Straight From The Hart

                THE “STAGES” OF LIFE The clock of time is ticking as the New Year now awaits; We stand behind the curtain, the old year’s getting late; The footlights are just coming on as we step out on stage; Life’s past script is behind us, we prepare to turn the page That reveals the new year’s stories. What will the future hold? The playwright hasn’t told us. He lets the book unfold; No good to try to read ahead, only He knows what is there; We take the parts assigned to us, only He knows what is fair. We only know that come what may, the assigned role must be played; It’s up to us to make it work, in this life there are no trades; And so we sing and dance and cry, each day brings something new; We do the best we can, because we know when day is through We once again will take the stage to take our final bow; Surrounded by the witnesses in clouds we see them now* The trees of the field will clap their hands**, we receive the golden crown And we follow the flood lights to the thron

 Memory from a year ago. As a Christian I don't believe in luck or even coincidences. I belong to a sovereign God who is in complete control of what happens to me, but He has also given me a free will, so my choices, whether good or bad, are aways also a part of what happens to me. Milan and I have gone over the events of the last 36 hours several times. Milan keeps a very close eye on our property. He knew the hickory tree had some problems but it was still budding out annually and providing beautiful shade and following the cycle of life and he had every reason to believe it still had many years. It had a sister tree of equal size standing very close to it when we moved there in 1983. After a time that tree began to show signs of inner decay and was leaning toward the house so we had it professionally removed several years ago. But this tree had withstood so many windstorms in its 100+ years of life that we never dreamed it was in that much a state of decay. (There i