The skinny on the skinny

Well Carol gave us the skinny on the skinny.  Here is how you do it for the photgrapher...
you stand sideways, then take one leg and turn it out towards the camera, then turn your face towards the camera...
and walah...
this is your best shot! A photographers dream!
We take our selves and go behind Carol's beautiful tree...
and walah...
the tree does for us what nothing else can -
we appear to be quite skinny on the skinny.

The rescue

I wasn't there for this moment that was captured on a disk inside a "smart phone".
From the disk it is transported to face book and from face book to my blog.
So,
I make up my own story about a fireman and his kids.
I am wondering if they are all in the parade today?  All cleaned up, T-shirts sporting the Fire-Rescue logo, standing outside their home.
What is it they see, squatting down beside the driveway, daddy in the middle?
Is it a flower they are pulling up by the roots?
Have you ever seen the bulb of a beautiful flower?
Why all the crap?
Pain, disease, war and loss, hate and unforgiveness, cruelty and brutality, ignorance and stupidity, it is all quite ugly and dried up like the bulb, the roots appearing to be a tangled mess reaching to places you don't want them to go.
Somehow the pain, the losses, hurt and all things that are bad are needed in odd sorts of ways,
just like the dried up bulbs, the twisted roots
are needed.
When you plant them and tend them with the care of a rescue crew,
they grow into something so beautiful that you start to make up words to explain a beauty that is unexplainable.
You look up from the spot where you last kneeled and continue to pray.

Driving / Jeff

He sits behind the wheel of an old car in our grove.  We are playing house, he is the dad.

Should we go get groceries?

He turns the key, starts the car...

turns up the volume on the radio.

Swinging from the rear-view mirror is a green tree, it smells of pine.

We cruise to the store to pick up the needed supplies.

I can remember the look on his face, the thrill of the ride.

Sometimes you don't need fuel for your engine...

You just need the heart.

A heart to hear the passionate aching inside a heart that will never know the earthly knowledge of driving a car, and yet he feels the longing for something he can not have.

You want to capture this moment on film but you know there is a depth to this moment that no camera can capture, so you take the picture with your soul and hold on to it... forever etching the beauty in your heart.

Christmas 2010, Foley, Mn.

 Jaci Anna gets ready to hand out the gifts

Santa, Emily and Jordyn Noel (before birth!)

Conner and papa getting ready to open!

Josh awaiting the presents to be handed out!

Josh and Conner Dallas Christmas 2010

Time spent together before everyone got to the Harren's. Building houses!

The sound of silence

I first met her three weeks ago. She sits on the end of her "wing", confusion taking over.  Looking for her parents, wondering who will do the chores. I try to talk with her, but it doesn't work.  We go to her room and I read her the paper as she sleeps.  I write, " she appears comfortable " on a blank piece of paper, wondering who will really hear.
The next week when I go to visit her she is in her room, her grey hair combed neatly, pink scalp showing through.  The blue eyes are open, but I don't think she can see.  Quietly I ask her what she is doing and if she would like to talk.
"I am thinking"
"What are you thinking about Rutelia"
"I am thinking of the way things were, thinking of all those things, all that was"
I am amazed that she appears to be with me this week, she seems to know she is just thinking about things, not so anxious to be getting the chores done, finding her family...
but, remembering.
I continue to ask her questions and I find out quite a bit.  Not sure if her answers are all correct but they sure are interesting. And I wonder if I am really hearing what she is saying.
Today I stop to visit.
She lays silently in her bed, her hair swept off from her face, mouth open to catch what ever air, blue eyes closed.
She has 14 Siblings, one husband, one daughter...
they have all gone ahead of her,
she is the last.
A granddaughter sits next to her and holds her hand.  I listen as she tells me about her grandma.
It is so beautiful, the memories she has.
And I wonder if her spirit has gone ahead to meet her siblings, her daughter, her husband?
I wonder if during this time of silence on earth...
can they hear her?

This story is a figment of my imagination. Any similarities to someone you know is purely coincidental.  But, if there are similarities to your gramma, love her...
as she sure loves you!

Arli-Dazzle December 5th2013.

watching the lights... waiting for candy!

When your with daddy, it doesn't seem so cold

Nola by the sleigh that daddy pulled her up to the parade with

Papa and Nola, warm hearts and love

It was cold but Nola Jean enjoyed every minuet of it!

Hertha and Hillie January 3rd, 2014

I was in a skit...  "Red Friday Christmas Shopping"
Santa had a clearance sale and Hillie and I went up to the North Pole to buy him out...
Jingle Bells Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way...
Oh what fun, I did have riding in Santa's sleigh!
 I came in late from the North Pole - Hillie had to do the kitchen dishes to make enough money to pay for all our stuff...
then we gave it all away to the residents!
Much fun was had by all.