Don't be a Cowboy hat and an African basket

Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

You have heard me say this before, but I will say it again, "Oh these are tough times to be a shrubbier."

These are also tough times to be a lot of things. Here at the "Y" we are busy having conversation after conversation about what "offerings" we should have. 

A few years ago my motorcycle buddy and I were riding through central Oregon. As we rode through a small town (when I say small I mean city limits sign on both sides of the sign post small) and we came across this sign in front of the only store in town. 

Now if you are the only store around for 200 miles I guess having such a wide / eclectic offering might just work.

Kind of like being home alone and running around the house dressed in boxer shorts and a dress shirt, or a tank top and swimming trunks. But go outside the house or go to a store dressed like that and you just might get some sideways looks.

I am not really sure what Cowboy hats have with African baskets. I wasn't in the market for either so I didn't check them out. 

I worry about the same thing with the "Y" If we try to be all things to all people and have more offerings than Wally World we might water ourselves down to the point of people saying, "I'm not in the market for a Cowboy hat." or Alice telling Fred, "Honey we already have 3-African Baskets at home, we don't need another one."

Another way to put this is, "If you don't have a strategic plan you might end up selling Cowboy hats and African baskets.

Where am I going with all of this? 

Worldviews, that is where I am going. 

If you say you believe one thing but your actions say you believe something else, at the very least you are a confused individual. At the most, well you get it. 

Don't be that person.

Don't be a Cowboy hat and an African basket.

Something to Ponder.

Blessings,

I should have taken a left at Albuquerque!

Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor is on a road trip!

He is headed to Florida. Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor being Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor I totally expect a call stating he is lost.

The funny thing is that most of us go through life being randomly impacted by things, or that is what we think. 

I often hear in my counselings, "I didn't think that would happen or I didn't see that one coming."

When in fact if they had thought about the possible outcomes at all they surely could have expected the result in one of the options. 

The when they are faced with the outcome they get all goofy and do and say silly things. 

I teach a world religions class at a university and on the first day of class, as we are getting to know each other, I say, "Don't say what you believe. Your actions will tell me what you believe."

It is our core commitments that drive our actions. Our outward actions will tell what we feel inside. 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Mat 6:21)

While it may be funny to hear Bugs Bunny say, "I should have taken a left at Albuquerque."

Not paying attention to our life's road map may not work out so well.

Here at the "Y" we are trying to figure out just how we are going to look going forward. It is my prayer that we pay special attention to this process. I would hate to get to the end of this process and have Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor say, "I think we should have taken a left at Albuquerque."

In your personal life how are you in relation to Abeuquerque?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

Everything was good, until it wasn't.

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. (Jeremiah 29:5-6)

I have been ruminating on the words of Jeremiah, which if you know the story are the words of God ever since God touched his mouth when he was young. I actually used these words in an opening thought for a meeting yesterday.

Back in the day the Israelites had heard of trouble to the northeast. They had heard of Nebuchadnezzar and his army. They were just glad that he was far away and didn't affect them.

Everything was good, until it wasn't.

One day Nebuchadnezzar brought his army to Israel, conquered the land and took the Israelites back in captivity to Babylon.

Of course the Israelites were not happy, many said, we have been following God's instructions why has this happened to me?

God through Jeremiah told them, "Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished."

While this may not feel good, nor seem good at all, eventually it will end. You will go home, and life will go on, maybe not like it did before but it will go on.

Some 2,600 years later another group of people heard some rumblings.

They heard of an epidemic half a world away.

While they watched with idle fascination they were just glad it was half a world away.

Everything was good, until it wasn't.

Then one day the epidemic came to them. It crossed an ocean and came to them becoming a pandemic.

And the people said, "What is this, why is it here?"

People started to die and the people said, "He/she didn't do anything wrong why are they dying?"

5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. (Jeremiah 29:5-6)

The words of Jeremiah are poignant.

With all the trouble around us it is easy to become a doomsday-er, A chicken little, "The sky is falling." mentality can develop.

While this may not feel good, nor seem good at all, eventually it will end.

My prayer is, "Lord, help me take my eyes off of me and place them on someone else, someone who needs help. Let me live not out of fear or intimidation but out of love, respect and responsibility; let me be loving and honest and help me have the energy to serve."

This too shall end, I wonder what we will look like when it does.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor said, "You know I’m not gonna let this go for a while, right?"

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

Another day, another hospital visit.

My ongoing issues and adventures with food continue as I fight lymphoma.

We had thought, and when I say we I mean me, my wife, my doctor teams all thought that I could start to add different foods to my diet, so I did.

Laurie and I like Mediterranean food and I wanted to lose some weight so we thought the Mediterranean diet would by a good one. My doctors all agreed that this would be a good diet. the only place I did not check was my small intestine.

As you can plainly see the carrot did not make it through and I ended up back in the hospital, Uggggggg.

I am always amazed by my hospital visits. I should bring a sign with me that reads, "The chaplain is in.", hang it above my door, and take appointments.

"Bloom here you are planted." I have heard this often during my lifetime.

Lately it seems that I get planted in hospitals quite a bit. This last time I was able to talk with and hopefully help a number of nurses and even a few doctors.

Covid-19 is getting to them.

They come into my room just like a carrot. All you see on the surface is the bushy green top. The real problems lay a bit deeper under the ground, just like a carrot.

I don't know if I am ever going to eat another carrot. I know Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor is thinking this is all a bit funny that I can be brought down by a tuber, a root.

I guess we got to the root of the problem.

All I know is no matter where you end up, God is there with you, and if you let Him He will work through you to help others.

So don't ask God, "What about me Lord?" Rather ask, "What about them?"

Bloom where you are planted.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

The Aquatics walk of shame

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

I guess yesterday was just my day.

After getting a call from 1988 wanting its socks back. I was going to go lap swimming.

Another innovation brought on by Covid-19 is the development of registering for a lane in the lap pool.

I actually love this addition. I can register for a 30-min time slot in the lap pool and I am guaranteed a lane being available for when I swim. Before Covid-19 it was every person for themselves and honestly sometimes the experience wasn't pleasant. Being able to have a lane dedicated to you for a certain amount of time is really a nice thing, at least I think so.

All you have to do is go on the website, select the day and the time you would like to swim and if there is an open lane register yourself and walla you have a lane.

I was registered for the 2pm time slot and had a 30-min swim window. I got to the pool at 1:55pm so I could get in right at 2pm and maximize my swim.

I stood on the pool deck dripping wet from my shower, the clock hit 2pm and every lane was still full and people did not look like they were getting out.

2:05pm I am still standing on the pool deck waiting, and beginning to dry off.

2:08pm still on the pool deck drying off and heating up!

I go to the Aquatics Director and ask, "When are they getting out? I am scheduled form 2pm-2:30pm."

Matt (the Aquatics Director) looks at the registration sheet and says, "Chappy (that is what I get called thanks to Liz) you aren't on the registration."

I say, "Yes, I am I have a confirmation email."

Matt says, "Let's see it."

We go to my office (yes, I am still in my swim suit) and we pull up the email.

Matt says, "Oh, I see the problem."

I say, "And what is that."

Matt says, "You registered for tomorrow at 2pm."

Oh how wearing socks from 1988 can mess you up!

We are developing a Chaplain Services that came out of the "Y" Cares program we started at Clark. One of the services is to help seniors with the budding Tele-health services that the Doctors are using.

Evidently seniors are having a hard time with the ZOOM meeting portion of the Tele-health platform.

One of our services is to help seniors navigate the Tele-health platform.

I am thinking maybe we should add helping chaplains navigate registering for the lap pool, just say-in.

I got up from my chair in my office (that now is wet from my suit) and made the walk of shame back through the Aquatics department to the changing area, got dressed, walked back through the aquatics department and back to my office.

I sure could have used the Chaplain Services yesterday.

Covid-19 is making us innovate and rethink how we do things.

While the disease is horrible there are good things coming out of it.

I wonder what the "Y" will think of tomorrow?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

1988 called it wants its socks back

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

It has been very warm lately, some would say hot.

Typically I wear long pants, a dress shirt, you know business attire.

In this new Covid-19 environment, along with the heat, I decided to wear shorts.

I arrived at the "Y", went through the Covid-19 protocol/gauntlet to get in. I put my lunch in the fridge, sat down at my desk and the phone rang.

The voice on the other end said, "This is 1988. I have been looking for my socks and I see that you are wearing them! I want my socks back!!!"

I said, "Good morning Norm."

He just laughed.

It is funny how we present ourselves.

The clothes we wear.
The way we talk.
The way we react to things.

I love how we are all different. I like to say, "As wonderful and amazing as I am, a world made of just me would be astoundingly boring."

It is true, I will speak for only me. I need diversity in my world.

I like vanilla ice cream.
I like chocolate ice cream.
I love Neapolitan ice cream.

As I do my walk with cancer, and spend time on the dairy farm with my cancer buddies, I notice that cancer is an equal opportunity disease.

On the farm there is:
Old and young.
Women and men.
Fat and skinny.
All colors.
All worldviews.

Cancer doesn't care.

On the farm we:
Talk together.
Cry together.
Laugh together.

On the farm we don't care where we came from or what we believe. We don't care about the color of our skin or our sexual orientation.

On the farm we:
Love on one another.
Lift each other up.

I am always amazed by my friends on the farm.

I am troubled by the thought of, "If a bunch of people that look mortality square in the face can love on one another why can't the rest of us do the same? After all we are dying of something."

Something to ponder.

Blessings,
Roger

God Took me on a walk

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

We had a Town Hall the other night. It was a ZOOM Town Hall. There were over twenty people present and we had amazing moderators that kept the conversation flowing.

The Town Hall was on Bias, Racism, and how people feel with-in the YMCA. Do people feel safe, do people feel included or excluded.

My job was to listen, or so I thought.

I am an internal processor.

What is an internal processor you ask? An internal processor is a person who processes the information internally before being able to give an adequate external answer. We are the people that have great comebacks to people's remarks, the only problem is we have them 3-days later. We are the opposite of external processors that process information on the fly verbally.

When I listen, I listen with the intent to listen and not the intent to respond.

The Town Hall was going along swimmingly and we were at the end of the Town Hall when Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor said, "Roger, we need to hear from you. You have been quite throughout the meeting."

What I should have said was, "I am an internal processor so I have not formulated a proper response yet, but I am amazed at what I have been hearing and am truly grateful to be part of this group." Of course I thought of this 2-days later.

What I did say was how I too felt excluded from the YMCA and then told them examples of my exclusion.

I was not happy with my response. It was not well formulated nor thoughtful. I realized that I had things to address. So I did what I always do when presented with something that I cannot work out on my own.

I took a walk with God.

I took an 8-mile, 3,400 elevation gain walk hike though some of the most beautiful country God has created. If you have ever hiked the Gorge you know what I mean.

God basically walked me into the ground and then we had our conversation.

God in His gentle way showed me that while yes I may have had some tough times, and been through some stuff. I still did not go through what others have gone through.

I responded, "Father you know I love everyone and I feed people, I cloth them, I visit them when they are sick..."

God said, "It isn't about that. It is about letting them tell you how they hurt and how they feel. It is about being their ally and their advocate. This is not about you."

Did I mention that I am an old, balding, fat, white guy? At least that is how I present.

Actually I am a mutt. My family on both sides have been here since the early 1600's.

I have in my lineage:
Native American
African American
Euro American

I present white.

God knows I am a mutt, He loves mutts.

I came home from my walk with God, my adopted daughter was there to greet me.

She is a mutt too.

She has in her lineage:
Native American
African American
Euro American

She is also part of the LGBTQ community.

I told her about my walk with God. I apologized to her if I had ever said anything that she took as offensive. She said thank you, and no I had not.

I want to apologize to you if I had said anything that you took as offensive. It was not my intent to offend.

My wife looked at our daughter and said, "Roger never wanted people to say, 'That was a good sermon.' What he liked hearing was, 'Your sermon made me uncomfortable."

True self reflection is hard, it is also awesome.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,
Roger

Leave Yesterday Behind

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

That was then, this is now.
This is the first day of the rest of your life.
I fell down and can't get up.

I have been thinking a lot lately.
I have been thinking about possible Simon and Garfunkel songs.
This just goes to show you that while I may be thinking a lot it does not mean I have been thinking deep life changing thoughts.

Leave yesterday behind.
If I want to make a change it is up to me.
Pandemics are a lonely place.

Oh, the possible songs they could have sang.

I have been part of many meetings as we have gone through this Pandemic, especially with-in the "Y".

So often as we talked of "Emerging" into our "New", we would get bogged down by the "In the past" discussion.

Finally Trevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvor just yelled out, "Leave yesterday behind."

This got me to thinking, mostly about possible titles to Simon and Garfunkel songs, but also about how am I stuck in "past thinking"?

I cannot help thinking about Simon and Garfunkel songs. I just like the way they sang.

I also cannot help but think about the past as I have Context in my top 5 of my StrengthFinders. I do like to look forward though.

If the "Y" is a change agent and I am a change agent with-in the "Y" then I must look forward as I look to transform peoples lives for the better.

Leave Yesterday Behind.

It is more than a possible Simon and Garfunkel song, it is a mindset that we will have to adopt if we want the transformation that we truly say we desire.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,
Roger

My wife said, "What are you doing?" I said, "I don't know!"

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

My friend Gregg (not his real name...) called. I had not talked with him for a while and it was good to catch up.

I updated him on where I was with my treatments and what will be coming next.

He told me what was going on in his life.

Of course we talked about Corona, no not the beer, although that has come up in the past with us. Having a get together with past graduates at John Barleycorn's has always been a great time, listening to how their lives have changed for the better since their degree.

The other Corona.

Covid-19 sure has changed things; how we do everything in fact, I will save that for later though.

Gregg asked what I had been up to and I said, "Oh the usual, driving my wife nuts."

I told me how everyone says stay home and she says, "Go to work."

I do a lot of puttering, puttering is where you walk around your yard and work on stuff that may need work, or not, depending on the level of puttering you are doing.

Yesterday I was puttering on our stone patio. It is made of large 2"-minus (Landscaping term) stone with pea gravel in between. I removed all the furniture and stuff (stuff is that other crap on the patio that is not furniture, stuff). Took the blower and cleaned off all the debri (leaves, sticks...debri). Then sent Laurie to the store to buy pea gravel and we redid the patio.

After the patio I started in on an old brick retaining wall that was in disrepair.

Laurie said, "What are you doing now?"

I replied, "I don't know."

Puttering.

I get a lot of thinking done when I putter.

I get a lot of listening to God done when I putter.

It is the puttering time that God says things like, "You should feed kids."

Or

"That homeless guy on the that corner by the "Y" needs a friend."

Puttering, if you don't want to hear what God has to say I recommend that you don't putter.

Something to ponder.

Blessings,

I am glad that God saw this little farm kid from Kansas and said, "I will use that one."

Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.

It is morning, barely. It is around 12:15am and I am awake.

It has been a couple of days since I have talked with you.

It is Chemo week.

This week turned out to be a bit different than was originally planned.

Monday is normally my long day between 6-8 hours of poison dripping in my arm, depending on how fast the stuff can drip on that particular day.

Tuesday is my short day around 4 hours of the drip.

This week was different.

Monday turned out to be test day and a longer consult day.

My Oncologist wanted to take a good look at my numbers and after doing so he made the decision that this may well be my last treatment. He went ahead and scheduled my 6th treatment for the end of July, but also scheduled my Pet-scan for the week before. If my Pet-scan comes back clean we won't do any more treatments and I go on maintenance.

The consult as usual was a two-way consult. He consulted me about my cancer and the treatment he thought would be best. I did a lot of listening (chaplains have to be good at listening) and talked with him about his anxiety that Covid-19 is causing. My nurse was in tears as she talked about how frightened she was that she would give one of their patients Covid. She is not positive and is hyper vigilant, but lives in fear of bringing the disease into the clinic. They both fear for me, that is one reason they want to cut the treatment short if they can. My immune system is a wreck. I told them both how much I appreciated them and that they were saving my life.

So Monday was testing and consulting day.

Tuesday turned into my long day. The "Y" had a board meeting on Tuesday that I was going to ZOOM in on. One of my cocktails that they feed me makes me very tired and I fell asleep. When I awoke the meeting was over. Hopefully Daryl will catch me up on the goings ons (a Kansas phrase, yes I know it is not grammatically correct).

The long day cocktail gives me insomnia, thus the late night conversation. Look at that Jennifer I got to use the word "thus".

Wednesday will be a long day. Wednesday will go like this.
-Early morning prayer call.
-a 9am conference call with my sister and her care team; she has stage 4 breast cancer and is a lot farther down the road than I am. I will be helping her with medical decisions from here on out.
-Check in with the Summer lunch team we have served 223 meals in the first 6 days, well done team. I am honestly glad that I have a truly autonomous, successful team that I can rely on during this time.
-Go to the Dairy farm.
-I will end my day with my prayer team call at 6pm. At least that is how I think I will end my day. God will tell. Literally God will tell, He is in charge and I am not.

I am reminded of when I was in the hospital last January. We were doubled up because of the flu. I was rooming with Jerry. Jerry was dying. He only had a short time left. I had the honor and privilege to help him during that time. Jerry was a talker and he talked a lot. I listened a lot. We talked end of life stuff. I would take walks around the floor with his wife. I would listen to and talk with his daughter and her husband. End of life is hard. I was glad that I was there to help.

My friend Matt (he is the pastor of Rhapsody church, the church at the "Y") came to visit me during this time. I had done a training with the church on "Care Ministry" that included hospital visits. Matt said he was practicing on me. Anyway, as we were talking Jerry was taken down to get a blood transfusion and a nurse came in.

She said, "Being a chaplain is hard. you don't even get a break when you are sick and in the hospital."

Matt just looked at her and replied, "How do you take a break from yourself, from who you are? This is who Roger is, it is more than what he does."

I told Matt his hospital visit was going great until he chastised a nurse. Keep working on it my friend you will get it.

When I go to the Dairy Farm I get to listen to people who are a long way down the road.
-Some are tired.
-Some are scared.
-Some are angry.
I do a lot of listening. I am glad I can help.

I am glad that God saw this little farm kid from Kansas and said, "I will use that one."

How is God using you?

Something to ponder.

Blessings,
Roger