Gratitude Challenge from Kevin Suber: Day Six: This will take a little bit of telling, so you might want to sit in a comfortable chair. Today, Im grateful for black walnuts...which are symbolic of my thanks for my ancestors, for my home and for Gods promises...which are always fulfilled. True story. In the early 1900s, my grandfather was a sharecropper with a big family, living in a very small house on another mans farm. One night he dreamed of the most beautiful land he could possibly imagine...rich soil, lush trees, a veritable promised land. It was like a vision. The following day, he encountered a stranger along the road. The man asked him if he knew of anyone who wanted to buy some property. Of course, he did, and you know already...this land was the exact place he had seen in his dream. Acquiring it seemed impossible, because banks werent exactly eager to make large loans to African-American men in those days, especially one who was just a sharecropper. But God always makes a way. A good-hearted friend intervened. For nearly a hundred years now, that land is the place my family and extended family have known as our home place and we have loved it for its rich soil, lush gardens and fruit trees, fresh springs...and especially the black walnuts...plentiful there...and so much fun to gather, all together. Then in 1994, when my husband and I were renting but wanting to build our own house, Id had recurring dreams about a place that was rich, inviting and full of walnut trees. We searched and we found one place we both agreed was ideal...in almost every way...but no walnut trees. Disappointed and doubtful, we bought it anyway, and I tried to put the wished-for trees out of my mind. When it was time to stake the foundation for our house, the builder had one question: What should we do about all the walnut trees? What?!!! There was a whole grove of black walnut trees, and I hadnt even seen them. So this was the land of my dreams after all...doubts aside, vision fulfilled. At first, I barely saw a walnut, and year after year, squirrels took the few that fell. But then came a few years when we might collect an entire bag! This year...for the first time...TEN huge bags of walnuts, and the trees are still heavy and nuts are still falling. I am grateful for this affirmation that says, Youre in the right place. This is your home. I am grateful for continued connection with happy memories of the home place my grandfather made for us. In this home place we are making for our children, I feel the presence of my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters...all so dearly loved. For this, for vision and for Gods promises fulfilled, I am grateful. It is no small thing to know you are in the right place. And I am also thankful for chocolate brownies WITH black walnuts. And now Id like to ask a few others who share a respect for ancestors, family and home to begin a gratitude challenge of 4, 5 or 7 days, as well. Ashley Harris, Brian Godwin, and Richard Holt. What say you?
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 03:59:49 +0000
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