Farm Aid--New program a dose of fresh air for the elderly, people with disabilities . . . why I love this place!
A great program, Maarten Fischer developed through A Plus Health Care, after working on similar programs in the Netherlands and saw how successful they were, so he set up a similar program in northwest Montana, and the programs took off. I for one can tell you, I dread the day that I would ever be put in a nursing home, a needed and necessary evil. I know my 83 year old mother, is a gardener, and still maintains a beautiful yard, spending several hours a day in her back yard, tending to flowers, scrubs, digging in the dirt. In fact, my father who is the same age, wants to have his body dumped down a mine shaft, when he dies, and my mother, doesn't want a coffin, because she can't imagine being stuck in a box, and not being able to get her fingers in the soil!
So, when I heard about this program, in the Daily Inter Lake Newspaper, NW Montana Section, A3, Saturday, July 12, 2014, I was thrilled to see that local churches have teamed with local farms to get people who are home bound, elderly or struggling with dementia and other challenges, can get out into the farms, and work in gardens, pet farm animals, and dig in the dirt. Now, I don't know about you, but Montanans are outdoor loving people, 1 in 5 now days, work either on farms or ranches, and I bet that back in the day, these seniors had vocations at even higher numbers, on ranches and farms, so even more pressing love and passion for the agrarian lifestyle, longing for the familiar and the loved of their pasts.
Gardening is the world's number one hobby, why, because it is so good for the soul, mental health, getting vitamins and minerals from the ground, the vegetables and fruits that come from farms, and getting our hands in the rich black soil and dirt of Montana. What a wonderful program . . . this is not free farm labor, but a labor of Christian love and sharing, that Montana is so well known for, how totally awesome. And they say, you can tell the nature of the nation by the way they treat the elderly and children, which rolls us right into the next absolutely amazing activity that this community does for their special needs children who want to play on a baseball team and mingle with friends, families and community members, just like other kids in the world.
Miracle League Baseball
My nature loving, music freak, and hiking buddy, John Bagby, hates, literally hates, sports, because his father pushed him to participate, when he was small, still only stands 5'4" now, at age 41, and with a brother who is an ESPN sports announcer for the Montana Griz or the University of Montana, in Missoula, the sibling rivalry hurts even more . . . bad memories, as a geek in the sports nut family. However, when I told him about the Kalispell Miracle League Baseball, his ears immediately perked up and he said, that sounds like something I wouldn't even mind, getting involved with.
John, may not be a sports guru, but he is a strong Christian, who practices what he believes. His father might have ruined him for ever loving sports, but his mother, a principle for a parochial school, Catholic, in Billings, along with the Nuns, taught him a deep understanding of the love of Christ, or pure charity. I was not surprised, that even in an area of life, he detests, his soul, would love to work with kids, that are sports challenged, maybe mending and healing some of his own issues.
My friend has never been married, nor had kids, and I keep telling him, he needs that experience. And as a guy with short man syndrome, I call the Napoleon Complex, he needs a wife and kids, and that will cure any one's focus on themselves. Plus, from what I read from the article, he might come closer to meeting the type of woman his mother is . . . coaching him out of a good/bad relationship with a girl, his parents tried tow warn him about . . . but as most children, they don't listen and need to learn for themselves. And he did!
To read about the full league, it was in the newspaper, the same day as the above article, but was a front page story, entitled, A Level Playing Field. The article and the league is interesting and inspiring, Kidsports President, is Dan Johns . . . if you have a child that wants to get involved, or you live in a city that would like more information, he is your contact guy.
Exchange of Nations--For a Better World
I have a special connection to the Netherlands, through the family members. First my, husband, and the father of my four children, Richard Clifton Secrist, went on a Mormon mission, to the Netherlands or Holland. The two years he spent among the people of Holland, and the experiences he had shaped his life, he was so impressed with the system of dikes that held back the ocean waters, to give the country more land, and also inspired by the cities and towns, that he came back to the United States and got his degrees in geography and urban development, and became a city planner, to this day, in Mesquite, Nevada, and formerly of Ogden and Provo, Utah.
When our first daughter, Greta was born, I wanted to name her a Dutch name . . . she is called Gretchen, Gretel, and every version of closely related names, because it is not a common name. I only know of one other Greta, and that is movie star, Greta Garbo, of another generation of time, and had nothing to do with the naming of our daughter; however, I think Garbo is beautiful and so is Greta, movie star material, for sure! Greta was a little prima ballerina, as a child, and she performed at the Weber State College/University performing arts building, where I attended many a communications class, and the outfit, she wore was a dutch skirt and blouse, with tulips on the skirt, if I can remember . . . family pictures have long been stolen or claimed, destroyed, or disappeared, when state battering systems, staked their claims on even my personal family pictures!
Craig Secrist, a nephew and his girlfriend, several summers ago, went to Holland to learn to farm. They probably went to one of the farms that the Kalispell program director went to, to learn different methods of farming. And I would guess that Craig, was influenced by my first husband, and his uncle. I am not sure what Craig has come home to do, but, I am sure the experience in the Netherlands will have a lasting affect on his life, as it did on his uncle's life. Thank you Holland, you blessed my families life!
Other than the big, Dutch clogs or shoes, with painted tulips, and windmills on them, that were on display in every home we ever had, Zeke, as I call him, learned another valuable lesson on families from the Dutch. As a Mormon missionary, visiting with Dutch families, he would present the Mormon, family night idea, of spending one night a week, devoted entirely to the family. The Dutch, just shook their heads, and said, only Americans would be crazy enough to have to set aside a night for their families . . . every night is family night in Holland! The families would often side around and have a glass of wine, play chess, and other board games, play musical instruments, or enjoy music together, or just watch TV.
Mormons, often have to set aside a night a week for families and a date night for couples, because the church has you so busy, going to meetings with the kids, going in one direction, husband another, and the wife too, that they have little time to spend with each other! In fact, I would attribute much of my divorce from my children's father, to the Mormon Church schedule and demands, that, to me, now, are ridiculous . . . a million and one things to do to get into Heaven, void of grace . . . much simpler now! And the extra time, frees you up to do things like Farm Aid and Miracle League Baseball!
The Strength of Nations
Every nation on the planet, has something of value to give to other nations, either traditions, cultural, educational, thoughts, ideas, programs, and what not . . . so, why don't we share, care, and help, bring about a fucking wonderful world, filled with great ideas and contributions. Books like Taoism, Koran, Torah, the Art of War, adapted, not to the battlefield, but to business, relationships, and about every area of life, knowledge and ideas from the Greeks and the Romans, etc. . . . thank you for your brilliant scholars that have not only helped me in life's struggles, but enlightened me and challenged me to be a better person, with a broad vision of life, interaction, the world.
This is such an amazing a beautiful world, in all its pain and misery, that we ought to do more to change things, and we have the power, knowledge, tools, energy, and talent to do it. We can make peace happen! The day of the fighting man, fighting nation, imperialists, treasure hunters, exploiters, slave traders, human body traffickers, needs to end, and be replaced by a world of plenty for everyone, not just the wealthy nations . . . there are enough world resources for all of us, for all to prosper, to enjoy freedom and liberty.
The journey of the world civilizations is absolutely incredible, with growth in technology, industry, ingenuity, space travel, ocean exploration, that think what we could accomplish and do for mankind, if we worked together, pooling all the brain power of man, woman and child, to pull of something truly awesome, rather than racing toward the total destruction of humanity! I just don't get it . . . why?
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