Inspiration To Realities, One Day At A Time 

Too Cold For Plants And People

The early bird sometimes gets surprised. Robins and rednecks alike were dodging snowflakes in our corner of the universe yesterday. The plants that were so happy to be back on the patio were equally thrilled to return to the house this past weekend. Temperatures have teeter tottered on the thermometers between a low on the north side of 25 degrees overnight to a high on the west side climbing to nearly 54 this late afternoon. I discovered yesterday that there are very few people that celebrate May Day anymore. Perhaps this is another sign of getting older, when one can remember the simpler times when May Day baskets were filled with goodies for neighborhood children and the ladies wore their finest dresses to church replete with white gloves, purses, and shoes to match. I've been looking through scores of old pictures in an attempt to find visible proof of how things were when I was just a lad, but, as yet, have met with little or no success. The weather never surprises the residents of the Great American Desert, though. Last August in our tent located two blocks from downtown Sturgis, the temperatures fell regularly below freezing at night. There I go wandering off again in my thoughts. Was I going to write about the weather or the cold summer we had last year, plants or birds, or ladies fashion during a bygone era? I can't remember now. Maybe it will come to me again, later. Let it be sufficient to say, "Things are not always as we remember them." There are times this is a good thing. May God bless all of your memories of living, real and imagined, for it is in imagining that we turn on the creative juices that flow within each of us and spur the individual to make his or her world a better place in which to live and raise up plants, and animals, and most important, more of God's children. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Happy May Day! 

Some Days Are Diamonds, Some Days Are Stones 

Our Corner On The World

Cheryl's store was at one time located in a beautiful sunlit corner of the University Mall. She had three locations at the mall, but this was my favorite. I loved the sunlight streaming through the outside entrance. We never really used it so it became, for a year, the home of this fern. The corner spot at the mall provided much needed visibility for Sonsations, Cheryl's first full service gift and engraving enterprise. My mornings, six days a week, were spent in the shop engraving yesterday's sales and working with people. I miss the plant in that corner a lot! One of the local drugstore chains wanted the corner for its' excellent visibility and outside access, so we were forced to move, again. It seems being a small business owned and operated by a female in America is not all that the SBA would have you think. Cheryl sold the business last December after battling the established male consortiums for four long years. I take a great deal of pride in the personal accomplishments of my wife. My beautiful blond is 100% Norwegian and has enough tenacity for the two of us. The fern is languishing this spring. I'm praying really hard that with new earth and some well shaded space on the patio that it can return to its' former splendor. The fern is older now, and I have heard talk that it may not make it. Thank God for photos and ways of storing our memories. We'll try everything we can to bring the fern back to life, but sometimes life just ends. The good news is that for every life we encounter there are reminders stored up in our hearts, our minds, and our spirits. I can look at my friend the fern this morning and remember all of the time we spent together. A maybe famous lady once wrote, "Remember, and in remembering leave no regrets, that what has past, though gone, was good!"
God bless. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Plants Make Excellent Pets! 

Events And How Our World Views Them

The Largest Motorcycles Rally on our planet will officially open on August 8th this year. It's number 65 in years and will mark my 21st year in attendance, the last 16 consecutive. For about ten days the population of South Dakota will more than double. Whoosh! There's only about 3\4 of a million people here on any given day the rest of the year. What that means in most people's minds is money, parties, races, revelry, and more money. {Quick thought: "If everyone in SD moved to Dallas tomorrow, nobody would notice that we were there."} If you've been here a few times for the event you already have an idea about what goes on, if not you may have seen or heard blurps from the media. My problem with the way things are done is this: Most of what you see or hear on the news is centered on someone else's idea of what is newsworthy. Hence, you get the stats on how many bikers were killed, how many arrested for drugs, how many murdered or maimed one another. You receive the "dark side" of the coin. On the other side can be found the thousands of Christians that gather to work the fields that are "White Unto Harvest," those who come to ride the Blackhills and enjoy nature in all it's glory, and a lot of riders from all over the globe that descend on the rally because of the reputation it has earned through the years. My first was in 1965. After that first time I went back every 6-8 years to enjoy the hills and fellowship with riders. The last 15 times have been to seek those who are looking for something "better" for their lives. I make no bones about it, I'm an evangelist. I'm not going to beat someone over the head with my Bible,(I don't know anyone who has been saved that way)what I am going to do is offer an ear to hear people's frustrations with life, a hot meal to anybody that is hungry, fellowship to all who are lonely, and a safe haven for rest if they are weary. Idealistic? Yup! Don't know any other way. Naive? Never, been around way too long for that! I'm losing my path here, though. What I want to shout to the world is that for every 'horrible thing' you see on the news there are a hundred 'good things' that never make it to your screen or papers or magazines because they aren't interesting enough to publish. They aren't headline worthy, they don't "SELL." Bad stuff will always outsell good stuff for some reason. Maybe that is just how people are created. I think the more obvious answer can be found in what I call "Media Conditioning." Have you ever heard of a good rumor going around? No, it's always the bad things that are "rumored" about. In search of the coin and the opportunity to view both of its sides? Attend the rally this year and visit a modern day Babylon in full swing! Church is set up two blocks from the center of town. If you're having a hard time finding us there is a large cross on a hill directly above our camp(You can see it from main street). Rumor has it that we aren't the only christians in town for the rally, but you know how rumors are. When you see the headlines about Sturgis this year, I pray you will keep in mind that stat I mentioned. "For every nasty thing you hear about, there are a hundred good ones that aren't mentioned." Kinda like that with folks, too, if you know what I mean? God bless You!
In Christ's Love, Preacher.