A 73 year-old grandfather learns about boys from running with them after school. Finishing my fourth season of coaching a running program for middle-school boys, I feel I have gained some insights into working with boys during this awkward time in their development. I am not a child psychologist, nor a spokesperson for any running program; these are just a grandfather’s thoughts.
This story is about making good choices for future generations and for the world we call home. Longer views shape better outcomes. As when Easwaran said, “In the ordinary choices of every day we begin to change the direction of our lives.” It is the longer view that takes us to a better place.
For the month of May, I want to bring Namasté into my daily life. I hope Namasté finds a comfortable forever home and stays with me longer than just one month. Being kind to each other is a way to express the idea of Namasté (nah-mas-tay), a Sanskrit word with many interpretations …
Free of my cancer treatments, I thought I could just run quickly from the darkness of the cave into the bright light of regained health, but my recovery was much longer than a short run – it was a long and difficult uphill climb.
Some roads in life are lonely and cold.
“I have cancer and I am homeless.” Those were the first words Charlie said to me in 2012. Either phrase is scary, but when I put them both together I saw a nightmare that was beyond comprehension.
The folks at Long’s Cleaners gave me a button that said “Cancer Sucks”. I never wore it. I didn’t like the word – and later I didn’t like the message. Of course cancer is bad, but if you are lucky enough to survive, cancer can be a great life coach. Cancer is the darkness that makes you appreciate the light. My cancer showed me that life is better and more valuable when you enjoy each moment and stay focused on all the positives of every experience unfolding around you.
My mother and father were married on December 16, 1928 – her 23rd birthday. Times were good – the Roaring Twenties were non-stop fun for many – but it all came crashing down less than a year later. On September 3, 1929 the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached an all time high of 381.17 – then the slide downward began. By July 8, 1932 it was at a low of 41.22.
Armed with only a grammar school education my father was off to Alaska to find Gold, leaving his parents, sister and brother behind. Bold for any boy of only 17.
Helen Lorene Kaltreider (1905-2004) … I see my mother’s choices in many of my own life choices – making my way in the world – living my dream. My mother, Helen Lorene Kaltreider, was born on a farm in Tennessee on a mild and sunny Saturday – December 16, 1905. She was the youngest of […]
How my mother’s family made it to America and her early years on a farm in Tennessee. Sailing across the Atlantic to The New World was a life changing choice – and not just for the three Kaltreider men 275 years ago with Captain Thomson on the Friendship; their choice changed many hundreds of lives […]