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

February Open Spaces Vol. 21.2

 

Open Spaces

Vol. 21.2

By John W. Vander Velden

 

February 25, 2021

 

Greetings from my small corner of the world.

What a February we have had. Jackie and I had been enjoying a relatively mild winter until...brrrrr...the temperature crashed. But the last few days of this month have been mild and the snow that was stack around us is melting. A stark contrast to the snowy frigid weeks at February’s beginning. Now most of the yard is visible and only small ice patches remain.

We can tell that the days are noticeably longer and watch as the sun breaks the horizon closer to true east. Though we may yet have snow storms, with each day, spring draws closer. Yet I try to enjoy every day...the snowy ones too. For I remind myself of two things. One is what my father told me often, don’t wish your life away by wanting a change in the seasons, and two, God gives me this day...today is a gift...

So that is what I will wish for you today...that you will find something enjoyable in each day. February’s included. That you grab hold of each twenty-four hours with both hands and make the time special.

One last point about February, it’s my birth month. I guess that has always made it special. I remember the three birthdays I had as a child living in central Florida. You could expect some warm, almost hot days, before the month’s end. But for a kid that really didn’t matter. I remember one particular February day. A hot sunny day, the 19^th, I was on top of the old ‘49 Dodge truck, helping lash down the canvas that covered our family’s belongings. I remember, correctly or not, that it was 80 degrees. The neighbors came to say their goodbyes. I looked down at the three of them. My classmate, Susan, her younger brother Duwayne, standing with their mother. The profoundness of that moment did not register with the just reaching ten year old boy I was.

Not then.

But that image is burned into my memory. A reluctant wave of the hand, surely our parting was a certainty...but not necessarily desired.

Perhaps those words can remind you of the precious value of EACH day. For there is something magnificent slipped within those twenty-four hours. You may be like the kid high up on the top of a truck unable to recognize the magic moment at the time. But notice or not the magic happens. Open your eyes and hearts to the possibilities...the amazing instants.

Now for a few words about my writing.

Life’s obligations have stolen most of the time since our last visit. When I flipped over January’s page of the calendar, I began the first editorial revise of the third book of the Misty Creek Saga. The work has been intense, during the time I could pry loose for the task. I find myself behind schedule...again...but doing my best. Kristina has given me so much to think about, and I find comments on each page that set my gears to whirling. Times I must shake my head and walk away from the keyboard in order to figure out my next step.

I find it at times a mix of frustration and awakenings. Having an editor like Kristina, someone I trust, someone that knows my writing as well as she does, is a blessing. Kristina pushes me. Though I will not follow every idea she presents, I appreciate that she offers her expertise and guidance.

So what can John tell you about the timetable...when this book will be finished...at this point...NOTHING.

Sorry...

One other point before I begin the closing. Have you been watching my videos? When it comes to getting out there to see you, whether it is a book signing or some other event, COVID has been a stick in the spokes of my wheels. So in the interim, I have done a few Virtual Author’s Events. Short videos of 10-13 minutes. You can find them on my YouTube channel or at John Vander Velden Author’s Facebook page. If you’re curious check them out.

I have, once again, run long, so I will close with these few words. Love is the greatest force of all the powers that surround us. But remember the single source of love, all love, is GOD. We live in a world where too often it seems that hatred is in control.

But what is hate?

For if cold is the absence of heat...then is not hate the absence of love. And I, personally, believe that genuine love can conquer even absolute hate. 

Remember GOD loves you...and always will!

John  

   Visit my web page www.johnvandervelden.com My World of Words

 

 

365 Days

 

365 Days

By John W. Vander Velden

 

I had a birthday this week and began the last 365 days of my sixth decade. I guess it feels a bit strange to think about the year in that context, but sometimes my mind takes me down twisted roads. Even as my years seem to stack up like cordwood, my memory has not abandoned me...yet. And so, even as I type these words, I remember a young man, a very young man, in New Prairie High School who could not even imagine the place I find myself today. Truthfully I am not certain that seventeen or eighteen year old expected his bones to rattle along into what he felt would be old age...or from his view...really old age.

Yet here I find myself nearing the end on another decade, grateful to be among those “still standing”. I consider the journey I have traveled, not distance on the map, but an internal distance unmeasurable by any tool. It has been an important portion of a lifetime, and I have witnessed many unexpected things. Yes, I was glued to the TV when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon, and I have witness other moments, some not nearly as impressive but profound all the same. Earthquake ravaged Anchorage. A president resigning in his shame. Riots in the streets of LA.

Compared to these things my life has been quiet. But even quiet existences face cataclysmic events that my teenage self would never believe survivable. For I, like everyone, that lives long enough, have been forced to suffer through what we, in our youth would have considered unendurable.

Some might believe I have lived a charmed life. And I will admit there are many others that have been forced to bare far greater pains than this man, yet I would not describe my life as some fairy tale existence. For among the times of great joy and unbelievable achievements, I too have dealt with loss, with illness, with many, many disappointments.

It is life, is it not?

And life’s experiences shapes us into the people we become. Am I proud of the man I see in the mirror? Not entirely. But I am not totally ashamed of the man that God has helped me become either. For to me that is the crux of it. That I have been through the fire, injured perhaps, but not consumed. I have faced challenges, knowing I have never stood alone.

Now as I move beyond my 69^th birthday I know...for a fact...that God is not done with me...yet. I must seek out the task that lies before me...the task that would in its way serve the Lord I love. The task that aids God’s kingdom in whatever small way a modest man is able.

So I continue to walk forward and try doing so with my head held just high enough to see the goal that has been set before me. There are nearly 360 days left in this decade of my life, I pray...daily...that I waste not a one.  

  (507 Words) 2-12-2021

January Open Spaces Vol. 21.1

 Open Spaces

Vol. 21.1

January 24, 2020

 

What a month we have endured, and there are yet a few days remaining in January. How will you remember the first month of 2021? I’m certain that it will leave its permanent mark within your memory.

If COVID was not enough to face, if even considering that over 400,000 of our country men, women, and children have fallen victim to this illness were not enough to concern us. Even if it were not a burden of sufficient weight, political unrest did not ease our hearts. It would be easy to feel that our world is unraveling, that there is not any REAL hope remaining. Yet we, of faith, understand that HOPE is never beyond our reach.

So I stand in a place I might not have expected, grateful that my parents were not forced to see the images displayed. You see they had not forgotten their childhood. They had not forgotten the horrors of living in an occupied country and beneath the thumb of a madman. Those scenes of angry men and women storming the Capital, would have reminded them of events of their teen years. Seeing the THOUSANDS of troops and the high fences, would have awakened memories which may have been pushed aside but never forgotten. And now I join them with these fresh images burned into my forever.

Your personal interpretation of the events must be your own. I will not use this platform to create a political discussion. Rather to say, that EACH OF US has faced something that might have seemed impossible only a year ago. It will be up to EACH OF US to choose how we move forward form the place we now find ourselves. It is my hope that you do so prayerfully. To quietly acknowledge that though things seem crazy...GOD IS IN CHARGE.

Let me shift gears.

The manuscript of book that has had my primary attention most of last year has returned from my editor. I do not expect to begin the next stage on that project until February. I have been studying the editorial letter these past days, and Kristina has given me SO MUCH to think about. As all GOOD editors, she provides ideas of which I agree, and slants I do not believe fits the story I want to tell. Each collaboration demands open minds to truly consider our individual points of view. But I can see that there is MUCH work to do. I am grateful for her eyes to see the portions of the story that are weak and need reinforcement. I will NOT toss aside even one comment without due consideration. Perhaps it is a sign of my respect for her. Perhaps it is a sign that, when it comes to writing, I have yet much to learn. I yet have pages of that letter to pour over. I read a portion and then allow myself time to chew on it, to see what fits and what doesn’t...or doesn’t seem to.

I will not look at the immensity of the task that lies before me. Rather consider each part, one bite at a time. This week it is the twenty-four pages of her critique. I will take that bite and chew and grind it a bit before I open up the manuscript and begin in earnest.

So as you can tell this writer has been busy. And that is not mentioning a new book I started on New Year’s Day. It is my hope that you too find a purpose to drive you forward each day. For I firmly believe that even those of us that are no longer employed, need a reason to get up in the morning. For God gives us each day, for a task HE provides. Our duty is to find that undertaking...to do that job...and prepare ourselves for the next one.

It is my hope that this letter finds you well. That you remember...ALWAYS...that God loves you!

Blessings,

John

 

Reflections

 

Reflections                       

By John W. Vander Velden

 

I have never taken the time to watch the Presidential Inauguration. For me, it was enough to catch the TV news clips, the talking points, a glance at the front page newspaper articles. The change of leadership has, during my lifetime, been rather dull, pomp and circumstance aside. However this year was different. It was unique for me and I suspect an unusual event for most of you as well.

For me the divergence from normal began months ago. That difference was shown most clearly by the actions of two men...the ones at the very center of the growing turmoil. I found that I was not surprised, in the least, by the response each of these two powerful men showed our nation. Yet it was in the contrast that, to me in any case, which revealed the depth of each of them. One man showed calm confidence. The other barely controlled rage. One reached out to his base with a continuous stream of what he wanted them to believe. The other spoke to a nation most often in a reassuring tone. Their words and actions show the very foundations of their essence...their souls.

I, like so many others, felt the pressure rise. Knew that this conflict of two different views placed a strain on the country...a strain on us all. For each of us carry our own position...our own hope for the future and a belief in the person that would carry our nation toward those noble goals. Week by week, even day by day, the pressure was fed, the heat of rhetoric turned higher and higher, and many of us added fear of the outcome of what seemed a growing confrontation to our lists of personal concerns. Hearing words that include “make it wild” spoken to those already driven by believing their rights were ignored, revealed to me that the angry likely would take to the streets.

I watched as their rage was fed daily. I may not have known the exactly where they would focus their anger, but truly expected the uncontrolled rage I witnessed on Wednesday, January 6^th. No, the Capitol riots were no surprise to me. Even as I sat for those hours, continually praying that, with God’s help, our democracy would survive, I was grateful that the members of congress had escaped the violent mob. I listened to the words spoken by the calm voice of one man as he spoke the nation. His words came before the response finally arrived from the angry man. I hope you noticed as well.

Last Wednesday, I took time to watch one man leave the office...the most powerful position any person could hold...and I watched another man, a calm man, accept the duties, the responsibility. I listened to words spoken...promises made. And once again I was touched by the contrast shown by a truly humble man when compared to his predecessor.

This essay is not about my personal stand on either man’s goals. I did not agree with many points in both their apparent agendas. This essay is about truth and the obvious revelation of facts that cannot be hidden indefinitely. These words are to point out that calmness comes from a confidence of what that truth will at last prove to be. I believe that rage comes from trying to force the truth in directions of one’s preference. January 20, 2021, showed me that truth...in the end...prevailed.

Time will tell if my optimism is well founded. Time will tell if healing is even possible.

How things change remains to be seen. Do we, as a country, recover from the wounds so deeply inflected? I will not predict. But there is a change...a calm change...it is a change this man can appreciate.

God save our country!

 

(628 Words)  1/22/2021

Together

 

Together

By John W. Vander Velden

 

For a house divided against itself, cannot stand. (Abraham Lincoln)

 

What was it we saw unfolding before our screens last Wednesday? Was it unity? Was it a sign of compassion? An indication of understanding?

The answer to all those questions is NO!

Rather, it was an action driven by out of control people fueled by lies and hatred. People that have forgotten the important words of Abraham Lincoln, as they tried to force the will of a few upon the many.

They took up their banners and their loud shouts to divide. For blended with the misguided were those that came for one purpose. Their goal was to mold our land in a very different image than the one our founders had imagined.

So as a group they had forgotten the very thing that made our country. While shouting “Make America Great Again”, they trod on the very foundations that made this land great in the first place...UNITY!

A UNITED STATES is not made up of ONLY like thinking people. It can only exist when divergent people an ideas have the freedom to live and to speak and to vote and in the end have their vote COUNTED. Our country’s roots began in every corner of the globe. We are a diverse people from different cultures, different background, with different histories, but what we share is grander than our differences. For EACH OF US are AMERICANS!

Though each person has a voice that deserves to be heard, we must remain open to hear other points of view. We must be willing to recognize the pain, the suffering, the forced isolation, those that have been disenfranchised.

But this is not an, us against them, situation that some believe. It is a fracture of the very promise our country has offered... a promise made more than two hundred years ago. A promise that has been tested time and again. A promise, misunderstood, abused, stomped upon, that drove our country to civil war. A promise that has been difficult to keep, but is not beyond possibility.

For we must stand together, remembering what binds ALL of us, the promise of justice for all, and the opportunities to dream, and the possibility of working to achieve those dreams, are needed for everyone. ALL AMERICANS, no matter their appearance, their skin color, their family’s origins, their gender, their social status, are bound with one important strand. We belong to each other, and together we form this great country!

So it is long past time to cast aside lies that seek only to divide. Past time to thrust the invalidated conspiracy theories into the dumpster they belong. No longer should we demonize those of differing opinions...only because we do not agree with their views.

The time has come when we make the effort to reach across boundaries with our hands and our minds. That once more we stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow countrymen and women. To tend to the deep wounds of divisions that threaten to tear the very fabric of this great nation.

Those that stormed the Capitol Wednesday were not acting to repair that fabric, but to shred it further. We must stand together and say, this is our country...not just yours. And even if we disagree, let us listen with patience, do our best to understand each other’s grievances, or we will never be able to stand unified.

Together we will stand...divided we will fall!

574 Words (January 10, 2021)        

 

Words

 

Words         

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Surely the events of this past week are burned deeply within our minds. We have, each of us, been exposed to a situation which is driving a new conversation into an old problem. Flashing across our television screens, on our computers, or our phones, were scenes we have never witnessed before. It is easy to point fingers, make accusations, hang blame upon the obvious perpetrators, those whose faces we have seen treading on polished floors and invading chambers of our government, the trashing of the “Peoples House”.

Things of this nature occur in other places...faraway places...places that do not represent the freedoms we take for granted.  But friends it did happen here, and sadly, cold happen again.

What, have we, as a society, learned from this terrible experience?

I cannot say what lasting lessons, if any, have been acquired.

Personally I have been bracing for this confrontation since November. I was sickened, saddened, and angered by the images I saw playing out Wednesday afternoon, but as I implied, was not surprised.

As a writer I have to believe in the power of words. I have to believe that EACH OF US must carry the responsibility for the words we speak. Surely our actions speak with a louder voice than our lips, yet our lips are the doorways to our hearts and our very souls. Words spoken and repeated, and repeated again and again carry a power. And the amount of that power is made manifest by the voice...by the person...that utters those syllables we call language.

I have watched the news play out more closely these last two months than ever before. I witnessed the power of words. I have become angered when someone at the pinnacle of our nation’s government, a person whose words we should trust...lied to us all. Others fueled the spread of those lies. Others disregarded the truth, while spewing words reinfocing concepts of a global conspiracy, without even the smallest shred of truth.

In life, when things do not move in the direction we hoped, it is easy to believe the words spoken that seem explain the cause of our disappointment. It is easy to be towed along by words. To look away when the facts are clearly laid at our feet. To join in the voices of denial.

But friends, truth is truth, and no person’s words, not even the President of the United States, can change what is TRUTH!

Attorney General, William Barr told us there was NO MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD.

Christopher Krebs, head of the election division of our nation’s cyber security, assured us that the VOTE WAS SECURE.

More than sixty cases brought to courts all across our great nation, even cases that were presented to the Supreme Court, the highest court of our country, fell face down for lack of REAL evidence.

Yet millions believe the imagined events that never occurred, driven into a frenzy by WORDS, and worse, by LIES spoken by the very people we should trust.

I view of history from a very different place than most of you. My parents grew up in an occupied country. They witnessed firsthand the oppression instituted by the power and control of words. I have made the effort to look back to the very ground swelling...the beginning...of the movement that lead millions of good people much further from good deeds than any before might have anticipated. Millions died because of the charismatic WORDS of one man, and the world came to brink of total destruction.

I understand that WW2 was not caused by one man. Hitler was surrounded by those that fed his ego, reinforced his actions, approved his words. The actions Wednesday were not the result of one speech, for the blame must fall on others as well. For President Trump was surrounded by those that knew the truth and did nothing to discount the lies that flowed nonstop for two months. And those who stood idly by while our country was catching fire were not only to be found within the executive branch of our government. Legislators and Senators that KNEW THE TRUTH and did not speak out publicly in order to unravel the lies. They too must carry responsibility as well. For each elected officials that stood proudly while saying there actions were driven IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, all the while turning their back upon oaths they gave to the constitution of our great land. They are an insult, to all of us that have put our trust in them to lead.

Truth will stand...their words will not!  

I understand the process...I watched it unfold before my eyes.

Yet I remained silent, I am one person, my voice means nothing.

BUT I HAVE WORDS!!!

And the time is long past that I assemble them!

God save our country for it will take His ultimate power to restore our trust in one another. To restore our faith in the very institutions that make our democracy work. It will take God to open the eyes of all of us as we move forward...for moving forward should be our common desire...to a better place...a better country...to a unified land.

I know this essay will raise the ire of some.  I am confident that family members, friends, associates, and many others will take strong offence to the view I have expressed. If that be the case then so be it.

I do not apologize.

But understand that these words are MY VIEWS ALONE and do not reflect upon the opinion of any other person. Aim your wrath at me. Not my family, not my friends, not my church. If you have an honest and open opinion I will hear your words, but I will not quake beneath insults.

I will stand up for what I know is the truth and willing to take the brunt of others reactions. Their criticism. For I believe the truth must be spoken.

Countries crumble because good people remain silent!

As I said before...I am but one voice...all I have is words...but the time has come for me to use my words.       (1012 Words) 1-8-2021