Yes, it’s been nearly a year since I posted, and I’m still here. My nightly prayer has been answered positively for nearly 365 days, just one more day with the love of my life. My resolution for 2024, to build a joy filled life, has been faithfully attempted every day. I have been able to start every day by counting my blessings, addressing my highest priority, and then choosing to do those things that contribute to my joy filled state of heart and mind.

I’m sorry that my lack of posts this past year may have raised concerns among those who care for and are concerned about me that I wasn’t doing well. It actually has been partly a reflection of my success in doing those things that contribute most to my joy. I love writing, along with other things, but I had to give it a lower priority as I focused on my health and healing, my relationships with family and friends, trying harder to live the example of Jesus, and keeping a positive attitude, while living publicly with a smile on my face, and privately with a smile in my heart. One thing that living this way for the past year has clarified for me is that joy really is a way of life, and happiness is a series of cheerful and pleasurable events that, along with a steady state of optimism and a positive attitude, contribute to this way of life.

Keeping this resolution has helped me get through rehab for some serious coronary artery disease, regain some control over my diabetes, deal with several bouts of illness which, being immuno-compromised, were challenging enough, grieving the loss of some good friends and my sister-in-law (missing you Nancy, Dave, Ann, Jim, and Eric), and struggle through several periods of depression.

On the positive side it helped me achieve a level of containment and management of my cancer to where my oncologists call my prognosis “indefinite”, the same one given to my other chronic illnesses. You have no idea how exciting the word “indefinite” can be when the alternative, until newer treatments arrived, used to be “terminal”, unless you’ve been where I have for the past two years!

This way of life also strengthened me to provide care for my wife as she recovered from total knee replacement surgery last fall, help me rejoin my church choir for special Christmas music in December, spend more quality family time last winter, start a new fellowship group with some model railroaders at my church, and make major progress on both my Texas and Michigan model railroads.

Living a joy filled life doesn’t mean you won’t experience heart wrenching, unhappy, unpleasant, and sometimes downright fearful events, depression, anxiety, questions of faith, and maybe even times of estrangement from some friends and family members. What it does is help you find the right ways of coping, integrating those things into your life, and moving forward, of figuring out the answer to that ever repeating question, where do I go from here?

I hope that my writing will move much higher up my list of priorities in this new year, be a note of encouragement to you, and help me continue…

Building a Joy Filled Life – Pops