Wildersmith on the Gunflint - Dec 27

Wildersmith on the Gunflint     by     Fred Smith
December 27, 2019    
 
As the last verse of year 2019 is being written, I hope your time of this winter celebration with family and friends was safe, peaceful and fulfilling. The Smith’s had just such a visit in Iowa journeying to be with kids, grand-kids and dogs.                                                                                                        

We are back in the quiet of the north woods now, reflecting on the trek of this past year, thankful for good health and the joy of being together for fifty-seven Christmas celebrations. I can’t help but think of many junkets we’ve taken together along the way, and how we looked at each as being the best thing that ever happened.                                                                                                       

Taking a more in-depth look at my seventy-eight year journey, I see minutes, hours, days, months and years having gone by so quickly. Like most everybody, with the routine of day to day business, I’ve seldom taken time to fully assess how great the many stops along the way have been. As life has slowed during retirement, in addition to the stops along life’s way, I’m counting the blessings for the uncountable folks with whom I’ve crossed paths, so many of whom have had a decisive impact on my character.                                                                                                        

Pondering life’s happenings at this time of year reminds me of a favorite scribing I’d like to share with listeners and website readers as we look forward to 2020. While some of you may have seen this before, I’m confident it remains meaningful.                                                                                           

It’s entitled, THE STATION, authored by Robert J. Hastings, and it comes as an excerpt from the Chicago Tribune in 1988.
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Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn, beans and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.                              
 

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags will be waving. Once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering---waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.                                                                                                                   

When we reach the station, that will be it, we cry! “When I’m 30.” “When I buy a new Mercedes Benz.”  “When I put the last kid through college.” “When I’ve paid off the mortgage.” “When I get that promotion.” “When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!”                                                                                                                                                                            
 

Sooner or later we must realize there is not a station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly out-distances us.         “Relish the moment” is a good motto--- It is the regret over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today.                                                                                  

So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.
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Have a have safe and sane end to 2019 and a joyous greeting to the new decade. Happy New Year!                                                                                                                                                                  

For WTIP, this is Wildersmith, on the Gunflint Trail, where every day is great, and the splendor of nature is a gift beyond words!