Finalizing the year–2023

I’m going to write again before this year has terminated. We must always reflect on the recent past while words, thoughts, expressions of love, friendship, and expectations must be brought kept in mind. (I don’t mention regrets in that same sentence because regrets should not be worried over with the same intensity.)

In the process of reaching forward to a new year —less than 3 weeks left in this one—remembering the past does help us project expectations. 

As concerning this year, I really thought differently, at the end of 2022, I thought this year would be rapidly different. But the first 94.3% has now been laid to rest in history and though many small changes have come our way not all were welcome. 

We suffered a great loss and we still daily grieve for the passing of our daughter-in-law. Oh, how we loved her, so much. She was a wonderful part of our family for almost 40 years. Our son is devastated, of course, and their two children. What took her was not instantaneous, but it wasn’t a very long illness, either. We’ll be a while recovering and shall ever keep hold of our memories of Dana.

Grief over a lost loved one touches so many avenues of our lives and always astounds me. Just a few days back, as we sat in the patio enjoying the cool of the morning we discussed the personal interruption our mourning process causes. Like the lack of concentration on other tasks or studies because memory rushes back bringing some aspect of the loss to the forefront leading us to fight morosity, which is tiring. Each of us, in very distinctly different ways, suffer this. Death has no conscience. Death has no known schedule. And when we love someone, the death is not final; it lingers, and lingers in variable timeframes for each individual who’s suffering with it. Mourning is, like a fingerprint—they’re all similar, but also very distinct. It is an especially personal process, so our own must run its course. 

Time is not standing still, as you might have noticed, and here we are into the last month before another new year. There have been some progresses in some areas of the life to which I’m connected. The alkaline water business is going pretty well, a new store opened, one more being built, and several more being planned. These last few weeks might prove to be very fruitful where this is concerned. I truly believe this is the water everyone should be drinking. All indications show every person who tries high alkaline water knows it is best. From old people, people remembering spring water or well water to young people knowing there is definitely something wrong with tap water, all the way to kids saying, “I like this water!” —everyone likes our water!

More importantly in the whole of life’s purposes, I’m still privileged to continue teaching bible classes regularly and, as always, enjoying it. Bigger question is whether these classes are profitable to those who listen and study with me. My prayer is multi-fold: May they all see that God’s word is the final authority (not me nor any other teacher), May I never misuse or misrepresent the Lord’s words, and May the Lord always get glory from the classes and conversations.

Short, but hopefully helpful thoughts.

Thanks for reading, the Elder