Lent...Grief and Gladness

And so I come to Lent with grief and gladness...

When Daddy knew he was dying, he sent us a starter herd of English Shorthorn cows. The remaining cows are old now, sweet tempered and slow moving. Fanny, Annie’s twin, is close to giving birth and is having problems...problems upon which I will not elucidate for the faint of heart. A farmer worth her salt would have sent these cows to market years ago but I have never claimed to be in it for the profit. These cows were my Daddy’s. He raised them, gentled them, and gave them as his last gift to us. Every time one of them dies, another little piece of Daddy dies. Grief...
Saturday morning I began calling around trying to find a large animal vet. They are hard to come by these days when most vets prefer the routine, lucrative,controlled world of small animal practice. I was referred to a traveling vet, a woman based in Flat Rock who only does large animals. Her office is staffed with two other vets who do the small animal practice while she travels to farms and stock yards. Reared in Tuxedo, this mountain girl graduated from Mars Hill with a double major in chemistry and math, a minor in biology. She took her vet training at N.C. State then came back home to establish her practice. I like her style. Talking to her was a joy.
Our friend David Bair is dying more quickly than any of us expected. He and Dianne leave for the Bair family reunion on Tuesday. It is the last one for him and he has been holding on to this hope...seeing everyone gathered together again. Twenty five years ago, David and his brothers began this tradition so their children, scattered across the country, could know one another. David is the last living brother and he needs to touch, hug, hold on to the family that gave him his place in this world. I weep for the loss in my life of this good man and for the grief Dianne is feeling and will feel when he is gone. I give thanks for our friendship which began years ago at First Congregational when he stood to announce the blood drive. It has been an honor to call this soft spoken white haired midwesterner a friend.
He and Dianne want to have his memorial service in the high barn, the party barn. So we will gather, have a service led by their pastor and Michael to remember and celebrate our friend. Afterwards, I told David we would have a German Irish wake with beer, brats and bawdy stories of his misspent youth. I have heard a few and they are priceless. He laughed. I laughed and cried.
Our two latest grandbabies, Clancy and Maddie, are thriving, tended by loving parents. Clancy is beginning to look just like his older brother Rowan with a quizzical quirk to his eyebrows. Maddie, the only girl in this plethora of boys, shines in headbands and tutus with her brothers wrapped around her little finger. Matthew, Mason, Mead, Aiden and Colby are healthy and full of little boy love of life. Joy, joy, joy...
And so abides faith, hope and love at Sabbath Rest Farm, but the greatest of these is love. Lent will be filled with grief and gladness this year but the unshakeable foundation, the rock of hope, is the Love that shines through the loving ones who are the faces of God for me. I am grateful and that is more than enough.