Wide Open Spaces

When I was a teen, we had an eight-track recording of Christine Wyrtzen, daughter of Jack Wyrtzen of Word of Life fame. My sister and I played that old tape countless times. One of her songs, Back Home, often came to mind years later as I traipsed the inner city streets of Chicago during my college years. I was pleased to find she still sings but couldn't locate this song online. Sing it with me if you remember it:

Back home, where the air is cleaner,
Back home, where the grass is greener,
There's nowhere else on earth
That I'd rather be.

Oh I don't mind the city
A week at a time,
But apartment life for me is simply way out of line.
I feel the open spaces calling out to me,
Back home where I live.

Having grown up in the country on seventeen acres that bordered my gram's nearly ten acres, with not another neighbor's house in sight unless we walked to the top of our field, I have to say I'm a lover of Wide Open Spaces. When my husband and I were looking for a home to buy, all I saw was brick wall after brick wall . . . eight - ten - twenty feet from the next one. The house would be cute until I walked into the bedroom, looked out the window and saw the neighbor's house.

Then we toured an unimposing little two-bedroom ranch around the corner from my inlaws. I only agreed to look as a courtesy. (Come on, how many of you live next to your inlaws!) The kitchen was a shoebox; the diningroom was crowded with her oversized china cabinet. The owner made it a point to note the paneled bedrooms - she was clearly proud of that "real wood paneling." I was not impressed. Then we moved to the backyard and I gulped. For, as long as I looked straight ahead, I could see nothing but yard and trees! Talk about Wide Open Spaces. Suddenly the place didn't look quite so bad. And so the little house with the big backyard became ours.

Fast-forward nine years. We're still here. And I just got done reading Lisa Samson's newest offering, Quaker Summer, which I recently reviewed. And I'm wondering . . . are those Wide Open Spaces really all they're cracked up to be? We just put up a privacy fence on one side. The other is flanked by overgrown forsythia planted many years ago by our other neighbor. We say our front door is always open but we rarely talk to our neighbors. And I'm just wondering . . . do those Wide Open Spaces represent a distance I strive to keep from others who may need me to reach out to them? I can't help but thinking the mass exodus from city to suburbs to country has caused Christians to move away from people who need us most.

I still love that song, "Back Home." And I'm still a lover of my Wide Open Spaces. But I don't want to remain unaware of those who never get to enjoy them. Who wake up in the morning on the street with a hangover, or huddled in a corner, fearing yet another beating. Who have nowhere to escape but drugs or alcohol. Children who have to beg for yet another meal. Elderly people, long forgotten, with no one to listen to their musings. I love the peace and quiet I enjoy in my Wide Open Spaces. But I'm not sure Jesus wants to be confined to them.

Book Review: Quaker Summer

I usually read fiction to escape. But I know when I pick up a Lisa Samson novel, I'm going to run smack dab into myself. Such was the case with Quaker Summer as the main character, Heather Curridge comes face to face with who she is and what really matters in life.

Haunted by memories of cruelty to less fortunate classmates in her Christian school, and left empty by the lifestyle of accumulation she's living, Heather sets out looking for some answers to the questions that linger in all of our hearts. Her quest takes her first to the Hotel, a sort of soup kitchen nestled amidst the drug realm in the worst part of town, and then to the home of two quaint elderly sisters, who teach her not to be afraid to ask the hard questions. Finally she makes the long trip back to her past to set things right, only to find that some things just cannot be made right. She learns, however, that God's grace is always good . . . whether it be forgiveness for past mistakes or guidance for the future.

Lisa Samson is not afraid to tackle the difficult issues in her writing, because she grapples with them in real life, as is evident on her blog. Through colorful yet down-to-earth characters who change and grow as you read, and a stream of consciousness style of writing that echoes many of our own thoughts, she challenges us to question our attachment to material things and our real purpose in life. You'll come away from this book wondering just how Jesus would live and serve if he were among us today.

Follow up Post

398 and Other Totally Miscellaneous Musings

So for all of you who were concerned about the disconcerting state of my email inbox, you'll be pleased to know by the end of last week, I had whittled it down to less than 400 emails! Read: trashed - bada bing! (No, really I just "filed" them by month). I am trying to keep it to less than 500; I think for me that's an achievable goal.

The other night we had a power outage in our neighborhood. It didn't disrupt much more than the movie I was watching. We stood outside on our front porch and looked around at a very dark and quiet neighborhood, with only a brilliant crescent moon and a few bright stars to cast a bit of light across a pitch black sky. It was almost eery. Having grown up in the country, I've come to miss those nights of absolute peace and quiet. It occurred to me that people used to appreciate night time more than we do now. Thanks to electricity, we can read or work well into, or even through, the night. 'Twas a time when night time and darkness meant stop and rest. Now it's something we must intentionally do. Perhaps an occasional power outage would help us to stop and consider the real source of our strength and power!

I got to do one of my favorite things this weekend: work in our church's bookstore. I just love to be surrounded by good books, and I met several members with the same passion. And yet, other than a gift for someone, I resisted making any purchases. I am determined to get through the books on my Spring Thing reading list. Although I've already finished four of them, am part way through Quaker Summer and almost done with Boundaries In Marriage, so no doubt I will be either adding to or at least revising the list soon.

Speaking of Spring, it seems as if she has finally arrived in western PA (and yes, it deserves to be capitalized for showing up)! So I'm headed outside to do some yard cleanup and enjoy the beautiful weather. You never know how long it's going to last around here!