A String of Coincidences? Not...

   Coming toward me on the cart path this morning was a man wearing an Auburn shirt. That is AUBURN spelled in big letters, and I could read it from quite a distance. As is true of a lot of folks on the path in the early morning, he had a dog walking beside him. I knew neither he nor his dog was familiar to me, so I prepared to say hello and keep moving.

   But his dog, Maggie, I found out later, wanted to visit, so I stopped to pet her and strike up a conversation. He mentioned that Maggie liked to chase deer, and he had seen a couple while walking last evening. My wife and I had seen these also as we drove out to meet some friends for dinner.

   The man, Joel was his name, I found out in passing, just said that Maggie like to chase deer and squirrels back home, and so I asked where he was from. Monticello was the answer, and I commented that we had been there and then told him about the courthouse tour that we were on. Monticello is the county set of Jasper County and had a nice older courthouse, built in 1908 which we had visited.

   Then, as if this was the main news event in the country the past few days, he asked if I had heard about the tragic fire in Hancock County, to which I replied in the affirmative, telling Joel that we had been there and had taken that photo.

   I then told him that I remembered an older white church in Monticello that I liked and had a photo of.

   He knew the church and, in fact, had a lumber company nearby.

   I asked him about what brought him to St. Simons, and he said his wife had inherited a house in that area and they came to stay periodically. Of course this led to more questions and I learned that Her parents were the Fowlers, who lived in our old neighborhood, came from Atlanta, and were the first people who had us over to dinner after we moved here in 1995.

   After we talked for a few minutes about his family and mine, we parted to continue our walks, and, as I walked on around, I got to thinking about the places and people we had in common.

   How often is that? The reason it all came to light was because a dog wanted to be petted, and two people were able to share.

   I'm sure I would be able to share lives with more folks if I just took advantage of opportunities that walked up to me like that.

   There just could be a deeper reason for all that conversation this morning. God knows it was not just a chance encounter, but I would never know unless I did more than wave and say "hello".

   Makes me wonder who I have missed in my hurry up life.

   Slow down and see.

A Happy Error

   The events of yesterday, with the fire in Hancock County at the old courthouse, caused me to put some effort in planning another trip to photograph others that I had not gotten to as yet. That exercise led me to realize that Hancock County was not on my new list of ones to cover, and, looking back at my database, the knowledge came that I had erred. I did have pictures of the courthouse and some other shots besides. 

   I am happy, really happy, to be able to share what I found, but, more than that, I had not missed getting that great old building in my file. I know there are lots of pictures in a lot of files, but they were not mine, and I wanted the pleasure of the find, and I wanted to have the personal enjoyment of having spent some time in that place.

   One of the interesting things to me about that post yesterday, and the scenes that it entailed, were some subconscious memories that I must have stored away back when I was there, but did not know that I was talking about this particular courthouse.

   For example I wrote:

   "We have seen them from outside small towns, their clock towers hovering over a cluster of buildings, some of which may have seen much better days. We have sat on front porches and inside on wooden benches. We have seen people coming and going, transacting business with the county in the same way as their parents and grandparents had done over the years. "

   And here is what I took pictures of in Sparta that day:

   Another example from my blog yesterday:

   "We have looked into old courtrooms and sat on those old chairs and pews, wondering about the many things that had gone on in that room over the years that court had been held there. We wondered about what those pieces of furniture could tell us if they could. We thought of, and speculated about, the stories of men, women, boys and girls whose very lives were bound up in the events that took place inside those old buildings."

   When you have traveled around the state and photographed 116 courthouses, you are hard pressed to picture each one and remember the shots you were impressed to take. It is amazing to me that, when I wrote those thoughts in that blog, I had actually done those acts and had those thoughts in that very building. I knew they were general thoughts that had passed through my mind several times in several places, but, until I found them in my file, I did not know it was in this place, and that I had pictures to go along with them.

   I am still sad that this grand old structure burned, and I know the folks who lived and had business in that courthouse are still sad, but I am happy that my time and memories from there are intact.

   The County was in the process of renovating that building, even fixing the clock so that it had hands and show the correct time on all four sides, and I do not know what they will do now with that shell of a structure, but here is what it looked like last September.

   Now to go get the other 43 that I need for completion.

   

I Am Sad...

   The Death of a friend that I never knew…

   I got the news from a friend last evening on Facebook. Her words were "Don, I hope you got to photograph this one", and showed a picture of the old 1883 courthouse in Sparta, GA, the county seat of Hancock County.

   As I quickly looked up my records to see if I had a photo in my files, I knew I could not remember being in that town, and, sure enough, that was one of the old courthouses that I had not gotten around to. I had 116 of the 159 courthouses in our state of Georgia, but Hancock was still missing from the list.

   Over the past couple of years, Mayre and I have had the opportunity to move around this state and see, as well as take pictures of, these courthouses, many of whom are over 100 years old and still in use.

   We have seen them from outside small towns, their clock towers hovering over a cluster of buildings, some of which may have seen much better days. We have sat on front porches and inside on wooden benches. We have seen people coming and going, transacting business with the county in the same way as their parents and grandparents had done over the years. 

   We have looked into old courtrooms and sat on those old chairs and pews, wondering about the many things that had gone on in that room over the years that court had been held there. We wondered about what those pieces of furniture could tell us if they could. We thought of, and speculated about, the stories of men, women, boys and girls whose very lives were bound up in the events that took place inside those old buildings.

   I'm sure that there are folks in Sparta and Hancock County that will drive by those ruins and remember life that was lived in that place, and I am sad that we will not have the chance to take some time to just sit and think in that building.

   Is it silly to be sad over the death of a building? 

   It is always hard to lose a friend, even one that you never knew.

My Reading List This Summer

   Sometime back I read a verse in Psalm 101 which states:

"I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;"

   That admonition caught me, mainly due to the fact that I like to read and am prone to read a lot of things that sound like they would be good, but turn out to have little in the way of redeeming value.

   Now I realize that the verse covers a lot more than just reading, but through the eyes come a multitude of images that affect my thought processes, some good and some bad, but reading came to my mind first.

   It may be because  I am old, but there is not enough time to read all the good stuff much less waste time with the other. With that in mind, the first part of this summer I found a post by Dr. Albert Mohler that talked about the 10 books he wanted to read during June, July and August. Since he seems to be big on history, especially in this list, I decided to search out those titles and read along with him.

   My reading has included 5 of the 10 books so far.

   1. Mission at Nuremberg by Townsend (a book about the Nazi war crimes trials)

   2. The Lion's Gate by Pressfield (a book about the 1967 Arab-Israeli War)

   3. The Good Spy by Bird (a book about Robert Ames of the CIA)

   4. The Dead and Those About to Die by McManus (a book about D Day)

   5. I Heard My Country Calling by Webb (an memoir by former VA Senator Jim Webb)

   Perhaps I spend too much time with my nose stuck in my Kindle, but I am reading good stuff, at least in my opinion.

"I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;"

   There may also be better books to read, but I don't think the above will qualify as "worthless".

   Books, movies, TV, magazines and anything else that my eyes spend time on. All are subject to God's definition of "worthless".

   And I need to consider that, all the time.

 

 

Prayerful Punctuation, How...

   For some years I have used a punctuation tool without really knowing that it was one. As an example think about this usage:

   "God always answers prayer, but…"

   The way I used those three dots at the end of that short blurb that introduces a blog post has been for me more of a hook to draw a reader into the post rather than the use of a real form of punctuation.

   Let me illustrate by quoting from a a passage in The Circle Maker, a book I have referenced before here in this space:

"That’s where most of us live most of the time — in the triple-dot punctuation known as an ellipsis. The ellipsis indicates a pause in speech or an unfinished thought. When we’re waiting for God to answer a prayer, it’s a period of ellipsis."

(Batterson, Mark (2011-12-20). The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears (p. 89). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. )

   I think about how I pray, and what I pray for. My requests directed toward God may be noble or they may be selfish, but I usually end any thoughts with the simple phrase from the Lord's Prayer in Matthew, "Thy Will Be Done".

   I note that I put a period at the end of the previous sentence, but maybe that punctuation should be change to an ellipsis. When I put the period there, it seems to me that I can be saying that I know that God's will is best and will be the outcome, but am I also saying that, since any request to God is ultimately out of my hands, I am praying this and then leaving it there, not to be visited again?

   Is that the way to pray? Just throwing out a prayer with a finality that may show my concern about the matter, but with no anticipation of the outcome?

   Or…

   Should I use the ellipsis instead of the period?

   Hmmm...

"Wait for your Papa"

   Our condo is quiet this morning. For the past 4 mornings, there has been a sense of activity, from the early hour of 7AM well into the evening hours. There have been things to do and places to go and meals to go out to and meals to fix for hungry people. There has been fun and talk and games and even some sleep.

   But, of course, we would not trade it for anything else. It is family, a family that is scattered around the country, and it is a chance to do some things together once again.

   We put our Arkansas family, well most of it anyway, back on the plane for home late yesterday afternoon. Our daughter, the mom, and her two growing up kids.

   And as I walked in the quiet this morning, I thought of the passage of time and how it was manifested to me in these past few days. I read it also in the Psalms this morning and even felt the implication of it as the wind blew around me.

"He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again."
   I see it in the faces of kids who used to be little and are now growing up. Not getting to see them much tends to make the contrast of their sizes more manifest.

   And I see it in my own activities. I see it represented in our lighthouse. No longer is it just a pretty symbol of our Island, it is 104 feet of height and 129 steps to the top. It seems like just yesterday when I would get in that circular stairway and zip to the top without missing a beat. Now it is 21 steps and a needed rest at the next landing.

   But my mind says that I am the same and I can do this just like I used to. My body and lungs, however, do not agree, and they trump.

   And I hear the voice of my daughter at the top of that stairway, "Wait on your Papa, he'll be here in a minute".

   But the view is still magnificent, and I can still enjoy that with my family, this time around anyway.

   And I am grateful to God for the experience and the reminders of life to be lived and enjoyed.

And There He Was...

   I had an observer on my walk around this morning, perhaps more than one, but this one I saw eventually, and I was reminded. He (or she) was already out there before I got to that spot and saw him. I wished for my camera as he appeared in my vision and then disappeared into the woods on the other side of the fairway.

   One day, sometime back, I did have my camera and got this. Maybe it was the same owl, who knows?

   But let me say what he had reminded me of:

   As I prayed this morning for my day that was stretching out in front of me, the thought hit me that I did not have to worry about what might happen or not happen that day, God was already out there, and, when I got to a point that I did not know how to act or what to do, He was already there, watching, knowing and ready.

   I saw in my mind's eye, that owl as he flew across the path that I had just walked on. I had turned around to see a couple of herons wading in the pond, and there he went. He had been there all the time, but I had not looked up.

   My daughter and her two kids will be coming tomorrow, and I will spend some time today getting ready for their arrival and looking forward to some good times together for a few days, but that is not all that today is for.

   God is already out there today. This day is important too.

   Maybe I had better look up.