{"id":1763,"date":"2013-09-23T11:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T11:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/09\/autumn-time-is-here.html"},"modified":"2016-08-11T12:03:12","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T16:03:12","slug":"autumn-time-is-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/09\/autumn-time-is-here.html","title":{"rendered":"Autumn time is here"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
My Dad would have loved running a train down this scene. \u00a0I still miss him.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Happiness and cheer. Fun for all what Dave G. calls his favorite time of year! \u00a0That\u2019s right. \u00a0Autumn has finally arrived. \u00a0We are trying, really trying, to put cheer and good family times into the fall, this being the last fall before our oldest moves on from that part of his life concerned with public education. \u00a0Even if that education is in the form of home schooling his last year and a half.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s at this time of year that I look back and realize wow! \u00a0It has been eight years since we came into the Catholic Church. \u00a0We started in 2005, in September no less. \u00a0From that point on, there was really no going back. \u00a0And what a ride it\u2019s been. \u00a0I feel at ease within the Catholic tradition, as it answers the gnawing problems I always had as a Protestant. \u00a0Especially that problem that is behind so many clergy who become Catholic: exactly where does the Bible say it is the sole authority, at least without an outside authority interpreting it that way? \u00a0Logical loop there.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s also been eight years of utter, living hell. \u00a0I mean, really. \u00a0Nothing has gone right. \u00a0We\u2019ve lost tens of thousands of dollars, virtually all we had saved. \u00a0My Dad has passed, my Mom has moved in with us. \u00a0My brother in law has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer after having lost all of his wealth due to a business partner swindling him, leaving my sister to hold together her life on a thread. \u00a0That doesn\u2019t count the problems with her son. \u00a0And on my Wife\u2019s said, her sister\u2019s marriage fell apart, she\u2019s struggling to get by.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve had auto accidents, broken appliances, household problems, trees crashing in windstorms (though not hurting anything). \u00a0My wife and I both got jobs after we left ministry (she was also a minister in some ways, being a teacher in a Christian school none to friendly to Catholicism, hence her lost job). \u00a0I left that job to work for a Catholic apostolate, which I wish I hadn\u2019t. \u00a0I then was let go on the eve of the economic collapse due to funding (I learned non-profits are a good gauge for predicting impending economic troubles); also due to our inability to relocate. \u00a0After getting by, having to help watch my Dad as Alzheimer\u2019s ravaged his mind, I finally took a new turn in life, that of insurance sales. \u00a0 I had done sales in my life and wasn\u2019t bad. \u00a0It would take a few years they said, but my wife had a solid job and with a little extra, we could at least get by.<\/p>\n

Then she lost her job. \u00a0We lost benefits, another round of savings, and I had to take a steady, albeit low paying, job just to have some income. \u00a0And one that has a schedule none-too accommodating to the needs of a family. \u00a0Were it \u00a0not for my angel of a supervisor, I don\u2019t know how we\u2019d manage. \u00a0That\u2019s where I am now. \u00a0My wife is trying to find some income, even part time. \u00a0Work at home would be best. \u00a0But anything. \u00a0My Mom and Sister have both had several significant health problems hit this year, and of course we had a warning shot fired over our heads with my oldest boy and his health scare this summer.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been our Catholic existence. \u00a0I\u2019ve been shut out of the diocese, unable to find any employment in a ministry capacity \u2013 even as a janitor. \u00a0My services as a former protestant minster not being a big deal in most parts. \u00a0And truth be told, I don\u2019t know that this doesn\u2019t extend to more of the Church now than simply our neck of the woods. \u00a0So ministry days are a thing of the past. \u00a0Truth be told, it\u2019s been so long, most of my skills I had have begun to deteriorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Complements of Google Maps; the orchard was the first
\nfield trip I took in the fall when I was in Kindergarten<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What money we had for the kids for college has long gone the way of the empty cistern. \u00a0Our oldest has chosen to live at home his first year out of school just to accumulate money for college, since I\u2019ve warned him about just going into debt for an education. \u00a0Our house needs repairs badly. \u00a0I mean, it isn\u2019t Green Acres yet, but it suffers.<\/p>\n

And in it all, we try, try very hard to do two things. \u00a0First, keep food on the table and what roof is left over our heads. \u00a0And two, keep our kids from associating becoming Catholic as that moment when our life went to hell in a hand basket. \u00a0 To that end, we do plenty of things with the boys whenever possible. \u00a0We play games, go when we can to where it\u2019s free. \u00a0We take them to parks and find things locally that are little to nothing. \u00a0The Columbus Museum of Art, no threat to the Guggenheim, still has free admission on Sundays. \u00a0And we managed to get dirt cheap tickets for the Nutcracker again (bought those months ago).<\/p>\n

And of course fall. \u00a0Even if we can\u2019t get the big fall festivities and feasts we used to, we still manage some Cider and some pumpkin pie for a round of Castle Ghosts of Ireland<\/i>. \u00a0On a thread about the economic woes of our time, a commenter mentioned dwindling Social Security and retirement plans. \u00a0He wondered what it must be like for people who don\u2019t even make 25.00\/hour! \u00a0I\u2019d like to tell him. \u00a0Oh, was a time when my overall compensation package was around there, and my wife\u2019s job was a very good paying job as well.<\/p>\n

But those years seem so long ago. \u00a0Clothes are now threadbare. \u00a0Jackets torn. \u00a0Shoes worn. \u00a0We have food to eat, and we\u2019re good enough shoppers to make it look better than it is. \u00a0No real end in sight. \u00a0Heading toward 50 is a tough time to learn a new career, especially in this economy. \u00a0Having two in the marriage needing to do the same thing is almost impossible to imagine without a wealthy benefactor stepping in and footing the bill. \u00a0We keep praying that at some point God is going to open that door we hear so much about and finally bring things around. \u00a0If not through material comforts, at least in pointing us in the direction we need to go.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we\u2019re going to lift a glass of cider, and if not rejoice in a harvest that fizzled, we\u2019ll reminisce about the olden days. \u00a0We\u2019ll remember old times and trips. \u00a0We\u2019ll remember when the boys were young and all the fun and remind ourselves that we have another young one coming around the corner who has every right to have as many wonderful memories and fun ghost trips as his brothers. \u00a0Will things turn around? \u00a0Will something come our way? \u00a0We don\u2019t know. \u00a0I\u2019m not a soothsayer. \u00a0But we can do what we can do, and not much more. \u00a0As I tell our boys, control what you can control, because there will be plenty in life you can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So with that, and autumn\u2019s timely arrival, we\u2019ll hopefully have much cheer. \u00a0After all, in the wider scope of history, many have suffered far more in a day than we have in a thousand days. \u00a0We have healthy boys who are pretty darn good when the dust settles, and my Mom living with us and a good marriage. \u00a0If you think of worth in those terms, that\u2019s not bad at all. \u00a0It\u2019s almost worth lifting a tankard of cider and drinking a toast to what God, in the overall scheme of things, has actually given us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The State Park of my hometown. \u00a0Maybe we\u2019ll go back there with the boys this year.
\nFor old times\u2019 sake<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Dad would have loved running a train down this scene. \u00a0I still miss him. Happiness and cheer. Fun for all what Dave G. calls his favorite time of year! \u00a0That\u2019s right. \u00a0Autumn has finally arrived. \u00a0We are trying, really trying, to put cheer and good family times into the fall, this being the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAutumn time is here<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My Dad would have loved running a train down this scene. \u00a0I still miss him. Happiness and cheer. 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