Category Archives: Old Friends

Celebration And Memories

dronesofheaven
Birthday in Northford with friends and family
Birthday in Northford with friends and family

Celebration And Memories

I awoke at 4AM. I would like to tell you that it was because I am so excited about today. But, the truth is I had a pretty wild dream, at the same time I could hear Jacob talking in his sleep and Tina was pulling on the covers. So 4AM it is.

I have devoted time to prayer, meditation and coffee!  I am focused on the goodness of God in my life. I am encouraged in so many areas of my life. There are a few I would like to see God move in, but knowing I cannot do it, He can and I will let Him, takes the pressure off me.

Today, as I have for many a year, I celebrate my birthday. Friends and family will be here. I realize some may think I do it just to do something different, but that is not true. I struggle with relationships. I want them, but often times who I am and how I function make it hard for me. Too often I have let work, business or ministry supersede real relationship in my life. Being a loner was easy. “Hermits are us!” I need my down time, my quiet time and my no time.

Today is the day of the year where I see lots of family. (This year all my kids will be here. That has not happened for a while.) My family is precious to me. I have been on the other side with no family. (As a friend said in conversation yesterday, “foolish drinking and not working are not ingredients for success.” That was me.)

My children mean the world to me. Their children mean as much. A new addition to the family will join us today. Her name is Hannah Lynn.

Today many friends will be there. Some from business, some from years of friendship, some new and a vast majority join us today from our church gathering. I am excited about seeing them.

But I also share a part of my heart with those who cannot be here. My parents went on to be with the Lord many years ago. My birthday memories will always include them. My brother in Maine cannot be here. My sister is out west this summer. Over the years I have had my nieces here.

Many have shared these days with me over time. Some are no longer part of my life. Others have gone home to be with Him. I do not forget them or take lightly the influences they have had in my life and the life of those I influence. I look at pictures and reflect on the good stuff God has done for me. 6 years ago my daughter moved in with us with 3 children. I have seen God do some amazing things. Today is less a celebration about my birthday and more a celebration of “look what the Lord has done!”

Today, as it has in the past will be a day of memory creation. How thankful I am of that.

So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.
Helen Keller

My Birthday A Little History

My Birthday

As I mark 58 years today, I think back to a time where I was pretty convinced I would not see another. This year my birthday will be celebrated on the 3rd with friends and family at a baseball game and fireworks. Like most years I catch fireworks. And then this weekend is the big party.

I was born in what was called Grace-New Haven in New Haven Connecticut. My parents lived on Orange Street in New Haven on a 3rd floor apartment. A few years later they moved to Raymond Court. And just a few years later they moved to Old Turnpike Road in Northford Connecticut. My dad was a timekeeper at Sargent’s in New Haven and my mom with her Masters in hand began teaching in Foxon.

Many of my summers were spent on lakes in the Adirondacks. Schroon Lake, Indian Lake, Lake George. One summer I celebrated with friends like Donald Jones, Gary Gilbert and my family by going to Powers Pond(Blueberry Hill) in Wallingford and paddleboating! Other times Frontier Town, Santa’s Land and Ausable Chasm.

So here I am readying to celebrate with friends and family this weekend. My youngest grandchild will join us. I am looking forward to it. As I looked at pictures of previous birthdays and friends, I am so grateful for all of those I have connected with.

Thanks for all the memories.

July is Here!

The Blur Of July

As we hit the first day of July I am reminded of what it was like in my youth. My parents often planned our vacations to Schroon Lake and later our camping trips in the first few weeks of July. My birthday on the 3rd was always celebrated with nights of fireworks, it seemed. (Hey, one day later and they would have named me Samuel….think about that!)

drum cake
This was the cake my mom made for my birthday one year. .

When I was a child my mom often experimented with specialty cakes. One of my favorites was a drum cake she made. (Sometimes she made those ice cream cone cakes.) But whatever she made it made little difference! Sometimes we went to Frontier Town, Ausable Chasm, Catskill Game Farm and one year while in Connecticut, we celebrated on Powers Pond in Wallingford with the paddleboats.

July was always a month for vacations, boating, water skiing and more. When I was older I went to Keewaydin and celebrated on the shores of Lake Dunmore. Now, not only do we celebrate my birthday but also my daughter Amy and my wife Tina’s birthday. (My wife celebrates in the aftermath of my party with a quiet day on the ocean’s beach.)

I am excited not because it is “my birthday” but for many a year it has been a day of gathering friends and family around the barbecue. This year will be no different. From 10-4 this Saturday I will be blessed with the friends I have come to cherish and the family I adore. This year one of my greatest “presents” will be seeing my newest granddaughter Hannah Lynn. Over the years friends have visited from about the nation planning ministry and vacations that have included this day. I have friends that show from church and others who never have been in a church. They all are my friends. Over the years some have gone on to their reward and each year I reflect on the goodness of God in my life and the friends and family I do have.

I often sit and watch the conversations, the interactions and the relationships that are started or revisited.  I believe this week to be no different. Friends and family, I look forward to seeing you.

Mr. Arbuckle and His Small Farm

BARROCK1Living in the small rural neighborhood I did there were lots of little farms. One of these small farms was owned by Mr. Arbuckle.

Over time I learned a lot about life, farming and labor from him. He and his wife had retired from Pratt & Whitney aircraft. They had moved down here from Putney Vermont when jobs were plentiful. Their home sat on the end of the road. On one side was the small garage and barn, while across the street was their home.

When I first moved to the small community, driving by I would see his large German Shepherd. Jet black in color it would bark and pull at the chain for every passerby. (One time it got loose and attacked a neighborhood girl. Not too long after his new dog Emmy, a monster St. Bernard appeared.) I used to travel by his home to get to the main road.

One day through the relationship of another neighbor, Mr. Harrrison, I was introduced to him. He was looking for a young person to help with the chores about his small place.

I soon became his right hand man(I was only 8 or so, helping him a couple of times a day for a quarter each time. I would go down in the morning and feed the chickens and geese, gather their eggs and check for critters! Once a week I would shovel chicken manure out into a pile for summer growing. I would have to shoosh the geese out because if they got excited in the small coop it could be dangerous.

I remember at one point someone gave him this black and white Barred Plymouth Rock rooster. It had been hard enough with the other roosters. What a mean bird. Every day he would fly up in my face and attack me. Finally I could not take it, so taking the five gallon pail of water I poured it over him 2 or 3 times. No longer did he attack me.

I would carry the eggs over to wash and put in boxes for the neighbors to buy in the outside refrigerator. Mr. Arbuckle sold vegetables, chicken manure, eggs and the occasional chicken. (Want to learn how to prepare a chicken? Nahhh….Probably not!)

As he became more dependent on me he increased the produce and the chickens. One day he decided to put a well in next to the barn. (No longer would I have to trudge across the street with two 5 gallon buckets.) So, another neighbor, Mr. Cavanna, came over and found a branch. He began to dowse the property. In moments this branch went wild. He asked me to hold onto it. I could hardly keep it in my hands. “Eleven feet, more than enough water right here. “ Wow! I had never seen anything like that. So, as my dad, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Cavanna stood by beginning my instruction, Mr. Arbuckle sat in his chair(He was disabled.)pouring water for me. (Pretty sure they were all drinking Colt 45.) I began to dig and as the hole got wider and deeper, it was not but the following day before I was down in the slimy clay walls, with water trickling about my feet. I learned how to put in the valve and pipe and we were soon filling up around it. Running the line into the chicken coop, we bolted on a head for the crank pump. (Each day I would take some water from the previous day and prime the pump.)

In the spring I would start with picking asparagus and rhubarb, with a variety of strawberries and blackberries shortly after. During that time he would have me go to the barn and begin to pull out the seeds from the previous year. I would spend days planting everything from cucumbers, watermelons, squash, pumpkins and more. Tomatoes and pepper plants would be brought over from trades he made. I learned how to garden. Summer chores now included weeding, hoeing and refining the plants. His new dog Emmy would bark at me all day long from her age. But at the end of the day I would have money in my pocket. I got paid by the baskets for berries and I got paid for all the additional chores at $5 a day.

I learned you did not skip out on chores or bypass work.

He had to grandsons who came to visit. He often had us paint or clean around his home. One summer we were asked to paint the barn. While up on the top of Emmy’s cage, a gallon of paint “spilled” down dowsing one of them in the cage and Emmy. Red did not look good on her.

When his grandsons, Bruce and David came by we would usually get in trouble. Often we would “borrow” his big Chrysler, Chevy Impala or his Dodge pickup (I ultimately bought this 1952 pickup.) for a spin in the dirt pit behind his property. (It was here I learned why you do not shoot an arrow in the general direction of someone riding a bike from a hillside cliff. As the arrow flew towards Bruce riding in on a bike, it was only a miracle that allowed the arrow to embed itself in the front of his bicycle seat and not him.)

When he would go away I was given responsibility for things. One Saturday morning my sister and I went down to feed the animals, including the St. Barnyard. But life went different that morning. She had not had anyone visit, so when I opened the door to put her feed and water in she hit the door with so much force, I could not stop her. She bounded out in to the garage and ran at my sister. She hit her underneath her chin, pushing her into a pole. As my sister fell to the ground she took off. (Never leave garage door open!) She took off and headed towards the main road. It was many hours, but because it was so hot, she stopped running. We rescued her and I learned a lesson.

At some point I outgrew the pay and I think his wife dying knocked the steam out of him. (I will never forget kneeling beside my dad at an open coffin and seeing her chest “rise.” So out of there!) I am thankful for all the things I learned at his hand. Because of his disability I was able to have an educational and profitable opportunity. I made money for treats, trips to swim at Powers Pond and more.

Frankly, I think the world might be different if kids learned about animals, produce and work!

 

My Neighbor, Mr. Harrison.

2014-03-15 11.16.51Mr. Harrison

When I was a child we lived in a small rural community. My mother and father were always good at making friends and when we moved this time was no different. My dad’s friends were frequently considerably different than my mother’s. My dad was an Army veteran who drank hard and worked hard. And a lot of his friends were similar. Mr. Harrison was one of those friends. Continue reading My Neighbor, Mr. Harrison.

Family and Friends (More than a cellphone program…)

Even as I write that, I chuckle, because the latest revelations about snooping indicates we have a wider circle of “friends” than we thought!

Yesterday during our time of worship, I felt the Lord say that many can comprehend “unity” or the concept of family, because of their upbringing. I made a note and wrote the thought and went back to worship.

During the “sermon” time my friend Mark said something about it as well. I wrote this scripture down. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also [is] Christ. ”

We are one. I began to think about this. If we do not see from God’s perspective that we are to be one, we “act” out unity from our perspective, from our “location.” One of the symptoms of dysfunction is the need to “isolate.” I am not talking about times of respite or retreat, but the continued move away from others. I get it. Perhaps you have been hurt. But, when one is “hardwired” from the get go for community, moving against that sets up a tension that can move to an unhealthy place.

We have programs that denigrate family because we came to a place where we ascended to unity rather than a place of moving to unity from the working of Christ in our lives.

Using this statement, “I am only human” attacks the fabric of Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is in opposition to 2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone [is] in Christ, [he is] a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” A new creation may resemble the old, but is NOT. It is new! A supernatural being with roots in heaven and the DNA of the Father. You can not say “I am just human.”

And if we are not “just human” than not only has our identity changed, but it compels us to change our perspective and outlook on community and family. We need to examine what it looks like from His place and His purpose. “”that they all may be one, as You, Father, [are] in Me, and I in You;”

When we change our thoughts about one another, shaped by the likeness of Him, we will see a move in family that will shake the world. Fathers and mothers rising up with a destiny to be sown, not held on to. A future so bright that worry not enter.

And when we see it is not about our purpose, but His purpose, we will live on purpose.

It Is About Time

What High Ridge home looks like now.
What High Ridge home looks like now.

This morning I was thinking “my chronos is important to my kairos.” The tribe of Issachar, “And of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.” – 1 Chronicles 12:32 NAS

If I am reduced to nothingness that leaves room for everything! Continue reading It Is About Time

Please don’t let me be misunderstood

Dear friends-

“Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” That is a line from the Animals’ hit song. (For the lyrics.) I remember the first time I heard it around 1966. I was a beginning drummer with some friends and I used to listen to it over and over on my BSR turntable, with my Realistic 20W set up. Headphones on banging away. For me it became something I did not understand. Why was I not understood? (Some might say it became self-fulfilling prophecy.) Others did that song like Joe Cocker and the Moody Blues, but no one did it like the The Animals. So, now that I stirred up some memories for some of you.. And for others, you may be asking “What is a turntable?” In other places in those lyrics, the singer declares, that his “intentions are good.” Before coming to Christ, I would have said that is fully me. With Christ, I quickly understood that it is not about trying, but about being.Over the years I have somehow felt like I was going through an identity crisis. Who am I? It began as a child and it has never stopped. I was raised (Can’t say “grew up” because we are waiting on that!) in an alcoholic family. I was misunderstood. My father drank and my mom coped. I always tried to be the “best” and when not successful, I resorted to not doing it. Easier to pretend it did not matter, rather than you could not do it, or in some cases even understand it. My relationships often reflected “best efforts” with feelings of not being understood. (I know that I am not the only leader who has felt “misunderstood.”) And I assure you that all my thoughts were towards making things gel and be right. (I am not saying I have no “problems,” but I am saying the difficulties I have encountered have often been the results of misunderstandings.) Continue reading Please don’t let me be misunderstood


The World Out There

preachingatvillageI wrote this 7 years ago. How things have changed and how many things have come to pass.

Yesterday morning I awoke from a dream. There was not much to guess about the dream or to figure out. In the dream I was working around the home and all I heard over and over was  “work like an evangelist.” The music played over and over in my head. It was like “walk Like An Egyptian” by the Bangles. Even after I woke up the music was pulsing. Like I said, there wasn’t much to think about. Continue reading The World Out There