Journaling Wild and Gray

Don't make too much of the "Gray" thing.  Life is bright, exciting, full--too full.  "Gray" gives mystical tone to the Wild Goose, the description of the Holy Spirit by my Celtic forefathers.  And mystical and myserious and magical and mighty are the wings I follow.  Seldom predictable are the glens and glades, the mountains and the valleys, the glistening lakes and the swamplands, He will take me to.  Wonderfully odd that He is the portion both indwelling and guiding me of the immutable God with Whom there is "no shadow of turning."  And Who awaits my presence.

The "Wild" part sure fits, though. For some--not all--"wild" and "wonderful" are twins.  I'm pensive today.  You can smile when pensive, you know. I smiled scanning my journal and pondering what a wonderful and wild life He had assigned me.  Yes, "assigned."  It's a Grace thing.

So, I wrote this morning.  Really, I WROTE.  By hand.  In my journal. That holds lots over keyboarding.  Keep in mind the frame of reference; cancer, Deep Rivers Family Ranch, the Book (Generational Fathering), and a joyful marriage that fills in the pastels of a wild and wonderful life.

One journal section reads,(After reading, again, Proverbs 19:21, "We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's purpose prevails.").  "I make my plans as if the end were in sight.  Well, it is.  And I do.  It's just that the fog of God's mystery shrouds the milemarkers ahead.  I guess I'll catch a glimpse of my Father's cairns here and there. Wassat I hear? I believe it's the honk of my Friend luring me on ward into the Grand Mystery."

How am I...REALLY?

My blogging sabbatical now over, I find myself a wee bit guilty about not keeping my Wild Gray Goose pals up to date. 

I affirm "Wild."  This has been a wild, wild and wonderful time, these last few months for this cowboy and his bride.  Halted writing Generational Fathering and spent our time, energy, a some of our limited (very) wealth with our extraordinary family, Matt and Cari (daughter) Pettit and their new venture, Deep Rivers Family Ranch.

If I said "we're passing the baton" would you get the analogy?  It's a real-life picture of what the Lord God and Trusted Heavenly Father is doing in all our lives.  Picture us still huffing and puffing having finished the hard runs around the track, but we're watching Matt and Cari pick up the pace to rescue struggling families by interventional whole-family therapy on the ranch using equine assisted therapy with their five horses.  Sound exciting, doesn't it?

Ok, now for the real and very personal issue in our lives.  Yes, I am gearing my writing effort back up to see marketable drafts of  Generational Fathering ready by summer.  This is framed by the advance of my Prostater Cancer.  Stage Four Metasticised.  BUT you need to know three things.

1) I am receiving hopeful new and recently FDA approved Provenge.  Treats and "trains" my own blood to attack the pc cells. 
2) I am under no limitations, pain, or even awareness of the cancer.  I do have some interesting side effects of the female hormones as part of the treatment.  Of the 37 possible side effects, I get only hot flashes.  Carolyn and I laugh often as we try to syncopate hot flashes.  As a tentive marker down the trail, I am counting on five years. 
3) I am in full trust in my Lord's choice of events for my life.  "Finishing well" has new, more urgent meaning.  While more relaxed and less "commanding"  (Carolyn credits the hormones) in my lifestyle, I have this exciting sense of being in the closing stages of the great chess game of life where every move counts.  In my case, I am confident of the victory that has been won on my behalf  by the Lord Jesus with whom I will spend eternity.  Lots of freinds and family to meet there, including the ones who'll say "Thanks for introducing me to salvation and to eternal life."

Does this tell you the story?