...remembering a childhood

It was bottle feeding feeding baby goats first thing in the morning and first thing before bed. It was trips to the blueberry patch because mom would make blueberry pancakes. It was small game hunting in the snow with my brother. It was waking up at six, not because we had to but because we were stoked to. It was doing my schoolwork in our dining room, surrounded by moms ferns and flowers and other house plants. It was diving off of the deck onto the trampoline, even though mom would rather we didn't. It was breaking our horses with my brother(often resulting in some sort of injury lol). It was drills with the A.U.N.F (army club), making our own ghillie suits and spying on the good people of Dripping Springs valley...hahaha. It was swimming at Steel Creek and seeing who could jump the highest off of the boulders or who could stay the longest on the bottom. It was making stop-motion, toy movies with my sister. It was home church with people from all over and hippie-dancing in the living room. It was chasing elk through boxley valley. It was stopping at the old country store in Osage to see if they had some bit-o-honey. It was days on end in the woods and never getting bored with it. It was my first hunting trip with Dad and seeing a shot that would make the rest of the trips boring in comparison. It was forty minute trips for Isshinryu classes in the dodge but we didn't mind. It was watching old movies with the parents because old movies were decent. It was barely dressed trips to the woodpile in the dead of winter because me and my brother insisted that we were tough. It was rain in the orchard. It was leading a #1 online team on Delta Force with my right-hand man, Harry denOughden from the Netherlands and my Mom who was strangely good at stealth and 'knifing' snipers. It was running to meet my Dad when he came home from work. It was stocking up on military goods from grandpa's store (an old man who still sold things at the price they would have been in 1943). It was exploring the woods and pastures at the Groves on horseback. It was mad rollerblading skills at rink on thursdays. It was helping Mom in the garden. It was catching more catfish than we knew what to do with at the pond up the mountain. It was riding my bike for miles down a dirt road. It was building forts and cabins on the back acres. It was playing bluegrass with the whole family. It was listening to my celtic albums and attempting to play along. It was more days on end in the woods. It was traipsing through the snow until I could no longer feel any of my extremities. It was ramping the datson around the chicken houses. It was falling out of the hay loft and busting my head. It was finding coyote and mountain lion dens with my brother...wow that wasn't safe. It was having supper with the family around the table...together. It was bible devotions every night before bed and singing hymns and praise songs until Nicole or I fell asleep. It was grand and I thank God for it. Wouldn't trade it for anything.

...combinations

(no particular order)

bad:
late to bed + early to rise
hiking + wet socks
hide and seek + socks
showtime + broken string
slick greenhouse floor + gravity
alone + wolves
sauerkraut + anything
dumb people + big ideas
large amounts of people + no love
lack of communication + God
ireland + no ticket to ireland


good:
rain + sigur ros
walks in the woods + coffee
movies + sleep
midgets + small boats
autumn + writing
paramore + riding 4wheelers
sunny, windy days + david crowder
cheezit's + canadians
laying under evergreens + morning
snow + violin
scarf + soup
reading + blanket
psalms + instrumental
proverbs/eph + open field
fresh cut grass + bare feet
frost + cozy sleeping bag
aspen groves + chilling out
thinking + pipe
mountain tops + prayer
cornerstone + friends
comfortable sweats + lots of sleep
fireplace + log cabin

...seeking

Footsteps fall quietly
The light is oh, so faint
The air is clean and morning glow
Brings promise of the day
My breath is caught in strands of light
Between the branches, dance
A vapor, soon gone from my sight
Seen casually at glance
The evergreens stand silently
As though to calm my soul
The others slowly dropping leaves
Preparing for the snow
A creek, nearby, sings low and deep
And tells of travels, far
But through it's language, signals seep
"He knows just where you are"
And at the waters edge, I rest
The sun now warms my face
I've found a peace within my chest
I've found you in this place

...random thoughts.

So I have a new pass-time; Making sense of the conversation between the rednecks at the country store where I eat lunch. Here's how it works. I'll pick out a table across the room and start trying to form what I hear into words. So far I've failed, terribly. Here's what I've got...Billy Bob - "Maa at dang ol' dow by meh propty lie doe wanna budge!" Bubba - "Zat rye? Weh I seen tree cop cars oh round der an slike y'planet annit grow buh maaaannnn you bear water deh thang maaannn!"

...yeah, Seriously.

I worked about three hours late today but didn't mind at all. I was planting seven trees for Don, a retired air force officer. We talked about everything from travel to UFOs. A nice visit. He told me about some amazing places he's lived. Germany and Alaska, among others. He seemed so excited to talk about them and encourage that any young person travel as much as they can while they're young. I asked if he preferred any of them to living here and he seemed to prefer ANY of them to here. All he seemed to have to say was that he had grown up here and then stopped and got quiet for a long time as if he had never thought about why he came back. He had raised his children in different places so it wasn't for family. He moved away at the age of twenty two and came back to almost no one he knew. So why DID he come back? Then I thought about my parents. My father has traveled the world more than anyone I know and my mother is very adventurous. They raised us kids up in the mountains and still returned to where they grew up after many years. Will I have an instinct to 'go home' when I get older? If I do, the Ozarks wouldn't be a half bad place to kick it but it's just an interesting question.

Final thought: ...no. No wait. No final thought. Too tired. Bye.