BRIDGES TO THE PAST (March 2 - 22, 2019)

Indiana Cabin

Male Cardinal

Returning from warm Florida to chilly Indiana proved to be a difficult adjustment.

Temperatures in the single digits and snow on the ground and in the air were not what we had hoped for in the middle of March.  Yet even with all the climatic discomfort, we found it good to be back in the Hoosier state with family.  Technically, we call Indiana, "home".  We pay state taxes and drive with an Indiana license on our person.  Truth is that we spend only about three months there each year.

Eventually, the snow and cold turned into birds singing and flowers beginning to force their way through the warming soil.  The area around our little cabin in the woods began to come alive.  It was wonderful to see the signs of spring starting to emerge from the frosty winter.

Our next stop will be Edisto Island, South Carolina, where we plan to spend time relaxing and enjoying the low country until the beginning of May.  The Wyndham Resort at Ocean Ridge has been a regular stop for the Dicers since the 1980s.  This out of the way, slow paced, beautiful place is exactly what we enjoy.

REFLECTIONS

One of the primary reasons for the visit this time was to say "Happy Birthday" to my wife's mom, Lois.  She has navigated this realm for 90 years now.  Now, in an Alzheimer's Care Facility, she spends her days in the present with few memories of the past.  Here, with us one minute, and then gone; gone away to a place that we have yet to experience.

There is an old railroad bridge, built in the late 1800s, that looms above a trail I walk here in Indiana.  It is known as "The Haunted Bridge" and stories are told of bridge builders dying tragically during construction, returning to haunt the structure.  Every time that I walk beneath it, I think about its' history.  I think about those who planned it; those who dreamed of a day when the big steam powered locomotives would cross the flowing waters of White Lick Creek as they puffed their way westward.  I think about what this, now suburban, neighborhood might have looked like in those long ago days.  For me, it is a bridge to the past.  It is a reminder of how things change.

Memory is an amazing aspect of our humanity.  The ability to remember times past and to reflect in the importance of the memory is something that we should cherish.  I am not an expert in how the mind functions.  I don't understand all the intricate wiring; the electronic bridges, that come into play for us to be able to remember.  I do know, from personal experience, that as we grow older those connections begin to fail; memories fade.

Our "bridges to the past" are fragile.  Just as the haunted railroad bridge has become scared and damaged by years of use, so too our bridge to the past.  Constant rumblings back to forth will take their toll and our trains of thought will be derailed.  Try as we might to prevent it, our memories will fade into a fog that encompasses all of our living.  I am not trying to be morbid, just saying that, for many of us, this is what's ahead.

Therefore, I chose to do all I can to keep the memories flowing.  I will simply reflect from time to time about my childhood on the chicken farm in Goodells, Michigan and at the lake house on Lake Huron.  I will look back on photos and yearbooks from the years at Port Huron (MI) Northern High School and Olivet Nazarene University.  I will review my ministries.  I will treasure memories of family and friends.  I will, until I can no longer.  Simply put......cherish your past, live your present, and, as best as you can, imagine your future.

Haunted Railroad Bridge, Avon, Indiana