Moving on, remembering the past
- Bob Hanna: Someday
- January 30, 2020
- 1344
Let me first say thank you to all for your support. Since my last article announcing my upcoming retirement, the sale of our farm and our potential move to Kentucky, we have received a flood of well wishes and congratulations.
As to your questions of where and why, the where is unknown at this point. We are trusting God to provide that answer. We are talking about the same God who throughout the ages has directed those who put their lives in his hands.
As to the question of why, the best answer is family — God has always been first, and family is next — the opportunity to be closer to our daughter Ariel and her husband Nicholas, who were just married last May, and still within reasonable driving distance to our other two daughters’ families (including our five grandsons) in Columbus.
What all adventures lay ahead is yet to be seen, and if we had all the answers, then I guess it really wouldn’t be an adventure, would it?
So anyway, on to the daunting task of starting to pack, what to keep and what to throw out: My wife compares me to a particular vermin she refers to as a “packrat.” In all of my research I’m still unable to draw a comparison. It is true I have saved just about every newspaper clipping, school program and thesis that children were involved in since they were born, boxes of pictures (and video) of every play, recital and concert they participated in since they could walk or say “Dada.” But those memories are meant to be preserved and revisited in the coming days when our memory begins to fade.
Last week as I poured through my filing cabinets (by the way I’m allergic to dust), I found some interesting things. Besides all the tax documents and receipts for the last 20 years, I found a letter I had forgotten about (see, it’s already started).
It was from my sister who passed away recently, which in itself brought back emotions and memories, but in it she explains her granddaughter has researched some of our family tree from a biographical record of Holmes County, 1889. This record accounts for my family history for the past six generations. It is in answer to a prayer that I asked God to reveal to me for direction. In its account it reveals my ancestors moved from Chester County, Pennsylvania to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and in 1868 to Holmes County, Ohio, where for the past four generations we have lived on our farm.
My revelation and subsequent answer to my prayer was that my forefathers also sought change and new adventures, trusting God as their guide. I had worried of what kind of legacy I would leave behind. People, each day we wake up and start a new day, we are making history. It may not be on the scale to be remembered by classrooms 100 years from now, but you and I are someone’s child, like it or not, but most importantly we are a child of God, and that is the best kind. He will remember me, and he will remember you. It is our job to follow God’s guidance and leave the legacy part up to him.
Finally, in my drawer of irreplaceable treasures, I found an article from a Bargain Hunter, dated Jan. 22, 2007. It was a picture and article written by/about a young(er) fellow that chased a dream of hunting big game out west. In it he writes, “As we get older, we realize how unpredictable life can be. I see people in the obituaries my own age, who probably had ‘somedays.’ Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today.
Our trip was a success. I harvested a 4-by-5 mule deer on the first day and a 5-by-5 bull elk on the second day.
Did we enjoy our trip? Yes.
Did I harvest a world-class animal? No.
Would I like to? Someday.”
This, my friends, is where Someday was born. Make each day count, and God bless.