When you
drive through most Amish settlements, you’ll see massive front porches with
benches and benches. If you ride around after dinner, you’ll see Amish folk
seated there and no one is working. No one staring into a bowl of peas that need
shelling. Men aren’t out there with their tools trying to fix something. No,
they are looking at each other, communicating. In a day of text messages
begging for our every beck and call, it’s sad that this is a nostalgic thing:
people sitting on their front porches, sipping lemonade and talking. Face to
face.
On one
of my many trips to Smicksburg, I went past Lydia’s, (Katie Byler in my book, Knit
Together) and saw her little family on the front porch making ice cream. I didn’t
want to intrude, but they earnestly waved for me to come join them. So I did
and I’ll never forget it. Lydia’s husband, John, and her step-daughter, Ida,
were yapping up a storm, and I joined in. They commented on birds seen at their
hummingbird feeder that hung nearby, the peeper frogs that sang a deafening
song in their nearby pond…just small talk. John asked me if I knew of a place
to buy cheese in bulk for their store, but quickly caught himself as
it was after business hours. It was ice cream and family time.
When I
got home, I did a little experiment. What if I sat on my front porch and just relaxed? It could be a
refuge from daily concerns, a little haven. So after dinner, Tim and I sat on our little portico
for a little while, and notice things we hadn’t before. The red-tailed hawk
that lives in the meadow across the street was being chased by crows.
Hummingbirds sucking nectar from our rhododendron bush in blossom. Then we saw
something that slowly appeared after the drizzle subsided. A rainbow. We would
have missed it if we had been looking down at laptops and cell phones.
Once again, the
Amish make me reevaluate my life, and Tim and I now use our front porch often.
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| Lydia's front porch. Notice the benches on the right stacked on top of each other for additional seating. |
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| The rainbow I might have missed.... |
I love sitting on the swing on our front porch and watch the birds at the feeders/birdbath; watch the stars come out and soak in God's glorious creation.
ReplyDeleteBlessing, Tina
All most every night my Husband and I sit on our back deck:) having evening coffee and chatting about our day we might of forgot to chat about over dinner..We watch the deer with younger ones come down off the hill side to drink in the creek,, Company LOVES to sit & watch what we do every evenng we are very BLESSED by GOD to have such simple treasures..
ReplyDeleteI would love to have a nice big porch to sit on in the evenings. Grandparents had one with a porch swing when I was in High School. We'd all sit out there and visit and look at the stars. Such a wonderful time.
ReplyDelete