Rain Rain Rain

It rained last night/this morning almost an inch and a quarter. What a blessing. A very "sad" result of the storm is that an oak well over 100 years old is now gone. The oak stood in the middle of a field down the road. When we returned from church we noticed it was gone, fallen into the corn that surrounded its refuge. It made me think about how we hold on to something that is tried and true and we begin take it for granted, like this oak tree that had stood for over a century. I think it probably had rotted inside and because of the drought it was unable to stand the high winds. I guess when something is left alone because it looks healthy on the outside and doesn't get the proper care (water in this case) it can in the moment of stress fall apart. I think we are that way as humans. I have known people that have looked good from the world's view but inside they were rotting away. All it took was exposure to a "high wind" or "storm of life" to break them down. Maybe it was the rot of loneliness in a marriage that lacked intimacy and the high wind of compliments came blowing in from another source other than their spouse and then it happened a storm of epic proportions comes thundering in. It shatters a relationship that from the outside looked strong but it shattered in the storm. Could it have been avoided? Could it have been redeemed? I believe the answer is yes but we have to be vulnerable enough to show signs of stress. Speak up don't stand off like the oak in the middle of the field where no one could see the signs of stress. Get help to alleviate the stress, counseling and prayer are great preventatives to emotional rot, just like proper water and fertilizer would have been for that tree. Be in the right environment, get away from the winds blowing in from the wrong direction (compliments from another source other than their spouse) and move into an environment that is protected from rot, turn to your spouse and not somewhere outside the marriage for affirmation. If that oak would have been in an environment like a forest or pasture it may have weather the storm because it would have been more protected than standing alone in the field. Watch where you are and where you get your emotional and spiritual affirmation don't go looking out in the "field"

New Gear From TFM "The Fiberglass Manifesto"

Greetings from the Land of the Lost. This post is old and was found hiding. Now on with the Fishing Report: None. No rain!!! not since May at least in our watershed. I think total we are up to 0.15 inches in nearly 70 days with temperatures in the high 90s to low triple digits ever day for a couple of months, we even hit 111 the other day. Needless to say the Big Walnut is a bit low only 0.25cfs (that is not a miss print) (the average for July is 122 cfs). Sugar Creek is a little better it is at 18cfs(the average for July is 325cfs). Huge thanks to TFM and William Joseph for the great Mag Current Chest Pack. This is a GREAT Bag and the Magnetic closure is a superior system to any zipper I have ever had to fight.

Wisdom are at least an attempt

So sorry it has been so long life gets in the way of ...well life at least the one you want. Over the next few weeks I will be posting portions of a letter I wrote to my son as embarked on a great journey. “May you live all the days of your life” Jonathan Swift Son you are embarking on the adventure of life, heed Jonathan Swift’s words. If you do not live your life each day you will as Thoreau said in the first essay, "Economy," that most men are slaves to their work and enslaved to those for whom they work. He concludes: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation...." Better to do as Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 411 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. Teddy Roosevelt said the following “far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” “All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don’t tiptoe.””- ― Shane Claiborne Live life to the fullest grab it, hang on and have the adventure. Do not sit and watch it go by! "Journey or Homestead?" Every great story involves a quest. In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins ran from the door at a quarter till eleven without even so much as a pocket handkerchief and launched on an adventure that would change his life forever. Alice stepped through the looking glass into Wonderland; Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter stumbled through the wardrobe into Narnia. Abraham left his country, his people, and his father's household to follow the most outlandish sort of promise from a God he'd only just met, and he never came back. Jacob and his sons went to Egypt for some groceries and four hundred years later the Israel nation pulled up stakes and headed for home. Peter, Andrew, James, and John all turned on a dime one day to follow the Master, their fishing nets heaped in wet piles behind them. The Sacred Romance involves for every soul a journey of heroic proportions. And while it may require for some a change of geography, for every soul it means a journey of the heart. The choice before us now is to journey or to homestead, to live like Abraham, the friend of God, or like Robinson Crusoe, the lost soul cobbling together some sort of existence with whatever he can salvage from the wreckage of the world. Crusoe was no pilgrim; he was a survivor, hunkered down for the duration. He lived in a very, very small world where he was the lead character and all else found its focus in him. Of course, to be fair, Crusoe was stranded on an island with little hope of rescue. We have been rescued, but still the choice is ours to stay in our small stories, clutching our household gods and false lovers, or to run in search of life. (The Sacred Romance, 143-44) You don’t choose a life Dad, you live one. Emilio Estevez The Way. Live it Son don’t hope it happens live it out! My son I am excited for you as you set off on your journey of life. You will meet many challenges along the way but you can trust in the many promises of God. Nahum 1:7 God is good, a hiding place in tough times. He recognizes and welcomes anyone looking for help, No matter how desperate the trouble. Psalm 62:8 8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. You will have times of trouble and brokenness but cling to these words “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Ps. 147:3) More to come soon Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read...