A Dusty Meditation/Testimony From an Old Journal

I remember growing up in the big wide, open spaces of our farm and wondering what fascination in life lay before me. All around me seemed to speak of goodness and purity and hope for my ideals. I’ve heard it said that big dreams come easy in the dark and stillness of night, but for me, big dreams came with the sunshine shining on all of life, under the covering of a shimmering, azure sky. I remember looking through my crayon box to find a name for that glorious color of blue that seems to invite you to heaven itself. When I found it, I’d never heard of such a word, ‘azure’, but even now, just to let it slide quietly off my lips conjures up all the notions I ever dreamed under its inspiration.

I believe God allowed me to live in that simplicity of life – carrying my ideals as truths and always allowing the beauty of His creation to occupy my mind – so that I would have the foundation of the undeniable existence of heaven, when I came face-to-face with the reality of hell.

I didn’t stay on the farm. As the skies kept changing, so did I and I chose to seek my way in the world. Carrying every high hope a youth could carry upon my shoulders for all to see, I touted the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal! Dust thou art to dust returneth was not spoken of the soul!” What was it that Life was going to reveal to me? Where would I find the Truth of my dreams? The anticipation I held was overwhelming – and my enthusiasm was contagious – that is, until someone translated it into naïve vulnerability.

One by heartwrenching one, those high hopes I had carried were ripped from that pack upon my shoulders and replaced with much heavier things: disillusionment, loss of self-worth and identity, fear, anger, mistrust and even hatred. When my feet could no longer move forward under the weight of these burdens, when I could not raise my head beyond all the guilt and shame that bound this new pack upon my shoulders – when I could not even recall that I ever knew the word ‘azure’, there came from the depths of my spirit, from that overgrown foundation of unquenchable life, a cry. A cry to the One Who created that life. One I had only known in the beauty of my childhood and had quite forgotten. One Who had been waiting for me, patiently, to recognize Him as One Who far exceeds the beauty in the color of the sky.

Thus with that one cry, on the brink of death, I enabled the angels in heaven to rejoice in a victory over the author of death. I enabled Jesus to do what He wanted to do all along, but what I never would have understood prior to the pain. I will never forget what it is like to look death squarely in the face. I mean spiritual death – the kind of death where your heart stops beating even though it’s still hard at work. The kind of death where you stop seeing with your eyes wide open, where your feet move and you go nowhere and the work of your hands is always a work of frustration.

Thanks be to God Who always gives us the victory in Jesus Christ! All that I lost from my original pack was restored to me as I laid down the terrible weight of the second pack at the cross. “Come unto Me you who are heavily laden, “ is what Jesus calls, “I will give you rest!” What blessed words to a tormented soul!

But salvation is just the beginning. Another of the splendors of life on the farm is the ability to see things come full circle. A baby bird hatches and returns the following year to teach its own to fly, a seed begets a flower, which drops of its bounty to beget yet more, a leaf falls to the ground and nourishes life, the examples are endless. Salvation surely means we shall see God, yet its purpose, its aim, in stride with Longfellow’s claim is not the grave, despite the promises we now hold for the hereafter.

No, salvation’s purpose is in the land of fruitful living. “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly!” What greater harvest, what greater completion of a holy circle can there be, than to sow in tears and reap in joy? To lead another into the land of the living from the doorstep of death in the spirit and become a progenitor of generations who will call upon the name of the Lord? Without a vision, the people will surely perish – let us gain a vision, claim the hope and establish the dream of a world where every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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WHEN GOD SPEAKS

Wow - are we ever in a season of being stirred in our spirits! For the past couple of years, we have just been languishing, yearning, feeling empty and frankly -purposeless. To imagine Christ's return and standing before Him fruitless and empty-handed was haunting me. Having my biggest, most obvious purposeful activity coming to an end as Ben graduated from high school hit me hard! What next? I busied myself gathering weeds and learning about their medicinal qualities just to achieve some kind of level of purpose (improving myself through learning something that could serve my family's needs). It sure wasn't spirit-filled, though!

David and I were able to spend time on PEI seeking God this summer and I rejoiced at being delivered while there from an idolatry of sorts. The notion of motherhood as my only viable purposeful venture in life had been consuming me to where I was basically nonfunctional and unable to serve my husband or God. Thanks to Tom for preaching the true Word of God! After that liberation, I foolishly thought that since my affections had been redirected I could still attempt to hold the wood or metal of the idol without it affecting me. So we got back into the foster care adoption scene again after having left it the previous January.

Enter a growing lack of peace, confusion, distractions and a drivenness that revolved almost every thought of every day around the adoption proceedings (or lack thereof!). The idol was consuming me again and I wasn't really seeing - but I was very aware of a distance growing between the Lord and myself. First thing on my mind in the morning and last thing on my mind at night was "The Search." I was really getting to be a mess! Last week, in the midst of processing great discouragement, I walked our long driveway alone at night and cried out to God for help. One thing I know from His Word is that He hears me and answers when I cry for help - and so He did.

At some point after that prayer, I happened upon a WV 'hoopie' transferred here by the burgeoning gas well work -in Wal Mart (He asked me if an onion chopper would slice potatoes!). I found out he was a believer and boldly (very unlike myself) invited him for dinner. So David called him and he came over for Sunday dinner. Well, this man who can't read knows the word of God inside and out! He wound up giving me a prophetic exhortation that just sent me from conviction to repentance to deliverance!

The gist of what the Mr. WV had to say was: We're all in a battle. Our enemy looks for our weak point so he can make the move to disable us for the kill. My weak point is fear and he has capitalized on it. Fear of an empty house, fear of an unfruitful future, fear of being purposeless standing with my hands empty before the Lord. Indeed, all this adoption pursuit was borne out of that fear. Our new WV friend exhorted me about being content with what I have (being discontent is a big root for me, feeling like I don't have enough kids), judging myself by the Word of God in the meantime, being faithful in His Word and living according to what He reveals - and waiting on God. He has our future in store, I don't need to design it for Him. He paused at one point and said, "You two are so blessed. There is peace and LOVE (said with an emphatic WV twang!)in this home! God has given you so much that is of value! The key for you two right now is to continue in obedience and wait." And so I rest! No more chasing after kids!

I giggled in giddy glee at an adoption worker's conclusion yesterday that our homestudy was deplorably useless. (A lot of our stress was coming from working with an inept agency - which had providentially just been very much revealed!) It was just a confirmation and I was happy to hear it. God is so faithful and I just praise Him for His ever-so-personal care of our family! He who began this good work of the Polczynski family will be faithful to complete it!

From the desk of Thomas Sowell: Listening to a Liar

Thomas Sowell - Syndicated Columnist - 9/8/2009 10:20:00 AM

The most important thing about what anyone says are not the words themselves but the credibility of the person who says them.

The words of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff were apparently quite convincing to many people who were regarded as knowledgeable and sophisticated. If you go by words, you can be led into anything.

No doubt millions of people will be listening to the words of President Barack Obama Wednesday night when he makes a televised address to a joint session of Congress on his medical care plans. But, if they think that the words he says are what matters, they can be led into something much worse than being swindled out of their money.

One plain fact should outweigh all the words of Barack Obama and all the impressive trappings of the setting in which he says them: He tried to rush Congress into passing a massive government takeover of the nation's medical care before the August recess -- for a program that would not take effect until 2013!

Whatever President Obama is, he is not stupid. If the urgency to pass the medical care legislation was to deal with a problem immediately, then why postpone the date when the legislation goes into effect for years -- more specifically, until the year after the next presidential election?

If this is such an urgently needed program, why wait for years to put it into effect? And if the public is going to benefit from this, why not let them experience those benefits before the next presidential election?

If it is not urgent that the legislation goes into effect immediately, then why don't we have time to go through the normal process of holding congressional hearings on the pros and cons, accompanied by public discussions of its innumerable provisions? What sense does it make to "hurry up and wait" on something that is literally a matter of life and death?

If we do not believe that the president is stupid, then what do we believe? The only reasonable alternative seems to be that he wanted to get this massive government takeover of medical care passed into law before the public understood what was in it. Moreover, he wanted to get re-elected in 2012 before the public experienced what its actual consequences would be.

Unfortunately, this way of doing things is all too typical of the way this administration has acted on a wide range of issues.

Consider the "stimulus" legislation. Here the administration was successful in rushing a massive spending bill through Congress in just two days -- after which it sat on the president's desk for three days, while he was away on vacation. But, like the medical care legislation, the "stimulus" legislation takes effect slowly.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will be September 2010 before even three-quarters of the money will be spent. Some economists expect that it will not all be spent by the end of 2010.

What was the rush to pass it, then? It was not to get that money out into the economy as fast as possible. It was to get that money -- and the power that goes with it -- into the hands of the government. Power is what politics is all about.

The worst thing that could happen, from the standpoint of those seeking more government power over the economy, would be for the economy to begin recovering on its own while months were being spent debating the need for a "stimulus" bill. As the president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said, you can't let a crisis "go to waste" when "it's an opportunity to do things you could not do before."

There are lots of people in the Obama administration who want to do things that have not been done before -- and to do them before the public realizes what is happening.

The proliferation of White House "czars" in charge of everything from financial issues to media issues is more of the same circumvention of the public and of the Constitution. Czars don't have to be confirmed by the Senate, the way Cabinet members must be, even though czars may wield more power, so you may never know what these people are like, until it is too late.

What Barack Obama says Wednesday night is not nearly as important as what he has been doing -- and how he has been doing it.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

From the desk of Peter Marshall

The Nanny (State) Needs to Be Fired!

"Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" (Lk. 12:56)

The Obama Administration hit a new low two days ago. Under the Briefing Room on the White House website they posted a blog that said:

"There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.org."

The White House is asking us Americans to become snitches -- to spy on each other! The only difference between this and Communist East Germany is that the government is not ordering us to do it -- at least not yet. Notice that they are not only asking us to monitor each other's emails, but to report "casual conversation" that "seems fishy" and might constitute rumors about Obama's healthcare program. I suspect the White House would call "rumors" anything critical we might say about it.

Of course they would hotly protest that all they are seeking to do is to correct the "misinformation" abroad in the land, that there is absolutely nothing sinister in the suggestion that we report on one another. Yet, I would suggest that Obama's word "stupid," which he applied to the quite legitimate actions of Cambridge police officer Crowley last week, really need to be applied to his own White House team for that blog posting. What kind of public relations blunder is it for an administration that is already grabbing power every way it can to ask Americans to spy on one another? Stupid, indeed. But very revealing.

It is characteristic of totalitarian governments that they spy on their citizens. Why do they do this? Because they are not so much interested in serving their people (the true function of government) as controlling them. That is the only way they can stay in power.

I am not calling the Obama Administration totalitarian, but what I am pointing out is that they are very interested in control. They are committed to growing the government's power and control over the American economy. Already they are exerting ownership of banks, financial institutions, and General Motors (new name: Government Motors?), and Obama is now after the biggest prize of them all -- healthcare. Obamacare would directly or indirectly take control of an additional 20% of the nation's economy.

The American people are getting angry. Good! High time. The White House flaks, including Press Secretary Gibbs, are accusing those who protest -- those who accost their Senators and Representatives -- of being a mob. It's interesting to note that that is exactly what the tyrannical government of Great Britain said about the Patriots in the months prior to the Revolution: that they were a mob.

For months I have been calling for a new grass-roots rising up of the American people -- a second American Revolution, if you will -- to stop the Federal Government from bankrupting the country. And I predicted in last week's commentary that as the Senators and Representatives got back to their districts and states in the August break and held meetings with their constituents, they were going to get an earful. It is starting to happen, and people are voicing their anger about the government, particularly the senior citizens. Keep it up, folks. Let 'em have it! They need to hear from us.

What is appalling, though it's predictable, is what the government is saying about those of you who are showing up to protest in these meetings. Here's White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: "I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the Astroturf nature of grass-roots lobbying. This is manufactured anger." Yes, it's manufactured all right -- by the Obama Administration! Everything they've been doing has created much grass-roots anger, and rightly so.

And then we have this off the wall reaction by Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) to a meeting with his constituents. He referred to them as "a mob," saying, "This mob. . . did not come just to be heard, but to deny others the right to be heard." Or, maybe they were really just patriots reacting to government tyranny?

The latest poll, from QuinnipiacUniversity, shows conclusively that the American people do not want government-run healthcare. Fifty-two percent of American voters disapprove of the way Obama is handling the health-care issue and only thirty-nine percent approve. Even more telling is the fact that by a huge 72%-to-21% margin, voters don't believe President Obama when he says his plan will be paid for or is "deficit neutral." Additionally, by a 20-point margin, 57%-to-37%, voters say healthcare reform should be abandoned if it adds to the deficit. The people coming to these town hall meetings are no mob -- they are patriotic Americans who represent the 72% and 57% referred to in this poll. When the President and his fellow Democrats attack their fellow citizens they are speaking for the 21% and 37%.

What is really going on here is that the majority of the people running our Federal Government (symbolized by Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid) actually believe that the government, or the state, is the solution to everyone's problems. We can call them statists. They are committed to the idea that government is the chief caretaker and provider for the people. We conservatives, and especially those of us who are Christians, believe that God is the source of our welfare, and our provider.

The statists reject that last sentence in practice (though they might pay lip service to it in theory), because true statists cannot abide the idea that people would have an allegiance that supersedes their relationship with the state, or government. Hence they attempt to regulate and control everything from marriage (the campaign to support homosexual marriage through the courts) to healthcare. It is always about power and control for statists, in contrast to the conservatives, who believe with Thomas Jefferson that the best government is that which governs least.

The big government advocates will attack anything that threatens their control. That is why they reject the reliance on a traditional and strict interpretation of the Constitution in the legal system, preferring to manipulate the Constitution through the courts into a "living" document that can be twisted to mean whatever they want it to mean. At the same time they vigorously fight against any expression of the Christian faith in the public square. Why? Because the Constitution is based on the belief that people possess natural rights that precede government, and that these rights are the gift of God. These bedrock beliefs of the Founding Fathers constitute the foundation of American government. Their understanding of government was that its only proper function is to protect and defend the people in the exercise of their God-given rights. And that is a total threat to a government looking to be everyone's Nanny (Nanny always knows best, and is not to be disobeyed!).

The statist believes that government bestows rights. The most recent illustration of this is Obama's insistence that the people have a right to healthcare (and Nanny is going to make sure you get it, dear!).

Of course, the people have no such "right."

Because for statists it is always about amassing power and control, they tend to magnify a problem into a great crisis, and then use this to scare the public into surrendering yet more control of their lives to the state. The statists know that in a crisis the people look to the government to do something. Case in point: The cries that came from New Orleans during Katrina: "Where's the government? Why don't they do something?" Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel gave the game away when he commented: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

The statists will use junk science, outright lies, and fear-mongering to convince the public that we are in a crisis of gigantic proportions. This is precisely what Al Gore did in his hysterical global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." There was little truth in it. But the enviro-statists, to borrow author Mark Levin's term, will scream that the sky is falling to justify their imposition of new Federal regulations on carbon emission from cars and power plants and refrigerators and cows and everything else you can think of. Power and control. The worse the people think the threat is, the more they will surrender their freedoms.

Of course, the government environmental police and their supporters always hurt the poor the most -- the very people they claim they are trying to help. There are 600 million poor in India who have no electricity. Yet Greenpeace campaigned against the incandescent light bulb there, calling it "a hazardous product to everyone." It would be easy to laugh off these Greenpeace agitators as insane, if there weren't so many people in Washington who think just like them. (Nanny always knows best). For example, the Congress passed a law in 2007 that phases out incandescent light bulbs completely by 2014. But, it now turns out that if you break one of the new CFL bulbs that are supposed to supplant incandescent bulbs, you release mercury -- a powerful neurotoxin very poisonous to children and babies. Most landfills will not even take these bulbs, with the result that if government persists in this program we are going to have to come up with separate disposal facilities just for these mercury-laden bulbs. But, remember, Nanny always knows best.

Very important to the statists is the control over our children's minds. The government school minions (the National Education Association et al) fight viciously against Christian schools, the burgeoning homeschool movement, school vouchers, and anything else that threatens their control over our children. They have succeeded in turning public schools into a laboratory for their court-assisted programs of homosexual indoctrination, which if successful will produce legions of young voters to keep the big government folks in power for years to come.

The struggle between the statists and the conservatives is heating up. Is there any hope to limit big government -- to roll back its increased power and control over our daily lives? Well, was there any hope of throwing off British tyranny in 1775?

Absolutely. But, it was a hope visible only to the eyes of faith.

On the morning of March 23, 1775, at the Virginia Revolutionary Convention in St. John's Church, Patrick Henry made one of the most famous speeches in American history. Admonishing the delegates that "if we wish to be free . . . we must fight" he went on to say "they tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? . . . Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? . . . We are not weak. . . Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us."

It is still true.

And we will find that it is still true, if "we the people" prayerfully and actively rise up in a grass-roots movement to change things.

The Nanny (State) needs to be fired!

Gird Your Blogs!

Gird Your Blogs!
Under "Cybersecurity", Congress Will Be the Internet's Greatest Threat!

By Brad O'Leary

Gird your blogs, because if liberals in Congress get their way, President Obama will have sole discretionary authority to shut down the Internet or critical parts of the Internet should he feel his presidency is being tested. Worse, under the guise of cybersecurity, Obama will essentially be granted the power to destroy free speech on the web.

On April 1st of this year, Senators Rockefeller, Snowe, Bayh and Nelson introduced bills S. 773 and S.778, collectively called the Cybersecurity Act, which would give President Obama dictatorial power over the Internet during a time of national crisis or emergency.

All of the bills' sponsors voted for the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that prohibited organizations and individuals from running advocacy ads against candidates 60 days in advance of a general election. Now it seems these same people have conjured up a gag order for the Internet.

According to the current drafts, under the Cyber Security Act of 2009 the President may "declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shut down of Internet traffic to and from any comprised federal government or United States critical infrastructure information system or network". He may also "order the disconnection of any Federal Government or United States critical infrastructure information systems or networks in the interest of national security."

What constitutes "cybersecurity emergency" or "critical infrastructure information system or network" is left completely up to the President to define. We know that the Administration, according to Rahm Emanuel, never wants "a serious crisis to go to waste". We also know the Administration supports the regulation of free speech on the Internet.

President Obama's choice to lead the powerful Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is none other than Cass Sunstein, a radical Harvard law professor and supporter of the Fairness Doctrine for the Internet. According to Sunstein, "A system of limitless individual choices, with respect to communications, is not necessarily in the interest of citizenship and self-government."

Obama campaign fundraiser and FCC Chair nominee, Julius Genachowski, is a supporter of "Net neutrality", the first step in applying the Fairness Doctrine to the Internet.

"Net neutrality" proponents like Genachowski would have government decide what content Internet operators and network owners must provide. Incredibly, they claim this is to keep the Internet free and open to all, when in reality, their goal is to usher the heavy hands of federal regulators into the tent.

Stifling any venue where ideology competes with left-wing mainstream media has always been a goal of the left and Obama. Obama has just been more evasive in his means by supporting policies such as "net neutrality" and wobbling on the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine to talk radio. Liberal members of Congress are now set on sending America on an unconstitutional b-line away from Uncle Sam and directly to Big Brother.

The Cybersecurity Act is also includes a provision where "The Department of Commerce shall serve as the clearinghouse of cybersecuirty threat and vulnerability information to the Federal Government and private sector owned (emphasis mine) critical infrastructure information systems and networks." Shelving all privacy laws including the requirement for warrants, the Secretary of Commerce "shall have access to all relevant data concerning such networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access." Senator Rockefeller made it clear in his statement what "relevant data" this act could include when he stated "We must protect our critical infrastructure at all costs – from our water to our electricity, to banking, traffic lights and electronic health records – the list goes on."

While we have worried about cyber attacks from Russia and China, who would have thought the greatest threat would come from members of our own Congress.

Random Happy Thoughts

I decided to post some vignettes I wrote to be used for a radio station which wants to put our region on the map as the better alternative to pricey New England. Being that they are pretty universal in their sympathies and ability create warm fuzzies, I decided to post them here for a change of pace to all that's sober and serious.

MUD SEASON

Here in Route 6 country there is a transitory time between winter and spring when anticipation is high and our spirits have to carry us through the mud – literally. Many’s the time when our family would have to park at the end of a mile long driveway and battle the temptation to grumble about it. Once that battle’s won, the beauty of the circumstance reveals itself. Bodies, overpacked with cushioning against the winter chills, are forced to move into action and with the blood flow comes an invigorating sense of coming alive with the rest of creation which has spent the last 4 months in dormancy. Walking along inevitably provides opportunity for connecting with one another that a swift car ride home aborts. We find ourselves lost in the moment, not minding the molasses-like pull of the mud on our boots, but inadvertently willing the walk to last as long as possible. The spring calls of the returning birds provide the background symphony for a setting of reconnecting with the pace of nature in the midst of our high-tech realities. The kids, now young adults, revert to a childhood tradition as they look around for “signs of spring” and we all rejoice to see little patches of coltsfoot coming to life. Our talk is light, yet deepens the bonds between us and the reality of a fifth season in our year, mud season, only adds to our rejoicing at the blessing of being able to live in such a place.

SPRING

Ahhh, spring! The great outdoors testify at every turn to the glorious new beginnings of life and hopes. One can’t help but gain an enlarged vision as you walk a trail which has undergone the ravages of a stormy winter and yet, with the feistyness of the American spirit, pushes forth new life to overcome what is drab and dead. Life just jumps out at you and fills every sensory channel enlisted to take it all in. Chickadees, mating, call to eachother in suave tones very unlike their chattering throughout the long winter. Peepers make our own hearts sing as they announce the cycle of life ready to burst forth at the ponds. A flock of baby turkeys crosses the path unaware that you are once more in awe of the many reminders of the beauty of families. Rivers and streams join in spring”s New Life symphony as they swell with the God-given refreshment of new rain mixed with the meltdown of the winter’s icy countenance. The air smells of fresh earth and brings to mind the mouth-watering produce all the seedlings being carefully tended indoors will soon produce. And then there’s the children’s laughter. Winter frolics can’t compare, in the bondage of snow gear and heavy boots, to the liberty of running sneaker-clad and coatless through an open field. Enveloped in the spring sunshine, cavorting with the warm breezes, one’s spirit swells watching the children laugh and play as ones released into a carefree fairyland. This is life in Route 6 country!

SUGARIN' TIME

Sometime in that quiet lull between winter and spring, unseen and unheard, there is a hidden pressurization towards a cellular dam break within sugar maple trees. With the temperatures freezing at night and warmer during the days, this dynamic transition occurs and the joys of “Sugaring Time” are heralded from the hilltops to the dales of Route 6 country. Piles of wood stacked the previous year are ‘on deck’, ready to be tossed into the boilers where they’ll fuel the fires, round the clock, for as many weeks as the sap continues to run. Sugar shacks dotting the landscape all around send up their seasonal smoke signals that the boiling has begun. From commercial operations, to small family experiments, from huge tank trucks and evaporators to small pails and pots over an open fire, families join together for this seasonal harvest of liquid gold. Everyone has a part to play whether it be harvesting the sap, feeding the fire, stirring the boiling sap, working the finished syrup through filters, filling bottles, grading the product or just being an on-hand taste tester. The aroma coming from the evaporating pan makes every mouth water in anticipation of the many recipes which will take a sweet turn as the new harvest is added to everything from cakes to stews or is poured into milk or over ice cream. Many varying grades of the syrup conform to the many taste preferences of its fans. The lightest is considered the fancy grade, with the most delicate maple flavor, while the darkest is has the more robust maple flavor, best for baking. Stories and fun flow as easily as the sap as the comraderie of work has its magical effect. Many’s the long watch of the night for those on duty in the sugar shacks, but it’s a season none would trade as an opportunity for quality time with friends and family or just musing on the privileges of country living.