Back yard life. It beats the alternative.

My pond is a great source of enjoyment for me. It is also a great source of aggravation and hard work and frustration, which makes it a work in progress at all times. I rearrange the falls, add spitters, take spitters out, add this plant, remove that plant, and generally stay dissatisfied with the water in general. But the fish thrive.  The plants also thrive. And for a place that causes me so much aggravation and hard work, it is simultaneously  the most peaceful place to sit and meditate, pray and tune into nature.  The dogs love to drink from it, and so do the chickens, the birds and whatever wildlife wanders through in

the night that I don't even know about.  The sparrows rely on the spitters. They love to sit on the frog's nose and drink from the stream that flows from it.  If it stops running, for whatever reason, the sparrows line up on the fence and give me hell until I get it going again.
     The pond is a place I love to just sit and ponder a number of things. My place in the universe... my vocation. What am I meant to do?  I have created a hermitage in my home and yard and I ENJOY it. I've often wondered if I'm depressed, but I enjoy my world and everything in it.  Recently, a friend of mine said he thinks that we have "lost our collective minds" as a society.  In my opinion, he is so very right.  And my home and yard is my escape from the crazy world.  People have become crazed with fear of the unknown and the unwillingness to accept change. Their fear causes them to turn a blind eye to the second most important of God's requirements of us. That we love one another.  That we love our neighbor, our brother, our fellow man.  The single most important commandment after loving God above all others is being tossed out of a lot of people's spiritual curriculum these days.  Foremost among them, the ones who claim loudly and proudly their Christian affiliation with the Most High.  It pains me. Literally.  I sit and think about the turmoil in this country over a Muslim Community Center being built 600 ft. away from ground zero, and wonder how in the world it could cause so much anxiety among people who call themselves Christians.  The hypocrisy alone is enough to choke on, yet they don't see it.  They cry that, "they don't worship the same God we do!" "My God is not called 'Allah'!"
    I got news for you.... your God--and mine, too for that matter-- IS called Allah. It is an Arabic word for God. If you are in an Arab country and you are a Christian, and your only language is Arabic, then you are praying to Allah. If you are in Mexico, and you are a Christian (which you probably are), and your only language is Spanish, you are praying to Dios.  If you are French and you are Christian and your only language is French, you are praying to Dieu.  Do you see a pattern here? It's all the same 'Big Guy'.
     So, I sit by the Serenity Pond to try and absorb some serenity while the whole world goes to pieces around me.  And the animals, oblivious to the ignorance of humanity, enjoy it with me, and it makes me feel better.

     And then Addie will bring me back to a more immediate reality, mercifully enough. She knows not to get in the pond. She has her own swimming pool, for cryin' out loud. Yet, she takes the occasional dip to cool off. I realized early on that I couldn't yell at her to get out or it would cause twice the lateral damage. So I just look at her and she looks back at me and I calmly ask her to please remove herself from the pond, and she does. (After all, I named it the "Serenity Pond" for a reason.)  And I really hate to deny her that little enjoyment, anyway, but it sure does make a mess of things in the water and plants.  But then, chaos always returns to order, so I guess it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Swim, Addie, swim.