Category Archives: Nature

Taking Down the Old Elm

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Doc Arnett

How like a man

anchored to his opinions

but long past feeling faith

is an old

dead

tree.

Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Christian Living, Death & Dying, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged dead elm, dead tree, front loader, tractor, tree trunk, yard work | Comments Off

For a while the wind stirred the dance of branches, a swishing and swaying of muted greens seen through the screen of the second story window. It seemed we would surely have rain but none came. The storm slid further to the north and east and we found not the least traces of darkened earth or gravel, not even a gathering on the windshields of the car and truck parked outside. Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Living, Farming, Nature, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged blessings, fields, hay, horses, lightning, pastures, rain, self-pity, showers, thunderstorms | Comments Off

Summer Snow

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Doc Arnett

These almost-lighter-than-air seeds of the cottonwood tree drift away, showing no sign of breeze. For four days or longer, there has been no stirring of the air, no fluttering of leaves. The seeds slide slowly to the earth in the oppressive heat, catch against an edge of turf, old posts or planks, whatever disrupts the smooth edge of the earth.

Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Living, Farming, Gardening, Nature, Spiritual Contemplation, Teaching, Work | Tagged cottonwood, cottonwood seeds, determination, drifts, faith, harvest, odds, persistence, planting, snow, summer | Comments Off

A Shovelful of Prayer

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Doc Arnett

In the morning after the rain,

fog settled in the hills and trees

across the fields and along the creek.
Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Living, Nature, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged Elwood, flooding, Kansas, levee, levee breach, levees, Missouri River, Saint Joe, Saint Joseph, sandbags, St. Joseph, Wathena | Comments Off

Stray Cats

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Doc Arnett

Knowing that we sometimes scratch and claw and hiss at the very one trying to bless us, he reached down and lifted us to him anyway. Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Living, Humor, Nature, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged adoption, arrowheads, artifacts, cats, compassion, forgiveness, God's love, kittens, pets, puppies, son-in-law | Comments Off

A Very Convenient Truth

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Doc Arnett

I pretty much knew as soon as I walked up to the sabino gelding that he would be going home with us. It wasn’t that he indeed looked very much like the pictures Shelley had posted on Craigslist but that certainly didn’t hurt. Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Living, Farming, Nature, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged coincidence, horse, horse color, horse name, horses, inspiration, Missouri Foxtrotter, Moses, names, naming horse, sabino, sabino gelding, Tennesse Walker | Comments Off

Trouble Shooting

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Doc Arnett

I’m a bit suspicious that our society spends too much time complaining and too little time praying. We treat inconveniences as if they were afflictions and afflictions as if they were torture. Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Living, Nature, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged change, complaining, complaints, do something, heat, humidity, prayer, storms, weather | Comments Off

Driving Back from Oak Grove

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Doc Arnett

Pupil-shrinking stabs of lightning
fire again and again
and thunder rocks the car. Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged driving in the storm, hard rain, lightning, severe storms, storms, thunderstorms | Comments Off

Cedar Blossoms

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Doc Arnett

If you imagined three or four very small starfish kind of melted together in the center with soft, rusty orange spikes radiating outward, you’d have a general idea. Continue reading →

Posted in Christian Living, Nature, Relationships, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged blooming, caring, cedar blooms, cedar trees, charity, giving, humility, involvement, love, seed, service, sharing | Comments Off

Of Altars and Incense

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Doc Arnett

A single blossom carries such a light notion of the smell that you can’t really tell for sure whether it is actual aroma or just the suggestion, a slight trace that made you think of something good and pleasant, something from long ago that you couldn’t forget but can barely remember. Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Spiritual Contemplation | Tagged blooms, blossoms, locust, locust trees, Pentecost, prayer, Quaker, silence, strangers, worship, worship service | Comments Off