So many words have been written about friendship. But how can mere words express the deep feelings that a deep friendship possess.
When a dear friend moves away, do you miss them? Do you long to see them again, to just hold them in a hug or just hear their voice once more? Does the friendship stand up to the test of time apart and in fact grow stronger? If so, you have something special, don’t let it go.
So many individuals these days use others to get what they want and you can’t trust them when the world around you comes crashing down. Does your friend really care about you, are they there at 2:00 o clock in the morning and you know you could call and they would listen? When you are really feeling like the world has kicked you when you were down, does this friend listen and really care?
When something good happens in your life; are they one of the first ones you want to call and tell the awesome news? Will they listen and rejoice with you? Will they pick you up during a tough time along the road of life? Will they offer an encouraging word and a caring, listening ear?
Can you ride in a car with them and just feel at ease, even on a long trip? You don’t worry about what to say, conversation just flows as the miles slide by outside. You can even go to sleep in perfect peace and wake up and still feel secure.
Do they remember your special days and send a card or small gift that means something special to you because they know just what you like? Do they keep on doing this even when you forget to thank them or remember them on their special days? If this is true you have found someone very special, don’t let them go.
When you get their call do you know that it is them just by the sound of their voice? In fact, you can pick their voice out of a crowd and with out a doubt, know that it is theirs. Can you just drop over at their house and know that there is an open door, no matter what time or day of the week it is?
That even if you don’t have make up on or your best clothes they will accept you just the way you are? Do they look past your faults and focus on the attributes that make you special? Do they encourage you to be your best and to give your all? Are they positive and have a smile for you, even when you greet them with a frown?
Do you want to do good things in life because they have taught you that is the best thing in life you can do?

When you help someone out and pick them up when they fall, do you just want to tell your friend because you know  they will be proud of you and offer a word of praise?
When they say they will pray for you, is it just words?  Or do you know with out a doubt that they will be on their knees praying for you with depth and determination and seeking God’s help to see you through to the very end of your problem or trial.
If all of these thing ring true, you are fortunate indeed. You have found a rare jewel of life. A special friend to call your own. It is said that we can go through life and be lucky to have two or three friends that we can call our own. If you have found one like this, it is a gift from God, cherish them, love them and  never let them go!!

We have all been on a long trip with our parents in a van or car. No sooner then we were out of town and one of the kids would say,“are we there yet” After several such questions Dad would lose his patience and start yelling something like. “Shut up and watch the scenery . I will let you know when we are getting close”.
How like life. We all live on a time line and we are always moving along it. It seems we are always in a hurry to get to various points along the line. If we would only realize the importance of enjoying the journey. We will never pass this exact way again. We are in a hurry to graduate from High School and just get out of town. After a month or so at college we think it might be kind of nice to go home and see family and  friends. Even an event at the old high school we were so glad to leave last spring sounds kind of interesting now.. Then it is on to college and again a hurry to graduate. Other than test and written reports, college can be the best time of your life. Learn to explore the town you are going to school in and go to as many events on campus that you can.
Others are in a hurry to get married and then find they are home a lot and boredom sets in. Children to care for and a house to clean and meals to cook and now everything doesn’t seem so rosy and fine.
Some join the armed services and after a tour of duty over seas; home looks mighty good and we realize how much we have to be thankful for in our country and state.
The moral of this story is to enjoy the trip along lives path. You will find many interesting things to do and observe if we are just able to slow down and smell the lilacs of life. Never for get to be a kind and helpful individual as well. The one most enjoyable thing to do in life is to help somebody else on their road of life. It may just be a word of encouragement or a home cooked meal. Maybe a listening ear or just riding shut gun in their car on a trip somewhere.         Everybody needs a friend or two if they are really going to enjoy life as well as a community of people they have a common interest with and can take pride in being involved with.
Then when you are old and grey; you can look back on your journey of life You can say. I led a good life and I don’t have any regrets. Don’t be the individual that was always in a hurry and to busy to take time with his family and to stop at interesting oasis of life.
Best wishes for the future and always stop and enjoy everything you can along your journey of life. You will never regret it and people you have helped along life’s way; will remember you and will keep on doing the good deeds you taught them to do.
Be positive, smile a lot, give people hugs and hand shakes. Encourage everyone you meet and never be to busy to lend a helping hand. The best advice I ever got when I was growing up and I pass it on to you.

There once lived a Arabian Prince who went to great lengths to find the perfect stallion to start the Arabian Horse breed. After this was done and several colts were born he decided to find a special mare to bear a colt for his young son.He took fifty of his mares and put them through the same training he had done with the stallions. To come before him when ever he blew the silver trumpet. After three weeks of training they were put in a enclosure with no food or water for three days and nights. Then with fresh water and food on one side and the prince on the other, the horses were set free. As they rushed for the water the prince blew the trumpet. With the stallions, only one came back before him, but with the mares, five came back and stood before him.  So he came up with another test to find the top mare. He selected his five top horse riders and told them they would race the mares in a two day, 100 mile race. They had a week to train their horse and there would be a reward for the winning rider.

At the end of the first fifty miles the horses were kept over night at a Oasis. Two mares had established a large lead. One was ridden by Sakhre and one by Bishai. That night Sakhre went right to bed and let his assistant rub down his mare and feed her. Bishai on the other hand, spent the whole night with his mare who he called Tjaempian, which means Champion.  He personally sponge down Tjaempian, talking to her the whole time.  He gave her plenty of fresh water and healthy food. He slept in the manger right next to his horse. When ever he woke up, he would stroke the horse and call her, Tjaempian.
The next day the two lead horses started first and ran neck in neck for the first forty five miles.
As they neared the finish line Sakhre pulled out his riding whip and started to hit his horse on the side. Stunned, the horse bolted ahead.

Bishai just leaned foreword and  kept saying, Tjaempian, Tjaempian. He stroked his mares neck and repeated her name, Tjaempian. She dug down and closed the gap .

She went on to win the race by one hundred yards.
In racing and in coaching, positive encouragement can make the difference in winning and losing. Even more importantly, the style of riding or  coaching, makes a difference in the lives of the athletes
and horses they work with.

There once was a small town down south where a lot of  retired circus people lived. They still had a few animals as pets and one small tent.  They would put on a small performance once a month. The one performance that the crowds liked best was where a monkey would wear  cowboy clothes and ride a tiger around the ring. The monkey even had a small rope he would twirl. The owners of the monkey and the owners of the tiger as well as their families always came to watch their pets perform but rarely stayed for the other performances. Like so many parents today, they were focused on their kids and they were the only ones that mattered.

One day the tiger was walking around the tent outside and he stepped on some thorns and one got stuck in his paw. He tried to lick it out but it was in to deep. The paw became very sore and the tiger became grumpy and less willing to perform in the show. The monkey became afraid to ride on his back. The owners of the monkey blamed the tiger and the owners of the tiger blamed the monkey and both blamed the director. The act was in trouble and if the director didn’t find out what was wrong; the whole little circus was in trouble.

The director met with the tiger and the monkey and asked what was wrong. The tiger said , “you don’t pay any attention to me and you always praise up the monkey. I have a sore paw and no one cares about me.” The director asked the monkey if he knew about the tiger’s sore paw. The monkey admitted that he was more concerned with waving to the crowd and had not noticed the tiger limps. He just knew the tiger was grumpy and he was afraid to ride him anymore. The director admitted that as long as the crowds were happy he had not paid much attention to either one and just spent his time counting the gate recites.

They were all puzzled  for awhile. Finally the monkey said, “ let me look at that paw.” With great tenderness and dexterity he was able to squeeze out that thorn. The tiger was so relived that he gave the monkey a hug. The director was so pleased that the problem was solved; he promised to really pay attention to his favorite act from now on. The owners of both the monkey and the tiger got together and vowed to support the whole little circus and not just their own act. Once again the tiger and monkey performed and the crowds were even bigger than before.

Isn’t it amazing what can happen when we get our focus off of me, mine, and ours and notice what is really bothering the individuals around us. When you really care about your friends, teammates, coaches and directors as much as yourself. You have really  grown  up and have become a really positive leader in the game of life. You have become a difference maker in the lives of all those around you.  Lets all try to be that kind of leader and the world will be a much happier place.

 

As many youngsters in northern Wisconsin do, I liked to fish pan fish off the end of a dock. Just a cane pole, some worms and a bobber. The blue gills and perch would school around the bait and you could see them four or five feet down in the clear water. You could even try to move the bait over in front of one of the larger fish. But the small ones were very aggressive and would often dive right at the bait and be hooked. If I pulled up right away on the pole, the fish would be hooked in the mouth and it was easy to hold the fish and back the hook out. Then I would often throw the fish back in the lake. If the fish was very hungry; or I was a little late in tugging up the pole, they would swallow the bait and the hook. Now they were done for. To get the hook out meant to pull it back out and this would kill the fish. Another thing I noticed was that I could catch the same fish several times if it had just been hooked in the mouth and released.

Now and then a big bass would swim in slowly. Come right up to the bait and then swim away. Occasionally they would bite but usually went after some live bait like a frog or plug being cast out and reeled in past them. Then they would strike with force and put up a huge fight.

There was a longtime Doctor in Hayward that had taken out hundreds of fishing lures from various parts of fishermen’s bodies. They are mounted on a board in the National Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward. In each case he pushed the hook through the skin and then snipped off the barb so he could then back the hook out the hole without further ripping up the flesh.

How like Satan and temptations of the flesh. He places the bait out there and it looks enticing and good and indviduals gather around and try it. Most only get hooked in the mouth and wriggle free or are released. But some swallow the bait and become addicted and often die as a result. Some get hooked bad and God, the great Physician has to push the hook through and snip off the barb to free us from the bondage. How good it is when we follow our parents warnings about dangers in life and go to church and learn how to look to God for help. Then we can be like the big bass, that swims up, sees the danger and swims away.

For you see, in so many of the temptations in life, the barb is hidden and we don’t realize how hard it is to get rid of the hook We end up hooked for good unless we seek God and his help in getting rid of the barb. Don’t be fooled into thinking you will just be released. Satan is a very good fisherman and he likes to keep what he can catch.

Have fun fishing and remember this story, it may save you from getting hooked some day and finding the barb so hard to dislodge in your life.

Dear Dan, my older brother who is in poor health, so I sent him this thank you letter while he could still read and appreciate it.

I was thinking this morning of all the things you had done for me over the years and  thought I had better thank you while you could still read them.

1.Thank you for the farm set you gave me for Christmas when I was about six years old. I think my sister and I wore that thing out, playing with it so much.

2. Thanks for the wooden wagon with the removable side racks. Russ gave me some wild rides in that and I hauled a lot of wood into the house with it.. Russ also pushed me into the glass door of the book case in the front room, we both got in a lot of trouble for that. Russ said it was my fault for not steering straight. Dad figured out right away and punished us both equally.

3. Thanks for the toboggan for Christmas. I remember mom sent me to bed early, as if I could go to sleep anyway.  I was laying there and heard you go out to the granary to get my present. I spent the next hour trying to think of what you might have got me. All the rides down the straw stack with that and all the trips hauling oats over from the granary to the silo room for calf feed.

4.Thanks for taking me squirrel  and partridge hunting. For making the cleaning of the game an anatomy lesson for me that I never forgot. For making a big deal about the partridges digestive sack and what they were eating and for sending their tail feathers into the DNR.

5.Thanks for letting Annetta and I check your weasel trap line a few times. I felt like Jack London in the arctic woods. For letting me watch you skin weasel and muskrats and telling me they used the weasel hides for rich men’s underwear. I was in high school before I caught on to that one.

6.Thanks for letting me watch you harness the team and for teaching me how to talk to and handle horses.

7. Thanks for all the fair trips with calf projects you helped me with. That was how I got my Christmas money every year. Those Jerseys calves always got a blue ribbon as there was little competition in their class at the fair.

8.Thanks for all the fishing trips, especially in that little old pogo boat on Beaver Lake. It always leaked but that added to the excitement as well as acting as a  a live well for the perch to swim around in..

9. Thanks for being a good teacher in deer season, along with dad. You taught me how to hunt right, safe, and to respect the woods and the animals.

10.Thanks  for all the football games you came to and all the support you gave me during my coaching career.You  even made it down to Madison for the State Finals game with New Berlin.

11. Thanks for the pheasant hunts and Sunday afternoons at Billion when I was teaching at Clintonville.

12. Thanks for the rabbit hunts you took me on and stops at the little farm by Medford. I will always remember your Beagle Mulligan’s chase of old Harry the rabbit.

13.Thanks  for driving me to Marshfield that first time I had my MRI for my pituitary tumor. The devotions the next morning were so special.

14.Thanks for all the pogo books and Freddie the Fox stories you read to me.. You always made the book and story come alive and your laughter was so contagious. I laughed because you laughed so hard.

15.Thanks  for teaching me about raising rabbits, ducks and turkeys even though the tom turkeys used to chase me and the goose would hiss and chase me out of the chicken coop.

16.Thanks for the stop overs at Ashland and for helping me move from Lake Holcombe up to Marengo.

17Thanks  for helping me clean up my rented trailer and move into town while teaching at Ashland.

18.Thanks for your part in raising two great daughters who became like daughters to me and a big part of my life.

19.Thanks for showing me how a Christian man should live his life for Christ. Your life was a huge example for me.

I am sure there were more things but these were the ones I remember most. Thanks for being such a great, big brother and role model to me. I really appreciate all you did for me.

Your younger brother Bob

It is late October in northern Wisconsin and there were a few snow flurries today. I love the changing seasons in Wisconsin. Life would seem so boring if it was hot or warm all the time. You learn to appreciate the best of each season and put up with the undesirable parts as you know in a few months everything will change.

Dad was a strict disciplinarian and work on the farm always came first in our family. This meant carrying in wood for the heater in the winter and feeding calves and throwing in hay for the cows. Mom was a angel. She did all the house work and washing of clothes in the old farm house with its drafts, creaks and groans. We had a water pump out in a separate pump house. With no indoor plumbing in the old farm house. Mom would go out and carry in pails of water and pour them into milk cans for use in the house for the whole day and evening. I didn’t like to be alone so she would always play a game with me. I was a ginger bread boy and she would pretend to put me in the oven. When she came in with a pail of water I would be hiding in the kitchen and she would look for me. Put me back in the oven and go out for another pail of water. Mom had the knack to make each one of us kids feel loved and always taught us how to live with Bible stories that she had for every occasion or problem. We lived a very simple life with just the basics. We never felt poor as Mom made even the simplest of food taste great. Our clothes were often hand me downs and we invented many of our own games.

I was the youngest of five children and seven years younger than my sister who was fourth in the family line. Dad was in his late thirties when I was born. With the older kids he was more involved with their growing up. With me my older siblings took over a lot of the time. My closest sister took care of me most of the time and my oldest brother took me fishing and hunting. My other brother taught me sports and pounded me up on a daily bases. My older sister taught me Bible stories and the love of dogs.

Back to the snow flakes on this late October day. I was sitting in my warm house and watching them fall out side my bay window. It was them I remembered special winter times when my Dad showed his tender side. Etched in my mind because they were so special and rare.

From first grade though third grade I walked to a one room country school. Then one of the fathers in the district picked us up in his station wagon. It was only a mile walk but it seemed far to a first grader. I remember very clearly one of the those special Dad moments that occurred one blustery winter day. A winter storm had blown in and the school closed a few hours early. I was in second grade and was walking down state highway 27 and a pick up truck stopped and the driver offered me a ride. I was scared as mom had told me not to ride with strangers, but with the wind whipping my face I climbed in. They dropped me off at the dirt road that went down to our farm. The snow was drifting in across the road and I had just started down when I saw my Dad coming to meet me. He had never done that before but he knew how bad the storm was getting. He broke a path for me through the deep snow. It was getting dusk and the wind was strong. My Dad stopped by two big pines along the road. Took a piece of broken limb and started to carve out a small cave in the big drift by the side of the road. He dug back to the hard frozen bank of old snow that the snowplow had piled up before. We both climbed in and sat down for while. It was so cozy and sheltered and I felt so special to sit there with my Dad. He never said much but told me about his Dad doing the same thing for him one day in the past and how he always remembered. it. After ten minutes or so we walked the rest of the way home. Mom had a hot simple meal for us all and when I went to sleep I thanked God for my special time in that snow cave with Dad.

Another time after a big storm my dad took a saw and cut big blocks of frozen snow out of a drift. We stacked them up and made a snow house. We put wooden poles across the top and then blocks of snow. All of us kids got inside with Dad and agin it was a special time I will never forget. Now as others get anxious over weather warning and snow. I think of these special moment in snow caves and houses with Dad. I realize that it is not the weather or the money that make life special and a person to feel at peace. It is being where God wants you and with someone you respect and love. Thanks Dad, for those special memories. I hope I can do the same for someone else in my life some day.

A poem I found in my mother’s Bible, written by an unknowen author.

Is anybody happier, becuase you passed his way?

Does anyone remember, that you spoke to him today?

The day is almost over and its toiling time is through.

Is there anyone to utter now, a kindly word of you?

Did you give a cheerful greeting, to the friend who came along,

or a churlish sort of Howdy, then vanish in the throng?

Were you selfish, pure and simple, as you rushed along your way?

Or is someone mighty grateful, for a deed you did today?

Can you say tonight in parting, with the day that is slipping fast.

That you helped a single brother, of the many you have passed?

Is a single heart rejoicing, over what you did or said?

Does the man whose hopes were fading, now with courage look ahead?

Did you waste the day or lose it, was it well or poorly spent?

Did you leave a trail of kindness, or a scar of discontent?

As you close your eyes in slumber, do you think that God would say;

You have earned one more tomorrow , by the work you did today!

Psalms 28:14
Living Bible: Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you. Be brave, stouthearted and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you.

Green apples and patience

On the dairy farm in norther Wisconsin where I grew up, my father had planted eight apple trees. In the center of the old yard my Grandfather had planted an apple tree when they homesteaded this 160 acres. They bought this land after the big logging companies had harvested all the big pines and moved on west. Individuals who wanted to clear the big pine stumps and brush off the land; could buy a quarter section of land to start farming on. This old apple tree taught me some valuable lessons about life.

My brother and I used to like to eat apples off the trees. The young apple trees that my dad planted, bore a lot of apples but they ripened later in the fall. The old tree in the center of the yard had big apples that ripened sooner. We would throw the football up to knock off a ripe looking apple. We often tried this before the apples were fully ripe. Mom and Dad would say, “now just wait until they are fully ripe and they will taste so much better”. That was not an option with us and we would try to get the apples as soon as they even looked close to ripe. Often they would be sour but we ate them anyway and sometimes got a little sick to our stomach. They were marvelous in apple pies and my Mom could make the best. She would always tell us to pick up the windfalls and she would make apple pies out of this world with them

How often in life we want God to bring something about in our lives. We have so much trouble waiting for his perfect timing and often get tired of the silence and go on ahead of him.. Then when things don’t work out and we cry out to God, what went wrong. Why am I in this mess, God replies, you wouldn’t wait for me and now you are suffering the consequences. God can, and often does straighten things out for us but we often carry the scars of making our own choices when it seemed that God was silent and we just had to move on with out him.

One of the hardest lesson in life is to wait on God for his perfect timing. He is never early! But he is also never late, He is always just on time. Like eating a apple before it is ripe, we often miss some of the sweetest things that life and God have to offer; with our failure to wait on him. Look to God and be willing to wait on him and enjoy the sweetest apple of life that you ever had. When God finally works his will in our lives and we surrender all to him, we are ready to be picked, right at our very best of flavor and usefulness to Him.

A Poem written  by my father, Dan McLeod

It’s bird watching time again;

A patch of bare earth here and there

Makes a likely robin pasture;

Yes, there’s something in the air.

There will be sparrows, larks and flickers,

A cardinal or so;

And soon the orioles will proudly sport

Their wings of black and gold.

But I’ve been waiting for the redwings;

There will be things a-stirring then,

For it’s a hustle and a bustle,

When blackbirds come homing in.

There! A dark haze in the distance,

A rising, throbbing thing.

Then the murmur turns to thunder

Of blackbirds on the wing.

Suddenly the tumult, bated

Like a whirlwind passing on;

Soon poplars are leaved with redwings,

Wing shields flashing in the sun.

Then comes a moment strangely silent

As the rising of the sun;

Till some part maestro waves his baton,

And the chorus has begun.

Like the purl of the running waters

Or the wind in the aspen leaves.

It’s hard to think those saucy rogues

Could spin such melodies.

“They raid my seedlings,” someone mutters,

“Shred my ripened corn;

Nature too makes some mistakes,

The blackbird certainly is one.”

Do we own the warming sunlight?

Do we claim the growing rains?

We lack the living touch of nature;

All our efforts are in vain.

Nature cradled all together

From some far off bygone age;

In her register of species–

Which one should head the page?

Plant some extra for her wild ones

And their beauty strive to see,

For if all were perfect creatures

What a dull world this would be.

Sing away you saucy beggars,

Carefree Gypsies of the spring.

Jewel the waning days of winter

With the flashing of your wings.

And in the misty realms of future,

AT some dawn time far away,

I pray you greet the early morning

Just as you have done today.