And the priest said to them, “Go in peace. The presence of the LORD be with you on your way.” Judges 18:6
Life is just a roller coaster of fun and unknowns. I have a morning ritual that I go through each day. I am awake early every morning, long before my wife. So the first task I have to finish is to feed my very demanding and hungry cat, Toby. He is very vocal in the morning until he is given his breakfast. He also follows me around the house until I complete this task. With that done I am left to entertain myself for a couple of hours.
My next tasks are pure mindless and just for entertainment and catching up on stuff. I go through my Facebook and catch up on any messages that have come through overnight. I also check my email and I have a few games that I play on my phone. All this gets me caught up on the “essential” morning duties, but it also allows me to wake up a little.
In going through my Facebook each day, one of the things I do is look at my memories from the past. I see good and bad posts about things that have happened on this day over my Facebook history. I see the beginning of my trucking career, posts about my trials and accomplishments on the highway, posts about family, trips we’ve taken, and of course posts about my illness and recovery. It’s always interesting to look back and see where I have been on this life journey.
If you are like me, you probably have a LOT of apps on your phone or device. We have a subscription to Amazon Prime and so I have all the Amazon apps on my phone. One that I really like is the Photos app. It uploads my photos and saves them for me so I don’t lose them if my phone crashes. But it also automatically categorizes them into different subject matter, which I think is really cool.
Just recently I got an alert about the subject “Into the woods”, and I had to check it out to see what was there. In 2018, before I got sick, my wife and I took a vacation to Silver Hills Guest House in Lumby British Columbia Canada. This trip was a health retreat. It was an all inclusive and all the food was vegan, and was absolutely delicious. We spent almost two weeks enjoying the food and surroundings.
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Amazon photos opened up a lot of memory for me of things that I was able to do while I was there. I went hiking a couple of times a day and was able to climb up the hills. One of the hikes was over 10km (6 miles) and had some tough climbs in it. But I made it and survived. I also hiked to waterfalls and was able to climb up the side to get a better view. I was never in “great” shape, but I was healthy enough to enjoy all this fun.
Fast forward just over a year and I was in a hospital bed paralyzed and on a ventilator, hooked up to machines that were keeping me alive and monitoring my vital signs. There was constant activity all around me 24 hours a day and it was anything but relaxing! As I look back on it now it is hard to believe how things changed so drastically in that year.
What our future holds for us is a mystery and therefore we explore each day as a new adventure. We need to embrace each day as a gift because we do not know what the next day will be. God grants us only a limited time on earth, but we can have eternity with Him if we make the right choices. While my body has healed to some extent, I don’t see any hiking trips in the near future, and my exploring will be done online or in memories.
I love my life and accept the challenges that I have. I am not in control of things and allow God to direct me. I will continue to move forward and will continue to explore in whatever way I can. You need to make that choice also.
God bless.
Shiny Side Up 