Slick Rock Happenings
A doctor’s waiting room is a good place to discuss the world’s problems and solutions: who is to blame for what? China? Our government? The oil companies? The weather? The man down the creek? The church? Certainly I am not to blame for anything! From that pessimistic and complaining atmosphere, Rosie and I went to visit a sick friend at the hospital. Though Linda was hospitalized for several days with excruciating pain and was scheduled for surgery the next day, she was not complaining. With a chuckle she said, “Fun, fun, fun!” 
My sister, Sadie Yoder, from close to Harrisburg, PA, along with her three adult daughters, came to visit me. This was a Christmas present for their Mother from the girls. Isn’t that a wonderful gift? We had such a good time. When relatives come to visit who haven’t been here before, it’s fun to show them around and introduce them to our roads and our ways and our accent.
I wonder if the Blue Bells are blooming on Reeser’s Hill? When I was a child, on a Saturday in April, we kids trudged out our farm lane to the adjoining farm. We stopped at the farm house to ask permission from Mrs. Reeser; “Can we pick Blue Bells today?” Their pasture had a grassy hill sloping to the stream. That day the hill was purplish blue with a profuse carpet of flowers. Technically I guess, they are Grape Hyacinth, but we called them Blue Bells. With her permission, we picked huge fist fulls of flowers. That done, we rolled and screamed down the hill, like a barrel, ‘til we were dizzy and tired. (Watch out for the cow pies!) Then we carried our blue treasure home and displayed them in Mason Jars on the kitchen table.
My friend, Elenor (Gross) Wiffenbach, with her daughter Sherry, drove from their home in South Georgia, to Jackson, her home town. Every once in a while we Mountain Gals get a hankering for “Home”. She had called me, “Can you meet me at McDonald’s in Jackson for breakfast? I’d like to meet you. And by the way, is there any way you could find me some shucky beans and dried apples?”
Our prayer chain has a long list of sick and hurting and grieving folk, who need a prayer touch. And a long list of unconcerned folk who need the salvation that Jesus offers and healing for their souls. Life can be extremely difficult, but the Next Life will remedy all that; pleasures for ever more, no sorrow or pain. BUT only if your sins are forgiven and under the blood of Jesus. If not, you can expect no pleasures.
“That boy must have steel rods in his legs”, I’m thinking. Our grandson, Nathan, along with his brother and his Mother, came to visit me from Northern Ohio. They have always enjoyed Slick Rock Hollow and have taken advantage of it’s opportunities for hiking, biking, running, and creek play. There is an old two-wheel bicycle here and when those boys come, they bring along parts and tools to ready the bike for hard all-terrain travel.
The month of March, how welcome it is. Oh, I know, March came in like a lamb, and traditionally, she will go out like a lion. And between a lamb and a lion we might experience every extreme weather condition. Still…. Spring is on the way and I feel excitement in the air. I might even start walking again.
The winter has not been as wearisome as I feared, and now, because He lives, I can walk into another season without fear.
This morning of our first significant snow, I was trying to remember the words to a poem we memorized at grade school; The First Snowfall. I couldn’t quite get it together anymore, so I got on the Web. There it was….the story of “…The gradual of patience that fell from the cloud like snow…..flake by flake, healing and hiding the scare of our deep plunged woe.” He wrote this after the death of his child…., “when that mound was heaped so high.”
The Big Sky in North Indiana was the perfect stage for the total lunar eclipse on Feb. 19. It was a very cold, very clear night and my granddaughters, my daughter and myself donned heavy coats and scarves. We turned off all lights and with binoculars and camera traipsed out to the front lawn to watch the drama.
The birds are crazy this morning; feeding heavy. They act starved, but I know better. That big bag of sunflower seeds is shrinking fast. One of my favorite things is hearing the Song Sparrow begin to sing again, in January…..regardless of rain or snow or sleet or wicked winds. He is so optimistic. He helps me enjoy Winter but think Spring.
I walked around the corner at the drug store the other day and noticed a little old lady coming toward me. She looked vaguely familiar and a little haggard. I turned to take a better look and she was gone……It was me! I hate mirrors, they are too honest.
