July 2021 Newsletter
Hello!
Good day all! We are getting ready for a little vacation in Chicago. We are visiting Josephine, our daughter, who is living in the Wicker Park neighborhood. Just last week Tom and I took a couple days to go to Wisconsin and stay in a cottage in the bluffs of Fountain City, Wisconsin. Fountain City and Chicago are both towns—one very small and one very big. We enjoy both. We enjoy watching people and birds.
Fountain City is part of what is called the Driftless Region. The region extends through southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois, of the American Midwest. The region escaped the flattening effects of glaciation during the last ice age and is consequently characterized by steep, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, and it is a migratory path for many birds.
We went to Trempealeau Wildlife refuge and saw Blue Herons and other birds we hadn’t seen before and can’t name. We saw Red-Winged Blackbirds and they were beautiful. We also chatted with some locals who were good about giving us ideas on where we should and shouldn’t eat. There were about 4 places in close vicinity and the folks had their opinions.
This Saturday we will leave for Chicago, a town we know fairly well, at least one side of it—the Northside. We do know that Chicago has A LOT of work to do when it comes to racial justice, being one of the most segregated cities in the US. We will people watch there more than bird watch. But there will be sparrows and pigeons and we don’t discriminate. We will listen to the locals about where to eat and not eat, though we have a number of restaurants that we love there and plan to visit.
Small towns and big cities are both populated with people—humans. We sometimes make assumptions about which is better, city life or small-town life, when the truth is both are best for whoever enjoys them. People are people wherever you go and they are enjoyable to watch, enjoyable to converse with, and they are ALL a gift from God. We are all created in the image of God, so people-watching is like watching for the protentional of the Divine to be displayed right before your very eyes!
I look forward to moving slowly and breathing in…keeping my eyes and ears open and filling my belly, mind and heart with good things. I pray your vacations are filled with a good view of God at work as well! See you on the flipside!