Sept. 15, 1996
"Why are you cast down oh my soul" So wrote the psalmist of long ago. Again and again I have felt a kinship with the author. Does living alone cause this condition? It may be a contributing factor but there is something deeper here. Can it be a premonition of things to come? Perhaps. I believe in angels but have had no personal experience with them. Are they real? Of course they are. I know that they sometimes bring heavenly messages but have never received one. Back in '92 I had this feeling and a short time later word came of brother Julius' death. Coincidence? I think not. Oh it is just a rnood. Psychologist would probably call it depression. But!! what is depression? I want to write something here but the words will not come. What was it like when the Indians roamed these western plains? Sheridan County and the immediate surrounding area was not settled by white people until after the Civil War. How did those first settlers live? What did they think about or were they so busy supplying daily food and shelter that there was little time for anything else. Surely they lived with the specter of hunger and possibly starvation in the dead of winter. Being attacked or even killed by marauding bands of whites or Indians was a very real possibility. How did they cope with it? I suppose it was a situation akin to what servicemen faced in time of war. If that is so, the answer is simple. You live a day at a time and face the present while trying to prepare for the future. The scripture says it well. "Sufficient for the day are the troubles thereof." In other words don't dwell on future problems. They may never happen. It is bedtime and I look forward to a night of rest.