Final column Oct 3

Thank you for Walking With Me

 

"Happy Birthday," my wife sweetly whispered as we woke.

 

"How does it feel?" Becky asked.

 

"What? Being 68?"

 

"No. How does it feel to be footloose and deadline free. Your newspapers just published your last column today."

 

"Feels like I just lost a lot of friends."

 

"Maybe not. Aren't you going to stay in touch with readers through weekly email?"

 

"I hope so," I said.

 

"Plus, some readers will be joining you on the Chispa volunteer trips next year."

 

She's right.

 

I've always felt that you, my readers, walked along side me. Even though anyone in earshot would think I was talking to myself, I was often talking to you.

 

We began our conversations in 2002 as I left active-duty Air Force and restarted my hospital chaplain career.

 

From that beginning, I feel we have been walking the hospital halls together. Those years were not easy ones for me, but I felt encouraged just knowing that you were listening. You responded with kindness and understanding as I recounted my ministry with pediatric cancer patients, premature babies, parents who lost children, and children who lost parents.

 

On other days, we found a moment to laugh together, chuckling over the military hat I lost in the toilet, over my unintentional theft of toilet paper, and my OCD that had me noting expired license plate stickers.

 

And even though I employed the help of a freelance editor, you still corrected my spelling, my grammar, and my punctuation. You factchecked my references to movies, songs, books, and ouch, even Bible verses.

 

You prayed for me as I made death notifications for Iraq war KIAs. I felt like you followed me to Iraq as you sent hundreds of care packages to the service members serving with me at Joint Base Balad.

 

You were there for my biggest losses — my mother-in-law to a stroke in 2011, my brother, Milton, to COVID in 2020, my best friend, Roger, in 2020 to cancer and my mother last year from natural causes.

 

Still, through all that trauma, we managed to share a lot of fun the last 23 years as you read my column in over 50 papers — Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and even Ontario Canada.

 

Readers in those states invited me to speak in their churches, schools, clubs and veteran events. They read my books, bought them, donated them to troops, and one Florida church even commissioned me to write one.

 

Along the way, I snagged a few awards from the Amy Foundation, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the Religion Newswriters Association, BUT, I'm forever most proud of the award you gave me.

 

I say, "You" because it was solely your response to Chispa Project that sent me to New York in 2019 to receive the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award "… for positively affecting readers' lives and producing tangible humanitarian benefits."

 

Now this last column is your recognition for positively infuencing my life!

 

But alas, I won't stop writing entirely. I'll still appear weekly in the two newspapers closest to my home, The Union in Grass Valley, Calif., and the Auburn Journal of Auburn, Calif. Of course, I'll share these columns with everyone who signs up for my email list.

So, don't lose touch.

 

Get my weekly muse by sending an email to comment@thechaplain.net. Or sign yourself up at www.thechaplain.net/newsletter. Remember to spell chaplain correctly, not chaplin. We've talked about this.

 

Finally, please continue to support Chispa Project either by donating or volunteering for a trip in 2026 as they get ready for the next Honduran school year. Find info at chispaproject.org.

 

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All of my books can still be ordered on Amazon. Autographed copies can be obtained on my website www.thechaplain.net or by sending a check for $20 for each book to 10566 Combie Rd. Suite 6643 Auburn, CA 95602. Email me at norris@thechaplain.net.