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The
"Your Life is Your Story" Blog Archives
© Tom
Gilbert
Read
about
quality family history and life story news, views, methods, products,
links, services
...and whatever else catches our fancy of personal
historian
June, 2019
current
blog entries
blog
archive
index
Taking a Trip that Expands Your Life
June 30, 2019
It took many years for it to finally become a reality: a trip to Europe
that proved to me what I have heard for years. Travel can expand your
life in many signifcant ways.
 My
wife and I just returned from a ten day vacation to Italy and France.
We have wanted to go to Europe for a very long time. In fact, I was
supposed to fulfill the promise of this trip by our 25th wedding
anniversary, but when we achieved that milestone we were not yet able
to do the trip. Fortunately nine years later, and better late than
never, we were able to do it.
The trip included Florence and Collie di Val d'Elsa in Toscany, Venice
and Paris. We saw many great works of art and ate wonderful meals. We
experienced cultures different from our American home and we are richer
for the time and life lessons. Travel can truly expand your life.
It is not easy to take long flights and to spend time, money and energy
on such trips. But it can be truly enlightening and memorable. I feel
blessed to have been able to do so, especially with the love of my
life. We grew closer, even when at times we might have gotten on each
other's nerves, because we shared the experience. To me that is one of
the important things to understand in life, that we are meant to share
our time with and for others.
I wrote more about our trip of a lifetime in our just published
newsletter. It is free to subcribe to and you can find out more and sign up here.
Gifts of Our Fathers
June 16, 2019
On this Father's Day holiday I find it
important to reflect on the
gifts of fatherhood. Our dads give us the gift of time, unconditional
love, and knowledge passed on to help us with the many things we must
do in life.
Doing and being are highly connected and when we are taught both by
showing and then doing we learn better.
All our greatest lessons are taught and learned with the heart. Sure,
the head is the seat of knowledge, but wisdom comes from the heart.
I am grateful for the gift of fathers. I mean this as a son and as a
father. The line down through the ages, fathers to sons, across the
generations, forever connects us. Part of what I like so much about
history is that we can study this line back through time. But we can
only do it when we preserve the personal history of our lives. The
stories of our life experiences are lessons that can teach us a great
deal, particularly when they are the life lessons from our hearts.
Happy Father's Day! Never forget the awesome gift of your children and
the great responsibility you have to love them always no matter what.
White
Water Rafting Builds Father-Son Relationships
June 14, 2019
It is nearly Fathers
Day
(this Sunday) and I just returned from an incredible mini-vacation with
my brother-in-law and our two sons. It was an adventure we will always
remember and a great way to continue to build solid relationships.
My son, Eric, is now 25. Art's son, AJ, just turned 28. So for Art and
I this was a great dad and
uncle outing.
Fathers and sons; uncles and nephews - it was already setup to be a
good time. But when we took to the rapids of the Taos Box on the Rio
Grande River our Far
Flung Adventures went to a new level.
 White
water rafting can be very thrilling. This year with all the snow and
rain of the winter and spring we are experiencing one of the best
runoffs in years. The water is rapidly moving and it was quite exciting
to shoot the rapids.
Our trip with tour guide Richard required teamwork. We had all the
gear, including life preservers, water-resistant covers, helmets and
paddles. But the most important thing was that we worked together.
Sometimes we had to vigorously row forwards. At other times it was
necessary to back-paddle. Through it all we had the time of our lives.
Spending quality time like this with our sons is something all of us
will treasure and remember. Life experience moments such as these are
more than enjoyable; they are times of bonding. We relied on each other
and we had a great time together.
75th
Anniversary of D-Day
June 6, 2019
D-Day invasion -
photo Associated Press
I entered the search phrase "75th anniversary of D-Day" in Google and
got an amazing 89,900,000 returns. Seventy-five
years after the largest amphibious military invasion in history there
is a lot to commemorate.
It is probably difficult to visualize this massive invasion that was
critical to the Allies' efforts to end World War II. Miles of beaches
and thousands of troops. Try to imagine what it must have been like for
those who experienced it. It's not possible for us and it is not
something anyone should "want" to experience. Nevertheless, many did go
through the emotional wringer of D-Day.
This week some of those veterans have returned to the beaches of
Normandy to pay their respects and to honor the memories of their
fallen comrades.
Many people don't appreciate history or have little interest in it. For
me it is essential to know history. It's all about stories - our
stories and the stories of our world.
Fur Baby
Farewell
June 4, 2019
Shadow, our awesome fur baby Chow-Labrador mix (I called
him a "Chowbrador"), after 15 years of unconditional love, crossed over
to the other side a few days ago. He was surrounded with love from
family (Annette, Kristen, Eric, Neti and me) as we said our goodbyes.
You could see in his eyes that he knew we were saying our farewells.
Sad and joy mixed together.
15 years ago at Watermelon Mountain Ranch he picked us.
We thought we were choosing from the litter of six, but no, he came
running right up and let us know in no uncertain terms that he was the
one and to take him home.
He was a fun dog. He had puppy energy for a great many
years. He was my walking and running buddy for over a dozen years. The
past three or so he got to live a pampered life with Eric and Neti and
two other dogs.
When it is time...it's time. I am going to miss him so
much but I am so grateful for all the unconditional love he gave us.
About 7 years ago I wrote an ode to Shadow - Doggone Grateful.
You can read it here. |
