lent2022

Chris Knight's avatar

 HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY to this little goober:

Yes friends and neighbors, it was ten years ago today on Easter Sunday 2012 that my miniature dachshund Tammy was born!  She was one of a litter of five – two boys and three girls – and she was also the runt.  I think it’s safe to say that she has ended up with a more interesting life than most dogs get to have.  That she rode in my lap for a year spent driving across America, alone puts a lot of character on those stubby little legs.  She has been my sweetest companion, my bark of conscience, my life saver (at least once), the person I can trust to understand me when nobody else on earth does.

Happiest of birthdays, Tammy.  And here is to many more 🙂

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Today’s blog post sort of suggested itself, in the wake of events during the past three days.  Maybe what I’m about to say will help others who are finding themselves in the grip of depression, or some other mental health situation.

You see, this week my path has crossed those of two people who I care about: one in my personal life and another who I know from my work as a professional peer support specialist.  Each of them is having an emotional crisis.  Much like the ones I have had at various times over the course of the last twenty-some years.

In each case, I have suggested that inpatient care at a behavioral health facility should be considered.  Checking one’s self into a specialized hospital for a few days or a week or so.  Letting trained doctors and staff work with a patient toward reigning in their depressive or ...

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At the moment I am posting this from a hospital.  Work has obligated me to focus on other matters this evening.  So there won’t be a regular blog post, not like I would have wanted it to be anyway.  Just the nature of things.  Maybe there’ll be something more to write tomorrow.  Until then, take care and God bless....

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Not too much to report this evening.  It was a fairly busy day on the job.  Peer support certainly does not lack for drama!

I didn’t know what to post tonight until I read some sad news.  Bill Fries passed away a few days ago at the age of 94.  He was an ad executive who started acting in his own commercials as the
character he created, C.W. McCall. Then he decided to have his fictional
character become a singer and he sang about life as a trucker.

So he
was an executive pretending to be an actor who was pretending to be a
singer who was pretending to be a trucker. That’s a lot of mileage out
of one character!

In memory of Bill Fries aka C.W. McCall, and in honor of all the one-hit wonders of the Seventies, here is “Convoy”:

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I know what I want to write.  And it is wonderful.  The problem is that I’m not quite “all there” tonight.  Blame seasonal allergies and Yours Truly trying some exotic antihistamines yesterday that kept me up all night.  I worked through the day (and drove almost seventy miles in the course of duties) with barely a break.  And I’m still hoping to catch tonight’s championship game…

(For this occasion alone, I will root for University of North Carolina.  Gotta cheer for the home team.)

But I’ll give it a shot.

I have known all along about surrendering to God.  At least, that’s the head knowledge.  The heart of the matter however, that is something else.  It takes almost a supreme effort to lay down our hopes and dreams, giving them to God, and letting Him make of them what He will.

I had to let go of some things that ...

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So, Duke fell to North Carolina last night.  I now have no one to cheer for in this tournament.  Kansas always seemed too overhyped to me, and they beat Villanova yesterday.  Or maybe I’ll root for UNC tomorrow night just because they’re still from my neck of the woods.

Mike Krzyzewski made a mistake in announcing his retirement well before the season.  He should have waited until after the tournament.  Instead he made this entire season about himself and his ego.  When it should have been about the players and the program in general.  He fell victim to hubris, and I
really thought more of him.

Even so, let’s never forget that he
contributed a lot to the game. Mock him all one wants, but the man
deserves respect.

Okay, that’s everything substantive I have to say today.  Currently I’m enduring hay fever and all kinds of exotic antihistamines are ...

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For the past six days we’ve been watching it like a hurricane, churning ever closer and gaining strength along the way.  It has become the perfect storm: nothing like this has happened before and nothing like it will ever happen again.  We are bracing for a collision of gargantuan proportions and no matter who wins it will be a battle for the ages.

Tonight, Duke plays North Carolina in the NCAA Basketball Tournament semifinal.

The two teams have never played each other in an NCAA tourney.  The last time Duke played Carolina was on their home court in Durham.  Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game and Carolina beat them by double digits.

Tonight could be Krzyzewski’s final game ever.

I hope not.

I want to see him in the final on Monday night, playing against either Kansas or Villanova.

I want to see the Duke team giving their coach one ...

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So much that could be said.  Today was one of extremes.  In the midst of my joys there was a time of sadness, and I was reminded of just how very different things could have been, had the circumstances of my life been a little altered.

When my dog Tammy and I were traveling west across America, we spent a few months in San Diego.  I figured that we had gone as far west as we could, might as well try to stay.  So we were there from Thanksgiving until March.

I’ll never forget all of the homeless people that I saw there.  And very nearly all of them obviously with mental illness of some kind or another.

I suppose I was homeless too, although I still had a car loaded with the essentials, waiting to be unpacked wherever our new home was going to be.  I had a warm ...

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It’s my birthday today.  I had no idea what to write for this exercise in light of that.  I suppose that I’m feeling pretty good, about a lot of things.  God has blessed me more than I possibly deserve to be.  He has brought me a very long way along life’s journey and, I’m going to spend the rest of this evening being thankful for that.  Some good friends took me out to dinner earlier tonight, and much laughter and joy was had by all.

When I consider what’s happened these past few years especially, I cannot but be grateful.  To God.  To the people He has put into my life.  I hope and pray that I can be a testimony of them in a way that best honors them.

How about we all enjoy some birthday cake? 🙂

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Watching The Chosen (see here and here) has reignited my desire to study the gospels with a historian’s eye.  I started with the Book of Matthew, not just because it’s the first book of the New Testament but also because… well… I like the character in the series.  He makes a really good point in the first episode of season two: he’s documenting things, as even a former tax collector would.

So, I’ve been reading Matthew for the first time in awhile, and so far I’ve wound up in the seventh chapter.  Here are verses 7 and 8:

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

It hit me some time ago just how much ...

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