March Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.3

By John W. Vander Velden

 

3-26-2021

 

Friends,

Another month nears its conclusion. The days of March have rushed by and April looms very near.

As does Easter.

What does the holiday mean to you? I think each of us needs to ask ourselves that question...the meaning of Easter. My life, during this Lenten season, has been too busy to have spent forty days of self-examination, likely yours has as well. But it would have been good for me to do so. To look at myself a little deeper and focus a little harder on my own relationship with the divine.

But my memories of Easter are as old as I and as varied as the man that sits today at this particular keyboard. Memories of my childhood, of sunny Sunday’s and snowy ones as well. Of family, large and loud. Of Church services with overflowing sanctuaries.

That doesn’t happen so much anymore.

I remember one particular Easter season...the one of my confirmation. Those memories have dimmed little in the fifty-six years that have passed. I remember other Easters, of other families, of other significance. These days I miss most the Easters of my son’s youth. The reflection of the day’s magnificence in his eyes. Yes, Easter means a great deal to me. Not only the day on the calendar, or the memories, or the Church services, but what Easter means...

It is my hope that Easter carries such a significance to you as well...

 

Now for just a bit of writing news.

I will be renaming the book on which I am currently working. I’ll hold my title ideas “close to the vest” for now. Nearly two months into this editorial revise finds me struggling. I plod onward page by page hoping to find a balance soon. All I can tell you is that this set of revisions will take more time than I had originally anticipated. Is that good or bad? Time, friends, will tell. Fact is I never intended to write a third book in the Misty Creek series, or at least not this third book. Perhaps that is why I labor so diligently. I must make this volume worthy of my reader’s expectations. That’s a high bar and I am not certain I have the skills to clear that altitude.

I find there are times I am not completely pleased with the changes I have made. But, I remind myself, the book is a work in progress. So I take one bite and chew on it until it seems little more than mush, then go on to the next. I hope to finish Part 1 next week, and then push forward...always forward.

I have no idea when it will be finished, so stay tuned.

So I will close today with just a few final words.

God keep you and yours safe...today...tomorrow...and always. And I wish you a blessed Easter and a fantastic spring. 

 

John

 

Thirty-Two

 

Thirty-Two

 

By John W. Vander Velden 

Each person has moments when their lives change dramatically. Some are anticipated events that bring expected results. But most often, even in changes we have longed to occur, there are some surprises along the way. 

I guess I had given up hope, before I met her. I had reached acceptance of myself and my life as a single person. Coming to that point was a slow drawn out process. But I had. I recognized that I had to respect myself, and enjoy my life as it was. Reaching that destination, I TRUSTED that God had placed me in the life I had been given, and must go forward without attempting to force my existence into another form. 

That’s when the unexpected happened. 

I believe the most wonderful events are the unexpected surprises that “knock your socks off”. I met Jackie by chance at my youngest brother’s wedding. Truthfully not a bad place to start an acquaintance. That was a beginning, it was not some storybook kind of tale you might view on a Hallmark Channel. It was a start of two very human people…meeting…getting to know one another…realizing our commonalities… understanding our differences, and growing closer. 

You see, when I gave up looking for love…love found me… 

On a snowy Saturday some years later, my life changed…dramatically. Many of those changes were expected…some were not. How could a thirty-seven year old man be so unprepared? Perhaps because he WAS thirty-seven. Every road has some bumps but with time, patience, experience, and love, we have managed to smooth out the way substantially. 

When we look forward at a time period, the years seem to stretch far into the distance, but when we look back…well things look differently. We certainly would not have considered ourselves youngsters on that Saturday. Yet now thirty-two years later when I look back, it is hard not to see how young and naïve we were. 

Yet what an adventure we began that day. The places we have gone, the things we have seen, the experiences along the way. A child born, raised, and sent out on his own wings. Challenges met. Crisis averted. Loved ones lost. We shared joys. We shared tears. We shared grand achievements. We stood together in our failures. The binding grows stronger with each year. The time we have in common greater than the before…for her, and nearly equal for me. 

Love is a verb! 

But the energy required for love to grow has, with time, diminished. Perhaps it is the shared history, but I believe our love is tied to our undying mutual respect for one another. An honest acceptance of the other’s strengths and weaknesses. Reaching the point where the other…“the better half’s”… needs exceed our own. 

Each day, is for me, another gift that I have been blessed to share with the one person…the only person…I long to spend those hours with...Jackie. 

Thirty- two years ago I willingly joined a team…a team of two. For a time it was a team of three, but it’s just the two of us again. No, we are not alone in the world. No, there are many that hold special portions of our lives. But when the lights go out and when the sun rises again, it is just us…the two of us. And has been for thirty-two wonderful years… 

3-16-2021 (563 Words)   

One Year In

 

One Year In

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 Hard to imagine that we have lived a full year beneath the shadow of COVID-19. It certainly has not been the situation we would have chosen for those twelve months. There was little ordinary about the bulk of 2020. And 2021’s early months have continued the trend. Most of us know victims of this disease that has swept the world. And each of us know the name of at least one that had lost the battle, taken too soon. 

But where do we find ourselves…today. 

We have become numb to the shock and aw of what has been the sudden unknown thrust into our lives. Seeing covered faces is no longer an odd experience. The term “social distance” has been added to our vocabulary. Most have hand sanitizer at the ready. Talk of vaccination scheduling is heard often. But too often we hear the words like, I wish things would get back to normal.   

It is certainly the wish we all share. That our lives return to the pre-COVID world. Personally, I had believed that with last summer’s sun the danger would dissipate. Silly me. Researching the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919 opened my eyes to the likely possibility of a longer crisis. Recently the number of COVID fatalities has passed 500K. No matter what your view is on that count, the number reveals too many heartbreaks of the many families that face the loss of friends, parents, children, siblings, co-workers, and neighbors. 

Thankfully the numbers are trending downward, and with the commitment of EACH of us that trend SHOULD continue. 

We have suffered a year. If EVERYONE does their part, then together we can overcome this disease. Let us take the small and sometimes uncomfortable tasks to help one another. NO ONE enjoys wearing a mask, but I can tell you, from my family’s own experience, it HELPS. It helps those that wear the face covering and it helps those they meet. Follow the social distancing guidelines. Surely, we long to, once again, hug our extended family members and others we love.

Friends, the opportunity will return. 

There is a light at the end of this dark tunnel, it grows brighter every day. Millions have been vaccinated…millions more will need to receive their shots for “herd immunity” to become the virus slayer needed. 

Last week I received my first COVID shot. I look forward to the second piercing of the arm only weeks away. Science offers me, and others as well, a likely escape from this pandemic. Yet, time will tell of the vaccine’s success. But I will do my part…for my family…for yours. 

One year in and the world is a different place. 

But together we WILL defeat COVID, if each of us does what is needed, even at times when doing so is painful…uncomfortable…difficult. For nothing worth achieving has ever come easily or without price. 

Now that we are, all of us, one year in, I promise you that I will do my part as best as I am able. To carry my share of the burden. To set aside my personal wants, of gathering with others, of traveling to the distant places I love, and even to visit my son out of state, until I am certain I cannot be a factor in COVID’s spread. Those are the promises I make, because I believe I MUST do my part. 

Will you not promise to do the same…

 

(570 Words) 3-4-2021