Southern Windows, 651 words

The late and great newspaper publisher Frank McDonald once told about an agnostic farmer who finally relented and went to church when his crops were burning up in the field from lack of rain.

After the service he asked for a private word with the pastor and explained the imminent danger of losing his entire crop. The preacher asked, "Why are you speaking to me about it? Aren’t you an agnostic?"

The farmer said, "Well, yessir, that’s what I’ve always been but if you can pray down some rain, I just might have a reason to become a believer. My wife keeps saying you can pull off miracles, reverend." The preacher promised to pray for rain.

Before the sun set, a gully washer came that flooded the farmer’s best bottom land, flooding out all his corn. As he stood with his religious wife on high ground watching the swirling waters, he said, "That’s what I get for asking the prayers of a preacher who knows so little about farming."

Once I heard one of those positive thinking preachers say, "Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it." It does seem to be some kind of fundamental law of the universe that the mindset precedes the outcome just as the architect drawing of a house comes before the finished home. So we are wise to think about what we are thinking about.

For thirty-five years I worked in one pressure cooker job after another. Each had it’s unique rewards but they all chewed up the hours of my life, leaving no time for all the things I wanted to do for fun and personal fulfillment. My most frequent cry was, "Oh, for the day I can do what I want to do!"

My mind visualized curling up and dozing a little longer in the morning, easing through a pot of Jason Winters Red Clover Tea and the morning paper, then the crossword, then writing a song or two–maybe a poem–then strumming my old Epiphone guitar down at the barber shop with all the boys. Most of these sweet dreams revolved around writing, story telling and making music.

Sure enough, even before the age of Social Security eligibility, I was able to leave the severe stress and the daily schedule that had bullied me around for three decades. I started a weekly column for a newspaper. Then a few magazines liked some of my work and actually asked for my articles. A trickle of singing-storytelling jobs turned into an avalanche until one day I realized I was being bullied again by that little black schedule book.

The good news is that all the activities were things I loved. Things I had dreamed of having the time to do for a lifetime. The bad news is that we can sometimes want to do more wonderful things than our bodies or wristwatches will allow.

That may seem elementary to you but it was a sledgehammer revelation to me. Here I was turning down invitations to do all the things I had literally starved to do my entire life. I will never forget that cold splash reality.

If you are lucky enough to come to this too-much-of-a-good-thing place in life, you will learn priority-setting for the first time. Oh, I thought I knew all about setting priorities in those pressure cooker years. Man, that was a piece of cake. I was choosing among things that were seldom my favorite things. They were not affairs of the heart. Choosing from a list of things you love is like the Biblical story of Solomon cutting a baby in two pieces to placate two squabbling women. You start wishing to be twins so you can do it all.

You can’t. About all you can do is to find a preacher to pray who knows something about farming.

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