Summer...

Wanna come for a sit around the fire behind our house by the blue spruce? We’ll bring out the extra-large marshmallows. Colby will whittle some roasting sticks and we’ll sit and discuss late while the stars dance overhead and the fluffy clouds darken and the pinks and maroons settle calmly on the western horizon. In between our thoughts you’ll hear the chirping of the crickets and the pop-pop-popping of the caragana seeds on the trees along the road. Probably an old pickup will rumble past or the neighbour on his dirt-bike will be heading home from work. And if we’re lucky the lawns will be mowed and the thick grass will stick to your flips. The dew will sweep your toes as you tuck them under your chair and firelight dances higher.

If we are well acquainted you would know that Arlen & Jodi’s Nicole is getting married and I’d tell you that I’m sewing the wedding dress (just have the belt left to do) and that I helped put on her shower this last week. I might tell you about getting all set up at the Villa and then moving everything under the carport quickly when the daily shower came over. Nicole likes vintage stuff and I’d probably relay in detail the décor; strung lights, miscellaneous wooden crates, a row of wedding dresses, old wedding shoes stacked on three crates in the center, jars painted pink and dipped in gold glitter, a vintage dresser with drawers open to set the gifts and huge puff-balls from the ditches sprayed gold and set in more jars.

You probably would ask me how our two weeks were with Pat’s folks home from Window Rock on break and I’d tell you it was crazy, and busy, and full of shop yearend stuff and meals at folks and work and even a little holiday up to Otter Lake with Jeffs and folks. And you’d say, how was that? And I’d say mostly good and a little stressful. We got caught on the lake in a thunder and lightning storm and I call that high stress. We rented a fairly new cabin along the water that fit all of us and that was great. The first morning I woke up early and walked down to the pier by myself and sat cross-legged gazing out on the water, the mist falling, the fish jumping and just felt God’s heartbeat. We toured down the Stuart River and caught fish along the bottom of the waterfalls. We saw Bennet Island, fished for walleye at North Falls and cooked it over the fire, toured Robertson Falls around and down the far side where I had never been, and looked over burned-off Utie Island where we staked a claim or campsite for many years. And in between we boated and toured and ate snacks and fished and listened to the loons and breathed clean northern spruce-y air.

And of course I would ask you about your summer, your children, your friends and your hobbies and we’d probably laugh as we talk. And if we had a long time I might tell you about our trip to Neilburg to Josh & Krista’s wedding, our quick little jaunt to Deer Valley Meadows for a large Esau reunion and about my week of teaching Bible School and Rog & Lis stopping for a quick supper in Saskatoon. Probably I’d tell you that this has been the best summer for the boys; piles of jobs and work nearly every day but my toilets and floors are a little neglected.

And once it got super late we’d head inside with cups and food and mosquito spray in tow. And I’d secretly hope no one would trip over the wet pool towels and that you’d look beyond the shoes spread hither and yon and that ‘dusted baseboards’ have no part in your vocabulary.

But most of all we’d touch hearts, look beyond one another’s weaknesses and in a quiet Christ-like way point each other faithfully and boldly to our long Home.