Let Me Love

 

syn·chro·nic·i·ty: A meaningful coincidence—an event on the outside that speaks to something on the inside—as opposed to just a random occurrence

Do you ever feel like messages are coming to you like a flashing movie marquee? Or maybe like light breaking through the darkness of predawn, silhouetting a Kansas silo at sunrise?

During Lent, as we've traversed our way toward Holy Week this week, it has seemed that I'm seeing messages about love and light streaming into my mind. It's come in disparate way - listening to scripture at church, watching NCAA basketball, shivering in the coolness of a Kansas morning as I watch the sun's ascent, searching for music for a community Palm Sunday service or opening a series of unrelated emails. 

 

It has seemed a little like the planets coming together - kind of like we were supposed to see in our night sky last week. While I may not have had success in the nighttime sky realm, I do find messages - or God winks - scattered throughout the minutes of my days. 

 

After my K-State Wildcats defeated the Michigan State Spartans in overtime in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, our head coach - Jerome Tang - talked to a sideline reporter and had this to say:

 

"When you love people, it's amazing what you can accomplish."

Jerome Tang, Kansas State University men's basketball coach

after an overtime win in the NCAA tournament 

 

(Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

I immediately sent the quote to my kids and to several friends. Earlier that week, my friend, Linda, and I had gotten together to practice my solo for the Palm Sunday community service. I had combed through lots of music, but I kept coming back to one song called "Let Me Love." 

 

The words include:

Lord, You came to dwell on earth and share with us our lot.

You became our Sacrifice, our lives on Calv'ry bought.

Take this simple life, dear Lord; Take complete control.

Put the love of Jesus in my soul. ...

The song is certainly not showy. It wouldn't be one of those songs to get "The Voice" coaches on TV to hit their buttons and twirl their red chairs. It doesn't cover huge vocal range or have a huge ebb and flow of dynamics. But while the melody and the tune are simple and straightforward, the message isn't necessarily easy. 

 

After we were done practicing, Linda and I sat to chat for a little bit. Just a few weeks before, Stafford had united behind our boys' basketball team as they made their first appearance in 70 years at the state basketball tournament. A sea of red t-shirts filled the stands as the Trojans took to the court. At the time, people commented on Facebook about it bringing the town together. 

 

And it did ... for a little bit.

 

But it didn't take long for us to forget that comradery, that feeling of united purpose. The contentiousness crept back onto Facebook as neighbors railed against other neighbors - with Facebook posts to prove the point. 

 

 

Ripples inevitably spread out from all of us - both positive and negative.

 

Stafford certainly isn't alone in that. Turn on the evening news or scroll through Facebook or Twitter. Do people like being bent out of shape? It sometimes seems so. 

It could be easy to be discouraged by that. And, I sometimes am.

 

But even in the midst of my discouragement, I kept getting related messages.

 

I'm not sure how I got on an email list for an Inspiring Quotes email, but I did. And I often find inspiration from those posts. One recent one featured the words of poet Shel Silverstein:

How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live ‘em.
How much love inside a friend?
Depends how much you give ‘em.

– Shel Silverstein 

 “How Many, How Much" from "A Light in the Attic"

Stafford UMC

Another Inspiring Quotes email featured the words of writer Edith Wharton. 

There are two ways of spreading light: 

To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.

Poet Edith Wharton

 Christ candle & the cross at Stafford United Methodist Church

In other words, carrying on the “light” of another — be it ideas, joy, love, or inspiration — can be just as valuable as creating it yourself.

I saw another post from Character Counts, titled "Courtesy is Kindness in Action." Here's part of what writer Michael Josephson had to say:

As a society, we have become almost obsessed with identifying and asserting our rights – to think, say, and do what we want. That’s not surprising, given the history of our country and the prominent role the Constitution and Bill of Rights have played in shaping our culture.

We have a right to be unkind, thoughtless, and disrespectful – but it isn’t right.

Ralph Waldo Emerson pointed out, “Life is short but there is always time for courtesy.”

The idea is to act in ways that make the people we are dealing with feel valued. Courtesy is kindness in action....Always be kinder than necessary because you can never be too kind.

Michael Josephson

I get several daily devotional emails. Sometimes I find them more meaningful than other days. I'm sure that has more to do with my attitude - not the devotionals themselves. Some days, it's just another confirmation of the other messages that subtly come into my day. 

The devotional New Each Morning had this to say:

Today's Reflection

Each time we step out of our comfort zones and into the messy and sacred world of caring about others, we risk stepping in the confusion of humanity. We may find ourselves asking questions about God and about this world filled with both beauty and affliction. When we share our journeys and questions with one another, our capacities to love and serve with humility, faithfulness, gratitude and peace grow.

- Rebecca Bruff, Loving the World with God: Fourth Day Living (Upper Room Books, 2014)

Today’s Question

 Reflect on the prayer of St. Francis today:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

And where there is sadness, joy. 

 

Today’s Scripture

And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.

Hebrews 10:24 (NRSV)

 

It sounds like a goal to aspire to during this Holy Week. I hope to still find the light in situations - both physically and spiritually.  

 

Appreciate the Moment

Our home, dressed in its fall finery

There's a lesson in this time of year: 

Appreciate the moment. It could be gone as quickly as the autumn leaves. 

Without an early hard freeze, autumn's vibrant colors painted the landscape far longer than usual on the Kansas plains. While we don't have "leaf peepers" arrive by the busload in Kansas, they could have gotten a show to rival eastern landscapes this year. 

I intended to stop and take photos - even though what I see on the camera lens never quite matches the beauty seen by the naked eye.

But, as usual, I had my "to-do" agenda in place and cattle duties to help navigate - places to be - things to do. So I didn't stop as often as I should have. 

The tree outside my kitchen window provided lots of good scenery while cleaning up after meals. But even a tree right outside my window didn't get as much attention as it should have. It wasn't that the tree wasn't ready for its closeup. It was me. And now the tree is bare.

However, I did take a few photos of our house clad in its fall finery. The vines don't often retain the fall colors for so long.

 

The tree near the south driveway provided a "window frame" for the house. But the "frame" is no more. It only lasted a snippet of time.

Every moment in your life is unique. You will never have two alike. Never. This is the science of living: Appreciate every moment. Have a heart so open, an understanding so beautiful, and a yearning for appreciation so complete that when that moment comes, you see exactly what it is.

Prem Rawat

Sunrises and sunsets are those fleeting moments in time, too. But I was glad I ventured out one morning this week to begin the day.

At sunrise, the blue sky paints herself with gold colors and joyfully dances to the music of a morning breeze.

― Debasish Mridha

My sunrise tree

I had written the rough draft of this post earlier in the week, and I decided to listen to my own advice ... at least partially. I had an afternoon meeting in Stafford, and I noticed the fall colors on the prairie grasses and the autumn leaves framing the Zenith elevator. I drove on by. But before I got to the railroad tracks, I backed up and snapped a few photos of the scene.

I had just driven past "Exhibit A" in my reminder to pause to appreciate the beauty. A massive old cottonwood along the Zenith Road was resplendent in yellow last week. But I didn't stop at the time. Places to go, timetables to meet ... all the usual excuses. 

The old cottonwood has played a starring role in my blog before. It shades the irises that grow along the Zenith Road at an old farmstead nobody even remembers any longer. 

And then we had a hard freeze and the colors faded like fabric left out in the sunshine. 

Later, I was glad I'd taken the time to put the car - and my schedule - in reverse. It was dark by the time I was driving home, thanks to the time change. 

Enjoy every moment you have. Because in life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks. Make sure it’s all worth it. – Anonymous © Source: https://www.quotespedia.org/authors/a/anonymous/enjoy-every-moment-you-have-because-in-life-there-are-no-rewinds-only-flashbacks-make-sure-its-all-worth-it-anonymous/

Enjoy every moment you have. In life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks. Make sure it's all worth it. 

Anonymous

Enjoy every moment you have. Because in life, there are no rewinds, only flashbacks. Make sure it’s all worth it. – Anonymous © Source: https://www.quotespedia.org/authors/a/anonymous/enjoy-every-moment-you-have-because-in-life-there-are-no-rewinds-only-flashbacks-make-sure-its-all-worth-it-anonymous/

Timing Is Everything: Silage at Dusk

The sun was setting when the silage cutting crew arrived October 1. (This post was rudely interrupted by 13 inches of rain, but I'm posting it anyway.)

After I'd picked up Randy from the field where he was drilling wheat, we hurried to the silage field so I could attempt some photos. (The Chiefs were playing the Broncos on Monday night football, and I didn't even have to beg.)

Since I began Kim's County Line in January 2010, I've taken silage cutting photos every year ... and written about wheat drilling ... and harvest ... and cutting hay ... and working with cattle and dozens of other tasks. After nine years for some of those mile markers on a Kansas farm, it's tough to find a new "angle," as I might have said in my previous life as a newspaper reporter and editor.

As I snapped away in the field, I thought the photos were turning out OK. It was kind of cool to watch the sunset sky fading into darkness and watch the lights come on the cutter and the trucks. And, besides, it's not like I could tell the silage cutting crew that they'd have to wait until tomorrow to do the job so the farmer's wife could get photos.

But that pretty setting sun also shut down the camera lens. The photos looking into the sun were more silhouettes than illustrations to show how the process works.

Looking to the east was a little better, but still not the clearest photos I've ever taken.

By the time we got to the trench silo, it was almost dark. But the crew kept working.

I think they must have worked until a little mishap, which we saw the following morning. The driver didn't go in the right drive. I'm really glad it wasn't me!

I knew I wouldn't have much of a chance to take photos the next day, since I was going to run from one task to the next. That included recording my KFRM report before 7, taking Randy to the field at 7, getting 100 gallons of diesel fuel at Zenith, running to Hutch for medicine and swinging back by Miller Seed Farm for a pickup bed full of Larry seed wheat. I'd left lunch in the crock pot so I could take meatball subs to Randy for lunch and then make it to Stafford for a meeting at 2. A trip to the grocery store and more trips to and from fields to help with moves kept me busy all day, so I missed the chance to take photos of the silage crew during daylight hours this year.

(For a complete run-down of silage harvest, check out this first blog post I did back in 2010. It's a different cutting crew, but the process and machinery are fairly consistent.) There are also a couple of videos on my 2016 blog post.)

Even though the timing wasn't great for photos, it turned out to be perfect timing. The silage crew finished before we were inundated with some 13 inches of rain in a little more than a week's time. It started raining the day after they were done. Whew!

June 26, 2018

To recap, Randy planted 27 acres of silage this year. By June 26, it was off to a good start.

August 17, 2018

By August, it was heading out (and also above Randy's head)!

We'll use the silage to feed cows this winter. Since our hay crop wasn't particularly prolific this year, having the supplemental silage for feed for our cattle is even more important. Randy was happy with the 16 tons per acre total.

After the veterinarian preg-checked and vaccinated 25 heifers yesterday afternoon (more on that to come), Randy fixed fence at the Rattlesnake Creek since the water had gone down enough to do it. 

Then, 20 days after the rain started, he finally planted a little wheat again toward evening. He said he came close to getting stuck once. I predict it won't be the last time.

In the Trenches

The cattle's "pantry" is nearly empty. So it was time to do a little maintenance on the "cupboard" this week.

We use a trench silo to store silage. (Click on this link for the 2017 blog post about filling the silo with silage.) Randy remembers that the trench silo was dug at Peace Creek about 1965 or so. It replaced a trench silo at a different location, where sandier ground had made the dirt sides collapse beyond repair.

Randy would have been about 10 years old at the time, and he remembers them digging into a hill at Peace Creek to make the new silo. After a few years, they poured cement in the bottom of the trench to make it easier to navigate.

There are still remnants of the cement, but, over time, much of the cement broke up. We now periodically put white rock in the bottom of the trench. As the photo shows below, even on a dry year, the weight of tractor tires makes the surface soft. The new white rocks will give a firmer surface.

Randy called for a delivery of white rock from Raymond Sand and Gravel.

It was delivered on Tuesday.

The truck driver backed into the silo and dumped the load in the trench ..

... leaving behind a "river" of rock. Randy will use the loader tractor to spread the rock and pack it in the bottom of the silo.

Randy also had the driver dump a little on a soft spot on the path our feed truck and tractor use to get to the silo each winter day.

This cow didn't let the activity interrupt her breakfast!

As we drove back into the farmstead, I asked about the upright silo there. Randy also remembers using it during his childhood. I found a photo of his Grandpa Clarence standing in front of the "new silo," labeled in Randy's mom's handwriting. Though the photo wasn't dated, it was near to some photos taken when Randy's dad Melvin was serving during the Korean War. So we think the upright silo must have been constructed around 1953.

I found a few other photos where the silo was a backdrop for fun on the farm. (Randy's grandma Ava is on the bicycle in the far left of the photo. If anyone can ID the other people, we'd love to know!)

 

Randy thinks he may be the "victim" in this photo below, where the silo is again in the background.

Today, the upright silo doesn't have a purpose for our farm - except for serving as a perch for a yard light and for holding a panel we swing into position when we work cattle. 

Like many of these old sentinels, they still stand as a silent centerpiece at the farmstead.

And they may conjure up conversations about young boys climbing the silo with their granddads, tossing down silage to feed the cattle.

Maybe there is value after all.