Viewing Oregon From A Different Vantage Point

Recently, visiting a friend’s house in the hills above Sheridan, I saw for the first time the panoramic view across the road after the neighbor had clear-cut of a stand of fir trees. It was beautiful.  We live in a beautiful land and landscape. What occurred to me was that the many times I visited my friends up on that hill when that stand of trees was there sheltering the wind, is how different our vision is when we are surrounded by the wonders of being in a forest.  Tight in the insular protection of our own little world.  A world that we can do our chores and gardens, feed our horses, play Frisbee with our dogs and friends.  We live freely with our neighbors and our families knowing what is in our own world.

I thought about the Lions in Oregon and our challenges.  For years, the Lions in Oregon have experienced a slow rolling back of our once widespread presence in every part of this beautiful state.  Big cities and small towns had Lions who took care of identifying the needs of their neighborhoods and communities.  Our vision was rightfully narrow; home communities of Lions built swimming pools, stadiums, advocated for infrastructure and community involvement locally. That has been our mission.  But in the context of Lions expanding, that mission spread the spirit of Lionism – friend helping friends, neighbor helping neighbors, bonding together working side by side.

But now, not expanding but receding, we, as Lions, see the state of Oregon as if a clear-cut has changed our vision.  Large expanses of distance between clubs, finding ourselves resigned to our own limited backyard of resources within our local community and, as such, the nearby places will just have to fend for themselves.  It's almost as if Lionism does not matter other than with our friends.  Yet this Spirit calls us, moves us like the wind in the trees.  Lionism is in the air, and in the view.  We have a new perspective of where we can go, where needs beg to be addressed and satisfied, maybe in the next town over.  Where new challenges are panoramically displayed and calls for spirited people to jump in to work together to make OUR OREGON know this Spirit of the Lion is actually alive and well and ready to serve.  Are you ready?  Oregon changing? No problem…. What do you need, how can I help?