… “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
2020 has been a tumultuous year for all of us. As the eve winds down we are given to considering everything that has taken place. We are challenged; perhaps our center is askew; perhaps our faith holds a new perspective, or perhaps our exhaustion weighs heavy as we rush turning to the next chapter…. hoping, praying for a better tomorrow.
It seems a lifetime ago; a time of carelessness taken for granted; and yet, I remember it as if it were yesterday. Driving North to see family and randomly saying “let’s just turn left in Ohio & head west.” It seemed randomly nuts at the time; however, a decade later as I held her hand & gave permission to say goodbye, I was blessed to have made that decision.
Regardless of what tomorrow brings, we have choices. A new year’s perspective:
I have long felt that life is like a series of links in a chain. You might be driving down the road and you hear a song on the radio, or see a picture, and you feel a memory….
Something triggers that reminds you of a different time and place than where you are right now.
You reflect.
The memories you consider remind you of a totally different time in your life. Perhaps you lived in a different place.
Perhaps you were surrounded by different people. Perhaps a different job or completely different friends. You recognize those memories were constructed like frozen moments in time. They became individual links in the chain in your life.
We never actually realize, in the immediate moment, when one link closes and another link begins. But when we look back, we can clearly see distinct points where things changed, the link closed, and a new link began.
You see, the links are only visible in reflection.
As we reflect we find parts of the chain in our life where each link closes and connects with the other. A beginning, and an end. At the point where the links are joined we carry parts of the previous link forward to the next.
For many people those connections are bonded by family, or very strong life long relationships. Connections which continue beyond our geographic moments, jobs or temporary acquaintances.
But for everyone, the primary bonding agent brought forward from one link to the next is ourselves, our center, our values and core principles. Our beliefs.
The strength of the steel which comprises the links of our life is determined by forging in the fire of adversity, weakness, challenge, pain, loss, and painful growth. The steel is then cooled with the tears of triumph, hurdles overcome and resolve.
The forging makes the steel stronger and able to withstand the pressures that accompany the additional length. Slowly the chain becomes wiser as it lengthens. Able to reach further, form more significant benefits and become more useful.
Hope replaces fear. Love replaces loneliness. Success replaces adversity. These are successful links began and finished while contributing to the whole.
At times we may manipulate the links with avoidance. We hide from -or choose to avoid- an issue in our effort to begin a new link before the old one was naturally, and spiritually, prepared to be closed.
Eventually, as life continues and the chain lengthens, the weak link can fracture and we are forced to revisit/repair what we originally chose to avoid.
You see, in life we cannot control the universal laws that guide us. So if we manipulate circumstances to avoid confronting our own weakness, we cannot fully strengthen our life of links. Eventually, the weakness of our past will impact our future.
So what principles do we carry from link to link? What core values and beliefs stay with us throughout the journey of our lives? The answers to these questions are what makes us human spiritual beings.
We possess freewill able to make choices about what we do, and how we define our individual humanity; but can we then define ’right’ and ‘wrong’ according to our individual principles? Or are there principles that exceed our influence and definition?
Are there natural laws of right and wrong, good and bad, that cannot be subjected to the determination of man? These are the bigger questions, perhaps the more important questions; and yet, perhaps the ones we reflect upon the least.
Consider the example of the ‘Law of the farm’ vs. the ‘Law of the School’. Natural principles vs. those made by man.
A student can skip class, take few notes, pay only half attention, then stay up all night cramming for a test and manage a decent grade. It depends on the students goal: grades or learning.
The student can choose to manipulate the education, by avoiding the learning and capturing the grade. This is possible in the ‘Law of the School’.
However, a farmer cannot take short cuts. A farmer cannot avoid tending to the soil, preparing the seed, fertilizing and nurturing the crop, and still gain benefit of an abundant harvest.
The farmer must necessarily do all of the appropriate work in order to benefit from it. Such is the ‘Law of the Farm’, the natural law.
When one considers the weakness remaining within a poorly constructed and manipulated link, perhaps established by selfish choices and driven by avoidance and fear, one can be faithfully assured those who have dealt dishonestly with us will have to visit the issues of their association again.
Conversely, no amount of manipulation or avoidance on our own behalf is going to improve the frailty of any link without first resolving the lack of character which created the weakness.
So we have choices in our lives. Decisions we each make regarding how we interact and participate in the lives and links of others; as well as how we choose to construct the links that compromise our own lives.
Do we base our sense of purpose around natural principles? Principles based on natural laws of right and wrong, good and bad, truth and lies. Do we forge strong links based on following our heart, our values?
If we can interact with others absent of a prideful self-driven agenda, or manipulative intent, we can then apply such principles and strength to our endeavors.
If we protect the integrity of the soil upon which we build the foundation of our lives, we can live without regret.
If we fertilize and cherish our crop, and the crop of our neighbor, with honesty and sincere appreciation for the souls we meet along our chosen path, we will live a life of abundance.
If we tend carefully to the consideration of everyone, yet holding true to our values and principles, we can strengthen ourselves amid the face of adversity and disenchantment.
If we do not hide from, nor ignore our individual and collective faults, we can build the chain of our life with strength, humility, and purpose.
I wish for each of you a long chain of bold, strong, beautiful links, polished with the reflective brilliance of Love, and the very happiest of blessings for a brand New Year.
Abiding love to all.
Steadfast,
~ Sundance
…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
After a year like this I like to cheer myself up with an old Russian saying from the KGB days…
Life is hard … but mercifully short!
Happy new year y’alls!
Blessings and Love to all, Happy New Year, and God Bless America.
Donald Trump Calls Fox News ‘Dead’ and Drops Huge Hint: “New Alternatives Are Developing”
https://conspatriots.com/donald-trump-calls-fox-news-dead-and-drops-huge-hint-new-alternatives-are-developing/
I’ve been reluctant to state even a word about what PDJT may do if the fraud and corruption stands and we lose 2020, because I still see paths to keeping his obvious win. To say that I am not in any way giving up would be silly; it should be obvious!
However, if the worst does happen, I have a thought on what his next path may be.
He’s fought the greatest battle against the deep state, the one that all of us will have to continue, slowly and relentlessly, for a long time. But it is also time for a great battle against an evil dying media, and he possesses the perfect skill set to replace it with a new and free empire.
If the avalanche of evil does block the way to his second term, at least until so many challenges occur that the public finally learns what happened, a Trump-led media could also be the way forward to the correction we need. Yesterday on the Dobbs show Greg J said he could not see how a Biden/Harris or Harris/Biden administration, whatever their fantasy currently is, could even function. Taking out their Pravda could finish them far earlier than 2024…
Best case of course would be – triumphing over the election fraud for 2020, a second PDJT term (even more turbulent than the first because chances are McConnell will hand over the Senate), and then his new media empire in 2024.
I have no doubt he could do all that and more… with Melania there to “Hold my Diet Coke for just a moment, dear…”
That’s my hope too. Building a Trump media empire to put legacy media in check seems the perfect building block for Trump 2024.
Huge Hint: “New Alternatives Are Developing”
If the 2020 voter fraud/coup attempt #4 is allowed to stand, Trump and his family will most likely become political prisoners of the NWO globalist UN cabal, which will essentially control America.
*** Happy New Year America ***
May God continue to Bless President Donald J. Trump, Family, Patriotic Americans
an ALL people who LOVE
* The United States of America *
as it was FOUNDED by OUR Founding FATHERS <3
For some unknown reason, my life has so many turns and twists that are unexpected…but I’m still runnin Against the Wind. It’s been an exciting journey!
WOW: Mike Pompeo Has a Hidden Warning to China… Can You See His Secret Message?
https://conspatriots.com/wow-mike-pompeo-has-a-hidden-warning-to-china-can-you-see-his-secret-message/
Thank you Sundance and all those who assist the Treehouse. To all fellow Treepers; prayers for a new year that resolves our issues, saves our Republic and brings significant justice to those needing a major dose of it. Health and happiness to you all.
Happy new year
Happy New Year. Not so sure I can get with that phrase. But Thank You Sundance. Thanks for all who post here. I just made it to 2021 and I KNOW I would not have survived without the CTH and Sundance, Menagerie and all who post here.
Wishing all a 2021 that will be a year of Freedom! Health and Happiness.
Auld Lang Syne
I
I
Thanks for posting this link. I truly enjoyed it.
God is a God of adversity! Say it all the time but, there is an ingredient that must be present for success, learning, advancement, opportunity. Given to us by our Lord, it’s freedom.
In freedom there is no defeat, just another day.
Hmmm maybe why the enemy tries to take it away.
Happy New Year
Isaiah 55
Thanks to Sundance and all who continue to make our refuge a welcoming home!
With deep gratitude for your acceptance, fellowship, moral support, and willingness to consider, understand, and fight for what is right, honest, and truthful.
I am honored to consider you all family and friends. See you next year!
Devil Comes Back to Georgia
Great song for what is happening in Georgia …
And for a Winning New Year 2021 <3
Thank you Sundance. We are fragile human beings on a journey to self awareness. These hard-won lessons are the links that shall endure. And in the words of Ellen Griswold, “..with every new day there’s fresh hope.”
Thank you, Sundance, for these inspiring and encouraging words. Reading your post was the perfect way to start this New Year. May God bless you and your family.
BEAUTIFUL!
Happy New Year and Blessings to Sundance and All Treepers!
Thank you for all you do. I spend more time on this site than on anything else I think – good thing I don’t need a lot of sleep :-).
Here’s to a new year filled with the demise of all the Covid Dictators, maskless freedom, 4 more for President Trump (God willing), and for those who have turned away – a return to God and Country.
Wishing you Health, Wealth, and Happiness. (a New Year’s favorite).
Salute!
Love to All
Follow Sundance, the Treepers, Patriots and all of you wonderful Americans every day. I think I might have convinced a friend today that President Trump is fighting for all the freedom-loving people on earth. Lots of love from Australia, my friends.
Thank you, Sundance. This beautiful post is a keeper, and one I think we will all revisit often this year.
A blessed and Happy New Year to you and yours and all here.
Amen and Amen
This mountain picture was taken about 10 mi. from my home. A truly beautiful location. I am fortunate to have lived here for many decades. Thank you Sundance for your inspiration, I am amazed at some of your analysis. Never posted before, but just knowing people of like mind are passing by gives me hope. A prosperous and wonderful New Year to all.
“It seemed randomly nuts at the time; however, a decade later as I held her hand & gave permission to say goodbye, I was blessed to have made that decision.”
Bless you, Sundance, for sharing such a beautiful moment with us, that speaks to the depth of fellowship you’ve created here, modeled on the love of Christ. Whatever comes next in the earthly realm, we are not alone, but safe in the hands of God, and his angels shall attend us.
Sundance, thank you and your entire team for working tirelessly to find and distribute the truth. I am truly humbled to read so many great and diverse minds on this site. I have learned so much about our country, our world, politics and just life in general. We do not have many places left like this one, and I am so thankful to have a little branch in this tree.
I hope and pray for a wonderful 2021 season of life. Happy New Year to all of you fellow Treepers!
What a wonderful thread; loved the RF poem……thank you so much for highlighting this beautiful poem and spirit that is so fitting for many of us……….
God Bless All………
Happy New Year!
I won’t give up, I won’t shake the hand of an evil opponent.
Trump is a fighter like no one in my lifetime who has won and held the title of President of the United States.
Win or lose, I know the fight is not over.
Sundance, thank you for such a beautifully written lesson on life.
we will continue to pray and fight for our country, our Constitution and our values to prevail.
Best wishes to you and all you hold dear,