Featured image: I’m intrigued by solitary trees still at home in fields cleared of fences. It’s a reminder to go and hug a tree.

Cogitation 51 Saturday 22 December 2018   . . . I pause to reflect on the week as this year’s moments, and gloom, melt away.

We’ve been at home at Greencroft Goshen for three weeks. One task underway is to register our change of address with various entities.

In the City of Goshen we have no farther to go than the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Goshen Public Library, financial offices–all within walking distance, more or less; others can be reached online.

Greencroft Goshen Campus Life this week carried the account surrounding Jesus’ birth from Luke 2:1-20. It’s what happened when Caesar Augustus decreed that all the citizens of the Roman world should register in their own town. Pity the poor pregnant couple from Nazareth who could only find overnight lodging in a stable in Bethlehem. Praise the amazing outcome!

Interestingly, we have relatives who, like Mary and Joseph, are expecting the birth of a child. Due dates are in January, February and March. We’re delighted to follow these expectant moments. We pray for a healthy, happy, and fulfilling future for each of these babies, their parents, siblings in one case, and extended family and friends. We rejoice in the birth and nurture of children everywhere, whose lives hold high promise and hope for a needy world.

 

On foot and by car

Walks this week took us on the Goshen Parks & Recreation Winona Railway Trail, Boot Lake, and from home across the Goshen College campus to the Goshen Dam and Parson’s Swamp Woods. The sun shone for most of the walks, the air fresh, with a pronounced touch of shiver as we set out on roundabout and linear paths.

Such walks, I find, even across the Greencroft campus, are rewardingly invigorating for body, a tonic for mind, and so sweet for spirit–plus they offer a ready supply of scenes for my mind’s eye and camera.

Drives took us to neighboring St Joseph and LaGrange Counties. Come along!

 

Winona Railway Trail

 

Boot Lake, where we heard but did not see Sandhill Cranes

 

Western Elkhart County

 

Walk with friends Sally and Jim Longley to Goshen Dam and environs

 

Water, water, flowing water

Merry Christmas!

John