Sojourns offer many opportunities for discovery and adventure. Having been so long away from this column, I wonder if there will be any at all who will find me here, waiting for their compliment of a visit, however brief.

Contemplation is deserving of discipline. Therefore, having sat idle for so long, I cannot be sure to be capable of such a requirement. It is so easy to surrender to the temptation of laziness. With so many out there responding to the urgings of having something worthwhile to say, one wonders how can it be that something motivating might flow from this medium. Having hidden away ideas and occasional spurts of

Is it possible a refreshing wind is blowing? Is it really true that more and more of us are raising our voices and our hands in symbolic gestures of dissatisfaction? Yes, it really seems to be happening. There seems to be more and more common, ordinary real down to earth human beings are decrying, with good cause, those who are crude and rude and foul and lacking in decency.

Examples include a junior, note junior, senator from Texas leaning on emotionally immature means for protesting the sanctity of our nation’s heritage.

The qualities of goodness and respect, genuine regard for acts of maturity, examples of statesmanship need to

Seniors must be compelled to wonder when the time will come that Americans raise their protests over the increasingly inadequate governance of our nation? Almost any direction one turns these days, there is evidence of a growing distrust and disapproval of the nation’s poor state of affairs.

The arrogance of political “leaders” suggests that they are not held accountable for their actions, inactions and reactions on the playing field of governing this nation with reason and conscience. Lack of any honest perception in weaving a fabric of honesty and integrity into the cloak of our nation is now a given. There is no demonstration of the very essentials of national pride. Self interest and running rough shod over the body politic, seems to be the order of the day. There is an occasional hint of hope. Among polls taken to get a

Do you remember those childhood days when shopping with your Mom and spying something you really thought you wanted? A doll, a toy, a candy bar, a pair of shoes. Maybe so. Maybe not. It rather depends where things were at that period of your life. It was influenced by conditions of ability to pay, wisdom of buying what you thought you wanted, planting the seeds of discovering that you couldn’t have everything you thought you deserved.

Here we are when many are being denied by those who seem to think they are the parents, denying wants that are very basic. They are not frivolous. They include adequate food on the table every day. They involve necessary clothing for comfort and warmth. They represent the basics of day to day

In my senior-citizen-view, there is no way the present tension in Congress can be resolved by ignoring the forgotten and overlooked. America has long sought to care for those whose needs are greater than their abilities to meet them.

The present state of mind that seeks to resolve economic issues by forgetting and overlooking the misplaced, unfed, and poorly housed, uneducated among us may as well declare America as unfit for human habitation. When there is no longer any motivation to compassion then our liberties and justice for all have been left on the junk heap of history.

The caretakers of those who are forgotten and overlooked

Conversations have a way of moving in undesirable directions. Past the question of “how are you,” there can emerge a series of topics that leave the conversationalist at a loss for how to get out of it. Ironically each of us has his/her own story. The miracle of the Internet is that seniors can read and hear and savor all the wonderfully moving stories that are out there. I just completed reading one in the New York Times. There is a plethora of inspiration out there and an amazing number of articulate story tellers who have found the courage to tell their stories.

In the haste of our rush from one day to the next, from one catastrophe to the next, we may be missing some of the best stories enabling us to understand and empathize with the human condition. Overwhelmingly, we

When one has reached the post 70 years, finding that so much is happening in the world over which there seems to be little one can do to change the face of things, pursuing peace is a well considered option.

Excuse the long paragraph, but getting at almost anything these days takes considered clarification. Pursuing peace is no small undertaking, even if it involves only you and your immediate circumstances.

Living in a community of mostly retired folk, I have found that almost everyone I encounter has a whole series of desires worth uncovering. The difficulty is getting past the complaints and negative influences that surface

Senior Americans have awakened to our right to disagree. For too long, leadership in America has presumed to manipulate public opinion. The proverbial Humpty Dumpty has taken a great fall and there is some considerable indication that putting him/her back together again may not resonate.

The startlingly low opinion that Americans hold of their leaders suggests that confidence has virtually evaporated. There is little in the body politic that seems to stir the American public to a sense of honest commitment and a willingness to be supportive.

Too many have died in the vain effort at America’s imperialistic drive to shape the world in our image. Too

Making new good friends enables seniors to maintain a healthy attitude about living. Moving offers the necessity to make new friends. To seek and find persons with whom solid and healthy relationships can be established enables settling in more comfortably and moving ahead becomes more easily done.

Putting off making friends is easy to do. Getting settled in usually becomes the priority. One move during our career offered the impetus for making new friends. A door was left ajar, thus permitting one of our dachshunds to escape. I didn’t realize then that that was the set up for making new friends. In the search for Zach, it was necessary to inquire if neighbors had noticed a wandering dog. We both found the dog and made new friends. On the very same day we were moving in our priority for making new friends had been

September is one of those months, like January, that offers opportunity for preparing for what’s ahead. It is a hallmark for change and adjustment and accepting new realities. Schools open, families experience an empty nest with college welcoming new enrollees. Football season is in full swing. The World Series readies for its annual moment. Fall in some locales begins its hints of a change in the weather. Even seniors, those who live in two different worlds, pack up and prepare to head for a more pleasant climate, in anticipation of winter.

Folk in those areas, where the leaves begin to color the landscape with their startling hues, begin preparing their homes for approaching alterations in their environment. Raking leaves, mowing for the last time, readying snow blowing equipment, checking for insulation needs and so on.