It was pretty much a normal Sunday morning to where I stopped at the office to check on a few things and then drove off to an early church Service. I was happy to see one of my favorite ministers presiding who always manages to connect the gospel readings to present day life and happenings.
His sermon was a counter-balance to the music that was being provided by someone playing the piano while trying to lead the congregation in song. When I turned around and looked up, an image of Elton John came to mind when seeing how he was nearly swallowing the mic while he was singing and playing. As far as I’m concerned, there’s a great deal of practicing that has to be done before one can combine the two and have it sound acceptable.
On my way out, I had a nice chat with one of the residents of Prairie Place on 1st. I was sharing with her my thoughts on one of the chapters of a book I’m reading which spoke about the spiritual and physical benefits of singing chant in groups. When talking to her about it, she seemed to already understand the benefits of chant. She’s exceptionally sweet person and definitely a great addition to that community.
While I was out mowing today, I stopped and visited with another dear lady who I sold her home to about 13 years ago. My main reason for turning my mower off and interrupting her, was to ask if she’d like me to cut out some nasty volunteer trees that were growing alongside the foundation at the rear of her home. She thought that would be kind of me if I’d do it, so off I went and grabbed my pair of limb snips.
As I was cutting out those nasty creatures, I brought up the subject of my earlier conversation with the lady from Prairie Place. I was saddened to hear that she doesn’t attend her church Services any longer because of the style in which her community of faith has evolved since they hired a new minister. She said after numerous attempts to get used to their new ways, she finally gave up and stopped going. Unfortunately that church has lost a very good person who’s far more musically gifted than one would ever imagine.
While I was pulling away the brush from those clipped-off trees, we noticed a good size garden snake. It startled me at first, but when realizing it was one of the harmless ones, I just let it slither on its way. I did point out the “skin” that it must’ve just shed from its growth cycle. It looked like a cellophane wrapper.
Just as I was getting ready to leave, I noticed a man pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair. As they drew near, I happened to recognize the woman and her son. He recently arrived from out of State to spend some time with his mother who’s now a resident of one of our nursing homes.
I asked why he was in the area, and he said his mother wanted to see the home where she raised her children which was down the street. As chance would have it, I sold their home for them an number of years ago when they decided to move to a ranch out in one of our newer districts. Oh my, how the years have certainly flown by.
Her husband passed away about 4 years ago and after that, the transitioning started to escalate. I could tell she wanted to visit, so I spent some time bringing her up to speed with the happenings in her old neighborhood. I had absolutely no problem spending time with the two of them because I’m sure today’s visit was a good walk down memory lane for the both of them.
You may think me all the more possessed with nature when telling you that I’m now nurturing a large number of white and red oak seedlings that I planted last fall. I’m going to leave them grow this year and possibly next, and then transplant them in various locations.
Over the years, I’ve discovered that trees which are grown from seeds of our area’s trees, seem to do much better than those grown elsewhere and then transplanted here. I’m of the belief they’re more acclimated to our soils and weather patterns which give them more of a chance to grow into healthy mature trees. I’m now wondering if morphic resonance is playing its part.
If any of you are of the group who took last Friday off just so to create a four day weekend, I hope you enjoyed yourselves while spending quality time with friends and family.
Tonight’s one-liner is: Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.
