Reflections
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Winter Completed
You think winter will never end, and then, when you don’t expect it, when you have almost forgotten it, warmth comes, and a different light. — Wendell Berry Last night before bed, I let the dogs out into the back yard. I tracked them with the flashlight, wary of what might scamper away from them in the dark, setting up a chase and an opportunity for noise. In the beam of the flashlight, I saw what looked like little snowflakes. I stuck out my arm and tiny white crystalline dots clung to the fabric of my sleeve. Huh, I thought. Two days ago, it was almost seventy degrees. That can’t…
- Bluebelle, Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, Jinx, Lectio Divina, Mrs. Orr, Photographs, Reflections
Daylight And Other Things Saved
An almost-spring rain has been falling most of the day, and the birds have been very busy at the feeders and in the birdbath. The daffodils are up, along with the grape hyacinth. The Virginia bluebells are getting ready to bud out, the forsythia is daubed with yellow up and down its slender branches, and the peach trees are blossoming out as well. A near neighbor’s pear tree is a perfect pink lollypop in the distance, and all the colors are set off by the silvery mist in the hollers. And tonight we move the clocks forward into Daylight Savings Time, and the tone and tenor of the days will…
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An Update
I wanted to thank everyone who has offered prayers on behalf of Mrs. Orr and me during this season of trial. We got an update on something we’ve been anxiously awaiting, and I thought I would post an update here. Not far into the new year, I was fired from my work-at-home position. The reason for my termination was my refusal to comply with a company policy that I believed was unethical and heartless. I had been previously warned about this on prior occasions when I was a new employee, and the situation did not arise again until sometime around Christmas. I was advised by my supervisor that I was…
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Hiatus
We have a winter storm bearing down on us, with heavy snow slated to be dropped on us starting late tonight, and the attendant temperatures getting down into the single digits — some days the highs are forecast to be in the single digits. I think most of the rest of the country is staring into the same abyss, and I hope all of you stay warm and sequestered with those you love. Dear readers, my wife and I are facing a couple of major life challenges that sailed into our formerly calm harbor a few days ago. These things are going to occupy most of my time and emotional…
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Almost Elvis’s Birthday
We spent two days in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area to celebrate our wedding anniversary, St. Joan of Arc’s birthday, and my birthday, and we had a very relaxing time. Except for the extraordinary amount of walking and climbing we did. We spent too much and ate too much, but we enjoyed ourselves. By the time we arrived back home on Friday, we were all stove up and ready for a nap. Once we got the dogs settled in and the bags unpacked and put away, that’s just what we did. Sprawled out in recliner and on couch, with dogs piled up on us, and we got some good catchup sleep.…
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Two Thousand Twenty-Four
I wanted to wish a Happy New Year to each of my dear readers. May this year be a healthy, prosperous one, and may it bring about the destruction of those who hate us and those like us. May we receive answers to some of the questions that trouble us. May we stop wasting time on things and thoughts and people who dissipate our energies and disrupt the harmony we crave. May we notice and laugh at the absurdities swarming around us in this life. May we abandon the idea that we’re going to solve that particular problem or set that certain thing right. Most of all, may we open…
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Christmas Eve, 2023
It’s been an interesting day. Very mild and sunny, very springlike. We enjoyed a very mellow time of it, right up until I started to microwave a biscuit and some sausage leftover from breakfast for a snack. When I pressed “start,” the display of numbers went blank, and then the entire bank of kitchen lights went out, along with the lights and the fridge out in the utility room. I went to the cellar to look at the breaker box, but no breakers were tripped. Still, I flipped the proper ones off, then on, then back off and let them sit for a while. Turned ’em back on and nothing.…
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The Pencil Seller
When I was a boy, I used to see an old blind man outside the Kress’s store on Main Street in our town. He would sit on a little chair outside the back entrance, wearing his dark glasses, his white cane propped against his leg. He would hold out a tin cup and would extend a fistful of white pencils in the other hand, all the while hawking his wares with his impeded speech. He would say “PEN-suls! PEN-suls!” over and over. Every once in a while, some benevolent soul would stop and say “I’ll take two,” etc. and drop coins into his cup. The old man would nod in…
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Last Saturday in the Fall
The good news is that Joy Cartwright is feeling much better, and I am grateful. The bad news is that I am feeling pretty crappy. Started feeling very droopy yesterday after, with all those flulike symptoms of dizziness, achy bones, flushed face, sneezing, completed congested head, etc. It’s been a real fun time and I’m trying not to re-gift it to Mrs. Orr. *** Speaking of Mrs. Orr, she took the oldest granddaughters out yesterday for their birthday. They wanted Chinese, and so after they ate, they asked their MeeMaw to take them to a used bookstore they particularly enjoy. Yes, they are definitely our granddaughters with their hunger for…
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Wang Dang…
A short while ago, there was a ruckus on the back porch. The dogs and I went out to investigate, and when I shined my light around, I saw a hunched, gray figure hurrying up the ridge into the woods. All I can say is that if Joy Cartwright and I get awakened in the wee hours because of this interloper and our dogs’ determination to dialogue with him, someone is going to get a piece of firewood laid across the cranium with precision and dispatch. Like livin’ in Nashville up in here… ~ S.K. Orr