Be thou my vision

   Call me old fashioned but I love hymns. One in particular is Be Thou my Vision. It's words ring true even today. It is a 6th century Irish hymn stemming from an old monastic chant. It is amazing that these God inspired words still ring true today. We sometimes  get so caught up in the flash and spectacle that is worship. Why can't we take a break from that on occasion?

      We are called to still our hearts and minds to meditate on God. This song is a great way of doing that "Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,Be thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;Be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;Be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one." When I found this version of this song, I immediately fell in love with it. If you get the chance, stop what your doing , sit down , and listen to it. Focus on the words and what they truly mean. Remember that Christ is enough, that God payed this debt for us. Let us be thankful, let Him be our vision. Let us not cast our eyes upon that which is not eternal. "Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:Be thou mine inheritance now and always;Be thou and thou only the first in my heart;O Sovereign of Heaven, my treasure thou art."

Childhood

We walked through the land side by side
Hide and go seek games, tears wiped away when I cried .
Afternoons in the barn working on the old tractor that always broke.
The radio played Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash ,and George Strait.
I was raised right to love and cherish this way of life in the upstate.
Turkey hunts , and deer stand mornings.
Spinning yarns by the fire , and the old whipper-wills warnings.
Lunch at the old store, and a fishing at the duck pond.
These were days we loved.
Lessons learned, and a few taught as well.
Sunday mornings with Pop down the road at the church that preached of redemption, fire, brimstone , and Hell!
The heart of the land beats within me as I go about my life, carrying its dream on.
It's ashes, in my room on my desk it sits upon.
Sweet barn dirt fills my nostrils as I shut my eyes and remember.
Remember that snowy morning when the world was blanketed in white and the land froze time itself?
Remember when we beat the odds and did get home on a leaking gas tank?
Everyone has their story to tell. Stories of love, hate and redemption.
Together we put these stories away , as time moves on.
Will we ever go back to a day where we can stand as brothers and look out over that place once more?
I pray we do.

The Old Duck Pond 

But life has a way of working things out, one day I will stand on my own land, and look over the vista as ducks touch down on my pond, as cattle bed down and old bulls fight, as deer softly walk through the pines on a moonlit night. My children will learn to love the woods. Life will circle back to the days of childhood . But in a slightly different perspective. When I find this place, this place of healing , redemption, and joy I will sneak off into the woods. I will walk to the highest part of the land that looks over our slice of heaven and bury the ashes of lands of old , and memories of past days. I will make it part of the new land to bring together a central idea. A central idea of what life should be about. To finally go back to the basics of what my life should be. Hard work, friends and deposits in the memory bank. My great grandfather had a dream as he came back from WWII. He looked over the land before him and found a place where peace is abounding , and the majesty of God's handy work was everywhere. A place to go and just be still.To be able to go sit and just marvel at life. This is my dream, this is my prayer. That the innocence of childhood would come back to this life. That I may be able to capture that dream that my grandfather and his father once had. A place where the Cauthen Family Farm can find a home again.

The Barn

The Center Pasture.