SO MANY THINGS TO SAY

Being in the Fire Department cuts down on the things I can talk about. Being a Church Administrative Board Chairman cuts down on the things I can speak about. Being Fire Chief cuts way down ont the things i can talk about… Then there is Family life and Work life and confidential stuff that I can not talk or even think about. I normally have too much to say. I love to express my feelings and thoughts by speaking and writing. My Brother-in-Law Walt helps keep me in check. He will look at me with “the look” which means it is time to wrap it up. Sometimes I can!

My beloved Church voted to remain United Methodist. I was influenced by my Pastor Chip. He had many reasons. I did too. I wanted selfishly or otherwise to not destroy the momentum Brookstown has been building since Covid. I am going to lose many members and good friends because of the Vote. I love all my members and friends and I understand taking a stand and going with the convictions each person has in life. I will be at Brookstown! I did not try to speak or influence our membership… I was the Chair of the Board and felt like
I needed to be impartial and guide every member throught the issues and nuances of the VOTE. Our Council voted to Vote. We voted. We are United Methodist. Brookstown Church is Growing. Easter was AMAZING!!!

Brookstown has 3 services and 1 Sunday School Class for Adults… Working on more Classes and Small groups. Our Pastor Chip Retired and is working harder than ever. I did not retire and am enjoying the most favorable business at Wilson’s Garage EVER!!! I am working harder than ever!!! I can talk about that!!! Be honest, Be Nice, Do What you agree to Do and Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. I am responsible for Family, Business, Volunteer Fire, Church and Assistant at Troop 919. I volunteer in the Community and am laison with the Lewisville Town and many community members in Pfafftown and Vienna. Some I can talk about and some I cannot.

I have been blessed to have the training and experience to help in Medical situations and Rescue situations and Fire Situations. I have the blessing of many well trained and equiped members of our Fire Department to respond the the call! I have the honor to respond and assist not just Vienna and Lewisville but Forsyth County and Our Great State of NC and Our US of A. Some things I can Talk about and Some I cannot. If I can I will… Thanks Walt for helping me keep things in Check. Roberta Too. I have been blessed with 2 amazing Sons Jim and Paul. I can live vicariously through them both. I will talk about them at length.

Jim is an amazing Dad and is taking the Family life to the max. Jim is carving his own life in Vienna with the help of Jonna and her 2 amaziing children Phillip and Macy. Some I will talk about and Some i will not. However…. Want to see my pictures of my GRAND KIDS!!! haha

Paul is working hard in Taos and His Girl Ollie is Amazing. Paul Hikes and Works the Taos Ski Area. Love for both Boys n Girls… Yall Rock- I have thousands of pics of Pauls Hikes and Olies pottery and coolness… Living Through the youth!!

Easter at Brookstown was Amazing. So many members and prospective members and friends and family helped make the Glorious Celebration of the Death, and Triumphant Resurrection of Christ this Easter at Brookstown very memorable for all. Every member responded in some way. We had Stations of the Cross, Easter Eggs, Services, Food, Bible Studies, Preaching 4 times on Sunday, and visitors and members in every facit of our Church Celebration of the Assencion of Our LORD. We get to celebrate every Sunday this Glorious Resurrection.Prayers were much appreciated!!!

Sometimes I forget to write and in turn forget to let the whole world know what an amazing community of Magnificent people in the Vienna community stiving every day to make things just a little better than they were and always reaching for more. So some things I can talk about and some I cannot. I personally have not done enough and stive to do more. I have gotten every person I am involved with into service. Some more than others. I truly believe serving is our true hope for survival, both physically and mentally. If you feel down -help someone. If you are tired- help someone, If you are pompas- help someone it will ground you, Some things i can Talk about and Some things I cannot…

REFLECTED LIGHT

My need to put down words seems to be triggered by the very smart writers of both my Sunday School lesson and those authors of ancient times that wrote and translated our Bible. Then the thousands of moms that brought the Word forward without it being written down. Then the ancients that worried and feared for their people to try to save them from turning away from God. This lead to the prayer to help us turn back to God so His Face could shine upon ours. We are marching toward Christmas and I have too much stuff so I want to give more to others than I receive. I also want to remember to turn to God and reflect the light shining so my face will shine too…

Chip Webb has been speaking on the lectionary series and using the Creation stories for his text. On the First day etc… The Sun to ruled over the day and Moon to rule over the night.. Then my analogies started. Fast forward to Jesus and Him as the Son and the Church as a reflected light …The Moon there started my wandering mind. Are we really reflecting the light of the Son/Sun. And if so are we like those we often read about in the Bible turning from God and having to be redeemed? Yes and Yes. So then I got to wondering if the Dark side of the moon ever gets the light? I know analogies are not perfect but humans have a dark side when out of the light or hiding there to not be seen. Then my brain had too much and I hope all ya’ll keep the light and reflect that light.

Thanks for reading and most of my scripture was Genesis 1 and Isaiah 64. Add John 1 also- My your face Shine this Christmas season and Ya’ll be like the MOON.

pic of the moon off internet…

By Gregory H. Revera, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11901243

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS IN LIFE

Sunday School is thought provoking. I have alternated some teaching times with our regular teacher Georgia Saylor. She mostly prepares the lesson according to the lectionary of our Methodist Cokesbury class series. We have a tendency to stray from the text and even lead off into a discussion of life and experiences.

Deciding what you believe can take a lifetime. Each step in my learning and growth were assisted and hindered by available spoken, written, and visual inputs. Each step of my awareness and life stages follow the direction of millions of humans ahead of me. I learned about situational awareness in the Fire Service mostly from Dr. Rich Gasaway. Georgia spoke about the human process from savage to nobleness in humans Sunday. It triggered in my brain the concept of awareness stages applied to human growth, culture, and education. Especially in my Christian walk.

The above writing may be hard to comprehend unless you can step out of your life and experiences and see with new eyes and hear with new ears the concepts of awareness applied to all education. If savages can become cultured and sinners can become saints then we all have a chance. Its the process that intrigues me only after thinking about it a little. Situational awareness starts out with You not knowing what you don’t know and Not knowing what’s coming. The awareness peaks with Knowing what you don’t know and Knowing what is about to happen!

Dr. Gasaway is a PHD with 30+ years of experience in the Fire Service and then went back to school to focus on training , education and awareness for the Fire Service and other industries. His focus was situation awareness for all responders. I am a proud supporter of Dr. Gasaway and his mission. I have applied my learning from him to all my fire service classes and to my life in general. I want to take it a step further and talk about my life in general.

This blog post may become a thread for the application and understanding of teachings of the Christian way of life and kindness in general. It certainly will make you step back and say HUMMM? I want to apply the principles of awareness to the lowest level and to the highest levels of thought and action. Georgia reached in to the psyche last Sunday but I think it may go beyond into the eternal too. It also reaches into evolution and creationism… Ugg

This is getting too long and tedious for my thoughts to comprehend because every word I write causes more and more research. Think about this- We as humans can be civilized and then resort to barbarism or savagery. We can also follow this walk in our quest for Christianity. Being intentional in our thoughts and actions are what brought us out of savagery. If it gets to be too much….Jesus made it simple…. Come to me and I will give you rest.

I

LEARNING NEVER ENDS

I am truly amazed by my lack of understanding of the scriptures. I have listened to the teachers and preachers and read the Bible myself. I have taken courses in High School and College about the Bible and its history and writing. I have looked at videos and listened to Biblical scholars all my life. Yet almost every Sunday as I look at the 4 daily texts we read from the lectionary, and try to guess what Chip will preach about, I am always surprised by the history and meaning of the words I have looked up. The scriptures will be linked and brought into clarity by the meaning of the Greek and Hebrew in a way only Chips and my brain seem to understand. I want to write down where my thoughts run almost every time I hear Chip speak. Georgia Saylor too. I almost always forget or don’t have time to write.

Today I took the time when I should go to bed. Writing comes easy but I make so many mistakes I have to watch my words. Then I have to be present at home and not just zone out writing for posterity. I thought that I would have more time and the ability to write while out with the back surgery. Ha. I was busy almost all the time with exercises or PT or just basic human stuff. I had time to myself and truly rested. I didn’t have as many interactions that seem to trigger my writing. So back to making a thought process cleaner or purge the ideas I have had.

Yesterday was a young mind vs old body experiment. The third year of the Fire Cadet Training was well attended. I was honored to be able to lead a group of instructors on a down FF scenario. I was humbled by the young talent and loved how well the Cadets had matured in the last couple years. The usual fumbling with the SCBA was not there or was not as apparent as the last 2 years. Most had good control of their gear. All acted like they had seen or done the drill before. We had a few visitors and most had FF experience…I have always been a study of human nature and “You can never tell the Experience or knowledge level of an individual just by looking”, however careful observation and listening most all can ascertain closely if they are walking the walk etc… That being said visitors or observers will either have no clue what 4 FF are doing when they are clustered around one on the ground messing with their turnout gear.

WE had perfect conditions for our drills. Cold morning for wearing all the gear and physical exercise and warm sunshine for resting between sets. There were 5 groups of youth. 5 scenarios to practice or learn skills needed for more training or drills. Key points were drilled using the EDGE method- educate-demonstrate- guide-evaluate. Rest and rehab were incorporated into each sequence and teamwork was practiced and encouraged. I had 2 young men that performed very well. I was impressed by all my fellow instructors. I want to do some video training that we can archive forever. Doug and Son Ryan Fanning were great working with the youth. I thought Andrew Berry was the closest to a pure Instructor I had ever seen. He started out with the first group and his SCBA overview was clear and concise and evolved with each time he made the talk. Not to Fault Doug. He was great over-time with good accurate info and always open for questions. Ryan worked with the groups and refined his scenario each time. I was blessed to be able to put it together and TIM talk it at the end of each groups time

Tying it together today was an Eagle Ceremony. The culmination of learning Scouting skills and putting into practice the skills then teaching those skills in many times harsh environments. Leading and completing a project dealing with Adults and youth and regulations and time and money. Proud of our Scout Jonah Baker and Parents and Church and Troop 919.

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

Counting by weeks like being an infant is now again in my vocabulary. Folks I have not seen in 2 months have no clue the trauma, stress, surgery, and now recovery I have endured really since 18 months to a year ago when the back pain aggressively started rearing its ugly head. Muscle loss to my right side and compensation by Tim affected the right foot. Surgery and a magnificent PT group have got me back to 85%. Will I fully recover? What I don’t get back may never show to anyone else but me. Weekly PT and an hour of leg, core, and foot exercises daily is my new work.

Work was completely stopped. No BLT…bend, lift or twist became the normal. Post-op was back brace and picker upper extensions. Its amazing how much stuff we drop. I had to just stand there and look at it if there was no picker upper available. I was limited to 10 lbs then 20 lbs and now 30 lbs in successive weeks after the initial 6 weeks for all the bones to heal in my lumbar spine. My role at Wilson’s changed completely. I will be a service writer and communicator and parts man.

There is fear in pain and change. The thought of trying to get rid of chronic pain leading to dependency is scary! Everyone knows the issues that can develop. Lives completely changed and or ruined. I was vary wary of the pain situation. The loss of mobility was another thing altogether. Everything I was involved in was changed. Cannot run calls with the Fire Department, Cannot work, cannot ride the tractor, mow or do stuff…. What to do? After the surgery MY JOB WAS REHAB.

I was introduced to an aggressive Rehab/PT regimen and it helped to be assessed by one PT doc and be friends with another. Marty became my PT guy and rehabilitation became my job. Exercises and stretches and conditioning were and still are needed to get my muscles back awake and actually working again. Right foot strength especially was diminished. I am proud to say that through biking, walking and exercising I am about 80 % of matching the left foot. As many know the last 20% is going to take more time. My goal is walk on my heels and get back to turnout gear. I have returned to the shop in an advisory role and will continue to be there as long as We can all stand me!!!

PAIN IN THE REAR

I have a better understanding of living with pain now more than ever. Knee pain and work stresses and strains have been a pain my whole life. Hard work and amazing abilities to work for long stretches have been my blessing. Back pain has entered my life. I have had some back pain nagging me in rt lower lumbar. I remember now!

My pain began as an ache. The 2001 Chevy truck had a low corner of the seat on my side that made my ache progress to a pain in the right buttock. I got the seat changed and shazam…. pain quit… foreshadowing for fast forward 22 years and its back. I remember the lower back pain as achey and it was worse when I bend to the right side. Past canoe trips were troublesome but we have not canoed much since Mac left us. But I went canoeing….guess I forgot it made me hurt.

I had a great day on the New River but overtorqued my lower back. Pain as a burning sensation became a pain shooting down the rt buttock. Then hip pain and finally tingling in rt foot and the inability to pick up my rt foot.. This all came within a month! Garage busy and fire department busy and well busy life- but not being able to walk or lay down was the most painful part. I was facing stopping most of what made my life- Tractor, Garage, Fire Service, Scout trips…Went to see about it…

Started at Ortho-Carolina- Physician, x rays, MRI , and then PT… Took about a week and MRI results showed Scoliosis and disc damage in L1-L6 plus arthritis and bone spurs… PT for the foot drop and don’t bend or lean to the right. Nothing surgical. I entered PT and got working on the muscle movement of the right foot. My pain and condition were different than many with sciatic nerve pain. Mine was helped by bending forward and hurt backward and to the right.

The auto mechanic in me made me search for the root cause of both pain and foot drop. PT for the foot but I needed to find an answer for the cause. I talked to a number of friends and Stan Gordon suggested Dr John Birkedal. We got a quick appointment and second look at my spine MRI and Xrays. I looked into his eyes when he said I needed to relieve the pressure on the foot nerve as soon as possible to keep the foot drop from becoming permeant if it was not already. Beach trip the next day and both of us were on vacation the next week. I got scheduled for surgery July 12th. Bumped to the 13th then to the 17th.. First in line on the 17th and was in and out of the Baptist by 1315 hours. Micro Lamonotomy on L3-4 n L4-5 were performed and postop outlook is 100% recovery. Resting at home with minimal pain in back and incision site.

Recovery is 4-6 weeks. First 24 hours is behind me. Prayers and well wishes are numerous and requests to do something. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers. A blessing to wake up from surgery -puffy face and all and get to spend some time with Roberta. Thankful for Jim and Richard n Roberta to run the shop. Grateful the pain is less than purported to be by many. Slept in my bed as an out-patient… Yeah Thanks to my customers that had this procedure successfully and talking to ya’ll was what talked me into doing this. More from the tale to be told.. Great people at Atrium and Ortho too… See about your back pain before it drops you in your tracks!

TOO BUSY OR CAREFUL WHAT I SAY?

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ROWENA

My Mother In Law Rowena June Gilstrap came into my life when I stole Roberta from New Mexico. I met both parents, Rowena and James, when Roberta left NCSU for the summer and she and her parents took an east coast trip mostly for picking up Berta from school but also foreshadowing the move to the state of NC because we had grandchildren many years later and to be near help as needed. Rowena helped my family way more than we helped her and James.

God gifted us a house and land that by our selves neither of us could afford but together we DID! Many asked how living next door to your Mother in law would be? For Roberta and Tim and Jim and Paul magnificent! The boys had the run of 5 acres and I had no worries about the road or getting too far away. Rowena could see all the way down to our house and could tell by the cars in the driveway what was going on! She could hear the boys and their friends and kept an eye on them.

We worried that our big campfire ring in the field would keep her up since it was up the hill and closer to her house but she said the boys were welcome to be up there anytime. Sometimes we got a report and other times She would ask if they were away. She knew.

Rowena and James dived into our community family. Church, Fire Department, Civic Club, Curves, YMCA, Meals on Wheels, Scouts, OA, you name it and Rowena cooked, sewed, walked, volunteered and worked and prayed. She and Roberta sang in the Choir at Brookstown and did Handel’s Messiah many years downtown.

After James died She and Roberta were together most days for lunch and time on each side of lunch. They did everything you can imagine including RnR destruction and construction. Tried all the restaurants in town for lunch. They Shopped the box stores for the dinners food and supplies for every organization we were a part of cooking, serving, or attending.

Rowena made meals for all occasions for our family and others in our various organizations. Roberta and Rowena even went to Camp Raven Knob to make Indian Fry Bread for the Order of The Arrow several years while Jim and Paul were Indians. She sewed regalia and helped all our dancers that needed her skills.

Rowena quilted! Made 13 quilts for the Brookstown Festival alone.

Rowena led a full life after coming to NC. Amazingly raised a family in New Mexico and travelled with James all over being the County Agents wife and getting a college degree at NMSU before moving here.

My family and Me personally are blessed to have my Mother in Law live next door. What a magnificent Lady! We love you!

Lasley Gilstrap Women

BENT

Its funny how a word or thought will trigger the creative process in my brain. Then Google or Scripture or Commentary of some sort pulls the thoughts out of the passing stuff zooming around up in the head and a need to say more is triggered. Then the images to go along with the words seem to get tossed about and TIME to put it down appears.

The OLD vs NEW ideas enter my brain and then I got to thinking about all the bent images I could conjure up. I have worked in an auto repair shop and have bent and un-bent many items. Usually with metal it is really difficult to straighten once bent. Ha then the analogies start flying to all kinds of bents and the consequences.

The Bent to Sin, Lie, Cheat, Put one’s self first, Win, Talk (which includes Boast), Teach, Learn. Then my brain went to Physical Bending. Lawn Mower Blades, Sheet Metal. Blacksmithing, Using my Press, Beams, and the uses of bending to make something stronger. Car Wrecks, Rescue Tools, and the physical devices for force which includes the Simplest tools known to man (Lever, Wedge, and Wheel). I always think of my Uncle Sam when simple tools are mentioned… He called his PT guy a wedge.

Scripture often finds me looking for a deeper meaning. Most of the time my Pastor Chip and smart, smart Sunday school teacher Georgia will take me off road beyond the lessons and delve deeper into the Hebrew or Greek meanings of words and phrases. I like to find the connections between the Old Testament verses and the Gospels and New Testament verses. The Lectionary usually has a common thread. Many weekly scriptures are interwoven or carry the same message to God’s people.

Today’s lesson started for me with Jesus temptation and 40 day in the wilderness. Pastor Chip wove the 40 days of Lent into his scriptures this morning. The temptation was also in our Sunday School lesson. Our Genesis Verses were Adam and Sin and Death on Earth. Georgia took us deeper than the writers of our SS lesson on our propensity for sin and the need for Jesus sacrifice. Chip said Bent to sin. Of course I could only see the lies and deception after the sin because I am thinking like a man. I am always amazed at the sacrifice for us by our Jesus. But Bent on mankind levels stretches my imagination.

The propensity for sin, the lies, and the deception go so deep. And on another level the belief that all will lie or cover up their wronging will also create in my mind that everyone and everything is corrupt. This I do not Believe! I believe in the goodness and love of most people. I was raised by my Mom mostly and had many mentors both male and female and did not and cannot see the Bent in them. So where is it From?

I truly believe my scripture. I have life experience. I read and hear everyday about the Worst of humanity. I know I am a sinner and fail to live up to God everyday. I believe in Grace. I have to believe God loves them because it is so hard for me because I too am BENT. Some Days are better than others. I do the right things and get the proverbial “no good deed goes un punished”. I am tired at times of stopping to pick up the trash of others. It goes beyond the trash and watching the lives destroyed by man’s propensity to sin for pleasure and profit. It can make me mad and then I realize I am still Bent. LORD give me strength to take up my Cross and Follow You.

Now I have an image gallery of bent things that are near impossible to fix much less straighten enough to work. but I could not upload them tonight. I guess my PC is bent too

But a Bad Dad Joke –What did the triangle say to the circle?

You’re pointless.- Ha Ha the Triangle is Bent