I’m under the one year mark now of joining the half-a-century young club!

I’ve watched as several of my

friends

and family

(all dearly loved)

have found their membership sooner than I.

(And) I have loved celebrating with them!

(And) watching as they, themselves, have transitioned into this phase of their life.

(And) how they have each handled their new membership in a unique and individual way.

One constant I’ve watched is how reflective they all have been.

How each have taken “stock” of the first-half-century of their life.

Reliving memories, grateful for the blessings they’ve been gifted, and making

informed choices on what they desire to carry with them

into the completion of this century they have more than half-way begun.

What has this taught me?

Lots.

But most especially that through each person’s life (as with my own) what speaks MOST to everyone is

Relationships.

This is what we all cherish.

This is what has helped us to stretch and to grow

into who we have become

both

through joy and with sorrow;

and who will help us to evolve into what we’ve yet to

be.

I call these relationships,

these people I cherish, who challenge me to be the person God has built me to be, my

“Ironmen!”

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”  Proverbs 27:17  

This is my community.

Who keep me in check.

Who  cheer me on along the way.

So that one day, (when all is said and done)

He will smile when I meet Him

and say,

“Well done.“

My Ironmen come in various shapes and sizes and many recite the same Creed I do each Sunday (but not all and that’s okay too!)  I love them all and wouldn’t trade one out for the other, no matter the age or the shoe-size!  I’m immeasurably grateful for the ones who have remained with me the longest, (but more about them another day.)

Recently, I met a few of my friends out for a Special Rendevous of Fine-Dining!  These friends and I had just completed working a Retreat together several weeks earlier and we missed the comaraderie we shared being together.  When we first met, without their even knowing (but much to my delight,) they began to claim our Retreat-Working-Group as “The Ironmen!”  That’s when I knew instantly They were destined to be imprinted into my heart for always.

Through them God showed me that I will continue to collect Relationships!  The one’s I’ve already made will always, through His grace, remain strong; but He will continue to bless me with New Ironmen (for always) along the way!

And oh, how very much that makes me giddy-with-excitement to jump into the next half-century of my living!

(because every Ironman loves a good hot-dog)

these hot-diggity hugs n’ blessings go out to you!

What Do We Believe?

“Our profession of faith begins with God, for God is the First and the Last, the beginning and the end of everything.”      -the CCC, no. 198