America the Beautiful

With Memorial Day just passed and July 4th right around the corner, I've been thinking about our great country and my place in it.

As I sat on the back patio reveling in the natural beauty of
the forest and the mountains and listening to a CD of
Patriotic music, my mind drifted back to my childhood.

My first school was Stanton School, named for Edwin M.
Stanton, Secretary of War under President Lincoln. It was
two story frame building that housed grades 1 through 6. 
Everyday all six grades would meet in the downstairs
entrance which was a big open space and we would have
Music lessons. 

The music we would learn depended on the season we were
in, i.e. Christmas music in December, Patriotic around
Memorial Day, etc. 

When “America the Beautiful” came on the CD, I found
myself singing along with it and at that time I realized how
my life has been patterned after these words for instance--

 Oh beautiful for spacious skies -- living in Florida
 for 45 years we spent a lot of time at the beaches         
 and there saw spacious skies reaching to the land.

 For amber waves of grain --  being raised in a small
 town in Ohio where the grain is grown.

 For Purple Mountain Majesties --
 Now living in North Carolina where I see Purple
 Mountain Majesties every day.

 Above the Fruited Plain--
 Those Purple Mountains overlook fruited plains with
 Corn fields.  Just yesterday passed a farm on the way
 up the mountain and I saw corn that was as high as an
 Elephant’s eye. 

God shed his Grace on thee-- this to me means God has
given me a good life, wonderful loving family, every breath
I take is God given. 

And Crown thy good with Brotherhood--this can only
mean that God has blessed me with many wonderful,
loving friends.  I have friends from my school days, friends  
I worked with, neighbors and with friends from the three
Churches I belonged to while living in Florida. 

From Sea to shining Sea--I lived on a Peninsula surrounded
on one side by Tampa Bay and the other side by the Gulf of
Mexico.  

God Bless America

Love and prayers from here to there