My Book

My Book

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Life is what happens when you are busy planning life.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Life is what happens when you are busy planning life.


I was walking around one of the local lakes this morning after my workout. I'm retired, and I have time to walk around a lake after a workout.


Anyway, I was walking around the lake, pondering. Or was I pondering as I walked around a lake? Maybe, I will have to ponder where pondering goes in the sentence. Pondering can be quite dangerous, as it can lead to rabbit holes, and I end up in an Alice in Wonderland thought exercise.


As I walked, I started pondering the Book of Job.


Actually, the pondering started around my recent dermatology episode. I have had a number of well-wishers express concern and sympathy for the possibility of what might happen, or not. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers, but I was not pondering that as I walked around a lake.


I was pondering Job, how life happens when you are busy planning life.


You see, Job was busy planning life, building wealth, and security for his family. He seemed to be a guy who worried a lot. When his kids would have a party, he would pray to God for protection and forgiveness of the things that they might have done, things that Job didn't even know that they would have done, but just to cover his bases, he would perform a sacrifice for purification. Everything seemed to be going along just fine when all of a sudden, a series of calamities happened.


  1. Some people stole all the oxen and donkeys, and killed all the servants but one so he could tell Job what happened.
  2. Then fire came down from the sky and killed all the sheep and the servants who were watching them; only one escaped to tell Job.
  3. Then some other people came and stole all his camels and put those servants to death, all but one, so he could tell Job.
  4. Then all his children were killed by a huge wind.

Job was having a very bad day, but wai,t there is more.


  1. Sometime in the near future, all the book said is "another day." Job is afflicted with sores all over his body.
  2. His wife looks at him and says, "Why don't you curse God and die?"

Here, Job was planning life one day, and within a few days, everything was gone. And he was covered with sores.


I was pondering this while I walked.

I was pondering this when I stopped to take a drink of water.

I was pondering this while I almost got run over by a mountain bike (A nice on your left would have been nice, just sayin).


As I walked, I began recounting my life and how the trajectory looked more like a tree with many branches than a single straight line. If you want to have a good picture of a straight line, drive either I-70 in Kansas or I-80 in Nebraska. You can literally drive through the entire state without going through a curve. Now that is a straight line.


I told you pondering can be dangerous. I ended up back in Kansas for a moment.


Oh yes, the tree branch thing.

Here are some branches.


My sister had called me from a bar, and I went to meet her. Only to be confronted by some guy in uniform who wanted to beat me up, and I ended up in the Navy. I didn't see that one coming.


Or the time I was having a very nice day, and then went to the hospital for some tests, only to be admitted and wake up the next morning after emergency surgery to see the word "Lymphoma" on my wall chart. I thought to myself, that is a very big word, and it doesn't sound good. It was both a very big word and it wasn't good. I didn't see that one coming either.


Life is what happens when you are busy planning life.


When I look at life and the fact that if you live long enough, things go wrong, your warranty runs out, parts break, things go wrong.


When I look at my life, and the things that have happened, like a replaced shoulder, a replaced ankle, both of which come in handy at the airport. I always get patted down by TSA. If they do a really good job, I'll tip them a buck. One time, they did such an exceptional job, I asked if I could go through the line again!


What if I lose an eye? Yes, that would suck, but my kids are alive, my wife loves me, I don't have sores all over my body. I will still be able to walk around a lake and ponder things.


In the end, it is a matter of perspective.


So there.


Something to ponder.

Blessings,

Roger

Monday, June 30, 2025

Day 7 of my Retirement

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

Well, it is day seven of my retirement. I'm not sure what to make of it yet, I'm not sure I like it, but then again, I'm not sure that I don't. Let's go through my first week, shall we?

Monday, I woke up at 4:30 am, did my journaling, made my two eggs, I like dippy eggs; those are eggs with the yoke still runny, I call them dippy eggs. Now you know what I'm talking about when I say I made dippy eggs. And I drank my protein drink. I am supposed to have, oh, I almost forgot! Before I eat any meal, I have to drink 8oz of water with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in it. I'm not really sure why I have to drink this. I have a thought that it is only so that it makes everything taste nasty, and you don't eat much. Anyway, I am supposed to have 40 grams of protein for each meal. I am to eat three meals within 8 hours and no snacking in between. I ate my eggs and drank my drinks. I made a pot of coffee, which is new since I retired. I now have time to make coffee. I got dressed. 

One would have thought I would have put on clothes to make breakfast, but I didn't. I'm retired. 

I then went to the gym and worked out for two hours. After coming home from the gym, I thought, Why did I hurry? I don't have anything pressing. I could be like the other old guys who sit around and complain that the water is 2 degrees too cold and then chase after the young ladies with their walkers to get a hug. 

I will have to remember to work on that, and yes, I will need to get a walker just for the effect.

Tuesday, same thing, but added swimming. 

Wednesday, Same thing, but added cancer of the face later in the day. Evidently, it is in a bad location,n and I might lose my left eye. Welcome to day three of retirement.

Thursday, Same thing, but added two cords of wood that needed to be stacked.

Friday, what did I do Friday? I guess that is part of retirement, not remembering what you did two days ago. 

Saturday, I started to stack the wood and then remembered it was my anniversary. I took a shower and gave Laurie a piece of wood, man, I am romantic!

On Sunday, I went to stack wood, and Laurie said that my eye was swollen. I said, "Of course it is, you punched me in the eye when I gave you your anniversary present." Did I mention that Laurie is retired, too? She can't remember anything either.  She said no, it looks infected. I went to urgent care, but they were closed. I guess their idea of urgent is different than mine.

 I have an appointment for Monday morning. 

My dad, who has been retired for 30 years, tells me I need to learn to pace myself. His idea of pacing himself is to put on a sock and take a nap. Put on the other sock and take another nap. 

I'm not sure I'm there yet.

I am not sure what the doctor thinks of me. 

When he was looking over my body, He was a dermatologist. He was checking everywhere, having me lift my leg, and stuff like that. I should have been more uncomfortable sitting there in my underpants with him and a nurse in the room. I wasn't, I'm the guy who makes breakfast in his undies, and after eleven surgeries, you kind of lose your inhibitions when it comes to being undressed in front of medical staff. 

He was going along, saying everything was looking great. then he got to my face and said, "Crap." When a doctor says, "Crap." that never is a good thing. I said, "Thanks, doc, I know I'm ugly, but you should be more professional." He didn't even pay attention to me and told the nurse I had a Basal Melopnuematic blopia ma jig. I don't know he used some 65-cent word that evidently means "bad" cancer, and the location made it worse, just under my left eye. He said, "This kind of cancer has tendrils, which are slender threadlike appendages, often growing in a spiral form, that stretch out and twine around any suitable support. 

I asked, "What does this mean?" 

He said that they have to do surgery and cut until they get good margins. You might lose your left eye."

I asked, "Just how far will they have to cut?" 

He said, "I can't say. Other than your eye, do you have any concerns?"

I said, "Yes, you see, I'm a hand model. They won't have to take my hand, will they?"

As I said,  I am not sure what the doctor thinks of me. 

Here is where things get real for me. I could go all woe is me and stuff, but my dad always said, "Roger, you don't have to look very far to see somebody who has it worse than you."

And he is right. As a Chaplain, I have seen more than my share of bad stuff. 

Even if I lose my eye, I'm not going to cry about it. I think you need an eye to cry anyway.

As tough as the news was to hear, I'm just glad I have God to lean on.

Something to ponder.

Roger


Wednesday, June 11, 2025

We will never know.

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

It seems like yesterday, well maybe the day before, that I first started working at the YMCA in 2006. The years have flown by and all of a sudden I am at the end. I will be retiring on June 20th, 2025. 

Words cannot express my gratitude and deep appreciation for each and every one of you. Being allowed to work alongside you has been an honor and a humbling experience. 

Over the years we have had our share of challenges and successes. We have watched our association sell off assets, and we have lived through four CEOs, along with numerous executive-level leaders. We lived through Covid, we lived through four different presidents along with many other politicians. All while continuing to do good work and make positive impacts in our communities.

I have been pondering my time at the Y and all the good work we have done. So often I have heard how many swim lessons we have given, or how many meals we have served. We have talked about how many kids we have had in our summer camps and after-school enrichment camps. How many lives have been improved by our active older adult classes? But I would like to suggest a different point of view, a different perspective if you will.

Have you ever pondered this: We will never know.

We will never know how many kids did not drown because we gave out free swim lessons. A skill these kids would never have had if we didn’t do this for free, simply because their parents/guardians could not afford it. 

We will never know how many kids and families did not suffer the pangs of hunger because we gave them something to eat. 

We will never know how many kids didn't have something bad happen to them after school in the time between being released from school and their parents coming home from work because we took care of them during the time in between. 

We will never know how many older adults did not die an earlier death simply because we had active older adult classes. 

We will never know how many people did not commit suicide because we battled loneliness and social isolation through our programs.

We will never know how many people are not only still alive but thriving because we gave them a place to belong. 

We will never know.

I know there are some of you out there thinking, "Roger don't be so dramatic. I'm sure that most of those people would be just fine anyway." Well, if you want to find out, just stop providing all those programs and watch the numbers rise. Listen to the grieving parent talk about the child they won't be able to hold anymore. Listen to the caregiver talk about finding their elderly parent dead on the floor in the living room. Hear the stories of families becoming homeless because they had to choose between food for their kids and paying rent. 

Oh Roger, there you go again being all dramatic again.

Maybe so, but I do have to ask the question; Am I the only chaplain who has done a welfare check and found an elderly person dead on their floor. Am I the only chaplain who sat with a grieving mother after she found out her daughter had drowned? Am I the only chaplain consoling a family after their loved one committed suicide?

Where do you think these programs came from, thin air? No, they came out of a need that was not being filled in the community.

The YMCA did this. 

You did this. 

You are the YMCA, never forget that. 

And never forget the importance of your work and your mission.

I am at the sunset of my career, you still have a mission to accomplish, and it is this.

To put the Christian principles of love, Respect, Honesty, responsibility, and Service into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all.

I am retiring, but I know I am leaving an organization that I love in the best hands there are, and those hands belong to you.

Till we meet again.

Roger