Lately, I've been thinking about this *Adventure* we call life. A couple of people I know are about to embark on a grand adventure--moving across country. Okay, so one is only moving across her state, but when the lady from the Sweet Adeline's chorus I'm a member of told me she was thinking about driving to the Washington DC area instead of flying there, I began to wish I could have a great adventure, myself. But as I thought more about these lucky people, the thought came to me to look for my own adventures in my back yard. So I began to think some more.
Last week I listened to a man at the Clark Co. Genealogical Society as he gave us a run-down on his life, and I thought "What an adventure!" He grew up in upstate NY, lost both his parents when he was pretty young, and embarked on his life's adventure when he joined the Air Force and spent the next 20 years or more, traveling the world. As he told his story I began to think of the other adventures I was aware of that other people have had or are still having:
1. My grandmother, traveling in a wagon train from Marysville, Kansas to Boise, Idaho
2. My mother, driving in a model T from Marysville, Kansas to La Grande, Oregon with her parents and sisters.
3. My gg grandmother's sister-in-law traveling from New Mexico to Idaho with her family in one of the last wagon trains to cross the Oregon Trail.
4. All those pioneers who came west in the 1800's from comfortable homes to the wilderness.
5. All those brave souls who left their comfortable homes in Germany, England, and other countries, boarded a ship and sailed for many weeks in crowded conditions to come to America.
6. Those people still coming to our country from overseas to a world that is strange to them.
And I'm sure you can think of more examples. As I thought about this, I realized that in most cases, they did not think they were having an "adventure." This was "life" to them. How many of us have *adventures* but fail to recognize them as such?
I thought of some of my *adventures* that I did not recognize at the time, not necessarily in order of occurrence:
1. My family's own moves, to and from the Seattle area.
2. Snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park.
3. Driving across country with my mother, two small daughters and our dog as we returned to her hometown of Marysville, Kansas.
4. The weekend in Las Vegas when my mother-in-law received her Masters degree in Nutrition.
5. Traveling by train to Colorado to visit my dad with 4 year-old twins and 6 year-old son.
6. Our yearly car trip to Colorado Springs to visit my dad--this year will be our 18th trip.
7. Sweet Adelines' annual Regional Competition, this year held in Spokane.
8. The births of each of my six children and how they changed myself and our family.
9. Traveling to Salt Lake City with the Clark Co. Genealogical Society to spend a week at the Family History Library.
I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones which came immediately to mind.
A trip to the grocery store can be an adventure for some people! I have come to the conclusion that we need to look outside the box and realize that our lives are an adventure, whether we ever leave familiar grounds or not. Some day, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will look on our lives and think that we lived in adventurous times, just like we look back on our own grandparents' and great-grandparents' lives. If we take the time to record our life's adventures, we can share it with them. While it might just be *life* to us, in the eyes of someone else it can become an adventure.
And with a change of attitude, our *life* can become an adventure to us, too! Bon Voyage!
Showing posts with label Life's Lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life's Lessons. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Uncle Bill
On Monday, we learned that dh's oldest brother, Bill, had passed away the day before. To our kids, he was simply "Uncle Bill." It had been years since we had done anything to speak of with "Uncle Bill." Our three younger children have probably only met him once or twice in their young lives. The three older ones may have some distant memories of him and his family. In our younger days, we used to do quite a bit with "Uncle Bill" and "Aunt Emmie." After our return from Seattle in 1985, our relationship was never quite the same.
To me, "Uncle Bill" was the epitome of the quote we've probably all seen that reads, "Some people's only purpose in life is to serve as a bad example." That would be Uncle Bill's life, in a nutshell. Born in 1940, the second child and oldest son of my in-law's, he had such potential. He was a talented mechanic who could fix anything with a motor. He loved gardening, and after he moved to a home with acreage, always planted a huge garden that was the envy of most of us. He shared his produce with us many times, and undoubtedly other friends and relatives as well. And he loved fishing, both from a boat as well as from land. With all these wonderful talents and qualities, why do I think of his life as just a bad example? Read on!
Uncle Bill had one vice that probably killed him--alcohol! Always a heavy drinker, this seemed to get worse after Aunt Emmie died in 1993. He would begin his drinking day first thing in the morning and didn't quit until bedtime. My dh learned that if he wanted a decent coversation with his oldest brother, he needed to call him early in the morning before the booze got too heavy a stranglehold on him and ruined him for the day. It was something that he just seemed to never be able to overcome. It cut short his life and made life miserable for those who knew and loved him. He was never able to reach his full potential because of this affliction.
Alcoholism runs in this family. Aunt Sandy (dh's sister) told me once that their Norwegian-born grandmother rushed out to the bars just as soon as she could following the birth of her first child. When I heard this story, I got the impression that this was the reason their grandfather deserted his family when my father-in-law was a small child. Raised a Quaker, "Grandpa Lester" probably didn't know how to deal with this except to leave. She also told us that "Uncle Ben," dh's uncle & father-in-law's younger brother, was an alcoholic as well. And the story my father-in-law told of meeting the LDS missionaries with a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other, made me think that he may have been on his way down that path as well. When he embraced the gospel, he quit these bad habits.
We all have the opportunity to change. If we have bad habits or traints that are detrimental to our character, we can change them. This is one of the joys of life, and a great principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not locked into the things that are not good. I have seen examples of change in people around me, those I know only casually as well as those close to me. I am thankful for this principle.
As for Uncle Bill, I am sure he will be constantly reminded of the errors he made in this life. I found it interesting that as we told each of our older children of his passing, they all said, in essence, "I'll bet he's getting quite a lecture from Grandma Nora." I believe that we can still change in the next life. I hope so, because I know when I die I will still be far from perfect.
Uncle Bill, I am sure that when we meet you in the next life, you will be a better person. While I'm not ready for that life yet, I look forward to meeting you there, when the time comes.
To me, "Uncle Bill" was the epitome of the quote we've probably all seen that reads, "Some people's only purpose in life is to serve as a bad example." That would be Uncle Bill's life, in a nutshell. Born in 1940, the second child and oldest son of my in-law's, he had such potential. He was a talented mechanic who could fix anything with a motor. He loved gardening, and after he moved to a home with acreage, always planted a huge garden that was the envy of most of us. He shared his produce with us many times, and undoubtedly other friends and relatives as well. And he loved fishing, both from a boat as well as from land. With all these wonderful talents and qualities, why do I think of his life as just a bad example? Read on!
Uncle Bill had one vice that probably killed him--alcohol! Always a heavy drinker, this seemed to get worse after Aunt Emmie died in 1993. He would begin his drinking day first thing in the morning and didn't quit until bedtime. My dh learned that if he wanted a decent coversation with his oldest brother, he needed to call him early in the morning before the booze got too heavy a stranglehold on him and ruined him for the day. It was something that he just seemed to never be able to overcome. It cut short his life and made life miserable for those who knew and loved him. He was never able to reach his full potential because of this affliction.
Alcoholism runs in this family. Aunt Sandy (dh's sister) told me once that their Norwegian-born grandmother rushed out to the bars just as soon as she could following the birth of her first child. When I heard this story, I got the impression that this was the reason their grandfather deserted his family when my father-in-law was a small child. Raised a Quaker, "Grandpa Lester" probably didn't know how to deal with this except to leave. She also told us that "Uncle Ben," dh's uncle & father-in-law's younger brother, was an alcoholic as well. And the story my father-in-law told of meeting the LDS missionaries with a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other, made me think that he may have been on his way down that path as well. When he embraced the gospel, he quit these bad habits.
We all have the opportunity to change. If we have bad habits or traints that are detrimental to our character, we can change them. This is one of the joys of life, and a great principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not locked into the things that are not good. I have seen examples of change in people around me, those I know only casually as well as those close to me. I am thankful for this principle.
As for Uncle Bill, I am sure he will be constantly reminded of the errors he made in this life. I found it interesting that as we told each of our older children of his passing, they all said, in essence, "I'll bet he's getting quite a lecture from Grandma Nora." I believe that we can still change in the next life. I hope so, because I know when I die I will still be far from perfect.
Uncle Bill, I am sure that when we meet you in the next life, you will be a better person. While I'm not ready for that life yet, I look forward to meeting you there, when the time comes.
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