Saturday, July 12, 2025 at 12:08 PM

I believe that we are reaching a point in time where politics, religion, the economy, the environment, and sometimes even relationships, have become so complex and irritating at times, that we wish that we could just ignore what is happening all around us, just disappear into our own special spaces and become normal again. As we weave our way through the complexities of life and living, we need some respite from this asteroid belt that we seem to be living in. My sister, June, calls this period we are living in, the end times. Maybe she is right; I don’t know.

I don’t care who you are, how many friends and families you might have around you, how rich or poor you are, what your intellectual or social status is, there are times when you feel completely alone. It might not register as loneliness when it hits you, but that emptiness inside you is a form of loneliness; sometimes, even despair. And on top of all that, the news from this fractured world we inhabit does not help; if anything, it deepens that solitude, that despair.

I was reading an article in the New York Times by a professor of medieval literature at Baylor University, who had lost a friend to suicide. The grief at that loss was so overwhelming that he had to find a way to cope. He found himself going to a gym for the first time, and it changed his life, going from academia to weightlifting. Transformed him into a different person. Wat a ting!

I have been working out, exercising religiously, since my mid-forties. It’s not only rewarding to see your body transform into something better, but it keeps you out of hospitals, off unnecessary medications; it keeps you alert and optimistic, and sometimes even introduces you to lifelong friends. Mind, body, and soul.

Going to the gym, or working out at home, or riding my bicycle or taking long walks with friends or by myself, taking photos of nature in all its glory, those are my own spaces, my personal heaven and haven. It rejuvenates the mind and the body; it makes life relevant and hopeful and compelling, in my opinion.

Writing and sharing my personal thoughts and experiences is also a part of being in my own space. Having always been a private person, reluctant to share anything personal with anyone, I have found that writing about my past, my childhood, my family, has allowed me to expand that space that I need to survive, and to thrive.

It makes me more mentally aware, more mentally stable, more confident, more alive.

I believe that that personal space is there for each and every one of us to discover. Sometimes it’s right in front of us, and we miss it because we don’t really know what it is we’re looking at, or for. But I believe that that personal haven is very important and necessary, for everyone. Find it, and live life knowing that it is worth it. You don’t have to listen to my preaching, but at least think about it.

Glen