My Half of the Conversation: A Life with Spirit

By Doris Markland

?If theres one thing thats had a bad rap its age. Few people speak of it as something to look forward to, yet seniors shudder at the thought of being young again. Isnt it wonderful how things work out? This author admits that once she learned she could sit down without guilt she sat down a lot. From her chair she looks back on the day she spoke out of turn in first grade, and on college assignment made a big blunder in church. She declined three brilliant job opportunities at twenty, but found her voice years later. Now, on her blog, she writes for sharp older people and their middle-aged kids and in the last two years she has published two books.

Known for her easy flow of words, Mrs. Markland has the rare ability to speak lightly yet sincerely about some of lifes deepest and most challenging questions. Have we lived before? Will we be judged and sent to heaven or hell? Will we live again? As we clean out our closets can we clean out our minds? Is there anyone exactly like you? Are you spiritual or are you religious?

Scattered throughout her writing are insights to help searchers find their path, recognize a desire or purpose in life, and organize themselves to fulfill it. It is never too late, she believes, and at 92 she indeed is the good example. Her true stories describe a life of learning and a search leading to the understanding that life is a school where we learn and grow as souls with bodies, not bodies with souls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532029486

Doris Markland

Doris Peterson Markland, born in Iowa, earned a B.A. degree from Morningside College. Married to Eugene Markland for 63 years, she is the mother of three children. Her poetry has been published in Hallmark Cards and books, her stories and poems in Saturday Evening Post, The Good Old Days, Looking Back, and Mature Living. She is the author of Playing Life by Ear, published in 2015. She divides her time between residence in Norfolk, Nebraska and Honolulu, Hi.

Book preview

MY

HALF

OF THE

CONVERSATION

A Life With Spirit

Doris

Markland

43701.png

MY HALF OF THE CONVERSATION

A LIFE WITH SPIRIT

Copyright © 2017 Doris Markland.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation) edited by Russell M. Stendal. Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-2949-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-2948-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017913502

iUniverse rev. date: 10/06/2017

To my children

Sara, John and Tom Markland

who saw me through my life,

with special thanks to Sara

who saw me through

another book

Contents

Preface

Small Talk

Lost And Found

The Enlightenment Of Age

Dressing Up And Going Out

The Fox And The Meadowlark

Lessons At Five

The Goat Cart

Up From The Playground

Seven Wonder-Filled Moments

The Fate Of E. T.

Showers From Heaven

Home Schooling

Summer School

For The Jing Jang Jing

Food For Thought

Facing Facebook

Dorothy

From The Lanai

A Bike To Like

We’ve Gone To The Dogs

Questions In The Generation Gap

The Letter

White Gloves

Just Passing Through

Simply Sharing

The Art Of Living

Your Half Of The Conversation

How To Be A Young Old Person

Too Old To Write A Book?

From The Chair

Losing Fear, Finding Me

Being My Own Boss

Creative Vision

Hand-Me-Downs

Not Like The Others

Sons And Daughters

Words And Labels

Come Again?

Living It Up

From The Animals

The Fabric Of Life

The Junk Drawer

Direction

The Dream Life

Soul Talk

A Cardinal Truth

Getting To The Point

Doors

Behind Our Tears

True Love

Matter Over Mind

The Between Times

I Do Not Have A Soul

Gifts For The Journey

Message For The Messengers

The Garden Of Peace

Thoughts That Came Out Of The Blue . .

The Soft Petal

Soul Talk

Soul Talk

Finally I Can Say

Traveler’s Questionnaire

Nearing The World Of Spirit

Spirit

The Wave

Can I Be Me Again

When The Bones Go

Jesus Lives!

The Crossing

I Had A Dream

Final Thought, In Passing

Preface

M y every day is brightened with conversations, not only my exchange with family and friends but also a running dialogue with something within me. Perhaps it is my outer self talking with my inner self, my higher self, which may, at times, be in touch with a source even higher. It is a comfort to know I am never alone in this world, that a voice answers my voice and that love is always present.

I suspect that before children are completely swept into our culture they are in constant communication, perhaps with their guardian angel, the one they speak of as their special friend. We see little ones in vocal conversations while alone, at play, and they often surprise their parents with wisdom beyond their years. They love to share what comes to them and they openly spill their words and their love generously …until they are told to sit down, be quiet, and not speak until spoken to.

From the time we are born we are amazed at life, and when we discover a new thing, a new thought, we want to run and tell someone. First, it’s our mother. As adults we meet socially and we talk with our friends, each telling his story of what happened in his everyday life. We exchange information on nearly every aspect of living. And then there are times for deeper conversations, with soul friends, about our innermost feelings and experiences at the soul level.

People in Hawaii have a wonderful phrase they use often. When they are together they talk story. Talk story is what we all do. We share what has happened to us and what we made happen. We tell where we’ve been and where we hope to go. We tell stories that bring laughter and stories that bring tears.

Children talk story on playgrounds. Families talk story around the kitchen table and at reunions. Strangers talk story in airports and tour busses. Soldiers talk story in strange and lonely places. The homeless talk story under trees and bridges, and the elderly talk story on porches, in waiting rooms, in churches.

Somehow, we recognize our story line when we hear our own words. In the telling, we acknowledge our doing. We make sense of things, give names to happenings and dreams.

And we listen. Talk story is both telling and listening. Your story gives me new insights into my own. And in sharing you have become part of my story and I a part of yours.

But only with a treasured few do we have soul talk, sharing our innermost feelings, how we see life and what we make of it.

So a conversation is a two-way thing, a regrouping from which both parties learn something of value to them. In my book I do not mean to just throw my ideas at you. I expect them to bounce back. You have ideas too. I encourage you to express them in some way, and I’ve left a few blank pages for your notes. Also you may email me at [e-mail] or visit my blog at www.mymarkland.wordpress.com if you wish to share your insights with me or my readers.

With aloha,

Doris Markland

Small Talk

Lost And Found

A young one asked me

if I’d share my wisdom,

and I said I would

if I could remember

where I put it.

"But how do you know

that I have it?" I asked.

Oh you have it, she said,

I can see it in your face.

Ah, so that’s where it is,

I said and, smiling, told her

she could take what she wants.

The Enlightenment Of Age

D o you remember when you turned nine and were soon telling people you were almost ten? And do you remember when you were 39 and you stayed 39 until the very last moment before admitting to 40?

Although we have no control over the aging process, we seem to want to either hold it back or speed ahead. Still, time goes on as always.

Funny thing, but people have no curiosity about your age unless you are very young or very old. Through all the in-between years if you either sadly or proudly tell someone your age they will look at you and say So?

We may ask a child his age if he seems to us to be way beyond his years… or maybe because he seems way behind in his development. Perhaps we ask the old ones their age for similar reasons.

Our trip from one to ten is the longest and the slowest. Our trip from eighty to ninety is the shortest and the fastest. So I can tell you that if you have things you want to accomplish you’d better do them while time is on your side.

When I was eighty-nine I told everyone I was almost ninety. By then, I believe, it’s required. Now I’m ninety-two, and in saying so I am neither bragging nor apologizing. This is just how old people open a conversation. I guess we want it understood from the beginning so that factor will cushion our remarks if we seem to skip or wander.

But actually, I am only playing the game. There are those of us who just refuse to be elderly. As best we can we keep up our appearance, fill our calendars with appointments, travel to places we enjoy, keep track of a raft of old friends across the country and a raft of kids, grandkids and great grandchildren scattered sometimes around the world.

People are constantly surprised that we can stand up and sit down, drive a car, cook ourselves a meal and eat it without a bib. That’s because they have a fixed picture in their minds of what an older person should be. And it isn’t pretty.

I’ve written before about the sweat-suited gum-chewing blonde who sidled up to me in an airport waiting area and cooed Oh, I think it is so nice when you older people can learn to use a computer! I’ll bet you are playing solitaire. And I had closed the computer so she couldn’t see I was buying some stocks on the market. I smiled and said Of course, my dear.

My dear? I didn’t even know her, but that was what the script called for. Growing old takes a certain amount of patience and it takes diplomacy.

When I was a child people were still talking about World War I. When I was in high school Pearl Harbor was bombed and our boy friends went to war. So you know I have been around a while, and my hair has silvered to prove it. But I sometimes look a bit young for my age. Can’t help it. My mother looked young for her age.

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My mom in her mid