Flying With the Eagles

On a family vacation to Southern Illinois we planned a stop at a Bald Eagle nesting area near the Mississippi river.  We thought it would be a great way to break up the monotony of the drive. From the viewing area we could see the eagles sitting in the tops of the trees and flying high above the water.  They were so far away that you could barely see their white feathered heads.

We crossed the Mississippi to have lunch in Iowa and the kids begged to try to find a way to see the eagles closer, up before we left the area.  I explained that we were not sure if there was a way to get closer and that we still had several hours on the road to get to the campground before dark.  They seemed very disappointed and I thought the whole plan had backfired.

As we headed back across the river, one of the kids yelled and pointed out the window.  Flying alongside the bridge and just above the water was a magnificent Bald Eagle.  Only the two of us sitting on the passenger side could see it and there was nowhere to pull over on the bridge.

Suddenly the eagle rose up effortlessly on a currant of air and began flying directly across from us in full view of everyone in the car.  For a few moments it felt as though we were flying right along with it, until another currant of air carried it up and out of sight.  It was one of the highlights of the whole trip.

As we drove on, I thought about how I had been content to see the eagles from far away, not willing to change our schedule or look for another vantage point.  Those few moments of feeling as though I could fly freely, made me wish that I had been as willing as the kids to put aside my plans and believe God for more.

 

 

The Romance of Nature

The crackle and pop of the gravel, underneath the tires, was amplified by the dense silence. It was an hour before dawn and we were traveling to our favorite hunting spots on the family farm.  It was not only silent but eerily dark.  Darker than usual because clouds covered the legions of stars that normally blanketed the country sky.

We navigated only by our headlights which seemed to be cut short by the darkness.  Suddenly the gravel appeared to take on shape as the lights revealed a huge Whitetail buck standing in the middle of the road.  It barely glanced at us as we slowed to a stop.  It was the rutting season and he only had one thing on his mind.  We could see her at the edge of the light in the field next to the road

Before we knew what was happening, a second buck appeared out of the blackness.  The first one swung around and the battle began.  We turned off the engine and lowered the windows listening to the sounds of the antlers as they cracked together and the grunts and groans of the combatants. It was thrilling and mesmerizing.  Wild life realized far beyond the two dimensional scenes of a nature documentary.

As quickly as it began it was over and the second buck retreated into the darkness. The victor wasted no time claiming his spoils. She had waited patiently for him and like the end of an old movie, the scene faded to black as we continued down the road giving them some privacy.  Driving away, I realized that from the moment the battle began we had hardly spoken a word.  We were silent observers capturing time, not with a photograph or a video but with a shared memory that was ours alone. 

Get Over It

There’s such a thing as stalking

            There are people I can call

 Why can’t you see it’s not meant to be

             No matter what you saw

 It wasn’t a tease or even a glance

             The whole encounter was just by chance

 The view through that window was dim at best

             I’m afraid you just imagined the rest

 You have got to stop calling late at night

             Your obsessiveness is just not right

 And even if I let you in

             What makes you think love would begin

 I really don’t want to break your heart

             But the only choice is to stay apart

 There are things you just don’t understand

             That would get in the way of romantic plans

 Long before her heart could be won

             The fix was in, the deed was done

 Makes no difference how you carry on

             She will resist your fatal charms

 I know you think that your all that

             But after all, Tom, you’re just a cat

Breakthrough

There it is, I see it now

            The possibilities and the how

Plain as day the steps are clear

            One leap of faith and then I’m there

No use rushing after all this time

            I wouldn’t want to miss a sign

I should think it through once more

            List pros and cons and add the scores

 I’m not so bad off after all

             This could be temptations call

 To make this leap of faith alone

             Might lead me to a fate unknown

 It seemed that victory was near

             Until I looked through eyes of fear

 But when I look through eyes of faith

             The path before me becomes straight

 In my weakness He is strong

             And all my life to Him belongs

 His perfect love casts out my fear

             And once again the victory’s near

A Body in the Trunk or Oh Lucy VI

Every year my husband and I went deer hunting on a family farm about 4 hours from home.  One year he got a doe on Sunday afternoon.  The processor near the farm was not open on Sunday so we had to bring the deer home on the roof of our Suburban.  It was unseasonably warm that year so we covered it with a tarp packed with ice.  That night he hung it in the garage and we planned to transport it to our local processor when he got home from work the next day.

Monday afternoon he called and told me that he had to work late and since it was so hot we would probably end up paying for its disposal.  Our family loved venison and the meat would really help keep the grocery bills down for the winter so I decided I had to try and save it.

It was hanging right above our chest freezer in the garage so I put a tarp over the freezer and tried to release the pulley rope slowly to gently lay it down.  I should have stopped right after several hundred pounds of dead weight crashed down onto the freezer but I was determined.

 The next step was to back the car up and pull the tarp and deer into the trunk.  Unbelievably, it worked but suddenly I knew it had all been too easy.  The deer was lying in the trunk with its legs sticking straight up.  I grabbed a leg to fold it down but it was then I realized that rigor mortis applied to deer too.  I could not close the trunk and I wasn’t about to drive to the processor like that.  I literally had to climb in with the dead body and push with all my strength to wedge its legs beneath the back of the trunk.  The legs were so stiff that the deer was locked into position by the tension.

 Game usually appeared at the processors in the back of pick-up trucks so when I told them it was in the trunk they seemed amused, until it took 3 of them to get it out because it was wedged in so tightly.  The best part was trying to convince my husband that I had actually managed to get it there by myself.  I don’t think he believes it to this day.

It's Just a Game or What Do You Mean There Are No Directions?

Is a Comic Con a felon?

            Are two Wii a Wheeze?

Sorry, but the gaming world

            Is not my cup of tea

Don’t get me wrong I’ve played a few

            From Pong to Mario

But my gaming heart belongs

            To Scrabble and Uno

That doesn’t make me old you know

            Just a connoisseur

 I’ll stick to classics that I love

            They're cheaper that’s for sure

Room at the Table

Divorced was not something that I had ever imagined being and the aftermath not something I would ever have expected.  The pain of rejection, failure and guilt mixed with the feeling of somehow being out of place and time, took my breath away.

 I had a good friend that I could cry to but who never let me give up. She kept reminding me that God would always be there for me.  I knew it was true but it just didn’t seem as real as the pain.  One day I was suddenly overwhelmed by the smallest thing.  I wanted my children to come to dinner at my new apartment but I didn’t have enough plates.  It touched off a flood of emotions and I found myself at my friend’s kitchen table sobbing once again.  I couldn’t even explain why. 

 After I pulled myself together we took a walk and stopped at a garage sale.  I only had $2.00 in cash on me so I wasn’t really expecting to buy anything.  I noticed a cardboard box under a table that was marked “$1.50 for all”.  I pulled it out and opened it.  My friend thought there was a spider in it because I let out a little yelp.  It was a box of dishes but not just any dishes.  They were exactly like mine.  If I had won the lottery that day it would not have meant as much to me as that box of dishes.  The pain wasn’t about needing the dishes but about needing to know that I was loved and not alone and someone understood my deepest fears and emotions.  He really was and would always be there for me.

 Whenever I use those dishes I think about the comforting words of the 23^rd Psalm and the verses that say that “He prepares a table before me…..  He is a loving God that longs to comfort and provide for us in the midst of our deepest sorrows.  We have a standing invitation and there’s always room at the table.

Science Unplugged

Raising quail wasn’t all work.  Every summer we entered our birds in the County Fair and every year we won Best in Show.   Not because our quail were the best but because they were the only quail entered.

We had created educational displays about what quail ate and how they lived in the wild for the kids. One day the principle of a local private school stopped at our fair booth and asked if I could to do a presentation to the science class.  She also asked if they could hatch quail eggs in the classroom like they could chicken eggs.  The classroom incubator was the same type I used to start my quail business so I told her I thought it would work.

The presentation went well and I don’t know who was more excited about the hatch, me or the kids.  Every day I stopped by after school hours to check the temperature and humidity.  The eggs were scheduled to hatch on a Monday so I stopped in the Friday before to get everything ready for the big event.  Early Monday morning the principle called to say something was terribly wrong and could I come right away.  When I got there a familiar smell greeted me – dead chicks.  I ran over to the incubator and saw some of the eggs half open and some that were fully hatched but dead.

We quickly cleaned out the dead and dying chicks and tried to get rid of the smell before any kids arrived.  I was horrified and could not figure out what had gone wrong.  Everything looked perfect on Friday. Even though a few chicks hatched and survived that day, they asked me to remove the incubator immediately after school.  Since I didn’t seem to know what had happened they were not willing to risk finding any more dead chicks the next morning.

I didn’t think I could ever show my face at the school again until the principle called and apologized.  The weekend before the hatch the janitor mistakenly unplugged the incubator to plug in the floor polisher.  The sudden drop in temperature and humidity caused the initial carnage.  Once the temperature was back to normal the rest of the chicks were able to hatch.

 They hatched chickens the following year and that was just fine with me. 

 

 

To Blog or Not to Blog

The ideas never stop
They keep rising to the top

I try to focus, sort and plan
But soon they get the upper hand

If my workday intervenes
I think their gone and then come dreams

Some colorful, some frightening
They seem to be ideas with themes

What would happen if I let go
And listened to the constant flow

Would I continue to create
Or become frozen by the weight

Of random thoughts and questionings
Liberated ideas would bring

Is a stream of conciousness
The way to fame or great success

Or just distractions threatening
to keep my goals beyond my reach

Where was I now, I do digress
There was a reason for this mess

To explain how blogging solves
Where to put ideas that jog

My memories, questions, thoughts and prayers
That may bring hope and joy if shared

Oh Lucy, Lord Help Me

Oh Lucy, how I laughed at all your antics way back when
Wondering how I could believe the messes you got in

Never thinking anyone, least of all myself
Would ever find themselves in awkward places yelling help

But suddenly I noticed that things were happening
That bore a strange resemblance to some episodes I'd seen

I realized that others might begin to make connections
And so prayed this prayer to the Lord for His protection

Lord help me when I step outside the box into the muck
And help me please when my miscalculations get me stuck

Lord help me when curiosity leads me off your path
And when my brilliant schemes disclose the common sense they lack

So Lord will you please give me the wisdom that I need
To see less and less of Lucy in my thoughts and in my deeds

Oh Lucy, you have taught me to laugh at my mistakes
I count them now with all my blessings as my life's outtakes