StillWatersIowa: Living Horizonally

When I was in grade school my Mother insisted I take piano lessons. For four years she paid the $1.25 for a 30 minute lesson. For a short time Mrs. Vander Wilt and later Mrs. Gerard would tell me to sit up straight on the piano bench, hold my fingers on the keys like I had an orange under my hands, and to please practice more.

My attempts at performing the simple melodies never made it from my fingers to my heart. My notes were choppy, single, and sporadic. My teachers wanted my piano playing to move smoothly, to be more fluid, to go somewhere like a road that you can see clear into the horizon. They wanted me to play horizontally.

Playing the piano horizontally turns a simple melody into a song. Living horizontally, not as an individual but with relationships, moving forward towards a goal, not slouching, getting your purpose from your hands to your heart, turns a life into a story. His-story. The story that was planned for you.

Another grade school story. I started kindergarten at Osky Christian. I didn't want to go and still remember jumping out of the back seat on the first day of school. Our family would carpool with Dale and Keith and their sisters. (Below Malaki and Sydnie are driving pedal tractors in Grandpa's office).

When we arrived at kindergarten I joined a class of around 20 kids. My first impressions were I was surprised I had to sit by a girl. I didn't know much about girls and was kind of scared of them. Alvin and Dan weren't scared of girls. They even talked to them. Ron was much bigger than I and I thought he was a giant. Kevin and Verlan were kind of naughty. Dale, John, Wayne, Marvin, and Duane were more my size. (Below our grandkids borrowed the pedal tractors for a skit on homecoming week).

While in the third grade we moved to Pella. Miss. Tabock had my Osky class write me letters shorty after I had left mid year. I read those letters over and over. Especially from those girls that I was scared of in kindergarten. It was kind of Miss Tabock to remember me like that. She and my Osky class were living horizontally. My Mom recently found a box of my stuff including these letters.

Also in that box my Mom found were all my report cards. We continued to move every couple of years and I often had to change schools. I finished my last two years of high school at Pella Christian High. Back with many of those same kids I started kindergarten with. Once again I was the new kid. I remember Janet whose father was a new pastor in the area also being a new kid. I was still kind of shy around girls however they were stating to become interesting. I didn't mind sitting by them anymore. My report cards basically said three things. I had potential. I could do better. I missed a lot of school to help farm. My senior report card shows I missed 51 days of school. I missed 4 days to help my dad in kindergarten. Inspite of myself my teachers were all kind and wanted the best for me. They were living horizontally.

There are 7 of us on our crew here that have a commercial sprayer license which is needed to spray for others for hire. Every year we have to go to a half day training to get recertified with the state. This is the class with our fellow sprayer operators in our community.

We have been enjoying lunch together in the shop on these cold days. Kurt is smoking brats. He also did a boneless ribeye and cheesy corn with jalapenos.

Jan, my Valentine by the way for over 40 years who was not one of those classmates I used to be scared of, joined us for lunch one day. She sure did a great job of teaching her kids to love to cook. She lives horizontally as a wife, mother, and grandma.

We continue to work machinery through the shop getting ready for another crop.

On Wednesday 7 of us went to Lakeview Camp and helped haul in 3 trucks loads of sheetrock to their new impact building. It was fun to see Joe and Diana and Bob and Dort and Hanna.

After our job was completed Diana and Dort invited us in for lunch. The folks at Lakeview are living horizontally doing dozens of camps every summer for kids who need relationships, structure, and love. Come to think of it I guess we all need those things don't we.

We continue to haul grain for others. Eddyville gets busy on the days the roads are passable.

There's another angle to horizontal living. We've talked before about our vertical relationship with Christ and our horizontal relationships with others. Our lives, our growing up stories, and who we are now are only on account of God's grace (undeserved merit). That's vertical.