KEY LIME PIE

A perennial favorite of Floridians, true key lime pie has a taste unique unto itself - tart and strong at first bite, setting on edge the taste buds but offering a lingering aftertaste that is sweet and pleasant to the palate.  Many think of a rich green hues when hearing the word ‘lime’, however, the actual color of this delightful dessert is more of a soft yellow-green – really the identical matching color of our luncheon guest’s snappy eyes, only missing the acute spark that flashes when she smiles.  Reunited after a drought of fifteen years, Cynthia and I sat mesmerized in her company as she exuberantly filled in the blanks of the years we had missed – years void of personal observation during which she miraculously transformed from the chrysalis of SarahBooLoveMathewsonTheFirstLarrison into the gorgeous colorful Monarch of SarahLove, whose exterior charm and loveliness is surpassed only by the exquisite power of a pillar of fire churning within her to serve God with her whole being – a rare and charming quality to be found in these turbulent times.   As SarahLove bubbled the chronicle of our lost decade-plus, my soul was assaulted by the tart and strong awareness of all that we had missed in watching our lovely butterfly emerge although by the time of our parting of ways, through hugging tears, the awareness that our ‘little princess’ has blossomed into an effervescent young woman of God lingered sweet and pleasant – reminiscent of my Key Lime Pie at The Columbia enjoyed only brief moments before.

247 Key Lime Pie - Friday, September 04, 2009 

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246 Music Choice - Thursday, September 03, 2009

Postured in my plush padded recliner and settled in for an uninterrupted couple of hours of blogging, we have the cable TV channel set to 434 which displays only a graphic slideshow of trivia related to Music Choice, and more specifically, SoundScapes, the soft and gentle sounds of harps and strings and native American flutes turned low to offer a musical backdrop of soothing landscapes of sound conducive to creativity. We draw as much entertainment pleasure from this service as we do from the ordinary viewing programming which so often agitates the spirit to an unsettledness that needs to be frequently quieted by these melodic interludes. As I allow my mind to absorb this ambient pleasantry, I observe, from the triple bay window, the cascade of lush foliage and flora that arbor our entry walk while simultaneously providing a solace and haven for small creatures of God - the coupling of sight and sound transport my inner man to a plateau of peaceful relaxation and a clearing emerges in the dense forest of life where I am now able to slip into the meadow of release and write about what I feel in my spirit – tranquility.

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245 Uncle George’s Rocker

It arrived today – unscathed and looking as great as it had when Bill, the owner of the hardware store UPS repository in little Robinson, Illinois, packaged it up for shipping to Florida – the antique that my Great-Uncle George rocked in as an infant. Acquired in the auction of the family estate after the passing of Aunt Lucy, a 92-year-old fireball until her final days, the chair has special significance to our family as the ‘rocker in the pictures’ that were taken of Isaac’s first visit to Illinois, then a mere four months from the womb – the trip that was his Great Grandmothers first sighting of the lad – the occasion of his Great-Great Aunt’s nimble cascade to the floor to serve as an anchor for Isaac as his developing little legs launched him across the living room floor while she crawled along behind him offering her solid support from which he could propel himself – all images indelibly etched in the memories of everyone who observed this phenomenon. The chair is rapidly approaching its century anniversary and, based on the inspection of its solidarity, shall easily make the mark. Isaac never knew his Uncle George and his Uncle George never met him, but it would have brought a squinting grin to the old gentleman’s face if he had. I, however, have had the privilege of knowing both and the real joy of seeing the chair and imaging what that meeting might have been like will be a story that one day I shall have the honor of sharing with my grandson, relating to him the saga of Uncle George’s Rocker.

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244 REUNITING FRIENDS

Ten years ago, if you wanted to find a friend from whom you had become disconnected, you would have had to hire an expensive private investigator and spent hundreds if not thousands of hard-earned dollars while waiting weeks, or even months, for the results. You would have had to provide a significant quantity of known information to lay groundwork in order to offer a start-point for your gumshoe, paying him all the time you were telling him what you knew. With current technologies and internet opportunities, however, a log-on, a password and a few clicks of the mouse and, ‘voila!’, a whole new universe of possibilities opens in the vista before you – you are instantly within reach of family and friends alike who are spread all over the country and, for that matter, the world. Not limited to one such network, but several, with search engines roaring and email addresses flourishing, in short order, query is turned into discovery, and discovery into reconnection. Every day, the World Wide Web is used by a mankind inspired by wickedness for all sorts of perversion - yet in the parallel universe of cyberspace, in the identical time window, the drawing together of God’s people back together serves as precursor to a mighty movement, nothing short of the power of the Spirit and a confirmation that Holy overpowers evil in the gigantic smallness of His sphere. I scarce can fathom the richness of His communion when He moves among His flock to reunite His ‘family’. Can you?

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243 LYCOPERSICUM

I truly love living in Florida! I know, I know – most of you think it is too hot, although about as hot as it gets here is the mid-90’s and that is not much different than where most of you live. In fact, some of you have been in the triple digits this year eclipsing records that have remained unchallenged for well above fifty years - records you never really wanted to see broken – but it never gets over a hundred here. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that, with the exception of possibly 30 days or so, it is genuinely enjoyable to be outdoors the majority of the year. You adapt to what constitutes ‘hot’ and pick your times to be exposed to the direct sunshine, employ the regular and consistent application of sun-block with high SPF ratios and plan your landscape and maintenance duties for the latest or earliest parts of the day – you just get used to it!! Most of us have pools and are able to swim in them for greater than six months – I love that!! After traveling this past week to visit Mom and Carlos in central southern Illinois, however, I have come to the stark realization that there are a few things that are more perfect in the mid-west than here in Crackerland, namely, tomatoes, corn-on-the-cob, tomatoes, melon, tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and, did I mention tomatoes? The flavor, the texture, the deep, rich redness of the Illinois Solanum Lycopersicum is truly unparalleled in any of the similar produce that we harvest here in the Deep South – their tomatoes are just hands down better than any like fruit we can even get here – some of you may think I made a mistake and, instead, should have said ‘vegetable’, but check it out for yourself - yup, tomatoes are fruit!

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INTO MY MIND

242 Into My Mind - Sunday, August 30, 2009

A week and a day ago, we arrived at the hotel in Robinson at the onset of our week-long visit with Mom and Carlos. Years ago, after assessing the cost of a room addition to accommodate family visitors and travelers, they concluded it would be much more prudent to just put us all up in the Best Western only a mile or so from their house – the cost would be much less in the long run. Upon check-in, the clerk issued me two electronic room keys, one of which I gave to Cynthia. A few hours later, she inquired if I knew where she might have put the key away, knowing I had transferred ownership to her only a few minutes before. Every single day for the next seven, she searched for where she had put the plastic entry access device, each time without success and each time with my offer to go to the desk and get another for her. She just could not imagine where she had put it away – I assured her that she would find it when she least expected. Sure enough, as we made our way through the Indianapolis airport security check point and she had to remove a plastic bag filled with travel items we did not need while dwelling in the hotel, there it was – right there with the WetOnes and Purrell wipes – right where she had stowed it when I gave it to her while she was unpacking eight days ago. Gone from the hotel for three hours now, the key was no longer needed and, therefore, easily located. How like my own memory this example is – when I am searching it with fervency to recall a relevant name or other ‘access’ data, it is a total blank and loss to me, but when it is no longer a necessity, BOOM, it pops right into my mind!!

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THE HARDEST DAY

241 The Hardest Day - Saturday, August 29, 2009

Today was the final day of our visit with my mother and Carlos – as always, it was the best day of the visit and yet, the hardest day. Part of the ease of this trip was due in no small measure to my brother, Rick, who, along with his wife, Allyson, picked us up on our arrival in Indianapolis and delivered us to Mom’s door. Moreover, his selfless sacrifice today to drive the two-and-a-half hours back down to visit and, tomorrow, to take us back to the airport to catch our flight home. We had a great visit together including grilling out some steaks and sharing a great family meal together while remembering our younger days. We were dubbing some of Mom’s VHS videos onto DVD’s and came across one in particular which included several minutes of footage where we watched our two grandmothers, our father and Rick and Allyson’s son, Marc, all now departed from our presence, but fully alive in our hearts and memories. Sad reminders, yet precious, of many awesome joys we cherish and hold so tenderly cradled in the crevices of our minds so as to preserve them forever - choking back tears, yet, all the while smiling within as we remembered. Truly, this was the best day of our visit, and yet the hardest – not just while we shared the videos, but when it was time to end our week-long visit and say our parting good-byes, the scene that always draws a few tears at the pain of separation we are all experiencing. This is sincerely a juxtaposed time of joy and sorrow cast against a backdrop of family love and relationship. We want to go home to see our family there – we want to stay and enjoy our family here. The only way to avoid this pain would be to not allow yourself to love all the parties concerned – to not allow yourself to travel long distances to be together – to not allow yourself to revisit memories of loved ones lost - and that would truly be the saddest and most excruciating pain of all!!

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PRICELESS

240 PRICELESS - Friday, August 28, 2009

Today began with an anticipation we had not known in some time – seeing dear friends absent from our lives for nearly fifteen years. Actually ‘friends’ is not expressive enough when I really think about it, for these are brother and sister in the Lord, and yet, even more. We have lived together in the same house, eaten numerous meals together, pulled all-nighters to do ministry of every description, rehearsed for hours upon endless hours to deliver tight harmonies and crisp cut-offs – we’ve laughed together, wept together and prayed together for many of you who now read these blogs. How do you describe that kind of friendship really? Deeper than friends – almost the sort of relationship that forms when people are married to each other which grows out of a mutual respect and commitment – a spiritual oneness that, unless you have been a part of something like it, is incomprehensible and unexplainable. These are the ‘friends’ with which we shared the day – eating, laughing, weeping (in the best kind of way while remembering those times past), praying, and reminiscing. We watched videos of bygone performances unable to control ourselves - we hummed ever so softly as our eyes gently closed and our faces involuntarily rotated heavenward in thanksgiving for this fleeting moment we were allowed to turn back the clock, relive some of those moments, and reunite. We can never really go back – but we can really remember how powerfully God can bind hearts and souls into a unified entity that transcends fifteen years and even more to bring us to a place where renewed fellowship is kind of like those Mastercard commercials – Priceless. Thanks, Kent and Deb, for the awesome time we shared.

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