You won’t see much of me this week as I have been on-the-road to North Carolina visiting my estranged brother. Thank the Lord, we have remedied the “estranged” part. It was a VERY nice two day visit. I think some of the North Carolina Walters clan will be joining us here at RJsCorner. It will be nice to keep up with them, especially my brother, … Continue reading On-The-Road
Determining our path in life is a lifelong adventure. Yes, there are many off-ramps that we will likely take that sometimes lead us astray. There are also paths that seemed right at the time, but ended up being dead-ends. That’s OK, as long as we don’t linger too long in them. Every one of us has the right to choose our own path in life, … Continue reading The Path I Chose…
I am so happy that I have discovered Lessons Taught By Life. It is a valuable lesson to understand that your path in life is unique to you. After all, no one thinks and believes the same things. I am learning that I don’t need to be in social groups since they make me too anxious, and I just don’t know how to interact in … Continue reading Things I Am Learning About Life
The title of this post is certainly one of the most personal things there is. If all I am doing is sucking air, am I of any worth? I have answered this question with a negative response many times in my life, but more often it is “Yes, my life is worth living”. Being a student of Socrates, I have studied his words above on … Continue reading Is Life Worth Living?
I pride myself here at RJsCorner on going my own path in life, but I, like everyone else, didn’t start out that way. In life, it often takes dozens of tries to finally get it right. Maybe I shouldn’t admit it, but I sometimes still just want to fit in. You would think that after so many failed attempts to do that, I would have … Continue reading Trying To Fit In
At first glance, the title above just doesn’t make any sense. How can you be selfish and still focused on the well-being of others? In my opinion, with some explanations, the two interweave nicely together. To me, empathy means being your brother’s keeper, especially those worse off than you are. This attitude is what originally attracted me to Christianity. Helping others just seemed like what … Continue reading Selfish Empathy…
Christianity is ultimately about loving God and loving others. It should never be co-opted by a political movement, a religious institution, gaining power, obtaining control, spreading influence, enforcing laws, or becoming rich and famous. It’s about a loving relationship with God, and loving all humanity created in God’s divine image—never let anything supersede this — Stephen Mattson If you ask me, one of the worst … Continue reading Never Let Anything Supersede This
One of my favorite things to do on my many roadtrips is to photograph containers. To me, they say a lot about our history Continue reading One Of My Favorite Things…
Most of us have personal stories that we wouldn’t share with anyone. They might be a self-perceived character flaw that we don’t want to admit. They could be things that happened to us in the past that permanently scarred us. While I share much of my life here on RJsCorner, I have many of the above that you will never see. If I didn’t have … Continue reading Another Benefit Of Personal Journaling
Some more wise words from Lessons Taught By Life. People often tell me that “I am so brave” because I face two major afflictions in life. I tell them that I am not brave because what I do is the only option I have. Sitting back and feeling sorry for myself is simply not an option. Continue reading The Only Option Left
This is a continuation of the post from Monday about a recent New York Times article entitled “5 Ways to Calm Your Anxious Brain“. The first post was about mindfulness. This post will be about journaling and information overload. One I’m pretty good at, and one not so much… Given the fact that I am a lifelong writer, journaling has been a strong part of … Continue reading Calming An Anxious Brain – Part 2
Whenever I see topics about a busy brain, they draw me in. I recently came across such an article in the New York Times. It was entitled 5 Ways to Calm Your Anxious Brain. This post, and maybe a couple more, will talk about the article. If you want to see the whole article now, click HERE. The first topic from this article is to … Continue reading Calming An Anxious Brain
I don’t know much about flowers, that was my wife’s passion, but I do know beauty when I find it. This pic was taken at the Cleveland Botanical Garden in 2013. I know it is an orchid, but that’s about all. Continue reading One Of My Favorites…
I came across the title of this post while I was reading articles on the Medium. It gave seven reasons for failure to do amazing things, that stuck to me. Being the writer, or maybe the commentarian that I am, I gotta put my two cents in. If you want to see the whole article, click HERE. Let’s look at a few of the reasons … Continue reading Why You Will Never Do Anything Amazing
Isn’t it ironic that this Facebook post from Lessons Taught by Life came up the very day I finally discovered the thing that threatened my peace was trying to fit into neurotypical groups. They don’t understand me, and I am tired of trying to understand them. Just Walk Away But in a friendly way Continue reading Just Walk Away
Ambitions Turned Inward (ATI) has turned out to be something much more significant that I thought it would at the beginning of this series. The first post was about wrapping my head around the idea of turning my ever present ambitions inward was all about. The second in the series was about discovering what I might want to do with the rest of my life. … Continue reading Ambitions Turned Inward – Part 4 – On Becoming Social
I have been a big Frank Lloyd Wright fan for many years now. One of my early dreams that was too quickly abandoned was to be an architect. I have visited numerous FLW houses and am seriously contemplating making it my 2023 vacation theme. The picture above was one of his Chicago houses that I visited in 2008. I only regret that they don’t allow … Continue reading I Am A Frank Loyd Wright Fan
In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes Both these things have been on my mind lately. I have been trying to decide if I should find a place to rent that is twice the size but half the expensive of my RetCom for months now. It just bothers my blue-collar soul to spend so much of the money I worked so hard … Continue reading Nothing Is Certain Except…
I just happened to come across this photo that I took six years ago, today. It was down in the teens today, and I have been dreaming of warm weather that will surely come in the next couple of weeks. This pic is a nice reminder that it is not officially Spring until tomorrow. BTW… sorry to those who got just a glimpse of tomorrow’s … Continue reading Six Years Ago, Today…
We were only there for four years, but the New Jersey homestead contained many pleasant memories. This was in the front entryway. Continue reading Memories of the NJ Homestead
In 2019, I spent my traveling time dedicated to reenactments. It was very enjoyable. Perhaps this was the best picture of the bunch? 🥸 Continue reading Locust Grove Reenactment
When my wife died eighteen months ago, I moved from a 2400 SF century old farmhouse and a 1500 SF barn, into an 850 SF apartment here in my RetCom (retirement community). That was quite a shock for me, but since I now had no one to fall back on, it made the most sense, and it still does. But, what I miss the most … Continue reading I Love Puttering…
I am not going to “preach” to you, but every Sunday going forward I am going to give you some thoughts from those wiser than me, about what it means to be a Christian. I promise I won’t add any more of my own words than is necessary to get the point across. Today’s post is a Facebook from Stephen Mattson Continue reading A Few Thoughts About Christianity – Stephen Mattson
I have often proclaimed that I am a writer, but why do I write? I think all writers often ask this question many times over the years. I like to remind myself of the reasons regularly. This is one of those times. I believe the primary reason I write, at least publicly, is to help people who may read my words, understand that they are … Continue reading Don’t Judge
During my years in a Lutheran Bible study group, I can’t tell you how many times the word “humanist” got snarls and sneers whenever it was mentioned. It was as if we were somehow inviting Satan among our midst. There was absolutely nothing even approaching good, said about those despised people. It wouldn’t be until later that I studied humanism to any degree, and discovered … Continue reading Why Are Religious People So Afraid Of Humanists
If it works for frozen waffles, the title above oughta work for Lego too. 🥸 I have been toying with Lego blocks for a while now. I think maybe I am going to include it in my Ambitions Turned Inward project. I got started with them some years ago and found the time building projects to be enjoyable, but then other (external things) took over … Continue reading Lego Of My Lego
This series is turning out to be deeper than I imagined, so I think it deserves its place among my “Special Projects” and has its own logo. For this, Ambition Turned Inward post, I want to concentrate on the past. Well, sort of. So much of my life’s ambitions were outward. It was all about being successful at helping others. I just didn’t think much … Continue reading ATI Part 3 – Forget the Past…
I was a single guy of 30 years when I took this adventure. It was on a mountain top in western Colorado, although I don’t remember exactly where now. I spent the year before outfitting my recently purchased Chevy van as a camper. My freshly minted roommate and I left Indiana one morning and were at the 10,000 ft elevation twenty-four hours later. That same … Continue reading The Adventures Of Youth… Colorado Mountain Top
This is the second installment about turning inward with my life’s ambitions as suggested by a comment from a recent post. The first post in this series was about wrapping my mind around the concept of inward ambition. This post is about just how to personally do that. Since this series is more than a short-term thing, future posts, however many there are, will be … Continue reading Ambitions Turned Inward – Part 2
This is one of my favorite pictures looking out the front window at the homestead (stylized of course 🙃). The silo in the background was never used as a silo, but it did function as a place to store junk and certain garden tools. My view out the front window now looks out at the assisted-living wing of my RetCom. Maybe I can get this … Continue reading One Of My Favorites
My recent post about ambition got numerous views and several helpful comments. Thanks for that. Perhaps the most valuable was from my friend Bob Lowry about turning my ambition inward. Bob and I have been friends for more than a decade now, and he has given my invaluable advice over the years. Thanks to my Arizona visit last year, we are no longer just “virtual” … Continue reading Ambitions Turned Inward – Part 1
Faith should not be a static thing in today’s world, especially since there are so many who are using their version of God to try to shut off your mind to other possibilities. Many very intelligent people have come to view faith as something they don’t want to have any part of because so often it becomes an excuse for lack of thinking or it … Continue reading Faith Should Not Be A Static Thing
I can’t count the number of times I had walked the halls of this place. It was the hospital that my wife had innumerable surgeries while lived in our rural homestead. It has been replaced by a much larger super modern facility that is only a mile or so from where I now live. Continue reading Walking The Halls…
All my life I have been stuck between two worlds. As a youth, I didn’t fit in with the in-crowd, but I didn’t fit in with the out-crowd either When I went deaf, I distinctly chose not to be part of the Deaf Culture, but instead, be a deaf man in the hearing world. When I started earning a sizable income from my career, I … Continue reading “American Aristocracy” Vs “Adversity Builds Character”
(click the pic to see a larger view) For this “A Picture Is A Poem Without Words” I give you the mighty warrior. I’m not exactly sure what museum it was located, but I’m pretty sure it was in St. Petersburg, Florida. I did some manipulation of the original to make the shadows more prominent, but that is about it. Continue reading Mighty Warrior
I have finally realized that I have been chasing rainbows all my life. I was always looking down the road when I could have an exciting adventure of one sort or another. I did actually manage to make some of those dreams come true, but they were never as satisfying as I had hoped. I seem to always been disappointed at some level or another. … Continue reading Chasing Rainbows
RJ's Corner 