Reinventing My Life

How many of us are who we were even five years ago? Ten years ago? Twenty years ago? I suggest that most, if not all of us, have changed. We have reinvented our lives. Where we live, the jobs we work, the relationships we are in, change and will continue to change over time. If there is anything consistent about life...it is change. I find it remarkable to consider who I am now compared to who I was then.

In my life, I have lived over a restaurant, on a chicken farm and in an upper middle class, suburban house. I have lived in college dorm rooms, rented condos and small one-bedroom apartments. I have owned my own house. I have lived in a small town in Central Illinois, a beautiful home in Northern Illinois and a comfortable three-bedroom ranch in the sprawling suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Today, I am in my own home, in a charming old neighborhood on the southeast side of San Antonio, Texas. I have traveled to Europe, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. There are more places that I would like to see and live before I leave this world, but each place has left its mark on me and helped to shape who I am now.

I have had a lot of careers, jobs and professions in my 56 years of life. Not counting 16 years as a student, I have worked on a chicken farm, raised Berkshire hogs, pumped gasoline at a service station and sold subscriptions to the Chicago Sun Times over the phone. I have been a customer service representative, an inside salesman and a purchasing agent. For 15 years, I worked in the corporate world as a buyer for Honeywell and a senior buyer for Motorola. I made some big bucks and I have lived from paycheck to paycheck. When I left the corporate world, I became a freelance writer and worked as a tour guide for a historic mansion. Today, I work as a historical interpreter at the Alamo Shrine in San Antonio, Texas. I am a published author. I wrote a book about the Alamo and I am considering my next new creative projects. I think it has finally dawned on me that who we are should not be defined by a job title. At best, it can only be a bookmarker in an endless volume of reinvented lives.

My relationships have grown, taken shape and blossomed since I was a child. Some have lasted and some have ended. People have come and gone during my time on this planet. I believe that each person has come into my life for a reason. Each person has had something to teach me. I have enjoyed knowing and have grieved the loss of my great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and even my own parents. I have lost friends and colleagues. I have been a son, a brother, an uncle, a father, a father-in-law and now... a grandpa. I have been engaged, married and divorced more than once. I have known love, joy and heartache. I have been in the depths of despair and now know the quiet, gentle love of my wife, Lisa, as we create our new lives here in Texas. Each relationship becomes a part of my history and who I am.

What I believe has also evolved over time. I was baptized as a Presbyterian when I was very young. I was confirmed in the United Church of Christ. I married a Catholic and attended a Jewish Marriage Encounter. I even served as an elder in a small Lutheran Church. I attended a small congregation of Universalist Unitarians or UU’s, as they tend to be called. Since moving to Texas, Lisa and I have attended a Quaker church, a Ba’Hi gathering, two UU churches and the Unity Church of San Antonio. You might say that my faith background is a mixed bag of beliefs. What I currently believe has been influenced and supplemented by New Age thinkers and writers like Dr. Wayne Dyer, Eckart Tolle, James Redfield, Gary Zukav and Deepak Chopra, to name but a few. The older I get, the more I realize that what I believe can no longer be contained by one religion, faith, ritual or tradition. My spiritual growth has only just begun and will be without end. I believe in the absolute power of LOVE and that every one of us is a part of the whole.

My life has been truly amazing. I have been so many different people at different times in my life. I have gone from being the carefree college student running up and down Warren Dunes on summer break to the father of two young girls living in suburbia, to the grandfather in San Antonio searching for pecans in the front yard with his granddaughter. My life has been one wonderful reinvention after another. And so it goes.

FOOD for THOUGHT...