After ending 2016 with a big deficit in rainfall for the year, we've already had several days with good rains this year. In fact, our rainfall for last week totaled almost three inches. So far in January we've had a wide variety of weather, freezing cold temps alternating with balmy, spring-like days. One Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, our water was frozen both in the bathroom and in the kitchen and, then this last weekend, I was out on a warm Saturday clearing some dead grass and weeds from the flowerbed beside the garden shop and discovered green shoots of hyacinths emerging from the ground.
After a hectic December, with lots of meetings and holiday activities, the first half of this month has been more relaxed. On those cold, rainy days, it's good to be able to stay at home, sit in my chair by the fire and not have to go out in the adverse weather. I can watch as the wind gusts blow the branches on the trees and ruffle the piles of leaves on the ground. As I reflect on the year just past, I realize I was richly blessed by family, friends and lovely experiences. I can send up my thanks for these blessings and dream of new pleasures to come in the year now unfolding.
Dear friends are one of the true riches of life. Real friends love us and accept us just as we are, support us in the tough times and always inspire us to change our lives for the better. They are sensitive to our feelings, listen when we need to talk and understand when we want to keep silent. "Real friends love one another unconditionally," wrote Alexandra Stoddard in her book Living Beautifully Together. "Friends can be enriching, expanding and affirming."
"I think of close friends as soul mates," Stoddard continued. "Having and being a friend means wanting only the best for one another, and the bond allows each friend to grow and flower to his fullest capacity ... When we have a friend who encourages us to be ourselves, who loves us as we are, we have an incomparable treasure," she concluded.
As I think back over the last days of the old year, I enjoy the memories of an old friend who invited me over one evening to drink eggnog and watch a movie. When I headed home, I was handed a bag with a tin of popcorn, a box of candy and some peanuts to snack on. Another friend dropped by and left a bag of goodies on our front porch one day. My dear sister Nancy accompanied me to a concert early in December and, at a family gathering later in the month, brought me gifts, including a pair of soft, cozy slippers to warm my feet, bacon-flavored syrup and a jar of jalapeno jelly. After I told her how much I was enjoying the jelly on my breakfast biscuits and toast, she brought me a couple more jars on her next visit. Last Thursday, I enjoyed a nice phone visit with a friend who lost her husband last spring and the next day dropped by to leave her a couple of books since we share a love of reading.
I'm one who still enjoys reading and writing letters, although some of my correspondents might question the latter part of that statement the way I sometimes procrastinate about answering their writings. It was good to hear from friends in recent weeks, although not all the news was good. My former high school classmate in Florida had fallen and broken his hip after getting up to open a door and turning around. My uncle in Kansas City suffered a mini stroke in November, and my aunt is still under the care of an oncologist after the return of cancer from several years ago.
Some of the news was more positive. Another of my high school classmates wrote a letter of several pages telling of a 13-day family trip out west. Her blow-by-blow description of the journey made me feel like I was going right along on the ride. Along with children and all but one of her grandchildren, she traveled from her home in Ava, Mo., out to the west coast to see the giant redwoods. Other stops along the way included the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Hoover Dam and several national parks, Yellowstone, the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, Sequoia/Kings Canyon, Bryce Canyon, the Arches and the Badlands.
It's always nice when one of our Gravette High School alumna is recognized for distinguishing herself in her college or career. Another of Gravette's fine young graduates, Kerri Boling, was honored last fall as the Alumni Society Outstanding Young Alumna in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. Kerri went on from Gravette to earn a bachelor's degree in agricultural business from the U of A in 2007. After a summer internship with U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln in Washington, D.C., she decided to study agricultural law. She is now a litigation and regulatory attorney for Tyson Foods.
Susan Holland is a longtime resident of Benton County and a reporter for the Westside Eagle Observer. She can be reached by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 01/25/2017