Author: E.Y. Redal

My Pond

I am building a pond in my back yard. You might be thinking, “Why in the world is she building a pond, she’s in her 80s! After hauling rocks up a hill I’m beginning to wonder that myself. but let me tell you a story:

My husband and I worked long and hard at building a pond with a deck around it down a hill and in the forest at the lower portion of our property. It was completely secluded and became the place where we could talk things over. It was nice, bringing our coffee down there. We would not talk for a while, just sat listening to our hand made waterfall as the water tripped over the stones and the birds singing in the forest. Then we would talk over the things we needed to do and the things we were thinking about. I have many happy memories of those days. He died in 2008 and the pond area became precious to me almost like an altar.

I loved to go down there and sit in my lawn swing and pretend I was talking to my husband. I talked to God too and I sang both hymns and popular in the 40’s songs. One time I said out loud, “Boy I wish my sister could come and harmonize with me. I began singing “Love’s Old Sweet Song” and a voice behind me sang the harmony! I can’t tell you who was singing because there is no way a person could come up behind me but I can tell you someone was singing with me! My sister died over 44 years ago, but the voice sounded like hers! I finished the song with tear in my eyes.

Perhaps I was praying when I wished for my sister to come and harmonize with me and an angel came.  At least that is what I think. Anyhow the planks on the deck have rotted. My son went through one of them and hurt his back. It is difficult for me to walk down the hill too and the kids don’t want me to walk down there alone. That is just what I want to do. Anyhow, the days I spent down at the pond area are over.

That’s why I am building a pond close to our house. I hope to have some of the same feelings there. Aren’t we funny sometimes though? We try to bring back some things that we can never bring back. We should always enjoy what we have today and plan ahead what we want to do. I am doing that too. I will leave next week to go to Rio Rancho, New Mexico to see my first Great Grandchild and to visit with my son, Jim, and his family. So, there will be no blog next week. I hope to have the pond finished before I go.

 

After All, Children Are Children!

Just recently, I believe it was on July 6th, three planes landed in a town in California loaded with children, some with mothers. All were illegal immigrants. There are thousands of children living in cages along the southern border of the United States. These children came from countries in South America where food is scarce and persecution is abundant. I heard President Obama in a speech one day quite awhile ago saying that if the children came here they would not be deported. I don’t know if that is the reason so many children have arrived here or not but something must be done about them. I understand there will be over 120,000 of them by the year 2015! and that there are close to 90,000 now.

Pictures or visitors are not allowed now, but earlier I saw a little tyke walking around in his pajamas. I wanted to take him in my arms. Here he was in America where he would be safe, but is he?  I read that there are diseases like tuberculoses and smallpox among the children living in these cages and the border agents cannot watch the borders because they are too busy doing whatever they could for the children.

How would you like it if your child were living in a cage, not knowing where they will be going or if this is what America is like? Something must be done, but what? The government is doing nothing. President Obama went to Texas today on a fund raising tour but he stated he would not be going to the border. The children, many of them unaccompanied by an adult, are all here illegally so I suppose they will have to be deported to their own countries.

I don’t know who got us into this mess. It will cost millions of dollars to send them all home and what would we do for them here? Things must be bad in the countries they came from. I can’t even imagine parents letting their child go alone to find America. I’ll bet there are many stories that could be told by these youngsters!

We surely do need a new immigration  policy in the US, don’t we?  Or should we follow the bills we already have? All I can see in my mind is a picture of the lady with the lamp saying, “Give me, your tired ones and your poor, your lonely ones yearning to be free.”But what can we do with 120,000 youngsters who are here illegally? Most of our immigrant parents or grandparents came here legally and have worked hard to earn their titles of becoming Americans. Should we really let illegal immigrants stay here? That is the question our congress should decided, and quickly! We, on the other hand, must pray, not only for the children, but for our government to make a decision soon.