Dear Reader:

A most wonderful surprise yesterday-I was out in the yard checking on broken branches and other debris from yet another stormy front with high winds … when I saw a car pull in the driveway … it was Jo Dufford.. my first teaching mentor who changed my teaching style from historical facts to storytelling… a ” gift” that has remained with me to this day!

She came loaded down with all kinds of whimsical and fun “surcies” -Jo is amazing in and of herself-she is and will always be my most whimsical gift,

*** Only Jo could find a Winnie the Pooh ” Happy Easter” sign! Jo loves Winnie the Pooh!!! Another connection we share! What a way to brighten a gray day… Jo is like sunshine bursting through the clouds. After she left …a story came to mind that I knew I must share with Jo… in fact… with everyone! A ” thank you” for simply being who she is!!!

” Adam Learns Time… and Timelessness” ( excerpt and adaptation from “Does God Have a Big Toe?”)

Can we even begin to understand the magnificence of being in the Garden of Eden, like Adam, with all his new animal friends? He walked around in total amazement… the scent of the flowers, the songs of the birds, and most amazing of all… the sun! So far away ( too far to be touched) but yet it warmed his face as if it were close. Sunrise was his favorite time!

But imagine his dismay and fear that first sunset when suddenly the sun sank right down behind the edge of the garden and disappeared! Everything turned dark and cold! Both Adam and his animal friends were afraid… would the sun and light ever return?

Adam finally fell asleep but later was awakened by a warm feeling on his neck… Adam shot upright…. wondering how the sun was able to sneak around and come up on the other side of the garden?

He and the animals laughed and danced in celebration… still a whisper of a worry remained with them … would the sun desert them again? Sure enough at sunset they watched the sun begin to sink. They decided to build a barricade of all kinds of stuff-monkeys brought bananas, elephants tree trunks, squirrels nuts… it was so high it rose high over the wall surrounding the garden.

But still the sun sank, disappeared and the cold and darkness settled in…Adam called out to God in despair to help. God patiently explained that there was nothing to worry about-the sun would sink each evening but He promised it would always return each morning! In between sunrises and sunsets was something called ” Time.”

God went on to explain that seven sun sinkings was a week, and the time of four weeks was one month and finally the time of twelve months was a year. Adam really didn’t understand time but it sounded like a year was eternal and the sun would keep rising… so greatly relieved Adam didn’t pay much attention to time at first… until he realized the ” year” had flown by and was almost over? Now what?

On the last day of the year Adam sadly told the animals good-bye and tearfully they all hugged one last time… or so they thought.

Then Adam heard God counting…” Ten tears makes a decade… ten decades is one century…ten centuries is one millennium… ten millennia is…”- by this time Adam had fallen asleep.

When Adam woke up, he smelled the flowers, heard the birds singing and thanked God for making time ” way big enough!”

So until tomorrow… isn’t time still as much of an enigma now as it was to Adam …and do we ever get enough time in our lives… no matter how long they last…Is there ever “way big enough” time?

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh