There is was, at the debris pile on the ground. The shells and some whole black sunflower seeds fall there from the feeder above on a rope line. It’s easy to fill with pulleys and latches on the feeder when we lower it down. The woodpeckers have their own cage of suet nearby.
The whole works is visible from the floor to ceiling windows near the kitchen table. It is in the kitchen but all meals are served there. We tried putting the table in the parlor by the wood stove but that was ridiculous. The food is always prepared in the big kitchen!
So one morning over coffee and eggs we saw the scavengers chowing down on the seed shells on the ground and the population diminished by one and after flying away, the birds came back from their safe perches in the lilac bush/tree. After all, one of their kind was already back and seemed to be satisfied with the menu.
Squirrels, espeically the red ones, were dispatched from the corner of the house with a zeroed in 22 and that worked well. The red ones are the corner gang members that hang out in the wood shed and are mischievous and easily seen with their gang colors. Browns and blacks avoid them.
Julie is getting pretty good with the 22 and when humor is needed I mention to casual visitors she likes to kill just for entertainment. She is pretty safe too. When the nasty squirrels run up one of the big black walnut trees, whe switches to the .410. Even though we have 30 acres and are in a perfect valley, the 22 round can travel a long ways if the shot is missed.
The story I tell Keeps the unwanted salesmen not apt to return. No doubt there is scuttlebutt with the men who approach with good intentions but can be distracting when we engage them in polite conversations about their stances that differ somewhat about our faith. It’s pretty good. Norm / Jack Gator
“The world is a work-in-progress, and we are partners with God in it’s ongoing creation”
Meister Eckhart 13th Century Mystic
When I meet a person, fairly alone at an ‘event’ of artwork, I like to ask questions of them. Way too many times I begin by talking about myself. That’s boring and being a boor to think right out of the box that it’s all about me. Why do I do that? Life is art and I like the praise of a nice arpeggio or a quick cartoon in pencil.
Both of them with a smudge stick to make it look real and with the shadows I put in there. Now, I like to discover with delight and astonishment of a Mondrian in the works, painting a tag on a building or Another Emily Dickinson wordsmith in the rough, ready to take a nine iron pencil and land the whole thing in the cup. It’s spirit excitement and good food to give them an auditory nod of my head. Hand grasping not clapping.
I write things like this one and I never know what I am doing, or how it comes about. Just get in there and paddle and the rapids will come and you will know then what to do.
Many things can be taught but poetry, prose, music and dance are beyond training. There are all sorts of helps but listening to the Spirit telling us what is around the corner of the canvas is the best.
I learned how to touch type when I was listening to Morse code, so typing is my springboard to launch. It helps to have word correction of spelling or weasel words. Fun in a weird way to type a half sentence and discover my fingers are not on home plate! Yjsy vsm nr gim mpe smf yjrm after I really nail it in my mind and then look up at the screen.
If you get a tingle and a smile from your muse, go for it! Look at everything with wonder and grasp the light fantastic which appears right in front of you. Julie and I saw a dancer at a Christmas event at a big church years ago. All the live animals and central casting and stylists were on board that night. It was posh, it was pretty OK and way up in front, a girl unfolded in a dance. Julie and I gasped at the revelation and union of spirit and flesh. It was worth the whole trip and is still a vivid memory.
The entire universe shows itself in a Monarch cocoon, ringed with royal gold and filled with beauty and rebirth. We look for those things and they usually find us instead. We join the Balinese in saying “We have no art. Everything we do is art”
It’s pretty good. Norm / Jack Many thanks to Frederic and Mary Ann Brusat for inspiration.
It was a perfect day for a garden party. Carrie had everyone there and she and Emily were out in the garden. Some tips were welcomed about potato bugs from Emily. She showed how they moved and where they came from. “Under the ground?” Yup. But you can control a small amount of them by just squishing them as they emerge. Or there is a benign way by using diatomaceous earth powder! Any bug with an exoskeleton can be controlled. It was a new word and very good advice from an expert on those things. Bugs.
The round patio table was set with delicious looking pastries and snack sorts of things. Crackers and French Brie. Croissants and small glass dishes filled with pesto.
There were fine china cups that seemed to expect coffee and linen at the places where lawn chairs were set. A high English tea picture set for the honored guests. Gary began digging into the brie and, as another writer, was delighted with all his fellow writers, and good friends, coming over to the table to join him
There was lively conversation approaching as Dave and Sally were on either side of Nigel excitedly filling him in on Scripture verses that explain how this glorious party resembles another to come. Bob was dancing before them, sometimes walking backwards and giving encouragement to the three of them. How exciting it must be to hear these grand stories. Battles and victories with noble people. Suffering with unbelievable impact. Many things almost hidden from casual reading that book.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, just off the porch, I and Peter were whipping up a brew of excellent coffee. Fresh ground and just flown in with Carrie and Peter’s last visit to St. Helena Island. Best coffee beans on the planet for only twenty dollars an ounce. What a smell when the grinder did its work. Oh my, I never thought I would even smell coffee like this! Ecstatic with historical ledge kicking in. The very island that Napoleon was exiled to! Wondering if it was worth his exile to have that coffee every day.
Eddie came in with a really nice linen towel around his arm and he was dressed to ‘the nines’ with an excellent servants black outfit. He delighted everyone when he walked out with a tray loaded with the best espresso ever. Sugar and cream in matching china as well.
It was a gathering of fellow writers that came to enjoy one another’s company and hear stories from experienced raconteurs. The soiree lasted until the evening dew began and the grass was sparkly with the moonlight.
Have you ever thought what heaven would be like? What the King’s table that Moses and seventy some people got to dine at with the creator of everything that is and will be? This was a dim preamble of sorts.
Writers can be persnickety and filled with themselves, but not today. Not in the garden of delights. What a gift for these poetic people to try and capture it in words that just didn’t seem adequate to describe it all.
Our sumptuous original home surrounded indeed by incredible and astounding life. Our home and delight everywhere. A garden of plenty and loved,
Then the garden began to grow other other things. Besides the rows of tasty vegetables, there was the tenderloins of wandering animals. It was refereed to as a garden of delight and a sign says Garden of Eatin’ right on a bench in the middle of the garden
But then unknown neighbors came drifting in, just visiting but extending their brief visits. There were thorny things that had the audacity to spring up with nice flowers with thorns that made them painful to face and even harder to show the gate to. Another tenacious weed family that overstayed their welcome. The worst was the Pampas family. They came so well dressed, nice and tall and promised to give beauty. A pretty family that never got taller than their kids and they stuck together, all year. We noticed they liked to huddle together and never let any other plants in.
Wow, on our land! Well dressed but smarmy. Little by little they began a commune and made a small settlement that was a circular lodge that was closed to outsiders. The circle got bigger every year and soon took over the back lawn.
We gave them a stern notice “no more” and removed the latest arrivals somewhat forcibly, it made no difference. Green tuxedos that our visitors commented of the beauty and summitry of. The Pampas family had no intentions of leaving moving. Somewhere, even into the woods nearby was strongly tried by us.
Desperate, we hired a daredevil pilot to fly his helicopter upside down over their settlement. What a mess to clean up! We also hired a relative, he is a rake at heart, but works hard when he comes out of the shack he lives in. We helped him focus and it seemed the Pampas tribe was gone for good.
You have met them or seen their settlements. A word of advice, be polite but firm and tell their weedy well dressed relatives they are not welcome, even as a visitor. DO not let them plant their roots in your space! No matter how well dressed and polite they are, show them the door.
Call us if things get bad and we will come by with our rakish uncle and upside down Pompous the Pilot (he is related and somewhat shows his greedy origins but knows the score. He’s not cheap, an under the table payoff is needed, but he, as stated, is always on the downside of history and not thought of well. Get rid of the pompous ones and their relatives from Sanhedrin.
contact their money man, Just Scardalot Good luck to you neighbor.
Nature and God—I neither knew yet Both so well knew me. They startled, like Executors of my identity”
Emily Dickinson
Frederic Wisconsin, is a small town with almost a thousand people, and several deer. A small red fox runs across the state highway by the gas station around 4:30 every morning. The town has a restored railway station which is very authentic. There’s a caboose on a siding, a semaphore signal, a metal-wheeled cart with wood barrels and a bright yellow track-section car. A chain-saw carved wooden bear, stands near the roadbed where the metal tracks once ran. We live 7 miles to the west. A short buggy ride for the Amish who are half a mile from town.
The train station anchors Main Street, which is about a block and a half long with diagonal parking. Frederic has a smattering of small shops: a hardware store, two bars, a library, and the usual shops that sell antiques and knickknacks to tourists and used furniture to the locals.
Leaving town on the state highway you will find a gas station with well made waist-expanding doughnuts a car dealership and a tidy golf course with another bar. It is a cute town with a nice cafe and a second rate self-service car wash. The people in the town are fairly reserved but will speak with you if you speak first to them. A few of the people will wax nostalgic about the glory days of the railroad and the daily passenger train.
When first told of the twice-a-day train schedule, I knew I had missed something by being born 20 or 30 years too late. Of course, the tracks are gone except the siding with the caboose but the roadbed is now a merged bicycle/snowmobile trail. The bicyclists park by the bakery and the snowmobile folks park at the bar on the corner.
Much to the towns confusion, the bakery has been closed for several years from a fire. Now they only sell wholesale and the main street side windows are covered up. There has also been a fire next door above one the bars. A fire no-sale. Two for the price of 1. Soon, the two buildings, which were destroyed, will rise from the ashes become one. A patio for patrons of the bar and bakery will finish the project. As I write this there is still windows and doors to install and the insides finished. The town is excited about the project. Have a pastry with your beer and relax.
There are five churches of the usual preferences, and even a small Amish community on the edge of town. Their carriages and the clip-clop of the horses add charm and fertilizer to the main street. The small town chugged along pretty well and the years brought the expected changes. A late night two dollar store and an old department store now selling secondhand furniture and dishes. There are treasures worth searching for: top line toasters and old hard-bound books. The two dollar store has a red box for last years latest movies. I always wonder why everything anyone buys from those quick two dollar stores smells like laundry detergent.
The early-morning men gather every morning, parking in the same parking spots and sitting at the same table. sipping passable coffee and eating good sourdough toast. The restaurant on the corner was named ‘Beans’ and now is known as ‘The Tin Shed.’ It is an early morning place of connections and warmth on winter days. The Tin prefix refers to the new metal siding. Well done face lift. The huge ventilation fan, dripping delicious smelling grease is still around the corner over the sidewalk. Bacon and french fries mingle their smells delightfully.
On those snowy winter days the village sweeps while its people sleep, the snow and drift removal goes on with the metallic rasp of shovels and the diesel snort of the plows. Some merchants shovel other store-front sidewalks because they have hearts for it. There is camaraderie in the winter, a hunkering and shared misery too: dead car batteries, ice on the roofs and leaking roofs in downtown with all the flat roofs common in row-house shops.
The down-town sometimes appeared like an old man with teeth missing. There were too many empty store-fronts. The draw of the big box stores about 25 miles south takes a toll on local merchants. A small town can only support one antique store or one that has used books, Jackets and couches. Frederic had a burned out bar, the bakery with no public access, an empty appliance store and an excellent hardware store, an old one with everything you need. A new pharmacy and clinic. There is a friendly grocery store with a deli and things the big box does not handle. (My favorite is Lingonberry jam.) There is an exit power door that sticks open slightly and that is a reminder that the wholesale grocery business operates on a rather slim margin. It still works but keeps the entryway nicely cool in the winter.
There is a food truck that shows up in the summer by the old railroad depot with great gyro sandwiches. A tow behind coffee business is faithful a block up the main street parked at the laundromat lot. Great coffee. to be continued
I drove About 20 miles out of my way, but it was an undeniable mission. I wrote a column, Scrap yard or junkyard, and it was the scrap yard I was going to.
A few weeks before to this mission, the man that owns the yard worked on a part I needed.He extracted a seat belt assembly out of a 25 year old Ford truck. It was for our old Ford Ranger that needed one. This time it was the right one. First part did not fit at my first acquisition and the reel was locked up. Oh, got to go back and get one that fits and works!
The owner and I had a laugh the last time we were together, teasing a city man who was startled by a snake in the trunk of a vehicle he was ‘inspecting’ near where we were working. He even took a photo of it. A huge rat snake, a scary looking thing when you first meet one. Harmless to us, the smaller mammals don’t like them.
When we encountered the snake man back at the office, I made up a Latin name for the snake and the last word of my invented sentence was ‘Morte’ “It’s a two stepper..better stay clear and don’t throw anything at it again!” The owner, Harold, winked his right eye at me and we had a little smile together. Military bonding time. I paid 25 dollars for the first assembly.
I returned a few days later and told him the door sticker on the truck said 1999 built in November. The truck was actually a 2000 according to knowledgeable gear heads and I missed that small detail. Plus the reel on the first part I got from him did not work. The reel is at the bottom end of the seat belt assembly and that’s the part that allows the belt to be pulled up. If there is a crash, the reel locks up and keeps the belt tight.
Off he went to find an assembly that worked and he found one out in the yard. I heard him with the battery operated whiz wheel grinding away at the sheet metal on the door of the scrap truck. Tough extraction just from the auditory cues as I sat in his shop chair waiting for him. An old chair with stains and worn out. Obviously his chair. He returned and the reel worked. He handed it to me and declared: “twenty five bucks. I worked pretty hard”
I was hoping for a ‘warranty’ so all I had in my wallet was fourteen dollars. He looked at me and my well used truck with four ones and a ten on the seat. He accepted the money and put out his hand for a shake on the deal.
The owner of the scrap yard is older than I and he wears his age well. A Short man with runnels of wrinkles on his face and a focused gaze. He was just coming out of the side door of his home when I drove up today. A man driving a Jeep wrangler was leaning on the door jamb, chatting.
I tried to dismiss the notion it was important to return whenever I had the cash to give him what he deserved. It was one of those gentle and persistent communiques from God. It’s impossible to ignore God when He does tells these things to me. I pray you have these experiences too. I walked up and stood next to the leaning man and held out a ten and a one for the scrap yard owner.
He remembered me, he remembers everything. An astonishment and a smile was given. Another hand shake of our eyes. I told him “ you deserve it for your work” I knew this was right and true.
My drive back home was relaxing. The new pavement on County B was smooth and the detour ahead signs were still up waiting for the paint caravan to finish up.
I began to feel the undercurrent of life on Malta. It now reminds me of stories from ‘Jack’ about towns that are dreary but in vivid memory, stand out to once again astonish me. Real life.
Places that have no ‘eye appeal’ as hungry land realty people describe places and homes of no value to them. Only our limited impressions that puzzle us and them. Why would anyone live there with joy and smiles of satisfaction? Folks willing to help and extend hands of welcome when it seems poverty overwhelming is seen.
When Julie and I were bicycle touring the shores of the Great Lakes, we took a boat ride to an island in lake Huron, Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw). Recently wedded we booked a fabulous hotel on that island that allows no motorized traffic. Perfect and quiet. Expensive. All of the hotels around the perimeter are almost castles. Nothing is heard through the open windows expect some wind and the clip clop of delivery wagons of milk and supplies.
Only a surprising motor sound of the turbines of the ferry twice a day. Delightful, being back on our farm with only the sounds of fishing boats on the lake over our hill. Waking up to breakfast prepared with linen and silverware arranged correctly downstairs. An expensive luxury we heard about and were enjoying.
Another hotel next to ours just as stunning akin to a multilayered wedding cake, perfect white siding and horse liveries waiting for riders around the perimeter. We decided to ride our Santana tandem bike around the nice road. Half a way around there was a road heading inland like slicing a pie in tow pieces. Irresistible and quiet with our bike we pedaled into a small village in the middle. Unassuming and welcome to strangers on a bicycle gazing at their town.
We were on a honeymoon of sorts and different. We were shown to a small tavern that had a one lane bowling alley. Set your own pins. It was fun and we talked truth. The people that lived there were the workers of the hotels and referred to themselves as islanders and we were cottagers. No linen settings and luxury king beds were there. Just honest and friendly working people as we were. More memories embossed. Commoners that sold clay pipes on Malta and worked for visitors as people do on islands throughout the worlds waters.
Those unforgettable memories are the best gifts given to us by the giver of all things. Guided by the gentle voice of the Son of God to hear and see life. Pause and listen to Him as the gentle whisper once again shows us that path to redemption of our souls. Beauty and love on that road that leads us to the middle of creation itself. It’s pretty good, Norm / Jack
I was feeling very grateful and looked in my library for some references to that word.
“If the only prayer we say in our lifetime is ‘Thank you’ that would suffice” Meister Edkhart
“It puts everything into it’s proper place and perspective Rebbe Nachman
“Taking things with gratitude and not taking things for granted” G. K. Cthesterton
“God is the source of all good, so we must thank Him for it.” Shashiko Mirata
“It’s the breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise to You only” Ingrahm,, Leonard & Jordan(Authors of ”Great are you Lord ‘)
“A good time is a taste of God” John Auelio
Good and perfect advice I have found from these authors. You can look them up and I will tell you where to look if you ask me. (gatorjack75@gmail.com)
One of them is a Hasidic teacher, another a scholar of Islam. There is a Protestant preacher. A Catholic priest. A Suffi seer and poet and a famous British writer. This small compendium is just a start of the wisdom to be found throughout literature. I would earnestly urge reading and searching. This generation does not read in general. A lost art. Primary and secondary schools not long ago encouraged reading the classics.
It seems just recent authors are taught, many of them with political or radical thoughts. Mathematics still depends on scholars of Greece to which we can say thank you to. One of them figured out how to measure the great pyramid by his shadow without a laser sight or a spotting scope! There is brilliance and mystery available in dusty old books. Seek them out, most if not all of them are hardbound. I look in free book kiosks. (I found one on classic Russian authors!) The kiosks resemble nice bird houses.
A great Islam scholar stated that God is the source of all good, so we must thank Him for it
I was once admonished for writing about religion as a columnist and only focusing on the Bible. Recently I have found wisdom from all sources of faith. Why do we say ‘thank you’ many times a day? It’s Life 101 and we all have learned that, even our pets thank us for kindness. We usually don’t purr or lick ears to express gratitude. At least most of us. Our family has ways of doing these things and it’s our deal.
Excitement and pleasure are found in many places. “Hell is excited about your arrival” A quote from C.S. Lewis’ great divorce It’s difficult for me to comprehend my favorite author acknowledging the devil as having any sort of pleasure but what do I know about these things?
As the old paper boys would shout “Read all about it!” It’s pretty good, Norm / Jack
Getting up early for the routine of morning. Ablutions in the salle de bain a. (pardon my French) and then the usual half awake gathering of juice, coffee and pills. I sit in my very lazy boy and gaze out the south windows to the garden and also view the parking lot, west of the garden.
The old Saab that our Son lovingly made into a fast sports car. Whistling as the 15 pound turbocharger bent around a tight corner on a local narrow road, channeled through granite boulders, but it now has a bad second gear and an extension cord at the hood. The other collection of vehicles, all facing me bringing memories of transportation. Horse power in the corral that nicker and ask to be useful.
Musing on the dog eared books near me, smelling the warm coffee nearby and distracted by the memories brought forth, suddenly pleasing. Watching for the hummingbird sipping at the feeder with it’s long proboscis looks like the cord coming out of the Saab.
I fondly remember the dishes I washed last night when I operated the coffee maker, another successful stack in the drying rack. Morning sun as I relax and read Thomas Moore’s quotes about these types of thoughts. Everyday life that is not ordinary. A butterfly with a damaged wing affects a galaxy a thousand light years away.
We are Created in the womb by the thoughts of our creator and brought into the universe for His joy and pleasure.
Julie arises and I make our bed and feel the quilt that Grandma Jeannie made, and I center it. There is wind visible now, it’s hot and 90 degrees is forecast. Outside work will be brief, but still fulfilling. An expectation of today’s holiday and the smell of the grill wafting over the parking lot for guests coming this afternoon..
Time now to lay out clothes, toss the laundry into the washer and go see what is coming up in the beauty of the garden.
Ordinary day? Just miracles one after another, another extraordinary day. Love it.
We have all seen the signs at church’s on our drives. Worship at 10. What is that really? How can a church service be also called worship? It would that worship is the most important thing to be conveyed to people driving by, looking for a convenient time to pop in. We know there is teaching or a sermon of some kind. Is that worship? Or is worship singing, music of some kind! Pianos or an organ played by the professional keyboardists?
Memories of a pastor up on the stage, waving his arms, conducting the off key choir of my sister and myself. There, on the solid-tombstone-like sign out by the road, is an announcement of Sunday school. The memories of stiff, starchy shirts and one-day a week shiny black shoes and a suit coat also worn once a week.
Children’s thoughts of school on one of only two days off from ‘regular school’ Incomprehensible words and recitation of forgotten things we were supposed to study quickly on Saturday evening so we looked and sounded perfect. The old flannel graph with cloth cutouts of sheep, shepherds, and Goliath. I did not enjoy Sundays when I was very young.
It was Usually hot in summer and winter and in a basement room with other kids, rolling their eyes at the teacher when she wasn’t looking. The bright side was dinner out at Hart’s with the baked chicken that my Grandpa liked too! The chicken was worth the trip. My only excuse these days for not having a grip on what was being poured into me was the rule we had to be in Sunday school until we were 21. Then we were welcomed into the main church building on the other side of the parking lot.
Now I see what I had not seen in my childhood. Beauty and sermons that take your breath away with the truth of them. The music has the same words. Now with Electric guitars., drums and sound systems that actually work. There is good coffee in the lobby and our friends are there too. There is an eagerness to be with people to experience the Lord and His words. Love letters, scripture. I sing the notes I hear, always have heard. Sometimes I sing Harmonies which can puzzle nearby worshipers. I can tell and so I get back onto the main octave and notes. It’s fun for me to sing loud because the music is loud too.
Not long ago I was joined to a Christ centered music team that sang love songs to the Lord. We traveled a lot and sang at many houses of prayer in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We even had the grace given to sing at Times Square Church in New York City. There was no one else in there but the janitor who let us in. I like to impress people when I mention that event till it comes down to the empty church bit. None of them are empty though are they?
That music starts a life of its own and a path opens up. And so goes the romance of all loves. The love that lasts. The sound of the best sunset you can ever remember. A realization that nothing else even comes near.
How it feels to touch the heart of eternity. Waiting with hushed voices at times, glancing side to side to see that Man that is there. The Man with fire in His eyes. Musicians and scholars seeing for the first time the bridegroom. The singers sing and the scholars dig into old languages, seeking the reason for this romance. The focus. The looking glass of a telescope fixed on light that is impossibly old.
On our side of eternity it seems like the flame on a guttering candle. No one can see what you can see, no one can sing what you can sing. There is no one like Him so open up your eyes and see. Getting to the place where our souls can rest while the fires are banked and steam is rising. A sharp intake of breath. Astonishment and once again time starts anew. The worship, akin to David’s worship in the wilderness or the 40 years of Israel in the desert.
Quite a few times at the end of a session of several hours there is hushed singing with no instruments. The team can hear others from the room also softly singing. They finally stop and there is a feeling that comes to that you can’t lie down and you can’t stand. Absolute silence in the room that is radiating Jesus’s presence. Stunning joy with some tears. People are baptized with John’s water and the Word must be baptized with fire to go into our hearts. A blazing bush drew Moses and a blazing church will draw the world. Music and the truth of scripture are the kindling and you are the fuel that responds to the flames of love coming forth.
“Every poet and musician and artist, except for Grace, is drawn away from the love of the thing he tells, to the love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him.” a.
Jack gators grace notes 