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Part of the Journey

Image result for pickup truck on fire

Part of the Journey –

This morning, driving down the interstate, I witnessed two aftermaths of car accidents. The first one was a car that had gone off the highway, up a hill, crashing into a big road sign. There was police personnel on the scene frantically trying to get the doors of the car open to attend to the injured. Not too many miles and minutes later I saw two Fire Department trucks crossing an overhead bridge and taking an on-ramp to the interstate. My question as to “why?” was answered a mile or two up the road when I spotted a pick-up truck, sitting on the side of the road, engulfed in fire! There was no one in the truck but the flames were high, bright orange and the situation was becoming dangerous.

Aside from praying for those involved, I reflected on the reality that none of the people involved, especially the drivers and passengers, woke up this morning and had these incidents on their agenda. I wondered how far down the list of “ways this day would go” until they got to these experiences.

Wisdom teaches that we cannot know or determine what we will encounter on the road of life. There are days when everything works out perfectly. Others when everything seems to go wrong. Most days are somewhere in the middle. No matter what happens, however, we are taught, and hopefully, learn to accept, it’s all part of the journey.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

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Investing

Feb 28

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Investing –

This morning I had a meeting with another community organization. I was presenting a new opportunity to work with fathers in our area and hoped they would help us. I have presented ideas, data, skills and a host of other information, to more organizations and ministries than I can count. I’ve never been asked to leave or had a bad experience but have had the occasional person I was talking to be looking at their phone, out the window or at their watch. Those presentations and discussion following seem to drag on forever. I’ve also had the organization be excited about the opportunity to partner with us. Most, however, are somewhere in the middle.

Today’s meeting was the exception because the woman whom I was meeting with was excited and had some great ideas as to how we could make part of our plan work at her location. She paid attention, listened intently, took notes, asked questions and made me feel welcomed and not rushed to finish so she could start doing something else. In other words, she was fully present in our time together. It was awesome.

It was a great reminder the difference we can make in other people’s lives if we invest our time, our kindness, our respect, and our lives in theirs.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life, Mindfulness

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Tags: #another, #area, #asked, #askedquestions, #attention, #awesome, #bad, #blessings, #data, #difference, #discussion, #drag, #exception, #excited, #experience, #fathers, #finish, #following, #forever, #fully, #great, #greatideas, #help, #hoped, #host, #ideas, #information, #intently, #invest, #investing, #kindness, #leave, #listened, #lives, #location, #looking, #meeting, #ministries, #occasional, #opportunity, #organization, #organizations, #paidattention, #part, #partner, #person, #plan, #present, #presenting, #reminder, #respect, #rushed, #skills, #thewannabesaint.com, #together, #welcomed, #work, @BrianLoging, Community

Single Moment

Feb 23

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Single Moment –

One of my favorite wisdom quotes is; “All we ever have is this present moment but if we do it right, it’s all we need.” Moments in time are what life is made up of. If we mindfully put enough of them together there’s a life worth living.

About an hour ago I needed to drive into town and pick up some medicine for my wife who has a nasty flu bug that’s been making the rounds. On the way home I was stopped at a traffic light where two lanes merge into one after the light turns green. There was an elderly woman behind me who must’ve just come from the beauty shop. She stopped before she needed to and was blocking traffic from both lanes. I looked in my mirror and watched her as she admired her hairdo. She played with it, flicked it with her fingertips. She was enjoying her hair and herself. Behind her was another driver who wasn’t enjoying the display. She wanted to get into the other lane but couldn’t because the beauty queen was lost in her own world.

Here’s my question; “Which one was living in the moment and which wasn’t?” Part of being mindful is the awareness of the creation around you but it’s also enjoying the little things which can make a big difference. Was I being mindful as I watched the two people in my mirror? Did I miss something because I was “rubbernecking?”

Each moment is special, unique, never to be repeated. Finding the center, the stillness, the focus of not focusing takes the journey of a lifetime. I’m still learning but aware enough to know there are things I need to know.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Mindfulness

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Tags: #admired, #aware, #awareness, #beautyqueen, #before, #being, #big, #bigdifference, #blessings, #blocking, #bug, #center, #creation, #difference, #display, #elderly, #enjoying, #enough, #favorite, #finding, #flu, #focus, #focusing, #herself, #journey, #know, #learning, #life, #lifetime, #light, #little, #littlethings, #living, #lost, #making, #merge, #mindful, #mindfully, #mirror, #miss, #need, #needed, #nevertoberepeated, #own, #part, #present, #presentmoment, #question, #rubber-necking, #rubbernecking, #Single, #singlemoment, #special, #still, #stopped, #things, #time, #together, #traffic, #unique, #way, #wisdom, #woman, #worth, Home, moment, quotes, Stillness, World

Long

Dec 31

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Long –

A question was asked today; “If you had one word to describe this year what would it be?” I knew the answer before the question was finished. The answer was/is looooooooooooooong.

My father passed away on December 1st. His battle with pancreatic cancer began near the first of the year. I went through it with him and my mom long distance, over the phone, and travelled down to South Carolina several times to see them. What they went through, the endless doctor’s appointments, the good news and bad news proclamations from well-meaning physicians, the ultimate acceptance of; “there’s nothing more we can do,” and then his sudden demise. As I said, “long year.”

Yet, paradoxically, there is a part of me that is holding on to 2017. It may have been fraught with battles and ultimately surrender but at least there was still a fight to be had. Since December 1st and the flurry of activity of the next few days prepping for his memorial service, the days have been living in slow motion. In spite of it’s pace, this was the last month I can say that I saw him, talked with him, sat in his presence, read and prayed with him. Now, in just a few hours I won’t have that attachment any longer.

It is quite difficult to let go, to walk into an unknown future, live a new normal with only 30 days of adjustments and finding our place, gaining our balance. It will be a challenge to press on into this new, strange year, but it must be done.

A soft, sorrowful; “Goodbye 2017” and a hesitant, and perhaps hopeful; “Hello” to 2018.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #2017, #2018, #30days, #acceptance, #activity, #adjustments, #answer, #appointments, #asked, #attachment, #away, #bad, #balance, #battle, #battles, #began, #blessings, #cancer, #challenge, #December1st, #demise, #describe, #difficult, #doctor's, #endless, #fewhours, #fight, #finding, #finished, #first, #flurry, #fraught, #Future, #gaining, #good, #goodbye, #Hello, #hesitant, #holding, #hopeful, #least, #live, #living, #long, #longdistance, #longer, #looooooooooooooong, #Memorial, #mom, #new #normal, #newnormal, #nothing, #pancreatic, #paradoxically, #part, #passed, #physicians, #prayed, #prepping, #presence, #presson, #proclamations, #question, #quite, #read, #service, #several, #slowmotion, #soft, #sorrowful, #strange, #sudden, #surrender, #talked, #through, #times, #today, #toletgo, #ultimate, #unknown, #walk, #well-meaning, #word, #year, @BrianLoging (Twitter) thewannabesaint.com, father, News

Cleaning Out

Dec 8

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for cleaning garage floor

Cleaning Out –

The last two days my mother and I have been working in my dad’s garage. It may be mom’s house but it will always be dad’s garage. We’ve been going through a lot of stuff which needed to be sorted. By the time we finished I had things to throw away, to keep and the garage was clean and organized.

It was a sad and enjoyable time rummaging through dad’s things. He loved tools and one could tell as we tried collecting them in one place. There was paint from projects long ago completed and recent work. Other items hadn’t been opened yet and we wondered; “What project was he thinking about when he bought this?”

The garage was a sacred space for my father. None of us would’ve dared gone in and rearranged it before his passing. My mom said this morning; “I know it needs to be done but I don’t want to do it.” I understood what she meant. There was a sense of invading another’s domain, eery and holy at the same time. There were items we kept not because they were important but because we just aren’t ready to part with them.

I think this best describes our walk down the path this week. We know we must go on without dad but we just aren’t ready to part with him.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #ago, #always, #aren'tready, #before, #blessings, #collecting, #completed, #dad'sgarage, #dads, #dared, #describes, #domain, #don'twant, #eery, #enjoyable, #finished, #garage, #goingthrough, #him, #holy, #house, #important, #invading, #kept, #long, #loved, #mother, #mustgo, #neat, #needed, #needs, #nice, #now, #one, #opened, #part, #passing, #path, #place, #projects, #ready, #rearranged, #recent, #rummaging, #sacred, #sacredspace, #sad, #sametime, #sense, #sorted, #space, #stuff, #thinking, #throwaway, #time, #tools, #tried, #walk, #week, #with, #without, #wondered, #work, #working, father

Silence

Dec 5

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for silence

Silence –

Today has been unusually quiet compared to the last several days since my father has passed. My wife and my mother spent some time together today which left me in her house alone. I reflected a bit on the week that has been but mostly I have slept. I am an introvert with diagnosed social anxiety so it takes little imagination to understand the state of mind I am in because deaths and memorial services, errands and condolence phone calls, emails and texts are anything but quiet and stress reducing.

My wife and my mom knew sleep and silence are what I needed today and am thankful they gave me some space. I am running on empty and my body, emotions, mind, and soul craves the quietude of muted phones, ignored texts, emails that can wait, errands which didn’t happen and the downtime which occurs the days and weeks after a loved one leaves this world.

They say the hardest part of a dear one passing isn’t the days immediately following. Days which are filled with planning, non-stop moving, endless words and memories are hard but can sweep you away in a flood of activity. It’s the days after which grow long. They are filled with loneliness, and questions, confusion, anger, and doubt. The flood of phone calls slow to a trickle, the flowers stop coming, the cards aren’t in the mail, and life goes on. The silence following the cacophony can be deafening.

So, what is a balm for me will become hurt, especially for my mother. It is in these times I must trust the memories will comfort, family and friends will step in for support and we will learn to live with the blessing of silence.

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #activity, #after, #alone, #anger, #away, #balm, #become, #blessing, #body, #cacophony, #cards, #comfort, #compared, #condolence, #confusion, #craves, #days, #deafening, #dearone, #deaths, #diagnosed, #doubt, #downtime, #emotions, #empty, #endless, #errands, #especially, #filled, #flood, #flowers, #following, #friends, #hard, #hardest, #hurt, #I, #imagination, #immediately, #introvert, #learning, #leaves, #lifegoeson, #live, #long, #lovedone, #memorialservices, #memories, #mother, #moving, #muted, #needed, #non-stop, #part, #passed, #passing, #planning, #questions, #quiet, #quietude, #reducing, #reflected, #running, #several, #sleep, #slept, #slow, #socialanxiety, #space, #stateofmind, #stepin, #stopcoming, #stress, #support, #sweep, #thankful, #today, #trickle, #trust, #understand, #unusually, #wife, #words, Family, father, loneliness, Mind, Silence, Soul, World

Till Death

Nov 18

Posted by thewannabesaint.com

Image result for wedding

Till Death –

Today I had the honor of officiating the marriage between a young woman I have known for a long time and her finance. It was a homespun affair. The bride, groom and myself on the porch, the rest of the family and friends in mismatched chairs under two canopies to keep away the strong wind and drizzle that wouldn’t give up the fight. It was a beautiful wedding. The bride and groom truly cared for each other and it showed. They wrote most of their vows which is the norm these days. However, they still included the phrase; “Till death do us part.” Marriage is supposed to be a lifelong commitment.

Before I arrived at the home where the event was held I pulled into a church parking lot to put on my dress shirt and tie. Afterwards, since I was running early, I sat in the car and watched a family walk through a maze of headstones trying to pick one out at a Memorial and Engraving shop which was located just down from the church. I wondered about their story, the person they were looking for.

I thought about the experience after the wedding as well and hoped for a story of long-lasting love and a life-long commitment for the couple who said their; “I do’s.”

blessings,
@BrianLoging (Twitter)
thewannabesaint.com

Posted in Life

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Tags: #Afterwards, #arrived, #blessings, #commitment, #couple, #death, #Engraving, #event, #experience, #headstones, #hoped, #lifelong, #long-lasting, #looking, #marriage, #maze, #Memorial, #part, #person, #story, #walk, #watched, #wedding, #wondered, Family, church, love

TheWannabeSaint.com

…..a place for sojourners on this spiritual path called life

Blog Archives

Part of the Journey

Investing

Single Moment

Long

Cleaning Out

Silence

Till Death

Brian Loging, OSBO

@BrianLoging

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Brian Loging, OSBO

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