Fam. Friends. Memories. Devotions.

Friends.

A couple weeks ago we were interviewed for Social Greek Radio by one of our friends, Jack, who, IS, the founder of Social Greek radio. This is his baby. You can hear this 25-minute interview on-line:

https://www.socialgeekradio.com/catching-up-with-mary-kay-and-mark-liston/

What I loved about this interview is it gave us a chance to talk to Jack “from our heart.” We didn’t have a script when we started our discussion. He didn’t give us any questions he was going to ask. It was simply three friends talking.

I don’t remember meeting Jack for the first time. Probably 15 years ago. It was one of those situations where we became fast friends. We both grew up in Illinois We both loved franchising. I’m sure I recommended people to talk to him about social media because he KNEW what he was doing in that medium.

It went back to the adage that people work with people they like and trust. Jack embodied this. One day several years ago a package came in the mail. With a t-shirt inside. It was a Geri’s Hamburgers t-shirt. A fast-food place I worked in high school. In our conversation along the way I must have mentioned this to Jack. He went online and found some obscure website that sold t-shirts from companies no longer in biz in Rockford. Geri’s was one of them.

How nice, eh?

This year I’m working with five other classmates on our 50th high school class reunion. In doing this I’ve had a chance to catch up with many old friends! (Use the word “old” however you want)

In this past week I met with a couple of them at the location we selected. I happened to be in Illinois – even though we are in Florida. So nice seeing old (here we go again) friends.

Family.

When we retired, we made a commitment to be grandparents who focused on kids, grandkids and now, unbelievably, a great grandson.

Our entire life we focused on being providers. Financial. Emotional. Spiritual. But we did it from afar. Now we are snowbirds living by ALL the kids and most of the grandkids. How nice is this. Changed our lives. Hopefully, we can change some of theirs for their future.

Last week we flew to Rockford, then drove 4 hours, just to see our grandson play in a volleyball match that night. This is the stuff we always wanted to do but never had the time to do.

At the end of May we’ll fly to Portland to celebrate MK’s sister’s retirement. Again, something we never had the time to do in the past.

Memories.

Throughout all these events one thing kept coming back into focus. Memories.

Memories from when the kids were young. Memories from high school. My high school friend, my best man in 1973, reached out to me on Facebook a couple years ago. Our lives were ENTIRELY different. Yet, it seemed nothing had changed. We met him and his wife outside of St. Louis last year. Now we talk almost weekly.

It is wonderful. Can’t wait to see him again.

MK has vastly different memories. She was a military brat. Moved every couple years. Dad was commander on a secret spy ship. She started high school in Japan. Yokohama High – or Yo High.

A quite different upbringing – but memories of a fam of 5 girls and one brother. I was, basically, an only child. My brother was 18 years older than me.

Her work memories along her journey vs. mine are so different. But we now know each other’s stories and best friends along the way. How genuinely nice this is.

Devotions.

Retirement allows us to start each morning with devotions. An amazing, wonderful way to start each morning. One of the most wonderful things both our parents did was make sure going to church was part of our lives.

Faith was a part of our lives.

Worshiping together with our mates is something neither of us enjoyed along the way of our lives until we met each other. What a difference.

Mark 10:8 reads, “The two shall become one flesh. So, they are no longer two but one flesh.” Both of us were over 50 years old when we experienced this for the first time . . . and could live it daily.

Conclusion.

It really is fun getting older. Most of all, it is wonderful embracing all the wonderful things about fam, friends, memories and celebrating daily devotions. We both hope you find time for these daily – before it takes you to retirement to enjoy them as we do.