Field Report

The Crayon box has a color called Yellow Green. If you look at it by itself, you'd say it's as "green" as Kermit the Frog. But put it up against plain old Green and there's definitely a tinge of yellow in it.

That's kind of how the 2016 wheat crop is looking these days. Even with all the rain and the cooler temperatures earlier this month, the crop is beginning its transition from green to golden.

We got another 1.40" of rain Tuesday night (or Wednesday morning, depending upon  your perspective).

And while there may be a grumble or two about all the rain at the local coffee shop, most farmers would prefer being delayed with spring tasks with rain instead of looking to the empty skies during a drought.

For the first time since July 2010, Kansas has been classified as "drought free," according to Mary Knapp, assistant state climatologist.

The rains and cooler temperatures have given the wheat crop good "filling" weather, creating plump heads filled with wheat berries. We have been fortunate to avoid hail and tornadoes during this active weather pattern which brought devastation to the areas around Dodge City, Abilene and Chapman the last few days. (Thoughts and prayers are with those who are cleaning up.)

So we choose to be thankful - even if the farming "to-do" list is not getting crossed off as quickly as we'd like. After all, only two months ago, the wheat fields looked stressed. A dry winter had taken its toll. We were anticipating another ultra-early harvest, (like 2012) but this time, it would be because of lack of moisture.

Now the outlook is totally different.

Details create the big picture.

Sanford I. Weill, American businessman

I look at the "big picture" as I drive by fields, hurrying from one place to the next. But yesterday, I also decided to look a little closer.

Six weeks ago, the alfalfa was drought-stressed and was getting devoured by weevils. Randy has been wanting to begin harvesting it for more than a week now. But, on the other hand, it's lush and thick. While it is getting some blooms, it's not yet past its prime.

Just ask the butterflies that flit and float through the field.

The corn crop is off to a good start, though its "feet" are getting wet. 

The corn we had to replant is now up and growing next to its bigger "brothers."

Last Friday, there was enough of a window for Randy to plant forage sorghum and milo.

It's not up yet, but there is plenty of moisture in the ground for it to draw from.

There's a running joke that farmers are never happy with the weather. (Jokes often are born from a modicum of truth.) While there may be some grumbling at the parts counter or the restaurant, most of us are singing a different song, kind of like the happy trill I heard from the meadowlark yesterday afternoon as I chased butterflies across the alfalfa field.

And we are thankful.

The Prayer Jesus Taught Us

At church, I've been hearing a sweet little voice behind me recite the words to The Lord's Prayer. The higher-pitched voice joins the chorus of adult voices and, for me, has added a whole new dimension to the unison recitation of "the prayer Jesus taught us."

We recite it together every week during our worship service at Stafford United Methodist Church.  It's one of those things that - if we're honest - we may even say by rote, not even thinking about the words and what they mean.

Byers United Methodist Church, Pratt County, my childhood church

I've been going to church since my parents carried me through the doors of the Byers United Methodist Church more years ago than I like to admit.  I don't remember intentionally learning the words to The Lord's Prayer. Perhaps I did, but it's also possible that I learned them vicariously while sitting in a pew marked with my ancestors' names, and hearing them repeated, week after week.

Byers United Methodist Church

For that young worshiper, learning something new forces her to concentrate, to think about the words that are so familiar to the rest of us.  My friend, Debora, helped me to look at The Lord's Prayer in a new way, too. At church, Debora's mom handed me a 14-day devotional, "Praying The Lord's Prayer at Noon" (Prayer Point Press, 2015) and told me that Deborah thought I might like to read it. (Deborah is from Stafford, but now lives out of state. We keep in touch on Facebook and when she comes to visit her mom.)

The devotional is written by Dr. Terry Teykl, a United Methodist pastor in Texas who also works with a Christian radio station, KSBJ. He proposed praying The Lord's Prayer at noon daily, calling it "Pray Down at High Noon."

Stained glass in the Via Christi, St. Francis, chapel. Taken when we visited a friend in the hospital in April.

In the devotional, Teykl says:

"It's a challenging time to be the Church of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of things that we, as Christians, don't agree on. But one thing we can do is offer the prayer Jesus taught us to pray back to God in humility and unity. The brief passage, roughly 21 seconds when spoke, is simple enough to be prayed by children, yet rich enough to have fueled volumes of literature. It was Jesus' instruction to His disciples, and, as a result, it holds a sacred place across many denominations. Maybe it can be a gathering point where we can lay down our own personal or political agendas and simply ask God to come."

The Lord's Prayer covers it all, Teykl asserts, "large things, small things, material things, spiritual things, inward things and outward things."

Stained glass at the Via Christi, St. Francis, Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother

In the devotional, Tekyl breaks down The Lord's Prayer's phrases and creates a two-page reflection for each of the 14 days. He also includes a different Biblical translation of the familiar prayer each day.

It is believed that the early Christians regularly spoke The Lord’s Prayer at morning, noon, and night.

Would the world change if we committed to this simple plan ... praying The Lord's Prayer each day at noon? Maybe. Maybe not. But maybe the thing it would change is me. It might be worth planting the seed and seeing what happens.

Via Chrsti, St. Francis, Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother

"Imagine the Body of Christ praying The Lord’s Prayer all around the world. As it becomes noon in each time zone, our sisters and brothers will be praying for God’s Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

Larry Bauman,

Ardmore UMC District superintendent

Maybe I need to approach it with child-like wonder, like that little voice behind me in the church pew.

Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse, Concordia, Kansas

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

After my walk, I stopped at the pear tree to pick a few stranglers. I used my t-shirt as a make-shift gathering basket, and when I glanced down after one slipped from my grasp, I saw the monarch butterfly at my feet.

It was feeding on a rotting pear that had fallen from the branches. Even a pear barreling toward it didn't move it from the sweet treat. The sweet nectar had also attracted a bevy of other marauders. Even with the striking orange and black of the majestic butterfly poised there, I couldn't get past the ugly insects, despite the green iridescence on paper-thin wings.

I'd seen another butterfly float on the wind currents as I'd walked down the road earlier, but it didn't sit still for a close-up. Arrrgh, I thought! Why couldn't it have perched on a branch or found a flower from which to draw its sustenance? Who wants to look at a rotting pear and dirty flies, even when they have a beautiful visitor in their midst? Certainly not me!

It finally lighted on a leaf long enough that I could snap a more pleasing fall portrait, complete with green pear leaves and a yellow cottonwood leaf. I could still hear the buzzing of the ravenous insect world, chowing down on the rotting fruit, but I could ignore it through the view finder, focusing instead on the stained-glass-like traits of the royal butterfly as it paused before migrating on.

So what's the message? Should I be overlooking the "ugly"? Or is it more honest to report the bad with the good? Nobody has a Perfect 10 day all the time, but I tend to report the more positive spin on life, rather than focusing on the negative.

I saved an email devotional awhile back. It said: 

The only difference

between stumbling blocks and stepping stones

 is the way in which we use them.

 –Anonymous

Taken in Yellowstone National Park - 2011

So maybe it is better to see the stepping stones and the butterflies in life, even when they come disguised as stumbling blocks or complete with pesky flies.

A Time to Pray (also from the devotional):

God, just for today, let me see only the good.
Give me the eyes of faith, the heart of hope.

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I'm linked today to Jennifer Dukes Lee's Tell His Story feature on her blog. Click on the link to check it out!