Leon Konieczny’s Blog My world as I see it…..

I’ve been involved in genealogy for about seven years now. I’ve always been somewhat interested in my roots. I remember asking my grandparents questions about where they came from, what life was like, etc. I sure wish I had taken notes, as I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot of it. Still, I do have a sense of “where I’m from,” so to speak. And a great respect for what my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents went through in the past to get me to where I am today.

The one thing that really propelled me into a more formal search for roots was a series of family tree charts that my Mom’s cousin, Sonja, prepared for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary, way back in 1969. I used that data to begin my family tree.

 Now, over the years, I have “met” a few extended family members and relatives of relatives via the Internet. And I’ve become involved in a great group of people called the “History Buffs”–we all have roots in some way to Clark County, WI, and spend a lot of time on our web site posting information, pictures, documents, obituaries, tombstone photos, family information, history, and the like. It is a great group and working with it helps me appreciate and stay in touch with my roots and only increases my respect and admiration for all my ancestors went through. 

Perhaps this is more fitting for a memoria day post, but then again, I think we should always respect our ancestors and remember them constantly.

There’s a great little song that keeps running through my head. The title is “Keep on the Sunny Side” and it was sung by June Carter Cash, among others. When were were at the Appalachia Museum in Tennessee last month, we came across a lady singing and playing guitar, and a guy on the fiddle. We bought her CD and this is one of the first songs on it, too. Anyway, it has a great message, I think. There is a certain amount of “dark side” things in life, bad things, accidents, things that happen wrong, even people who do or cause bad things. As they say “bad things happen to good people.” 

 However, a person can choose to focus on the bad, or look to the good side of things. Hence, “keep on the sunny side of life.” If you’d like to see the full lyrics of the song, go here: http://www.onlylyrics.com/song.php?id=367. But the gist of the message is, no matter how bad things may get or seem, there is also a bright side just around the corner. Sometimes it takes some work to look for it, but it’s possible to leave strive and darkness behind and live in the sunshine, so to speak.

So, I guess my message to myself (and you) today is, there is a bright side to things, and it helps to look for it and not focus on the negative. Bad things will happen, the negative will find us, for sure.  But we don’t have to live in the shadows and darkness, we can choose to look for and move to live in the good side of life, on the happy side of things. Look for the good, don’t dwell on the bad. It’s good advice, I think.

I learned an important lesson yesterday. Having recently been on vacation for three out of four weeks, things in the yard got a bit neglected. I even hired someone to mow my lawn for a number of weeks. Then yesterday, while mowing the lawn and checking out the landscape, I was amazed at the number of weeds there were. At one point, I thought to myself “what has happened that all these weeds all of a sudden appeared–it’s never been like this before!”

At that moment, I realized that I was now looking at things from the long term view. Usually, when I’m home and involved in the landscape, I stop from time to time here and there to pull a few weeds. It’s those occasional stops to pull a weed or do some maintenance which keep them at bay. When I was gone, they all built up. Guess I have to be thankful for the work I do in the short term, and cognizant that sometimes life is viewed only from the short term and not the long term.

Of course, I could apply this newfound philosophy to a lot of things. For example, is there global warming? I am not sure. The short term view tells me “yes.” But, there is no long term view readily availalbe. We know that thousands of years ago the upper midwest underwent and ice age, and those glaciers retreated. Are they still retreating? Does warming or cooling come and go? Science seems to tell us it does. But without a lot of hard evidence, we can’t really know the answer for sure, in the short term. Only the long term view will tell us the answer. But for some of these more profound issues like global warming, can we affort to wait a few thousands–or even millions–of years to find the answer?

My sister Jean summed it up in a recent email: life is good. We have so much to be thankful for. It’s been a great summer and all of my family was together last Saturday at Jean’s house for KT’s graduation party. It was quite a success. Great weather, great food, and great to see everyone. And only a few weeks earlier, most of us were together in North Carolina for a week on the beach. Yes, life is good, and I choose to look on the sunny side of things!

Yes, welcome to the 2000’s for me. Finally going to work a bit on a blog… I think. My previous rants can now be replaced. God knows I’ll find enough to rant about from time to time, but also will use this to….well, just be me!

I could rant about many things today, but had an email from Jean earlier in which she started counting blessings. Yes, there are sure a lot of them. So why get excited by a few negative things. I’m just happy with life right now, and very content.