"Stop and consider the wondrous works of God." Job 37:14

 I've been a city dweller for over 60 years, but really all it takes is a short trip, out on the highway, to remind me that neat uniform houses and the finely trimmed green lawns of the suburbs, aren't really the norm. Out here, in the vast middle land of the United States, we have a whole lot more.

Today, I drove South for several hours, heading toward a small community. Along the way, I passed field after field of harvested corn and soybeans. Although, I traveled the entire day on Kansas Highways, the infamous amber waves of grain are found West, of where I traveled. I saw no wheat stumble on this trip. This time of year, before planting, the fields are Winter messy with dried weeds, plant stubble and a few volunteer cedar tree seedlings sprouting up. 

I also observed an annual ritual, as I passed the same fields on my way home, going North. There were columns of smoke rising from those fields and pastures. Controlled burning of farmland is very common, in the Spring, in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. And burning is best controlled a few days after some heavy rain.

I am not a crop expert, but I do know that controlled burning has been proved to naturally eliminate volunteer trees and invasive foreign plants, like honeysuckle and hedge trees. And, burning warms up the soil for easier planting and earlier germination of seed. Some folks fuss about the air pollution from the smoke, and burning can be dangerous. But, there are always some negatives in every process. 

Vast prairies once covered most of the Middle States. Natural fires kept the trees scarce and the grasses grew very tall and dense. As the Indians and the bison were removed, farmers and ranchers moved into the West. Their plants and animals took over the prairies and burning ceased. 

Burning is back, and as an observer, it's an awesome sight. 

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 Masterful Creator of lightening, storms and weather: We give thanks for the seasons and Your many blessings. Let us be good stewards of your Earth.

 

It's Classic

 OK folks. there is nothing like a raging cold/flu to make your mind wander and come up with the most bizarre thoughts. I'm suspecting that I was in the midst of a middle-grade fever and not quite coherent, when I decided to listen to opera on the U-tube Channel. Normally, I am not a fan of opera. You know the stories are all scary and numerous people are dying left and right. The boy may or may not get the girl, depending on whether he kills her or she kills him!

Well, I was in the mood to listen to some really '"close to perfect" music. The first thing I chose was Luciano Pavarotti, singing Nessun Dorma, the Tenor solo, from Puccini's Opera, "Turandot".  Well, the tears started rolling down my face. It's moving. Tremendously moving. I've seen several performances of "Turandot", live, and it's a nasty gory, severed "heads on poles" story. But, that aria, sung with all the passion that Pavarotti can muster, is the best.

Then, again because, I was feverish, I wiped my tears and listened to four different sopranos sing "Queen of the Night", the coloratura solo from Mozart's, "The Magic Flute". Masterpieces, every rendition. No tears this time, but I was awestruck. Staccato high notes, that make you smile, every time. and, it's a classic "earworm" melody. Anybody, even the tone deaf can sing it. Oh, it will sound awful, but you can belt it out. Check around the Internet and you can hear the talented Meryl Streep, literally butcher it....on purpose.

I'm on the mend. No more opera, today.....just a few Beatles songs and a oldie or two.

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Dear Lord. Reflection is good. No matter what choices we make, we know that you are there to guide and lead us. Protect us from our foibles. Forgive our stupidity.

 

 

 

 

"Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain"

 You can only visit so many gorgeous beaches and stunning land formations, on a vacation to a tropical island. We did have some down time, suitable for a couple of house-bound activities, and a good rule of thumb for hosting is to ALWAYS provide house guests with a choice of activities.

Our first 4 guests this year, in the Dominican Republic, were Domino Players. They play together, regularly at the Y, near their homes. While staying with us, if they had a couple of non-touristy hours to spare, they spent it playing Mexican Train Dominoes, on the patio of the Villa. (BTW...Mexican Train Dominoes has nothing to connect it to trains or Mexicans. )

Dominoes is played avidly, in all Caribbean Nations. It's probably one of the few things the feuding Dominicans and Haitians, have in common. Our guests were excited to observe Dominican locals playing Dominoes. The intensity of the play...slamming down tiles to complete your turn, was a little frighting for the four friendly-lady Domino players from Kansas. Turns out we have a outdoor Domino Pavillion, on the beach next to our house, and our snorkeling guests regularly find discarded Domino Tiles, along with sea glass and shells, in the surf. (Dealt you a couple of game terms, in that paragraph ;)

Then, on a whim, I decided to pack a 1000 piece Jig-saw puzzle, in my checked bag. All four groups of our guests, worked on the "Wizard of Oz Puzzle", completing it three time, during the vacation. It was a fun activity to discover pieces and parts of Four separate Dorothys, both the good and the bad witch, other characters and a plethora of yellow bricks.

BTW...I did look up the spelling of Domino....and the plural can be either an added e or es. Also, it seems that you may still win the Spelling Bee is you spell the singular, with a final E or not.  

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 Dear God. Your world is a wondrous place. There is so much to see and do. We are grateful for the opportunities that we have been given. Remind us to look at the whole picture and the whole world. We are blessed.

 

 

 

 

Todo bien.

 Spending a month in a foreign country, where the spoken language is not your native tongue, is a challenge. When folks say..."Everybody everywhere knows enough English, to communicate.", they are wrong. More correctly....."Most Americans know just enough Spanish, to make them look stupid and get them in trouble." And, I'm absolutely, one of those Americans.

No hablo Espanol.  Well, actually, I know a lot of nouns in Spanish. I proudly have the vocabulary of a 2 year-old Spanish speaker. I can read and order most anything, from a restaurant menu. I have a few road signs down pat and most of the time I can tell you what types of stores we are passing. I can say Hello and Goodbye.

But, I understand very little conversation-wise. The two years of French, that I took in high school, were wasted time and effort. Beyond parlez-vous, francaise...It's all been long forgotten.

My recent time in the Dominican Republic (native language Spanish), and my pitiful attempts to communicate, reminded me of the time, years ago, that I was asked to teach foreign language classes in a Middle School. To my credit, I did okay, while teaching the beginning French classes, but I hit the wall when I tried to teach those wise 7th graders to ask...."How old are you?" in Spanish? Immediately after pronouncing the phrase, in my best fake-Spanish, I was corrected by Jose', who sat in the last row of the classroom. Jose' said, "Teacherlady. You say ass-hole, instead of years." 

Well, there you go. Proof of just enough knowledge to get you in trouble. 

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 Kind and Gracious Lord. Forgive our errors. Lead us "in the path of righteousness". Remind us that we are not all-knowing and humble us enough to make us palatable to others.

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

 A tropical vacation. Ocean sunrises, waves lapping and crashing against the sand and coral. A new variety of tropical fruit every day. We are home from our month in the tropics. The memories are fresh and will continue to bring smiles of recognition, for weeks to come.

As you might expect, I wrote every day in a journal to preserve those memories. Someday, we won't be making this annual trek, and I'll have it all on paper. We truly enjoy our days in the Dominican Republic. There are new discoveries every day and as I kept repeating to our guests (half of whom happened to be Kansans)....."we're not in Kansas, anymore."

Right off the plane, it's clear that unlike Kansas, there appear to be no traffic rules and regulations. Hundreds of single, triple, quadruple and even 6 rider motor scooters weave in and out of the car, truck and tour bus traffic. One guest called in chaotic, but most of us just remark....On my God!

The food is great. We ate fresh fruit every. Bananas and pineapple are particularly tasty and more flavorful than the imported ones, in our Midwest. I have learned to eat fresh caught fish and shrimp, prepared with the heads still attached. Ever had fresh Chinola juice, or Guava? Yummy. And, mangu, for breakfast, was a hit with just about everyone.

Of course our Kansas guests enjoyed walking on the beaches and swimming in the salty waters of the Atlantic. We enjoyed Pina Coladas, served in fresh pineapples, while sitting with our toes in the white sand. Everyone toured the "Bridge to Nowhere" in downtown Samana. They had to walk it, to accept that it actually goes "Nowhere".

Now, we are back home and trying to get caught up with the laundry from the trip and the stacks of mail that have accumulated during our absence. Remember what the most famous (excluding me, of course) girl from Kansas said......"there's no place like home."

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Gracious God: We are blessed. Thank You for guiding us as we make our life's journey. Thank You for bringing us home. 

 

 

 

 

"Whale of a Tale"

 The other day, I said to a acquaintance, "We have whales breaching in our backyard." My listener made a bit of a face, in disbelief, so I had to qualify my slight inaccuracy. My next statement was, "We have whales, breaching IN THE OCEAN, directly off our back patio, during whale season." The season for whale migration in the Caribbean, is from January to March. That's when we choose to travel South.

It's true. Whales are amazing. They are, of course, big. Really big. They can weigh up to 40 tons, as adults, and they are typically 14-17 meters in length. And they do make quite a show, when they flip-up and out of the ocean (breaching).

They travel slowly, usually in groups. Average speed in 5-10 mph. With a pair of binoculars. or the naked eye, it's possible to see them travel across the horizon, or closer, just swimming and breaching, swimming and breaching. They seem to be enjoying their travels, and they can live up to 90 years.....traveling the same route.

For some bizarre reason, this whale information reminds me of a Kermit the Frog song, "Caribbean Amphibian", about a frog in a coconut tree. There are lizzardy and froggy things running around on our back patio, too. You may look up the words, to this ditty, but for now, just be assured those lyrics will be running around in my head, for the next day or two.

Via con dios.

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Creator of all things, tame and wild. We are thankful for the immense beauty of this world. We appreciate Your creatures, both great and small.

Hasta la vista, Frosty.

On my honor, I promise that this will be my last post about SNOW, this winter. Oh yes, we had a snowstorm this weekend. The headlines were:

             SNOWMAGEDDON......SNOWCASTROPHY...........SNOWPOCALYPSE........... 

We had a total of 4.5 inches of the fluffy white stuff. Woo-Hoo. It wasn't even enough to cover my boot tops. Today, one day after the snow ceased to fall, our street is cleared. The major street down the hill is snow free and the sun is shining. Except for the bitterly cold temps, it's a beautiful day. 

I'm betting all of that hoarded White Bread, Milk and Toilet paper wasn't even touched, let alone used up. It's over. Stick a big unused snow shovel in it. It was, as usual, "Much Ado About Nothing", or at least much ado about very little.

But, by golly, we were prepared here in Middle America. Being prepared is a good thing. Boy and Girl Scouts have been prepared, for over a hundred years.  I'm in favor of being prepared, but stripping the grocery aisle of essentials (as if white bread is essential), for 2 days of "staying home" is freaking crazy. That's just what we all do.

Tomorrow, will probably be a No-school Snow Day, due to the single digit temperatures. It would be extremely cold for those kids, who wait at the bus stops. Most kids, out here in the burbs, are personally driven to school by parents. And, we all know that the walk, from the car to the front door of school, is pretty brutal ;). And, all of us old folks walked miles to and from school, in several feet of snow,...uphill both ways.

But, here's the deal. I don't really care. Because, tomorrow I start my packing for the tropics. In a little over a week, I will be watching the surf and sitting in a deck chair on a sandy beach. No more snow storms for me.

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We all have many blessings. God is Good.