Don’t be fooled!

 

Life Happens

I was weeding my garden the other day when I began to think about life.

Now don’t get me wrong,  I’m not about to go into a long litany of wrongs or problems that are happening in my life. 

As a matter of fact life is good, really good actually. We are enjoying our retirement. I told someone a little while ago that if I had known it was going to be this good, I would have done it when  I was thirty.  Of course it wasn’t at all possible back then.  However, let’s get on with my thoughts.  

As I knelt there that day, I began to reflect on my life, as well as on the life of other people I have known. Really, it can be compared to the weather we have been experiencing lately.  It is great when the sun is shining and it’s warm.  Good for golfing, boating, gardening, etc. 

However it is not always sunshine.  Some days it rains and in most of our minds we would probably say TOO MUCH.

I also began to think of life as a person walking through a luscious green valley.  Do you know that there would not be a valley if there were not  mountains on either side.  While it is good and pleasant in the valley, if we are going to broaden our horizons, we need to climb the mountains every now and then.

 I think it was Tammy Wynette who sang the song “I never promised You a Rose Garden.”         

 But there was someone else who gave us these words long before she was born.  Let me refer to the original Author of these words.

Back in the Old Testament, the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 20, verses 1 thru 4.  God is speaking to the Children of Israel as they are about to enter the Promised Land and possess what God had promised their Fathers. 

As we read this passage, we will find some promises to us.  The first one, most of us would like to pass on.  It says, “there will be battles against those who would not want them to possess the land.”  That is true for us in this life as well.  

In John`s Gospel, chapter 16, verse 33, Jesus told His followers (that includes we who believe on Him today), “that in this world they would experience all kinds of opposition.”

 Back in Deuteronomy, God gave the Children of Israel three more promises.  The promise of His Presence, to go with them  The Promise of His Power, to fight their enemies for them, and the Promise of His purpose, to save them. 

As we look at John 16:33, we find likewise, the promise of Our Lord, “Do not be troubled when you face all kinds of opposition,” Jesus says, “for I have overcome the world.”

No one likes trouble in their life but the truth is, “life happens” and that includes trouble, opposition, sickness, etc.  

So what do we do.  Well here are our choices; we can try to fix the problem ourselves, or we can rely on the Promises of God.

Bye the way, I expect that about the time you are reading this, I’ll be pulling weeds again because LIFE HAPPENS.        

Rev. Duncan Perry,

[…]

Well, I did it. 

I actually got up on a stage in front of two hundred people, dressed in black fishnet stockings, a choker and red sequins, and got through an entire tap number. Four whole minutes. Four really long minutes.

I’m also pretty sure that my performance at the dance recital had a genuine effect on some members of the audience. As I was doing my final bow, I distinctly heard calls for the defibrillator.

There were other dancers from my adult class on the stage, also wearing fishnets and sequins. But I suspect that they may not have been quite as…memorable…during our routine as I was. 

You see, they actually remembered the right choreography to the dance. 

It isn’t like I hadn’t practiced the number. I faithfully attended my classes,  regularly asked my wonderful dance teacher to go over the bits I wasn’t quite getting (about three minutes, 40 seconds of the routine), and even tried to rehearse at home.

Rehearsing at home involved shifting the dining room table to one wall, and tapping on the hard wood floor, clutching the sheets of paper with the steps on them to my nose. I played the music over and over, desperately attempting to remember what arms and feet, hands and head should be simultaneously doing. (One out of four would have been challenging enough.) If I thought it had been hard to get the dance right at the studio, how much more difficult it was to work at home, where I couldn’t keep my eyes constantly fastened on the feet of my teacher!

Incidentally, I also realized, part way through the first home rehearsal that, in hind sight, it might have been a good idea to close the curtains on to the street. Several neighbours, out for strolls, had congregated  on the side walk in front of my picture window. Judging by the frozen stances and the dropped jaws, what I was doing was riveting. By the time I actually noticed the growing crowd, I was half afraid that the chip wagon might pull into my driveway. 

My fellow tap dancers have always been very supportive, and  endlessly encouraging. “Don’t worry,” they said. “You’re going to get those steps in the end!” 

Unfortunately, they were still saying that when the curtain opened and the recital music started up.

I drew a complete blank. I couldn’t recall a single step. I debated whether anyone would notice if I suddenly dashed behind the backdrop. Then my feet started to move. Somehow, somewhere, some form of deeply buried dance conditioning kicked in. I started to tap.

I was dancing!  I was, as my dad used to say, ‘tripping the light fantastic’. I was truly dancing… 

Okay, I was about two beats behind everybody else in the number and on the wrong side!

But stand aside, Fred Astaire.

I was dancing. 

[…]

 

Dear Editor

It is hard to find any credibility in Mr. Bruce Albers (leader of the opposition against wind mills) when he takes a 300 foot tower proposed for the south branch wind farm and makes it a 652 foot monster. A mere exaggeration of more than double the height. 

You have to question the groups motives. Does it have anything to do with health and economics or just a case of “NOT IN MY BACK YARD….”?

Why not simplify the debate on wind mills, “the wind blows, the wind mill turns, the lights come on!” It does not need to get any more complicated than that!

Oliver Thurler

613-913-3029

Brinston, 

Farmer land owner

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