Here at Refuge Farm we celebrate a morning of Joy with a time of challenges. You know some of them, and we do not claim to know them all. We know that we have affirmed our faith in the glory of a universe in which we hurtle through the void on a living globe filled with billions of fellow travelers. We have been treated well in God’s manifold blessings. We lived- and still exist- in a time known for our place in it, an American Century we served along with our parents and our children. We did our best to match the gifts that were bestowed on us with unimaginable bounty.

“Amen,” said Splash from his place by gray stones brightened by the light of a new day. “And in terms of challenge, look at this stuff from the kitchen staff.”

He gestured at the work of human culinary artistry, carefully constructed in hours of small interlocking tasks: shredding the rich orange bounty of carrots, the whisking of rich batter, careful assembly of precise circular layers. Culminating with the brilliant white purity of the frosting concocted on creamy cheese, sweet powdered sugar, adamant vanilla and sweet hearty butter. The layers stacked internally with the gift of nature, carefully adorned with a bulwark of crushed walnuts and festooned with delicate pastel confections. That is a work of art, created here in a home bathed in the smell of baking and the musical sound of assembly in discrete taps of steel whisking and stirring tools and lavish glaze on hearty pottery.

Beyond the doors and window, curtains drawn back in welcome comes the light of dawn on a holy day. There is the ambiguous chill remaining from the hours darkness, suddenly banished by the brilliant golden light of the Star that will warm and comfort us through this day. The air around us is no more pungent with growing things than others in this magnificent pageant the features re-emergence of life. But this and the soaring birds now awakening to take to wing to soar above it all.

“Look at what the Chairman brought home from overseas long ago. He brought them to the woman who gave him life, a decoration of daily remembrance of lives lived long ago in a place far away. A place in troubled times now, a place from which challenge emerges.”

He made a modest gesture to the shelf that holds the delicate painted objects brought home from travels far away. They highlight the faces of people who felt life was worth sacrifice in service of a greater good. Purchased in a bustling market far away after respectful negotiation. Carefully padded in larger balls of softness to protect the delicate strokes, presented in love, cherished in other lives and now welcoming us here on this bright morning:

DeMille rose from his camp chair and waved both hands in a sort of benediction. “We can go back to challenge tomorrow, fellow travelers. We have a day in which we can cherish a moment in the endless and infinite series we were given. Let us take this one for the beauty and peace it contains. And cherish it.”

Loma smiled, and reached out to join hands with Melissa. The others around the Ring extended both hands, linking our flesh in a circle of life, hand to hand. Linking each heart in common purpose. An inviolate symbol of strength and fellowship, buoyed by confidence that together we will surmount the challenges to come.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com