Hi gram, how are you? 

     Yes, I know, I know it’s been too long.

I’m sorry,  life has been really busy lately but I wanted to talk with you about something really special! I couldn’t wait to tell you. I knew you would be excited about it !

    What? ok ok I will.  I want to introduce you to Katherine Alice Smith ….. Yes!  That’s your great great granddaughter!  Jake!   It’s Jake and Denae’s daughter.  I know it’s pretty cool that your name will live on! The kids named her after beloved grandparents on each side.

   What’s that? ……  No, you never met Denae. You would like her a lot! She is smart and loves animals and is really great for Jake. They will be great parents!

    Animals? Yes, they have a house full of critters, dogs, cats, fish and they may even be a turtle or two I can’t remember

        Oh I will don’t worry!  She will know who she is named after . I know her dad will introduce her to the farm, you know how much he loved you and Gramp and going to the farm. It was his favorite place! I’ll tell Katherine all about you and what life was like growing up on the farm.

     What? Sure, we do have your recipe book! Lisa uses it all the time. OK, I’ll make sure Katherine gets it!  Yup, we will for sure! By the time she is 18 she will know how to make your Molasses cookies and your Mac and cheese! I promise!

Katherine??…… oh, she is so sweet and cuddly you would just snuggle her for hours!

     Lisa is now Gramma Smith, seems strange to me to call her that or hear people call her that. You will always be Gramma Smith to me but Lisa is proud to be the next one in line, that’s for sure!

       Well I have to go, I just wanted to tell you about Katherine.

    I also …. well…….I mean……. I just wanted to say I am sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye.  It’s just you just left us so quickly. I know you where tired and ready to be with Gramp, but I wish I could have said goodbye. I wish I could have told you one more time that I loved ya.

“Ya, I know you do”

Alice Elizabeth Smith  3/14/1919 – 5/29/2007

Katherine Alice Smith ……..  7/3/2019 with a full life of wonder and adventure left to live!

 Over the years I have been many places and I have been able to see many wondrous things. 

Flaming Gorge reservoir for example, in Green River Wyoming. It is an amazing 110 mile long, steeply banked reservoir whose sides burn red with rusted iron within the soil. It is a vast and beautiful place!

 I have been in almost every major city in our country and marveled at the massive amounts of concrete and humanity that fill such a small area! 

On our family farm, we have an old pine tree that has a trunk that is so big it would take three or more people linking arms to surround the tree! A true giant of a tree that I have been amazed with since my youth! 

I have driven through the Southwest desert lands and I was awestruck at the vastness and ongoing miles of desert that stretched as far as I could see. 

You see I, like many of you, seem to be amazed and impressed by “big” things.  Things that are larger than normal, larger than life, the unusual I guess you would say! 

 If you followed our first trip this year that Lisa and I took, I shared a picture of Lisa standing in front of a HUGE rock.  This was probably the largest single rock I have ever seen! Just amazing! 

 The ground was littered with rocks of all sizes, shapes, and colors,  yet what got my attention was the one rock that wasn’t like the others.  The “exceptional” one in the area. 

Ordinary usually takes a back seat to the unusual in my world.  I tend to appreciate things that, for whatever reason, are exceptional or remarkable.  Usually small doesn’t make the cut!

The tree that beats the odds and outlasts all of its neighbors to grow to exceptional size, now that’s something to admire!  The canyon that was carved over the passing of time and yes even the huge rock that was most likely deposited there by the last glacier that covered the area. These are the things that normally get my attention and admiration.

Until this last trip.  

As I stood on the rocky outcrop over 100 feet from the ocean below,  I was admiring the massive cliffs to both my left and my right ( of course I was).  The ocean stretched out in front of me until the curvature of the earth pulled it from my view.  Truly a scene to marvel and wonder at! And I was lost in the moment!

As I looked down to take a step to the left so I could get a better footing, something caught my eye.

A small flash of green at the bottom of a crevis on the rock outcrop I was standing on.  As I looked closer I realized there was a small plant in there. “Must have blown in on the wind and landed in the crack”, I thought to myself. Or a seagull dropped it there.  I got down to look at the plant expecting to see something loose but no, this little guy was GROWING here! Where was the soil?  I couldn’t see any!  All I saw was rock and life refusing to give up.  

I was amazed at the tenacity of this little plant.  Somehow it is finding a way to survive on a rocky outcrop with no visible soil to feed its roots.  Nothing for it to flourish in and yet there it was, finding a way to survive when the odds are so stacked against it!

Isn’t the fight for life this little guy is making worth as much of my admiration as the massive pine who lives on the fertile soil of our farm? 

 Is the fact that this plant is surviving in what seems like impossible circumstances just as wondrous as a big rock deposited by a glacier about 10,000 years ago?

I think so!  

 I need to slow down and marvel at the small treasures around me. Treasures that I miss every day!  I need to stop focusing only on the things that jump out at me and “LOOK” for what wonders are all around me. If you look for what is amazing around you verses simply letting it jump out at you,  you will find there is more out there to both see and appreciate. 

I wonder if the little guy will make it?

Probably not,  but it won’t be from a lack of effort that’s for sure!

Hello Katherine !

 Hello Katherine Alice, 

I had over 7 months to prepare for her arrival and yet the emotions that came over me while I held her for the first time were far beyond what I expected!   How can you love someone so much before you even meet her?  Before she even takes her first breath, she becomes one of the most important people in your life! Just doesn’t make sense! But sure enough its true!

From the moment I knew she was coming into my life I have been excited to finally meet her. For me it’s always an anxious time when you meet someone new. Will you like them; will they like you? Will they be really annoying and drive you crazy? Some want to be friends with you but the feeling isn’t mutual and vice versa.  So meeting folks for the first time can be an interesting adventure for sure. 

With her the expectation was even higher!  I have a role to play in her life. I am “Grampa Smith”! Wait what??  How in the world do I do that?!?!  One minute I’m an old guy skating through life and the next minute I have an entirely new role to play?!  How do I know how to be a Grampa? Where is the Grampa manual? What do I do? What don’t I do?  

Will I be a good Grampa, or will I be the one kids run from and hide at every visit clinging to their parents’ leg for support and protection?  Will I have a candy in my pocket especially for her every time I see her or will I yell at her to “get off the lawn I just planted grass seeds there “? 

All I know about being a Gramp is what I know from my own Gramp...….  Good Lord how can I live up to that?!

From the orange and cheese parties he used to have with us kids (when I know he had a thousand other things he needed to do on the farm) to the constant interest in our lives shown by the simple questions he would ask each time he saw us. My gramp was always a positive force in my life! 

Never judgmental, always supportive and there when we needed him as if quietly waiting for the call to action. From a lap to sit in on a rainy day as a child, to a tow out of a snowbank on a winter day as a teen. Gramp was always there when I needed him.

Ok, I can do this!  All I have to do is think back and say “what would gramp do “and I will surely be able to ace this gramp thing!

 That reminds me I need to stock up on candy, oranges and cheese!  I wonder what kind of candy she will like ? I better just stock up on them all just to be sure !

 Are you a picture person or a video person? 

Now keep in mind I just made this up as I sit here so my definition and explanations are my own and since I made it up, I can define it however I want. 

Picture people are folks who are always occupied. Lisa is a picture person. She HAS to be always doing something. I don’t mean just working or puttering but even when she sits and relaxes, she has to be doing something.  Reading a book, looking at Facebook, watching Tv,  her mind seems to require immediate stimulation and she always feeds it with something.

I on the other hand am a video person.  I can sit with nothing but my thoughts for long periods of time.  I can sit outside and simply take in what’s going on around me.  I don’t need a book, no tv, not even a radio is needed.  I can just sit there and observe the world around me and be alone with my thoughts. As I give the specific example coming up it may be more apparent as to what I am trying to say.

If you look at the picture attached you will see a lovely view from our Campsite.  There is a stream flowing by, a nice grassy area were we often sit and woods beyond the brook.  If you look closely you can see a couple ducks sitting on the tree that has fallen into the water.  It’s a lovely spot and for many that is the extent of what they get from this “Picture”,  even if they are sitting right here.  Their mind see’s the immediate picture in front of them and then they are off with other activities, be they mental or physical.  Once they have absorbed the “picture” they see in front of them they move on.  They get the highlights of any situation.  Picture people take in the immediate offering that lies in front of them and as soon as they have taken in what the “picture” has to offer their minds are off to other things.

Video people on the other hand slow down. We slow way down and take in so much that picture people don’t see. 

Next is an account of what I saw while sitting in the same spot looking at this exact view for almost 3 hours today while Lisa read her book.

After only a few moments of sitting still the world around began to come alive with movement and life. At first everything does seem static and picture like when you first look at it.  But just wait and focus on what’s going on around and soon life begins the show. 

 I noticed on the ground below me a trail of black ants working diligently, in line, doing whatever it is that ants do. Do they even know I’m here? Probably not. 

 Soon I started noticing movement in the air around the brook. Bugs of all sizes and shapes were fluttering over and around the stream. Soon I noticed quick, small dimples on the water, but I could not see what was causing them. To small to be fish , yet clearly rings being placed randomly across the waters surface.  After a couple minutes I realized the dimples were caused by dragon flies. Dragon flies dipping their tails in the water as they laid their eggs ensuring the next generation would follow. This activity happens often all summer long.  How many folks have actually taken the time to see the show?

While watching the dragon flies, my eyes catch a small disturbance on the opposite shore of the stream. Watching closely, I noticed a momma Duck with 8 babies silently gliding along the opposite shore weaving in and out of the branches , hoping to escape detection.

As I sat there a little while longer, I heard the hum of a set of hummingbird wings.  Slowly looking up I noticed the fragile bird eating from a feeder just a few feet from my head.

Next came the croak of a big bull frog. Couldn’t see in at first but his resounding croak let me know he was close by. Soon he was slowly swimming beside the shore of our lot and crawled up on the bank to sun himself right in front of me as I quietly watched.

Again, after sitting there silent for a while longer I started to notice all the birds fluttering around in the trees. There was a black bird who would often fly from one side of the stream to the other. Mid-stream he would drop something white into the water?  Not sure what that was but he did it at least 5 times that I saw. Very strange.  Clearly, he had a reason only he knows.

When you are sitting still and focusing solely on the life around you it’s amazing what you can see and hear.  I heard a noise in the tree above me and it was a Nuthatch or as we call them in Maine, ass ups, for the obvious reason they are always on the tree with their head down and their ass up. The small bird was hopping around head down like Nut Hatches do.  Sitting silent I could actually hear the sound of his claws gripping the bark on the tree as he hopped from spot to spot.  Keep in mind this bird weighs ounces!

I am often visited by a beaver who always swims the other shore hoping to escape my view. Today I haven’t noticed him, hopefully he will make a visit.

Look, there is a large black beetle making his way under my chair.  Where is he going?  What mission is he on I wonder, looks like he may be carrying something but I’m not sure.  

Are you a picture person or a video person?  Do you see a quick snapshot of life as it passes you by and then on to another attraction, or do you take the time to savior the moments and truly see the world around you and ALL it is trying to show you?  If you are a picture person, I challenge you to sit quietly, with no distractions and really see what’s going on around you.  I assure you that you will be amazed at what you are missing!  There is a show always going on right outside of your attention. Stop long enough to take it in. You won’t be disappointed!

Update. As I am proofing this my friend the beaver made his appearance and silently made his way long the bank. Thank you, sir!

Alone

 It was the end of a perfect day in the north Maine woods.  There had been dirt roads traveled, brooks explored, and fish caught.  I am on a solo trip up north trying to refresh the mind and soul.

 The best part of the trip was the fact that I have not seen or spoken to another human being for over three days.  No one on the lake, no one on the brooks, not even a hiker on the trails.  I am 50 miles into the woods truly alone.

Now I sit on a secluded beach with my tent set up just feet from the water’s edge and a campfire roaring.

The sun has set, and the sky is fading and with it another day will pass into memory. Memories I won’t soon forget! 

Its solitude I run to, being alone with just my thoughts without the noise of society. For three days I haven’t even heard my own voice. 

 For years I didn’t recognize the real source of my yearning. It was always a “fishing trip”, or a “camping trip”.  The real source of my longing remained elusive to me.

 To be engulfed in an isolation that surrounds me..... as I sit alone or with Lisa by my side, that is my ultimate desire and reward.  This trip I am alone, completely alone.

The sound of the waves lapping rhythmically onto the beach and the crackling of the fire are all I have to keep me company as darkness sets in.  I am totally alone, yet far from lonely.

I love you! Good night,  I whisper into the darkness to my love who is 200 miles away.  

I will see you soon!

Find Your Culvert !

 We slowly glide along the water making barely a ripple.  My paddle quietly dips into the water and gently propels us along.  As a boy my dad taught me the proper way to paddle a canoe.  None of this switching sides stuff in order to go in a straight line.  A properly places “J” stroke of the paddle with the appropriate end of stroke pressure left or right will ensure you can keep a canoe straight and never have to switch sides.   There wasn’t any of this banging the sides or splashing your paddle either. How can you sneak up on wildlife making a ton of noise?  My father would say.  

 So gracefully and silently my paddle dips into the water and steadily glides us along our journey for the day.  We are exploring the stream that runs by our campsite.  While studying Google Earth before our trip I notices a set of rapids a few miles up the stream that looks like it might be good trout fishing.  Since it was a sunny day (so far) and didn’t appear there was any chance of a storm, we decided to put the canoe in and strike off. 

Like many streams that enter big lakes our trek for the day was wide and slow moving as we began our trip.  It twisted and wound its way through beautiful flatlands filled with tall grass and wild flowers. 

Lisa was sitting up front enjoying the sun and catching an occasional yellow perch, but mostly relaxing.  We don’t always talk much on our expeditions, I guess after close to 40 years of being together we don’t need to.  There is the occasional “hey look at that” or “isn’t that pretty “but the need for major conversation has long since passed and the simple enjoyment of being together in a beautiful place serves to satisfy the soul.

As we rounded a bend in the stream a low rushing sound began to resonate from the far shore.  Sounds like a stream I thought to myself.   As we got closer the sound grew louder.  My mind immediately races to what fabulous possibilities it could be.  Was it a waterfall on a small brook? Was it a series of riffles from a brook leading into the lake?  I wasn’t sure but I knew the closer I got the better it sounded.

“Sounds Like a waterfall” I said “yes that’s what I was thinking” Lisa replied.  I bet over our lifetime Lisa and I have seen 50 to 75 waterfalls. We have hiked into, driven into and canoed into waterfalls from Maine to Alabama.  We both love waterfalls.  As we got closer we could see the location of the noise and sure enough it was a small stream rushing into the larger brook we were in. The stream was not much wider than our canoe.  We tried to go up the little stream but only made it about 100 feet before the alders became too think for the canoe to navigate so we backed out.  “Let’s see if we can put the canoe on the bank so we can get out and explore.” Which was met with an eager “ok” from the front of the canoe. 

The bank was VERY steep with many old stumps and logs laying close to the bank in the water. There was also allot of brush growing off the bank and hanging over the water so we had very few “slots” that we could get the canoe into so we could get out.  After a few failed attempts to reach the bank I saw a spot I felt we could make it through.  By this time there was a small level of frustration building in both of us as failed attempt after failed attempt had stalled our efforts. 

As I guided the canoe through the reeds  and brush towards the bank it finally arrived on shore and Lisa was able to get out and secure the canoe so I could climb out. 

Since we could not go ashore where we wanted to this new found landing required us to climb over a small knoll to get to whatever wonder awaited us.  We quickly rigged our fishing rods so we could fish if it was possible.  “Sounds like a pretty good waterfall to me.”  I said, “You ready” I questioned as Lisa was securing her rod for travel.  “Yup, you first” she said “Sure, you just want me to get all the spiders and spider webs cleared for you!” I shot back.  Lisa just smiled!

The bank was steep and the brush was thick so the going was not easy but the waterfall sound kept us pushing on.  It grew louder as we reached the top of the hill.  “Boy that sounds great I hope there are trout at the base of it!” I huffed in a somewhat muffled and strained voice from climbing the steep bank.  From the top we still couldn’t see the waterfall so we started down the other side.   

It wasn’t much further before reality came into view!  A reality that 30 years ago would have left me angry and disappointed!

It was an old culvert off an abandoned dirt road!  My imagined waterfall with beautiful flowing water that cascaded over rocks glistening with moss had turned into a steel culver with water flowing through it off from an old dirt road! Bummer!   We both laughed as we stood there faced with the lack luster payoff for all of our effort to get there! 

“Oh well” Lisa said, “now we know!”  We turned and started our way back to the canoe joking about the great natural wonder we had discovered deep in the Maine woods!

Things don’t always end as we hope they will. There isn’t always a rainbow after a thunderstorm, sometimes there is a wet tent! There isn’t always a beautiful waterfall behind the sound of rushing water. Sometimes it’s just a culvert!

 For Lisa and I every adventure is a success. All struggles are worth the effort. Although you may not find your pot of gold or your beautiful waterfall. Instead you may end up with hail instead of a rainbow or a culvert instead of a waterfall. Life happens!  Embrace it!  You see for us every memory made is a treasure to be held tightly! Our trips success isn’t measured by the number of fish caught or sunny days. It's not about everything going perfectly with no challenges or failures. It’s about making memories together, and this one, like all the rest was a keeper!

I hope you take the time and put in the effort to find your culvert!

Little Warrior

 We had just finished hauling everything into the cabin and had

 begun putting things in its rightful place for the week.

When you pack for a week and you are moving into a small cabin “stuff” placement inside to ensure room enough to move around is vital!   We hadn’t been organizing long when we noticed him for the first time.  He was perched on the porch rail fixated intently on the feeder.  “look a little hummingbird” 

Lisa commented “yup” I replied with little to no interest.

We went about our business of settling into the camp without another thought of our tiny friend.

Each cabin was adorned with a feeder so hummingbirds were everywhere.   It was a cloudy day, even a little misty so once we finished unpacking, we decided to sit at the table, which was positioned in front of the main window, for a while and relax.  It was at that time we started to really notice our little friend.  He was not only still sitting on the rail, still facing the feeder directly but he was twitching his head left to right in a constant pattern.  It wasn’t long before another hummingbird flew in to try to feed at the feeder.  At that time our little warrior shot off the rail and intercepted the rival in mid-air chasing it away.  Within seconds our friend was back on his perch,  beak pointed skyward, aimed at the feeder.

“Well,” lisa said. “He’s not very friendly is he!”    “Nope” I muttered as I was busy studying the map planning our fishing trip for the next day and had little interest in the anti social behavior of a northern Maine Hummingbird.

Over the next 5 days, it became evident that this hummingbird was on a mission and had a purpose.  He would be on the rail before we got up in the morning and would be there all day.  Tirelessly chasing away any and all invaders who tried to feed at HIS feeder.   OVER and OVER again, dozens of times a day he would chase off would be raiders.  Never letting up, never taking a break!  He would feed when he wanted but most of his time was spent fighting off and chasing away other hummingbirds.  He never lost a battle! Truly strange behavior.  I have witnessed hummingbirds fighting at feeders before but never have I witnessed one stake a claim and tirelessly fend off rivals all day long !  “Rather greedy little bugger isn’t he” I said to Lisa one evening. “There is enough food there to feed 10 hummingbirds all summer and he wont share a drop.”

The more I watched my little friend the more calculated and rhythmic his actions became. After every air battle, he always landed back on the rail in almost the exact same spot, directly facing the feeder. 

He would puff up his feathers to make himself look twice as big as he was and then he would just sit there twitching his head back and forth scanning the sky waiting for the next invader to approach.  Same process, same spot, same puffing of feathers, same mid-air battles, over and over and over again. All day long!  He was ALWAYS the victor!  No hummingbird ever got near his stash. 

You will see two pictures below.  The top one was his ordinary position all day long. Beak pointed straight at the feeder which was less than 2 feet away and scanning the sky for invaders. 

The second photo is an example of the incredible dedication he had for his mission or was it greed?  Lisa nicknamed him David, after the biblical David who took on the giant and won. I called him Attila the Hun, to me our little friend acted more like the fierce ruler of the Hun’s clan from 1600 years ago. Our little guy was small but fierce and fearless for sure.  He even attacked a squirrel who attempted to reach the feeder one day and won!   

 In the second picture, It is late one evening.  The sun is long gone, it is a very cold and breezy evening even for Maine standards and yet there he is.  Never leaving his post, never giving up the fight until darkness drives him off to some safe perch for the night.  What manner of thought can drive such a 

small and pretty bird to act so obsessively?  He became a daily fixture of both entertainment and wonder for us as the days went on.

We watched him all week and the story was the same, day in and day out, from before the sun would rise, till way after the sun went down, he was at his post fighting off any who would dare touch his feeder.

Our trip ended on Sunday, June 2, which just happened to be our anniversary date.  35 years ago it was 

a rainy and stormy day. June 2, 2019, did not disappoint. The rain had moved in overnight and the only 

rain of our entire trip was now falling as we prepared to leave the paradise. Seemed fitting I thought to 

myself.  

As Lisa opened the curtain to let the light in to our little camp she exclaimed.  “look”!  There sitting on the rail was our warrior still puffed up, in his same spot aimed directly at the feeder, beak in the air. Just like he had been all week hundreds of times before.  Only today in the rain sitting next to him was a small female!  We watched as the two sat there both looking at the feeder.  Soon the female flew up to 

drink and our little warrior never flinched from his perch.  Another rival tried to feed at the same time as the female but our warrior would have none of that and like he had done hundreds of time over the week he dispatched him immediately and went back to his post on the rail.  When the female was done eating she went back to the rail and perched next to our little friend! 

Lisa and I smiled at each as it now all made sense! 

Just like our lives together over the past 35 years, the best things in life are worth fighting for! 

What are you fighting for? 

How much effort are you putting in?

Maybe there is a lesson to be learned from a small hummingbird in Northern Maine after all!