Not everyone is getting old

Dear Bloggers,

I’ve done a steady stream of things in life after not being the nicest bloke during my schooldays, I was called by the government to fulfill my Army time at the engineers after that I was assigned to a group that was helping special forces to set people free as they needed our help. After my time was due I started working in the hotel service business during the summerseason, during the wintertime I worked in several factories, After a few years I started sailing with ups and downs down ther I found my life usefull and I was earning a bit of money to built a bit of pension for my old days, and we got married and started our adult life having two lovely daughters. It’s been exciting, frustrating, fun, exhausting, and deeply fulfilling. I am now at the age going towards my pension although in at least 15 years it should be there. But as we all know that life can stop at any moment it is not a choice were having.

At this very moment im at the end of it all, I feel empty. Drained. In need of quiet, rest, and reflection. When I realized I didn’t have the time or the energy to write a new post this month and also last month, I waded through some of the hundreds of posts I’ve written over the last six years. Then today I walked the dogs, I past the cemetry and went there to visit my late parents grave All of a sudden it spoke to me, maybe because the thought of lying down for a long time sounds very appealing right now. I hope it helps you take another step toward becoming myself

I love cemeteries. That might sound odd, even morbid. I’m not insensitive to the memories of pain and loss that they hold for so many. I deeply respect that. But to me, they are special places that nurture my personal development in ways few others do. I have lost quite a few during the years and not all of them were old. Some were in the bloom of there lives and loved living it.

Cemeteries invite quiet reflection. They encourage me to slow down, to ponder, to contemplate. What do I want my life to be about? How do I want to be remembered? There are many questions running around my brain as i realise that there will be one day that it will all end. Cemetries have an atmosphere of reverence and respect, rare qualities in a time often marked by mockery and disunity A stroll through a cemetery reminds me of what I believe is important: Relationships. Character. Purpose. Lust for life.

I love how my perspective is sharpened by reading tombstones. I’m reminded that all of these people were once like me. And most of them here I have known in my earlier years. That one day a grave marker will have my name. Soon after, I’ll probably be remembered only by loved ones and then, over time, by no one at all. It is a strange process of realizing that you are just one of them that will be fogotten after several years. Reading those names reminds me that life is a breath, and I am small. I’m not as important to the world as I sometimes think I am. That’s a healthy dose of modesty. As humans think life is preciuos althoug most of us are struggling to keep our heads up. Many of us are depressed or not being happy what they have achieved in their life.

Yet being in a cemetery also makes me feel cherished, prized, special. Not to a fame infatuated world but to One whom I believe made me, knows me, and desires me. I think of a cemetery as a transition point, a way station, a gate that leads from one season to the next. It’s a passageway connecting us from existence to another. The end of one journey and the start of a far greater adventure. Nobody knows for sure at least that is my way of thinking.

I could be wrong. Maybe death is the end. Perhaps nothing waits for me and everything that I am will be snuffed out like the flame of a candle. But I don’t think so. I have subjective reasons, things I’ve felt and heard and seen that point to something greater, something beyond this life. And there are more objective arguments that appeal to my rational mind as well. So for reasons of both the head and the heart, I believe and find hope.

So if you need some perspective on life, if the thought of some quiet reflection sounds like water for your thirsty soul, if you’re looking for a little hope, I encourage you to slip away for an hour. Stroll thoughtfully through a cemetery. If you do, you’ll take another step toward becoming You.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.”

 

The Old Sailor,

  

New challenges

 Dear Bloggers,

First of all, I would like to apologise to my readers for not writing the last couple of times. I have been busy learning the new routes and transforming our bedroom as an exam for our youngest daughter, who is studying to become a stylist for homes and businesses. A large amount of work and putting in loads of new knowledge.

A couple of times a week, I drive the commuter bus as my full-time job in Lemmer. I just switched from Groningen and Drenthe, and now I am driving the buses in Fryslân province. Sometimes I drove a bus out here, but now I have to learn the new routes for me and know as much as possible. I like to drive around here, as this is like home to me; this is the part of the country where I grew up. I start by driving by car to the bus stand in the industry park in Lemmer, parking the car and logging in for duty and then starting up the bus that is on my duty sheet. The first trip takes about 5 minutes or a bit more, depending on where you start your part. I finish my commute bus ride by the next bus station, and sometimes you have to switch vehicles after the coffee break. Nothing is new to me in that way; only the vehicles are something I have to get used to.

By riding my second bus, which I pick up from the buffer place parked at the station, through the historic centre of Bolsward, one of the small cities in my province. (Fact: this is one of the eleven cities known by the ice skating tour.) Through the front and side windows, the scenery is beautiful: pancake flat, usually green, and dotted with rural farms. I have time to appreciate the passing images, and occasionally I think to snap a picture or two. Usually I don’t have my camera with me, so I use my phone. The bus windows can’t be opened and are varying degrees of dirty, which adds a slightly grey patina to the photos.

To me, it matches the weather: grey, more often than not. a rainy day somewhere between Lemmer and Leeuwarden. Notice that fields here are not defined by fences but rather by water-filled ditches. It occurred to me yesterday on my way home, as I gazed absently out the window of my car, that I’ve taken lots of pictures of these passing scenes, yet I’ve never shown them to anyone. I decided it was time to go ahead and show you some of them. As you can see, they’re not the highest quality because I used my phone’s camera, the window was dirty, and we don’t have that much time. Nevertheless, to me they have a certain atmosphere: a muted quality that matches my meditative mood as I am at the job.

It’s time to pause, a moment of suspension, and a time to think between two buses and a lot of new driving activity. I can tell you that I love it.

Speaking of bicycles, the photo below was taken at one of the stations along the way. (Another fact: there are more bicycles than people in our country, the Netherlands.)

The sun does occasionally shine, however, and on those days the mood on the bus is always more lively.

How do you get to work? What is your commute like? Do you see beauty along the way? 

Add a comment below!

Drive safely.

The Old Sailor,