Ale for the Soul

Last week I was able to get away from the land of exile in order to visit and spend time with family.  Even though part of our plans for a trip to East Texas fell apart, I very much enjoyed spending three wonderful days with my mother in Yoakum.  During this time, as she still had to work her shifts at the church, I was able to scratch off quite a few items from the bucket list.  Many of these items have been on there for several years awaiting much-needed closure.  On top of the list, but really in no particular order, was to visit the Alchoholics Anonymous group in Victoria where I tried to get sober in 2004.  Even though I didn't recognize anyone in attendance, I did enjoy the time spent in fellowship.  Then a visit was made to Memory Gardens Cemetery where three acquaintances are interred.  One in particular, my friend Amy, was buried there in 2021.  Regretting not being able to attend her funeral services, I made every effort to locate her grave, along with the graves of her m

About ten years ago I stumbled across a website called Find A Grave .  It is a free website associated with Ancestry , possibly started by the same person.  For about nine of those years I was a "member", I dabbled with it until I began discovering family members.  Over the previous year, I quickly began connecting the dots on the family history: who was married to whom, dates born and died, where they are buried, and a whole treasure trove of information.  As I fell down the rabbit hole of genealogy, I discovered the tools at my disposal through the interactive site.  One of the tools is the Suggested Edit tab, in which I can fill in information and connect family members to one another: parents to children, husbands to wives, where they were born, and so much more.  In fact, I've taken the process far beyond the initial personal goal of finding kinfolk.  As of right now, I have a little under 8,000 memorials I manage and am slowly, but surely, working my way through tho

A little over a week ago, I finished working at Ole Grapevine Cigar & Tobacco Shop for a second tour of duty.  Once again, I found this particular place of employment extremely toxic and dysfunctional.  With the exception of one other staff member, the crew at the shop were too chummy with one another in very unhealthy ways.  Similar to the first experience, I was micro-managed and isolated from feeling a part of the "family", as the manager liked to call the company.  I never felt included...only taken advantage of and then made to feel inferior and worthless.  The customer base wasn't too much better than the work environment.  In some ways, the customers were worse...a bunch of entitled, rich people who wanted their way while everyone else be damned.  Spoiled-rotten brats!  The manager summarily decided, without even consulting me, that I would be moved to an "on call" position.  Since I'm not naive, I realize this means I'll never work there agai

As I grow older, the search for significance and meaning increases.  Most of my life has fallen through the cracks without much to show for fifty years of living on this planet.  However, I can take joy in and thank God for His continued Sheparding of this life and the manifold blessings evident all around me.  This world is not my home, but I can enjoy the journey with my eyes fixed on True North.  Father God and His Son, the Lord Jesus, are the only relationships that make this life worth living.  On April 4th, I underwent the second and final cataract and lens replacement procedure.  Knowing what to expect, I was a lot calmer while in the operating room.  Beyond that, the subsequent weeks of healing couldn't have been any more different from the first procedure.  There were lots of draining, irritation, and discomfort.  Wow!  I couldn't help but to become concerned I might lose the use of my left eye or come out with diminished vision that would have been worse than before h

...He is risen indeed!  This is the typical New Testament greeting from one brother or sister to another.  What impact does that statement have in my life?  Does it really make a difference?  It all boils down to belief, and more than an intellectual assent but a deep-seated belief found in the inner recesses of my heart and soul.  I can claim a born-again experience, but is it evident in daily living?  Thoughts, behaviors, and actions will quickly tell how true this may be in my life.  As I see how life has turned out, am I still trying to wrest my will out of the Hands of God instead of allowing Him to have unfettered access to all that I am?  As you can see, there may be more questions than answers; however, that is where faith comes in.  Many of the heroes of the faith couldn't see the larger picture of the puzzle as the pieces were getting put into place during the course of life.  Soren Kierkegaard said it best, "Life is best understood backward but must be lived forward

Every four years, an additonal day is added to the calendar to course correct our measure of time to better match the Earth's rotation around the sun.  According to a simple Google search, the Earth takes 365.2422 days to fully make one trip or revolution.  This adds up to roughly six hours per year or 24 hours over a four-year period of time.  Hence, the additional day to take care of the excess time and to get us back on track.  Six hours a year may not seem significant or noticeable, but I'm sure it would be over the course of a greater amount of time.  Seasons would become mis-aligned, day would become night, night would become day, and all kinds of havoc would be wreaked due to the accumulative affect of the excess time versus Earth's rotation around the sun.  While the Earth is taking advantage of its "free day" to catch up, how will I use the time?  Chores and other loose ends finally taken care of?  A day out in the state park hiking and celebrating life?