There are Some Things I Want to Write Before I Forget. LiTeRaLIY! (Writing Number 9)

If you don’t already know, I have a progressive loss of memory and executive functioning. It’s scary as hell and exhausting. It is also an experience of “holy crap—say what you need to say, and do what you need to do, while you can!” That part of this experience has been strangely life-prioritizing and life-giving. Even liberating to the point of peaceful.

I am periodically going to use my personal Facebook page and the Stout Creek Farm blog to continue to write some things as a part of “saying what I need to say, while I can.”

I think these writings actually started almost three months ago on Christmas Day 2024. Out of nowhere, I surprised myself by writing pieces that dealt not only with farming, but also spirituality. Several of them focused on life and death.

When I look back, eight of my last eleven writings sound like writings I would want to get out while I still could. It sounds like I knew something was going on before I knew. So, I am calling this “Writing Number Nine” in a series of short writings called “There are Some Things I Want to Write Before I Forget. LiTeRaLIY!

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A couple of other quick (but big in my estimation) things to end this post.

I have been married to one phrase and one way of life more than any other. It has brought both “joy and sorrow in sickness and in health.” It is the phrase that my family knows as the “Barry Family Motto.” It goes like this:

“Go big or go home!”

Well, here is the biggest statement I can think of:

My entire understanding of existence, in both this big world and my small life, in the past, present, and future can be summed up in three simple words.

Life. Death. New Life.

My understanding of history, exposure to nature, the particular faith tradition I follow (but also the traditions from other faiths), the experiences I have had in life, and hopefully a little bit of reasoning, have brought me to Life. Death. New Life.

It’s where I stake everything I believe. I could also be completely wrong about all of it.

If you are interested in a wide array of variations on the theme of “Life. Death. New Life,” I invite you to keep reading as I am able to write. If at some point, you tell me I am completely crazy, I will be more likely to believe you than the average bear.

Pro Tip: If you are ever asked to undergo 5 1/2 hours of cognitive testing for your memory/executive functioning like I was last week, volunteer for any other kind of testing than this. Maybe a Calculus IX test, or a wide-awake colonoscopy, or maybe just come sleep for a night in one of our mobile chicken coops and let our 200 chickens drop manure on you all night long.

The point is, if you are ever asked to undergo cognitive testing, throw them off track and run the other way!