by Patricia Mallicote Albert

Created on: August 17, 2008

I am sitting here listening to the quiet, broken only by the chirping of birds as they warn
each other of my cats' approaching and the ocassional bark of a lonely dog. I think of the sounds my life has made on this piece of earth. I also wonder of future sounds that will come forth from those who will take my place.

I love spending my early morning sitting here where I can see all the shades of green from the different trees my husband and I have planted. They have grown so tall and proud over

the years. I am seeing that in myself now, the proudness of being who I am. Proud of what I
stand for and of the heart I have for this world.

Like the trees, I spread my limbs to protect those I love. Sometimes pieces of me might fall
away only to be replaced by stronger branches. I have grown from a young willowly sapling
into a mighty oak on this land. There are scars on my trunk but for the most part, they are
healed.

I stand on this parcel of earth being a piece of it the greater part of my life. And as my
life gets closer to the end than the beginning, I wonder at the future of our land. My
husband and I carved the face it now wears. There is a foundation of lush green with sprinklings of colorful flowers as its rouge. Its laughter comes from the babbling creek
that travels along its southern boundary.

We took this overgrown cedar infested earth and made it home. God brought us to this land
and He gave us the strength to make it ours. God also gave us each other. It's only now
I am seeing that. Each of us had what the other needed to become whole in God's eyes.

This morning the birds are singing for God. They are telling me that He has blessed us and our home we made thru years of trials and pain. I realize God really blessed us with each
other, and we were just too stubborn to see that.

So as I look to the future, I wonder what this land and God will do to new lives.
Will those who follow after us continue the growth we started? In themselves and the land.
Will they see it as a way to draw closer to each other and to the creator of all things.

I praise God for what he has given me while I am here on my earthly home but I praise Him
louder for what my life and I have become. I honor Him for the plans He had for my husband and myself. And I thank Him for His patience until we could finally see that He had blessed us when He placed us as one.

We have left our personalities in this land. We are leaving a beginning for someone else
as God will have a new beginning for us.

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