...Desert Father's '12: Day Two.......

        This is our daily "wake up" view here @ Desert Fathers '12...taken from the great room of the home we are meeting in.  What a gathering place...gratefully loaned to we 17 men.

        Yesterday was an important day for we "olde" men here in the SoCal desert...important for each one of us.  We listened deep to next-life-chatpers in our lives...laughed...kidded...shed tears...caught up with each other...had times of quiet pondering...some walked, swam, golfed, walked, biked, read, slept...whatever was needed in the afternoon "free" time.

        I spent the moments doing some extra deep reflecting and engaging in conversation as to when each of these men entered my own life over the decades.  It was crazy to realize that John Coulombe, smiling below, and the "Chief Gatherer of the Desert Fathers," and I have known each other since high school days in Oregon...54 years now.  Wow.......

        John has been one of the most consistent friends I've had over the decades...through some of the finest and some of the most depleting times of my life.  If ever a man is a "rare gem," it's him.  All of us here at Desert Fathers '12 would agree with that.  Oh...the stories we could tell on each other...and some, we won't.  lol

        Anyone know what those words mean in English on John's sweatshirt?  We laughed when we found out...appropriate for a gathering of "olders" like us:  Better Late Than Never.  :-)

        Another chuckle from yesterday, in the midst of the deep and serious conversations, was the fact that this man, Ken Garland, was the first Texan I'd ever met...a dubious honor, to be sure.  Me, a country bumkin our of the coastal hills of Oregon, down in SoCal for college, had never heard a drawl the likes of which Ken spoke.  He's come a long way, as I can understand him now.

        Since I'm needing to get new glasses when I return to Colorado, Ken even let me trying on his new specs.  Whaduhyahthink?  An optician in his church made these up for him.  Everyone of us had to try them on.  We may be a lot older than in college days...we may appear, sometimes, a bit more tame via the inevitable aging process.......but we've still got a wild side deep down...thankfully!

        In the stillness of this new day, I'm still digesting in the depths of my own soul, hearing from the two men, good friends, who are experiencing known terminal situations with their health.  Last evening was both pensive and celebratory...more on that will come out in a future blog.

        Another good friend, Len Sunukian, always, amazingly with an apt and welcome word for the current moment (...what a gift he has here...), read us this from Joseph Bayly's book, Psalms of My Life, first published in 1987:

Psalm of Crisis

Lord you're the farmer

I'm your field

It is your right

to fence me in

to plow

my soul's hard ground

with furrow's deep

to dig down far

for hidden rocks

to harrow hard

till soil is smooth

but only

if you plan

a harvest of holiness

 

 

Comments

[Chuck Stecker]

Wes... You and John. How cool is that!?!?!?! Two pretty great guys in the same place at the same time with a history. Blessings my friend and blessings to John.
In Christ
Chuck