Weinzierl

Jewelers

Victoria’s Corner Bar.  Nightly Specials and Menus.  952-443-9944

Specialized assisted living for those

with memory challenges. 

Victoria.  952-908-2215

8 First Street in Waconia.  952-442-2885

942-443-2078

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Pediatric Rehabilitation Clinic.

Occupational Therapy.  Speech Therapy.

952-443-9888

Huber

City of Lakes & Parks  952-443-2363

“Trees Are Our Roots”

8099 Bavaria Rd * Victoria * 952-443-2990

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         It seems a change of season is a time for reflection, a time to look back for a moment, consider the present, hope for the future.

         Some days can be rather grueling.  Since we are human and breathing, we know this to be a fact of life.  Grueling times occur no matter our age.  The root word, gruel, is "unpleasant food."  Everybody gets served gruel some of the time.  Some people also get served gourmet some of the time.

         While still inside the womb, we experience the food and life of our mother.  Before we're born, we feel the pain of indigestion as well as the comfort of carbs.    After we're born, we fill our lungs with air and cry or smile according to the gruel or gift of the moment.  We feel and respond to diaper rash and hunger, and also hugs and kisses and warm milk.

         In no time at all, we're babbling and turning sounds into words.  This is only true, of course, for the part of creation that's called humanity.  Animal sounds get bigger and deeper; they never turn into words.  Plants wither or grow according to weather and soil.  The earth itself -- the fields and mountains and hills -- also responds to stimuli, including the pleasure or wrath of God, but when is the last time you heard a mountain recite the alphabet?  Only humans have words.

         Among the first words we learn are "Please" and "Thank you," for the asking and for the receiving.  At Thanksgiving time we are drawn to say "Thank you" more often than "Please."

         If we are aware of events in the world, we are aware of things for which we cannot give thanks.  Beheadings, crucifixions, and mass slayings are rampant today.  I never thought such things would occur in my time.  I thought barbarism belonged to barbarians -- the plunderers, the heathens, the uncivilized, the savages of other times.

         In the latest issue of either Touchstone or First Things, I can't put my finger on it right now, one of the columnists wrote that he's told himself if he'd lived during the Holocaust of World War II, he would have  risen to the heights and done everything in his power to prevent it or stop it.  But now he lives in the evil of his own day and questions, "What can I do?"

         Here on our nation's homefront, civil liberties are being eroded as we're forced to approve and support those things which we disapprove and cannot support.  Our country and constitution are unraveling before our very eyes, and God-given freedoms are being trampled upon.  How can we say thank you for these conditions in which we find ourselves?  "What can I do?"

         Cruelty, chaos, and confusion have always abounded in the world, but not so much in the United States of America, a blessed land where common sense, hard work, and manners once reigned, mainly because we were founded as a God-fearing nation, the only one with a Constitution based on natural born freedoms and principles of Christianity.  We'd still have slavery if not for Christians rising up against it.

         Now it's become commonplace to lie, cheat, and steal at even the highest level of government.  People look the other way and are refuse to call things by their rightful name, if they even know it to begin with.  God is mocked by most of Hollywood, most of the Media, and most Universities.  I ask again, how can we say thank you for these conditions in which we find ourselves?

         And yet I can, and do, say Thank You from morning to night, often outloud.  I say Thank You when I wake in the morning, especially if I had a good night's sleep.  I say Thank You for the comfort and loveliness of my home. 

         Thank You for the fresh cup of coffee and oatmeal bar.  Thank You for the efficiency of my computer.  Thank You for the Gazette and the joy of work.  Thank You for all the letters, news, and photos that continue to come my way. 

         Thank You for the sunrise and colors of the morning sky.  Thank You for the gorgeous fall.  Thank You for my good neighborhood families and their children, especially those Halloween kids that have a touch of shyness and sweetness.

         Thank You for good movies and good music.  Thank You for the outstanding sunset, peaceful evening hours, tasty supper,  and chardonnay.

         Thank You for calls and emails from my children.  Thank You for my children.  Thank You that they have loving spouses and homes and children of their own.  Thank You for my grandchildren and the delight they give me.  Thank You for my parents and their long life.  Thank you for my husband.

         Thank You for friends, all of them with good hearts.  As I said recently to one of those friends, "I've been to the top of several mountains over the years, and then there's an earthquake and the landscape changes entirely.  Somehow the mess is cleaned up and life goes on."

         Thank You, God, for the opportunities and gifts of a new day, a new season.

From the Editor

Dedicated to the sunshine of truth,

the moonshine of meeting deadlines,

and the starshine of Victoria.

The Victoria GAZETTE

November 2014