Couldn’t decide what to write about or if I wanted to start with one of these three songs:
Diamonds & Rust– Joan Baez
Green Eyes– Kate Wolf
Same Auld Lang Syne– Dan Fogelberg
Didn’t get too crazy about it even when I thought I ought to use Shelter From The Storm or if I ought to just begin with בסוף היום by ארז לב ארי
A 12 year old post called The 100 Year-old Penny crept across my screen I was off to the races.
Something about it made me smile and focus upon the exceptional accomplishments and growth that have occurred between now and when I wrote it.
In part because it reminded me of a different fragment I wrote some while back and recently reshared. I’ll drop it in again here because it is relevant to the journey I once was on and the one I am currently part of.
Woke up and looked out the window to see where the train had taken us on our night journey.
Somewhere west of Eden in a place that looked like a 150 other towns we had passed through.
A dilapidated building lay in front but the reason it caught my eye was the picture of a Phoenix rising on the side of it.
Freshly painted, it pointed the way.
“Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. I get the feeling this isn’t going to be the easiest trip. Buck up and tighten your belt, you’re about to storm walk again.”
Where The Road Takes You
I was supposed to be in California to revisit the site of the place I wrote about in Once We Were Kings but life got in the way.
It is connected to The Night I Fought The Angel Of Death and the need to engage in some more rest.
The family will tell you that it is hard to get me to slow down if I am engaged or interested in something and that trip was no exception. I came very close to choosing to go regardless but as the wise old men say there is no wealth without health so I grudgingly stayed home.
I battled my way back to health and within six weeks of that four day hospital stay I was back to doing everything I had been doing before.
It chewed up enough time that I had to reset some of goals I had placed for 2025 which forced me to take my own advice.
You know that one that says pivot, adjust, recalibrate and go forward. I really didn’t want to pivot, I wanted to imitate the freight train and roll through all obstacles.
But I took my own advice and as I gained some solid momentum I got the flu for the first time in more than a decade or two.
That provided a level of frustration because the first two nights reminded me a bit of my hospital stay. For a moment I thought that Angel of Death was trying to come take another swing at me.
Can’t say I was surprised because I didn’t just kick his ass, I taunted him and promised to give another beating if he returned.
So I figured the sneaky bastard was coming back from a different angle but it didn’t matter because I am still vertical, albeit a little more tired than usual.
But the net goal of always going forward and keeping an eye on the shore I am swimming towards hasn’t changed.
Sometimes you get stuck with an unplanned detour and you follow where the road takes you. It was a good reminder to myself about the hero’s journey.
I started that one around the Fall of ’24 and am well along my way. May not have made all of the progress I wish but I have battled dragons, balrogs, orcs and the occasional angry midwesterner.
I am still standing and though I had to say goodbye to some including my furriest child there is much to be thankful for and any year in which your list of things to grateful for exceeds your list of negatives is worth celebrating.
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