Working at It

Working at It Thoughts resembling Psalm 104: 23 Offered by Doug Blair, Kitchener ON, 2021

The day was bright And the canvas fluttered Bright colours beckoned To fresh foods and wares.

She with cucumbers Onions and peppers.

Hard work and hope To relieve all her cares.

Child in the basket Obscured by the table Her great and undying love.

Quiet contented And trusting in Mother Just as the Mother Saw Father above.

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Pacing DECEMBER 16, 2014 /

Waiting at the bus kiosk

Cross the street

Illuminated by our headlights

At McDonald’s.

And she paced

And she paced

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In that little glass cage

Cigarette in hand

While the rain visited

Out of season.

Was she irritated, frightened

Attention deficit

Bills pressing upon the heart

Christmas wishes beyond attainment

Grumpy supervisor waiting at work

An argument with a loved one

Turned sour?

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Kids already rushed to day-care

With gritty eyes and runny noses.

Saw an animal like that

Once at the zoo

Just a kid I was

But already sorry

For its limitations

As the sun shone

On my shoulders.

Sun-Up - June 04, 2021

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Way before the sun-up’s happening

Way before the head is cleared

I am on the boat and waters

Free from all I ever feared.

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Free because the Lord has saved me

Free in many beauties found.

I can hardly understand it

Feet seemed raised right off the ground.

God please fill my net this taking

I will share with those in need.

Comes the Sun and Glory breaking

Planets move as you’ve decreed.

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Inbound Freight

Oh it’s two more loads of inbound

And the streets of home I’ll see

And the tension of the tarmac

Fades away.

And the hunching, cramped up quarters

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That for days have twisted me,

I’ll exchange for pause, and prize and

Love at play.

And the trip this time was testing

And the load a deuce to strap.

And the drop-offs never ready,

Not a one.

And the hills so often amber

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With their crowning frosted yield,

Hold a black ice threat of havoc,

Not much fun.

But it’s miles that I am killing

As the state lines come and go,

And the coffee steels this drover

‘Gainst collapse.

And the thoughts of home and loved ones

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And the soothing fireside’s glow,

Bring me safely to the finish,

Just perhaps.

From Corner to Corner

Today, Friday at mid-day, I had errands to run in the heart of Kitchener. For a long time our residents have been hard on the core, saying that it is in decline, with retailers leaving, and with drug and pan-handling activity picking up.

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I would hope otherwise. The area contains my Father's beloved Farmers' Market, running continuously since long before his boyhood romps in the thirties. And the stately Walper Hotel where he used to work, and where they once used to bring their eggs, chickens and pork from the yard out back! One might also mention The Sheraton Four Seasons Hotel, The Museum, the stylish and relatively new City Hall, a majorly renovated Public Library. A new downtown condominium busines centre.

Not too far over The Centre in the Square Concert Hall with acoustics purportedly better than anywhere else in the Province. Headquarters of the Record newspaper.

A Court House in construction and taking over two city blocks. Let us not forget my array of beloved used book stores and a couple of friendly breakfast "Mom and Pop's".

It was an unusually warm afternoon and many were out on the main drag. Happy office folk. Bank personnel. City workers. Odd "ducks" at most corners.

Young people everywhere texting, or gazing skyward as they received some "sweet nothing" from a buddy of the airwaves.

A gray-bearded man with a large backpack was playing accordian...presentably.

"Blue Christmas", which I thought was rather odd, until I remembered that today was Epiphany (the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas).

Another musician with old chipped acoustic guitar playing something "Lightfoot", and looking down hopefully at the open carrying case, showing off a few exemplary coins.

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In front of one of the banks, a senior citizen was giving out tracts entitled "A New Life". I was acquainted with Karl and stopped for a brief chat. He does this every Friday, just like Good News messages-in-bottles.

Two blocks down at Speaker's Corner, a man approaching forty, wearing a local radio station jacket was perched on a plastic stool, Bible in hand, and preaching 'that nothing but Jesus would satisfy'. I stood in front of him quietly for about four minutes listening, and then approached, patted his arm and thanked him. His volume never diminished.

The next block offered several tattooed "good-ole boys" sharing cigarettes and laughing at the latest anecdote.

Tell me that one could find such unanticipated variety and so many slices of life in an enclosed shopping mall. Nope.

at January 06, 2012

Shouldering the Heat

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Yesterday, as forecasted. the temperature got well into the 40's. It has been a record breaking July and the lawns are starting to burn.

In traffic and on the streets one could see the community slowing down, looking for strategies for shade and a cooler breath of air. The elderly kept inside.

At the factory where I work, station fans were all in use. Out in the storage and shipping yard the temperature was like a wall of challenge. Fellow workers presented that unspoken expression of resolve to get through it. A little more patience, a little more understanding had become evident. Conversation was absent, but one noticed an unusual sense of unity and community in the "bearing under". And this at a time when our work hours have been reduced because of a lag in production orders. We are told that "they are on the way and being approved".

It is a strange summer and a strange economy.

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I have often prayed for my workplace, for a greater sense of partnership, mutual respect, safety, new product ideas and customers.

God is answering.

A Prayer: Heavenly Father, you gift us with work, and in it we learn so much, grow so much, contribute our small portion. We have “internal customers” as well as external.

With work boots on, we tread sometimes the hazardous or the tedious or the thankless. But the Good Book tells us to do it all as unto the Lord. (Colossians 3)

Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening (Psalm 104: 23)

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