Wednesday, October 08, 2008

A Farmer's Wise Words

My dad didn't say much, but it was enough to change my life.

by John Buentello




It had been a week of one endless chore after another on the farm for my father and me—making repairs on the house, trying to get the meager little patch of ground ready for planting, and digging a new well to replace the one that had become contaminated. By the end of the week, we were exhausted, ready for a day of doing nothing.

My father packed us a lunch of jelly sandwiches and fresh apples, and told my mother that we were going to spend the day inspecting the hill. The hill was a sloping run of ground behind the farmhouse, the beginning of a range of hills in Texas that ran several miles to the north.

It was a favorite place for us to escape to; a spot where we could relax and talk.

This particular day, there wasn't too much talking going on. We trekked up the hill in relative silence, commenting on how hot it was and how much farther we had to go before we could break for lunch.

When we finally arrived at our favorite clearing, I was ready to just lay back and go to sleep. Instead, I couldn't take my eyes off our house—so small from this vantage point.

There have been so many changes for our family, I thought. Things have always been tight, but this has been an especially hard year.

I felt good about finally being old enough to pitch in and do my fair share of the work. At the same time I also wanted to be reassured everything was going to be all right. I wanted to know that what I counted on in my world wasn't threatened.

Dad must be thinking the same thing, I thought, glancing at him. Yet he seemed perfectly at peace sitting beside me. All I could see was a year of worry, a year of back-breaking work trying to hang on to what we had.

Dad's secret to happiness
"Dad," I asked as he handed me a sandwich and a slice of apple. "Why aren't you unhappy?" His answer was important to me.

"What should I be unhappy about?" he replied.

I looked back down at the farmhouse again and shrugged. "Everything, I guess. There doesn't seem to be anything we can count on anymore. We can't count on the weather. We can't count on being able to sell everything we grow. We can't even count on the water coming out of the well. Everything is changing."

My father nodded and stared out at the sky beyond the hill. He didn't say anything, just sat there mulling over the things I'd said. Finally he looked at me.

"I know what you mean. Sometimes I feel like things are changing so fast that I can't keep up."

"I feel like that, too. How do you stand it?"

With a knowing smile, he pointed to the sky. "I remember. I remember that even though everything in the world seems like it's never going to stop changing, there's one thing that always stays the same."

"What's that?"

"God's love for us," he said. "That's something that's always there. That will never change."

That was Dad's secret, I realized. No matter how crazy the world was around him, he knew the one truth that would never change: God loved him.

Since that day I have tried to live by that truth. There have been many changes—both good and bad—in my life since that afternoon on the hill. But I often think of that day with my father. For a day set aside to do nothing, a lot happened.

Monday, October 06, 2008

PLEASE COPY AND FORWARD THIS MESSAGE...

What would you do?....you make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

'When not interfered with by outside influences,everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued.
'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'

Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?'

I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said,
'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart.
The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.

Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.
However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.
The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss then ball softly towards Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head,out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling,
'Shay, run to first! run to first!'

Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled,
'Run to second, run to second!'

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.
By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.
He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.

Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming,
'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay!'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted,
'Run to third! Shay, run to third!'

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming,
'Shay, run home! Run home!'

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer.
He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!



AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:

We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate.

The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.

We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.

So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:

Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?


A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

May your day, be a Shay Day.

SIMPLE PAST

Careful! Some Consonants Voiced, but are Voiceless

When consonants are put in groups they can change the voiced or voiceless quality of the consonant that follows.

A great example of this is the past simple form of regular verbs.

As you know, regular verbs add -ed to the end of the verb in the past simple.

play - played
wash - washed
live - lived etc.

These past simple verbs all end in '-ed'. However, some of the verbs are pronounced with a voiceless 't' sound and some are pronounced with the voiced 'd' sound. Why? Here are the rules:

· If -ed is preceded by a voiceless consonant sound (p, k, sh, etc.) -ed sounds as a voiceless 't'. Remember that the 'e' is silent.

· If -ed is preceded by a voiced consonant sound (d, b, v, etc.) -ed sounds as a voiced 'd'. Remember that the 'e' is silent.

· If -ed is preceded by a vowel sound (often 'ay') -ed sounds as a voiced 'd' because vowels are always voiced. Remember that the 'e' is silent.

Exception: If -ed is preceded by 't' pronounce a voiced -id. In this case, the 'e' is pronounced.