We are having a different week around here and that calls for a different kind of week in review post.
When the kids were really small we fell into a pattern that has continued to this day. That pattern is about days of the week and saying grace. At the table, “grace” is another word for a prayer of thanks that gets said before the meal. As an ordained minister I often get called upon to offer the grace at meals outside our home. I would rather not be the expert on call regarding this, not when we all have the ability to speak and thoughts in our heads. Most especially not when in God’s heart noone’s word matters more than another. (In our way of understanding). So, one inspired day the plan emerged that the day of the week that one of us was born would be our day to be responsible for grace.
Morgan was born on a Monday, so that is his day to decide if he will say grace himself, delegate the leadership to another, or lead in a spoken or sung prayer that we all join in. Most times Morgan says it himself, it is very short and to the point, and it usually includes the word “awesome.” He used to give thanks for awesome food but these days usually doesn’t mention the food and gives thanks for the work that got done that day. His sincerity is there so while I might rib him about not caring about the food, I am just glad it goes as well as it does.
So Monday is Morgan’s day. What is going on in Morgan’s life these days and how did it get started? Morgan is knee deep in cowboy realities. On Monday this week I helped him with roping practice by using my car to pull his roping dummy around the back area. (The picture below). He helped at two different horse sales this week and has done lots of hours on his horse looking after our herd. We has been given alot of responsibility this week and has carried it well.
So that is how this week went for Morgan, now a little flashback to how it all got started.
When Morgan was about eight months old Russ took him on his saddle for the tail end of a ride up the road to the ranch, Russ and a crew were chasing horses home. Russ figures that maybe the ranch boss (his Dad) had been over optimistic about what could get done in a day and this chase was therefore ending in the dark. There is a dip in the road just west of our place and it was therefore with some horror that Russell realized that a big oil tanker was coming fast towards them. He knew that driver would never see a herd of black Percheron horses in the dark, with the dip in the road making them invisible to the trucker. He therefore gripped Morgan tightly and galloped to the front where he could get the drivers attention and get him to slow down. Morgan didn’t cry but seemed exhilerated Russ says.
Tuesday is Gina’s day. She was born at 2:19am on a Tuesday. My memory of having Gina around the table is that she preferred the sung graces. We have one called “The Brown Cow”, I believe she preferred that one because of some humor that Russ injected into it. There is a line, “thank the pig for the bacon on the grill,” one day he told the kids we should always check the road for runaway pigs at that line, so when we are feeling up to it even yet there is a little extra action at that point. Anyways, on Gina’s day we can report in that she is delighting in her horses she is working with. She sent this picture this week. She and another staff had clipped this horse’s legs and Gina took a picture of Oedsen and Rachel. Afterwards he was intent on looking at the picture. I wonder what was going through Gina’s head as she offered her phone to show show him the picture. It is really making her smile.
How did all this get started?
Wednesday is Russell’s day. He was born on a Thursday but back when we got the prayer schedule figured out he had Lion’s Club meetings at supper time every 2nd week. I thought I was born on a Thursday, (I was wrong), so I took Thursday and Russ took Wednesday and it has stayed that way to this day. Russ is always very grateful in his prayers, sometimes goofy and does the best job of any of us of thinking about people that can’t be with us.
These days Russ is thinking about cow chase work quite a bit. It is a fairly big deal to be organized for the six weeks that are ahead. Liz Griffin took this picture of Russ on the trail last year. The background behind this picture is that he has co-ordinated a multitude of pieces to be working in a pretty fine tuned manner.
What did all this look like almost 30 years ago?
Thursday is my assigned day for prayer at meals. It turns out that I was born on a Tuesday, already Gina’s day, so mistakenly assigning myself Thursday works okay. I almost always make up a fresh prayer, based on what the action is that day and the blessings we have known. I always says at the end, “may this food strengthen us to be people of love and peace in your world,” or something close to that. It feels important to me. Anyways, reporting in on my day of the week, my life is pretty much revolving around stories these days. More specifically, words. More specifically, getting progress made on the book I am writing. That has meant alot of weaving. Bringing history, words, hopes, and new information altogether. The book is about ranching in relationship to the world. It uses Liz Griffin’s photographs for great illustration of key points. Today I learned that 1% of the world’s population does the work that feeds the other 99%. We are part of that 1%. That feels really meaningful. It will find its way into the book. I don’t have a picture of me at my computer lately. But these words tell you how its going. I do have access to some old pictures that illumine how it all started.
Friday is the day of the week that Russell and I got married. So that is our day to pray, we pretty casually, on the spot, figure out who is up for making prayer happen on this day, but its one of us, because this is an us day.
And what did it look like when it was all getting started? Like this…..we went to Brandon on one of our first dates, we were in search of some Tim Horton’s coffee and Estevan didn’t have any in 1999. Russ showed me the swinging bridge at Souris on the way home. One of us had a camera and got these moments in time.
Jilly was born at noon hour on a Saturday so she is the boss of prayer on Saturdays. Jill’s life is very touched by music these days, as it has been for most of her life. She most often chooses a sung prayer for grace. This week she has been learning the music necessary to be part of the vocal chorus for the next Sterling Production in Regina. (Rocky Horror Picture Show). She will be auditioning soon for the Christmas musical. She is relieving her brain of all the words and choreography she learned for Seussical and moving on. She sent us this picture of herself and one of her people after the Seussical shows.
By Sunday everyone but Buster the cat and Ron our hired man have had a turn so we often will use silent prayer. We each just say what is on our minds, in the quiet of our thoughts. I like that.
Is there a picture to go with that? Maybe this one?
It is amazing to think about this table, the weeks that have passed that saw the five of us pulling up a chair day after day, the sights that Buster has seen, and those that have pulled up a chair to join us. Very often some of the first words they heard at our table were “whose day is it?” I suppose I will spend the rest of my life thinking of Monday, Tuesday and Saturday as my kids’ special days. Perhaps the biggest grace in my life has been the chance to walk their journey’s with them.
As Far As The Eye Can See 