Years Measured in Dirt
I remember in elementary school science learning how
to tell the number of years a tree had been living by looking at a cross section. Touching the rings to count them and smelling the cut wood was intriguing to think
about the years that had passed with life happening around each tree year.
I
have discovered a way to tell Dorman years. It is by layers of dirt and decay. I've seen it on PBS, History Channel and NAT GEO. Archeologists uncover whole
cities under layer after layer of earth.
Every time we have moved I have said
our tribe can destroy a good house and yard in 2 years. As hard as I work, I
just cannot fight the history being made. (And by the way we have presently been in
this house for six and a half years. For those of you who have not been by
or seen us in awhile...just imagine.)
It hit me again this week as I tried to clean year two of
dirt from Corrie's stuff as she checked by into Hotel Dorman after her
sophomore college year. The girl dorm smells are not "perfumey." She handed me a plastic box that was new two years ago. I
remember as I made it, one of my sister-in-laws laughed with the "only you Joan" laugh.
I had made her an awesome first aid kit/drugstore need, sterilite plastic box. It had
been filled with everything I could think of that she would need that I would not
around to hug and kiss away or medicate. The buckle was broken off, but still
functioning with plastic packing tape.
The top had caked on dust, dirt and
unidentifiable grime. The box contained ointments oozing with no lids,
band-aids scattered out of a squished box that was with soaked in a red sticky liquid.
Ah, the cough and cold medicine leaked! Every track in the bottom of the
container had a 2-year thick layer of sticky dusty dirt. My science skills
kicked in and it is clear that 2 years have already passed since we deposited
her in Walker Dorm on the campus of CIU.
I'll be turning 50 this summer and
they say time moves faster (or dirt piles up faster). I believe it. Remember the feeling when you were a
kid running so fast down a hill that you couldn't slow down? John Michael has been
gone four years and Corrie two.
Lord, keep our pace under control enough so we can enjoy our
dirt.
Proverbs 14:4 "Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, But
much revenue comes by the strength of the ox."
Go enjoy your messy stable.
Love and prayers,
Joan Dorman
