Learning to Succeed Differently

Jack and Cindy continue to amaze me with all they are navigating. They wanted to come from Harrison to Bristol, Indiana, where his son and daughter-in-law are seasonal campers at Eby’s Pines Campground. It was Jeff’s birthday and the end-of-season super soup supper event. Jack had been there for that in the past and has lots of friends at the campground. Saturday they made the trip. Over 200 miles. More than three hours.

We were supposed to drive down to Jeff’s house Saturday evening to visit a while and deliver chocolate chip cookies I baked for them, but by that time Jack was really tired. We agreed to drop off the cookies on our way to New Buffalo where I was guest pastor in New Buffalo Sunday morning.

Before we left our house, Jack called. “Stay where you are. There is no heat at Jeff’s so we are loading up and heading to you.” When they got here, rather than have Jack get out of the truck, up the steps onto our porch and into the house for such a short visit, John and I shared some memorable moments with them in our driveway. Shortly after nine they left so we could get to church. Heading back home, they planned a stop at Michael’s for Cindy to get craft supplies.

We got this message from Cindy about 9:15 Sunday night:

Well, we just got home probably about 20 minutes ago. Jack wanted to stop at Four Winds, so we did.

Then we had to stop at FireKeepers. Overall, we did pretty good. We ate Chinese at FireKeepers so that was our dinner. We’re having dessert right now — your cookies.

Sweet dreams we’ll see you when we see you. Love you.

It was a big weekend as Saturday was also Stacey’s 60th birthday. It does not seem possible that John and I are parents to such a mature woman. She and Doug celebrated by inviting family and friends to join them for Bluegrass Barnside at Arrington Vineyards.Even with so many significant folks unable to attend they had a great group.

Stacey told us it was like having a living Celebration of Life. We have used those same words about Jack….

Sunday’s theme of “Living with Intention, or Living in Tension” was exquisitely expressed through Jack and Cindy and Stacey, along with a host of others we know well and love deeply. The following was copied from FaceBook and seems to speak welcome wisdom to our world:

I Am Learning to Succeed Differently by Helyn Cornille (Copied from FB)

There was a time when success meant finishing.
If I started something, I finished it.
If there were stairs to climb, I climbed them.
If there was work to be done, I kept going until it was done.
I don’t live in that body anymore.
And one of the hardest things about growing older has been learning that this does not mean I have stopped succeeding.
Today I may look at a staircase that needs cleaning and know I cannot stand there and clean the whole thing.
But I can sit on one step.
I can clean what I can reach.
Tomorrow, perhaps I can do another.
The old me might have looked at what remained unfinished.
I am learning to look at what I did.
That sounds like such a small distinction.
It isn’t. Because when our bodies change, we can spend an enormous amount of energy measuring ourselves against the person we used to be.
What I could lift. How far I could walk. How long I could work.
How quickly I could finish.
But perhaps success was never really about any of those things.
Perhaps success is simply continuing to participate in your own life.
Finding another way.
Resting when you need to.
Starting again when you can.
Doing something in ten small pieces instead of one heroic effort.
And refusing to believe that adapting is the same thing as giving up.
I am still learning this. Some days I am better at it than others. But there is something unexpectedly freeing about no longer asking, “Can I still do what I used to do?” and beginning instead to ask, “What can I do today?”
There is almost always an answer. And sometimes it is enough.
I am learning to succeed differently.