Ode to Grapes and a Happy Harvest

When it's time, it's time!

I remember how well that was really true of pregnancy. Our six sons are a dramatic testimonial to the statement's accuracy. As it was--six times--Judi would be in her ninth month, and as the days counted by our schedules were increasingly punctuated by thoughts like, "Is today the day?" There was "that window" in which the blessed event was most likely to happen. Generally each of our sons--with one notable exception--was born in his anxiously anticipated "frame of time."

Having become a dedicated vintner over the past 13 years, I've learned how grapes can similarly introduce some of those anxious moments about, "When it's time, it's time." I've been out there harvesting the grapes from our vines in snowstorms, in bright warm sunshine, when it's raining, and sometimes in the dark! I've been crushing them inside a cold 35-gallon plastic garbage can when the temperature on our back porch was only in the 20's Fahrenheit--it gives the term "dumpster diving" a whole new range of meaning. (No, I have no video's of that event...so far.)

This year the harvest has been comparatively pleasant. The weather has offered me generally warm temperatures and sunny skies. Through September I'd been watching the grapes quite closely both in an effort to monitor their maturing readiness, but also to prevent any of the other grape-loving creatures from becoming too interested in them. (I've lost whole crops of our grapes in years past simply because I wasn't paying close enough attention! A Mule Deer herd, for example, can pick the vines clean overnight, but there's squirrels, birds, skunks, and, and...) The critters know exactly when the grapes are ready to be harvested, and they come calling to sample what's available--unless I intervene.

However, this year's harvest has not come without it's own special challenges. This year the grapes are not ripening in unison or uniformly. Practically, that means some clusters are ripe here and there, but the rest are not ready. Some are even still green! When Judi and I visited Willamette Valley Vineyards in Oregon (in September) they were experiencing the same thing. Apparently it's a national phenom. Interesting.

So, I'm driven by the ripeness of these clusters, and those, and those; the ones that are ripe. I've been forced to pick them staggered by one and two week intervals. Ugh. It means the process of picking, crushing and gathering up the must, and all the other necessary post-picking processes must be done right after each harvest. It's a demanding 12-hour proposition. Then I wait a week or two and do it all again. Ugh, ugh. The promise of the final product--a beautiful, crystal clear white or amber wine--makes it all worth while. But it's the grapes that drive the activities going 0n around them since, "When it's time, it's time."

Another Turtle....on a Post!?

Yesterday I came across another article documenting the apparent gradual demise of marriage. I find this stuff both interesting and ironic. When I read something like this--and please believe me when I say that I don't doubt it's accuracy at all--I am reminded of the "turtle on a post" phenomenon.

Humor me. Just suppose for a minute that you are out in a field some bright and shiny morning having fun. You're getting your morning walk in the open air...just hiking along. Suddenly, you spy this very curious site, and you hardly believe your eyes: Yup, IT'S A TURTLE RIGHT THERE, BIG AS LIFE IN FRONT OF YOU, SITTING ON TOP OF A FENCE POST!

Sure, you're understandably surprised. It's sitting there curiously staring at you and you're returning it's startled gaze right back. You think to yourself, and maybe you even express your thoughts out loud in the turtle's hearing, "Hey little turtle gal, what on earth are you doing setting here on this post? How on earth did you get here?" Of course you don't expect the turtle to answer you back.

But, if she does, and she opens her little mouth to speak...she tells you she's been training for this exercise for many months. She reports how she's been training and practicing by climbing rocks and graduating to progressively higher and more difficult outcroppings to develop her technical climbing skill and confidence toward this, her ultimate challenge. Today, this morning, was THE big event--the opportunity to face and embrace her destiny...climb this post. And as you can obviously see, SHE WAS SUCCESSFUL!!!

So, if she does open her little turtle mouth to speak...DON'T BELIEVE THE TURTLE (but do help her gently down), because turtles don't climb posts. PEOPLE PUT TURTLES ON POSTS.

So what's the problem in reporting how 40% of a large sample of Americans think marriage is obsolete? Actually nothing. There's no problem in the reporting...none at all. But there is a problem in the interpretation of that information; in the interpretation of that data. So, what should we conclude from it?

Consider this example:
If I were to tell you that our society is in a war with fat; that 40% of the American population is overweight and many in that percentage are actually obese. Then I also told you that medical technology offers amazingly effective means for removing or controlling body fat, and that these methods make the need for dieting obsolete...what would you think? What would you say to me?

Would you say something like, "Wow, it appears we've got a really sick society, one that has forgotten how to eat properly, that fails to discipline itself, and one that often actually looks for excuses to be indulgent?

Of course, yes, that's exactly how you should respond if you are really THINKING--exactly what you should say back to me. Any other explanation flies indulgently in the face of our personal, family, and societal health. It SHOULD be obvious to just about everybody that any other kind of reasoning is just plain wrong..."The Turtle Climbed this Fence Post!" Not!

The Bible clearly tells us about Satan, that he is a liar, a deceiver, and a destroyer (Rev. 12:9; IICor.11:3). Most major societies have historically risen or eventually deteriorated on the strength of their truth-telling and character. In this situation, the idea of marriage being obsolete, or not, is of course not really about marriage per se or at all. The issue is really one that's about angry rebelliousness and sensual indulgence . It's all about finding license for convenient passions and self-gratification without accountability (Romans 1:18-32).

So if and when you read or hear discussion like this about marriage...pleeeez remember the turtle!

Tuesday, Judi and I returned from a fun vacation. We've arrived home feeling good--emotionally, spiritually, and physically! That's a sharp contrast to vacations we've done in the past where we got home exhausted and needed a l-o-n-g nap just to catch-up before we returned to work.

It's always nice to renew relationships, especially those that have been seasoned with the spices of shared experience and common history. We were privileged to spend our time hosted in the home of two people who know us probably about as well as anybody. 

My friend Derald was a fellow engineering (Mechanical/Metallurgical) student and lived right next door to me and my (Electrical) engineer roomie . Derald was my best man in our wedding in 1970. Now he and his lovely wife, Andrea, continue to live in that community, Corvallis, OR, a place we moved away from several years after we were married.

It was the late spring of 1973. I had just taken a job as a field engineer with an up-and-coming consulting firm,  CH2M-Hill, based (at that time) in Corvallis, . I had accepted a role with them and they immediately moved us north to Portland--Judi and me and our first, new son, Mark. At that time the company was a fledgling consulting firm. It's a huge understatement to say that they've grown a bit since then.

So, we're back home and we're already well into this week. I've got a lot of pleasant vacation-specific thoughts, and they're like the pleasant sensations of a satisfying meal, wafting around in my mind. They've become tangled-up with and sweetly christen this week's responsibilities, including a home-related "to do" list. Among other stuff it includes things like protecting my maturing grapes, harvesting our apples from the backyard tree, prepping for some Friday counseling work, winterizing efforts in the shop, note prep and outline development for an upcoming men's seminar, strategic business development planning and execution,...and of course, blogging.

But these things are "up front" on a stage against a backdrop of competitive sights and sounds. But you've probably seen or are seeing and hearing them, too--some BIG deterioration in the past two days for the Dow, Doomsday prognostications about a "double dip" recession, rumblings in the Middle East about Palestinian statehood, and another speech from President Obama.... Then, too, on the home front I empathize with Judi's stepping back into the demanding work-day and week themes she faces; a whirl-wind administrative "full-time role masquerading as part-time." It seems to characterize so many contemporary business situations. And this morning we woke-up to a nearly dead battery in our car. Aha. For sure we are home; life is normal again!?...and the message of Proverbs 3:5,6 never wears out.

 

"Pick Up the End of the String!"

Yah. Right. Lots of times I feel exactly like that, like someone has handed me a task more complicated for the moment than I'm prepared to do. It's not that the task is beyond me, "impossible," but that there are so many little pesky demands being made on me, right now in this moment, that finding and "picking up the end of the string"  is just more than I've got the time, emotional energy, and the attention span to do. The word "exasperation" comes to mind.

When my sister and I were kids at home and in the midst of  "circumstances," I can remember my mom saying, "Tie a knot in your (circumstantial) rope and hang on." I think it was her way of encouraging us to slow down and carefully evaluate our options. Another famous saying that we heard often, "Life by the yard is apt to be hard, but life by the inch is more of cinch."Again, it was her way of encouraging us to "slow the train" to give ourselves opportunity for evaluation and clarity before we "jumped." A good look at any situation at hand sure seems to be the more intelligent response to what can feel like overwhelming circumstances.

As a counselor often working with married couples one of the biggest challenges partners routinely face has to do with communication and problem solving.  When I was a neophyte counselor studying at the University of Denver, two of my mentors were Doctors Howard Markman and Scott Stanley. I remember so vividly their words explaining how one of the greatest confounding contributors to couples conflict is in their failure to really understand the problem they are trying to solve together. Of course that starts with their really working to understand one another, first. Howard and Scott would say, "You can't solve a problem that you really don't yet understand!" 

I remember reading the little booklet, "The Tyranny of The Urgent." Perhaps you've read it too. It's been a while, but one of the things I remember about it's wisdom is in this question: What's really urgent?" Insight is discovered in one's ability effectively prioritize where and how I can best use and focus my obviously limited energies and time. Yes!

So, maybe "picking up the string" isn't what's most important right now. In fact, maybe it's not really important at all given the other stuff going on. It'll just lay there for now; I won't give it another thought (Matthew 6:31-34). Ha. When I think about it that way I realize it's just a stupid little out of place string.

What's your "string" today?

Have a super day...I think I will!

No Deja Vu All Over Again

Since my last update I managed to get close to the grapes AND the beehive again. But this time "I" was completely successful. I tip-toed around those lil' Kamikaze bees and didn't get spied by any of their sleepy little sentries. I knew they were there...super! (It took several days for all those (10) bites to disappear...well they haven't really all gone yet...but they're well on their way into my history book.) I cut and pulled some small tree-sized saplings out of the vines and then, like a bandit, made off with em. Ha, ha, ha, ha, haaa, ha. But yup, those little bee guys got their message through to me crystal clear.

So far the grapes are doing just fine. They're green and plumping right now, but they'll soon be turning a translucent purple. I'm watering them every other day. Yesterday I cut and placed (draped) some of the necessary woven metal chicken wire over the vines for about 20 feet. It makes for a marvelous "deer helmet." I'll need more of that stuff, so in the meantime I've temporarily stretched some nylon bird mesh where I didn't have enough of the chicken wire to cover the entire length.

If you've been following my Wood Talkin' blog you've got a picture of the fun work I get to do with furniture. Of course I learned how to do it and then started working at it while I was bulldozing my way through seminary (back in the mid-70's...the era of gas rationing with long lines at the pump, a "Peanut Farmer President," and one of the first big declines in the outer space industry, i.e., NASA). Anyhow, this past two weeks have been slow for shop work and my counseling practice has not picked up the slack as it's been doing recently. So I'm doing some marketing-type things on both fronts to stimulate an "uptick" in the general situation for the immediate future. As we all know oh so well, the economy is really s-l-0-w.

I've got an "inner" space problem at the shop, one for which I've got to devote some exploring efforts and hopefully come up with some kind of a creative solution. As the winter approaches the challenge working inside there gets complicated by the brrrr cold outside there: it tries to get in the shop! Many of the chemicals and stains I use in the shop don't cure in the "cold" at 50 degrees the way they do when the shop temp is in the 80's. So, everything slows down...often by 48-72 hours! Then, too, there are challenges for me when it comes to doing any spraying. A dedicated spray booth would be nice, but the issue again is space.

I've thought of adding to the floor space. I really like that idea, but it would introduce some interesting complications of another sort. Wow, don't you wish everybody in the world had similar problems! Starvation, ruling despots, poverty, economic insolvency, cancer, HIV...a list that could go on and on and on and...it would all be "GONE!" because everyone would be dealing with the issues of some inner space situation. Ha. Not.

B-b-but I'm working with some new directions in my counseling related business, too. Only God knows where any of it--or the inner space issue for that matter--will actually go or take me, or us. Again, the words of the Psalmist are in my thoughts, "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord God directs his steps (16:9). There's absolutely no doubt about that.

Dick

A Kamikaze Moment

I arrived home late this afternoon. Spent the bulk of the day moving stuff out of the old Rivendell facility in Boulder. I was tired, but there was still time--and the will--to do some things around the house and yard.

This time of the year I've learned to keep a watchful eye on the grapes we have ripening along our driveway's fence. I water them daily and monitor their growth pretty closely. Right now they've got some ugly little Ash trees invading their space, and I'm going to sneak up on those little "suckers" to root them out.

I know the local deer population will soon be eying my grapes too. The fragrance of the maturing grapes will soon tempt the herd into our yard to sample them. The handsome freeloaders will quickly make a mess of the grapes, so vigilance is a must for the next six weeks or so.

In the meantime...

I grabbed my little arbor saw and headed for the front yard to cut out those little suckers. Kneeling down I had to crawl under the vines. "Wow, lots of grapes down here." Pushing the vines and several clumps of grapes aside I located the base of one sapling and quickly sawed through it. But I had to yank at a bit to pull it free, up, and out of the vines and grasses at the base of the fence. "Ugh, what was that. Surprise, surprise, this little sapling has little friends!"

Ouch! Yipe! Look out! What's that on my neck, biting my arm, in my shirt, and on my back? It's Beeeeeeezzzzz.....'n lots of them! My first thought, "They're protecting these little trees!" Then, my first emotional response was frustration--and anger--at the little bug biting me in the back. "Hmmm, protecting these little trees--the arrogance in that 'teamwork!'" But then, and very quickly, my thoughts and actions changed. It was about self-preservation now; "TEAMWORK" indeed! My angry strength was no match for the Kamikaze behavior of these little yellow soldiers.

Swatting and smarting (and talking to myself a bit) I cautiously walked back to the house...wary and clearly beaten. But, in the words of another formidable foe, albeit a mythical one, "I'll be baaack" to resume this fight another day...soon. For sure I can't have those little warriors waiting there when it comes time to pick the grapes.

I think maybe there's a message in this little late afternoon cameo...maybe you can tell me what it is?

Dick

Spontaneous Combustion

How often do you have "one of those weeks?" I had another one last week and it's still reverberating to influence this one. Of course what I'm talking about in this instance is a week of days where my routine gets messed up by a variety of newly important demands or events that, just because they are urgent, preempt my "scheduled programming."

The way life gets lived--at least the way it happens for me--weeks like last week tend to arrive pretty much unannounced. Sure, I could see there were some situations looming out there that would eventually require my attention, but I had no real warning how several of these would gang up on my scheduled programming. If you know what I mean, it just seems to happen; a form of spontaneous combustion?

Go with the flow...it's what one does under such circumstances....right?! I resigned myself to the realization that my scheduled programming was going to be on temporary hold. I focused my attention on an effort to extinguish the flames. At the same time I monitored the responsibilities I had around my sidelined schedule--just to make sure something there wasn't developing a "critical mass" of it's own. Then I returned to extinguish more flames...and finally that fire was out.

So, there's some clean-up to do this week. I've embedded it inside my so-called scheduled programming for this one. It makes the week a tighter fit than it would have been had it not been interrupted (Proverbs 20:24) by last week's events, but that's OK.

Actually there's a bit of a silver lining in all this. Those situations that had been looming out there are gone! Wow, that's a good thing and that realization introduces some great vibrations for sure. It's one for which I can get genuinely excited and genuinely rejoice about!

"The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). I believe that little verse offers some great insight into situations that "spontaneously combust." Among other things it clearly tells me how planning serves a necessary and important purpose. For example, it encourages me to identify goals and consider appropriate ways I can see to reach them, then it serves to help me get up and get going--moving toward them. That's the first part of the verse. Then once I'm up and moving along purposefully, God reserves the right to intervene... often through circumstances that are completely out of my control (e.g., Acts 27)...and He moves me directionally this way or that...correcting my plan--maybe even burning it up!

Of course I have no idea what your week will be like this week. Whatever your intent or it's content we can trust HIM together. We can support one another. Godspeed.