Alligator Lake

 

Alligator Day

All my life my journey has been a series of out...and back...I do not mind the retracing...but sometimes it would be good to just...out.

I must begin each journey with the thought, today, I find the Ivory Bill...for without the joy of hope, I would not be in awe of the Pileated call...

The way of humility resonates regardless of whom you follow, be it Mary or Mary's Son.

But beware of the great pride that hides behind the vestiges of humility.

These were typed out as I walked along Alligator Lake again today with the camera. I then posted them to Facebook where immediately Melissa and no one else commented, except Bettie Harvey.
After several hours, the same two likes, so in my lack of humility, I deleted from FB.
Some days are just that way.
Then, to add to my frustration, while walking back, I pecked out, in the Land of Cliche. It was my reaction to what is mostly posted on FB.

Water Walk

by john clare

For fifty paces would you not destroy Suwannee?
If
I find fifty walking men I shall not destroy this Suwannee.

For twenty paces would you spare Suwannee?
If
I find twenty walking men I shall spare the Suwannee.

For ten paces would you save Suwannee?
If
I find ten walking men I shall save the Suwannee.

For three paces would you remember Suwannee?
If
I find three walking men then I shall remember the Suwannee.

For one pace will you stay your hand upon Suwannee?
If
I find one walking man then I shall stay my hand upon Suwannee.

The darkness came
and the rains began.

The Suwannee rose
and the fifty paces were washed away.

The banks overflowed
and the twenty paces disappeared.

In hammocks deep
the snakes swam
and the three paces were not found.

Came a cry from one pace
I vanish beneath the Suwannee!

Where is the Promise to me?

In one unsunken pace
from the Okeefenokee to the Gulf of Mexico
 no trace was found
upon dry ground

but walking upon the one flow
the promise was kept.

Preacher Stokes

Today, March 12th, was the day my father, the Rev Luther Ray Stokes passed away in 2011 at the VA Hospital in Lake City. My sister in this photograph is comforting our father moments before he went to be with the Lord. He had been unresponsive for a time, then, just before he passed over, he opened his eyes wide in wonder, looking out toward the window, then closed them to die in this flesh.

He Shall Testify

He shall testify of Me.
John xv.26.

All the scriptures are filled with Christ. Christ is in the Scriptures from the first book to the last. But it is the Holy Ghost who makes us to meet the living word through the written word. He leads us from light to light, from fellowship to fellowship.
Otto Stockmayer
1838-1917

On a side note, it was through this same brick wall between the Williston United Methodist Church and the Whitehurst Chapel that I took the same photograph years ago.

The Impaling

by john clare

We came upon a burnt out bush consumed
from flames
Lapped some morning dew from the desert
sand
Bowed to the golden idols set out in the latter
rains
Then laid us down and wept for the promised
land.
It wasn't how they said it would be
This field full of shrews and snakes
No land of flowing milk and honey
A promised land no one wants to take.
Suppose we shall turn back from this plain
Return to the sand from which we
came.
At least they fed us three meals
daily
Who needs promises when hungering so
greatly?
And so the starving ones soon were
gone
With fires bright by the golden calves they did
feast
Yet the inner hunger lingered and groaned
A kingdom within calling
In the land of the beast.

Clark Sampson turns eighty-eight

by john clare

They clipped my head for my
eighty-eighth birthday party
Told me how good it looks
Reminding them of a young
Clark Sampson
Who once toppled tall towers
Lately I am paying for all
that felling
It has left the legs short on
locomotion
And the igniting of foxes fires difficult
For the time being
(Until the Minoxidil virility pills arrive)
Such are the pains I put up with
for my Lois
Pestering me daily as I laze in my
PJ's of royal and red saying,
"Outside lurk the Philistine Witnesses
with their eyes for your Lois,
Coming to crop your locks,
You better find some jawbone!"
Now make a wish and blow out
your candles.
I take a deep breath and...
Pressing the call button,
I ask if someone will please wheel me
down the hallway to
those temple pillars.
Let me feel that smooth
granite once again,
To make my Lois proud of me!
Those Kingdom walls shall fall!
The foxes with their tied
tails shall flee
I see the flames before me!
As I spit and gasp out of breath
Smoke rising, I smell of sweet death...
Happy birthday dear Sampson
Happy birthday to you!

They Forsook All

They forsook all and followed Him.
Luke v.11.
Let it seem to thee as if thou wert travelling in the company of a kind and beloved friend, through a foreign land and a desert wilderness. From love to this intimate friend do all, suffer all, and assent to all, that befalls thee in this world, be it little or much.
Tersteegen.

Gerhard Tersteegen.
1697-1769.
German Reformed writer and poet
"Let Him lead thee blindfold onwards,
Love needs not to know;
Children whom the Father leadeth
Ask not where they go.
Though the path be all unknown
Over moors and mountains lone.

Give no ear to reason's questions;
Let the blind man hold
That the sun is but a fable
Men believed of old.
At the breast the babe will grow;
Whence the milk he need not know.

Thou Will Keep

Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.
Isa.xxvi.3

A mind at "perfect peace" wth God,---
Oh, what a word is this!
A sinner reconciled through blood,---
This, this indeed is peace!

Mizpah for March 9th. It seems my mind lately wanders far from the One who would offer perfect peace. I am troubled greatly with family issues, of this whole ordeal of going to the graduation of Landon in Texas from Air Force basic training.
I am deeply troubled that there is a lack of peace between Melanie and Amber and do not know how to help the situation.
In turn, it causes me great trouble over missing seeing Nathaniel, who I greatly love and want to be a vital part in his life. My time upon earth is limited and every day away is one less day of influence upon his life I can bestow.
Trouble follows and trouble clings.
May prayer for reconciliation come.

Sparrow Dust

by john clare
Dust covered car carrying me away
far from the wee voice that cries
for his pappa to please stay
to take time to find the moon
rising high
Way above the dust covered car
where all is clear and quietly calm
under the heavens twinkling stars
where the rising dust never comes.

Come Jimmy

Dedicated to Rev Jimmy Shelton
who about this time last year asked his daughter Melissa to find the Cedar Key basketball game on the TV.

Come Jimmy
by john clare

Come Jimmy, it's time you see
The team is loaded for tonight
we travel down to Cedar Key
Orville has the boys prepared
Missy can sit up here with me
Mamma will not mind.

Come Jimmy, it's time
When we get to Otter Creek Crossing
We can stretch our legs
Then down through Rosewood
and over those narrow bridges
to the old gym of native rock.

Come Jimmy, it's time you see
For tonight we play Cedar Key
They suit only seven to our ten
But never mind the odds
Those Sharks play as men
Never tiring in their full pressing job.

Come Jimmy, it's time you see
It's a long journey to Cedar Key
You can say a prayer for the boys
I know they need it bad
Devil's all full of youthful joys
I know you understand the lads.

Come Jimmy, it's time you see
The boys defeated Cedar Key
Orville coached his cigar out
We played on your prayer and a shout
Gideon's Demon's tumbling rock walls!

Come Jimmy, hurry you see
They block the bridge from Cedar Key
Have you seen Missy?
Comes Jimmy, carrying his little score keeper
It's a long journey from
Cedar Key.

And when...

And when you descend
Face the forceful wind
upon one leg suspend
And dare it to upend.