Category Archives: Role Model

Kindness — A Good Rule

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Decide to treat all your neighbors with consideration and respect. Be a resident ‘ambassadors’ to help welcome newcomers as they transition into the community. Aspire to live by the Golden Rule.

Decide to treat all your neigh­bors with con­sid­er­a­tion and respect. Be a res­i­dent ‘ambas­sadors’ to help wel­come new­com­ers as they tran­si­tion into the com­mu­nity.
Aspire to live by the Golden Rule.

Today we often read about cyber bul­lies among young peo­ple, but bul­ly­ing also plagues seniors.  The behav­ior being ref­er­enced would be inci­dents of name-calling, bossy behav­ior, loud argu­ments, snubs and aggression.

Causes and strate­gies
Fear can be one rea­son for bul­ly­ing, says Renee Garfinkel, a Wash­ing­ton, D.C.-based psy­chol­o­gist who spe­cial­izes in aging issues, but it’s also “that human phe­nom­e­non of the strong pick­ing on the weak. It’s not a func­tion of aging. It’s a func­tion of pathol­ogy.” Con­tinue read­ing →

The God Walk

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Here’s the thing… It is never too late to develop a personal walk with God and old age is as good a time as any to begin.

Here’s the thing… It is never too late to develop a per­sonal walk with God and old age is as good a time as any to begin.

I grew up in the early 50’s and my par­ents like many of their friends believed in mak­ing it a prac­tice to attend church as a fam­ily.  For them, church was a core item in our home and not an adden­dum that would be dis­carded by other dis­trac­tions.  Quite the oppo­site… Other dis­trac­tions were dis­carded or never con­sid­ered on the basis of what they were learn­ing and becom­ing as a result of their devo­tion to per­sonal growth in their faith walk with God. Con­tinue read­ing →

Defensive Strategy

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Sometimes it is necessary to “go into the game fighting” so to speak, but most of the time the issue at hand I not a big deal.

Some­times it is nec­es­sary to “go into the game fight­ing” so to speak, but most of the time the issue at hand I not a big deal.

Foot­ball sea­son in here and grand­par­ents are often mak­ing sure they are in the stands to cheer for the young peo­ple who are “in the game”.

As aging peo­ple, liv­ing in close prox­im­ity to a vari­ety of peo­ple, we need to choose a posi­tion as well in the games of life that play out all around us each day.   We can choose to play “defen­sively” when an offen­sive com­ment or encounter is hurled our way, seem­ingly from out of nowhere. Con­tinue read­ing →

Smile Anyway!

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Smiling is a good idea for lots of reasons. A sunny disposition and demeanor favorably colors the interactions of my days for the most part… but not every time.

Smil­ing is a good idea for lots of rea­sons. A sunny dis­po­si­tion and demeanor favor­ably col­ors the inter­ac­tions of my days for the most part… but not every time.

“Hi Smi­ley” was the greet­ing I recently received from a busi­ness asso­ciate while attend­ing a lovely event in glam­orous sur­round­ings.  It was early in the day and the mood was fes­tive and pleas­ant.  It was inter­est­ing to think about the notion that I must come across as a per­son who is smil­ing and cheer­ful a good bit of the time.  As I con­sid­ered this thought, the words to a song taught to me by my par­ents came to mind.

Let the sun­shine in, face it with a grin.
Smil­ers never lose, and frown­ers never win,
So let the sun­shine in, face it with a grin.
Open up your heart and let the sun­shine in. Con­tinue read­ing →

Eagle Project

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Everything about scouting is handled by volunteers, and the Scouts working on these projects are young developing future leaders of the community.

Every­thing about scout­ing is han­dled by vol­un­teers, and the Scouts work­ing on these projects are young devel­op­ing future lead­ers of the community.

This week I met with a young man who is work­ing to become and Eagle Scout.  This soon to be 10th grader is inter­ested in pur­su­ing an Eagle Project, which I have learned is no small undertaking.

A qual­ity Eagle project takes time.  The Scout must do all pre-planning, design, any fundrais­ing, and go through a multi-step review process with the end user of his work, prop­erty own­ers, his scout troop and the scout­ing dis­trict. Most Scouts plan 6–9 months for an Eagle Project, tak­ing it from a con­cept to a fully fledged plan, get­ting it reviewed (which often involves changes), reviewed again until it is fully ready, and then to imple­men­ta­tion. Con­tinue read­ing →

The Financial Pinch

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Feeling the financial “pinch”? If so, you have lots of company.

Here’s the thing… we all have some money, but that is not the only “spend­able” thing we have to work with.

Feel­ing the finan­cial “pinch”?  If so, you have lots of com­pany.  When you start talk­ing to peo­ple there is never any short­age of com­plaints and the old adage if often heard, “The money ran out before the month.”  We’ve all been there.

I recently heard of a cost cut­ting mea­sure that is work­ing like a charm for some of my elderly friends.  Granted, these folks are already liv­ing in a finan­cially afford­able apart­ment home, hav­ing left the big expen­sive set­ting behind as their chil­dren grew up and estab­lished their own fam­i­lies, but the “pinch” is still felt, even by these care­ful proac­tive peo­ple. Con­tinue read­ing →

My Story

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I wrote my own story in 500 words, making sure I did not leave out the failures and mistakes that were also part of the tapestry of my life so far.

I wrote my own story in 500 words, mak­ing sure I did not leave out the fail­ures and mis­takes that were also part of the tapes­try of my life so far.

No mat­ter how old I feel, I know that I am in the final quar­ter of the game.  There is a lot of liv­ing left, but I think often about what I want to leave behind for the peo­ple I love.  The essence of con­nec­tion to other peo­ple is “being known” and I want those I love to know who I am and what I am about.

Obvi­ously, I will leave behind all my stuff and what­ever money I have accu­mu­lated, but what I really want to leave is the ideas and beliefs that have dri­ven every­thing along the way.  Con­tinue read­ing →

Leisure Time Choices

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The movie was about six boarded young adults with lots of time and money who were looking of a “different kind of experience”.

As I left the the­ater, a young employee smiled and said, “Thank you for com­ing to our the­ater. I hope you enjoyed your movie.” I told Him that I did not enjoy the movie and pleaded with him not to see it adding, “I don’t know why I made myself in to a garbage can for the last hour and paid for it besides!”

I like to work.  The tasks are clear when my time is spent pro­duc­ing desired results.  At the end of the day, no mat­ter how tough the prob­lems were, I feel great about what I was able to accom­plish.  Some­times it is just a piece of the prob­lem was solved, but the feel­ing of make a valu­able con­tri­bu­tion to the project is very satisfying.

Last week I had a rare day off for a hol­i­day and con­se­quently, found myself with extra time on my hands in the after­noon.  I went to the local mall to look around and decided to take in a movie.  I chose the one that was start­ing just as I arrived, bought a small bag of pop­corn… for a huge price, and set­tled in to a com­mon enter­tain­ment experience.

The movie was about six boarded young adults with lots of time and money who were look­ing of a “dif­fer­ent kind of expe­ri­ence”.  Con­tinue read­ing →

Eternal Value

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This new venture with my son has me thinking about the importance of investing in the spiritual lives of children and in their character development. This morning I heard a speaker say... “Professional success without a successor is failure.”

This new ven­ture with my son has me think­ing about the impor­tance of invest­ing in the spir­i­tual lives of chil­dren and in their char­ac­ter devel­op­ment. This morn­ing I heard a speaker say… “Pro­fes­sional suc­cess with­out a suc­ces­sor is failure.”

Recently my youngest son asked me to join him on Sun­day morn­ings for the whole sum­mer to teach the bible to young chil­dren who are 6 and 7 years old. I was thrilled to say yes! Our teach­ing team will get together each Sat­ur­day morn­ing for the sum­mer sea­son to eat break­fast together and to and plan for the next days les­son. Although I do not know all the adult who will be on the team as yet, I am look­ing for­ward to the whole process.

We will focus on the life of a Peter, one of the dis­ci­ples of Jesus who began as a fish­er­man and became a great spir­i­tual leader whose influ­ence has impacted gen­er­a­tions. Con­tinue read­ing →

Pay it Forward

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Find a younger person that is living in the storm of life right now that you have lived in the past. There are no NEW problems, just recycled ones!

Find a younger per­son that is liv­ing in the storm of life right now that you have lived in the past. There are no NEW prob­lems, just recy­cled ones!

As we get older, there is a nat­ural drift toward iso­la­tion. Senior men and women begin to feel mar­gin­al­ized as their world shrinks and the choices are not as wide open as they were in the past. So how can we find mean­ing and pur­pose for our lives dur­ing the final sea­son? How can we invest our­selves dur­ing the final season?

We live our lives for­ward, but we under­stand them by look­ing back­ward. Con­tinue read­ing →