Friday, November 18, 2011

Excelsior!

A New Day is Born
A new look for a new decade!

Well, let's say that is the excuse I am using for finally restarting a blog to which I last posted in 2009 just months before my life took a turn that no one could have imagined.  One simple word: Cancer (Multiple Myeloma /Bone Marrow Cancer)  It was always something that happened to others, deeply sad and incomprehensible, yet at the same time there was a veiled thought, "There but for the grace of God go I."  And then it stopped at my door.

On a recent trip my wife Ginny pulled out her prayer journal and asked, "Did you know that it was today on October 9, 2009 that we received the diagnosis of your cancer?" I hadn't remembered because my view has been steadily forward to the next step, whatever that was, and there have been many of them: New home, new city, new church, new "used" vehicle...new pains, new hopes, new fears, new career, new connections.

In the course of the last two years, I have found that I love writing as a way of crystalizing experiences, insights, and perspectives on life.  Perhaps this grew out of Caring Bridge, a wonderful free blog for cancer patients and their families. I used it both to keep those who loved me up-to-date about my welfare and to chronicle the journey through my particular valley of darkness.  It helped keep me honest and I was overwhelmed by the more than 14,000 responses that bathed me in love.

So here I find myself, squinting at the screen and wondering just where this will take me but excited to launch out on the journey.  You'll find all sorts of content here from technology to theology and all the stops in between. The one common denominator will be the perspective of an aging baby boomer with a renewed lease on life looking forward to the next adventures to which the Lord calls.  I will continue to cling to the promise that "...we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."  Eph 2:10  Thanks for stopping by; feel free to add a polite (old friends and family members are permitted clean shots) comment.

And now...as I have often said on Caring Bridge, "Excelsior...Onward and Upward!"