50+ Lifestyles

Our World Our Choice

By Mary Huebbe
Marketing Director
Ridgecrest Village

My heart just breaks hearing about the tragic things going on in our world. Some things are completely out of our hands; hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and many more natural disasters. Then you hear of the things that humans are doing to other humans, such as the incident that just happened in Las Vegas. Locally we even had someone intentionally run an officer over. Something has to change. How can we help make a change?

As I was pondering things I could do, one of our residents gave me a letter to read (it was written by their grandson) He was sharing his thoughts on things we could do to help our society. The part I enjoyed the most was that he was starting with his family, not trying to change anyone else. If all of us took the time to do small things; our world would start improving.

Here is a small part of that letter:

How is it that we know the names of hundreds of athletes, yet we don’t know the names of our neighbors? Why do we broadcast superstars into our living rooms, but we don’t invite the people we live by into our homes? Maybe as a country that’s where we should start.

I remember as a child my parents would have neighborhood parties. My Dad would clean out the barn and they would open up the big doors and set up picnic tables inside and everyone would bring food and drinks to share.  A few of the people that came played musical instruments so we even had music.  I just remember it being a fun time, and easy time.  I hope today we can still have those times.

Another part read:

We decided a few months ago to cancel Comcast, Netflix, the newspaper, etc. and it’s been great. We spend more time playing board games as a family and going on walks together. Here are some of the insights I’ve gained from doing this.

1.  My kids don’t care who wins a game on TV; they care about spending time with me. They want to play checkers and LEGO Star Wars. They want to throw a football around, kick a soccer ball, and ride bikes together. They don’t know a single name of any pro player because they don’t care.  And honestly, why should they? I want them to know the names of Harriet Tubman, Susan B Anthony, Margaret Thatcher and Rosa Parks. Are they not just as worthy to be our children’s heroes?

Do we know what is important to our children and grandchildren?  Do we take the time to find out?  How much time do we let them spend with their eyes on their phones, TV, computers or some kind of electronic device?  In fact, how much of our time is spent that way?

He also wrote:

2.  Time lost is gone FOREVER. You will never get it back.  Cherish it, it’s priceless.

Thank you and God Bless America!

By: Mike Mueller

I think that is something we all already know; we can’t turn back time, we can only change our future. My family here at Ridgecrest Village has been so concerned about the things happening in our world today that they requested to have a “day of prayer.” They took it upon themselves (with our Chaplin’s help) to form a group of residents that gave testimony and prayer.  Our chapel was full (residents and employees) joined together to pray for our world.   I believe everyone there was given a better sense of peace and hope for humanity.  I know I was.

Mary Huebbe is the marketing director for Ridgecrest Village in Davenport, Iowa. For more information about Ridgecrest Village, contact Mary at (563) 391-3430 or mhuebbe@RidgecrestVillage.org.