The Arch of Life

  On one of our trips years ago, we went up the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. We sat in seats of a tram system that took us to the top. The seats jerked a bit sometimes to level us as we went up. When we got to the top we looked through the windows at the land spread below.

   Life is like going up the Gateway Arch. Time flows along at a steady pace and sometimes there are jerks that adjust our position as we go along. We adapt to the change and continue on. Some of these "jerks" or reality checks are

• the day a child enters first grade
• the day a child gets a driver's license
• a silver wedding anniversary
• a child's wedding
• the first grandchild
• the youngest child is married

    Every stage of life had its challenges and blessings. The first ten years of a child's life were my favorite age of children. They are so interesting and have unique perspectives. Those years were soon gone forever and our children reached the troublesome years of figuring out how to be adults. Life became more difficult as family members had different school and work schedules. The house was full and teaming with activity. That reduced as the children married.

    Then the youngest child married and left home. We were empty nesters, back to where we started with just the two of us. It seemed unreal that our children were all grown and gone. They had taught me that I didn't know as much as I thought I did when we started out. In spite of my ignorance and failures, they became decent, responsible adults. 

    Life chugged along and we enjoyed being seniors with the freedom to pursue the things we enjoyed that we didn't have time for when all the children were at home. After we reached 70 it became obvious we were slowing down. It was time to retire. Upkeep on the place and volunteer work would keep us busy. We welcomed and enjoyed the change, living in the glow of the sunset and overlook of the past.

  The little jerks of coming down began again as our bodies started doing more than creaking. Parts were worn out and needed to be fixed or replaced. But we went on, looking back over the years behind us as if nothing was changing until one morning Leroy had an ambulance ride to the hospital.

   Suddenly we were faced with all kinds of possibilities for the future. Would he recover? Would he ever be well enough to come home? If not, then what? Would he need to be in a nursing home? We have lived in this house 58 years and it is the only home our children and grandchildren have known. Is it time to downsize and move? If so, where? We always knew we won't live forever but it was out there somewhere beyond us, not now. A serious illness suddenly brings the possibility to the forefront.

    Thanks to God who answered the prayers of the saints and the skill of doctors, after a week in the hospital and two weeks of rehab, he is able to return home on Saturday. We're back on the ground and going on. All the scary life-changing possibilities have been postponed for another time. We will have to face them eventually, but when the time comes God will show the way just as He did this time.

    

    

    

Death of The High Priest

   Something I never fully understood just made sense to me. Maybe this is not new to you and I'm just dense.    

   In the Old Testament law, a murderer received a death sentence. Provisions were made for people who accidentally killed someone "without enmity." Cities of refuge were scattered over the land of Israel so they could be reached in a day or less if needed. As long as the guilty person remained in the city, he was safe and relatives of the deceased person could not take revenge. It was a sort of house arrest that lasted until the death of the high priest. Then the accused was released, pronounced free of guilt, and allowed to go home. (Numbers 35:26-27)

     There was no limit on the time a person would have to remain in the city of refuge. It could be a short time or many long years, for no one knew when the high priest would die. An indefinite term of confinement didn't seem fair to me. Someone who had been in the refuge city two months might be released the same day as someone who was there twenty years. How long they were confined depended on the death of the high priest.

   This rule, like many of the other Jewish laws and ceremonies, makes sense when we understand how they portray the Redeemer revealed in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews explains how Jesus is our eternal High Priest. He offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and is the mediator between God and man. 

    The guilty were pardoned and freed upon the death of the high priest. That portrayed what was coming in the New Covenant. The death of Jesus, the eternal High Priest, pardons and sets us free from the guilt and power of sin. Then we can go Home! 

Bridal Shower

   My family pitched in to make it possible for me to go to Ohio for a granddaughter's bridal shower the evening of September 30. My sister agreed to do the driving and a son and his wife stayed with Leroy. It was a quick trip. We left the morning of the shower and came home the next day. I am so grateful I was able to be there and see it live instead of just looking at pictures. It was a lovely shower.

The food

Mother of the bride-to-be was hostess

The gifts

Four little girls lined up to pass the gifts to Arianna. One was told to do it and the rest jumped in. Gifts are so exciting for little girls even if they are for someone else.

Everyone was invited to make a bouquet from flowers Arianna collected that morning in the gardens of friends and relatives.

A second favor was a little jar of honey.

This was my collection. I love the purple and white dahlia.

Four generations. My daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter (Arianna's niece).

Check back in a month for the wedding.

 

Tale of The Red Maples

   When our house was built fifty-eight years ago we planted two Red Maple trees in the front yard, one on each side of the driveway. They were just thin whips but they grew into nice-sized trees. The one in front of our bedroom shaded the house. Gene liked to climb up about fifteen feet and sit there reading a book. A few years ago, the top of that one broke off in a storm. We passed it off as storm damage.

    Time marched on and several years ago I noticed the leaves falling from the tree in the summer were merely webs without any red leaf material. We didn't know what was causing it. Then two years ago I noticed the top of the second tree was dead. Just like the first one, it started at the top. One clear day, the top of that tree broke off and fell onto the road. Now we had two disfigured dying trees. We decided it is time to take them down.

   Dale came in December of 2025 and took down the one between the two garages. He took two heaping pickup loads of wood home to heat his house.

  In March 2026, three of our sons and two grandsons came and took down the tree in front of the house. The grandsons had a great time burning the brush.

   Life got busy and the stumps sat in the yard all summer. On September 1, Gerald rented a stump grinder and the stumps bit the dust.

    Three days later Gene leveled the holes and seeded grass in both spots. The yellow spot across the driveway is where the second tree stood. And that is the bitter end of our Red Maples.

   Red Maples are supposed to last 100-150 years. Perhaps ours could have been saved if we had realized sooner something was wrong with them and done something about it. I missed their shade this summer. It is kind of sad to have outlived trees that should have lived another fifty years. 

Before the Pages

    Masthof Bookstore and Press has published an article about my writing career. It tells about my early days of writing for church papers, the seven years of research behind Annie's Day of Light, and my passion for writing faith-building history. You can read the full article on their "Before the Pages" blog here:

  https://bookstore.masthof.com/blogs/masthof-pages/the-patient-craft-of-romaine-stauffer 
 #AnniesDayOfLight #HistoricalFiction #MasthofPress #ChristianAuthors 

Mennonites and the Revolutionary War

 In July I was interviewed for an episode on Anabaptist Perspectives. I was asked to do something on the effect of the Revolutionary War on nonresistant Mennonites. It was released today. For what it's worth, here is the link. 

https://anabaptistperspectives.org/episodes/what-did-patriotism-look-like-for-mennonites-in-1776/

Gangbuster Tomatoes

   We gave up gardening last year and planted grass in the last small patch of our once-huge garden. Yet, I couldn't imagine life without any vegetable garden. So I pulled out the iris I had in a raised bed and turned that into a mini-garden. The first year was not very successful. I only planted tomatoes and they got blight. But I was too stubborn to give up that easily and tried again this year. 

   This spring I pulled out more iris and planted four cabbages, two tomatoes, one small pack of green bean seeds, and candy onions. Things are doing better this year. The soil needs some nutrients and with help in that department could produce a more bountiful harvest next year. We have eaten one cabbage so far and the beans are ready to pick. They were planted later than normal but that short double row of beans is doing great. This is the size of garden I can keep spotless. 

   The tomatoes have not gotten blight this year. Thanks to google and a master gardener, I found the secret to preventing blight. It's very simple and inexpensive. Cut off lower leaves that could touch the ground to prevent blight from starting. Add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, two tablespoons of baking soda, and a few drops of dish soap to a gallon of water in a sprinkling can. Sprinkle the plants every two weeks with this solution, or every week if already blighted. It works! My tomatoes grew like gangbusters and shot up above the tomato cages. They got so top heavy they are falling down over the cages. They were a bit late getting started so no tomatoes have ripened yet but they are growing nicely. 

   August is the month of maturity. The corn across the road from our house once again blocks our view of the sunrise. A dry spell threatened their growth but with a few good showers those corn stalks shot up like a growth spurt in teenage boys. They are now topped with tassels and busily forming ears without stopping to sleep at night.

   Canning and freezing the bounty of August is the crescendo of the summer with corn, peaches, apples, and tomatoes all coming to maturity at once. A late freeze destroyed the peach crop but I canned enough last year for two years so we are in good shape. We are abundantly blessed and grateful for another good growing season.