… “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
2021 has again been a tumultuous year for most of us. As the eve winds down, we are given to considering everything that has taken place.
Perhaps we have new challenges, 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 is easy to lose our sense of optimism. Retaining a joyful perspective while everything around us seems mad isn’t easy. However, if you accept that you can create something just a little bit better by making a choice, then you have accomplished a great deal. Regardless of what tomorrow brings, we always 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 within you that reminds 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 lifelong 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 us, our center, our values and core principles. Our beliefs.
The strength of the steel which comprises the links of our life is forged 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 student’s 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 the 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 comprise 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 by 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.
Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
Have mercy on me,
A sinner.
Repeat Repeat Repeat…
Amen! Praise Jesus
LIVE: New Years Fireworks Around the World 🎆 Happy New Year 2022 🎉 New Years Eve Fireworks Show
https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2021/12/live-new-years-eve-in-times-square-new.html
Here’s a toast to Sundance, our site Moderators, and all Treepers
May your coming year be healthier, happier, and more rewarding than the year that has passed behind.
Cheers!
GB
Cheers GB!…..
I have not said this enough- Thank you Ad rem for all that you do for us! Happy New Year!
😸😸😸
God Bless all Treepers and a Happy New. Put on the whole Armor of God that we are victorious in the New Year.
Hallelujah and rejoice in God!
And to you GB, whose posts I always look for after Sundance’s for their wisdom, Thank you for that and a very Happy New Year to you and yours!
😸
One of my favorite quotes:
It’a ” A GOOD DAY TO DIE”
We press on!!!!
Love, all of you.
You have all, made this world, a better place.
Sundance is the “strong link” in investigative reporting.
The CTH & Sundance are a constant in a rapidly changing world. Cheers!! To all fellow Treepers!!!!
Stay strong, be of good cheer, love to all;
I love you Sundance, whoever you are! Wishing you and everybody here at the Conservative Treehouse a Happy New Year!
Christianity is not a religious function it is a Kingdom function.
Religion wants rules and church doctrine.
Religion wants the Levi priesthood rituals.
Religion wants us in a thirteen step program – We might please God.
Religion wants the Sunday morning ritual – sit, stand, sing, bow head and pray, listen to the preacher, hurry to lunch UNCHANGED.
Religion wants us to wait for God to change the circumstances.
We have the power and authority of Christ working in an through us, we are His ambassadors on earth.
We are the Change…
Sometimes it’s not just a song
The Scottish are known as a fierce and proud people, descendants of the Alba forced to flee Albania, after the death of Skanderbeg and the cultural genocide of the Albanian people, .
The Scots in the Early Modern Ages were known for their philosophers, scholars, and undefeated warriors on par with the Swedes, and Swiss pikemen. They were used as mercenaries to protect the Austrian / Holy Roman Empire against the Ottoman Turks in Easter Europe. Bagpipes were used in war to urge on the troops and frighten the enemy.
A lot of encouragement for the develpment of the Sprit of 76 in North America came from Scottish Enlightenment.
For those with a wee bit of Scots in them, the following performance is more than just a song, it is a rare bit of perfect historical harmony.
Rod Stuart, singing Auld Lang Syne, in Stirling Castle, Edinburgh, at midnight on New Years Eve, accompanied by The Black Watch and fireworks.
Aye, sir.
…and for a rare treat, Google “Dawn Steele Robert Burns Tae a Moose” to hear this great actor read the poem…
Mark Sharefkin
HAPPY NEW YEAR Treepers!!! Thanks for the education …
Happy New Year CTH!
Blessings in the New Year. Thank you for a redeeming message.
Ever,
Suzanne
Sundance, Menagerie, and Each One of you who maintain this most excellent site, Thank you, Thank You! I’ve come here for well over ten years now to strengthen my spirit against the daily struggle of the world. And, Sundance…Thank You for choosing to take the road less traveled by!
Regaining our Fellowship, and building our SHTF Food Storage is a must
Happy New Year to all! May the Lord Bless You and Keep you and may The Son shine upon us all in 2022! God Bless
I like what you did there!
You are an inspiration, Sundance — Happy New Year!
“The soul does not measure time; the soul only records growth.” — from the old Kung Fu TV series
Thank you Sundance and all you hard working admins. May our God continue to bless and keep you all and all who have found refuge in the branches of the ever growing tree.
Tonight I will be reading the last chapters of my daily devotional Bible then begin at the beginning again tomorrow. The scripture that keeps me centered is Psalm 118:24: This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
I’ve been bless by all of you.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
JEREMIAH 29:11
Thank you , Sundance.
Happy New Year, Treepers!
Happy New Year Sundance and all at CTH! My beloved grandson Crushed Covid this week. He’s 21 months old and ran high fevers for 4 days. My daughter in NYC was naturally getting discouraged as a mother would for their child who was clearly suffering. Admittedly I texted her with the best I could possibly offer without being there with her to help. I told her he’s getting great care from his parents and he will bounce back soon with some awesome new antibodies and so hang in there.
His fever was normal this morning as the battle of natural immunity had been won.
I truly hope this helps others.
Wonderful news!!! So happy for your entire family swimeasy…
Praise God!
Also, a hearty thank you for being there for them.
Happy New Year 🙌
PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW.
A Blessed and Happy New Year to Sundance, Menagerie, AdRem, CTH Team and Fellow Treepers.
Thank you for the year gone by. It was trying personally and socially but you got me through.
Thank you.
With love.
That is wonderful Sundance. That is my favorite poem.
Until the fraud that is cov is revealed we have gained and learned nothing. 2 years so called science knowing that there was no functioning test for cov pumped out numbers to scare people. WHY? Was it just greed? Real science knew 2 years ago $24 worth of Ivermectin and 90 days and this thing was over.
NO until most of us come to understand that we have all been had by big pharma with the help of Fauxi, FDA and CDC/WHO who will have lost ground to fraud.
We are with you in the fray. Know it.
Craig,
This was all political, done by a cabal of traitorous American politicians, Rat and Pub. They worked with Xi and the CCP to ensure they could take down President Trump, who was cruising to reelection. President Trump loves America and worked indefatigably to make the lives of ALL American citizens better. The globalist pols hated him for trying to derail their gravy train and left no stone unturned, including colluding in outright treason with the CCP, to take him down. Never forget this, or the millions of innocent lives they sacrificed in order to steal an election.
Sometimes, when my faith is weak, I am borne up only by my desire for God to exist so that some of these evil people like Dingy Harry, the Arizona Songbird, the bagpiper, the Alabama coward, the “Luv Gov” and Romney can fry in the never-ending fires of Hell. He said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” Very good; let it be so. That said, I pray that His repayment to those who hurt this country so grievously and killed so many innocents is an infinitely large measure filled to overflowing and lasting for eternity.
Happy New Year Sundance and treeper family. You all have been my rock over these last six years, I visit each day at twice for my sanity and confirmation that the farmers way is the only way♡♡♡♡
I love you. Thank you for the wisdom.
Thank you Sundance……for everything you do….far beyond any words I can come up with.
Best wishes to you, your family, and all the folks here for a safe, healthy, and sane new year.
Thanks for that. Great pictures too.
What I most appreciate about CTH is the linking to actual documents that I can read and form my own opinion.
At the time, I thought 2020 was the worst year of my life. 2021 was worse. It is my hope that the people will finally stand up and fight like hell against the tyranny in 2022. It is our only hope. Nov. 8, 2022 will be one of the most important dates in American history. On the morning of Nov. 9th, we will know America’s future.
LGB/FJB
Your line about hearing a song hit a cord with me.. I’m soon to be 87..after the wife passed 2018.. I made a play list of songs on my phone.. started with maybe 30… now have about 87..🤣.. don’t use SIRUS anymore just play my play list.. each one has a memory for me .. some go back to my youth .. others from time I got married , 1965,… reflecting on decisions I’ve made .. good and bad.. really keeps me focused on “life”and how thankful I ended up where I’m at now…bless you SD for you insight and expressions of hope in these troubled times..🇺🇸💪👍
God bless one and all here tonight.
Beautiful!
Wishing you and all Treepers a truly blessed New Year.
Happy New Year and blessings to all!
Happy New Year Sundance and all at the treehouse. Very inspiring message that gives me a pause to reflect on my own life links and try to identify where the weaknesses might be and how they can be strengthened. I think that being a daily visitor to the treehouse actually creates that reflectiveness every day, even if it isn’t recognized on a regular basis. This is a great New Year’s message to remind me to pause and reflect for a moment before plowing forward into another day/week/year.
Contemplating on a daily basis the knowledge put forth by Sundance’s research and writing as well as the regular contributions of the rest of you in the comments have served to help me strengthen and polish the links in my chain. This treehouse community also gives me the trust and resolve to try and help others that are in my orbit of life to strengthen the links in their chains. We all get stronger together, I think. Thank you and Happy New Year to all.
God bless you all! A reminder to our community from C.S. Lewis: “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.” Thanks to Sundance and this community for sharing and reinforcing our determined surge away from the cliff. Slowly, slowly others are pivoting our direction. Thank God! May our stream become a mighty river in 2022.
Thank you Sundance and all at CTH. I can’t express enough gratitude for the education and entertainment I find here. I was and am a Rush Limbaugh baby. In his last years whenever he mentioned sources on his show I would bookmark them. Many times he would say “our friends over at Conservative Treehouse” and thus I found you. I find the same inspiration and education here as I found with him. Sometimes I swear to God I am reading his words as I read articles on CTH . Thanks for being my rock. Faith and Hope for a great new year.
Happy new year Sundance and CTH team
What a beautiful reflection to ponder and to help guide us forward into this new year…..Thank you for sharing this !
Happy New Year All. You are family.
Lost my bride of 34 years in August.
This morning’s sunrise represents a new beginning for the direction of my life.
What a timely essay!
Joy and Enthusiasm…and Faith mostly Faith
Robert Frost is my favorite poet, and everybody interprets the poem wrong. I guess that’s the sign of great art.
He wrote it to tease his friend that the two paths were actually the same, (indecisiveness), and that it really didn’t matter. But ages hence, we go back and rewrite our decision to make it seem like we chose the correct path.
I think it’s a better poem once you realize that sometimes there is no clear choice, and that people tend to rewrite history to cast themselves in the best possible light.
Most people treat it as a call to go their own way. Edward Thomas (for whom it was written) didn’t get the joke either, and even told Frost that people wouldn’t get it.
Good greetings and Happy New Year fellow literary aficionado and Robert Frost fan Hokkoda!
Have also read the poem interpretations that you present here. As a landscape photographer more interested in “small beauty” or unknown locales rather than super-renowned Grand Canyon vistas no matter how gorgeous … I tend to prefer the road less traveled for several reasons.
For one, if you choose a well-trodden path, you may need to stand and wait for the crowds along the trail to disperse before you can get in the shot you want from a certain angle without being photobombed … and by that time, the precise lighting conditions which made that certain position so special have changed.
And hey, if the road less traveled turns out to be a dud, you can always double back and go down the other road. At least your curiosity is satisfied so you can better plan where to go and where to avoid for future photo expeditions.
On one occasion, “The Road Less Traveled” that I photographed was indistinguishable from a nature trail and led into and right through an actual forest … Eventually, it got taken out by snow storms and the county refused to maintain it as a road anymore.
Then there’s another favorite Frost poem that I appreciate as a photographer … “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” … Snowy mornings and afternoons are good too. So are icy ones.
May all your roads lead to successful adventures and then safely back home. There and back again! 🙂
The greatest poetry seems to go
a certain way for the reader’s favor;
specific to general flows just so
every person gets a sliver to savor.
Being a little older and hopefully wiser, I can look back on my life and pinpoint where I was following the natural laws, and when I was following my laws. Drugs, alcohol, sex,selfishness,and debauchery. I broke a lot of links in my chain. Then in 1993, I was granted another chance at grace, and grabbed it like a drowning person grabs a life preserver. Was it hard? You bet! Did I want to quit? Hell yeah! But in my creator’s wisdom, he put put people in my life to help with the most difficult times. Those links that were broken, have now been forged and strengthened anew. My sponsors reply for almost all my so called problems was, who have you helped today! Throughout this journey, I’ve found that my purpose in life, is to help others. So today, I’m going to put on the armor of god, and live my best life. Thank you Sundance, for helping me in the way you do, and letting me perch on one of your branches.
Actually, this is a wonderful place to relax and feel you are surrounded with friends that think and feel the same way you do.
GOD’S BLESSINGS to all.
A world of gratitude to Sundance and crew for without them, we would be lost and angry people.
The insight provided on this website is what keeps us sane of mind and strong of spirit; we see the storm brewing, and we prepare for it. Hate and anger do not inhabit us.
Loads of great health and happiness to Sundance (and crew) and to all, a wonderful New Year 2022. The battle isn’t over.
Love Robert Frost. Thank you Sundance and all that make CTH great!
Conservatives need to change their focus away from federalism in 2022..
We need to get back to the states… DC is a unchangeable disaster of party dualism and progressive big government non answers. IDC who you elect there, nothing will change.
These party’s are not football teams, loyalty it misplaced and exploited. If we want to see real change happen it has to be localized. States have the ability to manage that, not by pissy little lawsuits and playing into loosing games but by simply drawing lines and saying no more.
You’re seeing small glimmers of it popping up, some are authentic, some are intentional games. Florida’s move to reinstate their State Defense Force is a good example… How many have gone at Tallahassee demanding participation, funding and admission? Oklahoma is primed for the same things!
We have issue picking winnable battles and learn to ignore the distractions. It’s no wonder conservatives have no leadership. We desperately need it!
Sundance,
I hope and pray that one day I have the opportunity to meet you.
So unlike with Rush, I never have to say that you are one of my best friends that I never got to meet.
Thank You Sir for all that you bring to me and your beloved CTH Family.
May God continue to bless you and yours every second of every minute of everyday.
And to all of you!
May Every Sunrise bring you Hope and Every Sunset bring you peace…
God “IS” good All the Time
Love You All,
Steven
’21 and ’20 were years to forget… we want a redo.
When a link in a chains breaks it’s up to us in the chain to make sure the link was at the end not and indispensable, unique in the middle. This might require some shifting of links, but it’s important because some links are held in place tenuously and need to be moved about.
Personally, I always thought I was one of those hidden links that no one really thought much about, except I’ve always noted my actions always affected many. With a BIG Link passing away this year, I ended up making some chain reforging, re-strengthening some links, shifting the weak ones to the edge -so to speak- to protect the chain.
I’d like to say I’ve been successful, our family chain is now stronger and some of the links have been shifted about to make it so.
Not easy… Hell… it was a royal PITA… but somehow it seems to have been settled down a little bit.
Must say that the politics are not helping things either… but given that we have some strong links in the family chain, I strengthened those links to them and somehow the overall chain got stronger, much stronger.
What does this mean? OK, as the old generation passes away, it becomes our generation to take over. I’m the oldest cousin with good relations with all, great in most, and the Second Oldest Left… so it became a matter of tightening up with my aunt, (*) no problem, and the cousins, which works because we’ve agreed to ignore politics. Our relationships go way back much farther, so why bother?
Let’s hope ’22 is better.
Anyone noticed they didn’t have many New Year’s Party Shows on TV last night? It was like the evil fascists want no one together and present us a made of TV fantasy.
(*) Tightening up with my aunt, the only person left who changed my diapers, was awesome. I made a point of driving up by myself to spend an extra day/night in her place, took some great sherries, she sliced some sausages and bread and we sat back for hours and had a great time. Also, for the last few years, I’ve made a point of holding a party of sort of her – just after Christmas. This year was no exception. It was worth every hassle of putting up with sub freezing cold, snow, ice and some, ahem… links who are a PITA.
I strongly recommend that the Old People in the Family Left be brought into the center of the chain, with some alternate links, of course, because they hold the Heart of the Family.
Thanks for the blessing Sundance! Here are mine that I sent out today:
📣Happy New Year🎉🎉🎉
May the affections of Jesus Christ unify his Bride, the “Ekklesia”!
“I summon the River of Life through my heart and through my union with God, healing, restoring, renewing, and surrounding. For as Ezekiel said, where the River flows, everything will live. I command the River of Life, the River that cannot be crossed, as my shield in this hour, against all death on the earth, and all of its servants, and all of their weapons and devices – from “River of Life Prayer” wildatheart.org/pray
And Jesus is my Farmer; total surrender to God almighty is how to live life, no matter what the circumstance!
Matthew 13:1-23
The Message
A Harvest Story
13 1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.
3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
9 “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”…
When Dr Malone speaks of “mass formation “ the masses hypnotized by the fear mongers in order to bring in world tyranny. He suggested this very thing as the solution.
Maintain your connections (links)with family,God and the people in your life.
Love one another.
There IS a fear greater than a virus ;which will protect you from the brainwashing .It’s the fear of losing your basic humanity and God given freedoms and connectedness to other human beings
He said “ maybe its the angry moms at the local levels that will save us”
Thank you for those insights. May our comradery grow and expand in ’22. God bless us, every one!
God bless us all, and Sundance twice for all the efforts put into this site.
I am so grateful to be able to come here.
Thank you.
Happy New Year – as is always true, the best is yet to come!