Continuing…Anew

From then to now and beyond. But there is only now. There is always only now.

Next Journey up!

As I wrote in the last few posts, as we were living through my Dad’s final days, through his funeral and burial, I felt it was necessary to evolve this newsletter a bit since the main character in the narrative has died. We knew he would, of course. That’s why we brought him here to live out his final days among family. What I wasn’t sure of initially was how to keep this newsletter going, and relevant to my readers, since I knew many if not most of you were here to gain access to my Dad and his current well-being. Heck, I wasn’t even sure I’d continue to write. But I discovered something along the way, about myself.

Posting blog updates on my Dad, through the lens of Elderhood from his lived examples and non-examples, and through his dying (and the heavy responsibilities of being his 24/7 caregiver), proved to be cathartic for me. Writing helped me to process what I was going through in loving partnership with Dad during our ordinary days, but also through his extraordinary dementia and death. Not to mention I knew there was an Elder in him, not just an “Older,” but that it had to be coaxed and nurtured from him. Catharsis is a process of releasing strong emotions. Writing has done that for me. And through this writing, I am becoming more human—one reason why I want to continue to write. I want to become more fully human (if you don’t know exactly what that means, stay tuned in!).

A second reason is that I need to have something in my life that intellectually engages me. I am a heavy and eclectic reader but I knew I would need something more in my life to fill the void created when I left education. I didn’t retire from a 33 year career as a public school educator and administrator, I resigned in order to become the caregiver I wanted to be for my Dad. And now Dad is gone. And I’m too young to retire. But my intellectual need remains. Writing fills this void. So, I’m going to continue.

On my own life’s journey, I now have the freedom to explore and bear witness to what the universe is going to next ask of me. I know there is something more in my life along professional or service/career lines; and I also know I won’t be returning to public school teaching or admin (many of asked if I’m going to return to education—everyone gets the same answer…nope, at least not of the formal, institutional kind known as school). But exactly what is next is something I do not know. And to me, this is exciting; it’s exciting because I’ve never really been in this place before. Like…ever. Since I was a little boy growing up on the farm, I always seemed to know what was to come next in my life, not “long term, career” kind of next (I started college focused on pre-med studies, which turned into education somewhere along the way), but I was usually able to see how the loose threads of my lived life got woven together from the passions that claimed me, whether those were sports related (soccer, baseball, especially football) or career, or even marriage and family life with Kristin, Connor, Cassidy, and Sammy. This space now, though, is uncharted territory for me, and it’s not scary at all. I’m not going to let fear enter into my life at this key and liminal threshold. I’m cultivating love and gratefulness on this next evolutionary, alchemical journey of mine.

I get to pursue my passions—and if the right thing comes along, and I recognize it and seize it, then, just like my Dad, I’ll never again work another day in my life even if I get paid for showing up and reporting for duty of one kind or another.

Since we are in a process of change and renewal, you have noticed I’ve changed the title of this blog and its purpose. If you navigate to the “About” page, you’ll read what follows below.

For now, this is the introduction to the next evolution of “Dad’s Journey Home” following his final return and rest in his place of origin. Dad’s no longer physically present, but there is more to do, more to remember, and more to write. Dad is still a presence, and he will surface regularly in upcoming posts. There were posts that I had drafted and completed before he died that haven’t been sent yet, and I’m proud of them so I’ll send those out over the coming months—I think you’ll learn more about my Dad and his form of Eldering…and I trust you will continue to find those reflections impactful.

A metal bookmark from the Yakima Herald—the newspaper where we printed Dad’s obituary. Note the bottom sentence…more on that later.

I do hope, dearly, you stay with me here. And as always, I invite your active engagement. These Substacks are a great forum for commenting, sharing, debating, and inquiring about a multitude of things. A wonderful and life-affirming community can be co-created through a simple engagement if you only open your heart to participate and share (YOU are the “co-“ in the co-creation!). So, please, give it a go. My intention is that you will find here something of worth for your own lives—otherwise, if you don’t, if you don’t find meaning in the things you do, read, or engage with, you shouldn’t do them. Life is to short to waste on meaningless BS.

---

Alchemy of a Journey: “Becoming” Through the Five Dimensions of Being Human

“The purpose of our lives is to help others through theirs.”

~ Peter Matthiessen

“We are all just walking each other home.”

~ Ram Das

“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey; we are spiritual beings on a human journey.”

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“Alchemy:” A seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.”

“Journey:” An act of traveling from one place to another; a long and often difficult [I choose joyful] process of personal change and development.

“Becoming:” An on-going process of coming to be something, of evolving; a constant state of arriving yet never having arrived.

This was my blog’s initial intention:

A chronicle, created out of love, of one man’s Journey Home so that all others interested in Dad’s journey may have a place to remain a compassionate presence in his life—and his life and death in yours. We all need Elders in our lives; and Elders are becoming a rarer breed of human. This journal is aimed at correcting that—with at least the lived example from one humble life. That chronicle, as documented in the Substack newsletter, was titled: “Dad’s Journey Home.”

Now that my Dad has died (March 15, 2023), and returned back into the realm of Soul from which he originated, he still remains an Elder in the world—we just relate to him, and he to us, differently now. He still has much to teach through the example he lived by his mere presence on the earth. To that, I’ve repurposed this blog’s intention:

A human life is comprised of five dimensions: mental, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. Through this continuing blog, I intend to explore how the elements within those five dimensions, what I call the ingredients that make up a life of meaning, combine together to help each of us “cook our lives;” to help each of us along our own roads of “Becoming.” This is alchemy. This is soul work. This is the practice of Elderhood and Sagehood. There are still stories to be told about my Dad too, so this newly evolved blog will continue to weave together my recollections of his life as an important source of alchemical heat that has allowed me to cook the life I am living—my own “becoming.”

Together, let’s explore how our lives and souls are interwoven in this cosmic quilt of recipe. Together, let’s explore how we “hand each other along” and “walk each other home” through the ingredients of our innate kindness and care for one another. Together, let’s cultivate and cook our lives for the benefit of other beings—then, if done with open hearts and clear eyes, experience how our own lives will be enriched by the engagement.

Thank you for being a vital ingredient in this Alchemy of a Journey.

Please click HERE for the rest of the explanation in the newly revised “About” page.

---

Be part of a community of people who are yearning for connection to something larger than themselves—to fulfill the Emotional and Spiritual dimensions, we all need something(s) like this in our lives. This blog is an on-going narrative of the Alchemy of a Life Journey—a journey that will continue to weave the life and now death of an 84 year old retired hop farmer, with that from one of his sons. We need Elders in our lives even as we struggle mightily to find them—pushed out of our daily lives as they have been. We need Elders even as we are forgetting that we need them, forgetting how they could help us navigate the crazy of this world. When Dad was with us along his active dying journey, I tried to help Dad to be that for the benefit of us all. I intend to continue that exploration now in new and different ways—some blogs will still contain Elderings from my Dad; others, not so explicitly. But when you think more deeply about it, since my Dad has completed his “handing of me along” to my own time’s journey, everything from me, came through me, from my Dad.

See how fortunate I was to have a dad like my Dad?

Thank you.

Always with love and gratefulness,

~ kert

🙏🏼

---