Bittersweet Farm Journal | April 8, 2022 | Open Road

News from Bittersweet Farm

If you know me well you know I am a “Gentleman Farmer” which means we don’t really grow crops or raise animals on our acres in the country but we live where we have some elbow room. I grow grass and feed birds and putter about, but mostly I work with words. I write a lot. Lois grows flowers.

Pastoring is part contemplative and part people.

I do the people part of ministry at Bethel Church and around Jackson.

I do the contemplative part of ministry out on Bittersweet Farm.

Our home is a 120-year-old farmhouse with a matching century-old carriage house a half of the upstairs is converted into a writing loft where it is always quiet save for the kind of noises that contribute to contemplation.

Across the road is a forest wrapped over a hill. To the west a deer preserve. To the north field on field of field and forest and wetland habitat for waterfowl. We have wildlife on our acres every night and birdsong every morning this time of year.

For the last week we have been away. We travelled to Texas to meet two of our newest grandchildren, a son born to our son Daniel and his wife Kate and a daughter born to our son Wes and his wife Dylan. It was springtime in Texas.

One afternoon Lois explored antique shops and I walked around Historic Downtown McKinney just to feel the warm sun on my neck. There is something powerfully therapeutic about the sun on your neck after a long winter as any aging person will tell you.

In McKinney I found a hat shop. They outfitted me with a beautiful Open Road Stetson straw hat. I like to call it my “Storyteller” hat. We had some BBQ and visited In-and-Out and Whataburger. Mostly we enjoyed being with our son and his wife and their daughters who are building a good life in a good place there in the Lone Star State.

Spring will be here soon. It’s walking steadily north now as it does every ear. Soon we will sit on the porch in the morning and feel the full benevolence of the warm sun and watch the antics of the birds. We will enjoy the color of the flowers and the greening of the countryside once again and our hearts will flutter like we are young and in love. And we will make sun tea and maybe sweeten it a bit and it will remind us of our trip to Waco to see the “Silos” and the Magnolia Market…