Single Father 

By Jaye Lewis


He's a hardworking father, diligently struggling to feed his little family.  The babies clamor for nourishment, yet remain strangely silent in spite of their frenzy.  Faithful and patient, the father returns again and again, each time bringing some new expected treat.  It is impossible not to stare at the silent ballet of love, devotion, and self-sacrifice.  Each tiny mouth is fed, equally and fairly, as if the young father keeps accurate accounts.

 
The young robin's nest has been built low to the ground and exposed to the sky, so it is obvious that he is young and inexperienced in the ways of the world in which he lives.  No stray cats nor hawks disturb the imagination of this devoted dad. 

 
I sit on the ground, tearing up the sod to expose the juicy worms and grubs, and I pray for the safety of the lonely male, who remains devoted to nest and family.  His four younglings will soon hunt in our front garden, ravenously devouring any insects and grubs that come within their grasp.

 
I cannot help but wonder about the mother of the little nestlings.  Where has she gone?  And why does she not return?  Perhaps she fell victim to the many cats that roam in our neighborhood.  Perhaps she found a new husband who was more desirable.  Or perhaps she understood the uncertainties of life, trusting in this young family man to remain faithful no matter what became of her.  Perhaps, like me, she found it easy to fall in love with the male who would best provide for her children should she no longer be able to.

 
There is a lesson as well as a mystery here in my front garden.  The mystery of why, where, and how can only be answered by the lesson of faithfulness and diligence of this young, male robin.  Parental love is not exclusive to the mothering hen, but it also burns within the heart of the single father, who asks nothing more than the opportunity to serve with love.

Jaye Lewis

jlewis@smyth.net

Jaye Lewis is an award winning writer Christian writer who looks at life from a unique perspective, celebrating the miraculous in the day to day.  Jaye writes and lives with her family in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia.  Jaye is searching for a publisher of her recently completed manuscript, Entertaining Angels.  Jaye is also contributing author to Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul and Chicken Soup for Every Mom's Soul.  Her website can be found at www.entertainingangels.org

  ~**~**~

 Very Well!
by Vance Agee     

In cleaning out my car-less two-car garage, I am finding  belongings and keepsakes of a very special man, Walter Perry.  They  were stored here in 1990!  Walter Perry resided in a humble white  rancher on Gilbert Street in LeRoy, New York, near Batavia, south of Rochester.

Walter was my stepfather for nearly 20 years. 

Although well-known on his street and in his church, Walter was not rich or famous, no one very special on the surface.  He was 79 ???going -on-80??? but personally kept his house painted and his lawn mowed.  He also still worked for a local factory, as needed! 

Amazing!

He was often needed.  He had just bought a new subcompact car, and was very proud of its high gas mileage.  He always wore the shoulder belt.  Too infrequently my wife (and then daughter) and I  would make  reciprocal visits to LeRoy, and he and my mother to Lewiston. 

I took for granted that there would always be that little house on Gilbert Street and always my mom and Walter anxiously awaiting our arrival.  She would always have something for us (generally unneeded) which she had enjoyed buying with her social security money, and certainly a new toy for our daughter.  I remember their last visit to us in Lewiston, as though it were last week.  One day Walter phoned to tell us that my mother had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital.  We found her communicative and in good spirits. 

Time would reveal that her stroke had caused enough injury to require a nursing home.  Time would reveal that that she would decline from mini strokes.  She was placed in a nursing home in Batavia, with a truly dedicated staff.  Unfortunately, it was a one hour drive for us and 15 minutes for Walter.  I know that Walter was  expecting that she would be able to come home.  But more about  Walter... As a child he had a disease that left him ???learning- disabled???.  If you visited his little book-filled den/study, you would never guess that.  On his desk was always a new book opened, on the strangest mix of  topics: history, logic, literature, economics (!), geography or science. 

As a common laborer, without a high school diploma, he was more of a true ???lifelong learner??? than many ???educated??? people.  This always amazed me.    And then there was his service to others.  He had remained a bachelor, in order to nurse an ailing mother and aunt, until their passing.  Then he met my mother. 

But when he said that he had to help the ???old people??? down the street mow their lawn or do heavy chores, I always wondered how old they would have to be in order to make 79 young!  And then there was his faithfulness to my mother.    Every day after work he would drive to see her and spend with her the entire evening visiting hours.  I suspect that very deep down he realized that she would never go back home.  Then one night in October of 1989, after a day??™s work and a long  visit, he complained to the nursing home staff that he was very tired  from a cold. 

He went to his little car and fastened the seat belt.  And later he just fell asleep at the wheel.  At 2:00 a.m. we were awakened by a call from the Genesee County Sheriff??™s Department.  Walter had suffered a terrible car crash and had not made it beyond the ER. As my mother was later able to say, ???I lost my husband and my best friend.???  My wife and I had lost our rock, the one person upon whom we could depend to keep my mother as happy and alert as possible.  After my mother??™s passing, I helped the movers to pack the very things so special to Walter that I am now finding in our garage.  I look at these things??”old cards, antiques, souvenirs, dishes, knickknacks??”and I wonder their meaning to Walter.   

I??™ve learned about appreciating others while we can, about the amazing things done by seemingly very common people, about  generosity and service to others (Walter??™s ???old people???), and  something spoken by the clergyman at Walter??™s funeral service.    ???When in Heaven God met people who had experienced good lives  on earth.  He would ask them about their lives, and they would complain. 

Sadly, God told them that then they would not like Heaven, either. 

When God greeted Walter Perry, He asked: ???Walter, how did you like life on earth????

Walter immediately replied:  

 ???Very well!???

Vance G. Agee

vgagee @adelphia.net
About Me:

I was born in Buffalo, New York, a few
decades ago. I was a lonely only child.
However, my mom read to me: the KJV Bible
cover to cover, Pilgrim's Progress, and
numerous books. Between four and eight
years old, I lived at 162 Bertie Street in
Fort Erie, Ontario. I loved Suzanne Bevan,
blond hair and bangs and recently wrote a
poem about that. Great people there!
I then attended School 54 in Buffalo and
the Martin Luther School,where my favorite
subject was Church History. I would write
the assignment and then read for fun! I
attended Buffalo Bennett High School in
Buffalo, a great school then. Out of 2000,
I was often among top 10 and sometimes I
would be number one on the honor roll, with
a 99% average. I was valedictorian 1/400,
but hated the SAT's. The school failed to
measure my I.Q.,because I maxed out their
group test. Basically, I hated school,
but learned to play the game, because that
attention was one of the very few things
which made me feel some self worth! I
had the problem of being interested in
nearly every subject and having no idea on
which to finally concentrate for a life's
work.

I attended and became valedictorian at
summa cum laude from Houghton College in
our NY Southern Tier. I spent one summer
in Europe and one at Middlebury College,
VT. I was asked back for two years as an
interim instructor. There I met my wife,
Kathleen. For two years I taught at
Phil-Mont Academy in Dresher near
Philadelphia, PA, took courses at Faith
Theological Seminary, and loved working
retail at the old Gimbel's Department
Store in King of Prussia, PA. Then we came
to Pembroke Jr-Sr High School in Corfu, NY,
where I taught five years and led two
student tours to Europe. I earned my M.S.
in Ed. from SUNY at Brockport 4.0, and
moved to the Town of Lewiston near Lake
Ontario, NY, to become an assistant
principal at Lewiston-Porter C.S.D. for
nearly 25 years. I built an international
exchange program that included:
Minsk, Belarus; Germany, Australia, Canada,
France, Japan, Spain, and Venezuela! I took
the students to Belarus, Germany, and
Australia, and later a small group to the
U.K. I also had a cable TV show and
produced student video movies!

I took all courses at 3.8+ for a doctorate
at SUNY at Buffalo on a Presidential
Fellowship (1/100/6840 grad students --
top 5%), but a 13 page survey was a problem
in completing a dissertation!
I retired from Lew-Port in June of 2001,
fairly disgusted with school
administration. I have a red belt in
karate, used to bench 265 (I weigh 155),
and always loved working with students.
I did complete a "distance doctorate". For
a time, I worked in real estate and did
retail again at the Boulevard Mall in the
Kaufmann's Men's Store (part of the large
May Company). My daughter has both a B.S.
in Management from Buffalo's
Canisius College and an A.A.S. summa cum
laude from the F.I.T.
in Manhattan. She works for Calvin Klein,
and I love to visit her in NYC and at her
Brooklyn Heights apartment. I love to
write for both print and Web, to do video,
and have numerous other interests. I was
recently hired at Bishop Timon -St. Jude
H.S. in South Buffalo, as their Latin
teacher. I am grateful to many Internet
lit. sites and to all my readers!!!

 ~**~**~

This Is My Baby

By Nell Berry   

6/7/05

            My Dad was a very private person. He never showed any tenderness towards his three girls and most especially his son. It was as if he had a blind spot where his children were concerned. I was only ten years old when he died, so I didn??™t get to know him very well. But I would guess he was afraid if he demonstrated love or any tenderness towards his children, they would think he was soft and would try to get away with things he considered wrong. Therefore, he was the strict disciplinarian. What he said was law. If you broke his laws, you were punished. I recall my sister did something he thought was wrong, she went on a bike ride with a boy, on the boy??™s bike. She went at night, so my father was concerned for her safety. When she got back, she got a switching with a switch. She never did that again. My older sister did something, which I can??™t recall what it was, but we were worried about her safety also. She got a spanking with a wood shingle. She said later, ???it didn??™t hurt, all he did was hit the tail of my dress???. But she screamed with every blow as if he were really hurting her.

Then there was the other side of him. He used to put me and my sister on his back and swim across the river; one at a time of course. He used to tell us stories of what I would consider supernatural experiences, ghost stories. I suspect he made them up just to entertain us.

            When he was paid for helping a farm family bale hay or butcher a hog, he would take us to town and get groceries (or food) and he would buy a ring of bologna, a pound of cheese and a box of crackers. The second story of the grocery store was where the grocer lived. There were steps on the outside of the building and we would sit on the steps and eat lunch. Of course, he bought us a soda. My favorite was Orange Crush. It doesn??™t taste the same today. Every time I got sick with a cold and fever, I would ask for an orange or an orange crush and my Dad would do everything in his power to get it for me. I thought that made me well.

            Once he went hunting and brought back a baby rabbit whose mother had abandoned it. Another time he brought me home a puppy in the bib pocket of his overalls, which I named Buster.

            He was a good gardener. We always had a garden in the spring time.

I remember Mom cooking green beans with bacon rind and new potatoes. I recall eating freshly picked tomatoes right out of the garden, with green onions, bib lettuce and corn. He used to go down on the river bank and pick a whole dishpan full of wild green onions, bring them home and get some lettuce out of the garden and make wilted lettuce. He was a good cook. My mother was sick a lot and he did much of the cooking.

            Once my Dad took my sister and me to a black church after my mother died, which nowadays would be called African/American. I certainly don??™t understand that either. If they were born in this country, why don??™t they call themselves American/Africans? That would seem the logical thing to me. To say African/Americans would seem to indicate they were born in Africa.

            Getting back to my Dad; he wasn??™t much on demonstrating his love with hugs and kisses or saying ???I love you???. But we knew he loved us. The one time he demonstrated his love and affection for me was one day when he took me to town with him. I can still see the corner of the street where we met an old friend, Mr. Koontz. It was right in front of the bank and the big clock was there over the bank. The two men exchanged pleasantries, ???How??™ve you been,??? ???How??™s the family???, etc. Then my Dad put his arm around my shoulders and said, ???This is my baby???. That said volumes to me. It not only indicated his love for me, but that I was important enough to introduce to an old friend who he hadn??™t seen for quite some time.

            No, my Dad wasn??™t the kind who was always hugging and kissing us or telling us he loved us. I wish he had been, maybe that would have changed the way I raised my kids. But the love was there, with everything he did for us, even the spankings or switchings. If he hadn??™t loved us, he wouldn??™t have cared what we did or if we got hurt. 

            So, I celebrate my Father for what he was, good, bad or indifferent, he was my Daddy and I loved him and still do and I miss not having a father all the years of growing up and now too. Fathers are the backbone of a family along with mothers. God help fathers and mothers to give a lot of love and attention to their children as well as good old fashioned discipline.

Bio.: Nell Berry is a newly published author of ???Growing Up In Missouri and Other Short Stories. She loves to write song lyrics and poetry. She is a grandmother and a great grandmother and she loves to go to church and sing in the choir as well as a solo once in awhile. She and her husband, Lou have been married fifty-five years June the 24^th.

Author: Nell Berry
nmberry @mcmsys.com

Bio: Nell is a 73 year old mother of four, grandmother of nine and

soon to be GREAT grandmother of two. She loves to cook, crochet,

sew, go to church and sing praises to the Lord and write poetry/song lyrics and now short stories. She lives with her husband of 54 years

of married, sometimes, bliss at Mark Twain Lake in Missouri. He is

a wood worker of huge ability and loves to fish and hunt
geese and ducks, sometimes deer.

ValueSpeak

A Weekly Column

By Joseph Walker

valuespeak@msn.com

WHAT ARE DADS FOR?

            What are dads for?

            According to at least one respondent in a not-so-scientific survey taken a few years back, they exist for one reason and one reason only: ???To take out the trash.???

            Of course, other respondents ??“ children in our neighborhood ranging in age from 3 to 11 years old ??“ had different ideas when the question was posed as part of a Father's Day project for our church congregation.  Michael says we have dads ???so they can play with us.???  Kelsey is more pragmatic.  She says we have dads ???to go to work and get money for us.???  Ashley thinks dads are there ???so you can ask them questions,??? and Colby says we have them ???to help us when we have problems.???  But I sort of like Kyle's answer.  He says that ???dads are for being nice.???

            I'm glad that's true for Kyle.  I wish it were true for all children ??“ especially mine.

            The children also had different ideas about what their dads do all day.  McKenzie's dad ???works and golfs.???  Nathan's dad ???plays with toys at work.???  Levi's dad ???gets paged.???  And Auraleigh's dad ???goes to work where he eats all day and looks around for his wife??? (I've got to talk to Raleigh -- Auraleigh's dad -- about where to apply for that job).

            Asked ???What is your dad??™s favorite thing to do???? most of the children responded with play: basketball, four-wheeling, golf, water skiing, hunting and fishing.  Watching sports on TV was also big, as was fixing cars.  Jordan??™s dad ???likes to play around with reptiles??? (remind me to stay away from the Price residence).  But Leah seemed the happiest to report that her dad ???really likes to go outside with me and play games with me.???

Lucky Leah!  Lucky Leah's dad!

            Some of the most interesting responses came when the children were asked ???How will your dad change once he turns 60???? (I guess 60 is the generic age for Really, Really, Way, Way Old, although I must tell you that the closer I get to 60, the less Really Way Old it seems).  ???His hair will be a little gray,??? said McKenna.  ???He might have a beard,??? said Nathan.  ???He will get kinda saggy on his face like all grandpas do,??? said Justin.  ???I think he??™ll get more serious and might slow down,??? said Rochelle.  ???He won't be as hyper,??? said Michael.  ???He will be like . . . confused,??? said Jonathan.

            Uh, that was from Jonathan Walker.  My son.  And I'm already confused.

            The question ???What does your dad say all the time???? was pretty revealing about family dynamics.  Lots of dads were quoted for those quickie commands we all use from time to time: ???Put your shoes on!???  ???Roll up the Nintendo controls!???  ???Go to your room!???  On the other hand, Frankie remembers his dad saying, ???A job worth doing is worth doing well.???  Justin's dad says, ???You're great, Just!???  Adam's dad says, ???You know what I like about you?  Everything!???  And Chandler's dad says, ???I'm really proud of you.???

Wouldn't it be great if all our kids remembered hearing their dads say ???I'm proud of you??? more than ???Let me just say one more thing about that??? ??“ the best-remembered fatherly phrase of the Walker children.

            Reading the survey, unscientific though it may have been, I learned a few things.  I learned that there are different kinds of dads who impact their children??™s lives in different ways.  I learned that it??™s the simple, common, ordinary things that seem to have the most impact (there wasn??™t a single reference to fancy houses, expensive cars or costly trips).  And I learned that God gave us dads to ???love us??? (Kyle), ???take care of us??? (Allyson), ???protect us??? (Madison) and ???to walk us across the roads??? (Tanner).

            With or without the trash.

# # #

Dear Circle,

I just found out that one of our members, Barbara Stewart, went into surgery for an ovarian cyst.

Please hold her in your prayers and loving intentions and lets send her our shared love and light.

Warmly,

Adela

Adela M. Rubio

Do you have the juice to fuel your vision?

http://www.adelarubio.com
http://www.fullyalive.coachville.com