Roy’s Sunday Letter for April 12, 2026
Paying Attention And Accepting My Limitations
Beth, Peter, and I gather twice monthly to share writings and journals. We three also share of our individual lives. Beth and Peter encouraged me to allow a recent individual writing as the content of a Sunday Letter and thus I have done so this week.
This Sunday Letter is about limitations. Beth now drives. I am passenger/observer. I leave and enter though the driveway and back door due to the risk of our front steps without handrail. I now use a cane when leaving home. The gardens are all Beth. Digging, planting, and weeding all requiring energy and a stronger balancing of garden tools and secure footing no longer mine.
I sometimes filter my confidence and abilities from a ‘less than’ corner. nday Letter.y cart is already missing a professional position, title, and salary. More vital is no longer having a role in developing responsive program services with agency staff and board members.
My send away from college was to join others in saving the whales, rain forests, ending the harm and lack of justice in education, food and wealth and restoring national and world resources. Thus began, my life on leadership in community organizations.
I have yet to save a whale or an acre of rainforest. I was still deep into my save the world t-shirt when I met Beth at St. Francis the last Sunday in May 1977. Together, we have faced challenges with new beginnings, hope and from early light to dark. We have learned and gained respect for each other’s background and skills in, the midst of our doing, extending ourselves in a cause, making our small and larger worlds safe places for all beings.
My soul has not grown old and brittle. I greet each 6:45 sunrise with a sense of awe. I no longer chase the sun to days end. I prefer quiet to noise, nor find comfort in chaos. I regret any loss of connection with others near or far. Drafting the Sunday Letter engages me and keeps my creative mind and spirit alive. I resist the pull to withdraw, to isolate myself from a life of peaceful living and kindness. I have little interest in those who speak from a heart and spirit of hate. My right path is to be encouraging and hopeful, especially with those younger.
My commitment to Beth is from morning green tee to Lawrence’s Last Word. Riding with her Central Market to Archie’s Garden Center is sacred travel. Afternoon words, with Jazz in her rightful place, has been our way of weaving together the us that is us. We never doubt our love and belief in our goodness.
Roy, my limitations are also my opportunities
Olivia Kay and I on the way to church, she is driving. We are still regularly touched by you. I just read your letter out loud. It is often church for us. Today especially. Still loving,thinking, noticing, laughing, caring, “crazy after all these years.” Bob and Olivia Kay
To be read on the way to church is indeed high cotton.
I am always humbled on reads, when, and what each may enjoy.
We 3 have been on the path since day one….I smile broadly at the thought!!
Roy
An excellent spiritual practice: reading Roy’s Sunday Letter.
Knowing when to halt an activity or give up something you love a tough part of life. Thirteen years ago I had a heart attack followed by a quadruple bypass. All this came as a surprise. The day before I had customers out for an evening sail on the Chesapeake Bay. I felt fine but did have what I thought was a muscle ache from a recent sailing activity with students aboard. I returned to this activity within 9 months but 4 years later I recognized I no longer had the reflexes of a younger me. I’d never hit anything or hurt anyone, and it was not happening on my watch. I stepped off the boat 8 years ago after 50 years of sailing. I have not regretted my decision. Each decade has brought wonderful experiences and a new found maturity; I welcome this in my life and, like you Roy, have settled into my quiet places still gardening, camping and hiking. Appreciate you sharing this and carry on my friend!
I am always amazed by your bypass, life change, internal ability to continue in healthy ways, with the right partner of course.
Bob and you are two of my oldest friend connections…..honored and humbled in all ways…….Roy
I envy your 50 years of sailing. What a beautiful way to move!
As we reach our “golden years” I find myself slowing down in so many. I make a list each day of what I would like to accomplish, some days I finish them all and other days I only finish one, but I am o.k. with that. I used to obsess over tasks left undone, but now I don’t stress over it. I am content in my own space and grateful I can still care for myself. All of us age differently, some face it head on with gusto and others ease into it like a pair of old house shoes, I fall into the latter category, enjoying this phase of life.
We 3 are old shoes together.
We share common paths and experiences.
Our individual stories connect us, bond us.
Like you I lean on lists less than earlier yrs.
More flow than transactions.
More intimacy writing than the protection of fiction.
Roy
“Ease into it like old house shoes.” My Monday mantra!
Beautiful and inspiring. Thank you, Roy
In so many ways we are slowing down together.
Our elder paths different but also common ground. We continue on do we nor.
Roy
Roy, an amazing news letter! Thank you! Limitations? They seem to seek in quietly or like a tornado. The warranty on body parts seem to be expiring. Connections seem to be more limited as time passes. I reflect on the past accomplishments and the other paths I may have taken. I have taken on challenges that I now look back at and realize that some good has possibly resulted from my efforts. I have learned much, especially when my efforts were the most difficult. I dislike not having the energy of youth to push on into more challenges. I hope that perhaps that I might have made a positive difference in the lives of others along my path. My furry companion seems to be the current light for my new adventures.
Why is it difficult for some of us to celebrate our accomplishments? Thank you for this reflection. It’s a good example to me.
All about the past of achieving is good and true. So is your leaning to the future, energy, and wisdom.
We 3 do so together.
Wrong counting….Right count is 5.
Roy, the contributions you make to friends, colleagues, and community continue to inspire and amaze us all. Yes, we all face limitations as time goes on but you manage to embrace them with wisdom. ❤️❤️❤️ to you and Beth and Jazz and all the friends who surround you.
Yes. What Marcia Swain said.
WE carry each other into our “make the world better” efforts.
Holding hands across the digital world.
And we are the better for doing so…..& maybe a corner of the world also.
Already noting about next Sunday……
Acceptance. Adaptation. Purpose…easy words to say. As a therapist, I say these words to us older folk every day. Very hard words to engage in and live out. Yet, you live them out every day, Roy. Through your influence on others, you likely have saved whales, acres of rainforest, and much more. You and Beth have been a force to make the world a better place. You counteract the huge pile of dung that some people create. Thank you for being such precious people.
So true. Dung removal is every bit as beautiful as whale rescue.
friend Paul…
Beth and I struggle, as do we all, to know our place in a world sometimes foreign to us.
We all do and be what we know to do, sometimes with shaky hearts.
We do so together.
Coffee on me at Central as possible……Roy
In our present world, there are none of us—young, middle, or elders—who are not faced each day with overwhelming challenges that can lead to insights or despair. I do my best to remain hope filled and present. I share with you a text from our lead trainer to illustrate what a little gesture of passing along a book means in a deeper context.
“Hello lovely ladies. I wanted to thank you both for the recent book you shared with me, I am loving it. Even as I read, I can’t wait to read it again.
One section touched me today in how similar the portraits and people are as to what we do with dogs and people. How each dog brings out the strength and courage of their people. In particular, when I read today about how when Theo started giving the portraits, he thought he was giving a gift, but very shortly he understood that he was receiving an even greater gift, getting to know and understand some amazing people who had been through joyful and difficult times.
I think that is us At ADW. I know personally I feel I grow and learn and am given this unique moment to observe and serve and be a small part if a very big and meaningful thing. It brings such a gratefulness to each day, each dog, each person. I just thought I would share that with you both.
I share this with YOU, Roy, because your Sunday Letter allows us to “know and share and understand some amazing people who have been through joyful and difficult times.” My suggestion for your title: CCO: Chief Connecting Officer. Love you and Beth, always, to the moon and back.
A Comment of grace and acceptance of a Comment. Yes, I do center on Connections.
I was introduced to computers at JPS, long ago.
A part of me now.
My comfort place.
YES! Chief Connecting Officer! YES!
Roy I confess too often, my procrastination results in a delayed reading of your Sunday letter. But I want to echo the appreciation of all these sacred souls who commented yesterday. Your Sunday letter clears the dung for me. It shines like warm sunshine on a cool April morning. It enables me to live in the moment and prepare for the future. Your Sunday letter inspires me to work on ways to be similarly helpful to others. Thank you.
You are encouraging me to do and be more open in my Sunday writing. I tend to hide behind or in my fictional characters.
Perhaps this is the right time to come out and play.