It is 6:00 P:M: in our neck of the woods. Another Sunday has come and gone. MJ made homemade ice cream yesterday and today. A June Treat! The Shelters at Giant City State Park had so many cars parked in the parking lots that they were forced to park in the yard and onto the street. A few days ago no one was there and the Park was the forest creatures and my domain.

Peace comes quietly on little feet. There is no clang of the firetruck or peel of the Police Cruiser…there are no cheers from the maddening crowd. You do not feel as if you are lit on fire by the spirit of joy nor do you feel the chill of ice water down your back as in the winning ritual of football games. Peace is simple and sweet and unassuming. Life has natural drama but much of the drama that we experience is foisted upon us by others who are laboring to elicit a response from us that serves their purposes and agenda.

Carefully choose your commitments. Thoreau said, ‘Let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.’

In the Tale of The Hare And The Turtle, we all want to be the Hare. Why not, He was far and away faster than the Turtle and he seemed to have so much more energy than his plodding companion. The Hare had many accounts on his mind and still felt that he had time to goof around and still beat the slow Turtle. Mr. Turtle had one thing on his mind…winning the race. He was used to people laughing at his slowness. Mr. Turtle understood how it felt to be the butt of the joke. He did not laugh along with his detractors…he simply kept his head down and continued moving toward his goal.

Billy B. loved Sunday Dinner at Grandma Askew’s. There would be fried chicken and dumplings and cold milk in white porcelain gargantuan coffee cups. Billy B. drank several cups full of the wonderful white elixir. After dinner, Neva J. and Wanda, and Guelda would sit out on the front porch and swap stories. Guelda had just lost her husband Herb to cancer. She was sad and often cried when she spoke of him. They had lived in St. Louis as she had lived with her first husband Lou. Lou was unfaithful to Guelda and Lou’s father told Guelda that Lou was not good enough to eat her s–t.’ Lou’s dad liked Guelda. Sometimes Yup would come over to visit. Yup was from Holland. Guelda called her Yuppie. Yup had the most delicious chocolate fashioned as little wooden shoes from Holland. She gave Billy B. one and he never forgot it. Grandma announced, ‘It is bluing up…look…it is bluing up!’ Billy B. looked but he did not see anything that was becoming blue. Then he realized that Grandma A. was speaking of the new-fangled street lights that had been installed recently. They came on with a light blue hue and did not reach their full color for about 20 minutes. ‘Billy B. you need to start attending church and reading your Bible…the end times are coming and the Battle of Armageddon and the Bible says that the blood will flow to the horse’s bridle. Billy B. wondered how high that was as he had never seen a horse. ‘Look at the fireflies…you better catch some,’ Neva J. said to Billy B. Billy B. retrieved his jar from the 57′ Chevy and commenced hunting the elusive small creatures that you could not see until they lit up.

We are a bit like fireflies…you cannot see us…until we light up…