Road in Retirement

  As stated in my last blog, I’ve had to adjust how I engage my God-given purpose. My biggest challenge in putting my gifts into action is my own body. I need every form of communication to carry out my purpose, but I battle silence; the inability to communicate. I describe it to people as feeling trapped in a cocoon of silence. It’s not just oral communication, it's every means of communique: my hands are unable to type an email, my fingers are prohibited from pressing the right buttons on a smartphone, and both hands and fingers are not able to effectively guide a mouse through the surf waves of the internet. Imagine daily isolation where the only response you get is from yourself. I can see words and imagine discourse, but my brain currently lacks the connective wiring to move my tongue, mouth, jaw, or fingers to vocalize or electronically communicate. I am trapped in silence. Escape My husband disagrees with me somewhat on this though and he's partially correct. We've

On a Cliff of Purpose Crisis I feel like I left my last blog with the storyline of a car that’s gone through a mountain road guardrail and is one clinging wheel away from a 2000’ drop. Inside the vehicle, the main character has great fear in her eyes being on a precipice of purpose crisis. However, my situation isn’t like this at all (I just heard a concerted sigh). Actually, my situation is more like Tom Cruise in a Mission Impossible “impossible” dilemma, but with that sparkle in his blueish-green eyes. We all know he’s going to make it, after all, he is the hero and not bad to look at. I am no heroine, but my husband says I have that twinkle. My purpose to serve God and others remains, but I am navigating my assignments that come with that purpose, differently.  Gifts and Purpose Remain   As we all travel down our roadways of purpose, we need to be prepared for changes. My giftings from God like mercy, administration, serving, and just loving others remain. God reminds me that these

God’s Gifts  When I decided as an eighteen-year-old college sophomore to start trusting and following Jesus, my purpose became clearer as I noticed new abilities. God began getting involved in my stuff, not in do’s and don’ts, but in new desires and abilities. The book of 1 Corinthians says that God distributes gifts to each believer to empower them in their spiritual or heavenly purpose. They may realize a new ability to teach the ways of God, find special faith to pray for miracles, or even administrate in some way that benefits the church or body of Christ. Verse seven of that chapter says, “God works all things in all persons and gives to each manifestations of the Spirit for the common good.” I started to notice my own God-given gifts. My Gifts and Purpose Early in my new faith, I had this uncanny “manifested” ability to organize and lead things for good, like activities, committees, events, and bible studies (the organizing/NOT the teaching). It wasn’t learned as far as I could t

My last blog gave an account of my first real travel escapades after suffering a deep brain surgery setback last year. Trips to Wisconsin and then Chicago with walker, wheelchair, G tube supplies, and everything else all packed in the car, helped assuage my fears about travel. More importantly, those trips showed my husband and me that travel is not just possible, but now a permanent part of my Road in Retirement. So, three more trips were planned! The first two trips are described here to places starting with "Du." Duluth and Sea Legs A brief trip to Duluth involved a beautiful lunch with friends, a small lake, a sunny summer Friday, and a pontoon with legs. The legs are this miracle invention that allows people with balance and walking issues a chance to board a floating vessel like a pontoon. They also circumvent the cost and effort of installing a boat lift, but I’ll stick with the more melodramatic explanation. Jesus and Boats Water, boats, and people are a combination d

Road Bikes Earlier blogs touched on auto and wheelchair travel over the past year on my Road In Retirement journey. Before retirement and disabilities, I actually owned several road bicycles and would hit the pavement on many excursions throughout the Midwest. Many don’t know it, but I was a road biker nearly four decades ago, long before it all became a cool thing to do outdoors. I owned a Ross, a type of skinny-tire road bicycle with ten speeds. As a camp counselor during summer break from college in the 80's I took a group of high school kids on a 374-mile trek through Wisconsin. I could fill a book with stories on that "road;" mostly of the horror genre. But biking returned to me for a season here in North Dakota with "the Bike Group."  The Bike Group Various names were proposed for our informal twelve-person bike group, but the highly unoriginal "the Bike Group" is the only moniker that stuck. I firmly believe that friendship is an institution of