6-22-09
OUT ON THE RANCH this morning it is a gorgeous day. The temperature is supposed to get hot, hot, hot, this week!! Last night we drove over to Carter to see Ben Day, my late mother's widower. Ben is moving, today, to an assisted living center near his daughter in Oklahoma City. It made me want to cry. I feel so sorry for him. He misses Mother so much, and yesterday was 5 months since she passed away. I know he needs some assistance, but I am selfish and would like to keep him around here a while longer. I offered for him to stay with us, but I know his girls want him closer to them, and I don’t blame them. I would want Mother to be here if she were still alive. I miss her terribly this morning. I really need to talk to her for just a few minutes!! But I suppose I will have to wait awhile, unless, the Lord decides to take me today.

One of the last things that mother said was, “I can’t believe how short life is!!” And that is a statement coming from a woman who lived a full life of 82 years. Some memories are so vivid they seem like yesterday. I can remember so clearly living in Farmington, New Mexico and the smell of the Russian Olive trees along the ditch banks, near our house in the country. I would leave my window open at night to catch a cool breeze and the aroma of the blooms from the Russian Olives. It was a simpler time and somehow the smell still transports me back over 40 years to my bedroom in Farmington. It is amazing how we can forget all the problems of the past and remember the smells and the emotions from those days long gone by. I can’t tell you what someone looked like back then, but I can still remember how I felt about them.

I pray for me, today, and you that we can let go of the worries and fears of today, and cling to the sweetness of life. Life is short, and the problems we are encountering today are not nearly as big as the devil and our minds might make them out to be. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine everything in the room that is temporal disappearing and only the eternal remaining. What is there in the room with you that is eternal? If there are other people there, they are eternal. God is there, but you can’t see Him. Everything else is only here for a season, and will be gone. Even the mighty General Motors is going through bankruptcy. Everything changes and will soon be gone, except the precious people that are around you. Let us focus, today, on the eternal. Let us focus on our relationship with God and each other. These are the things that will remain when all else has vanished from this earth and our lives. Life is short and there is no reason to sweat the small stuff. And, other than the relationship with Him and the wonderful (less than perfect) people around us, it is all small stuff.

God Bless
Always Your Friend
Ridge