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Browsing Tag: #pray
Many years ago, I could be found every Friday afternoon at a barn in Hamblen, Hawkins, or Jefferson County with twenty or so other like-minded rednecks of my own age. We were studying Farm Animal Management via the Ag Program at Walters State, under the direction and supervision of Roger D. Brooks. Farm Animal Management was a really good way to get killed. Perhaps I exaggerate. No, as I think back on it with a clear mind, really, I’m not. What would happen is we would all go to our morning classes, maybe skipping the last one in favor of some lunch at Sagebrush before heading out into the wilds. I was 18 (Farm Animal Management II was offered as an apprenticeship after completing the initial one the previous spring) but there were a few guys in class that were 21, because they were having too good a time to bother graduating and going to work full time. These were our apprentices. They had grown up punching cattle, riding horses, castrating everything from bull calves to the unlucky barn cat. They piled out of dented, scratched, and faded Chevrolet pickups with enough dirt in the floorboard and on the dash to send out for a soil sample. They dipped tobacco, they cussed, they wore starched Wranglers and sported belt buckles won at regional rodeos. They were boisterous, and witty, and quick on their feet. They wielded hot shots and shook paddles at aggressive cattle and scrambled up…
Growing up in the South, you will frequently hear the phrase: “Shit hit the fan.” I don’t think I ever truly understood the meaning until I went to work for Sevier County 911 dispatch. And yesterday, shit definitely hit the fan in Sevier County. Y’all all know Ruby’s burned to a crisp in Pigeon Forge on Sunday, which is hard enough to deal with. It’s terrible when it’s a home out in the county, but when it’s high profile business in the middle of town, you have to deal with all the media, too. And then the helicopter crash yesterday afternoon. You think about that. Phone rings, more than likely it’s someone ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL because they’ve watched a helicopter fall from the sky & burst into flames. You can’t believe your ears, you hope it’s someone off their meds but then all the phone lines light up at once as the calls pour in from hundreds of eyewitnesses. You might hear screaming from the victims. The trunk lines fill (that’s 7 phone lines with twelve calls apiece for six dispatchers to answer, if I remember correctly) & roll to the Sherriff’s department. Your first dispatcher starts doing what they do- methodically mashing buttons & maintaining a calm demeanor while in a monotone voice delivers the worst news the EMS world will probably hear all day. And from there, it all goes downhill. And by downhill, I actually mean…
Y’all know how I feel about kids. I don’t want any, & most of the time, I don’t care for other peoples. But I have recently learned something. We need to be praying for mothers. Mothers everywhere. Whether they’re raising their own children or someone else’s. Whether they have one or two or ten or none and just want to be blessed with one. Or, in the case of this month’s “Awareness of the Month”, if they’ve lost a child through miscarriage or death. All these women are mother…s. Mothers are constantly fretting that they aren’t adequate. If they spend all day nurturing their child, they feel that they are neglecting housework or their husbands. If they miss a “Mom watch this” they fear that their child will have development issues & be in therapy for abandonment when they turn 21. They feel that they can never do enough & will never be able to protect them throughout their life. Mothers have a hard time. Most of my closest friends are mothers. Some of them, it’s all they ever wanted, & they are totally immersed in the motherhood thing. But they can’t protect their children from heartbreak. They’ll do anything to avoid problems. Other mothers are living the dream too, but the kids don’t cooperate. You hear these stories of kids that NEVER sleep….apparently that’s true. So that mother definitely needs prayers, as she…
