Full Circle

In the early morning On Wednesday May 16th Lynne Braden past away.
She died peacefully in her sleep, after battling Cancer for the 2nd time.
Lynne will be remembered for courageously fighting her battle to the End.
Her passion for life, friends, family and travel can be carried on by all of us
By continuing to live like she did.
Her big smile, courage and loving heart is what I’ll take with me as I continue
My journey in life.
If you see the View on the road somewhere in the near future honk and wave to me as I will be navigating It on a farewell journey to spread her ashes to all her favorite places that she asked
To be and to start a new journey in my life.

Lynne’s brother Randy Braden






Full circles on:
- this blog
- full-time RVing
- Bosque del Apache
- home 617 Carlsbad
- friends
- family
- Grandy's bed
- finding God
- religion / the Bible
- my life's purpose on Earth
- transition from secular to spiritual (from life on Earth to life in eternity)

• Back in mom’s bedroom at old family house
• Next post will likely be my memorial.  Comments will be turned off and blog archived.
• Cindy’s comments on showing how to die gracefully
• Death is so often avoided and looked at with so much dread—
• I believe God has brought be home (literally and figuratively) 
• Cancer has given me the freedom of time to enrich my end of life with so many wonderful conversations and re-connections.  Never would have had this opportunity if a plane crash or heart attack had taken me.
• So, do not mourn my death when it comes.  Remember me (as the Coco movie says).  That will keep my spirit living on.  Remember my story— don’t wait too long to start living your dreams.
• Do I have regrets?  Perhaps only a few— that I didn’t give back sooner in my life.  Most of my life was self-centered and filled with consuming to my own wants/desires.  It left a huge hole that took years to figure out how to fill.  For me, that hole was finally filled by giving to others— financially and via my volunteering time or selfless acts of kindness and friendship.  I may have sacrificed a higher-paying career by not doing “whatever it takes” and walking over whoever I needed to get ahead, but in the end,  are time here on earth is only marked by the legacy we leave.  Not the power/political/financial gains we made.

Full-Circle

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3 years ago, I took a walk to find myself...

The past couple of months I’ve realized that many circles in my life are now completing.

Can’t explain the unexplainable, but so many things have led me back to this place...to home.

A physical residence that I’ve known since 1976,

A place where old friends have returned to reunite with me,

A place where I have met new connections that share uncanny things that cannot be passed off as mere coincidence (Melissa & my grandfather’s sermon bed)

God leading me home for a reason (not to stay in Colorado)

It is right to be here now.

My future is unknown, but my fate (and faith) is certain.

I wish I could live another few decades to share all the lessons I’ve learned these past few years of leading a purpose-driven life (not letting others drive it for me), but all I can do now is hope that some of my musings on this blog have made a difference in your lives, pushed you beyond your comfort zone to take control over your life and live the life of your dreams.  To discover true fulfillment by emptying yourselves of pettiness, shallowness, and worthless physical possessions for a deeper connection to your fellow humans/animals, our earth, God, and the amazing reward of giving in all the ways that you can.

Be the light.  When told to act divisive, seek unity with one another.  Overcome hatred, ignorance, and power grabs.  Be humble.  Find and live with grace and honor.    In the end, it is the only legacy we each can leave.

I hope I’ve made the earth a little more sustainable for future generations.

I hope I’ve left a legacy (although baron of fame, fortune, or even a tombstone— something that will be left as a lasting impression to those who knew me here or in-person to continue for generations.

I’m not ready to go, and yet, the circle is completing for me now, so I must obey it and go on to the next world.   Michell quote.

My final post here (my obituary) will be published after I’m gone.  Comments will be turned off to preserve the sanity of my surviving family members.

I thank you all for following this journey with me.  You’ve enriched my life as much as I hope I’ve helped yours.

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Quotes from Dorrin:

Though my soul may set in darkness,

It shall rise in perfect light

I have loved the stars too truly

To be fearful of the night    

                                                   ~Sarah Williams

I framed a quote of Edgar Mitchell and hung it on my office wall in 1990.  It still hangs in the waiting room for all to see.  It says:  

"There are no unnatural or supernatural phenomenon, only very large gaps in our knowledge of what is natural... we should strive to fill those gaps of ignorance."

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Chris Leeser’s quotes on the walls of BdA Volunteer Lounge:

Be Kind

Work Hard

Stay Humble

Smile Often

Live Simply

Love Deeply

be thankful always

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All good things are wild and free

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You make a living by what you get. You leave a legacy by what you give.

— Winston Churchill ?

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Rather than seek power in being somebody,

seek truth in being nobody,

Because power will emerge from God’s truth.

OOOOk-lahoma!!!

Am I the only one who likes to crank up and sing along to old Rodgers & Hammerstein show tunes when crossing the Great Plains? (perhaps this explains why no brave man has settled into my RV's co-pilot seat!)

But who could resist belting out a few bars of "Oooook-la-homa" when seeing such bright yellow fields of canola (after so many months of just looking at desert brown)?

My April journey from the southwest to Chicago took me across the Sooner state on a couple of warm and sunny days-- carefully planned to avoid their notorious springtime thunderstorms and tornadoes.  On the agenda: a visit to a National Wildlife Refuge and a re-visit to a town closely tied to my family history.

Making This Year Meaningful

I know my northern friends are suffering frigid winter temperatures right now and dearly waiting for more travel stories and pictures from warm and sunny Baja.  I promise to post more of those soon, but today, as my first post of 2015, I need to share some thoughts from my heart.

Back in September, when I learned that Millie’s cancer had returned, I vowed to make whatever remaining months or years Millie might have as enjoyable as I could make them.  Finding her great, warm places to swim was (and will continue to be) a top priority, like this gorgeous beach (Playa Santispac) that we camped at recently in Baja.

2014 was a transformational and completely mind-bending year for me—my first full year of being intentionally jobless and the year I sold almost all of my possessions to live in a 130 square foot rolling home.  Friends and blog readers have often commented “you’re living the life others only ever dream about”  and it is the honest truth that I never go through a day without at least a brief feeling of gratitude for the incredible freedom and blessed life that I currently live.   But every day is not picture-perfect postcard.

Eternity

78 years ago today, in the hot and humid small town of Augusta, Kansas, my grandparents were married.  My grandfather preached at a tiny little country church and also ran the portrait photography studio in town.  My grandmother was a teacher at an honest-to-goodness one-room schoolhouse where her students ranged from age 6 to 14. 

It was 1935, still in the midst of the Great Depression, and yet, they managed to scrambled together enough money for a small wedding at my great-grandparents’ home.  My grandfather also had scrimped and saved enough to buy my grandmother a wedding ring.  It wasn’t anything fancy—there was more white gold around the small flecks of diamonds than the stones themselves, but they were diamonds none the less.  A ring that could last for an eternity.

My grandparents had a wonderful marriage for the next 44 years (until my grandfather passed away).  Afterwards, my grandmother continued to wear her wedding ring (as well as a lovely diamond solitaire anniversary ring) every day for 20 more years after that.

When my grandmother reached her 90’s, in failing health, my mom and I had to make the decision to bring her to Chicago to live in a nearby nursing home.  The nursing home advised that she should not bring anything of value with her (as things could easily be lost or misplaced).  So, my mom kept my grandmother’s rings at her house for safe-keeping.

That was 13 years ago and long forgotten.  When my grandmother died a few years ago, I seemed to think she had been buried with her rings on.

So imagine my surprise this past week when my stepsister, Holley, called to tell me what she had just discovered while going through boxes of old clothes and such at my mom’s house (Holley has been an enormous help to sort through the mountains of stuff).

She came across an old, warn, wallet that looked empty, and was about ready to toss it into the trash when she thought she’d better take just one more look.  Inside, she found few old photographs and a whopping sum of four $1 bills. But, tucked deep into the last compartment, she found one more thing that was simply mind-blowing and amazing….my grandmother’s rings!

Now, if that’s not cosmic enough, when I went to try them on, I discovered that they fit me absolutely perfectly (unlike all of my mom’s rings which have been too small).

Remember the story about my grandmother’s gift of faith?  Well, I’m convinced that either she or my grandfather were up there doing a bit more “divine intervention” this past week to get these rings rediscovered just in time for their anniversary, and to give these rings a renewed purpose—to be loved and cherished by their granddaughter for an eternity!

A Gift of Faith

My post today has nothing to do with RVing, but celebrates the 100th anniversary birth date of my grandmother, Lockie, and the gift she ultimately gave me of finding everlasting Faith. 

I’ve never been a very religious church-goer in my life, but like many others drawn to the outdoors, I often experience the greatest sense of spirituality when out in nature.  I feel much more connected to God on a Sunday morning when paddling a quiet pond or watching a magical sunrise, than praying from a church pew.  But it wasn’t always that way.

My grandmother was born in 1911, the youngest of 4 girls in a deeply religious Baptist family.  They moved to Augusta, Kansas when she was still a child, and it was there in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, that she met my grandfather, Ray, who ran the portrait photography studio in town and preached at a small church out in the country.

They were an inseparable team for nearly 50 years, spending much of that time in Kansas City, where they raised my mother (their only child) and grew a large congregation at the Hyde Park Christian Church.  He was the inspirational preacher, and she, the devoted preacher’s wife who sang in the choir, taught Sunday School classes, and organized countless church socials and pot luck suppers.

My earliest memories were of the summers with my grandparents in the late 1960s and early ‘70’s.  My grandmother would often sing and play hymns and Broadway show tunes on the piano. When I was old enough to learn, she first taught me one of her favorites, “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music. For years afterwards, whenever we’d hear that song on the radio or TV, she’d say “they’re playing our song, honey!”

After my grandfather died in 1979, I had a hard time finding as meaningful a connection with any church or minister as I had felt when listening to him preach.  My grandmother tried relentlessly to get me to attend church more otten—“You can meet a nice young man there!” she’d often say.  But, by then, I was a young adult with my own ideas, and being an obedient young church girl was not one of them!

 

By 2000, when my grandmother was nearly 90, I moved her up to a retirement home near my mom’s house in Chicago.  By then, dementia had began ravaging her mind, and the religious pleadings had subsided.  Despite the circumstances, we had some wonderful times together in those final years and I got to see my grandmother much more often than I had in years past.

I also started ever so slowly to re-examine my skepticism towards Faith. There had been a couple of small coincidences and little miracles that my logical secular brain simply could not provide a rational explanation.  I was drifting closer towards God, but wasn’t 100% convinced just yet. 

Then, on one sunny December morning in 2005, my grandmother helped provide the final leap of Faith that I’d been needing.  My mother and I had been at the nursing home all night long holding my grandmother’s hands as she peacefully slept in her last few hours of life.  Christmas music blared over the loudspeaker continuously, and it honestly got a bit annoying at times.

About 30 minutes after my grandmother passed, my mom and I began gathering a few of her things to take to the car.  As I walked down a long hallway of the nursing home, I suddenly heard music over the loudspeaker that could not have been more crystal clear a message to me—this song was no ordinary Christmas Muzak from the night before.  Out of the millions of songs to be playing that morning, it was “Edelweiss,” indeed, our song!

My Faith has never waivered again since that day. It was my grandmother’s last and most precious gift to me.