"Your past is your story up to now. The future is the story yet to come. The present is where you live with that experience, your hopes and your dreams."

Opening Remarks: Good Night, Irene

Not to minimize the effects, but this storm could have been worse. Those who recall Katrina a few years ago hitting the Gulf Coast know what I mean. Storms come and go – it’s a fact of life. Some are natural, others political (the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is days away). There are also storms in our relationships and our personal life. It’s something to consider.

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Thanks for reading. – Tom

Featured Article: Storms of Life

What do you think about the various storms in your life? How do they impact you? Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes can cause great damage to our physical environment. But just as damaging, perhaps more so, are the storms that hit us personally in the form of broken relationships, illness, job loss, addictions, disease and the assortment of life challenges we all experience from time to time. That – as the saying goes – is life.

I’ve written previously about the life challenges and life changing events we encounter. Some of them are stormy. I’ve had my share of loss and struggles, but it has not prevented me from living. If anything, it has shaped me and pushed me to grow. And sometimes that growth was painful. That’s why they call it growing pains. Oh, but the fruit that has come when I’ve lasted through the growing season and made it to the harvest has been incredible. So often when experiencing the joy of an enriched life I think about how I could never imagine what it could be like when I was in the midst of the storm.

My latest life incarnation is now that of a school teacher. I never game much thought to that profession growing up. I wanted to be a baseball player, then a psychologist, later I became a radio broadcaster and I’ve done my share of writing, although I still think of myself as in the process of "becoming" a writer.

Teaching school these past weeks has given me great joy. It’s hard work and I’m not getting much time for sleep, myself or even for Your Life Is Your Story. But I’m willing to make the sacrifice. It’s what I am now called to do at this stage of my life.

The storm that initiated this career change was being laid off work the week of Thanksgiving, 2008. The dark clouds and the buffeting winds of financial insecurity stayed with me for months. But I trusted that something new would come along, something better, something I was meant to do. I just didn’t know at the time it would be teaching.

Today, after taking the path of teacher licensure and dealing with a lot of difficulty to get to there, I am delighted. I am teaching Social Studies to 6th, 7th and 8th graders and it is very fulfilling. Tiring? Indeed. Meaningful? For sure!

What are your storms? How are you dealing with them? Do you have faith that there is something positive to come from them? Trust in the process of life which requires that we go through the good and the bad. Don’t do it alone. And consider recording your experience and thoughts, for in that personal history are lessons that benefit you and that you need to share with your loved ones.

Read other articles on life-story writing here.

Resource You Can Use

The annual National Grandparents Day observance falls this year on September 11. It may get overshadowed by the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but don’t let it. Grandparents are special. They’ve lived long enough to experience much of life that younger people need to hear about. They have a special empathy for family members honed by years of figuring out what does – and doesn’t – work. I know. I learned from my grandparents. And now I’m a grandparent, too.

There’s lots of information from the official National Grandparents Day website. And take time to watch the short video of Bruce Willis talking about how as kids they rode with their grandmother whose driving skills learned at age 78 made every drive an adventure!

Remembering 9/11

The ten year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is coming soon. There is so much to say on this, but I’ll leave it for later postings. But I do want to recommend an Internet visit to the 9/11 Memorial website at www.911memorial.org.

Closing Information

Any comments, ideas or feedback is greatly appreciated. Just reply to this ‘zine and tell me what you think!

Until next time, – keep your story alive!

Tom Gilbert