GIFTS OF LOVE

 

GIFTS of LOVE

“ I wonder as I wander out under the sky,  why Jesus the Savior did come for to die?....”

IT is that time of year when we ask ourselves – “What should I get Susi, John, or Sam?” This year with COVID still rampant, the idea of giving gifts made with your own hands vs those BIG GIFTS sitting off shore in shipping containers reminds us again of the purpose of gifts.  Are they to make us feel guilty?  How often have I had an UNMARKED gift under the tree for that person that I didn’t know was bringing me a gift!!  Are gifts supposed to BALANCE OUT somehow?    I used to keep a journal of gifts given so I wouldn’t be guilty of giving the same thing year after year, showing no imagination, or really, if TRUTH be told, not knowing the person’s needs and wants, sizes even.  

LAST YEAR we were in Alamogordo, New Mexico for a couple of weeks before Christmas so the gifts for kids, grands, and great grands had to be mailed.  The USPS was so happy to see me coming, arms laden and check ready!!  Because of Grandpa dying, we were actually all together soon after Christmas and NO ONE was even aware of having received gifts, there were more important things going on!!  I vowed that THIS YEAR would be the year of GOLD, let them use it and buy what they needed, wanted, or save for the proverbial rainy day!!  Those RAINY DAYS come to all of us at one time or another.  BUT IT AMAZES me how GOD does PROVIDE.  What we need, when we need it, and not a day BEFORE!!  We have experienced this so often in our SIXTY YEARS of marriage!!  Where did that time go we ask ourselves!

So this year, PRESENCE must outweigh presents!!  We are near our kids and grands and greats, at least SOME of them.  Enjoying picking up the youngest granddaughter from school is but only one of the immediate rewards for not going to Arizona before WINTER sets in.  We will see how we feel about that when we do head south.  Frozen water line in Lamar Colorado last year as we rushed to eastern Colorado caused us to comment on the reason the “snow birds” went to Arizona in October rather than the end of December!!   Dad did wait for us to arrive; he died on Sunday, we had arrived late Thursday afternoon.  The timing was perfect and being with the WEATHERS family was so important at that particular time!  We were so proud that all three of our children made time to come for the Celebration of LIFE.

I read a piece yesterday of a newspaper clipping from the early 1900s where the LETTERS TO SANTA from that era had been reprinted.  The one letter asked for an ORANGE, another asked for a  book for sister, while a third asked for a warm coat,  and nearly ALL added “PLEASE remember me!”  IS that the PURPOSE of your gift, a tangible item showing that you REMEMBERED someone.  Maybe even your presence is a gift to be given in LOVE and accepted as such. 

 Merry Christmas from the MOUNTAIN AND a BLESSED 2022!

This World is NOT my HOME...

 

THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME…

This old camp meeting song speaks to me and always has.  I hum it when faced with life-altering situations, like flying through clouds using the instruments in the airplane that my husband is piloting.  I hum it when faced with life-altering decisions, like whether to put down roots by buying a property when we do, in fact have the wherewithal to do so, or continuing to wander about in our travel trailer, visiting friends, relatives, making new friends,  seeing new sunsets.  I hum it when friends are at the point of death and there isn’t really anything that I can do to help them but pray for a peaceful passing and strength for their family. 

To live one day at a time with no long view, no plans for next week, next month, next year is a mind altering scenario and is definitely NOT the way that this world operates.  Even religious periodicals are selling calendars for NEXT YEAR with Scriptures for each month, each week, each day.  How does this correlate with the thought that this world is NOT my HOME?  Where are our responsibilities as Christians?  What do we need to do for the sake of our families?  How can we balance our needs with the needs of others not knowing how LONG we will be treading this sod?  Do we sell all we have and give it to the poor?  Do we render unto this world the things of this world while giving to GOD the things that are HIS?  AND WHAT, PRE-TELL DOESN’T BELONG TO GOD?

Do we open our hearts or just our purses, do we give of our time, talents and gifts AND TO WHOM?  Organized religious entities or the beggar on the corner?  How do we judge when Scripture clearly says “as we judge, so will we be judged!”  It ‘tis a conundrum for sure.  To plan or Not to plan?  To give or Not to give?  To judge or Not to judge?

Our parents generation was INTO LAND!  I remember taking Tom’s parents on a trip to Yellowstone National Park one Fall.  I had no idea that their “plan” was not the same as “our” plan until Mom asked if we could stop at the Courthouse in Craig Colorado, she had a question for the Recorder’s Office.  She wanted to get directions to the homestead where they lived BEFORE she had started school, or possibly summers only once she was in school.  We are still talking over fifty years in the past!!  We dutifully drove out the dirt road and I asked what we were looking for - a foundation, a chimney, a building of some kind?

“No,” said Tom’s Mom, “just the land.”  Then how will we know when we find it? I asked.

“I will know.” said Mom.  And she did in fact point to the gully where they went for a bucket of water daily, but the homestead was on the other side of that gulley.

Then we proceeded to the Grand Tetons, what an awesome site that is.  The sky was clear, the peaks still had a bit of snow in the crevasses.  They were reflected in all their majesty on the lake and even the birds were enjoying the lovely day in the Rocky Mountains.

The tour around one of the loops in Yellowstone National Park was not as crowded as I remembered it from my childhood, of course we had been there in the summer and it was now into Fall.  The Old Faithful geyser did its faithful thing and erupted within a minute or two of the anticipated time.  Then we were on to the overlook for the FALLS.  “Look at all the yellow rocks!”  Mom exclaimed.  It was an eye opening experience for her; we had seen the Falls from an airplane a couple of times so we knew where Yellowstone got the NAME.  We exited the Park on the Tower Junction road up a multi-level pass where we exclaimed about the wildflowers; it was a HIGH PASS and the summer flowers were still in bloom!  We thought we were over the top; no altitude app on our cell phones – we did not even have cell phones at that time!  So when we topped out, there was another level yet to go, more wildflowers to marvel at, more curves and corners to explore.  And another thought entered into the front seat conversation where the two Toms were sitting.   

“Do you want to see where I was born?” asked Tom’s dad.  “We have found it twice, I am sure we can find it again.  And it is right on the way!”  I had thought that only MY PARENTS used this line of reasoning.

So we found Epsie Montana, population ZERO, but before you get to Broaddis.  This time there was a log cabin with an attic and the school a quarter mile away that Tom’s brother Chet had attended!  Tom’s dad was still too young for school and the twins had just been born there in that cabin of Great Grandpa.  They had been kept warm in an apple crate on the door of the oven Dad said.  It was again, the land that was the important thing.

When we were on the road last year we stopped for a couple of nights at a creekside campground in Belle Forsch South Dakota, and our neighbor mentioned that they were going over to Broaddis for a funeral the next day, someone he had attended high school with and had maintained a correspondence with after he married a girl from Belle Forsch.  We actually knew where Broaddis was!!

LAND to have and to hold as long as possible?  OR to have HOME be where you park it?

 

This World is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through,

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue,

The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door,

And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.

 

QUESTION

 

I HAVE SEVEN CHIROPRACTORS IN FOUR STATES.

I do not remember any asking me this question as they routinely adjust my neck!

“How do you sleep?  On your back, side…”

I responded to this chiropractor whom I was seeing for the second time in a week, 

“Actually,  think rotisserie chicken!”  As Tom nodded agreement and chuckled,

Dr. Foster said, “NO, NO, we must figure out a way get you off your stomach!” 

“But I have missed it so much this week, having a ‘kink in the neck’ that prevented

me from sleeping on my stomach!”

So, Dr. Foster must have a weird sense of humor like mine as he responded with a

WHAT IF.  “What if I stood here with my head turned 90 degree =/- as I talked to my

patients  ALL DAY?  WOULD my neck have a kink in it every day?”

He proceeded to suggest a ‘body pillow’  even though I already use a knee pillow…

 

I will have to try his suggestion.  He also agreed that I needed to stop with the

Whiplash-like 4 point landings; in fact I am sure at MY AGE I just need to stop tripping

over SNOW SNAKES, door sills, falling up stairs, down stairs, falling PERIOD!!

 

So there you have it friends, a new leaf on my tree, an OLD HABIT to break, a new 

question for any and all doctors to ask their patients.  HOW DO YOU SLEEP?!

WORSHIP

 

Worship seems to be a highlight of our week,  whether on the computer with our home church family in Tuolumne CA or live when we happen to be near an in person congregation.  TODAY, it was Kathleen’s church in Boise ID.  We had not planned to be here at the KOA in Meridian, next door neighbor to Boise, for this long but pleasant surprises give us extra reasons to PRAISE GOD!!   This time it was the KOA worker in the flamingo face mask who asked,  when I went to change a ton of change to quarters, “weren’t you the folks who wanted to stay more days?”

“Oh yes, that was THE OTHER THING I was to ask about.  My husband has an appointment on Monday morning.  We would like to ADD Sunday and Monday nights if they become available.” 

“That was what I remembered and YES, they are now available!”  Which explains why we were here, not only for WORSHIP this morning at River City Church, but for the race of the week at the Meridian Raceway just two blocks away!!   We were not aware of a raceway as we were never here for a Saturday night before, but it is ON THE MAP!!  Of course, our sons wanted to know if we had GONE TO THE RACES?   No such luck!   We also missed the Bluegrass Music on Thursday evening this week and Wednesday evening TWO WEEKS AGO!!  Night life that does not include SNORING just isn’t our style, and probably never was?!

At this era of our lives we seem to take turns snoring and not sleeping!  He worries if I seem to be in pain, and the next night I worry that he is not getting enough sleep!  This week it is the “crick in my neck” that was helped considerably by the nice Oriental Lady named Julia who gave me a 30 minute massage Saturday and took most of the kinks out!!  I could use a bit more range of motion, but the pain level plummeted immediately!   With the traffic in cities the extra set of eyes seem to help a LOT, but you have to be able to turn your head!!  Today was MUCH BETTER than the past two or three.

Interesting, Tom was checking the race results while munching his club sandwich after church. I thought it strange that he cared enough to do that.  We could have walked over, or driven the two blocks and watched the race and subsequent fireworks, but it was never even mentioned or discussed.  He has such sensitive hearing that he has to wear ear plugs to mega church WORSHIP with BANDS and amplifiers, so perhaps he wished he could have endured an evening of races, ending in a NASCAR race!  AND WE NEVER ARE TOO TIRED FOR FIREWORKS!!  Next time...

 

 

Farmers and Ranchers

 

FARMERS and Ranchers and the lives they live.

In our Journey across AMERICA we have renewed respect for folks who produce our food,  and products such as ETHANOL, leather, vitamins, glass, metal products, and food by-products.  People who manage to eke out a living for themselves and the future generations in the “fly-over spaces” -  the areas where major shopping might be 2 hours away, each way!!  Where the sports events, likewise, are 2 to 3 hours away, each way.  Where the Middle School and High School football and baseball/softball games are 2 to 3 hours away.  Being a grandparent, who was also working full time when our grandkids were involved in sports, that would have certainly curtailed many of our “gotta be there” trips!!

This last year has caused us to stick to “the roads less traveled” since we pull our HOME on WHEELS at 55 to 60 mph whether on freeways or County Roads.  People on County Roads know where the passing areas are, and we do attempt to be good citizens on the road, pulling over to let the parade pass at the first available wide spot or parking lot.  It helps us to slow the pace, support the local economies in rural AMERICA, and get to know the folks who like to camp or even GLAMP in their RVs.  We have connected with a traveling nurse from Massachusettes while in Colorado, a man from Holyoak CO who works at the prison where some of our family members were employed once upon a time, home-schoolers from New Jersey who “work from home” in the healthcare field, and a young couple who gave up their $1200/month apartment for a $120/month travel trailer payment as he works IT and can work from anyplace with good connections!!

We were the west coast reps at the FAMILY REUNION and BONFIRE this past weekend and Tom was able to participate in a very meaningful ceremony at the FARM.  His sister will be moving into the house shortly with her husband.  She has been painting and having maintenance done on the place that had been deferred as Dad aged.  New flooring in kitchen, laundry room and old, original bathroom, new carpet in the master bedroom, and her husband has taken over the outdoor work – mowing and trimming the shaggy trees.  The flag on the illuminated pole had been blowing in the eastern Colorado wind for several years and was overdue for replacement.  As the old flag came down we heard the Star Spangled Banner sung by a niece and her mother, my husband said a few words of thankfulness for Dad and Mom’s patriotism and for teaching he and his siblings to respect the flag of our Country before attaching the new flag, representing the change of ownership and responsibility for the FARMHOUSE.  Then we all said the Pledge of Allegiance and wished them happiness in their new home on the prairie.

We were so pleased that Aunt Jeri, at 93 she is the last of that generation in our family, surprised us all by arriving just in time for the Changing of the Flag and stayed for the BONFIRE and the musical performance by Jeremy’s Band, he is one of the 16 grandchildren of Tom and Virginia Weathers.

The BONFIRE was the LARGE pile of timber, branches, and debris from years, accumulated just shy of the irrigated cornfield.  That followed the cleaning out of the 40 x 60 foot storage building; some heirlooms were unearthed, but mostly things that Mom had planned to repurpose, gifts from children made in high school - used and then no longer needed - some trunks that hopefully WILL BE repurposed by the younger generation.  We adjourned at DUSK, tired but well fed, and emotionally satisfied; some folks then had a three to five hour drive HOME to where they live!  But checking up the next day, all made it safely!