remembering "the tumble"

Those of you that really know me know that I am quite mechanically challenged. Thus, the thought of me riding a motor scooter can be frightening. Some years ago I went to Bermuda with a group of friends who had gathered from all around the country for a week of fellowship. Of course, i desired to play golf, but I found peeps don't rent cars there, they ride SCOOTERS. If I wanted to play golf at the various courses with friends, I had to rent a scooter.

Fortunately the scooter rental place had a practice track for folks like me. With confidence I rented my scooter and headed to the track. It was very small and just went around in a circle. Surely I could do this, so I started around the track.

I wasn't doing great but I was managing. On about the 3rd time around I lost my balance a little, just a little bit mind you. To steady myself and keep from falling, I placed my left foot on the ground while I was still rolling. I wasn't going fast but fast enough to create a "disaster". My foot caught the ground in some bizarre way and my left knee snapped.

Of course the scooter became history as I vaulted over the handle bars and over the curb of the track. That wasn't all, there was a bank there and I began tumbling down it. That's not all, there was a hedge there and I rolled thru it. It seemed like I was tumbling for days. Mind out of body experience for sure.

Well, that's not all, the hedge separated the training track from a golf course and I rolled down onto the tee box of one of the holes. Needless to say i was a bit shaken by this but not as much as the golfers who were just standing there, ready to tee off, but was interrupted by this man tumbling down upon their tee. I looked up and saw a few faces staring at me and I just said "hi there." Fortunately, I don't embarrass easily but it was quite an awkward moment for me and those witnessing this, too.

Not to be deterred from my goal of golf, I then had to ride on the back of a scooter with a friend, carrying my golf bag to the course. My knee was killing me but I was not to be deterred. About half way thru the round my knee just locked up. I could no longer even walk. I traveled back to Charlotte through airports in a wheel chair, repeating this story to all who asked, "what happened?" It made for a pretty good after dinner story for years to come.

It also resulted in surgery when I returned to repair the torn cartilage in my knee. Its Memorial Day weekend, when we focus on remembering (my previous blog). So the tumble I took today brought back memories of this experience. I was working in the yard and Spot (the dog) was outside with one end of his leash tied to a tree. This seemingly harmless and common practice provided a trip line for me as I walking from one task to the other. Of course i took a big tumble, turned a flip, shoes disappeared as they flew through the air, I landed on the driveway resulting in abrasions, bruises, and soreness.

The dog is traumatized but OK .....

REMEMBERING our tumbles in life can help us keep our perspective!!!

making sense of "remembering"

This is Memorial Day weekend and a time to reflect on those who have gone before us and sacrificed so that we have the freedom to live as we do today. This is certainly a respectful activity and a good use of this weekend. However, "remembering" is an ageless practice that was of considerable more societal value years before mass communication and even the printing press itself.


Remembering was the way generations passed down the values and norms of their time. Remembering is about making the effort to bring to our consciousness things that are not active in our minds. For generations throughout history, story telling (the art of sharing memories with others) was as admired as Facebook, if one can imagine that :-)

What does remembering accomplish? Does it necessarily do anything for those we remember? Not really, most have passed on to Glory or somewhere else. Then what value is there in days we set aside to memorialized others?

Remembering anchors our being in where we have come from, how we got here outside of our own efforts, what those were like who formed us and our world! Making sense of not only our past but the people and events that shaped the world we came from broadens our perspective of ourself. We are not a creature of our own creation. We are peeps in the flow of something much greater than us.

Remembering should feed our humility, especially since there's not much else we do that does :-)
Its our nature to assume we create our life and perform in a way that accomplishes what we have. We over value the personal influence we can have on cause and effect.

Remembering ushers in a more significant sense of identity and personal worth. When we can understand our self in light of those who loved us and even those who didn't even know us but acted in heroic ways to affect our life, then we can truly see both how small we are and how important we are all at the same time. We can receive the blessings that have been made ours at no expense or effort or deserving on our part.

Remembering is God's gift to us that makes His Grace real in our lives!!

Now that is worth pondering this weekend (and other days too) ......

Tsunami of rationale

What do you do when you face insurmountable obstacles? How relentless can you be in chasing your dream? How easily are you defeated when you have something you want? In many ways the answers to these questions define us and our life's journey.

My 9 year old granddaughter can be relentless at times, It does somewhat define her. While it can be problematic for parents when perserverence defines a child, the character that is being shaped and refined is interesting to watch and predict what kind of an adult will ultimately emerge.

"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint"    God

Syd has wanted a dog for a number of years now. Each push she makes is met with fatherly resistance, coming in the form of  "reasons" her dad progressively gives her why she can't have one "right now." To maintain peace he has never totally shut the door on this request but continually counters with "over powering adult logic." Well, I think she has had enough. She composed a thesis with 73 points about having a dog she has presented to support the notion (and title of her paper) "I WANT A DOG."

The reasons she gives to support her request are found in her perspective of "dog ownership." some of these are

"don't get a dog that barks at other dogs"
"don't get a crazy or wild dog"
"make sure the dog fits in your house"
"don't get a dog that is nippy"
"if you don't want a shy dog, don't try to get one"
"don't forget to pay the bills"
"make sure your dog is playful, if you want a playful dog"
"don't forget to pick up your dogs poop"
"if something goes wrong with your dog, think of giving it away"
and
"you might want to get a non stressful dog witch will be a better choice"

The reasons are also color coded to add emphasis!!

Now if a nine year old girl can go to these extremes to chase her dreams, surely each of us adults can be equally relentless at pursuing the itches of our soul :-)

"Passion is that which propels us through obstacles as if they weren't there in the quest for the object of our love."  Dudley Hall

something to ponder ...