Dusty Roads to the Heart

School was easy for Bret. It seemed like his brain could just take a picture and he got it. He loved anything that was a challenge. He and his cousin signed up as a team for the Science Olympiad competition at the college near home. It was amazing the things they could figure out. There are subjects such as physics, geometry, calculus, all the things I could hardly pronounce let alone understand, that show up on his report card. The school play was a one time experience for Bret. He fit the part really well. He played the part of a country kid dressed in bib overalls shooting watermelon seeds with his friends. He brought home the "actor of the year" trophy! We were proud of him, but in his eyes it was just something that would collect dust. During his first summer to have a job away from home, he would hop in our 1979 white Pontiac Bonneville family car that became his after we bought a 1985 Park Avenue, and head to K-Mart every morning. Between his job and helping

The landscape lay flat and treeless. The sun was high in the sky. There was grassland as far as you could see. Once in awhile we would pass a little run down trailor house setting alone among the tall grass. The doors were hanging open. The windows would be open, the torn curtain flopping in the wind with the screen gone. A paint horse would be standing idle out front. Some places would have a goat munching the grass or a dog would come ambling around the corner of the house. We were on our way to California. Mark's parents had came the day before to watch the farm and take care of the pig chores. A friend of ours was moving back to our area to care for his parents and had asked us if we could drive out and bring his car back for him. Mark thought it would be a great vacation before Bret headed to college. We hadn't been off the farm much, let alone to California! The landscape started to change from a flat, grassy landscape to a rough one. Large red rock formations wer

"You know honey," Mark said to me one evening as we came into the house after the chores, "It sure looks bad in some of the pastures as far as water supply is concerned. Especially the south one. There just isn't much left and it isn't raining." "Oh great...not again! What are we going to do. That's serious!" "I mentioned a while back, if you remember, that I asked the rural water district at the last meeting if it would be possible to hook up with them. Well they called the other day and said that they had ran a line past that south pasture and we could hook into it. I know we will be putting out some money but I don't know what else to do." It was August of 1989. Bret had started his first year of high school and Kate was in the sixth grade. We were facing the worst drought in our farming history. It just would not rain. Well I guess I can't really say that. Last spring had been dry. So dry, in fact, that the

We have all put up our new calendars. They say 2016 across the top. We are now in the sixth day of this beautiful new year we have been given by God. We have had six weeks of "Holiday Season". Most of us have enjoyed family gatherings around the table. We have enjoyed hearing the sounds of laughter and joy. Some have held new little grandchildren in their arms or pulled a sled full of giggling children through the snow. Some have shared a drink of hot chocolate before a warm fireplace, or gathered in the living room to watch eager children open up gifts, or you have held your breath as your sweetheart opens the gift you got special for her. Will she like it? Yes, in this land of plenty, the holiday season is a special time for most, but this year, deep in my heart and mind, lived some other scenes.Scenes that hold special friends. As these "scenes" unfold in my mind...my heart fills completely full of compassion. In these "scenes" I cannot see a fa