Generational Gifts

The Vistage Alumni group accepted my topic for our last meeting (5/21/2026).  We each described out family tree from Great Grandparents through Grandchildren.  A way to get to know each other better (even though we have been meeting monthly since 2004.  Just shows you can "know" someone for 22 years and still "not know" them.  

The exercise motivated me to update the obsolete cell phone contact I had with my oldest cousin K,W,  What a wonderful 1 hour call to get any stories about our common grandfather, and any family lore about our great grandfather. It amazed me how little I know anything about my 8 great grandparents.  So trying to document what values,traits, vitures, vices, behaviors, traditions etc. have been passed down to me and what am I trying to pass down to my grandchildren was not easy.   

Investigating the tools - Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, Gramps Software was fun and reintroduced me to the geneology "rabbit hole",  A,S, my genelogy friend also provided great advice and council during this exercise.  I even loaded this blogging website into Copilot and asked for advice about what values it could predict I had "inherited" and/or would be passing down.  Then using that chat along with Gemini Pro developed two infographics for Generational Transfer and Wisner Family Legacy Statement.

Wisner Family Family Legacy Statement final thought on the slide - "What starts with one person can change generations.  What is passed down does not have to be perfected - it has to be lived.  And through love, faith and intention - we continue the story."   

Bella - Rescue to Beloved

Today was a sad day as Bella (our second rescue black/lab mut) died (2/2011 - 4/2026).  She outlasted her brother Fitch by a year and a half.  She was practically blind and deaf at the end but still could manage walking around the property (although most of the time she was sedentary).  Based on my last analysis (see Rufferee's Time Out), Bella proved the statistics that females outlast males by 1-2 years.  

Wally is now our single dog and I'm sure there will be some family discussion concerning whether a new dog and friend for Wally should be acquired.  

The whole family will miss Bella.  Such great memories for 15 years.

Amazing Grace as That Peaceful Easy Feeling

 At the Cincinnati Men's Walk to Emmaus commissioning the Praise Band leader asked the congregation how many people like the hymn "Amazing Grace"?  All hands raised up.  Then he asked how many people like the Eagles? Nearly every hand followed.   Then the band broke out into:

Wow -  what a moment of Grace with a peaceful easy singing.

Sunday "Fern" Day

The snow continues to fall today (12:04pm) keeping everyone inside across the country.  This will easily be a record one day accumulation for Cincinnati (now at 6 inches) and likely multiple day top ten. 

Early January 2025 (5-6) there was a 9 inch to 11 inches of accumulation.  Topping the chart was Feb. 4-6, 1998, of 18.5 inches and will remain the winner.  

The Weather Channel now likes to name storms and we have reached the letter "F" - hence Fern is the name.  The names are pre assigned each year so we already know that "Gaius" in on deck.   How coincidental since I have been rewatching the entire 2004 remake of Battlestar Galactica with Gaius Baltar the scientist.  Gaius is a common Roman first name (Gaius Julius Caesar, Gaius Octavius are the famous ones).

The definition of a "named" storm requires 2 million people affected or 400,000 sq miles of National Weather Service Warning.  Alas - the Winter Storm of January 5-6, 2025, was not named nor was Feb. 4-6, 1998 since the Weather Channel didn't start naming storms until 2012.  

I wonder if you started naming "Storms in Your Life" what would be the criteria - health, emotions, family crisis, financial pressure/loss, etc.  How would you go about the naming?  

My Storms in Life - Janus (1987); Hades (1999); Exodus (2001); Alecto (2007); Cassandra (2011); Mnemosyne (2015); Prometheus (2019); Atlas (2021).

It is the storms in our life that we weather through - persevere.  No matter how stormy - they pass by and we can say we survived to live another day.   My storms didn't break me; they carved me into someone who understands the need for spiritual foundation and faith that hope always endures - that even those stormy memories will build into eternal joy.   

Who Goes Home?

                                               "Who Goes Home?"

A journey south from Kansas City toward Wichita is not the sort of trip most travelers circle on a map. It doesn’t boast dramatic peaks or ocean views. But for someone who once called Wichita home—someone whose parents have already stepped into the brighter country beyond—this drive becomes something far more intimate. It’s a return to the land that shaped you, a quiet pilgrimage through memory, belonging, and the kind of beauty that doesn’t shout for attention but waits patiently to be noticed.

Not long after leaving the city’s edges, the highway begins to slip into the Flint Hills— the largest intact tallgrass-prairie ecosystems left on earth. These hills are ancient, older than the Rockies, their limestone and flint layers formed when this region was a shallow inland sea. Today they roll out in long, breathing waves, covered in grasses so deep‑rooted they’ve resisted the plow for centuries. Entering them feels like crossing a threshold into a gentler, older world.

In the late afternoon, when the sun leans low, the tallgrass catches fire—not with heat, but with a golden radiance that seems to rise from within the land itself. Scattered across those glowing slopes are the cattle: small black silhouettes, like ink‑dots brushed onto a vast amber canvas. Some graze with slow, deliberate contentment; others stand motionless, broad backs soaking in the last warmth of the day. Their presence gives the hills a sense of scale and serenity, as if the land itself were at peace and inviting you to share in its rest.

What you begin to notice—almost with surprise—is what isn’t there. For nearly forty miles, there are no exits, no billboards, no fast‑food signs clawing at your attention. Only the occasional enclosed service area interrupts the long, uninterrupted ribbon of highway. The absence of commercial clutter feels like a kind of mercy. The road becomes a place where the mind can finally unclench, where the traveler is free to look outward and inward without distraction.

Only a few human marks remain: a solitary cell tower rising like a thin sentinel on a distant ridge; a line of high‑voltage wires striding across the horizon, their steel frames stark against the softening sky. They don’t intrude so much as remind you that civilization lies somewhere beyond these hills, needing its lifelines. But here, in this moment, they seem almost shy—hesitant to disturb the holiness of the evening.

As the sun sinks fully, the sky becomes a vast dome of rose, violet, and fading gold. The cattle settle into darker shapes against the glowing earth. The hills breathe in shadow. And the whole scene feels touched by something otherworldly, the way C.S. Lewis described the green plains of the Real Country - hinting that this world, too, is only a shadow of a truer beauty.

Driving south toward Wichita—toward the place where your story began and where your parents stepped into eternity—the road feels less like a route and more like a gentle invitation. A reminder that the land you came from still whispers of home, and that every sunset over the Flint Hills is a small echo of the greater dawn awaiting beyond this life.

Shining Stars of Christmas

 

     Wisner Family – December 2025          

As we look back on 2025, we see not just events and milestones, but a sky full of stars — each one shining with its own story, together forming the constellation of our family. Some stars blazed brightly with joy, others flickered through challenge, but all were part of the same heavens, reminding us that God holds the universe — and us — in His hands.

⭐ Garen — The Explorer Star Charting galaxies of AI notebooks, stepping into Social Security orbit, and voyaging across seas from the British Isles to Mexico and Naples Fla Even when trees exploded and sewer backups froze the ground, his light kept moving, shifting from tennis to pickleball (maybe) and finding new constellations in faith with Men’s Emmaus Walk #112 and financial giving in spite of Accenture dodging.

⭐ Susan — The North Star Steady and radiant, as prayer servant on Women’s Walk # 129, bridge fellowship leader, and Indian Hill Moms President. Her glow was strengthened by good healthy habits and brightened by travels — from Chosen Season 5 to the British Isles — always a beacon of resilience and warmth.

⭐ Ellen — The Shooting Star Blazing trails with a new Hyde Park house, Mercedes, and adventures abroad with girlfriends. She sparkled in everyday rituals — Sams Saturdays, manicures, pickleball with Susan — and her orbit expanded with friendships, fitness, and laughter.

⭐ Jenna & Paul — The Twin Stars Orbiting together in creativity and achievement: Jenna as sous chef, neighborhood board leader, and home decorating guru; Paul as Elevance Sales Award-Winner, fantasy football commissioner, UC football ticket-holder, and Dad extraordinaire. Their constellation boosted with a Pacifica , a decorated dining room, and landscaping fronting the new fence framing their home.

⭐ Teddy & Wes — The Comets Streaking across the sky with Teddy starting preschool and his soccer launch,  combined Mario & Bowser worlds, and explorations of the zoo, fire museum, and Union Terminal. Their playful energy lit up VBS, Aunt Ellen sleepovers, Friday Skylines, and Sunday field goal stars, even as Wes scared us with his “terrible twos” breathtaking incidents. 

This year’s constellation also carried shadows, as some stars faded from this world’s sky (J.R. F.S.), others stepped into quieter orbits (E.W.), and many faced dimming light through health challenges (T.H. A.M. B.E.)  — reminders that even in sorrow and suffering, God’s heavens hold us together.

Rejoice!   God knows each of us and names your star, guiding our journeys and weaving our lights into His greater story. May we continue to shine together, reflecting His glory, and may your own family’s constellation of 2025 sparkle with hope, love, and faith.

                        Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

    "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name." – Psalm 147:4

Godly Credit

I decided to experiment with Gemini Imagen 3 or 4 (not sure which I have access to).  

In a study of Exodus using Dennis Prager's "The Rational Bible", I expanded upon his commentaries about remembering and the connection of memories with gratitude, faith and national memory (in this case the Jewish People) with my own quote reaching into the concepts of Trust and Obey along with Holiness and Joy.  

After 30 minutes of dialogue with Gemini and generating 14 image attempts, I "ran out of gas" with the following AI generated image:

The key questions are - who gets "credit" for the image?  Garen?  Gemini? Who gets "credit" for the text/quote?  Dennis Prager?  Garen?

The real answer - "God gets credit for it all!"