I am thanking you for letting me share my feelings about life & this body I've used for 92 years.

As I sit at the "Beast"(Computer) & look at the mirror on the wall above me. I notice many changes: Skin; big blotches; I bleed easily; bones, thin & weak; muscles small, a slight tremor in hands, eyes dimming, Hair & Face covered with cysts, wrinkles etc... so different from the pictures of yesterdays. I'm very much aware of what we used to call "anabolism" & "catabolism; "The building up & the tearing down in the body, etc..

Finally, I've sworn off procrastinating.
These past week's I've been mailing packages, of pictures, letters etc. to family & old friends. "The Shikles Six"; my Grandkids & Friends. When I die, the Family would just throw all this Shikles-Church "stuff" away; cards, letters, sermon materials, pictures; I have five files crammed with thoughts, ideas experiences saved from my 4 Parish's in Colorado and Washington.
I've taken pictures(thousands of them) & shared them for over 5O years! My whole life is in photographs!...
Now is the time to let children & friends throw them away; or keep them...
I notice the changes in dress, face, hair & activity. Every day I see the physical & mental changes of brothers& sisters here that I have known & photographed these past 7 years.
Now, too, My eyes are weakening. I stumble often...Misplace my keys &cane, forget appointments. My hearing is very weak. My eye-sight is poor.
I'm growing old.! There is no way to escape growing old (this old house and plumbing speak to me every day) I am of the nature to die. there is no way to escape death (Now I'm living with the reality of death on the horizon. I'm glad I'm not preaching.. after 68 years of sharing the Gospel... every Sunday...People would turn me off with the stress& over-load.

With Carol physically gone; this Reality is ever present. Day & night. I can say with The Buddha: “ My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand." I am of the Nature to Live! WOW!
Still This old body can move...even run a little.. I can think, will, choose, and create... The cup of life is full. In many ways "I'm drinking out of the saucer!” Compared to others, I am uniquely blessed.
The Beauty that strikes my eyes from this "Paradise" on a hill is exhilarating. People like me in their 90's in America are a "Great Generation." We never had it so good...Clean air...Abundant delicious food...Fruits & vegetables galore, Fresh Fish three times a week. An amazing Library. A staff of 170 courteously meeting all my needs...Clean fresh Colorado Water. It is my nature to be grateful for the Amazing gift of Life...to know I've invested it well in affirming and helping others see and practice the Christ-like life;...following the teachings of the Greatest man who ever lived...I try to role-model Him...I occupy space...I have this wonder of "Time" and the "obstetrical accident" to have been born in America...In Reality I've been born and died two times with amazing Heart Surgery! And now look as Buddha did toward Death. For me, the "3rd Birth"...He said it would be "Nirvana"...a kind of assimilation in 'Nothingness'....
Not for me! The Best is yet to be. "Eyes have not seen...Ears have not heard the best God has prepared for those who love Him." I can't think better than the "Unbegun Beginning" and Sustainer of all Life has planned.
The past 40 days have been exciting & amazing to me.
The weddings of two grandchildren in San Diego & Sidona.
Meeting the young sophomore who is the first to use the Shikles-Styn Scholarship at Redlands University. What a Life!
I didn't ask to be born, but my feelings and appreciation of life and my investment of it is WOW!...a PARENT OF FOUR, GRANDPARENT of SEVEN, AND GREAT -GRANDPARENT OF FOUR.. NOW, TWENTY FOUR IN OUR "FAMILY!

Grandad Shikles..11/28-2004
(THANKS FOR SCROLLING)...Caleb Elroy Shikles