Just this week I called an older, wiser friend to exuberate that it’s like watching a movie unfold before my very eyes and I’m in the movie. The small-world coincidences, points of personal connection, and river-of-life confluence have been mindboggling, heart-warming, and very inspiring.
I remarked in a recent blogpost how much I have lived in my head my entire life. (I’m not the hardcore engineer type, but certainly have an analytical bent. My Navy vocational training was in advanced electronics and my BA is in Finance, so, yeah, I have that.) But my strong suit is people and words. It’s just a lot safer living in my head!
I recognize that living from the heart is where it’s at, but man, that just scares the bejeezus out of me. Growing up in legalism and being beat over the head with a Bible etched the message on my soul that I had damn well better toe the line because there’s an angry God out there just watching and waiting to crush me. With such beliefs underpinning my worldview there was nothing to be gained by engaging and unleashing my heart.
Well, that all changed eventually, when I learned what a complete load of steaming crap I had been fed as a child. I finally recognized that the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent creator of life, created the universe. And His capstone magnus opus was humans. And for Him to have this insane animus for His highest creation didn’t really reconcile. The only thing in line with nature and creation that does make sense is a benevolent creator who loves his creation and wants it to know and experience and grow and discover all the depths and breadth of ability and wonder and beauty and awe and love that the human life form is capable of. (That said, we can’t ignore or dismiss the polar opposites of all these positives. They are part of the grand design.)
All this discovery and turnaround started about 20 years ago. Thanks to the internet I discovered the facts about the big lie I grew up believing. Slowly I was coaxed out of running and hiding from Angry God and met the one who set me free. The more I get out of my head and connect to my heart, the more the wild river of coincidence and small world come together in ways that look like miracles.
I’ve lived most of my life in Oregon. Birth and the first ten years were in Nebraska, but my parents and eight kids jumped on the Oregon Trail and never looked back. I grew up skiing the volcanoes of the Cascade Mountain range; hiking and fishing the high lakes and endless rivers and streams, exploring the Oregon Coast, making hay in the summers and feeding it in the winters, riding horses, and building muscle cars. After high school I spent six years in the US Navy, which included extensive travels around Europe, Asia, and South America. I then spent four years in college, which included international study in Latin America (Ecuador and Peru.) My professional career started with a Fortune 50 company, which included a stint in London as a broker in Lloyd’s. College years re-connected me with my beautiful brown-eyed girl from a rural Oregon community where we met when we were ages 12 and 14; now married 28 years.
We’ve now lived 20 years in Lake Oswego, Oregon where we raised three crazy, wonderful, bright, beautiful kids, all of whom are scholar athletes. Our oldest daughter, an All-American track athlete, competed four years at Duke; the second, a D1 women’s soccer goalie at Butler University, was on the Big East Championship team, now pours her heart into Athletes in Action at Oregon State; and our son is presently a pole vaulter and graphic design major at Northwest Nazarene. What a trip!
I spend much of my time helping owners of well-established, thriving businesses plan and execute ownership transitions. There’s nothing better than keeping a good business in business, maintaining good jobs for great employees so they can raise kids, pay mortgages, and contribute to the whole incredible economic machine. I’m still happily growing and serving after all these years. God, I love it so!
Traction Distraction 