Life's cycles, a refection

[bonz_d]

As we see more often people of notoriety are passing on and leaving us with memories.

A personal history. I come from a family of 8 children who are now all getting up in age. My eldest sister is 72 and my youngest brother is now 53. Our parents, aunts and uncles and an eldest brother have also long passed. I now reflect at times which one of my brothers or sisters I'll be sending away next or maybe will it be that they send me. There is always a sorrow to face when we lose a loved one. Though it is inevitable. As it has been said, No One Has Made it Off This Earth Alive.

As I watch these children of today and the world they are inheriting I also reflect back to my youth and think what a simpler time it was. How we missed the pain of a world at war, employment was good and people helped and watched out for one another. Again there is unrest in the world, people are struggling to make it from day to day. We lose jobs every day which will never return to new technologies and a changing world.

Maybe I've lost my insight or perspective but the one thing that I realize more each day is to hold on and cherish the ones we love for we never know when they will no longer be with us.

Sorry for the Sunday Sermon

 

[Tnstratofam]

Preach away sir. I'm younger but as I've entered my 40's I too realize my elders , whom I respect dearly, are getting older. I tell people all the time we don't appreciate the wisdom, and life experiences that are all around us in our elder friends and relatives.

 

[gm280]

Seems we all go through those thoughts as we get closer to our demise as well. But you still have the easy option of gratitude over attitude. Every person wakes up each day a can select attitude or gratitude to start their day. I have an attitude to use gratitude during my days...however long or short that are. I love life and love making it better for others. I also love building things instead of breaking down things. So it is a simple mental choice...daily!

 

[WIMUSKY]

Good points, gm.

Franklin Graham recently said, "Someone once asked me what my ?five year plan? was. I thought about it for a second?I?ve never had a five year plan.". Basically, we live from day to day. No one is guaranteed another minute, or day for that matter, on this earth. Live each day like it might be your last, within reason. Try and go thru life with no regrets. But don't beat yourself up if you have a few. We all do....

bonz_d, enjoy your b-day today. Address tomorrow when it gets here....

 

[MTboatguy]

After what I went through while in the Army, I cherish every single day when my eyes open in the morning, I should have passed in '91, but the Doc's kept me going, it has been a challenge every single day since the day. I have lost a lot over the last few years, I lost my Mother in 2002 to cancer, lost my Sister in 2006 to murder and of course all of my grandparents are now gone. But I don't focus on the past, I look to everyday with a renewed excitement of what the day will hold for me.

Happy B-Day, hope you have a great one.

 

[bonz_d]

gm280, believe me I do understand gratitude and I cannot count the many blessings that I have received in my life. I'll start those with my parents, forever rest their souls. Next would be my wonderful wife who has pulled me through many tough and trying times and countless hospital stays. W/O her it might not have been as easy to recover from those. Love is a powerful potion!

After my 1st bypass surgery on my legs my one older sister asked me how I could be so cavalier about the situation and I just told her from my heart that if it is meant for me to lose a leg or both then so be it, I will survive and carry on as best I can as my legs do not make me who I am. Besides all I need do is to look around me and I can find many in a more dire position than I.

But you are right I see more people than I'd care to that seem to go through life with an attitude of ungratefulness. I don't particularly care to spend too much time with those people. Just wish I had more time to stop and look at the flowers and not having to be like the ant rushing from here to there!

 

[redneck joe]

Good preachin''.

 

[southkogs]

The value of lives. Good stuff.

 

[angus63]

An 'ol salty guy set me straight once when I was out at sea and going on about a potential upcoming family loss by the time we made port again, he turned and said "Don't dwell......just live...." and walked away. I'm trying!

 

[tpenfield]

Often, when we are young we wish to be old. Once old, we long to be young again. I too am feeling life's cycle as my parents have passed and the Admirals parents are becoming more dependent, and now the kids are young adults starting a phase of life that I thought to be not so long ago.

As I see this progression unfold before my eyes, I frequently ask myself . . . will I have enough financial resources in the near future to have both a day cruiser and a go-fast boat? :noidea:

 

[gm280]

Often, when we are young we wish to be old. Once old, we long to be young again. I too am feeling life's cycle as my parents have passed and the Admirals parents are becoming more dependent, and now the kids are young adults starting a phase of life that I thought to be not so long ago.

As I see this progression unfold before my eyes, I frequently ask myself . . . will I have enough financial resources in the near future to have both a day cruiser and a go-fast boat? :noidea:

You could always build one of those little small engine hydroplanes and go fast. I always thought they were pretty neat to see. A mere 9.9HP engine (or there about) and flying across the lake...

 

[bonz_d]

I had a nice thank you to everyone yesterday with some more thoughts on some of the responses until I was about to post it and then my also old computer did a major freeze. I hate when that happens. I think it's having a memory issue, sort a like me cause I couldn't remember what I wrote.

But anyways, Thanks to everyone for the B-Day wishes and for participating in my ramblings!

My advice to the young, you can never prepare for getting old. It just happens naturally and it happens w/o you realizing. You just wake up one day and there it is!

 

[gm280]

bonz_d it is true we all are getting old(er), but it is what you do with your time that matters. Look for the good in everything and dwell on such things and the bad washes away... Of course better weather and sunny days helps tremendously also. And those days are on their way too... SO get ready for the boating season to start.... :joyous:

 

[bonz_d]

I have no doubt that there will be many excellent days to come for many years come but again in reality I can still see the day in the future when my brothers and sisters will start dropping like flies. I hate Funerals and Love Life.
I was 33 when my grandmother passed and I recall going up to the hospital to see her and unfortunately she was already in a coma. I had to leave after a short visit because for me I just didn't want to remember her that way. I wanted to remember all those good days, even the ones that she was chasing me out of the house because I'd been bad.
Was 17 when I lost my eldest brother in a motorcycle accident. He was 10 years older than me and we were very close. That took me many years to recover from. So yes I'm not looking forward to burying my remaining family members.

For a happy memory I can recall a time when my wife and I were on vacation and were fishing on a lake we'd never been on before. She had always been a live-bait user and nothing was biting on it. As it turned I finally put on a rubber worm for her which she had always refused to try. I will never forget the look on her face when she landed that 1st 3+ lb. largemouth. She ended the day with 4 of them.

As for the weather! We are right now in the middle of a March snow storm with 4" already on the ground.

 

[gm280]

bonz_d, funny you mention your wife's bass fishing story. My wife's first bass was also on a jelly worm. And she was fishing along and told me she was snagged on the bottom and that I needed to retrieve her line. I looked at her line and is was going the other way. I told her she had a fish on, but she refused to believe it and kept telling me she was stuck on the bottom... After a few seconds she realized she wasn't hooked on the bottom but a nice large mouth bass had her jelly worm and the fight began. It was about a two pounder, but being her first bass, it was all the more exciting to watch her fight that fish and enjoy the effort... :smile: