been a long time coming and is necessary. We wear out a little at a time. Our bodies are "fearfully and wonderfully made." The medical community has made it possible for us to replace or repair many parts that fail. I am thankful for the care and expertise that will give me the hope of new mobility without discomfort. Whatever the outcome I will be thankful for how God has given me this incredible body to enjoy for so many years. 

Psalm 139 is of great joy and blessing at all seasons of our lives:

For you created my inmost being;^(Q)
    you knit me together^(R) in my mother’s womb.^(S)
14 I praise you^(T) because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,^(U)
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made^(V) in the secret place,
    when I was woven together^(W) in the depths of the earth.^(X)
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained^(Y) for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a](Z) God!^(AA)
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,^(AB)
    they would outnumber the grains of sand^(AC)—
    when I awake,^(AD) I am still with you.

 

 

May 8th 2021 "OH MY ACHING KNEE"

For forty plus years I have nursed a bad knee. It has been a good patient for a long time. In January I slipped on the ice and snow fracturing my fibula and traumatizing the left knee. Lois said I fell because I was wearing "inappropriate foot wear"...aka my cowboy boots. Every good cowboy knows that boots are the best footwear but not so good on ice I guess. 

Everything seemed to be healing well until one day I took a step and ouch! The knee began swelling and the pain was in areas I had not experienced before when straining the knee. The orthopedic doctor said that we had done everything to maintain the knee but now it was time to bite the bullet and do the knee.

I am going to have Mako assisted robotic total knee arthroplasty at Mayo at the end of May. I have been told it cuts healing time down and recovery is quicker. We will see if that is true. Lois has had both knees done and will be my nurse. She will crack the whip so I do my PT correctly! I asked if I would be able to run and they asked if run now. I said no. They said "maybe not...we'll see."

Isn't it amazing that we have the privilege and opportunity to replace a failing body part? God has given special gifts of knowledge and wisdom to the folks who design and replace these body parts. I am grateful that I will be able to receive a new knee. When part of your body aches it seems the whole body aches too. 

That's how the Apostle Paul described how the "Body of Christ", the Church, should function. If one part aches; we all should ache. Sadly I find myself many times numb to the pain of others. Lord forgive my self centered concern. Help me to "see a need and meet it...feel a hurt and heal it."

My little daughters many years ago at my ordination into ministry sang this song... 

"Make me a servant humble and meek."

        Make me a servant
        Humble and meek
        Lord let me lift up
        Those who are weak
        And may the prayer
        Of my heart always be
        Make me a servant
        Make me a servant
        Make me a servant today

Lord let it be according to your will. 

January 28th 2021 "Sparky...aka Old Eagle Eye"

 Every so often a person enters our lives to make us realize the common joys we share as fathers and husbands. One such man was "Sparky" aka Dr Mark Mathison. 

Our son's became friends when they entered dental school. It was an exciting time for them as they anticipated their futures in dentistry. As parents we encouraged and prayed that all would go well. It did.

One of the common interests the boys shared was hunting as did their dads. About 10 years ago Justin and I were invited to join Mark and "his boys" for a hunt in SK Canada. We had a "blast" literally...pun intended.

Mark was 10 years older than myself. Sparky, a mountain of a man in size and personality became my scouting partner. "Old Eagle eye... Sparky" could spot geese miles away much to my chagrin...we bonded immediately around our boys, families and hunting. 

Over the next 8 or 9 years we spent hours in the truck scouting each afternoon sharing our hopes and dreams for our families. Mark and Marg had seven kids. He had a lot to talk about. Mark was so proud of his family. He held each child and grandchild in his heart with reverence. Oh he would be blustery at times and put on a tough front but deep inside was this soft man who loved each of his offspring in a special way.

We shared losses and hurts that the boys didn't hear about that we had shared between dads. We laughed and teased each other till our sides ached. We even found lots of geese but the boys thought we were just sitting outside of town visiting with "the locals". Their comments were centered around "Really? How many? Are you sure? Did you get permission?" Occasionally we would hunt the fields we scouted and to their surprise we had nailed it. Not always but more often than not.

Mark succumbed to a battle with cancer recently. Our last phone conversation when he was hospitalized was filled with hope of one more hunt together with our boys. Sparky had it all figured out how to take his oxygen into the layout blind in SK. We laughed and agreed we were blessed to have our boys to set up and take down the decoys while we "rested/slept" in the trucks at 4am each morning. 

I'm going to miss giving Sparky "the needle" when scouting. He would NEVER go and ask permission,"I don't do that he'd say." (with a smile)  "But it's your turn...!!" He'd just sit there until I got out and went to seek permission. I may have called him a name or two as I left the truck. Sparky would just laugh at me.

As dads you only get so many days to share one-on-one times with your adult sons or their dads. Thanks Sparky for taking us in and giving Justin and myself these precious memories of times well shared with your family.