chicken corn soup

Today I am making chicken corn soup. And yes, it is merely the act of stewing a chicken, adding noodles, fresh corn, onions, celery, herbs and sitting down to a delicious meal. But it is so much more!

To me it is celebration of county roads, corn shocks, winding creeks, fields of grasses and wild flowers, freshly-plowed furrows, and most especially, fun times. Whenever there was a gathering of any sort - like an estate auction, a church picnic, a school gathering, the Farm Show -  if you couldn't find a booth with some women ladling out chicken corn soup it wasn't much of a party!

Other people look with mild indulgence on this delicacy, but if you're Lancaster County born and bred, a steaming bowl of chicken corn soup will slather a whole lot of sunshine on no matter how dark a day!

Aren't we?

Over the weekend along the drenching trail of Florida students tears, I find hope as they are speaking out. They aren't politicians, they aren't partisans, they are heartbroken children saying, "Enough." I have no illusions that dramatic changes will happen immediately but who is the person who can completely ignore their agonized cries. This is not a political issue. This is a question of the literal survival of our nation. Assault rifles used in Vietnam readily available to a troubled youth of 18 who wasn't even of legal age for most things? Seriously we are better than this.

heritage

I have a framed photo in my bathroom of my father doling out coins to my siblings and I at an outdoor school fair. We attended a country 2-roomed school and the fair at the beginning of the year was a huge event that drew in pupils, their families and the larger community for a patriotic beginning to the school year - with of course hot dogs, ice cream and all the accompanying goodies. Dad was giving us buying power and we waited respectfully, eagerly for our share.

I have to think on this Valentine Day, thank you, Dad, for the way you doled out love, safety, support, trust to us each day as surely as those nickels and dimes. In terms of life, you certainly provided us with buying power, each day. And still do.

the news just beyond our door

Sabbath morning
swirling with flurries
of snow
and birds.
We enlarged our eyes 
and saw the startling red 
of robins
and the yellow
of cedar waxwings
against the grey-white
winter morn.
Fellow travelers
passing through,
made us
soar.

Mr. Rodgers got it right

I think most of us deal with people who look fairly much like ourselves on a daily basis. And basically everyone is polite. And everyone is civil. But what is going on behind that façade.

Just take a grocery store - there may be fifty customers there - or more or less. Do you ever stop to think - that person maybe just got a raise, that one may just have been fired: that person may have just gone through a death, a domestic dispute, an accident; that person may be newly married, just engaged, just gone through a break-up - all kinds of human drama has to be swirling between us as we choose our Cheerios and broccoli! But we disguise it all and go our quiet way.

I'm not saying we should revert to our two-year-old selves and scream, stomp, kick, laugh, dance, sing, yell at will.... but wouldn't we come to a better understanding of the world at large if we could somehow glimpse who really lives in our neighborhood.