It's a Small, Small World

Photo by Leowang1995, posted in Wikipedia

When I was in fifth grade, my family went to Disneyland during Christmas break. I distinctly remember riding the boats in the "It's A Small World" attraction. The characters from around the world twirled and sang one of those songs that just gets stuck in your head:

 It's a world of laughter, a world of tears

It's a world of hopes and a world of fears
There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all

There is just one moon and one golden sun
And a smile means friendship to everyone
Though the mountains divide
And the oceans are wide
It's a small world after all ...

 I've been having the same feeling lately as random emails have arrived in my in-box. Here's one:

Hello! I saw the photo of the girl on a fence, overlooking a paddock. She wears pink, shiny, fringed chaps. My 4-year old granddaughter Charlotte is more horse-crazy than I was at that age.

I absolutely need to get a pair of those chaps for her. I've surfed thru so many sites and can't find them. Do you know from where those chaps can be purchased?

Any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you!

I thought I recognized the little girl, but the blog post about the Stafford Rodeo was from July 2010. So I did a little detective work, and yes, I had the right Stafford family. I used Facebook to message our cowgirl's mama, who just happened to still have the chaps. Long story short (or at least shorter than the 11 emails it took), the mom sold the chaps to the grandma and they were soon on their way to Duluth, Minnesota, to make another little cowgirl happy. Don't you love happy endings? I do!

CJ, the chap purchaser, lives just six blocks from Lake Superior and has four grown children, eight grandchildren and one great grandson. I'm now her Facebook friend, too.

My next out-of-the-ordinary blog reader was half a world away - Nitin, a farmer in India. He wrote:

Hi

I think your blog is awesome

I am sending some pics of my farm land with wheat and vegetable crop.

I am looking forward for association and opportunities of farming in USA and India.

Happy Farming

He sent this photo of his wheat field in India.

Also through the blog, I got an email from a University of Nebraska student, asking for help in finding people for a heat management survey in tractors and combines. I shared the survey with a Farmer's Wife group on Facebook. I hope it helped her out.

These were more unusual emails. But, through blogging, I've developed friendships with bloggers from all over the U.S. and the world, including Lynda, the Country Mum who posts a photo from their Australian farm each day at Farm-ily. There's Buttons at Buttons Thoughts from Canada and Robyn from The Ranch Wife Chronicles in South Dakota and Cheri from the scablands of Washington at My Ranch Life. Those just scratch the surface of the people who have become friends across the miles by commenting on each other's blog posts.

As I wrote last year, my photography has shown up on Facebook and sprinkled through the internet, including this May Day basket. Jill's family ended up on a K-State promotion for the Vanier Football complex.

But there can be a dark side to it, too. Besides the greetings from Minnesota and India the past month, I had an email from someone who thought one of my photos was being used by a person for nefarious purposes:

My name is Sue, and I found your blog in a very unusual way - a Google reverse image search.

Long story short - I have an acquaintance who I believe is being catphished by someone online. (Catphishing is when a person makes up an online persona with fake pictures and details in order to lure others into relationships with them.)  Because I believe this to be true, I used some of the images that the person posted as their own online and reverse image searched them on Google.

I am not saying you did anything!! I think someone found your image and used it as their own in order to keep up the ruse of their online persona - and if you could just give me some info on that photo - like if you took it yourself and when, that would help me prove to this acquaintance that somebody is using other people's stuff to trick him.

I'd like to reiterate that I don't think you are doing anything weird - I think someone used your photos, and just wanted to have some proof for my friend to help him see what's happening.

I wrote her back, telling her when and where I took the photo. I hope it helped her friend.

The internet is an amazing place. It can be used to build friendships and connections. But it can also be used in less reputable ways. I suppose that's true of life in general. It just is magnified by social media.

Lessons from the Playground

Why walk when you can run? It seems to be our granddaughter, Kinley's, new philosophy on life. At nearly 16 months old, she meets life head-on and full speed ahead.

So far, she isn't telling us, "I do it." I'm sure that day is coming as the calendar pages turn and we move closer to her 2nd birthday. Her need for speed is not without casualties. Her poor nose got the brunt of a fall, and she was sporting quite a lovely scrape when we visited a couple weeks ago.

As we went to a couple of different parks during our visit, I kept thinking about how it was a metaphor for life. 

One slide was just the right size, Kinley could climb up the steps herself, and, with a steadying hand from Mommy for the first couple of trips down the yellow ribbon of plastic, she could pretty much do it herself.

Later in the day, Randy & I took Kinley to a park just a few blocks away from their house.  At that play apparatus, there were slides for toddlers and ones for a little bit bigger kids.

It was kind of like the Goldilocks story. The little one was just right. (photo below, upper left). Just like at the first slide, she could maneuver the steps with just a little help. However, we misjudged the middle-sized one, and Grandma should have been more worried about catching Kinley at the bottom than taking a photo (upper right hand side photo.) But, with a quick hug and a dust off, Kinley was ready for more.

For the biggest slide, Kinley needed a partner, and Grandpa was a willing volunteer. Sometimes in life, we need a little help (or a lot of help). We need that person pulling our wagon or guiding us over the bumps and turns of a situation that's bigger than we are.

We need someone to steady us. Or push us. Or pull us. Or just be happy to be with us.

We need people to help us dream dreams that are bigger and more numerous than bubbles on a springtime day. And when the bubbles and dreams disappear in a flash, they'll be there to help us conjure up some more, gently pushing us along just like a steady breath behind a bubble ring.

I'm thankful for the people in my life who are those kinds of helpers - family and friends who come together in the little ways - and when I need a whole lot of help. I am blessed!

So encourage each other and build each other up,

just as you are already doing. 

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Lessons from a High School Musical

We all need a little help from our friends. It's true whether you're Dorothy Gale, traveling the unfamiliar territory of the Land of Oz, or you're in a waiting room at a hospital, waiting on news from a surgery.

Earlier this month, I went to my alma mater, Skyline High School, to see my niece, Madison, as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. The unspoken messages have stayed with me long after the familiar strains of "We're Off to See the Wizard" and the applause faded away.

Dorothy is a dreamer. She doesn't get right home from school because she's too busy picking flowers, watching clouds and dreaming about faraway places Over the Rainbow. Sure, she loves her family and her home, but it's a big world out there, and she's curious about what she would find if she could just get away from RFD 2 and explore it.

But then a tornado carries Dorothy far away from the familiar Kansas homestead she shares with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. And, all of a sudden, Dorothy's biggest goal is to get back back home to the very place that she dreamed about escaping. I've been there. You want to escape a place or a situation, and then when it happens, you realize that it wasn't so bad after all.

Dorothy becomes a hero to the Munchkins after inadvertently crushing the Wicked Witch. The little ones are glad to point her on the way to the Land of Oz, where they advise visiting the Wizard for a way to get back home. Little ones often point the way, if we just listen.

There are other predictably helpful people along the journey, like the Good Witch.

Photo by Caden Patterson from Facebook. My photos with the Good Witch were blurry.

Sometimes, the people who think they are lacking some important attribute just don't realize how valuable they are.

The Scarecrow didn't think he had a brain. But he supplied much of the know-how and logic to get Dorothy where she needed to go.

The Tin Man thought he didn't have a heart. And the Cowardly Lion was sure he didn't have enough courage to make the trip. But they found enough of both to help Dorothy escape the Jitterbugs and the Wicked Witch's equally wicked sister.

Even the scary things sometimes don't look as scary when the lights come up.

We may be walking a yellow brick road or city streets. We may have to stop and get the rocks out of our shoes as we walk pebbly dirt roads. Obstacles inevitably come our way. They take a million different forms - whether situations or people or even just doubting ourselves.

But we find the most valuable asset isn't what we're wearing, even though those ruby slippers do have pizazz. And it's not always the expert who helps us find our way. It's often in the brains and heart and courage and prayers of the ordinary people around us.  They are the ones who help us find the rainbow's treasure. And we don't need a Wizard to help us when God is there for each and every step, through the hills and the valleys. Thanks, my friends. Please keep the prayers coming for Randy.

The Power of Community

(Jill, second from the left, with sister-in-law Jillian at left,
cousin Paige and friend Anessa, the shower hostesses)

She's not even born yet, but she is already surrounded by the power of community. Smalls, our first grandbaby, isn't due to arrive until January. But this past weekend was a testimony to the power of belonging.

Smalls and Jill were the honorees at a Sunday baby shower. As the living room filled with people, I was struck by the interconnecting circles of love that will envelop a new little person. Jill's and Eric's families were both well represented. There were several of Jill's college friends. And two of Jill's friends from childhood made the effort to come, too.

Sure, there was lots of cute and practical "stuff" unwrapped.

But the most valuable asset in the room wasn't a high chair or a car seat or a Diaper Genie. It wasn't about bedazzled pink outfits or a pile of books. It was the reality that people gave up a Sunday afternoon to come together and care about a new little life and her parents.

Smalls will have new little buddies in this adventure we call life. Eric's brother, Brian, and his wife, Jillian, are due 10 days after Smalls. Anessa, another of the shower hostesses, will deliver her first baby in March. And Paige, Jill's cousin, already has 7-month-old Neelly to offer a playmate on the maternal side of the family. Eric's Grandma Carol will go from two great-grandbabies to five by the end of January. And the grand total will climb to six by mid-March!

With every birth and every union, the circle grows.
Every joy shared adds more love.
Every obstacle faced together makes the circle stronger.
Anonymous

The best part is that we aren't limited in finding our community. It's in family, in a neighborhood or at church. It's on a team or at school. It can be in the workplace or in a community organization. In this changing world, it can even be found on the internet or on Facebook. Community is there if we open our hearts and minds to it.

Thanks be to God for the power of community ... the power of love and caring.

Reflection

“Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again.”

Alex Tan

One of my bridesmaids died a couple of weeks ago. I met Denise at K-State. She was also a home economics and mass communications major, so we had lots of classes together. She was a farmer's daughter, just like me. She loved to write, just like me.

Thirty years ago, we were obviously good friends, since I asked her to be in my wedding.

But, through the years, we lost touch. And I regret it.

Regret is an odd emotion because it comes only upon reflection. Regret lacks immediacy, and so its power seldom influences events when it could do some good.

William O'Rourke

She moved to Germany for awhile and the Christmas card I mailed her came back as undeliverable.

She moved back to the States after a divorce. Then she got multiple sclerosis about the same time I was having children.

And in my busyness, I lost track of her. Her parents didn't move. I could have found the address if only I'd pursued it.

I went to her funeral. And as I sat in the sanctuary, I vowed I'd do better. I'd be a better friend.

In this Facebook world, it's easy to click the "Like" button on a friend's status and think you're making a connection. It's easier to zip off an email than actually call and talk to someone. And I have parents in Sunday School class tell me that the younger generation may very well be texting the person they are sitting next to - literally.

But this isn't about the younger, techo-savvy generation. This is about me.

I must do better. Life is too short. I've had way too many reminders of that recently. Little Elise was back in the PICU at Kansas City's Children's Mercy Hospital for a couple of weeks with problems breathing (though she was able to go home a couple of days ago. Praise the Lord!). But another family we know is just starting the cancer fight with their 7-year-old boy at Children's Mercy.

It's not fair. And it doesn't make sense. And I don't like it. And I can't see how anything good can possibly come from all the pain.

But I still have to trust. And I still have to do better.

As Elise's mom, Kelly, says:

"Even though we knew it before, a lesson we have learned from this journey is that time is precious and finite. LOVE YOUR FAMILY! Take the time now, today, to tell the people in your life how much they mean to you!

It's true for family. And it's true for friends. I am your cautionary tale today. Don't wait until it's too late to reconnect.