I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation
- Bluebelle, Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Photographs, Prayers, Reflections
A Riot of Heelers
We spent most of yesterday sawing back and forth, emotions and logic battling it out, leaving us weary and unsure. Should we go look at the dog I believe to be Jinx’s sister? Should we leave well enough alone? Should we introduce chaos into a two-dog house that have finally reached a certain balance? What if she doesn’t fit in? What if our dogs’ personalities change and they become tense and unhappy? I watched the clock swing towards 100 pm, the hour the animal shelter opens on Saturdays. The dogs were asleep; Mrs. Orr and I were silent, brooding our own thoughts to ourselves. I walked up to Bonnie’s grave…
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Too Tired To Elaborate
I’ll just let the photo do the talking. More tomorrow. It’s a chaotic but happy farmhouse right now… ~ S.K. Orr
- Church Life, Daily Life, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Lectio Divina, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections
Critical Mass
A natural part of aging together as a married couple is the increase in conversations about how things will be when one of us dies. We’ve explored what Mrs. Orr might likely do if I go first, and what I might do. It’s obvious and natural that my beloved wife would want to be near the boys and the grandchildren, and this would be a good thing — good for her to have loved ones near her, and good for the young ones to enjoy the benign influence of so saintly a grandmother. I am a horse of a different color. I love my family very much, but the older…
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Let’s Go, Jinxie!
All of my coworkers are women, and without exception, they are observably addicted to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. They post and like and Tweet and share and upvote and forward until they lose track of who they are, where they are, and of what they’re taking notice. Just watching them makes my arthritic thumbs ache. And yet. Out of the entire gossipy solipsistic backstabbing shallow juvenile selfie-taking gaggle of them, not one — not ONE, mind you — knew what “Let’s Go, Brandon!” means, nor anything about the phrase’s origin, nor why it’s considered funny. Not one. I have a firm grasp of the concept of duty, and…
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As The Winds Cool The Earth
That’s another picture of Jinx’s likely sister, taken from the shelter’s Facebook page, which I was able to access even without having an account there. The resemblance is remarkable. Same slightly worried facial expression. Due to their very limited hours, the first day we’ll be able to visit the shelter to see her will be Saturday at one pm. We’ll see how it goes. I asked Dixee how she’d like to have a little big sister. She said, “Knee grow, please,” and walked away to watch Mrs. Orr cook supper. Supper was homemade chili and cheddar & garlic biscuits. Perfect fare for a chilly night like this. *** I saw…
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Poorer Relations
We recently drove past the new county animal shelter without realizing what the building was. When we saw the sign, Mrs. Orr and I both exclaimed, “So that’s where it is!” We had heard that a new, badly-needed shelter had been opened and that many cats and dogs were up for adoption. For some mysterious reason, I decided today to look at the shelter’s website. I scrolled through the photos and read some of the descriptions. Then I was brought up short by one dog for whom the shelter is seeking what they call “a forever home.” The dog was described as a female blue heeler mix, about 2-4 years…
- Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Photographs, Reflections, Saints
Something In The Air
We awoke to one of those days that couldn’t be more perfect for the Orr temperament if we’d sat down with a Weather & Scenery Catalogue and ticked off all the boxes for the Saturday we were ordering. A muted, witchy glow of cloud-shrouded afterthought of a sun, leaves layered like the scales of Jonah’s fish across the slippery skin of the mountain earth, the rain as fine as the mist at the produce section in the grocery store, the stillness and sacredness that churches and even libraries once had but will never have again. When I swung my legs over the bed and touched the floor, the Spotted Southern…
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Numbering The Stones
If you look carefully at the photo above, you will see a daddy longlegs in the upper left quadrant. I took this picture this past Saturday while Jinx and I were exploring in the little country cemetery near our farm. We were there explicitly to count the gravestones, something I had been meaning to do for some time. The gravestone itself is one of my favorites, the marker of a Jesse Lane, who served the Confederacy in a regiment from his home state. The stone is simple and dignified, like the ones at Arlington National Cemetery, and I usually touch it in passing. On this particular cool day, it radiated…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Dreams, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Lectio Divina, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections
Despair, Sleep, and Heavenly Mother
Bruce Charlton has posted a really good essay over at his blog, one of those posts that stopped me in my tracks. I commend it to you. I’ll include here the checklist Bruce wrote to assist in spiritual re-encouragement, and then a couple of thoughts. 1. Reality is ultimately created by God – and continually being-created by God; and I participate in this creation (as a sub-creator) insofar as the world is understandable to me. I look around and remind myself of this. 2. The world is Not dead, mechanical or random; the world is alive and conscious: this is a world of beings. Every ‘thing’ is actually a being, or part…
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Spanking Clean
Got home and got the spotted menace into the bathtub. I won’t describe the barking, whining, frantic, scrambling details. I will only express gratitude. Gratitude that the mix of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and Dawn dish soap worked to remove the skunk-stink. And gratitude that it’s over. Until the next time Jinx decides the black cat with the white stripey tail is just soooooo cute and irresistable. Farm life. Jinx life. Here we are. Praise Christ for another day. ~ S.K. Orr