Three Things We Need Today
The Yellow Branch Trail and Waterfall is 52 miles from my home in upstate South Carolina. This morning, my wife Jan and my grandson Sam joined me in that drive almost due east of our home. The small parking lot was full. National Park Rangers were escorting a group of 40 down the one mile and more trail to the falls.
There were five of us at the falls, pictured above, for the half hour we spent sitting and listening to the water fall from one rock to another. Perhaps only the laughter of a baby can compare to the pleasing and therapeutic sound of falling water.
Goodness knows we need all the water-borne therapy we can get these days. I did not search out the news one time today, and I felt better for it. It was a good day to find a park and a path. I need to do it more often.
Getting out into nature is one thing we need: climbing, swimming, hiking, even just sitting, watching, listening. It is good for the soul. My soul, your soul, and the soul of our nation.
Another thing we need more of these days is music. My first choice is a choir, but choirs have fallen on hard times. The majority of worshipping people no longer have a choir. It has all been replaced by a band or at least a guitar.
I like the guitar and often wish I had taken up guitar instead of the trumpet and the drums. I would still be playing if I had. Now I listen, mostly through YouTube and other such platforms.
Five years ago, I discovered John Prine and I have spent hours listening to his music. A small band is performing a John Prine night at the end of this month, and it is on my calendar. I will be there and so will a lot of other people: young and old, liberal and conservative, black and white and everything in between.
Music pulls us together. Opera and folk and rock and roll, hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, and even Taylor Swift. I’ve grown to like Latina music and now frequent Mexican restaurants that have a Mariachi band. A recent movie pulled me back into the Bob Dylan orbit. Is there a more wonderful song than “Every Grain of Sand”?
One year, I hope to make it to Washington on the Fourth of July just to listen to the music on the National Mall. Music sooths the soul, the old song asserts, and I believe it and I need it.
Something else helps us cope with the ugliness around us is sports. When I was little, there were three ways to play: basketball, football, and baseball. Now, there is so much more, and I am grateful.
I don’t even complain when soccer takes over Sunday morning. At my first church, in Indiana, I often played competitive croquet until the wee hours of the morning. My alma mater is beginning a program in esports, and I have no idea what that is!
Again, sports are good for our nation, our communities, ourselves. Look at what has happened with pickleball. It is everywhere. People are having fun, making friends, getting in shape just to play.
Mostly I think and write about religion and politics. Right now, both stir up my soul in ways I do not like. These are hard times for many and danger is all around. We need something, some things that divert our attention and drain our despair and deliver relief to our inmost parts.
These three things help. A walk in the woods to a waterfall. A coffeehouse full of music and neighbors. A home run to win a ballgame, on the screen or around the corner. I always feel better after these sorts of things, and I bet you do as well.
They won’t solve our problems, but they will make us more pleasant people, and that counts for a lot.
Dwight A. Moody
Three Things We Need Today
The Yellow Branch Trail and Waterfall is 52 miles from my home in upstate South Carolina. This morning, my wife Jan and my grandson Sam joined me in that drive almost due east of our home. The small parking lot was full. National Park Rangers were escorting a group of 40 down the one mile and more trail to the falls.
There were five of us at the falls, pictured above, for the half hour we spent sitting and listening to the water fall from one rock to another. Perhaps only the laughter of a baby can compare to the pleasing and therapeutic sound of falling water.
Goodness knows we need all the water-borne therapy we can get these days. I did not search out the news one time today, and I felt better for it. It was a good day to find a park and a path. I need to do it more often.
Getting out into nature is one thing we need: climbing, swimming, hiking, even just sitting, watching, listening. It is good for the soul. My soul, your soul, and the soul of our nation.
Another thing we need more of these days is music. My first choice is a choir, but choirs have fallen on hard times. The majority of worshipping people no longer have a choir. It has all been replaced by a band or at least a guitar.
I like the guitar and often wish I had taken up guitar instead of the trumpet and the drums. I would still be playing if I had. Now I listen, mostly through YouTube and other such platforms.
Five years ago, I discovered John Prine and I have spent hours listening to his music. A small band is performing a John Prine night at the end of this month, and it is on my calendar. I will be there and so will a lot of other people: young and old, liberal and conservative, black and white and everything in between.
Music pulls us together. Opera and folk and rock and roll, hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, and even Taylor Swift. I’ve grown to like Latina music and now frequent Mexican restaurants that have a Mariachi band. A recent movie pulled me back into the Bob Dylan orbit. Is there a more wonderful song than “Every Grain of Sand”?
One year, I hope to make it to Washington on the Fourth of July just to listen to the music on the National Mall. Music sooths the soul, the old song asserts, and I believe it and I need it.
Something else helps us cope with the ugliness around us is sports. When I was little, there were three ways to play: basketball, football, and baseball. Now, there is so much more, and I am grateful.
I don’t even complain when soccer takes over Sunday morning. At my first church, in Indiana, I often played competitive croquet until the wee hours of the morning. My alma mater is beginning a program in esports, and I have no idea what that is!
Again, sports are good for our nation, our communities, ourselves. Look at what has happened with pickleball. It is everywhere. People are having fun, making friends, getting in shape just to play.
Mostly I think and write about religion and politics. Right now, both stir up my soul in ways I do not like. These are hard times for many and danger is all around. We need something, some things that divert our attention and drain our despair and deliver relief to our inmost parts.
These three things help. A walk in the woods to a waterfall. A coffeehouse full of music and neighbors. A home run to win a ballgame, on the screen or around the corner. I always feel better after these sorts of things, and I bet you do as well.
They won’t solve our problems, but they will make us more pleasant people, and that counts for a lot.
Dwight A. Moody
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