October, 4th Week, 2022

**Among the Giants Oil Paint Rendered — Along the Trail to Grotto Falls, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Gatlinburg, Tennessee**

Squaring ourselves up with our life
is also known as "Growing Up."

It is a life-long process
because life changes over time,
and our traditional routines
are erased,
requiring us to 
"reprogram the brain for auto-pilot"
(Joyce Powers),
and it is hell some more again.

Putting ourselves in accord with our life,
aligning ourselves with our life,
reconciling ourselves with our life,
is a conscious/willful/deliberate act
of seeing/hearing/knowing/doing/letting be.

Our life is never what we wish it were for long.
We learn to hit curve balls,
and sliders make their appearance,
or knuckle balls,
or spitters...
and we have to take things into account
we never-before considered.

Giving ourselves time to make the adjustments
necessary to accommodate ourselves
to "a new world Golda,"
and maintaining our sense of humor
throughout the process,
allows "nature to take its course"
and we settle into new
just in time to run aground upon newer,
and here we go again, again.

–0–

Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters and five granddaughters within about twenty minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything. View more posts