The Grand and Glorious Fourth

The 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday. This year was very special because I was able to share it with my girls. We started out with our annual lunch at Just Like Grandma's in Osakis. This is a tradition that started when they were young girls, and we would go with my mother. Now we are bringing their children.

It was a hot weekend so we all went to Latoka Beach which is another spot that I used to take them as children. On Sunday evening we took Melody to the fairgrounds for the fireworks. We first had to sit through about an hour of stock car races. We attempted to convince her that maybe we should just go home, but she was determined to see them. She did state that never again in her life would she sit through any car races. The other battle was mosquitoes; in fact, a woman near us offered us $5.00 to use our bug spray. We were kind and let her use it for free!!

On Monday, which was actually the 4th, we continued another tradition by attending the parade in West Union. This is a very tiny town which has a nice park, maybe 15 homes and a bar/restaurant. On the 4th, however, the town swells with people. There is a small parade and lots of candy thrown out for the children. After the parade, there is a potluck in the park which is so reminiscent of days gone by. There is also a water pump in the park that spews out wonderful well water, and it was a new experience for Melody.

So again it was a wonderful summer holiday not filled with expectations of gifts and obligations but one of sheer joy.

Thought for the day: The years go by, and love grows with each memory we make. Flavia

Tribute to my dad

Today is Father's Day so I have chosen to dedicate a post to my dad who passed away a little over two years ago. His name was Kenneth Peterson, and he lived to the age of 95 so he had a good long life. The amazing part is I didn't come into his life until he was the age of 46 so to have had each other for that long was truly a miracle.

My dad grew up poor in a family of nine surviving children. His mother was crippled with arthritis and in a wheelchair, and his father struggled to make a living from the farm. Upon graduation from high school, he headed to Iowa to spend some time with his sister and try to find odd jobs. He enlisted in the Marines and was aboard the Nevada during the Pearl Harbor attack. Upon returning to Minnesota after the war, he bought a farm and worked a few more odd jobs. In 1958, he married Idella who was a single mother raising three children. In 1959 I came along. There were some difficulties with dad stepping in to help raise her children and then a new baby at a late age. Somehow it all worked out, and for the most part I remember a good childhood. My mother passed away unexpectedly at the age of 78 so he was alone once again for the last years of his life.

Now that I am older (and wiser), I realize just how much I must have meant to him coming into his life at a time when most people are winding down with raising a family. He was always very protective of me and now I understand. He wasn't a perfect man and made mistakes as we all do, but we had a very special relationship. I miss him very much and wish I could give him a hug today and express my father's day wishes.

Some of the things he used to tell me are pretty funny: when they were leaving me alone at home, his advice was always "don't sit on the counter and don't put beans in your nose." When I acted bored his would tell me to watch a couple documentaries such as "Basket Weaving in the Baja Peninsula" or "The Phillips Screwdriver, a tool for today." When he and my mother would drive around on Sunday afternoons to look at farms, I would tag along in the backseat. If I got cranky about it, he would threaten to take me to Westport to look at the TV tower. Another thing I remember him saying quite often was "it's only money." That has helped me quite a bit when getting too concerned about the things of this world.

My dad was witty, well informed and tender hearted. He wasn't rich or famous, but he was my dad and that's enough.

Thought for the day: It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. Anne Sexton

I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar

My daughter, Olivia, moved a couple weeks ago and wanted to plant a garden. Last Saturday I went to visit and help with the garden project. There was no existing garden spot so we needed to make that happen. She went online and found a rental agency because the first item of business was to till the garden. With research it was determined that we would need the rear tine tiller which was much larger and not able to be transported in the back of their car. She was able to borrow a larger vehicle from a friend. Ultimately, we had to rent a trailer as well due to the size of the tiller. After a few brief instructions it was time to haul the tiller home and "get er done".

Thanks to Olivia's neighbor, Connie, we were able to get the tiller started. We put our heads together and figured out how to use the levers and got the task done. We had the tiller for two hours, but we were able to accomplish it in about 1 1/2 hours so we quite proudly returned the trailer and tiller. The next task was buying the plants, determining the layout and putting up a rabbit fence. It took the whole afternoon to finish the entire project, but we did it!!

We both felt quite a sense of accomplishment and got a big boost to our self confidence. Now let's hope the garden flourishes and yields a grand harvest.

Thought for the day: Life on the planet is born of woman. Adrienne Rich

Mother Duck

This past Sunday evening, my husband took our dog for a walk. When he returned to the house, he told me that there was a mother duck going crazy in the street near our house. My friend, Sue, was visiting at the time; the three of us headed over to see what was happening. The poor mother was in a frenzy, and we could hear peeping. It turns out that her six ducklings all went down the sewer drain.

Brian and Sue went back to our house to call the police to see if any thing could be done while I kept watch. Sue returned with a fishing net and was able to slip it through the grates and ultimately retrieved four ducklings. The other two had wandered further down the pipes, and we no longer heard them. Mother duck was so happy to have the four back, and she wandered off. A police officer did stop, and he told us that they get at least one call a year about ducklings having dropped through the sewer grates.

While I was keeping watch, a car stopped and out stepped this older black woman. She said to me, "What is wrong with Mama?" I told her what had happened, and she shared the concern. Then after the ducklings were safely back with their mother, I was snapping a photo of them near the Viking Towers housing complex. A black man was sitting outside and asked what had happened. When I told him the story, his reply was "thank you for doing that; you are Godly to have done that."

So I learned some very important lessons during this ordeal. We are all alike in some ways, and when events like this happen it brings us together. I also noticed the irony in that without mankind mother duck would have lost those ducklings, but on the other hand, if it hadn't been for mankind there would be no sewer drains. It's a complicated world!

Thought for the day: In each of us, there is a little of all of us. George Lichtenberg

Ode to Summer

Just a brief note to celebrate the arrival of summer. While it's not officially summer yet, the earth and air is oozing with new birth, green, birds, insects and heat. It was close to 95 degrees yesterday and possibly will repeat that today. Not a word of complaint will be uttered; just turn the fans up and curtail activity.

If I look back at my March posts and try to imagine the process of simply surviving the long winter, it's very difficult to capture those feelings. I have moved on to a different season and with that, I have lost those feelings of despair. Seems a reflection of our own lives, does it not? For every thing there is a season, and we need to experience them all in order to fully become ourselves.

Thought for the day: The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe; to match your nature with nature. Joseph Campbell

Church of the Open Porch

Today is my 52nd birthday, and I began it by doing two of my favorite things--drinking coffee and sitting on my front porch. In a matter of minutes I witnessed a crow trying to balance on the evergreen branch and a scene of two regular squirrels and one black squirrel fighting for position on a tree. Seems like things work the same way in their world--the black squirrel was aced out and pushed into the street.

These days I prefer to spend Sunday mornings on the porch rather than in the church pew. This is all part of my spiritual journey. Life began in the Lutheran church where I spent thirty years of my trek. I then began to question some of their practices and went on to a non-denominational church where I spent about ten years before once again my curious and questioning nature took over. All of these experiences were necessary in my journey, and I'm grateful for all the memories and lessons learned. However, at this point I don't miss the standard church experience and am very satisfied with seeing God in nature. I don't feel close to what I currently perceive as God in a building, but when I am in nature and still is when I feel enveloped by some thing larger than myself.

Having the freedom of religion that this country has should include the ability to choose to find spiritual fulfillment on your own front porch. We cannot know what is in another's heart; we only need to work on finding peace in our own.

Thought for the day: I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels. Pearl S. Buck

It's A Miracle!

Today I sat on my front porch, drank coffee and watched the birds. These are the simple things I waited for in the depths of winter. Today the windows were open, the birds were singing, the grass is green, daffodils and tulips are blooming. All things that a short while ago seemed like an impossibility. So I guess Mother Nature is still on schedule and doing just fine.

Thought for the day: The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle. Anais Nin