Walking down memory lane....

Once upon a time, i lived in Canada...

There were so many things i loved about where i lived... in the foothills of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Kind of hard to believe that a kid born in mid-town Manhattan, raised in Queens and the south suburbs of Chicago could end up in in one of if not the most gorgeous part of North America!

i learned all about curling and hockey (which is by far the biggest sport in all of Canada far and away!). i learned to love the world's largest outdoor rodeo...The Calgary Stampede! The chuckwagon races were the best as far as i was concerned. Stampede week was always a great week in town because everywhere all over town you could get a free all you can eat pancake breakfast with all the fixin's! And let me tell ya' the Chinese food in Calgary blows away the Chinese food we eat here in the States.... i also learned the hard way that although we speak english here in the US that the english of your average Canadian is a tad different... for example at one of my very first public events (a dinner to say "Welcome to the staff!"), i referred to a serviette as a napkin a rather funny but serious faux paux. Amidst all the giggling, snickering and laughing i learned that in Canada, no one in their right state of mind would use a napkin at the dinner table. When i wondered aloud "Why not?". i was informed that in Canada only women use napkins. If ever a black man could turn red from embarrassment, i am sure i did that night!

One of the things i treasured about my time in Canada was all of the people that came into our lives! It is kind of amazing that these people took a chance and let me have an influence on the lives of their kids as Pastor of Student ministries. It was great experiment and i will always be grateful to my first Sr. Pastor... who decided to think "outside of the box" and bring a black guy onto his all white staff! The thing about it is, our time in Canada probably changed us more than it did all the students and parents we came to know and love.

These days i am finding out about many of the students that we left all those years ago back in Alberta... many of them no more than eight or nine years old when we left have turned into incredible young parents, beautiful young ladies (inside and outside), handsome young men, and dedicated Christ-followers. At least one of them has been blessed to become one of the biggest country music stars in all of Canada!

Others have had to deal with bad health, tough and difficult marriages that didn't turn out so well, friendships that faltered over time, some of them have for various reasons have "wandered away from the faith..."

The bottom line is that at some level they will always be "our kids"... no matter what! i keep track of them even if from a distance. They are an incredible group of young people who are making an impact on the world and i love to hear about what they are doing. i can't help but feel a bit responsible for the difference they are making right where they are!

Realizing the dream...

There are quite a few reasons i look forward to the month of January... this month we celebrate my "little" brother's birthday, it is when we celebrate our wedding anniversary (as i wrote about last week ), we also celebrate my little girl's birthday... AND it also the month of my birthday as well!
My birthday this year was especially cool because after searching (and complaining about it) for at least 10 years... this year, "Henry V" was among my gifts (way to go Ruthie!)! What a fantastic film! This movie has it all... war, romance, intrigue, treachery, honor and a great musical score! Gotta love it!

But for me the main reason i look forward to this month is not just because of my birthday but because of who i share a birthday with...

It was this man who for me, from a very early age has been and continues to be a hero. i can remember when my mother told me that i was going to give a speech about him at church (Notice: my mom didn't ask me if i wanted to.... she simply informed me that it was going to happen!) .... True Vine of Holiness Missionary Baptist Church. i didn't really mind the subject matter but wasn't too thrilled about the speech part! The fact is, that event is one of my earliest memories of standing in front of people and trying to share something that i thought they should know about!

At no more than eight or nine years old, i believe i pretty much mumbled my way through his story. It was a story that i thought people probably already knew about but perhaps they didn't....

Born in January 1929, this man grew up in the home of a preacher to ultimately become a preacher himself. Because he skipped both the ninth and twelfth grades he entered college at 15 years old! After graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1948 he continued his education, ultimately earning his doctorate degree at the age of 26 years old. But even with all of his brilliance, this man lived in a nation and at a time when people like him were mistreated, denied basic human rights... to the point of being killed simply because of their skin color. His place in history was secured when he helped to lead a boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. The successful 381 day boycott of a bus service that forced people of color to give up their seats and move to the back of the bus for Whites catapulted him to national prominence... this drum major for justice and righteousness challenged the consciousness of our nation in a way that probably no one has since his death from an assassin's bullet in April 1968.

i have always been proud to say that i share a birthday with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

i am a beneficiary of his and many, many other's efforts to make his dream of a nation that judges people not on the basis of their skin color but rather on the content of their character.... become a reality.

It his legacy that i remember every single January 15th... a legacy that makes it possible for men and women who look a lot like me to secure the unalienable rights of our citizenship here in the United States of America.

Amazing... Simply Amazing!

January 1985....
On a brisk winter night Darren and i meandered across a dark campus in Lincoln, Illinois... we are transfer students and are trying to get acclimated to our new school after a "difficult"
semester at another college. It just so happens that night, a womens' basketball game is taking place in what this place calls a "gym". Partially to get out of the cold and partially to see if there are really any other people on this college campus, we make our way in. Once inside we stand in the middle of two sets of bleachers (if you can call them that) to our left and to our right.

Because the gym is so small, bleachers only fit on one side of the gym... the side we entered from. We never really planned on staying long but just before we turn to go, looking to my right, i notice one of the Lady Angels (that is what our women's athletic teams are nicknamed) dribbling the basketball up the floor going from right to left... and the fact is, she is absolutely one of the cutest girls i think I have ever seen... as i watch her help the team set up its' offense, i with intention, turn to my friend and say...."Darren within one year, i am going to take that girl... the one dribbling the ball, yeah her.... out on a date!"

Amazingly enough, i didn't even know her name!?!


January 1986...
Ruthie and i go out on our very first date.... We eat dinner at "The Depot" and since i'd never seen the original 101 Dalmatians (which coincidentally was celebrating that very month, its' 25 year anniversary of being released to the public by Walt Disney) we take that in as well. The food and the movie were exceptional but the amazing part of the evening was simply... Ruthie.
i knew i was done... she was the one.





January 1988
Because of the crazy rules (that i'll maybe explain another time and that have since been changed) Ruthie and i are married not just once but twice. In a ceremony at my home church in the south suburbs of Chicago witnessed by lots of friends and family and another ceremony that had to happen before midnight witnessed by her mom and dad and maternal grandparents in the living room of her dad and mom's church parsonage in Indiana... we become husband and wife. In a few days we begin our amazing journey together to Canada and an amazing journey together in life.




January 2008
This month marks our being married for 20 years!
Why she puts up with me, i do not know... but this one thing i do know...
She is still the cutest girl i have ever seen... God has blessed me way beyond anything i deserve and she is amazing.... simply amazing!

Another year... make it a great one!

What is in your New Year?


For me, i resolve that i will turn my own personal "volume"down a bit... i will seek to be less hyper reactionary. For those of you who don't know me, i have a tendency to engage in what i have come to label as catastrophic thinking....


Let me explain...

For the most part i am a "the-glass-is-half-full" thinker. It takes a lot of conscientious thinking on my part to maintain that sort of outlook but since i try to stay pretty aware that it is always easier to spend most of my time being pessimistic... i over compensate in this area of my life.

Now here is the bad part, when in certain situations it becomes obvious that "things" are breaking bad... i can easily (and quickly) go from "the-glass-is-half-full" to "the-glass-is-definitely-half-empty-and-the-half-that-is-left-is-Ricin!" That is what i have come to call "catastrophic" thinking... thinking the absolute worst possible outcome regarding whatever situation.... That needs to change this year.

Secondly, i also resolve to return to the weight i was at the end of my high school days... plus five pounds... that should put me at about 180 lbs. And let me tell ya', i have got a looooooong way to go...
The other day i was at a local department store looking at my four year old son playing in the area between the exterior doors and the interior doors and the thought occurred to me (for the billionth time lately)..."Daniels... if you want to see his children you have to get all over your health and stay all over it"...

Can i tell you what is the scariest part about making these resolutions? Typically i would tell my wife Ruthie, perhaps someone else that i trust as well... which is good accountability but fairly low impact... now YOU all know...

What was i thinking?!?