A Change in June

A Change in June

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Danny dashes barefoot across the meadow with a fishing pole upon his shoulder and shouts, "No more homework, no more books, no more teacher's...” Miss Elderbrock had been nice, he couldn't say she ever gave a dirty look.  But it was June and Dan expected the fish were biting...

He holds the vinyl clad document, a symbol of the years of hard work.  Mark closes his eyes a moment as he draws a breath, the afternoon but a blur.   The ink signatures symbols of maturity, high school behind and the world at his feet.  Surely the diploma, a sign that he was a man though his parent's would disagree.  College just a few months away, his life was finally beginning.

Melody slides her fingers across the satin smooth white fabric of the gown that hung on her closet door.  When Alex first sees her in this dress she hopes it will take his breath away.  But now as she touches the silky fabric her mind swirls with a mix of emotions, anticipation, fear, and self-doubt.  Melody understood the long white dress a symbol of a sheer point, when everything in her life will change.  She hears the clock in her parent's parlor downstairs announce one day's end and another's beginning.  This would be the day, this June day, when her new life would begin.

As she smooth’s out a blouse in the nearly packed suitcase, Emily’s head seemed filled to bursting, images of all the events that had brought her to this day flashed in her mind, the years of classes at the university, the all night study sessions, and the job interviews.  The roar of the lawnmower spilling in through the window returns her to the here and now.  Emily's father always seemed to be extra busy on days like these.  Moving to the window, she looked out and down as he crossed the yard yet another time, pushing with all his might.  Catching a glimpse of her car that stood waiting and ready in the driveway made her pause.  She had seen the pride in her parent's eyes, but being the first of the family to earn a degree, she knew they could not understand what she faced...exactly.  Soon the car loaded to the hearth, would take her away, beginning the cross country journey to the west coast to a new home and career.

Life is about changes, those that come unexpected and others…  It seems that June is filled with thirty busy days that include moments when our lives move to new places and experiences.

(430 Words)                6-25-2015

In Harness

In Harness                                 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Times come, when we consider the bond between ourselves and those that raised us.  The mechanisms between a child and its parents are as complex as the people themselves.  For many, the home and those that fill it, make up the bulk of the very young’s universe.  Early memories have long lasting effects.  So the fortunate have a deep connection – daughter and son – with father and mother.  A connection begun even before birth.

A big strong man, my father.  My earliest memories of a hardworking, present man.  The family farm of the fifties required long hours of labor, whether in field or barn, but always nearby.  Dad was always available.  That shaped the beginning of the link that built between us.  As I grew I was expected to contribute – chores were assigned that I often considered exceeded my capabilities -- certainly exceeded my desire.  To get up early and help with the milking was not my wish in those first days.  The sweeping of the barn on a warm summer’s morning among my last desires.  I remember walking across the hayfield and “rolling” the bales so they could dry evenly.  And later when I drove the Allis-Chalmers WD pulling the wagon slowly across the land, as we picked up those bales my father skillfully stacked. 

The tasks I was given fit me – though I had doubted it at the time.  Work added as I grew older, stronger.  But our lives were not only labor.  Times, when the freedom and the whole farm was at our feet to wander and explore.  Times when our family would go to the lake or dad took us fishing.  He understood that life was more than work.

 I had not forgotten all these things when I began farming as well.  Perhaps the hardest years were the first when the Vander Veldens bought their own land.  Things went very badly those early years of the seventies.  Years that demanded more than hard work – it required sacrifice.  As we poured our sweat and blood into a dream that seemed stillborn.  Time and again we came to the brink of losing it all.  But the long hours and the doing without, in the end, breathed life into that dream.  The backward steps, at last, no longer exceeded our forward motion.  The farm did more than endure – it prospered.

A lifetime lived and time shared – what does it all mean?  Those that have not had these same experiences might find it hard to understand.  To say that my parents were, and are, important to me, should not seem so unusual.  But there is a difference – the sheer volume of time shared.  For dad and I were a team.  Not like a ball team, a group moving toward a goal.  But like a pair of draft animals – bound together, pulling a common burden.  For thirty-five years we were “in harness” – through blistering summers and subzero winters – spring plantings and difficult muddy harvests.  Shoulder to shoulder each complimenting the other – strength against weakness – confidence against fear – sweat spent on long days -- always straining together toward the objective.

Few can understand.  How many willingly pick up the yoke, to be bound to another, year after year?  Surly changes in society have diminished the need – it certainly has reduced the desire.  But this farmer does not regret the harness – rather like all those that have carried the common yoke, I miss, deeply, the empty space, for the harness is now borne alone…

(580 Words)                5-10-2014

To Make a Difference

To Make a Difference                           

By John W. Vander Velden

 

When it really comes down to it, I want to make a difference.  Not the kind of difference that makes the newspaper.  Everyone has the need for recognition the desire to feel important.  No, I want to quietly make things better...just a little.  To change this little corner of my world, for changing “here” makes “there” better too.  Maybe that’s why I write, that my clumsily stacked words plant tiny seeds within the reader.  That by chance those seeds grow a little hope, or confidence, or courage, or self-respect, or faith.  Faith in oneself but more…faith in something larger, stronger, something that can never fail.

Is that too much to ask, to make a difference?  I suppose not.  But that is not all.  I want to know I made a difference.  That when God at last calls me to my rest, I know that I have done something, changed someone, helped a stranger, made a difference.  What a great deal for a simple common man to desire.  But deep inside I believe there is no simple or common person.  That each of us is a unique magnificent creation, loved by God with unbelievable potential.  I want to make a difference, and if I can help you see your infinite worth...then maybe I have!  

(215  Words)               6-12-2015