Ale for the Soul

Soren Kierkegard once said that life can only be understood looking backward but must be lived moving forward.  (My paraphrase.)  As I look back on the previous year plus, I am amazed at the journey yours truly has taken.  The only observation that counts is how my Father God has walked with and blessed me the entire time.  With the exception of some temp work here and there, I was fortunate enough to have had enough money in the bank to take off for most of 2021.  Again, the Great Shepard has richly provided when I needed His help the most.  If I cease resisting His hand of providence and love for me, the lover of my soul has proven time and again that He is willing to grant a rich life far beyond anything I could ever fathom in this temporary earthly life.  I am simply a pilgrim on a journey to an eternal kingdom.  This life is the proving ground for the next world.  Of course I will experience less than ideal circumstances and personal rev...

Time marches on and stops for no one.  Yes, both Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone.  Now I'm celebrating my 48th birthday.  Wow, how did I get this old?  Ha ha!  On Christmas Eve, I left Fort Worth to travel to Yoakum in order to visit family.  Not sure if I was more excited about getting to leave town for a few days or to see my mother, step-father, and brother.  Either way, I was doubly blessed with time away with those I love.  They aren't required to love or tolerate me just because we are related.  With the passage of time, the family dynamic changes as does yours truly.  Unfortunately, I was done by Sunday afternoon.  As a result, I headed back to the city of my exile.  There's something to be said about sleeping in one's own bed and apartment.  Today I was determined to not let the time pass by wastefully.  After running a few errands and meeting a friend for coffee, I headed out to Marion Sansom Pa...

Thanksgiving is an attitude and not simply a holiday celebrated one day a year.  Keeping my mind on and praising God for the many blessings I have keeps me from wallowing in resentment, bitterness, and depression, which I'm prone to do.  Life hasn't unfolded the way I wanted, but that doesn't mean yours truly hasn't had a productive, fulfilling purpose in living.  Instead of gaining a plethora of material wealth, I would like to focus in having a positive impact on those around me.  Does each person at the cigar shop see Jesus living through me?  How does that play out in my response or reaction when I seem to have a setback?  Is my first visceral instinct to lash out in anger or thank God maybe He has different plans for me?  I was scheduled for a bunch of extra hours this holiday and Black Friday weekend.  Instead, I got sick!  There was absolutely no way yours truly could have functioned on the job with the coughing, hacking, and screaming...

**Found this story I penned for a writing contest and wanted to share.** One beautiful sunny afternoon as the kids entertain themselves with TV and toys, I continue to go about my daily chores of house cleaning while baby-sitting four precious grandchildren.   Stealing away for a few moments of rest, I quickly and quietly repaired to the living room in order to lay down on the sofa.   Ahh…rest and ease!   I wonder how quickly this will end as the children discover Grandma is not to be heard in the kitchen.   Immediately my eyes close and I drift off to Never Never Land.   Not realizing how long I had been asleep my eyes opened to find Hollie holding her arm tight to herself with a twisted look of extreme horror and discomfort on her face.   The transference of horror took upon my face as I discovered her arm seared by a nasty burn, and the hand missing from atop her wrist.   In my hysteria I desperately tried to find what she had done to cause such hor...

**Found this story I penned for a writing contest and wanted to share.** The time was the 1940s in America.  War!  Gradually the grip of the Great Depression loosened as the nightmare that held this country in such terror and horror diminished into a fleeting nightmare as the economy began to hit on all four cylinders.  The New Deal!  The American Dream a reality once more!  As a young couple in love, the thought of hope and a future life together seemed easily within reach.  Closing on our new home in Austin gave us the confidence and security in the fact that very dream can be had upon the strength of a good work ethic.  For isn’t this what America was built on?  Wasn’t it by our resolve and determination, the sweat of our brow, so we were told and had lived out for us that gave the sense that the world could be ours if we simply went after it?  For this is what made us the Greatest Generation.  Soon the reminder came that dreams come ...

Three more months remaining in 2021, and I'm curious if time can pass by any faster.  September was an incredible month as I saw the arrival of the first official day of Fall.  With cooler weather fast approaching, I can finally look forward to a time of camping.  In addition to the changing of seasons, I am now settled in working for the local tobacco shop.  Living in Houston for many years, I was a die-hard shoe salesman managing and training within various companies and their subsequent regional locations.  After arriving in Fort Worth, I transitioned to a new area of employment expertise becoming a purveyor of cigars, pipes, pipe tobacco, and the many differing accessories.  Finding my place at Big Dave's Cigars felt as if I had come home after living as a prodigal working at other companies.  Getting along with the store's staff wasn't very difficult as we are all more mature in age and seem to have the same strong work ethic.  The cherry on ...

On many occasions, I wonder what life would have been like had I actually got what I wanted.  Growing up as a little kid, I had a vision for life that may seem fairly run-of-the-mill: college, career, family, hobbies, and so much more.  None of it came to pass...or at least not to the degree desired.  (The vision I had was very detailed.  For the sake of this blog entry, I generalized what the vision for life included.)  What I didn't factor into the equation was the fact life simply happens.  Yours truly never quite learned, until much later in life, that one must roll with the punches.  That doesn't mean I lose sight of the end goal or heart desires, but I must also not wreck myself trying to force a square peg into a round hole.  Somewhat recently, I came to the conclusion that maybe what I wanted out of life wasn't God's Will.  Apart from telling people about Jesus, I don't have the faintest idea what God's Will is for my life or how that...