2020 - The Year In Review

 You know what kind of year this was!  The year we were all put into time out for our continuing pattern of bad behavior.  It had the potential to be a devastating year in many ways.  Some trauma came to fruition while other categories in my personal life achieved growth and found prosperity during a pandemic.

Ironically there were indications late in 2019 that a China trip I had planned for April of this year would not happen.  Not due to Covid but due to my chosen dates not being filled with anyone traveling except me.  The trip was officially canceled in early January by the tour company I had signed up with saving me thousands of dollars that would be needed elsewhere in the coming months. 

My mother's health continued to decline from Alzheimer's and dementia.  Her home care wasn't up to adequacy resulting in her having to go to a nursing home in late January.  January also began our search for a winter getaway home which we found.  Then came a relaxing trip to New Orleans in February just as Mardi Gras was starting.  We then took a Western Caribbean cruise from New Orleans.  So we were in environments that were to become Covid spreaders due to the closeness of contact during Mardi Gras parades and on cruise ships.

March brought the full blown impact of Covid as it spread throughout the United States.  This put an end to normal routines such as going to restaurants, movies, or spending time with relatives and friends.  Masks became a new required fashion accessory that would save your life. People we knew started getting ill from Covid and some died.

One thing Covid brought to my life was financial discipline. I no longer was spending money on discretionary items.  The Veterans administration finally resolved a claim for benefits that I had filed on my mother's behalf some two years before.  The lump sum payment of retroactive benefits she was owed came right on time as her nursing home stay ended.  This got her out of a dangerous Covid environment and allowed her to return home where she passed away a month later.  The retroactive VA benefits paid for her 24 hour professional homecare her last month of life.  God worked it out that way.

We closed on our winter getaway home in July.  My spouse retired in late December.  Under the grace of God we have both avoided the deadly effects of Covid, so far.  The promise of a vaccine is on the horizon.  We never go without food.  We have more than one place to live.  We can pay our bills on our fixed retirement incomes.  Our health is good.  

I grew spiritually during this year.  I am at the point where my writing skills are now being utilized in the church. My other writing and research projects are going well.  I am doing what I want to do.  Covid helped to keep me away from people and situations that were not good for me personally.  Covid refocused my mind on what I should be focused on.  Covid helped me manage my financial resources better. 

I still have my human faults. But I am a better person than I was on December 30, 2019.  The ways of the world have always failed me.  I no longer seek the glory of this world.

2021. It may get better, it could be worse.  All I can say is so far with one day left, I have survived a world wide pandemic.  In the United States, some 300,000 people did not.

Six Months Into Covid - My Report

 I first must thank God that my wife and I have to date not been infected by Covid 19.  My spouse and I had traveled to New Orleans in mid February just as Mardi Gras was starting up.  We then departed New Orleans for a 7 night cruise during the height of Mardi Gras.  As we boarded the cruise ship, the concerns at that time were only for those people who had traveled to China in the past few months.  We still religiously washed our hands while on the ship and practiced extensive safe hygiene.  After we returned home from the cruise reports started to come in that Covid 19 was rampant in New Orleans due to the close crowd contacts during Mardi Gras.

In early March the virus began it's spread throughout the United States.  As it spread more our normal activity of eating out in restaurants came to a halt in the second week of March.  I experienced my first view of a grocery store nearly being empty of food during my first shopping spree during the initial hoarding and panic by those with a selfish nature. Unlike the present, grocery stores had not prepared a policy on limiting the amount of items customers could by during pandemic conditions.  There  were shortages of many common household items normally found in stores.

Normal activities of going to the store, a restaurant, movie theater, retail stores, became a hazard as the virus was spreading through human contact.  People were finally advised to stay at home and then to wear a mask if you had to go out.

During the past months my wife and I have been allowed to stay Covid free.  The impacts of Covid on our lives has mostly been in the area of reduced ability to eat inside restaurants and to participate in entertainment adventures we had become accustomed to.  We did not lose a job, nor have we faced any economic losses. Unlike the 170,000 people who have died from Covid related illnesses, we have been very fortunate to have prospered somewhat during Covid.

Although I had already been lead by God to plan on just saving money this year and reducing travel and entertainment expenses, Covid definitely helped to ensure I could not travel anywhere for entertainment this year! The money I would have spent on travel and entertainment went towards the purchase of property in the state of Florida, a state I have visited over 40 times in the past 30 years.  During Covid I was able to direct funds into purchase of the new property and at the same time pay off debts I had incurred in the past months.  That resulted in all of my credit cards being at zero balance by the time we closed on the new property.

The primary negative event during Covid was the death of my mother at age 89.  She had suffered from the ravages of Alzheimer's for 3 years.  I was able to see her for the last time just before Covid ramped up.  To show you how God is there when you especially need him, my back and forth battle with the Veterans Affairs over benefits she had deserved to get since 2018 was settled during Covid at the exact time when the funds were needed to help pay for 24 hour homecare for her.  She received a $15,000 retroactive payment a month before she passed away.  Those funds were instrumental in allowing her to have quality care during her last month of life.

I continue to practice safe habits during this Covid season.  I wear a mask whenever I go out to stores and when I am around people in general.  I do not understand the refusal of some people to wear a mask.  It just shows respect for humanity and the fact that we are fragile.  I do wonder if the people refusing to wear a mask even believe in God?  Their behavior to me does not reflect a fear of God or a respect for the people God created.

I only flew on an airplane once during Covid.  That was to attend the funeral of my mother.  It was an eerie experience.  One plane was only half full and the airports were  nearly deserted.  Most of our human entertainment/idolization activities have come to a halt.  Cruise ships, sporting events, movies, museums,  concerts.  All of our monuments to our self and our care free behaviors have been put on hold.  We have been given the opportunity to redirect our activities elsewhere.  I have used my free time for getting more into the Word of God and focusing on improving my spirituality and seeking a life after this life.  There is eternal life through God.  The pleasures of this world are truly temporary.  All the fun activities I experienced before Covid were great, but they are gone and are now just memories.

I have decided to seek a future after my worldly death.  So I try to abide by the principles expressed in the bible regarding what our human behavior should be like while we are on this earth.  The human goals of wealth, fun, and "nothing should be kept from me" I no longer believe in.  Their are limits set by God on our behavior.  Abide by those rules and have everlasting life.  Do not abide by the rules and live your "heaven on earth" will have dire and negative consequences.

I can not explain why each of the 170,000 people who have died from Covid 19 had to leave life via the impacts of Covid.  I pause out of respect for the pain family members experienced in losing a loved one.  I only know that Covid did modify my behaviors.  It kept me out of places I did not belong in, and focused me in a direction that provides potential for long term positive results.  It has sharpened my spirituality and ironically brought financial blessings and better health to my life.

There is no promise that I will escape the ravages of Covid 19.  This I know. For now I do have a peace and understanding of life that I truly did not have before Covid 19.  Stay safe and seek God during these times.

Covid. The Newest Bully on the Block

There is a new bully patrolling the world.  No it's not a new dictator.  It's not the head of a cult.  It's a ferocious, quick attacking, diabolical virus we have commonly called Corona or Covid-19.  This bully is making its way through neighborhoods and applying major beat downs to the human race.  Maybe not as powerful as it's ancestors, The Spanish Flu or Typhoid Fever.  Covid still is brining havoc to our daily lives.  Disrupting every aspect of our life.  Covid is such a bad bully we don't even come out of the house in fear of meeting up with Covid on the street somewhere.

We hide our faces behind masks so Covid won't recognize us and track us down later.  Covid has bullied us out of our jobs, swept us out of our churches, made us hoard food at the store that normally would take us 8 months to eat.  Now you can't find a tub of margarine in the store thanks to Covid!

So why is Covid picking on us?  Only because it can and no one is stopping Covid yet.  Where is Batman, Superman, Spiderman or even the Incredible Hulk?  If those super heroes can make billions of dollars and save the world on the movie screen, why can't they beat up Covid for us?  I don't understand it.

I think we should get ESPN (they have nothing else to do now) to sponsor a boxing match between Covid and Governor Cuomo of New York.  Now that would be worth the price of admission.  So grab your sanitizer, after washing your hands for 2 minutes.  Pop some popcorn, get your beverage of choice and get ready for the main event.  Covid-19, undefeated, versus the challenger, the  man of many charts and slides, Governor Cuomo of New York State!

Lessons Learned and Revelations from Our Covid-19 Season

We are into the fourth month of the decade of the 2020s.  In the past there  have been many doom and gloom predictions regarding the future of mankind.  We are living through one of those scenarios.  Yes, it is a repeat scenario from past years.  Over 300 years ago, small pox and other diseases decimated the Native American population.  Within the United States,  there have been Spanish flu epidemics, typhoid fever and other pandemic situations.

Since we as people are more students of "The Now" we are not commonly aware of the repeat nature of such pandemics.  We do not remember the health scares of the early 1900s.  Within my own family are ancestors who died from the Spanish Flu and typhoid fever of the 1900s.

We also are a world where recognition of the existence of God and living the life God intended for us is not our priority.  Instead we live out our lives following the principles of what we think is a successful human life.  Many of those principles involve success based on accumulation of material things and how much wealth we are able to obtain.  In a 24 hour day, the average devotion to God (if we measured it among all people in the world) would likely be less than 2 hours out of 168 hours in a week.  Subtract 56 hours for 8 hours of sleep each week and we are left with 112 hours of our weekly time.  Two hours out of 112 hours to acknowledge, thank, pray, and reflect on our relationship with God.  That's about 1.7 per cent of our time devoted to God.

Yes, of course there are many exceptions.  Some people likely spend over 50% and some spend 0%.  Throughout our existence as people, we have been sent constant reminders of the need for us as people to get our lives together and focus on our relationship with God.  The goal being to continue with a life after human death.  There is more ahead of us if we decide to pursue it.  Human death is not the conclusion.

This virus season is another time out warning from God.  A reminder that God really is in control.  Our governmental institutions scramble around trying to find the " human solution" to Covid-19.  We don't realized the  "solution" will be given to mankind when God wants us to have it.  God wants us to each reflect on the conduct of our lives.  God wants us to turn towards him, not to the human idols we have constructed.  Our fascination with sports and athletes we have made our idols is one example.  Have you noticed that your life is fine without the distraction of professional sports and professional athletes?  Has any athlete developed a cure for Covid-19?  Remember that when this pandemic ends.  Remember that many professional athletes were tested for Covid-19 well before you were tested.

Maybe this season is a reminder that we as people are seriously at the breaking point of straying too far away from God.  In the past year many people  have memorialized  personalities who have tragically passed away such as athletes and social/entertainers more than have paid attention to God.  Our commercial television shows commonly feature and promote homosexual lifestyles never promoted or condoned by God as His plan for humanity.  As we stray away from God's plan, do not be surprised by events such as pandemics and other events to come.

Ask and you shall receive.

Covid 19 - What Have you learned?

What have you personally learned during this Covid-19 virus season?  What will change in your behavior after Covid-19?  What is your story?


We exit this world through death.  That departure might be in a dramatic fashion. Or it could be a quiet ending, anticipated over time.   We just don’t simply flip a switch and turn off our life. (Although some try through suicide).  We just don’t say, I choose to die at a specific, time, and place and then await that moment .  No, we die from accidents and illnesses, such as Covid-19.  


In the past months Covid-19 has taken away people we knew.  Covid ended their earthly journey. At the end we could not sit next to them.  We could not hold their hand.  We could not comfort them in their last moments.  We were physically distanced from each other.  We were all placed into our own social cocoons. Left in some cases to communicate via electronic means or through barriers.


Ask yourself, “How has this pandemic affected me?”  Did you connect spiritually with God?  Did your faith grow stronger?  If you did not connect spiritually, why not?

Prior to the onslaught of Covid -19, we chose to not begin the start of athletic contests, whether it be National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball games, etc. with a prayer.  Instead we opted in for everyone to stand and sing a “national anthem to our human greatness. When Covid ends will we now start sports events with a common prayer that we all can say?  Or will we continue the self-adulation expressed in our national anthems?  Will we stop worrying about individuals who choose to kneel in protest over social issues. Will we recognize that it isn’t about disrespecting the flag or those who fight wars to protect us from ourselves?  It’s about our continuing to not put God first in our lives.   It’s not about idolizing sports personalities and reacting with compassion and sorrow only when a sports celebrity dies unexpectedly.


After Covid will the news on television start with a prayer? Or will it once again go into the pre Covid dramatic headline “Breaking News”?


Will we return to the idolization of ourselves or will we be humbled and recognize more the existence of the God who Created us?


Will we return to being the self proclaimed greatest country on Earth? That same country that was unprepared to save the lives of those impacted by Covid-19?  The same country that could do nothing to save the lives of some 40,000 plus people?  The same country that was unable to place needed supplies and equipment in the precise places needed at the precise time?  That same country with a national government and leader who was unable to bring the country together in a united fight against a common nemesis?


Will we continue to not recognize God because we can not see God in a physical form, or hear him as clearly as we can hear a chirping bird?  Will we continue to not fear God because we can’t see God?  But, we fear the unseen enemy, Covid-19, to the point of constantly sanitizing and washing our hands.  We wear masks and other “PPE”.  We can’t see Covid-19 but we know it’s there.  Just as we know there is a God by looking at the sky, breathing in the air, watching the sun rise and set; watching the changes of Seasons; and knowing this God has provided for us to live every day.  It’s not wrong to acknowledge that those great ideas that people develop came from God.


Will this virus season wake you up to those realities?  Will you return to your sports idols?  Will you return to your life distractions and cheer loudly when in golf someone hits a small ball into a cup in the ground?  Will you shout with exuberance when a baseball player hits a baseball farther, catches a ball greater, or if a basketball player jumps higher and gyrates their body wildly while slamming a basketball through the net?  Will you return to idolizing those same players who were tested for Covid-19 well before there was a thought of testing you and your family?  Will your idols and personal interests still excite you more than acknowledging that there is a God and we all should worship God first?


If we return to our own humanistic habits than you/we have learned nothing from this virus season.