Danny's Doting(s)

There are times in our lives when everything changes and you never expected it, and there are times when nothing changes even though you did expect it. Life is very fickle like that. Because of constant circumstances beyond our control, things take place that we cannot predict even when we think we know all the elements of the equation, and we're right down to the x = _ part.  On the 12th of July, 2002, Dad and I were sowing buckwheat in the back field on MacKay's side. The only reason I can remember the date is because the 12th of July is the last recommended day of the year you can safely plant buckwheat in our temperate zone of Ontario.  It was a great day for it. Dad was running our big Cockshutt 2150 pulling our White 251 disc and chain harrows on the West side of the field preparing the seedbed for me. I was sowing on the East side (the MacKay side) with our 1550 and Tabbert's International 510 seed drill. Our white 1995 GMC 3500HD diesel flatbed truck was sitting at ...

  Today at our church we celebrated--and mourned--the retirement of our wonderful Pastor, Lloyd Reaney, at the 30 year mark in his ministerial history in Whitewater Wesleyan Community Church.  Back in the day, I used to meet Pastor Lloyd out for his morning stroll in Foresters Falls as I drove through on my Ottawa Citizen paper route. I never took the opportunity to stop to speak to him. I knew who he was , but I didn't know him personally. That turned out to be to my great debt.  The thing that always struck me about him, even just driving by in a car, was what an incredibly nice gentleman he was. He had the Grace of God not just written on him, but permeating the atmosphere around him. That man walked in the peace of the Lord.  Different times, I thought I needed to get to know him. I was a Christian; the Lord owned my heart, but I didn't attend church. I did Bible studies at home through a Bible study course I bought online.  I had many troubles in my life. I...

  Life wasn't always perfect on the farm. Some things really sucked, like getting a kick in the junk by a cow of such a predisposition and practiced in the art. Dad had a good friend and neighbour that would hardly have hurt a fly, but he sure hurt Dad--twice. Once Dad was holding a big spike for him to drive. He missed the spike and hit Dad's index finger so hard he burst it open like a boiled sausage. Apparently neither learning from their mistake, Dad held a stake for a concrete form for him with his boot... and he missed (with a sledge this time) again and made Dad's right big toe match his right index finger. There wasn't a third time for some reason. They remained friends with a mutual respect for each other until Dad's passing. And Bill always spoke well of him thereafter. Dad never held it against him, either. But you can bet your boots it sucked each time. Winter sucked. Losing livestock sucked. Not having that stuff called money sucked. And what I am about...

It can be funny the paths life can take you on. And all you have to do is transpose two letters to switch from a 'trail' to a 'trial'.  Life, for me, did some weird things for sure. I excelled in English all the way through school. In Grade 10 or 11 (I never said I excelled in memory work), my substitute English teacher wanted me to pursue a literary career. He took a sincere interest in me. He emphasized to me that I could be a newspaper editor, a proofreader, an author, or anything I wanted to be in the field. I just scoffed at him, and said, "I'm not going to spend my life behind a desk!" That was for pot-bellied, soft-handed sissies, and I was a fit, well-calloused Queen's Line farmboy.  I have since learned that my older self would often be left eating my younger self's words, thoughts, or attitudes. One particular memory of that kind of thing was my neighbour, King, always getting me to read some small print for him. I always chuckled at his ...