September Open Spaces

 

Open Spaces

Vol.: 21.9

By John W. Vander Velden

 

The year seems to be rushing past without pausing for a breath. And in the rush of days we hurry to keep up.

We all long for days to become normal, or at least resemble what we would consider normal. Yet the Delta variant of COVID is stirring things up once again. I continue to take precautions, and some ways have stepped back to my pre-vaccination self. I keep my mask handy and avoid large gatherings. Thus far Jackie and I have avoided this dreaded virus. We will do our best to keep healthy. So please take care of yourself and your loved ones. And we pray that one day our lives beneath the shadow of COVID-19 will be no more than a story we tell our grandchildren.

Our September has been dry. That has not been the case for everyone. News of weather disasters around the country break our hearts. Especially the Gulf Coast that has been hit time and again. Their lives upended is surely a difficult situation to endure again. Yet all the while the western part of our country burns. Thousands of acres and countless structures have become no more than ash. So I feel the problems I face minuscule in comparison.

For we have escaped the worse storms, have been spared earthquakes, floods, and fires. Yet we pray for all those that have been less fortunate. That the aid they need to rebuild comes and with it the hope that rebuilding requires.

It takes courage to live, even during ordinary circumstances, doesn’t it? So today I hope that you too have the courage to stride out and attack each day God gives. To step forward and make a difference. Whether you believe your actions are minor or magnificent in unimportant. Know any move in the correct direction is positive. I say be bold!

Now for a bit of writing news:

When it comes to this editorial revise that has consumed me (not literally it just feels like it), I can see the light at the end of a very long tunnel. And more, I see it clear enough to know it is much more than headlights approaching in the blackness. I am hoping to complete this step in the next six weeks.

I thank you for your patience.

Am I completely pleased at what the story has become? Won’t be able to make that distinction until after I have finished and read through the NEW version. But pleased or not completing this step will be a very ah-ha moment.

So I will leave you with this thought. Once I doubted I could ever write a book. To craft pages others might want to read. But I remember a motivational speaker I saw on a news program years ago. He stated, and I paraphrase, if you write only one page a day, in a year you CAN write a 365 page book. I took that to heart and began this journey, page by page. I remind others that feel overwhelmed one word, one step, one act of kindness, one positive ANYTHING, adds to the whole. It is one more than existed before. Do that ONE thing and upon that ONE thing you will be able to stand. And from that new place you will be able to add another and another.

Never forget...no matter where you find yourself on your own life’s journey...you do not stand alone. For even in your darkest time, during those moments you feel most alone, when fear does its best to make the future seem impossible, or when you feel your weary bones cannot carry you even one step further, God, Master of the Universe, is nearer than your next breath. God will never abandon...NEVER!

Blessings,

John W. Vander Velden

  

Jackie's Last Day

 

Jackie’s Last Day

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Today was Jackie’s last day. Even for me it is hard to imagine that the day has come when she could turn her white jacket. But it is a time of many emotions. A time of accomplishment...certainly. But it is also a day filled with melancholy...as if she has left a portion of the task unfinished...abandoned, and failed friends that must struggled on without her.

Today was a very different day than the time I had set my farming days behind. The task for me was a slow winding down of duties. A series of steps one month following the other. A carefully planned exit. Jackie’s exit was planned as well, but there was no gradual blend from her working time to the time that comes NOW. She went to work this morning and when the shift ended so did the more than forty years of service she gave.

The change was very abrupt.

Perhaps too much so.

The joy and tears of this week will carry on for a time. It will also take us a bit, to get used to this new normal. But we will. Life is meant to be lived and we intend to keep right on living while we can. To do some of the things that past scheduling made difficult. Now Jackie can make her own timeline.

During these final days, people have stopped by the pharmacy to tell my dearest that she had made a difference. It is a sentiment I have repeated for thirty-two years. My modest wife in unable to register the magnitude of the effects that her years have made. God love her.

I love her too, and am proud to say that Jacqueline C. Vander Velden is my wife. The woman who did her part to serve the health care of our community for most of her career, considers herself only a minor player of a very large team. She would shun the award she so deserves. Jackie will tell you it was just the profession she chose while yet in John Glenn High School. Day in and day out, this pharmacist would tell you, I was doing my job.

Perhaps.

But I disagree and stand humbly in her shadow.

For the people of Plymouth, Indiana benefited from her care, her diligence, and her compassion.

So today on this fourth day of September 2021, I give her my congratulations for all the years of your service. You, my love, have reached this special moment with honor and dignity. Retirement is not an ending, but the beginning of a new adventures. And I am pleased...so very pleased... I am able to share this next chapter, as I have shared the one just completed, with you.

John   

Across the Street

 

Across the Street

 

By John W. Vander Velden                       

 

For over twenty-seven years, William did not cross the street. 

 Five days a week William drove to his work, coming north on Harrison Street, turning right, finding a space in the company lot, but he never crossed the street.  Walking into the large building, to the elevator and the third floor.  Out of the elevator, turning right once again, down the hallway…the space between rows of cubicles…those doorless four and a half foot tall gray fiberboard enclosures.  William walked past thirteen, then turned right a third time to a space containing a metal desk and moderately comfortable chair.  It was time to work.  Will placed himself in that chair, as he began booting up the computer, work begun. 

 The hour delegated for his lunch found William in the windowless break room surrounded by walls of pastels…soft blues and greens.  There among others, each day he ate, often speaking of things that really did not matter, but he never crossed the street.  When at last William’s day ended…the task left unfinished to be attacked once more on the morrow…he left the third floor. 

He left the building. 

He left the parking space. 

He left the company lot…but he did not go across the street.  

For across the street was a space…a space reserved for anyone…a space of trees and grass…a small pool of water with bright orange fish…a space where birds could be heard…where the wind could be felt…where the sun would warm…but William never crossed the street. 

(265 Words) 9-5-2013