What is a key thing that changed your life?
There are many things we can look back on over the years that changed our lives. These are the things that shaped us, that turned corners or kept us on the straight and narrow.
What is a key thing that changed your life?
There are many things we can look back on over the years that changed our lives. These are the things that shaped us, that turned corners or kept us on the straight and narrow. They could be exhilarating moments or a challenge we would not want to repeat, but also would not want to have missed, because of how it made you who you are. I will share some things that shaped my life and would be interested to hear what shaped your life. What can we learn from each other?
Things that changed my life
Here are some major things that shaped my life, in summary, to get the ball rolling. Over time I plan to come back and explore each event in more detail.
Birth
I don't remember much about it but my Mom was there and she said it was pretty important. Does anyone know where Philadelphia, MS is? I do. That is where I was born.
Jesus Christ
I remember more about this one. I was 6 or 7. I remember the event but not the exact date. My Dad led me to believe in Jesus one night after we came home from church.
Parents
My Dad was always my role model and taught me to think critically, modeling his strength of conviction by his life, living true to his beliefs in real life situations. My Mom guided and nurtured my sister and I and basically let us live life. She clearly loved us and gave us boundaries but also the freedom to learn and explore, which I definitely took advantage of. I look back and am amazed sometimes at the freedom she trusted us with.
Moves
These were mostly not fun at the time but I clearly see how God used each move. There are a lot of stories to relate around this topic. The places we lived while I was growing up were Philadelphia, MS, Jackson, MS, New Orleans, LA, Enterprise, AL and Gadsden, AL. My core formative years were spent in New Orleans and I consider that my hometown even though it has been 50 years since I lived there.
Wife
In spite of my attempts to stray from God’s choice for me, He relentlessly kept me for the wife He had chosen for me. I appreciated that when I got married. I appreciate that now 41 years later sharing life with the love of my life.
Children
Having children led to many life changes for me, teaching moments and life adventures for our family. The stories are testaments of God’s direction and goodness and grace. It seems a lot of people are glad when their kids fly the nest. I am overjoyed to see them live their lives for God but I also love being around them and wish we could always be together.
Health
I used to think health was simple. Calories in, calories out. Watch out for sharp objects. All food is the same. Eat whatever you want. The diseases of old age are inevitable. The accepted health norms in the USA are the best way to achieve normal health in the world. My mind changed drastically on this in early 2018. There is a lot to talk about here and is largely what led to my wanting a platform to share with family, friends and others who could benefit from the information I learned and continue to learn. There is still so much we do not know about the processes of life that make our bodies work and the relationships we have with the rest of creation that I had never imagined. We are individuals, yet also part of an amazing, balanced network of complex, interrelated systems. There is so much that we have learned that can improve our health and so much more left to be discovered.
Trading Stock Markets
Wow! This is so much different that I expected. I expected a lot of sharks (there are some) but I did not expect to find some of the most trustworthy, intelligent, God fearing people I have ever met. And it brought me out of myself and taught me to be truthful with myself more than anything else I have ever done. I feel that I honestly met myself for the first time. This is me, brought to you by trading Futures. Learning to trade the Futures market has not been the journey I expected, but it has been an amazing journey that I am glad I did not miss. I love to trade, talk about trading and hang out with other traders. I thought raising children made me face myself, and it did, but when you trade the market you are really trading yourself. So, you truly find out who you really are. You don’t understand unless you have tried it.
Friends
I used to think I could be an island. For an engineer I was an extrovert - I would look down at your shoes instead of at my shoes if we were talking. But now I think, why would I want to be an island? A cord of many strands is not easily broken. Friends connect in their core values but friends can disagree on important issues, even my best friends, but that does not break our friendships. Disagreements make each of us necessary to the friendship. When we talk about real issues it helps to test our thoughts and see if they hold up. It is not to convince my friend that I am right and the other is wrong. It is to understand our differences and sharpen each other. Maybe at some time in the future we will agree, but which one of us will change is unknown. It may even be both of us.
Career
It took me a while to find what I really wanted to do. Always attracted to information, it is not a mystery I ended up in the information industry for most of my career. In this era that means computers and information technology where I have spent the last 25+ years. Along the way I spent time learning many other things. Among these are time in grocery, restaurants, upholstery, hobby computers, custom cabinets, building computers and networks, custom software design, database design and use, apartment management software, homebuilding software and integration, health care software and integration. There is more but you get the idea. I always enjoy learning something new.
Hobbies
The same goes for hobbies. I always want to expand my knowledge. Here are a few that are my favorites. Calligraphy, book binding, cryptography, music (piano, guitar, trumpet, French horn), chemistry, personal health training, biohacking, gems and minerals, wine, wine making, trading, and writing.
Here is where you come in.
Use the comments and let’s trade some stories and learn from each other.