SOMETHING DIFFERENT

On a frozen winter evening
In a barn down at the dairy
Sits a maiden on a tall stool
Dressed in jeans and rubber boots.
In her hand she has a copy
Of a National Geographic
Which she reads in stolen moments
From her labors cold and wearing
Midst the smell of fresh manure,
And the pulsing sound of milkers
While the Holsteins chew their barley.

There between the yellow covers
Is the story of far travel:
Down a river called Zambezi
Sixteen hundred miles of water
From Zambia to Namibia
Round the corner to Botswana
Back to Zambia, past Zimbabwe
Over vast Victoria Falls.
Mozambique, then to the ocean
Rolls the river of Zambezi
Full of snorting, lumpy hippos.

There dwell baboons, snakes (black mambas)
Elephants, oxpeckers, catfish.
Crocodiles yawn in the shadows
Cormorants fly overhead.
There the people fish the channels,
Paddle canoes full of cargo
As they have for generations
To the towns along the river
Where, “To travel is to dance.”

Soon the maiden at the dairy
Puts away her hasty reading,
Goes back to the heavy Holsteins;
Washes warm and steaming udders
While the motor of the milkers
And the country music station
Accompanies her wishing
To do something in her lifetime
That few women ever do.

original poem by me

STUFF I'VE LEARNED part 1

Since my memory has always been bad and is getting worse, I began keeping a list of valuable information that I usually learned the hard way. And, although some mistakes are too fun to only make once, there are others that are best not repeated. Below is a portion of that list. As you can guess there is a good story to go with some of them. But this is a blog so I will not elaborate at this time.

*Don’t run with a Tootsie Pop in your mouth *Never let your mother comb your hair while she is angry *Don’t turn on the vacuum cleaner while you are holding the cat *Riding in a convertible with the top down on a warm day is more fun than riding in the back of a pickup truck with the dogs *A good paper grocery bag will hold water just long enough for you to drop it off the roof on your brother *Odds of bad things happening increase with darkness and heat. *Don’t eat Junior Mints during a long car trip (especially if you are wearing light colored pants) unless you can be absolutely certain you won’t drop any on the car seat *Drink all your lemonade before eating your cake *The ten second rule does not apply at the beach *Don’t wait until it stops snowing to shovel the driveway *It is impossible to improve and look good at the same time. And sometimes the harder you try, the more stupid you look. *Never let your husband trim the hedge with a chainsaw *When you are really alone…you can sing as loud as you want * When you sing as loud as you want—you scare the cat.

LIGHT UNDER A BUSHEL

I was teaching some nine-year-olds about the Beatitudes, specifically Matthew 5:15 Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

The point to be made was the importance of being a good example. I had to give them some background on the use of candles as a source of light and not just a cake decoration. Then I had to explain the term “bushel” as basket that would hold the amount of grain a person could lift and carry. To get the attention of children who had already sat through an hour-long meeting at lunch time, I brought a birthday candle stuck down in a little paper cup, and a small basket to put over it. I had them the minute there was flame. I gently placed the little basket over the candle began to expound. I realized I had their total attention. “Wow,” I thought, “I am really getting my message across.” Then I could smell something burning and saw puffs of smoke coming from the basket. The lecture stopped and I lifted the basket which was now taking on a toasted nature. While seven children watched in amazement I blew out the candle and waved the basket until the smoldering stopped. Then I segued into how a city on a hill cannot be hid. The class was still focused on the candle. “You are not supposed to set things on fire in the church.” one said. “You are right," I agreed, “But I bet you will remember not to put your candle under a bushel!” The scriptures are true. And the direction given us to not expand on what is in the lesson manual is true too.