What animal do you think is the deadliest animal in the world? 

Lions? Snakes? Sharks?

Nope.

Which animal has about 3500 species, about 40 of which can potentially kill a human?
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We’ve all seen hundreds of them (more likely, thousands). We’ve all been driven crazy by their high-pitched buzzing. And when we’re attacked, we’ve all slapped ourselves trying to smush them (either fearfully, BEFORE they strike; or angrily, AFTER they’ve skewered our skin.)

(If you thought of the mosquito, you are correct!)

Most of us have asked this question about them: “WHY??? Why did God make them?”

•   Maybe mosquitos, because they are blood suckers, provide iron for the birds and bats that eat them?
•   Maybe mosquitos were Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ to keep him, and us, dependent on God?
•   Maybe the plague of gnats in Exodus 8 was really a plague of mosquitoes.
•   I know this one for sure: Mosquito larvae provide food for tadpoles in my pond!

​Whether they do anything beneficial or not, mosquitos are, overall, a curse, and I’m sure it happened after the fall.

Who is the first person a prospective customer interacts with when they come to your business? That person has the ability to be a hero, both to you for your businesss, AND to that customer you want to keep!
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Recently I had personal experiences of receiving both excellent customer service and not-so- excellent customer service on two unrelated occasions. Here’s what happened:

The excellent service: 

I called to cancel a service. The customer service rep expressed regret since we have been such long-term customers. 

Then, in a kind tone of voice, he asked, “May I ask why you’ve made this decision?”

I explained that we were tightening our budget due to a reduction in income and some unexpected expenses.

He was sympathetic, and then asked to explain some other options that might fit within our budget. Two options were realistic for me, and of course, I stayed with the service.  

He then detailed with exact dollar amounts, what would take place and when. He prioritized our change, arranging everything in a timely manner. 

And everything happened exactly as he said it would. No surprises.

In that moment, my loyalty bank doubled for that company. And that rep was my hero.

The not-so-excellent service:

I had received a large medical bill demanding immediate payment. The bill claimed that my insurance company reported no coverage, which was a mistake.

So, I called to question the bill. The customer care representative, though mostly pleasant, still debated and offered no solutions to our stalemate. After several rounds, I finally said (in an escalated tone of voice), “I know I’m covered, so how are we going to resolve this?”

At that point the rep said something helpful: “I will have to ask my supervisor and either she or I will call you back.”

All’s well that ends well. She did call back with good news that they confirmed my coverage and my account balance was now zero. 

The issue was resolved, but it still left me with a bad impression and some fear that this might happen to me again.

FRONT-LINE EMPLOYEES  HAVE LOTS OF POWER!

Help Them Become the Super-Heroes You and Your Customers Need

Secretaries, customer service reps, receptionists or administrative assistants are often a prospect’s first experience with your business. 

They hold a great deal of power in all customer relationships, and especially those that might not be so pleasant. 

Customers calling for negative reasons need a hero. Your employees can be heroes-- to the pleasant customers and the problematic ones too!

But they must have a plan.

EQUIP THEM FOR VICTORY

Here’s the deal. Our natural responses to confrontation are NOT the best responses. When we feel attacked, or sense an approaching conflict, we naturally want to respond one of two ways:  fight, or flight. With the exception of life-threatening situations, neither fight nor flight is a productive response to conflict.

Your people need to be prepared to overcome the natural reaction with a plan of heroic action.

Here are some tried and true ‘helping’ techniques for dealing with challenging customers to facilitate a positive outcome—not only positive for the customer, not only positive for the employer, but also for empowering your employee!:

1.   BE CALM AND LISTEN ON: When customers express complaints or disappointments, do your employees understand that it really isn’t about them? Encourage them to take a deep breath, stay calm, and REALLY listen (see #3).

2.   GET A NAME: Make sure the procedure list includes asking for the customer’s name.  Encourage them to use it often. (People like to be known by name. We feel friendlier toward people who call us by name.) 

3.   LISTEN STRONG: If possible, provide employees with an environment that allows privacy. This will prevent distractions that interfere with listening. Train employees to listen to words and tone. Is the caller crying? Ranting? Feeling confused, or helpless, or cheated? Note-taking to record their words and tone can also be helpful.

4.   LISTEN LONG: Callers need to tell their whole story. Just listening empathically can change a customer’s negative attitude. Equip employees with the words to use so that callers know they are being heard.  Examples of prompts are: “I see.” “Then what happened?” “Go on. . .”

5.     UNDERSTAND: When the caller concludes his or her story, the employee should provide feedback.  For example, she might acknowledge any distress, then summarize the problem, as she understood it, back to the caller: “Mr. Jones, I’m so sorry for your trouble, and thank you for calling. I’ll do my best to help. Can I tell you what I’m understanding about your concern? Then please let me know if I miss anything.” After repeating their best understanding of the source of the customer’s complaint, it is important to ask, “Did I understand everything correctly?”

6.     ASK QUESTIONS: The customer may not provide details needed to resolve the issue. So your hero should ask any further questions to fill in gaps.  Then ask, “Is there anything else I need to know?” 

7.     OFFER OPTIONS: Then your hero, within the limits of his or her role, might begin to make suggestions toward resolving the issue. 

They can:

• Assure the customer that someone will help.
• Make suggestions for solutions within company’s guidelines. For example: “May I suggest. . .?”  If a satisfactory solution is determined. . .
• Explain action items—list the items both parties will need to do next.
• Seek agreement and understanding.
• Follow through.

In my experience of “excellent customer service” the representative did all of the above with kindness and candor. We both walked away as winners.

YES, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE BELLIGERENT CALLER?

Your employees may ask, “But what about the rude ones? What about the guy who cussed me out last week?  What about the one that threatened to have me fired?  Are we just supposed to take it?”

No one should accept, or should be expected to take, abuse of any kind.  

The number one rule is still the same: Stay calm.

The next step might be different.  As Eddie Murphy’s Mr. Robinson character would say (but as your hero’s inner monolog of course—definitely not out loud), “WHO IS IT?!” . . .

. . .Is it INCESSANT IRMA?

 Irma won’t let your hero get a word in edgewise. 
So, train employees to calmly and politely interrupt to ask a question. This strategy communicates the desire to help and understand, plus it will help the caller gain some focus. 
For example: “I’m sorry to interrupt you Mrs. Jones, and I feel your frustration. I want to help you but I need clarification. May I ask a few questions so I can better understand?”   Possible questions include:

• “When did this occur?”
• “Who did you first speak with about this?”
• “What was the outcome?”
• “What solution would best address your concern?”

. . .OR Is it BULLYING BOB?

Bob’s attitude and words make your heroes feel unsafe.

So, train them to assertively, yet politely interrupt the abusive caller.

For example, “Mr. Jones, I am uncomfortable with your words and tone. I would like to help, but if you continue speaking in that manner, I will have to disconnect.”

. . .OR Is it HIGHER UP HAL?
Hal won’t rest without speaking to the higher authority.

So immediate agreement that the caller can speak with another appropriate office is important.  But if possible, your hero might also briefly explain the normal company procedure (if different).
 
For example, “Certainly, Mr. Jones. Our Director of Customer Service is Mr. Wilson. I’ll transfer you to his office right away. But if you wish, I may be able to help you with your concern. Would you like me to try, or would you prefer to speak now with Mr. Wilson?”

Bottom line: Angry callers need love to. And many of them need a hero, maybe more than anyone! 

​Your front-line employees can be Supermen and Wonder Women—for your business, for your customers and for themselves—with training that empowers them to stay calm, listen well, understand, and be helpful. ​

​Every morning my husband and I walk several laps around a pond on our property.  We dug the pond last fall, so this spring and summer are the first seasons we’ve had a full pond.

We’ve loved watching the bullfrogs camp out on the embankment, and leap into the water as we pass by.  We have even named some of them—Mr. Big (because even though he’s not that big, he’s the biggest at our pond), and Sharapova (because, like the tennis player, the frog grunts every time she hops).

We stocked the pond with some perch and minnows in early spring, and we love throwing them fish food from time to time, and watching them hit the top of the water to eat.

One afternoon we even loved watching a little water snake (non-poisonous!)  playfully writhe on the top of the water in the middle of the pond.  I would never have imagined thinking of a snake as ‘frolicking’—but I did, and it made me happy.

Today, a particularly sultry morning, we loved watching our 15-year-old dog, Stiver, wade out into the water to take a refreshing swim.

How much of our joy and pleasure is dependent on water?  We ENJOY being around water—it’s beauty, the way it feels running over our skin, the sounds it can make during gentle rains.

HOWEVER. . .Early this spring, I have to confess, I complained: “When is it going to stop raining?  The pond is full already!  Our horse-barn is a mud pit!”

I thought our quick-sand would NEVER dry out.

Then we experienced many weeks without any rain at all. 

I began to complain . . . AGAIN. 

“Our grass is turning brown.”

“Our horses won’t have any pasture to get them through summer.”

“I’ll have to actually water our tomatoes by hand.”

“Everything will get so dusty if we don’t get some rain!”

Easter Letter to Our Compassion Daughter
​Kay Adkins, Write the Vision, kayscopy.com

Finally.  It’s been too long since my child received one of me.  I know she wonders about her Compassion Sponsor.  I know that she wonders why other Compassion children have heard from their sponsors, but she hasn’t heard from hers in a long time. 

So I’m really excited for today, because today her sponsor and I will bring her Good News. Her sponsor has been thinking about this letter for a while—she always seems to write the same things.  Maybe she’ll share a different verse, or talk about the weather or her pets, or her grandchildren. But usually she feels like what she writes is the same every time.  Not this time!

Today, even though our Compassion daughter won’t get the letter for a while, we’re going to tell her what Easter means to us. 

We’re going to tell her about how her sponsor was before Jesus came into her life.

She is writing on me now about how she was only eight-years-old when her own big sister shared the good news about how we can become a part of God’s forever family.  She says she was about the age of her Compassion child when she invited Jesus to be her Lord and Savior.  She hadn’t done any “really BAD things,”  but she was still a sinner like everyone is (because everyone has done things that God has told us not to do---like telling a lie, or disobeying a parent).

When she understood that she had not always pleased God, and that Jesus had taken her punishment for her by dying on the cross, she decided to ask Him to forgive her, and be the boss of her life.  And He did, he gave her a new life and a promise that nothing will ever separate her from the love of God.

Oh, my. A tear just fell on me. The sponsor just remembered that this news is the best news anyone could ever send or receive.  If her big sister had not told her about Jesus, she wonders what her life might be like now.  She can’t imagine not having Jesus in her life, and she wants her Compassion daughter to know Jesus too.

She is signing her name now.  It reads, “Dearest Compassion Daughter, May you and your family know and love Jesus too!  John 3:16, Your Devoted Sponsor.”
She is putting me in the envelope now with some pictures of herself as a little girl—so I will have some travel companions!

We’ll spend a little time in the dark mailbox, then many hours in trucks, on planes and across the ocean.
First we will go to the translator.  Can you imagine being a translator of letters to Compassion children?  I don’t know who they are or what they believe.  But over and over again, they read about God, his love, his promises.  It must be a wonderful job!

I can’t wait until I get opened.  I’ll get to see the smile on my Compassion child’s face, and the excitement in her eyes when she gets a letter like the other children at her center.  When she sees the picture of her sponsor as a child, she will know that someone who lives far away, but who once was a lot like her, loves her and prays for her.

Then, she will run home and show me and the pictures to her mother and father and other family members.  Many times they read me too.  So I’ll get to tell even MORE people about how to know Jesus and be in His forever family! 
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Our Compassion child keeps all of us in a bundle under her bed—so I’ll get to see my letter family soon, and we’ll all be read and cherished by our child for a long, long, time!

How do you define “peace”?  What does it mean to you to be “at peace”? 

Some would say peace is “absence of conflict.”  A world and a life where everyone gets along, everyone treats others fairly and humanely, relationships that work effortlessly.

Some might define it as “inner calm.”  The ongoing spiritual exercise to rise above personal stress and struggles and maintain a positive outlook without anxiety, fear, and worry.

Others might define it as an acceptance of “things we cannot change” as the Overcomer’s Prayer puts it.

Certainly all of these reflect a facet of peace. But they fall short of describing True Peace—the Peace of God that passes all understanding.  Most of the time we speak of ‘absence of conflict,’ ‘inner calm,’ and ‘acceptance of things we cannot change’ in worldly, limited ideals. 

However, I can’t fathom a moment of earthly life completely void of conflict. It is only 10:00a.m. as I write.  I have already encountered a difference of opinion with my husband and some stressed friendships.

  (Subtitle: Listen to your body better than I did!)
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“It sounds like you have a heart murmur.”

Since I was in my 20’s, doctors had made that observation during my checkups.

But I am your classic minimizer, believing I’m too healthy to have health issues.  So, I didn’t really understand what “heart murmur” meant until I was in my early 50’s.

I began noticing some changes.  At night, when I put my head on my pillow, I could hear my heart beat. Some days I could feel it pounding in my chest.  Some nights it raced all night long, making it difficult to fall asleep. 

I experienced no other symptoms, and felt fine otherwise.  So, I thought, “Just some signs of getting older.”  (Listen to your body!)

The first turning point was a visit to my Primary Care Physician for a wellness check. 

“I can feel your heart beat,” she commented as she began to lay the stethoscope on my chest.

Doctors are sometimes not as reactive as I would like them to be. She was just stating a fact, so I still was not concerned.  However, she recommended that I see a heart specialist, so I did.

The first visit to the Arkansas Heart Hospital Clinic was kind of an adventure.  I had never had an EKG or any kind of ultrasound.  So, I found the Echo-cardiogram fascinating.  I could see the image of my heart pumping and hear the sounds it was making.  The technician explained what the colors on the screen meant, and she commented, “You’ve never smoked have you?  You have a pretty heart!”

She showed me the valve causing the murmur, and how the blood was not flowing properly through the valve.

The doctor explained that I had mitral valve prolapse with regurgitation, a valve with an extra bit of skin that prevented it from closing completely.  He felt it was nothing serious, and prescribed a beta blocker to help with the palpitations.  For several years, that was the routine—annual EKG, EEG, and “just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Until this summer. 

Late in the summer my heart began beating erratically almost all the time.  When walking, I had to stop occasionally to catch my breath, which was new.  Again, I thought little of it.  Just getting older and a little out of shape.  After all, my blood pressure was lower than ever. That can’t be bad! . . . Can it? (Listen to your body!)

A month or so later, back to the PCP for my wellness visit.  “They still haven’t gotten your arrhythmia under control???”  she inquired after listening to my heart.

Back to the heart doctor.  The nurse taking my EKG was a close friend.  When she read it, she was obviously concerned. “Let’s do one more. Can you hold your breath this time?”

I told her my heart had been racing for a while. 

The verdict: Atrial fibrillation/flutter that had been going on for a few months, maybe more.  

A-fib and A-flutter, my doctor explained, are caused by extra electrical impulses firing off in an area of the heart that should not be firing off impulses.  Thus the extra, ineffective beats. If left to continue, it can wear your heart out, and lead to heart failure. My heart was getting very tired.

My doctor prescribed a blood thinner to prevent clotting (a hazard with a-fib) and referred me to an a-fib treatment specialist. 

Over the next few weeks, I saw 2 other doctors, had several EEG’s, and 2 procedures done that I’d never heard of before—cardio version, and catheter ablation.

Cardioversion shocks the patient’s heart back into a normal rhythm. When a heart is beating erratically, as with any muscle that gets a strenuous workout, the heart gets bigger. 

I had been feeling pressure in my chest.  Now I knew why. An enlarged heart also explained the persistent minor cough I experienced when taking a deep breath, a symptom that some a-fib patients report.

The cardioversion was a quick procedure.  General anesthesia, then a Trans-Esophageal Echo (down the throat with a camera) to confirm that no clots were already forming. Then the shock treatment.

But while quick and painless, cardioversions, I learned, are typically effective only for the short-term without a medication that will maintain the rate. I remained hospitalized for about 3 days while testing a new medication.  The medication, however, created another issue—a delay in my heart beat cycle that could be very dangerous.  When my EKG’s showed that the medication wasn’t an option for me, they stopped it.  I went home, and my rate was good and steady—for about 7 days. 

About a week after the cardiovert, I went to bed feeling fine.  Suddenly, before I fell asleep it was back—racing heart and pounding chest.

On to the next step: ablation.

The Physician’s Assistant diagrammed for me what the ablation procedure would do.  He pointed out areas of one of the upper chambers generating the extra impulses. Then he explained that tiny burns around those areas would create scar tissue to prevent transmission of the extra electrical impulses.  A first ablation, he said, is successful in stopping the a-fib in about 70% of the cases.  If a second is necessary, there is a 90% success rate.

Pretty good odds, I thought. 

To make sure I was a good candidate for ablation, a few additional tests were needed: blood tests, more EKG’s, an MRI (another new experience for me).

The surgery required incisions in my groin area on both legs.  One incision was for the camera they would thread through a vein to my heart. The other was for threading the tool that would burn areas in the atrial chamber responsible for the extra impulses. 

Upon being wheeled into the surgery, I remember (1) seeing an enormous computer monitor at the foot of the surgery table, (2) noticing a glassed-in room full of people and computers, (3) moving onto the surgery table and removing my hospital gown, (4) sitting up for surgery techs to place the cardiovert pads on my front and back (as another cardioversion was necessary before the procedure), while (5) the anesthetist said, “I’m going to start your drip.”

Then nothing. Until recovery.

I woke up shortly after all the equipment had been removed. Nurses were applying pressure to the incisions to stop any bleeding.

For the next several hours, my job was to lay perfectly still while the incisions got good and clotty -- (not much of a challenge when you’re still pretty much ‘under the influence’).

I went home the next day to finish recovering. I didn’t feel too bad at first.  I was breathing deeply without coughing for the first time in over a year.  My heart rate was back to a normal, regular rate, but my blood pressure was elevated higher than I’d ever seen it.

And the first few days were exhausting. I had zero energy and I started to worry. One helpful article I found said (in my paraphrase), ‘Don’t expect to bounce right back.  Ablation is a major deal. You just had equipment run up through your body.  Your heart probably had 50-75 burns applied to it. It’s a big deal, and your body needs time.’

The degree of success is typically determined in 6-8 weeks. Complete recovery could take up to 3 months.

It’s been 12 days since my surgery.  My previously low, (then high after surgery) blood pressure is now right in the pocket- 120/70-ish—what it ran before any symptoms ever began.  My heart rate is a steady 65-80 (rather than 100-115). I can take a deep breath without coughing.  I can take walks without stopping to catch my breath.  I can sleep well.

For now, I’m calling it good, and am so thankful for the doctors, surgical team and nurses at the Arkansas Heart Hospital in Little Rock! 

And maybe I’ve now learned, I should listen to what my body is telling me.

For my birthday, God gave me snow. My mother would always tell me how it was snowing in Dallas the day I was born. Most of Mtn. View did not get snow—so I am receiving that as God’s “Happy Birthday.” (Thank you, Father).

This morning I have been thinking deep thoughts and feeling God’s presence and listening more intently for things that He wants me to hear and live. The One-Year-Bible passage on my birthday included the Leviticus passage on bodily secretions (Big Jimmy Fallon EWWW!). The couple of days before that it was about sores and leprosy, so when I read this chapter, I was like “EWWW! What a nasty passage for my birthday Bible reading.”

When reading these chapters in Leviticus, the natural question is, “Why did God think this ‘EWW!’ stuff was important to include in His Word?” And the thought/answer that came to my mind/heart was, “Because there is nothing so disgusting in our lives that He will not look on it Himself, then help us see it in ourselves, and then show us how to deal with it—how to clean it up, how to heal, how to be free.”

(Word.)

But that’s not all. My birthday passage also included Mark 7. Jesus teaches how our hearts reveal our true identity/substance. Following a set of external, religious rules and regulations to be ‘good’ is a pretense. Letting Christ do a heart transplant—taking the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh—that is the reality of ‘a new life in Christ.’ This was the sermon text at NLC last Sunday. And one of the sermon points, “Give your heart away,” is the one God wanted me to hear, because I struggle with guarding my heart in the wrong way—keeping it safe, and holding relationships at a distance.

So, as I drove in to work this morning, I was reflecting on the yearly “themes” God has spoken into my life recently. For 2013-2014 it was “Be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:9)—it kept coming up over and over and over again from different sources, to the point that I finally realized He really, really, really wanted ME to hear this and get it.

For 2015 (I was a little quicker on the up-take) it was “Sow to the Spirit.” Gal. 6:8 “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” This ‘theme’ made a real difference in choices that I made. Sowing to the Spirit—making more choices that said ‘no’ to the flesh, and ‘yes’ to the Spirit- an ongoing moment by moment project.

For 2016, I am thinking that “Give your heart away” is His theme for me. And interestingly, it is kind of a sub-theme of the other 2: “Sow to the Spirit—Give your heart away” AND “Be strong and courageous—Give your heart away.” This directive will be the most challenging.
“God, please help me be brave every day. Remove the callouses of my overly protected heart. Help me, in the little and big things to sow to the Spirit. Grow your heart in me more and more, so I can give it away. . . And thank you for helping me with the EWW! in my life. ”

 Kay Simmons Adkins·Friday, March 25, 2016

I hate greenbrier. We have it everywhere on our property and it makes me angry. So last weekend I spent a couple of hours rescuing a tree from a major wad of greenbrier (see banner image). Numerous thorny greenbrier vines were established within an inch or 2 from the base of the tree, and had obviously been growing up with the tree all of its life--a gnarly mess from the ground into the tippy top branches of the tree.

 The process was trying. I severed vines at the ground, lopped the mid-sections to lessen the entanglements, yanked and tugged some free, discovered more vines previously hidden that had to be cut at the base of the tree (“Another one??? How did I not see that?”), and repeated the process over and over and over.

The more vines I removed, the more it seemed there was to tackle. But each wad I pulled out was like a little victory in my mind. I hoped the tree, if it felt anything, felt victorious as well! I hoped it was not silently screaming—“No! Not that one—it will hurt when you pull that one!”
Gloves protected my hands, but I still suffered several minor piercings and scrapes that made me appear to have been in a cat fight. Blood, albeit a tiny amount, was shed to free that tree from its captivity.

The tree did not choose to dwell with the greenbrier, and the tree did not choose to be entangled. It happened slowly, over years—that bound up life was probably all the tree ever knew. If the tree wanted to be free, it could never have freed itself.

That tree and I have a sort of relationship now. I know I’ll keep protecting it. And it helped me too. . .

Today I am mindful of, and grateful for, someone who shed a lot of blood for me, and who rescued (and is still rescuing) me from harmful, worldly entanglements. Where would I be now without a compassionate Savior who saw a world held captive and initiated the decisive rescue at the expense of his life, who revealed to me my own plight and my ultimate inability to save myself, who offered me his salvation gift and gave me enough faith to accept the offer, and who promises to complete the work He started in me?

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Things I want to strive for in prayer
Kay Simmons Adkins·Saturday, February 4, 2017
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with CONFIDENCE draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Colossians 4:2 “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

This morning I completed a devotional book called Prayer: A Holy Occupation, a compilation of Oswald Chambers’ observations on the ‘work’ of prayer. Here are some things I learned, and want to keep learning:

Pray. . .
            first.
            always.
            about everything.
            with reckless belief that redemption is complete.
            in the relationship of absolute reliance on the Lord Jesus.
            for all the saints.
      under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (rather than my own earnestness or understanding).

THEN, watch and wait on the Father. See how HE mends. In watching how HE mends, I will understand Him better.

Pray. . .
           to lay hold of God first and foremost.
           thinking about God and not myself.
           completely identified in God’s interest in others’ lives.
          with GRATITUDE that the EXPERIENCE OF PRAYER is NOT the cause of God’s life in me,
          but rather the EXPERIENCE OF PRAYER is the EFFECT of God’s life in me.
          not to become prepared for the ‘greater work,’ because PRAYER IS the GREATER WORK!

(credits to compiled writings of Oswald Chambers for this ‘meditation’ on the occupation of prayer--Prayer: A Holy Occupation, Discovery House 1992)

No better place to just be: The theater of a secluded peaceful forest. The actors: thick stands of white oaks, red oaks, post oaks, cedars and pine trees, among many other towering varieties, all veiling  majestic moss-covered rocky bluffs faithfully manning their watchful posts.  Look deeply. Unwind. Breathe deeply.

In early spring, on the first rainy day, the orchestra begins to tune, one whistling tree frog at a time-- the ‘spring peepers.’  The full overture will play each evening throughout the damp season.

New life begins with the explosion of creamy white dogwood blossoms scattered about heavily beneath the forest canopy. Soon, yellow, white, and deep purple wild flowers pop out of the forest undergrowth.  Gentle spring showers patter atop the emerging leaves, adding to the symphony of the woods, while occasional percussive thunders rumble through the Ozark hills.   Listen. Can you hear the peepers?  Do you see the impressionist painting of dogwood blossoms splattered about? Can you smell the rain? Can you just ‘be’?


The forest scene soon transforms to a full release of varying shades of summer green.  Dormant vines suddenly are costumed with elaborate flora.   Wild berries.  Wild grapes.  Baby acorns, walnuts and hickory nuts—the fruit growing season charges on. 

Summer heat can beat down hard, but the forest provides a cooler respite.  The treasure hunt for the seasonal wild harvests excites the soul with anticipation for the rewards of homemade blackberry cobbler in July, or muscadine grape jelly  (or even muscadine wine!) in late September.

Spring and summer, the first 2 acts of our forest play, build to the climax: Autumn.  Every tree has its own schedule for re-clothing in fiery fall colors—golden yellows, red-hot reds, and flaming oranges. Every day is a new, impressive display. The air becomes crisp and clean again.  The crunchy, leafy carpet rolls out.  Crunch, crunch, crunch.  Breathe in the chilly, refreshing breezes.  Energy.

The dénouement of our forest play—the disrobing.  As each leaf flutters to the ground, the veil withdraws.  The slow, but dramatic revealing of the hidden, harsh, and cold stony bluffs.  The forest sleeps.  The stones will rule for a season.  Rest. Admire their strength and fortitude. Explore their deep crevasses. 

A gentle snow falls in silence.  Bundle up, and climb to to the bluff peak.  Sit a while and take in the larger frosty world below and the hazy pink sunset beyond. 

The bluffs are cold, but they welcome visitors to share in their all too brief time to be seen and admired.  Winter.

This is the year-long drama that plays outside my window.  A drama that never gets old. 

Your ticket is waiting for you!  Will you come and get it?  Will you hear the calming call of the forest?  Will you answer? Come. Breathe. Be.